by Dhar, Mainak
Alice strode into their midst, taking out the old book from the bag at her side. She had done this many times now, but every single time she was reminded of how she had followed Bunny Ears down a hole in the ground and come face to face with Doctor Protima, the Queen of the Biters, and had come to know about this book, the last remaining book in the Deadland. A book which supposedly foretold Alice’s role in fulfilling the prophecy of humans and Biters uniting to overthrow the tyrants who had brought about The Rising in their quest for absolute power.
She no longer cared whether the prophecy was true or not. Doing what was right did not require a prophecy or a special book. It required the courage to go with one’s convictions and to be willing to make the sacrifices needed. She had learned more about that from her father and others she had met over the years, people like Satish, Vince and others who had given their lives so that their hard-fought freedom might be secured, than from any book.
Still, she knew the importance of symbols for humans and Biters alike, and the book in her hand had become such a symbol for Biters. She held aloft the book and spoke to the Biters as Salil and the others watched on.
As the new Biters knelt before her, Alice spoke to them in a soothing voice.
‘Not all humans are bad, and not all of them will hurt you. It is possible for us to live together, and if you help us get rid of the evil men in these wastelands, you can see how we are creating a new world, one where we all live in peace.’
Then she got up, and turned to look at Salil.
‘Now, let’s go tell these slave traders that their days of doing business in these wastelands are over.’
***
Most of the eight men in front of Bilal were already too stoned to focus. This was the part of his job that he despised more than anything else—having to lead dimwits like the men in front of him.
Before The Rising, he had thought of himself as a predator, a natural hunter of men, and that skill had made him a very rich man with the thirty hits he had carried out on behalf of his clients. When he had been betrayed by a jealous associate and jailed, nothing much changed. Two men who challenged him in prison were found dead, their necks broken. He was the alpha male there, the one other inmates served, and the one even the cops didn’t get too rough with. He had counted on not staying in prison for more than a few months, since many of his clients were very well connected politically and his skills were much in demand. Then everything had gone to hell, and once he had recovered from the shock of what he had witnessed during The Rising, Bilal realized that the new world he lived in threw up a lot of opportunities for someone of his talents.
It was a world without laws, without the police, where the strongest and most ruthless survived. So Bilal had thrived in the Deadland, once again a predator, but now hunting not for money, but for survival.
Then had come the masked horsemen from the North, with their demand for human slaves, and Bilal had found a new calling. The fact that he enjoyed Dreamweed didn’t hurt, either. The only downside was that now he was no longer a solitary predator, but needed to use men like the ones arrayed before him. Men who had been illiterate peasants before The Rising, crude men who knew nothing of the skill and finesse needed to kill a man without making a god-awful mess. Bilal shifted on his good leg and cursed the yellow-haired witch. He had been taken by surprise, and he would not allow such a thing to happen again.
‘Men, stay sharp. The good news is that our customers are okay with us supplying Biters, and a shortage of Biters is something we haven’t ever had to complain about. Now go out there and find me some stinking Biters.’
As the men dispersed, Bilal kept two of his best men with him. He had walked for ten minutes when he caught the stench of Biters. He signaled to his men to get down as two Biters walked into the open a few meters from them. One of his men raised his rifle to fire and Bilal swatted it away.
‘Idiot! We’re supposed to capture them, not kill them.’
Bilal had made his men carry ropes and handcuffs with them, but to be honest, he was not sure they were actually up to capturing Biters and then transporting them across the mountains. Still, they were desperate for their Dreamweed and he didn’t want the Phantoms coming for him. So they had to try and this was as good an opportunity as any.
One of his men ran ahead, and as the Biters turned towards him, another one flanked them and hit one of the Biters on the back of the head with the butt of his rifle. As the Biter fell down, the man handcuffed his hands behind his back and took out a strip of cloth to tie around his mouth. The second Biter growled in fury but was swept off his feet by a well-aimed kick and was similarly bound and gagged. Bilal looked on, pleased at how his men had reacted.
‘Call the others and let’s load these animals on a cart.’
That was when Bilal heard a low growl and turned to see a tall Biter with strange bunny-shaped ears come into sight. Behind him were more Biters, too many to count. Bilal raised his rifle and shouted at his men to get ready. They never had a chance. One of his men fell, hit by a shot to the head. Another went down as a round caught him in the mid-section. For a split second, Bilal was dumbfounded. When did Biters learn to shoot? Then he saw movement in the bushes—a flowing lock of golden hair. He knew his game was up—the witch called Alice was supposed to be able to control Biters, and now Bilal saw that in action as the Biters came at him and more of his men fell to shots.
Bilal considered staying and fighting but then his survival instinct took over. The old pickup truck they used to ferry people over the border was parked a few hundred meters away, and he ran as fast as his injured leg would carry him towards it. He ran into the bushes and kept running, trying to blank out the sounds of his men screaming behind him.
***
That week, Alice and her comrades went on four sweeps through the wastelands, netting twenty bandits killed. The word spread quickly—the area was no longer a safe haven for bandits and slave traders. Totally outmatched by Alice and her friends in terms of firepower, they melted away, many going North into the mountain passes and valleys of what had been Kashmir.
For Alice, victory had not rested in simply scattering the bandits, but in the more than twenty people they had rescued. Many were in terrible shape from torture and malnutrition, and Norbert and Doctor Edwards had their hands full in tending to them.
Sayoni was now on her feet, and Alice quickly discovered that the young woman, for all the horrors she had been through, was a real live wire. Alice always suppressed a smile whenever she saw Aalok and Sayoni together—the quiet, shy man who loved nothing more than tinkering with tools and gadgets, and the talkative, loud woman who loved being around people. Aalok was popular for his ability to fix and create things, and Sayoni soon became popular due to her sheer ability to make friends where she went.
They were standing near the old airport, awaiting the first jet that would bring in machines and experts from the Homeland. So far, they had been ferrying people back and forth with old Dakotas, which had to make multiple stops to get to Wonderland. But after the Executive Committee fell, Konrath’s people had found two C-5 Galaxy transport aircraft in airworthy shape.
Alice’s jaw dropped open as the giant aircraft came into view. She had never seen an aircraft as big as this one, and everyone gathered on the ground had their eyes fixed on the monster as it circled the airport. Over the next week, the plan was for the planes to make six trips to Wonderland, laden with equipment and people to operate them.
‘I think I’d like to go to the US. I went there as a kid with my family before The Rising.’
Aalok, who had studied Engineering at a US university, smiled as he held Sayoni’s hand. After all the horrors they had been through, things were finally looking like they might be returning to normal. Traveling for tourism was still something nobody had contemplated, but who knew, with the way things were going, Sayoni might just have her wish fulfilled.
The Galaxy landed and taxied to a stop and as the ramp opened u
p, the first person out was a young woman wearing combat fatigues and carrying an assault rifle. Behind her were a half dozen more armed Americans. The woman walked up to Alice and saluted.
‘Brittany Lee reporting, Ma’am. I am in charge of the security detail for the experts coming in.’
Alice felt really awkward at all the uniformed men and women saluting her and walked up to shake their hands.
‘Just call me Alice. What are your names?’
‘Phoenix Stormwolf. You sure kicked ass back in the Homeland, Alice. Glad to meet you.’
‘Kevin Gletus.’
‘Kris Hansen.’
As she met all of them, Brittany guided Alice towards the plane.
‘We’ve got twenty crew to operate the machines. They’re just ensuring the machines made it okay on the flight and should be coming out any minute.’
As Alice came to the airplane, people began trooping out. Leading them was an old woman with silver hair and a grin on her face that instantly put Alice at ease.
‘My name is Haroula, and boy am I glad to be here. All my life, I worked our farm till everything went to hell. It’ll be good to get back to doing what I knew and help our people. Just tell us where you want us.’
The others had now come closer and the new arrivals were warmly greeted, and the large tractor and harvester that rolled out off the ramp were met by huge cheers. Alice turned to Haroula.
‘I guess you want to rest for some time before you and your team get to work. We can arrange for you to be driven to the farmlands tomorrow. We’ve built some houses there but you may want to change things. Do whatever you need to be comfortable.’
Haroula smiled with a twinkle in her eyes that made her look much younger than she was. ‘I’m a farm girl and there are people who need to be fed both here and in the US. So I don’t need any rest. I’m happy to get there to see the fields right away and I’d want the kids to work as soon as I can.’
A couple of the younger members of Haroula’s team exchanged glances, but if any of them wanted rest and a slower start, they were not going to admit it when Haroula was willing to get straight to work at her age. Alice smiled as Haroula harangued her team into action.
‘Come on, kids. I’m old enough to be your grandmother and I can move faster than you. We didn’t come here for a siesta. There are hungry families back home depending on us. You, Patricia, stick with me.’
A young woman with blonde hair picked up her bags and followed Haroula as she continued, turning to Alice with an outstretched hand.
‘Hi, I’m Patricia Sanchez, and Haroula is my mother in law.’
‘She seems amazing.’
‘You can say that again. At her age, she shot three Zeus troopers in the fighting for our hometown.’
As the new arrivals moved out of the airport and into the waiting trucks, a sense of relief washed over Alice. She had been worried about what it would mean to have outsiders from the Homeland come in. In theory, it made perfect sense, but it would all come down to the people involved, and with Haroula in charge, she was much more comfortable with the arrangement.
As she passed them, she overheard Arjun talking to Sayoni.
‘Sayoni, no, we didn’t have a party on Valentine’s Day.’
‘Why not? We should have a big party, shouldn’t we? We’ve got so much to celebrate, why not have a Valentine’s Day-themed party?’
Aalok laughed and the others around them cheered Sayoni’s idea. As Alice walked by, she felt that everything that had happened over the past few weeks—Sayoni’s rescue, the routing of the slave traders in the Wasteland and the finalization of the deal with Konrath—had all been for the best.
She was soon going to be proven very, very wrong.
***
The Khan lay back on his mat, watching his men practice on the grounds below the ledge where his tent was pitched. He made sure they rode every day and practiced their shooting. At times, some of his men had grumbled about not having fought a battle for years, and they were made such an example of that those questions were never raised again. The Khan knew that their position, their continued survival, all depended on their continued ability to strike fear into the hearts of those they encountered beyond the valley where their camp lay.
One of his men rode by, wearing the same cloth mask over his face with holes for the eyes, nose and mouth that all the men wore. Over the years, the Khan had come to recognize them without needing to see their faces.
‘Rashid, what news do you bring from the pass?’
The man called Rashid dismounted and bowed.
‘My Khan, I caught a man, one of our suppliers. He said he was seeking us out with some news. He drove their truck but there were no people and he was alone.’
That got the Khan’s attention.
‘Bring him to me.’
The two dozen riders stopped their exercises as a man was marched into view, his hands bound in front of him and his eyes blindfolded.
‘Take the blindfold off. Let me look at his eyes as he tells me why he sought us out, and that too empty-handed.’
Bilal squinted as the sudden light assaulted his eyes, and then gave a gasp of horror as he saw the masked giant sitting in front of him and the dozens of masked riders around him. He had seen the masked riders only twice, when they had approached him with their deal, where they would supply him Dreamweed and small arms for his people. He had learnt how much power that gave him, and Bilal had become an eager party to the deal. Every time, his men would leave the captives bound and blindfolded at the drop-off point and pick up the weapons or drugs.
He had heard from other slavers about the leader of these monsters, a man who called himself the Khan. Another slaver, a man who had clearly been much more educated than Bilal before The Rising, had called these monsters Phantoms, and the name had stuck. The monsters seemed to like the name and they began using it as well. Now that he was in the Khan’s lair, and in front of him, Bilal couldn’t stop himself from shaking. The fear shamed him, but he could not control it.
‘What is your name?’
‘Bilal.’
He felt a stab of pain as Rashid punched him in the kidneys. As he gasped for breath and doubled over, Rashid hissed into his ears and as Bilal recovered and stood up, he repeated the words.
‘Bilal, my Khan.’
‘Why do you want to meet us? Where are the people you should have supplied to us? Have your men lost their love for Dreamweed or do you no longer need the weapons we sent?’
Bilal weighed his words carefully. The ancient Enfield rifles and ammunition he had got from the Phantoms were great for terrorizing stragglers they caught in the Deadland, but useless against Alice and her forces.
‘My Khan, we were attacked. This Biter girl, Alice, seems to want control over our areas as well. My men are dead or scattered.’
The Khan sat up, suddenly more interested. He had heard of this Alice and how she was leading a fight against Zeus and their masters. It had never been his concern, and he had avoided drawing attention to himself or his men, hidden in the valley where they had made their home. The last thing he had needed was for Zeus to come hunting him from the air. His men were well fed, their horses were healthy, they had enough fields to grow Dreamweed, and slowly, but surely, the Khan had been growing his empire. One day, he would venture out into the plains and take what was there, but he was very conscious of his and his men’s strengths and limitations. They would fight when they could do so on their terms. With Zeus out of the picture, he had begun to collect more intelligence about events on the plains, and men like Bilal served a dual purpose—supplying people and also providing information about the Deadland.
‘Bilal, do you come here to seek my sympathy or condolences?’
Bilal felt a stab of fear and he mumbled out his reply.
‘They have automatic weapons, and this witch commands an army of Biters. No slaver can stand before her.’
The Khan stood up and jumped down the ground, sho
wing an agility that belied his size. He walked up to Bilal, who involuntarily took a step back. He felt an iron grip on his arm as Rashid stopped him. The Khan stopped when he was just a foot away, and Bilal looked up at the monster before him. Bilal was himself hardly a small man, built like an ox and standing just a couple inches short of six feet tall, but the Khan dwarfed him.
‘Do you know why we ask men like you to send people to us?’
Bilal stayed silent, and as he tried to look away, the Khan pulled his chin up with a massive, callused hand.
‘Look at me, Bilal. It’s not polite to look away when all we’re doing is having a chat, is it?’
Bilal just nodded, his body now shaking in fear.
‘You see, we do need people to help cultivate the Dreamweed. In that sense, God was indeed kind to us. When all else around us went up in flames, we found refuge in this valley, and there were poppy fields there. I was also lucky to have a couple of men with me who were masters of this trade and helped grow it, which we then traded with men like you. So we do need a handful of people to work those fields, but that’s a relatively minor matter. Our biggest problem when we started was food. All the cities of Pakistan and Indian Kashmir were obliterated by nuclear strikes and so there was nothing to scavenge there. Out here in this valley, there were some other survivors, but not plants, or food to be grown, and only a few animals that we hunted soon, other than the horses you see around you. Those were desperate days, and called for desperate measures.’
Bilal had no idea where the Khan was headed with his, and he shifted his legs to relieve some of the pain where Alice had shot him. The Khan looked at his wound and then continued.