Nibblers Plus

By Obinna Hendrix

Nibblers

Telekinesis is the next phase of human evolution. Nibblers have this ability and literarily eat half the world’s population as a side effect of having their powers. They have lost all ability to speak, and communicate only through thought. They are a dangerous breed that can move objects by strength of thought. Humans must not only survive the flesh hungry Telekinetic Nibblers but also themselves, as they fight over dwindling supplies and territory.

Mandy is a Straggler, a lone wolf with no affiliations to any of the warring clans. She loots supplies from anywhere she can and hides from other people and the dreaded ruling fragment of the old government “Enterprise.”

How long can Mandy survive in a world where humans hate Stragglers and Nibblers want to eat anything that breathes?


Charlie & The Mixiegruff

An outsider, out on an ordinary day, somehow gets sucked into a crazy, dangerous, magical mirror world. He is soon attacked by harbingers of the darkness- Darkstalkers. Defenseless, Charlie is almost doomed to certain death, but for the intervention of an unlikely mythical hero who tries desperately to protect the drifter. Zoe, the Mixiegruff and Charlie don’t exactly get on well. She can’t stand him, even though there is something about him that keeps her drawn to him. She stands by him through his dangerous journey into the Marelands, as they fend off Ogres, Dark fairies and other mythical adversaries.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Obinna Hendrix
• Release date: May 2, 2016
• ISBN: 9786050430073

Book preview

10

Nibblers

Series One

Chapter 1

Panic-New Detroit, Jan 2, 2050

Telekinesis is the next phase of human evolution. But this huge leap came with a terrible price. Half of the world’s human population was wiped out in months by a quarter of its newly evolved relatives. This is us; all that is left after most of humanity had been put in the dirt. First, they fed on the sickly, then they took the old. No one noticed at first- In a world of smart phones, social media and celebrities, people just buried their faces in their own cocoons, living their lives more selfishly than ever.

Mandy stops scribbling on a notepad, hanging from a rope strapped round her neck. She is rattled by an explosion in the distance. The military, or at least what was left of it were shelling the place. She grabs her duffle bag from the ground and heads out of the window. Her heart beats faster and faster, as she races down an old scaffold. She can see red lights pointed at her chest.

Put your hands where we can see them! Do it now! a man in black military gear shouted.

His hands itched on the trigger. The other men behind him were anxious as well. A million possible outcomes ran through Mandy’s brain, as she gulped in huge breaths. They won’t keep her breathing for long if they suspected that she was a threat to them and if they thought she had been intoxicated, they would put a bullet in her brain- scrambled minds can make people do whatever a Nibbler suggests.

There was only a few second’s to make her move. The Enterprise control everything now. They collect taxes and keep order amongst warring clans. Mandy had no clan, she had no people; she was a Straggler. Everyone hated Stragglers. They were the ones that lived without responsibilities, or burden. Stragglers also helped themselves to other people’s stuff. They were sought of, like foragers with a bad case of kleptomania.

The guns were still on Mandy. She hadn’t moved a muscle. Her eyes were roaming-they scanned every corner of her entire vicinity for a possible escape route. The Nibblers didn’t have malformed faces, drooling mouths or big claws, or glowing eyes. They looked like everyone else, except for the fact that they ate people- they literally ate people. They couldn’t talk; Nibblers had lost all ability to coordinate and control the ability of speech. Mandy knew there was no way of telling if she was human, and there was no one to vouch for her because she wasn’t part of any of the bickering smaller clans. She did the dumbest thing she could possibly have done. She ran as fast as her feet could carry her, across the wooden planks. Shots were fired instantly. They hit the metals in the scaffold structure.

Mandy was either brave or really foolish. She jumped down from the edge of the scaffold, free falling without any ropes. The men in uniforms ran to the edge of the scaffold and fired more shots at the falling teenage girl. She got a few grazes. She didn’t scream. She was as tough as nails. As Mandy came closer to the bottom of the scaffold, she grabbed unto one of the metal bars and swung around for a bit before breaking her fall. She climbed down, carefully avoiding the line of fire.

Those Pricks fucking tried to kill me! Mandy ranted, as she ran quickly into the streets, nursing the bullet wound on her arm.

She couldn’t stop yet. She needed to get out of the sights of her pursuers. They were known to be brutal with Stragglers.

Chapter 2

High Citadel, Jan 2, 2050

In the new world, humans were becoming more brutal than Nibblers. At least the Nibblers only killed to appease their hunger. But humans turned to slaughtering each other for precious supplies and just to prove a point-that they are in charge of running things. In a world without real leaders, anarchy reigned. Mandy was one of the few caught in the center of it.

Commander Prometheus, We couldn’t find her. It’s as if she vanished into thin air, one of the troopers reports to the apparently distracted commander.

Commander Prometheus seemed to be scanning the streets below him. The commander turned to the trooper, gripping his neck tightly, You let that insect get away! Were we not in need of combat hardened men, I would throw you off this roof myself!

The commander throws the man to the ground and walks away, leaving him gasping for breath. There was a chopper waiting on the roof. He climbs up into it and signals to the pilot to take off. The chopper climbs slowly into the air. Commander Prometheus wears a sullen look, as he stares at an old photograph. A single tear rolls down his bearded face, but his angel-blue eyes did not betray much emotion. Men of war rarely showed a softer side.

The photograph clearly peeled open an old wound- something buried deep in the recesses of the commander’s memory. His childhood flashed before his eyes. He could smell his mother’s cooking. He could see his dad put his arms round her, as he tried to steal some bacon from the pan. His mom batted his dad’s thieving arm away.

Oh can I have just this one, Agatha? the commander’s Dad pleaded, trying desperately to use his charms on his wife.

Agatha didn’t budge. Prometheus’s dad resulted to playing dirty. He tickled her, and she laughed like a giddy little school girl. They kissed a bit. Then Prometheus’s dad snuck a bit of bacon into his mouth, and crunched on it quickly.

Careful Zachary, you don’t wanna choke on that, Agatha joked, as she returned to making breakfast.

What are you doing over there son? Zachary asked, scooping the peeping boy into his strong arms and throwing him in the air.

Prometheus! Prometheus! a voice shouts repeatedly in his ear. He seemed to be half asleep and deaf to it. Governess Hannah! I didn’t know we had arrived at High Citadel yet. Forgive my absenteeism, I have been rather preoccupied of late, Commander Prometheus apologized, making a fist and striking his chest and suspending his left foot in the air in a gesture of salute.

Men must fight their wars, and we the matriarchs of this great city must play our part. You are forgiven, Commander. You may follow me into the Conversing chamber. We have much to discuss. Governess Hannah waves a hand, permitting the commander to relax from his awkward saluting posture.

I trust the cleansing went well in New Detroit. Governess Hannah smiles with relish, crossing her legs, as she sunk her posterior into a huge leather seat.

We lost some good men to the flesh eating Nibbler scum, but after all said and done, we prevailed.

I believe we hit a big chunk of the New Detroit Nibbler hive in the missile strike, Commander Prometheus spoke calmly, folding his hands behind him.

Rising to her feet, the Governess looks Commander Prometheus straight in the eyes and moved her lips slowly,

Did you do a body count?

I believe it’s too soon to make such a presumption. Those things might be rabid, but they’re not to be underestimated. The last time the world did that, it cost us everything.

Chapter 3

St Jasper's Street, Jan 3, 2050

In the center of St Jasper’s street, a waistcoat wearing man was preparing to address a gathering of all sorts of people-the Planters, the Menders and the cut throats; they all clamored for a chance to catch a glimpse of him. He was stood on a pile of boxes. He took a swig out of a small flask, cleared his throat, then proceeded to speak.

"They came out of no where. Like beasts under the cover of night, they took everything from us. They took our fathers! They took our mothers! They took our children!

They stepped on our heads like insects, and buried our faces in the mud. How can you eat? How can you go home and lay with your wife in an empty home, when they have torn the children away from our breasts?

Get up! Get up! We take down every one of them until we have burnt those Nibblers out of bloody memory!" the man in the waistcoat rambled on, shouting on top of his voice.

The response to his fiery speech was a rapturous cheer, and of course food, drinks and other precious commodities were dumped into the back of a waiting wagon.

With a fake smile, the speaker raises his hat and waves goodbye to the gullible gathering. He was a man that peddled false hopes for his own gain. He was a fraud, like the shadow of a life that everyone had been living after their lives had been turned upside down by loss- losses brought about by the savagery of war between the armies of the Enterprise and the Nibblers.

The people in between were always going to be the collateral damage. Mandy had been laying huddled under a blanket at the back of the wagon. The ride was very bumpy, but she managed to fish out some alcohol and penicillin from the sacks in the back of the waistcoat wearing deceiver’s wagon. She drank a bit of the whisky. It tasted like horse piss. Mandy spat it out instantly, pouring what was left of the bottle's contents over her flesh wound. It stung so badly that she almost let out a big yell. Acting quickly to stop that from happening, she covers her mouth with her other hand.

Mandy made muffled, inaudible noises, but the trotting of the horse’s hooves blocked out her soft whimpers. The wagon went past some uneven ground, sending the stowaway in the wagon flying from one end to the other. Ouch! Mandy yelped, bumping her head into the wooden walls of the wagon. Finally, the horse-pulled wagon came to a stop in front of a derelict house.

The windows were all boarded up. The fraudster in the waistcoat dismounted from the front of the wagon and limped sluggishly towards the front door. He stopped halfway, sniffed the fresh air and took off one of his boots, emptying it of it’s sandy contents.

Woohoo! Now that’s what I’m talking about, he screams jubilantly, as he peeped into one of the bags he had unloaded.

He fetched