by Dhar, Mainak
The Khan had shot the man to buy himself some time, counting on the one weakness Alice exhibited—compassion. She might be a skilled warrior, but she seemed to care about her comrades, and he was proven right when she sprinted to the fallen man, pulling him back behind cover with one arm while firing at The Khan’s men with the handgun she held in her other hand. By then the Khan was already inside the tunnel that led to his armory. His men would hold Alice, and perhaps a lucky shot would kill her, but there was little chance of her escaping now. She did not have the numbers or the firepower to fight her way through, and certainly not with a wounded comrade she had come all this way to rescue and would not likely abandon.
The Khan went deeper into the cave, looking for the box he knew he wanted. A long green box with stenciled initials on the side proclaiming it to be the property of the US Army. He and his men had picked up several such weapons abandoned by US forces in their hasty withdrawal from their bases. He opened the box and took out the M249 machine gun with a grenade launcher mounted underneath. In the initial skirmishes in the valley against rival groups, this had been his favored weapon, providing firepower that was unmatched by the assault rifles the tribes used. The ace in the pack was of course the attached grenade launcher. He still had four grenades left, and he picked up the gun and began to walk back to the mouth of the cave. There was still shooting going on, the longer, more intense bursts of the rifles of his men, punctuated by the single shots from Alice’s handgun. It was now just a matter of time before he blew her and her friends to pieces and ended this. He aimed just behind the rock where Alice and her friends were sheltered and fired the first grenade.
***
NINE
Alice saw the black object arcing over her and all the years of training and near-constant combat meant that her eyes relayed the message to her brain almost instantaneously.
A grenade.
‘Get down!’
Aalok was mumbling something incoherent, still in shock and pain from the gunshot wounds to his leg, and Alice threw herself on top of him seconds before the grenade landed ten meters behind them and exploded. Fragments of the grenade sliced through her back and arms. She felt no pain, but she was going to be a bloody mess. She looked up to see that Bunny Ears had fared a bit better, partially shielded by the curvature of the large rock they were behind, and was bleeding from only a couple of wounds to the legs. She turned Aalok over and saw that he had not suffered any new wounds.
‘Aalok, I need you to do something. Listen to me, if we are to get out alive, I need you to do something.’
He looked at her, his face contorted in pain, but he nodded. She handed him her last fragmentation grenade.
‘When I call out, pull this pin and throw it to the left, where the firing is coming from.’
He nodded, and she was gone, running at full tilt to the next rock, diving behind it as bullets slammed into its face from the Phantoms who had been tracking her. A bullet hit her shoulder and passed clean through, but that would not stop her.
The Khan watched Alice seek out a new cover with interest. Her back was covered with blood and he could have sworn he saw a puff of blood where a bullet hit her. Still, she kept going. A few of the bandits had said she could not be killed, others claimed she was like a Biter, in that only a direct shot to the head could put her down. At the time, The Khan had not known whether to believe them. Now he knew they had been right. Still, it was now just a matter of time before he finished her. He screamed to his men to flank her, and noticed with some disgust that there were only a dozen or so left. Some had fallen in the battle, but he suspected several more had abandoned the camp. He would deal with those cowards later.
Alice saw four Phantoms moving out from behind cover and run to their right, trying to get behind her.
‘Aalok. Now!’
Aalok’s hand was shaking and his right leg felt like it was on fire and it took all his strength to pull the pin and then throw the grenade. It was a weak throw, but it did enough. The grenade bounced off a rock and landed a few feet in front of the four Phantoms. They stopped as they realized what lay ahead of them. The lead man looked back, wondering if he could jump to safety behind his comrades. He began to move, and then the grenade exploded.
The Khan saw his men go down and smiled. Alice still had some tricks up her sleeve, but time was on his side. He fired another grenade, this time aiming between the two rocks where she and her friends were sheltered. Even before the grenade landed, he was running, firing on full auto from the gun.
Alice heard the thump of the grenade being fired and leaned out to take a shot at The Khan but jerked her head back as dozens of bullets raked the rock, sending several shards slicing through her face. The Khan was now just a few meters away, smiling at the prospect of the imminent kill. His men to his left were in position and were pouring fire in from Alice’s flank. She was trapped, and now he would finish her.
***
Arjun climbed onto the hill, moving as fast as he could. Ever since they had entered the pass the bandit had indicated, he had been hearing the sounds of a pitched battle. Alice was there, and she was in trouble. He had come with twenty fighters, but he didn’t wait for the others—he ran on, closely followed by three men who had been in the lead Jeep with him. The others were following a few minutes behind.
A part of him had held on to the hope that Alice would have been scouting the enemy camp and that they would have the opportunity to attack in force, with the rocket launchers and heavy machine guns that the men following behind him were carrying. As he got his first glimpse of the camp from the hill he was perched on, he saw a nightmare scenario. Bunny Ears and Aalok sheltered behind a rock, pinned down by heavy fire from at least two positions, and Alice herself lay with her back to him, covered in blood. He sensed movement to his right and looked down to see three cloaked men climbing up. They were running away from the fight instead of joining it. Arjun shot the first man dead from less than ten feet away. The two others turned to see this unexpected threat and were shot down by the men with Arjun.
‘Come on! Let’s get down and help out. You two cover Alice and the others come with me.’
As they scrambled down the rock face, Arjun was blown off his feet by a sudden explosion. He hit his head on a rock and came up, dazed, to see two of his men lying dead a few feet behind him. He was himself bleeding from shrapnel wounds to his left arm.
The Khan had spotted some movement to his left and had looked up to see three deserters. He had had half a mind of shooting them when he saw them gunned down by men who had just arrived on the scene. So, Alice had brought some reinforcements along, after all. He fired a grenade and smiled as he saw the men scatter, before turning his attention back to Alice.
Alice looked to her left and saw Aalok lying there, looking at her, his eyes glazing over. She motioned for him to stay where he was and ran to her left as bullets from the Phantoms’ guns kicked up dust all around her feet. She dove behind another rock, coming up in a crouch. There was a Phantom hiding there, and he stumbled back, almost as surprised to see Alice as she was to find him there. She shot him once in the head and picked up his assault rifle, whirling to face The Khan.
She had seen him fire into the hills and caught the movement of men either falling from the impact or diving for cover. None of those men had been wearing a cloak like the Phantoms. Arjun and his men were probably here, and Alice wanted to make the most of the temporary element of surprise they provided.
The Khan fired another grenade, incinerating the position behind the rock where Alice had been hidden. In the confusion, he had not spotted Alice move behind the other rock and he loaded another grenade as he closed in to finish the job.
Three of the Phantoms were moving around, trying to flank Alice and cover The Khan when Arjun ordered a rocket fired at them. Six more of his men had reached him, and while he was still bloodied and in shock, he quickly ordered the two men with rockets to fire. The Phantoms were torn apart by the s
alvo and Alice took the opportunity to come out from behind her cover and fire a burst at The Khan. He felt a stinging pain in his left leg as a bullet grazed him and then Alice watched as he moved with a speed and agility that belied his size by leaping over a rock and taking cover himself.
Three of Arjun’s men were now coming down the hill, firing at the Phantoms. With the advantage of terrain and surprise, they felled three of the enemy before the Phantoms began to organize and deal with this new threat. The Khan fired a long burst from his M249 and two of Alice’s men fell. It was now clear that this was to be a battle to the finish. The Phantoms who were ready to abandon their leader and the battle were already gone, and the ones left looked to be in no mood to give any quarter despite being now outnumbered and outgunned.
The Khan popped up and fired another burst, catching a man in the side and sending him down, screaming before he took cover. Alice moved behind another rock, shooting a Phantom and coming face to face with another. The cloaked man was about to raise his gun when he howled as Bunny Ears bit into his neck from behind. Alice smiled at Bunny Ears and ran on, shooting from the hip, sending two Phantoms scurrying for cover and the assumed safety of a rock. A safety that proved to be illusory because they stumbled into the direct line of fire of Arjun and his men and were cut down. Alice saw Bunny Ears standing behind her, with two cloaked Biters in tow. It was a cruel thing to do, but these men had long lost their right to live by serving a demon like The Khan. Alice nodded and Bunny Ears sent them ahead, straight towards The Khan.
***
The Khan smiled. If Alice thought he would show any compassion towards those who a few minutes ago had been his followers, she was sadly mistaken. He took out his handgun from his belt and calmly shot both in the head.
But it was not attacking him that Alice had in mind, it was distracting him. While he was shooting the two Biters, she had run across diagonally, as fast as her feet could carry her, and leaped onto a small ledge on the hill face. Without breaking stride and with minimal loss of momentum, she jumped over the rock next to the one where the Khan was sheltered. She caught a glimpse of his cloak and mask and fired two shots from her handgun before coming down on the ground, rolling to break her fall.
The Khan jerked back as the bullet entered his left shoulder and exited the back. He dropped the M249 he had been holding in his left hand and began to run back towards the cave. Alice was now up and firing on the move, but soon he was lost in the darkness of the cave.
The remaining Phantoms saw their leader leave the field of battle and one or two hesitated, wondering if they should give up. By now Arjun and his men were in the middle of the camp, and they mowed down any Phantom who stood up. There was to be no surrender. All the fighters knew what evil had lurked in this camp, and there were to be no prisoners tonight.
The Khan stumbled ahead, deeper into the cave. The rational part of his mind told him that he had been outmatched. He had badly underestimated how Alice and her people would react and also how his men would fare when taken by surprise in a full-on firefight against professionally trained fighters. But, still a part of his mind refused to give up hope. He had survived everything that had been thrown at him; he had been to Hell and back, and out of the ashes that The Rising had left, had managed to create some sort of a life for himself and those who had followed him. He might be defeated this day, but he would live to fight another day, to start afresh. He did not have much time to take too many supplies with him, but over the years, he had trained himself to live off the land. All he really needed was some water, a gun, and a knife.
He picked up a sword, which he stuck into his belt next to the handgun that was already there, and kept going. There was a hidden exit out the back of the cave and within a few minutes he would be out of the reach of Alice and her men. His shoulder hurt but he would tend to his wounds later. Right now, he wanted to get away. It never crossed his mind that his men were being slaughtered behind him. What had kept him alive all these years was a keen sense of self-preservation, and he was not about to lose that now.
Alice ignored the carnage around her and ran into the cave where The Khan had disappeared. She knew that no matter how many foot soldiers they killed, the threat they faced would never go away till she got rid of The Khan. She had raced into the cave at full speed but then slowed down, giving herself the few seconds she needed for her eyes to start adjusting to the darkness. There were boxes lined along the walls filled with weapons and ammunition and a few boxes that seemed to contain bones. Alice quickly averted her gaze from those and continued her search for The Khan. The cave curved slightly to the right, and she figured that he might be lying in ambush there, hidden from sight.
That was when she heard the sound of coughing. A loud, hacking sound that momentarily overshadowed the sounds of gunfire behind her.
The Khan was down on his knees. No, not now. He was just a few feet away from the opening at the base of the cave. He would have to push aside the small boulder that concealed the escape route and then he’d be safe. He willed himself to stop coughing, but there was no stopping it now. He tore off his mask to stop himself from choking on his own blood and spat out a huge amount of blood that streaked the wall in front of him.
He had known for at least a year that he was finally falling to the cancer that had claimed so many of his men over the years. He had borne the warts and clots that had afflicted almost everyone in the valleys, a legacy of the nuclear exchanges and radiation exposure during The Rising. For several months he had thought his body had somehow contained the cancer when the coughing subsided, but of late it had resurfaced with a vengeance, and now it looked like it was going to have the last laugh.
He heard a sound and felt at his belt for his gun and as he pulled it out partially, he realized it had no magazine. He had not loaded it with one of the magazines he had in a separate pouch at his belt. He would not have the time to load it now. He turned to see a young woman.
Not quite a woman. No, not quite only a young woman. She was thin, almost frail-looking, with long blonde hair that came down halfway down her back. But her face was not human at all. Her skin was stretched back and her eyes had a vacant expression in them. Her body was covered in blood and she seemed to be bleeding from several recent wounds, yet none of them seemed to be slowing her down or causing her any pain. A woman and a Biter. A formidable enemy, one he had underestimated.
Alice.
Alice saw The Khan kneeling a few feet ahead of her and when he stood to face her, she saw that his face and chest was covered in blood. He coughed again, splattering the floor in front of him with more blood. He had no weapons in his hands, but Alice could see a sword and a handgun tucked into his belt. He inhaled deeply, as if trying to contain his coughing, and spoke. To Alice’s surprise, he spoke fluent English.
‘Perhaps I was meant to duel a worthy opponent before this disease took me. I admire your loyalty to your friends and your courage. It is an honor to face someone like you. Just us, one on one, right here.’
He took out his handgun and Alice’s grip on her rifle tightened, but he dropped the gun to the floor. He then took out the sword and moved it in front of him, in slow, rhythmic motions, cutting circles in the air.
‘Perhaps you feel this sword gives me an advantage. Maybe we can select knives, or fight hand to hand. What do you want, Alice?’
So far, Alice had not uttered a single word. She saw the monster in front of her, someone who had perhaps once been a man, but through his actions had ceased to deserve any mercy. He had preyed on the weak, he had reduced himself and his followers to a shocking level of depravity by feeding on fellow humans, had attacked her home and killed her friends. And she was sure that if he lived, he would try and kill more of them. No, such a man deserved nothing, certainly he did not deserve what he so seemed to crave—to somehow dignify his life, and his death, with a duel. To die a warrior rather than be killed like the rabid animal he was.
‘Alice, we are alike. Surviv
ors, warriors, strangers among our own kind. Perhaps you are more like me than you would ever admit. I learned about your past and we are both from the United States, both stranded so far from home. I served the same government your father served so loyally. Our lives seem intertwined, built in parallel, to cross today, here.’
As he was talking, he was edging closer. A few inches at a time, but certainly, he was moving towards her.
‘Alice, come on. Let us dance and let one of us walk out alive.’
Alice raised her rifle and shot him in the head.
***
‘They had some really nasty stuff here. One of the boys is ex-Army, and he says he spotted some poison gas shells. Good we took them out before they got near Wonderland again. We should go back and celebrate and honor those who fell today.’
Arjun and his men had won a hard-fought victory and shed blood to rescue Aalok and Bunny Ears and keep Wonderland secure. So their celebrations were certainly in order, and certainly those who had fallen deserved to be honored and remembered. However, Alice’s thoughts were elsewhere. She was looking at the human captives they had found at the Phantoms’ camp, people who had been reduced to little more than animals. Fearful of the slightest gaze or touch, unwilling to grasp freedom now that it had been handed to them. Many of them chose to stay in a corner, refusing to have their ropes taken off. More than one had lost his mind, after having seen and endured unspeakable horrors during their captivity.
Arjun had Aalok bandaged and carried back to one of the Jeeps, and their dead were being loaded into another, to be taken back to Wonderland.
‘Alice, we’re almost ready to leave.’
Alice thought of the captives before her, most of whom could not be persuaded to come with them. She thought back to her conversation at Wonderland during the party. She thought of just how lacking in purpose her life had seemed of late. Wonderland was now a very different place from when she had started creating it, fighting and bleeding for every square mile liberated from Zeus and the Red Guards. Now, Arjun and the others like Aalok could take it forward. Haroula and her farms could feed it. Sayoni and others could infuse spirit and laughter into it. They could do all this because they were free. But there were many out there who were not free. There were predators out there like The Khan who still preyed on the weak. Alice had come to realize that there was a much bigger world out there, much vaster than the small slice she had called home, perhaps full of people who still didn’t enjoy the kind of freedom she and her people had achieved, still living in fear of tyrants like The Khan.