by Cameron Jace
“See?” the March says. “You said yourself.”
“What did I say?”
“Black Chess.”
“Meaning?” I squint.
“Who’d you think you’d join if you sought Black Chess’ trust?” he says. “Who is the devil of devils? Who is He we know nothing about but knows all about us?”
The shriek is so loud and strong I feel my heart is diagonally sliced open. The answer has been so clear all this time. Who is He who’d been messing with my head in the psychiatrist room? Who is he who is the highest member in Black Chess?
“Mr. Jay,” I say.
The March nods and begs me to continue the therapy to know more.
73
Mr. Jay’s Castle
“I don’t care what your excuse is for not finding the Pillar until now,” Mr. Jay said from his dark desk. His words were followed but a number of bullets, dropping most of his men dead. “I want results.”
“The world is going crazy right now,” one of his men says. “It’s not easy to find a sneaky man like him.”
“The problem is that in the end I am sure he will be hiding in plain sight,” Mr. Jay said. “That’s what the Pillar does. He plays on the naivety and superficial expectation of stupid people like you.”
“We’re sorry,” one said.
Mr. Jay shot him, too. “I hate that word.”
None of them spoke, in case he hated other words as well.
“How much time is left before the deadline?” he asked.
“One hour.”
“Did the world governments reach a different verdict?”
“Unlikely. We think they’d prefer to have everyone in the asylum dead. That should please the masses,” one of his men dared speak. “Especially with the mad new pope encouraging war in the Vatican. It’d be easier executing those in the asylum than starting a world war three encouraged by a man everyone suddenly trusts.”
“Leave Angelo to me.” Mr. Jay’s voice was indecipherable. “Do we still have some of our men in the police force at the asylum?”
“Most of them died in the clash after the Pillar killed the Queen, but we still have a couple.”
“Authorities?”
“Indeed.”
“Good.” A wiry smoke ring swirled into the room, as if from a pipe or a hookah. Mr. Jay usually smoked when he was feeling good, or was about to say something that’d make him feel good. “Tell our man in the police force to order nuking the asylum.”
“Nuking the asylum?”
“You heard right.”
“But that’s too much…”
Mr. Jay shot him.
Silence was suddenly draped like a dead man’s coffin onto the room.
“Nuke the asylum,” Mr. Jay repeated. “Margaret will take care of the Parliament’s paperwork.”
“Margaret Kent is dead. She died in the limousine’s explosion along with Jack Diamonds and Lorina, Alice’s stepsister.”
“As if Margaret was my only hand in Parliament,” Mr. Jay puffed. “I’ll take care of it. Just order the nukes. I don’t care where they get them, or who is involved, or who this upsets. Nuke the asylum.”
“Can I ask why it’s important to nuke when we could just shoot them inside?” a reluctant member asked. “And please don’t shoot me. It’s just a question.”
“We have to nuke the asylum so I make sure everyone’s dead, including Alice.”
“But the Pillar is outside.”
“That’s what you think,” Mr. Jay said. “Knowing him as long as I have, I’d go with him having sneaked back in, maybe disguised in a suit or something. Just do as I say.”
“And how about Fabiola? She is the only Inkling outside.”
“Fabiola is in the hospital. Send someone to kill her while she is weak. Make it look like she died from injury complications. Anything else?”
“No, thank you, sir,” the man said.
“Good.” Mr. Jay shot another couple men. The piling bodies on his carpet pleased him and reminded him of the beautiful day of killing Alice’s family in Wonderland.
74
The Tunnels
“I’ll have to get on your back.” Constance suggested. “I’m short and can’t jump over the fissure. You’re taller. You can.”
“And finally someone has admitted that being short sucks,” the Dude mused.
“I have my shortcomings.” Constance tilted her head, embarrassed to admit.
“That’s a start in our relationship. We might get somewhere then. Hop on.”
“Over the cloak?”
“Yes, of course.”
“I thought the cloak makes you fly,” she teased.
“We’re not flying. We’re jumping.”
“Are you a good jumper?”
“If I take enough steps back, I think I could.”
“I’m afraid if you take too many steps back you’d jump too far and we’d end up hitting the door, then fall unconscious.”
“That’s a farfetched scenario.”
“Wonderlastic scenario to be precise,” she said. “You know about Wonderlastic logic?”
“You mean nonsense.”
“It’s a logic.”
“Nonsense isn’t a logic.”
“It is. It makes sense if you give it a try.”
“It’s called non-sense, meaning ‘no sense’ so it doesn’t make sense. Hop on.”
“Not yet.”
“What now?”
“Alice knows an art called None Fu. Do you practice it?”
“I do.”
“Where did you learn it?”
“On YouTube.”
“You’re kidding me.”
“Of course I’m kidding. Now hop on. We’re wasting time.”
“One last thing,” Constance demands. “Show me your face.”
“What?”
“How else will I know you’re not from Black Chess.”
“I’m not from Black Chess.”
“And I’m not a Vulcan with long ears named Spock. As if swearing was that easy?”
“How do you even know about Spock? You’re too young.”
“We’re not going to talk about that again. Now, show me your face.”
“I will not.”
“You will. Something is off about you.”
“I thought we were getting along.”
“That’s exactly what’s off about you. I feel like I know you.”
“You just met me.”
“It doesn’t feel like it. I know you from before. Who are you?”
“The Dude.”
“Stop it,” she said. “You’re lying.”
The Dude sighed. “How many times will I have to remind you that we don’t have enough time left? We’re not even sure this is the door we seek.”
“Show me your face or I won’t…”
Suddenly, the tunnels shook. A low drone rumbled underneath them. They both turned to look behind them.
“Something is coming,” the Dude panicked. “Hop on before it’s too late.”
“What can it be?” Constance questioned while she crawled onto his back and hung on.
“Whatever it is. We need to jump. I’ll count to three.”
“One…
“Wait.”
“What now?”
“Why to three? Why not to seven? I need to prepare myself.”
“You’re annoying, Constance.”
“And there is a reason for it.”
“What could that possibly be?” The Dude began to run.
“Because I know who you are,” she said halfway in the air. “I know you are…” And then she said his name, but it got sucked into the water that came rushing after them.
75
The Mush Room
“No more therapy.” I tell the March and put the pads aside.
I start unchaining him, but he doesn’t speak to me. His breathing is shallow, and I feel like killing myself if something happens to him. What was I thinking? Or was that the Dark Alice i
nside me that brought him into the room?
I need to remind myself that sometimes knowing the truth isn’t worth sacrificing the people I love.
“Stay with me, March,” I say to him while pulling off the chains.
He moans lightly, but that’s all I need to make sure he is still alert.
I go to the nearby bathroom and bring the things I need to clean him up. Some water, too.
Back inside, I wash his legs from the sweat and blood from his face. I even sing to him Wonderland songs to keep him conscious. “You will be alright.”
“I know I will, as long as you take care of me,” he says.
“I didn’t really take care of you by agreeing to bring you here, but I’ll make it up to you.”
“You know I really hated growing up.”
“Most of us do.” I laugh.
“I mean really. I was very happy as a child.”
“I hope I was, too.”
“Though I hardly remember being a child.” He chuckles feebly. “Maybe it’s the not remembering that makes childhood so precious.”
“Maybe.” I continue washing him and giving him water to drink.
“Do you hear that?”
“Hear what March?”
“That voice?”
I’m alert. What’s happening to him. “What voice, March. Talk to me?”
“That sweet voice?”
“I can’t hear anything.”
“That one in the end of the tunnel?”
Tunnel? God, is he seeing tunnels?
“I want to go to that voice,” he says.
“March, stop it. You’re not seeing tunnels.”
“I didn’t say seeing. I hear the voice at the end of the tunnel.”
“You’re not hearing it either.” I shake him by shoulders.
“It’s Constance!”
Suddenly, I realize that Constance is calling me from the walkie-talkie. I’ve left it in the corridor. My mind and heart suddenly relax. “Ah, that.”
I leave the room and pick it up.
“Alice!” Constance is cheering. “I found the door.”
“You’re alive. Thank God.”
“Of course, I’m alive. I promised I’d save you.”
I smiled broadly. “What door?”
“The Dude showed me a door where I can get you all out.”
“The Dude?”
“An annoying person in a cape. I know who he really is, but that’s not the point now. I need you to find the cell last on the left in the third region.”
“Okay?”
“If you peel the wallpaper you will find a door. It’s a short one. You will have to duck. Or wait, I managed to open it. I’m coming to get you.”
“Is there a way out through this door?”
“Yes, I’ll explain. Just tell me where you are.”
“In the Mush Room.”
“I assume that is the therapy room I saw?”
“Yes.”
“I think I can get there. Wait up.”
Feeling excited I return to tell the March about the news. “March, Constance is alive. We’re getting out.”
He doesn’t respond.
“Hey.” I shake him. “We’re getting out!”
He doesn’t moan.
I shake him again.
Nothing.
My stubborn mind refuses to understand.
I shake him again.
Nothing plus nothing.
“No!” I scream.
I pull the pads again and punch him. His body bounces, but it’s like a dead fish out of water.
“March!”
I punch again.
Again.
Again.
Until the flatline on the monitor beeps so loud it almost deafens me.
The March Hare has died, and I may have killed him.
76
Police Crew, Outside the Asylum
“What are we doing exactly?” asked a large officer with beer-belly.
A considerable number of fire trucks had parked on the east side of the asylum, with more of them on their way. They were pumping water into the tunnels.
“We’re filling the tunnels with as much water as we can,” a thinner, lankier officer shouted against the noise.
“There are tunnels in there?” the beer-belly officer asked.
“Turns out they’ve been there for two hundred years or so. Problem is we don’t have a map and don’t know where they lead.”
“So you’re not even sure you’re targeting the right tunnels the Inklings would escape from?”
“Not the slightest.”
“So why do it?”
“Because I received orders. When you take an order, it’s better to do it to please the folks in the higher ranks. Always works.”
“Even if it proves futile?”
“Employers pay employees to do things. Not necessarily the right things. Don’t argue.”
“Well, I digress.” The larger officer held onto the belt barely keeping his flabby belly tight. “This water idea is not going to work. The tunnels might be wider than we think. In fact, I am almost sure they’re wider.”
“So?”
“I heard we’re supposed to nuke the place.”
“You heard right, but the deadline ends in half an hour. It’d take longer to prepare a nuke than that.”
“So whoever ordered the nuking is stupid.”
“Employers always are. Besides, did they really think we’d nuke the place? Really?”
“I agree on that part. Soon the terrorists will either show themselves or die inside when we break into the place. That’s why I’d thought the water was stupid, too.”
“Never mind. In all cases, we’re getting the terrorists today. My cousin died in one of those attacks in Europe last week. We’ll get the terrorists.”
“They’re not terrorists,” the beer-belly man raised his voice against the noise of the arrival of more firetrucks.
“What did you just say?”
“We don’t call them terrorists anymore, remember? They’re Wonderland Monsters. It’s what they call themselves.”
“Well, I’ll be damned. Because today we’ll blow up their Wonderland.”
77
The Mush Room
Constance and the Dude arrive and start showing the Mushroomers the way out. It’s going to take some organizing to do so. I let them, not sure if I’ll leave with them.
“What do you mean you won’t leave?” Constance argues.
“I just killed the March. I don’t feel like saving myself.”
“It was an accident, Alice. The world needs you.”
“You sound like the Pillar.”
“Well, maybe he is the only one who’s been right about you so far. Come on, Alice.”
“If he is right, why’d he escape?”
“It’s not like he’s turned down an invitation back to the asylum.” Constance also seems to favor him like everyone else. I’m not sure why I don’t support those feeling about him anymore. “He’s blown off the queen’s head, Alice. He’s the most wanted man in the world right now.”
“Do you think he should have done that?”
“Who knows?” Constance says. “Who cares? We’re in big trouble right now. The world thinks we’re terrorists. If you don’t escape and we don’t get ourselves together, Black Chess will rule the world by tomorrow.”
“I’m sick of this Inkling slash Black Chess thing,” I say. “I’m sick of all of it. We don’t know what we’re fighting for. We don’t know what we’re up to. I tried my best, and in the end I killed the most innocent person I’ve ever known.”
Constance sighs, unable to argue anymore. Behind her, through the Mush Room’s door, the Mushroomers are running like crazy, guided by the Dude. Constance told me earlier how they met, but I’m not sure of the Dude’s intentions. It’s just too hard to focus on too many things at a time.
“I’m staying with the March,” I tell Constance. “It’s my final dec
ision.”
Constance lowers her head and fiddles with her feet. “Whatever you want, Alice.”
With a breaking heart, I watch her walk out the door. It’s hard to explain why I don’t want to leave. Maybe I want to die. Want to punish myself for giving up on the March. God, I didn’t only let him die, I’ve just killed the childhood he’d hung onto for so long. What kind of hero am I?
Before Constance leaves, Tom dashes into the room, hardly catching his breath. He grips the doorframe and spits out the words, “We have to expedite the escaping process.”
“It can’t be expedited,” Constance argues. “The door to the tunnels is small. And there is a fissure outside. It’s not easy to cross over. Then there is the water occasionally rushing in from nowhere. We’re doing our best.”
“You don't understand,” Tom says.
“No, it’s you who doesn’t understand.” Constance’s frustration with me is fired up against Dr. Truckle. “We’re doing our best, and you’re only causing panic. I’ve made up my mind that you should be the last to leave. You’re useless.”
For a moment, Tom feels offended by the tiny girl, but then he snaps to whatever he’d come to tell me. “Listen. I was just in the control room. I was fiddling with the buttons, in case I need to prepare myself for pushing it and locking up the asylum before Constance and the Dude arrived.”
“So?” I say.
“I pushed some wrong buttons, and a digital timer appeared.”
“What did you do?” Constance can’t help herself.
“I don’t know exactly. The timer is counting down from twenty minutes. It says the asylum will self-burn then.”
78
“What?” Constance and I snap.
“I’m sorry. It just happened,” Tom says.
“I don’t think we can help all the Mushroomers escape then,” Constance addresses me. “We need to leave some behind.”
“No one is going to be left behind but me and the March,” I say.
“Well, that’s not up to us anymore,” Constance says. “Mr. Mock Turtle just blew it.”