Alice in Deadland Trilogy

by Mainak Dhar

Alice’s voice took on a new edge. 'You all seem to have forgotten that we would never have defeated the Red Guards without the thousands of Biters who died acting as our foot soldiers.'

  'They owe us no loyalty or love, Alice. They are animals that follow only you. I want our children to grow up without their shadow, to grow up like civilized people did before The Rising.'

  Satish stepped in on Alice’s behalf. ‘Arun, the Biters cause us no problems now. Just let it be and let’s move on.’

  Just then, the door swung open and two people walked in. Alice recognized them as two of Arjun’s men who had been assigned to do the rounds of Wonderland during the daytime. They both looked ashen-faced and their hands and clothes were covered with blood.

  Alice had left her other weapons in her room, but still had her handgun. Instinctively she gripped it, ready for action.

  ‘What happened? Did the Red Guards attack?’

  One of the men looked at Alice, a snarl of hatred forming on his face.

  ‘It was the damn Biters. They slaughtered our kids!’

  ***

  TWO

  Alice raced out of the building and rode her bike as fast as she could towards the area where the incident had taken place. Ten children of between eight and ten years of age had been taken for a trip by their teacher. Their first day at the new school was to have been a special treat, a visit to the old airport where they were to learn of how the city had been once, how the Red Guards had used the airport to fly out settlers from the Deadland to work in labor camps, and also learn about the famous battles waged there against the Red Guards.

  As Alice dismounted, she saw the pick-up truck that had carried them there on the side of the road. She could not see any bodies yet, but the stench of death was unmistakable in the air. Some people had already arrived, most of them parents of the kids who had gone on the trip. One of the mothers, a recent entrant to Wonderland whom Alice did not know well, lunged at her.

  'You monster! See what your people have done.'

  Her husband held her back as she continued screaming.

  Laying eyes on the bodies, Alice cursed that she could not cry. Biters did not shed tears, but her heart broke and she fell to her knees as she saw the torn bodies strewn across the field beside the road. The teacher, a young man called Gaurav, had tried to protect the children, and from the looks of it had gone down fighting. His right hand still gripped the pistol he carried – but that was about the only intact part of his body. The rest of him had been torn to ribbons. Even with the relative peace they enjoyed, no adult went about unarmed, yet nobody had thought that an innocent school trip would have required more protection or heavier firepower.

  Satish and Arjun caught up and jumped out of their jeep to run to the scene of the carnage. Both had seen brutal combat up close, but the slaughter of innocent children was too much even for them. Arjun had tears streaming down his face and he put his hand on Alice's shoulder.

  'Alice, we need to get you out of here now.'

  Alice looked up. 'I have to be here. These are my people. These are the same people I promised I would keep safe. These...'

  Her words dwindled to silence as Arun had come up to join them. He knelt and retched at the sight before him. He looked at Alice, his face pale.

  'What have your Biters done? What have you brought upon us?'

  Alice was too stunned to reply. She had sacrificed everything: her family, and ultimately her humanity, so that the people who depended on her could live in safety. So that she could fulfill her father's last wish that she not let her people down and lead them to a better life. She lived a tortured existence where she could feel some human emotions but never act on them. And now, in one fell swoop, the same people she had done nothing but help, asking for nothing in return, were casting her off.

  She felt strong arms grip her and Arjun guided her away. She noticed that Satish had his assault rifle in his hands. She was about to ask him if that was necessary when she saw several of the men around Arun with their guns drawn. Arjun bundled her into his jeep and Satish joined them as they drove off. Alice just sat there, her shaking hands the only sign of the turmoil she felt inside. What had just happened?

  When she asked Satish where they were going, he replied grimly, ‘The Looking Glass. If there’s trouble, we can at least defend ourselves there.’

  The drive was taken in silence. When they arrived, they saw Danish standing at the entrance, a shotgun in hand. It was the first time Alice had seen him with a gun.

  The Looking Glass was in a temple complex, with the main communications room in what had once been the glass-fronted office. When he had set it up, Satish had been clear it needed to be defensible against Red Guard assaults, so there were two hardened positions on the roof from where his men could fire man-portable ground to air missiles. Those would be of no use today, but there was one remotely controlled gun turret that they had captured from a Red Guard base. That had been installed on an elevated position on the roof, offering 360-degree coverage. As Alice entered the Looking Glass, she shuddered at what things had come to. She would never have imagined using these defenses against her own people, and hoped it never came to that.

  Inside, Alice sat in silence, trying to understand what she had seen. Arjun looked at her and shook his head sadly. Danish was sitting quietly in a corner. Gaurav had been a good friend of his, and he looked devastated.

  'Arjun, it could not have been one of the Biters around Wonderland!'

  'Alice, Biters did kill those kids. No man could have torn them apart like that. While it's possible that a band of outside Biters crept in, there's no way we can prove anything.'

  Danish spoke up, having got a message from one of his men in the city. ‘There’s a mob headed our way. This could get ugly.’

  ‘Alice, there are people who love you and would die for you, but with so many deaths, people are losing their minds. Let Arjun and me try and cool things down. The Looking Glass is set up to be defended, so if it comes to a fight, we can make a stand here.’

  ‘Make a stand? Mobs? God, Satish, listen to yourself. This is our own Wonderland, our home.’

  Arjun spoke up for the first time. ‘Satish is right. Human mobs are every bit as dangerous as a Biter horde. They won’t think; they won’t ask questions. We need to get some sense into people’s heads before anyone gets to you.’

  Taking Danish into a corner, Arjun said, ‘You can go if you want. You don’t have to stay.’

  Danish sat down at his console. ‘I lost my family in The Rising, and then lived like a rat for years. The only purpose I have in my life now is helping us stay in touch with the world through the Looking Glass, and the only family I have is the people of Wonderland. Both of those I owe to Alice. I will not desert her now. You thugs do what you need to do; I need to keep the Looking Glass running.’

  Satish used the radio to get in touch with his teams. Most of his men were part of his original unit at Zeus and had fought side by side with Alice since they first met up. They were fiercely loyal to her and he knew they would fight for her if it came to it.

  ‘White Rook One, this is White Rook. Get to the Looking Glass to reinforce positions.’

  Alice touched his arm, shaking her head.

  ‘No, Satish. I will not have our people turn on each other because of me. Tell your men to stay away and not get involved in the fight.’

  Alice looked at the feed from the camera mounted on top of the Looking Glass. A mob of at least a hundred men was approaching, among their numbers some of the fathers to the dead children. All of them were armed, and one or two carried half-full bottles of alcohol. Arun was with them, and while he was not egging them on, he was not doing anything to try and stop them either.

  ‘He wants to be a leader, and is now no more than a common rabble-rouser. He should be the one talking some sense into the younger ones. Instead, he leads them.’

  Without even waiting for Alice to suggest it, Satish had moved the joystick controlling
the gun turret, swiveling it until it was aimed at the approaching mob.

  ‘They won’t last more than ten seconds if I let go on full auto.’

  The mob stopped, knowing they would be seriously outmatched if it came to a fight. The only way for someone to take the Looking Glass was with heavy anti-tank weapons or RPGs, and the only ones with such weapons in Wonderland were Satish’s forward recon teams.

  Alice touched Satish’s arm and she felt him flinch at the contact, once more aware of how different she was now. Her touch had none of the warmth it once held. It was now as cold as a corpse.

  ‘No, Satish. There will be no more killing here today.’

  'Bring the Biter bitch out!'

  Satish stepped out, his rifle at his shoulder.

  'Which son of a whore said that? Step forward if you're man enough to back those words up!'

  No answer came. Satish turned furiously to Arun.

  'These men look up to you. Ask them to go back home. We can all talk when people cool down.'

  `Cool down? My son was torn apart by her kind, and you ask me to cool down? We should have destroyed the Biters, but we had to tolerate their presence because of her.'

  Satish turned on the man who had just spoken and looked him in the eye.

  'Jai, you do remember that I took a bullet to save your family when the Red Guards came? I also share your grief and want to punish those responsible, but don't turn on Alice or rush to conclusions.'

  Arjun was now outside, with Alice beside him. The big man strode forward, and while he had his gun holstered, Alice saw several of the men lower their guns as he approached. Satish had been an invaluable soldier in their struggle, but he was a relative newcomer. In contrast, Arjun had been leading his band of `Ruin Rats' for years, helping them survive against Biters and Zeus troopers alike. Many of the men in the crowd had been part of his original crew, and looked away as he addressed them.

  'Jai, Ritesh, Ankush...all of you were my brothers. Brothers who bled and fought with me.'

  Alice saw some of the men sheepishly put away their weapons as Arjun continued.

  'But today you insult that bond by turning on a girl who has perhaps sacrificed more than all of us. Give her a chance, that's all I ask of you.'

  Alice now stepped forward. She had left all her weapons inside the Looking Glass.

  'I did not choose to be this way. I too want to play with my sister and eat meals with my parents. I too want to go to school and learn something other than killing people. But I have no regrets, for in all that loss we had created a bigger family than I ever had. A family called Wonderland. I promise to personally bring to justice those who have done this to your families and children, but please trust me at least this much. For all we've been through together, please give me this much trust, and let me find out who was behind this. If it was one of the Biters in Wonderland, I promise you I will spare none of them.'

  Whether it was the impact of her words, Arjun's cajoling, or the simple fact that through the entire exchange the gun turret had been trained on the group, they grudgingly dispersed, leaving only Arun. He walked up to Alice and she half expected him to say something sarcastic or provocative. Instead, he looked genuinely shell-shocked.

  'Alice, I know we've had our differences. I know that in the last few months people have been questioning why we still live in a state of war when there is no war to be fought, and I know that yet others question why we keep the Biters close at hand. But I'm willing to forget all of that if you help us find out who was responsible for this massacre.'

  Alice looked at him, trying to gauge whether he was sincere or he just wanted to maintain the status quo since that best served his political agenda. She was perhaps too young to judge and took him at face value.

  'Arun, we have known some measure of peace, but the world outside is still at war. I know we situated Looking Glass outside the center of Wonderland because you thought people would get alarmed at all the bad news. The reality is we cannot pretend away the fact that the world is still bleeding, and today some of that blood seeped into Wonderland.'

  Arun looked away sheepishly as Arjun took up where Alice had left off.

  'Arun, you and others had voted to reduce patrols and cancel regular combat training. We cannot pretend this is the Delhi the way it was before the Rising. We know peace now, but that might change at any moment. Let us get to the bottom of today's killing, but you as an elder need to help people understand that things are much more dangerous outside Wonderland than they may want to believe.'

  Suitably chastised, Arun went back, and then Alice mounted her bike.

  'Alice, do you want me to come?'

  Alice refused Satish's offer. This was something she had to do alone. Maintaining her composure had been necessary in front of the bereaved families, but now she was gripped with fury. Whoever had killed those children would pay dearly.

  ***

  The groaning Biter went down on his back, his hand cracking in several places as Alice twisted it and threw him over her shoulder. Before he had been turned, he had been a slight old man, but there was no sympathy or pity in Alice's eyes as she kicked him, dislocating his chin. That did nothing to improve his face, which already had skin peeling off in several places and an ear missing from a gunshot.

  'What lunacy made you let outsiders into Wonderland?'

  She was not sure how much he understood, but she was so angry she really did not care. The Biter was now on his knees, snarling, all obedience to Alice gone. His teeth were bared, jagged and covered with dried blood. He snapped as she came closer but she easily weaved out of the way. In the time she had spent with the Biters, she knew that they would only obey a leader who spoke from a position of strength. With Dr. Protima, their first Queen, who had first opened Alice's eyes to the true nature of the Biters and the conspiracy behind The Rising, that authority had come from her ability to speak and reason like a human and her possession of the tattered copy of Alice in Wonderland that the Biters had come to revere as their holy relic. For Alice, that authority was backed up by her combat skills honed in years of fighting to survive in the Deadland.

  The Biter lunged at her again, and this time Alice caught his right hand, snapping it back and then bringing the heel of her own right hand snapping against his nose. The blow would have killed a grown man, but Biters did not die so easily. The Biter fell back and struggled to get back up, his face mangled and bloody, when Alice took out her combat knife and stabbed him through the head. He did not get back up again.

  Alice had come to the Biters’ reserve and told Hatter and Bunny Ears about what had happened. They knew the potential implications and she sensed their panic, and within minutes they had brought the old Biter in front of her. He had screeched and groaned as if pleading for mercy, but the hand gestures Hatter made were clear enough. This Biter had let in a band of outsiders in return for a thick bunch of ganja leaves that some of the Biters favored. Pleading had soon given away to a desperate attempt to escape as the Biter, like a cornered animal, had turned on Alice. That had been his last mistake.

  As the adrenaline wore off, Alice tried to calm herself down and looked at Hatter and Bunny Ears. Hatter looked imposing, standing well over six feet tall and built like a tank. The hat he guarded with such pride still stood atop his head. He had suffered more than his share of wounds over the years: at least six bullet holes pocked were visible on his chest and bites too numerous to count crisscrossed his body. His eyes were dilated and red, and his yellowed face was covered with dried blood. Just a year ago, Alice would have run in terror at such a sight. Today he seemed to be cowering before her.

  'Hatter, what the hell happened? I told you to make sure everyone stays here and does not wander.'

  Bunny Ears had his head down, like a pet that had just been disciplined. His face was still contorted in what at first glance appeared to be a lopsided grin, but Alice figured out later had been the result of a gash drawn across his face by Biter nails when he had
been bitten and turned.

  'You do know what people will want to do, don't you? They will start hunting you down again!'

  At this, Hatter looked at her and a low growl came from the back of his throat. Alice sighed.

  'Yes, and you will fight, won't you? And then we'll be back where we were. Tearing ourselves apart while the Red Guards and their masters rule over us.'

  Not wanting to face any of the affected families, Alice did not go back to the city center but instead went back to the Looking Glass. Danish was there, as usual, playing with his computers and radio equipment.

  'Danish, anything new?'

  He tapped on the monitor in front of him. 'The Americans posted again.'

  Alice leaned over and read the message.

  Free American forces under Colonel Barnett swept aside Red Guards at New Orleans, and are linking with other forces to press the offensive to liberate the city. If you are anywhere near, find safety or join the fight.

  'They seem to have their communications working again,’ she said, ‘How did they manage that?'

  'America was much more developed thant India, and I suspect their Armed Forces and government would have had secure and protected networks and servers. They were ready to survive a nuclear apocalypse with Russia at one time, so something must have survived. Also, in India hardly anyone other than the Police and Armed Forces had guns since public gun ownership was limited. In the US, lots of people had their own guns, so it was easier to fight back when they needed to. I think it just took time for them to regroup and get over the shock of the Biters to start organizing. Plus, I was on the radio with them earlier today. They think we helped a lot.'

  'How did we help?'

  'Our postings and messages first started causing dissension in Zeus. Before The Rising, Zeus was an American Private Military Contractor, so most of their senior officers were American, especially ex-military folks. When the news started coming out that the whole mess had been orchestrated by elements in China and some American elites, many of them revolted. We're much closer to China, so significant Red Guard reinforcements came faster. In America, that took more time, and by then the Zeus deserters and local settlers had made a lot of headway.'