by Dhar, Mainak
'I'm sorry, they were ambushed soon after they landed and there are no survivors other than the pilots who stayed with the plane. We reached them too late to stop the slaughter.'
Robertson closed his eyes in exasperation and took a deep breath, unconsciously rubbing his right temple with his hand, as if trying to wish away an impending headache.
'None of them?'
'No, none of them made it. I'm sorry—it seemed like a waste of a lot of lives.'
Robertson composed himself, as if trying to see if he could salvage something out of the situation.
'I have got some recent intelligence which has given me a clearer picture of what we're up against. Can you, John and the pilots mount a mission to try and neutralize this threat? Otherwise I worry that with our attack foiled, they will strike us with their nuclear weapons.'
He leaned forward, as if sharing a big secret. Alice had to give the man points for being an accomplished liar and actor. Of course, she had not seen the world before the Rising, otherwise she would have realized that those were usually preconditions for being a politician.
'The threat we're talking about is a submarine. I don't know how far they are from the port and if they are submerged then they are impossible to target, but I am assuming they must have some arrangement to get supplies or food from shore. Can you help out?'
Alice simply turned the tablet so that the camera showed the massive black bulk of the submarine anchored a kilometer or so from the shore. Robertson's eyes widened.
'We actually had found the threat and have neutralized the crew. From what I gather, this one ship could have destroyed all the humans left alive on Earth, and destroying our small city of Wonderland and your major settlements would have been an easy task for it.'
Robertson was trying to think of what to say to get his hands on the submarine and the missiles in it. Alice let him stew for a while, enjoying the look she saw on his face. A man who had harbored dreams of ruling the world, and had a good man like Konrath killed to achieve it, now coming to grips with the fact that things had rapidly slipped out of his control.
'I could have a team of specialists flown over in a day or two. If you could hold the position, they can be there and advise us on how to deal with this vessel.'
Alice now turned the tablet so that once again she was looking straight into Robertson's eyes.
'That won't be necessary. One of the crew members, luckily enough the Weapons Officer, survived and is in our custody. He has agreed to cooperate with us and as we speak he is on board with John, carrying out our order to destroy this ship.'
A look of sheer panic crossed Robertson's face.
'That ship… we could study it further. Maybe the reactors could be of use in providing power. We should try and preserve it till our specialists can be there.'
Alice wanted to say a lot of things, but all she did was point the tablet back towards the sub.
A small boat was visible coming ashore. Mikhail and then John stepped out of it, and John began waving to everyone.
'Get back or get behind some cover.'
Everyone scurried for cover and Robertson saw the picture on his screen shake as Alice also ran for cover behind a building, but then it stabilized as she pointed it at the submarine. After about ten seconds, a huge explosion rocked the area as the three torpedoes Mikhail had programmed launched and impacted. The tube doors had not been opened and the torpedoes exploded inside the submarine, destroying it in a huge fireball.
Robertson watched, his face pale and contorted in rage and frustration, as the remains of the submarine sank without a trace.
***
TWELVE
Alice looked out the window at the rolling hills thousands of feet below, a green and brown landscape crisscrossed by roads and rivers. At this altitude, you could not see bloated bodies lying by the roadside, see the Biters shuffling around in hordes or smell the stench of death. From up here, the Earth looked inviting, almost serene. On her first airplane ride to the Homeland to hunt down the Executive Committee's Snark missiles, she had been quite nervous. Now she thought that perhaps it was best to see the Earth from up here, the way it had been created, not the way it had been laid to waste by men.
John stirred in his sleep and began snoring. He had been through a lot in the last few days and was finally catching up on his sleep. In a corner of the plane, Cheshire and his group sat huddled together. It had taken some convincing, but ultimately Cheshire had realized that the children in his care would have a much better life in Wonderland, where they could grow up without fear. Mikhail was sitting nervously by himself, a blank look in his eyes. Alice knew that it would take time for him to come to grips with the evil he had been a party to, if he ever did so. However, he was a seasoned engineer and she suspected once he met Aalok, Danish and the others in Wonderland who would value his expertise and know where to use it, he would find a new purpose that might allow him to live out his remaining years at some sort of peace with himself. Alice too had done things she regretted, but she had realized that redemption never came from reliving the past or wishing you had done things differently, it came from waking up the next day and living it right and not repeating the mistakes of the past.
They passed the high mountains that represented the border between the old nations of India and Pakistan. Somewhere down there, she had come face to face with the Khan, another man who had laid so much to waste in his quest for power. What was it about power that corrupted men's hearts so easily? She had seen the impact drugs had on people, both in her run-in with the Khan and more recently with the captain and his men, but there was something uniquely addictive about power. She had left Wonderland looking for a new mission and purpose to her life, and she had discovered that life and hope had sustained itself in many more places around the world. Several of them had been ravaged and subjugated by tyrants like the captain, while others under honest men like Cheshire had managed to survive. Alice realized just how big the world was, and there was no way she could help all of them.
However, what she could do was to ensure that Wonderland and its people never came under the grip of the lust for power that had corrupted so many. With the Homeland now under a man like Robertson, the very people she had taken as her closest allies were now marching to the orders of a man who craved power above all else. She would trust Arjun, Danish and the others at Wonderland with her life, but after what had happened with Konrath, she realized that stability and the continued rule of good, honest men could never be taken for granted. They had to be guarded at all times.
In wandering so far from home, Alice had learned that perhaps her mission lay back where she had begun her journey all those years ago when she had followed Bunny Ears down a hole in the ground. As a child growing up in her settlement, she used to hear stories from some of the Indian women about the trinity of gods that Hindus traditionally worshipped. Shiva, the destroyer; Brahma, the creator; and Vishnu, the preserver. They symbolized not just the constant cycle of life and death, but also the various roles each person played. Alice had begun her journey as an avenging angel, tearing down the forces that had robbed her of her family, a journey of personal vendetta that had become something larger. From being a destroyer, she had taken on the role of a creator, helping shape the beginnings of a new world in Wonderland—a world where people and Biters could live together, free of the tyranny of distant despots.
Now she had to be the preserver. It would be a new role for her. She did not need to rush into harm's way. There was no enemy out there posing an imminent threat which needed to be destroyed. Instead, she and her friends had to safeguard against a threat that was perhaps even more ominous—that evil that lurked in the hearts of men and consumed men like the captain and Robertson.
John woke up and saw her staring out the window.
'What are you thinking about?'
Alice turned to face him.
'Nothing much.'
'I've been thinking of what Robertson will do now.
'
'Probably nothing. He has no nuclear missiles to threaten us with at long range, and he cannot do much to directly threaten us. Also he needs the food we grow, and our people and those of the Homeland have become close. It will be hard to get his people to regard us as anything other than friends.'
John shook his head gently. Alice had seen many things, but she had not seen what politicians could do to people's minds.
'Alice, it doesn't take much to create an enemy. In the old days, that happened all the time. I jumped into what they called the war on terror, only to realize in a couple of years' time that I wasn't really sure what I was fighting for—the security of my people or the interests of large oil companies. I know how men like Robertson think, and we need to watch him.'
Alice sighed deeply. Yes, she had one more thing to worry about, but for all that, she was glad to be going home. Seeing the desolation in what had once been Pakistan had made her appreciate even more what they had created together in Wonderland.
Neha was passing around packets of dried fruit to people who needed food and as she passed, Alice asked her how Zohar was.
'He's a really tough kid. Luckily the bullet went in and out, so he's a bit weak but my father says he'll be fine.'
Alice got up to stretch her legs and walked along the corridor. Bunny Ears sat alone in a corner, looking out the window. She watched him—torn arm, bloodied torso, face raked with injuries—but despite all that, the dearest and more trusted friend she had ever had. One she had trusted with her life countless times, and one who had never let her down, never asked for anything in return for his loyalty.
He had come with her on this quest, not seeking anything for himself, but accompanying her with the simple desire to keep her safe. However, he had found a meaning and purpose in this trip that was much more profound than anything Alice had.
He had discovered his identity. The man who lay behind the Biter Alice had known. The name behind Bunny Ears. As Alice walked towards him, she heard him mumbling to himself. It was the same word over and over again. The name he had once had.
Alice wondered what he remembered of who he had been before he had been bitten, and just how frustrated he must be to remember snatches of his former self but never be able to share it with anyone. She sat down next to him and he turned to look at her.
'Aaalllissss.'
Alice smiled at him.
'We're going home, Neil.'
***
CREDITS
Coming up with the idea for a novel and writing it is often a solitary exercise, but bringing it to readers as a finished book is always a team effort. I’d like to thank the following for their help in producing the book you now hold in your hands. They, and others like them, make independent publishing much more enriching and rewarding for both authors and readers.
Cover design by Damon
(http://www.damonza.com)
Editing by R.J.Locksley
(http://www.rjlocksley.blogspot.com)
eBook formatting by Rebecca
(http://www.indiemobi.wordpress.com)
ABOUT MAINAK DHAR
Mainak Dhar is a cubicle dweller by day and author by night. His first `published' work was a stapled collection of Maths solutions and poems (he figured nobody would pay for his poems alone) he sold to his classmates in Grade 7, and spent the proceeds on ice cream and comics. Mainak was a bestselling author in his native India with titles published by major houses like Penguin and Random House and with one of his novels (Herogiri) being made into a major motion picture. In early 2011, he began to use Amazon to reach international readers through his ebooks and became one of the leading independent authors in the world with more than 100,000 books sold in his first year. Mainak is one of the top selling horror authors on Amazon worldwide and in March 2013, became the #1 bestselling Horror author on Amazon, momentarily unseating Stephen King. Learn more about him and contact him at mainakdhar.com.