Alice in Deadland Trilogy (25 page)

Seeing their leader in trouble, two of Li’s Biters rushed to
attack Alice, who turned to face this new threat. The first Biter was just a
couple of feet away when his head disappeared in a mist of blood. The second
followed an instant later. Alice turned to see Vince and Satish approaching,
firing their assault rifles. The bodies of dozens of Biters lay scattered
around her. While Bunny Ears and the remaining Biters were still outnumbered, with
Vince and Satish there they would thin the odds pretty fast.

Li saw the new threat and knew that she would have to abort
the mission. Tempting as it was to try and gain her vengeance this day, she
knew that her Biters would not last against the combined force of Biters and
the trained soldiers who seemed to have appeared on the scene. She screamed at
her Biters to retreat and ran towards the nearest helicopter. A handful of
Biters made it with her, but the others were picked off by Vince, Satish and
Alice. Li looked down with rage as her helicopter took off and flew off towards
Ladakh. The remaining helicopter was about to take off when Vince took aim and
fired at the cockpit, killing the pilot.

Alice stood there, observing the carnage around her. They
had prevented another attack on Wonderland, but at a terrible cost. She saw
Bunny Ears and several of her Biters standing around Hatter’s fallen body. She
had been told that Biters had no emotions, and certainly they could not cry,
but there was no doubting that Bunny Ears and the others had felt something at
the passing of their comrades.

Edwards ventured from cover.

‘Now I know what they were after with their experiments.
They wanted to make another like you, and looks like they succeeded.’

Alice saw Vince grinning. She raised her eyebrows; what
could he possibly find funny in the middle of all this bloodshed? He saw her
expression and while his grin instantly disappeared, there was no mistaking the
excitement in his eyes. He pointed to the helicopter the attackers had left
behind.

‘Look at the bright side. Now we have our own air force.’

***

Chen cringed as he heard the sounds of the neighboring
office being trashed. When only one helicopter had come back, he had known
something was wrong, and Li had rushed into the office in a rage. He looked at
Hu.

‘Comrade Commissar, she seems like a spoilt young girl, not
your elite super soldier.’

He noted with some satisfaction the twitch of irritation on
Hu’s face, but the Commissar quickly recovered his composure.

‘Give her some time. In the meantime we will go and sit in
your office.’

They passed the time with chess. Chen thought he had the
Commissar on the ropes when he managed to trap the Queen, but then Hu surprised
him by checkmating him within two moves. The normally humorless Hu allowed
himself a smile as he spoke.

‘Comrade General, sometimes one must turn defeat into
victory. Did you see the piece I used to distract you?’

‘Yes, Comrade Commissar, you made me think you had left your
White King vulnerable.’

Hu got up and walked to the window, watching the building at
the far end of the base, where Li was probably still taking out her anger on
the office furniture.

‘Comrade General, I did not anticipate that they would
intercept this mission, but perhaps there is yet something we can salvage from
this. These is one other possibility; a White King I have been using for small
moves. Perhaps now his role can become more decisive.’

***

Danish was in front of his console in the Looking Glass. He
had got word of the battle and while Alice had not told him the full story,
since their communications were most likely intercepted by the Red Guards, the
mention of a Red Queen and her Biters had him worried no end. If the Red Guards
had been behind the Biter attacks, they had at one stroke found a way of
driving a wedge between the humans and Biters in Wonderland and depriving
Wonderland of some of its most experienced fighters.

Arjun came up behind him.

‘Danish, I have a Cabinet meeting with Arun in the evening,
so I thought I’d check if you needed anything from town.’

Danish asked Arjun to sit down.

‘I don’t know how you do it. You must not just have been a
salesman, but a bloody Oscar winning actor before The Rising. You actually have
Arun convinced that you’re going to side with him.’

Danish had spoken in jest, but Arjun’s reply was dead
serious.

‘When the time comes. Till then, I can’t have all of us
desert Wonderland. Any news from the Americans?’

The question brought a smile to Danish’s face.

‘Oh yes! They’ve got several servers up, and while the Red
Guards are trying to block them, they are now communicating a lot with each
other and with us over the Net. The news is that they’ve re-captured a couple
of old airbases. After so many years, I have no idea if they can get those
planes flying and combat ready, but if they do, then the battle for the
American Deadland will be really interesting.’

Arjun asked him what he was planning for lunch, and Danish
replied, patting his ample belly, ‘I haven’t had breakfast, so let’s get to
town and grab a bite at McDonald’s.’

McDonald’s was the name given to the first and so far only
restaurant in Wonderland. It had been opened in the burned out shell of an old restaurant
from before The Rising, but the large yellow ‘M’ had survived and while the
food served consisted of soups, rice, vegetables and the occasional burger when
hunting parties got lucky, it made everyone feel better that they had the
option to eat in a restaurant again. It was one small step on the long and
winding road towards normality.

A jeep pulled up outside and they saw Arun walking in.

‘Hey, Arun. I’m stepping out for lunch. The Looking Glass is
all yours.’

Arun sat down and fiddled with the radio in front of him. He
had never anticipated that this hobby of his from before The Rising would prove
so handy now. He had been a member of parliament, one of the rising young stars
of Indian politics, when The Rising took place. People had said that he would
one day have a shot at being Prime Minister, that he was destined for great
things. The Rising had changed all that. At one stroke, he had gone from a man
of considerable power and influence to one who was nothing. After The Rising,
the only people who really counted were those who were strong enough or
ruthless enough to survive the chaos that followed. Arun had gone into hiding
in the Ruins with his family, and seen two children be taken by the Biters.
They had stumbled into a settlement in the Deadland where they had lived the
lives of scavengers, sending a few young boys and girls every month with Zeus
troopers to serve in labor camps or farms for a modicum of security. He had
been happy when Alice had emerged, leading her rebellion against the Central
Commitee. He and his family had walked into Wonderland just over a year ago,
but quickly his relief at returning to a more stable, safe existence had given
way to mixed emotions. How could he tolerate the fact that they were supposed
to now live in peace with Biters, the same monsters who had taken his children?
How could he look at Alice every day, and follow the half-Biter monster she had
become? Not having any alternatives, he had been content to serve for some
time, and his skills with the ham radio were well appreciated, but one day he
got a transmission that told him that he perhaps had a chance after all to
realize the future he once believed he was destined to achieve. He tuned into
the right frequency and awaited his instructions.

***

Edwards was holding the charred and torn book in his hands
with an almost reverential air. Alice had seen Dr. Protima behave that way, but
that had been because she had believed that the book contained a prophecy Alice
was destined to fulfil. For Edwards, there were different emotions at work.

‘Alice, when people talk of starting off on civilization
again, they look at buildings, at electricity, at running water. All of those
are important, but what they forget is that perhaps the most important thing to
start over may be now in my hands.’

‘What does that mean?’

‘Our minds react to things as we see them, and usually with
our basest instincts of fear, hatred and self-preservation. But a book captures
the best of what people can be. A book reminds us of what is possible when we
put those baser instincts aside. The ability to create something that will last
beyond us, and carry our ideas to the next generation. When you get back to
Wonderland, you must get them to start making books again.’

Alice played with the grass at her feet.

‘I don’t know when and how we’ll ever get back to
Wonderland. I had thought that with peace we would get a chance to create a
better future.’

Edwards smiled. ‘It is easy to make peace with an enemy, but
difficult for ambitious men to make peace with their own greed and hunger for
power. From what you’ve told me, that is what led to The Rising in the first
place. It looks like man hasn’t really learnt any lessons from it.’

Ever since the battle, Alice’s mind had been on litle else
other than the unexpected adversary she had just faced.

‘Doctor, do you think that you can really create a vaccine
that works?’

‘Science can always be used for good or evil. The Central
Committee is perhaps keen on creating an army of hybrids, but that same science
can be used to not just create a vaccine to prevent infections among humans,
but perhaps cure Biters as well.’

That made Alice straighten. ‘Do you think the Biters can be
cured?’

‘I’m not sure, but looking at their behavior closely, I can
say that they are more than just brutes. Yes, there must be some brain damage,
but at the very least if we can curb their aggressive instincts, it would make
co-existance much easier.’

Alice remembered what she had heard from Danish about what
has happening in the American Deadland.

‘Have people always reacted with so much hatred to those
different from them?’

Before Edwards could reply they saw the helicopter come back
for a landing. Vince had been like an excited child when he saw the prospect of
flying again, and he and Satish had taken off in the captured helicopter for a
quick reconaissance flight. As the helicopter landed, and Satish slipped out
and ran toward them.

‘Alice, Arun doesn’t know how big a mistake he made by
having our recon teams pull back. We barely flew out a hundred kilomteres and I
could see more than a dozen Red Guard APCs on the roads. This is the first time
in months they’ve come out in such numbers..’

Vince was soon with them as well. His eyes danced with
excitement.

‘I thought I would never be able to fly again. When I was up
there, it felt like I could once again make a difference, that I could once
again be worth something.’

Satish slapped him on the shoulder, and Alice could tell
that the earlier frostiness between the men had gone. Though she was still
young, she knew that there was little that bonded two people more than being in
combat together.

‘Alice, the Red Guards will slowly but surely start taking
control over the outlying areas. If they do, you know how easy it will be for
them to form a chokehold over Wonderland. Thousands died so we could have this
freedom, and now we risk losing all that to petty politics.’

At that, Edwards scoffed. ‘It’s an old truth. In any war,
the soldiers and common people bleed, and the politicians rule over the rubble
that remains.’

A few minutes later, Satish came running to Alice.

‘It’s Danish on the radio. He says that Arun and his
so-called Cabinet have voted and they want us to return. He says that Arun
wants to talk to us and has a proposal he wants to put before us.’

Alice exhaled deeply in relief.

‘Thank whichever god anyone still cares to believe in that
Arun has some sense after all. Let’s get back to Wonderland. Once we get the
doctor and Vince in front of them they will have to believe our story about the
Biters being sent in by the Red Guards.’

Satish was not so easily reassured. ‘Alice, I don’t trust
Arun one bit. This could just be a trap. For all you know, he’s calling us back
to arrest us and put us up in front of some court where he acts as judge, jury
and executioner. I want to call my remaining recon boys in so they can go with
us.’

Vince tapped Alice on the shoulder. ‘We will ride in at a
place and time of our choosing. And if there’s trouble, we can always fly
away.’

Within an hour they were joined by eight of Satish’s men who
were still patrolling the Deadland and the captured helicopter took off, its
destination the old airport on the outskirts of Wonderland.

***

SIX

Alice noted with some disappointment that the old airport
did not have any guards posted near it. The runway was still functional and
with stealthy helicopters like these, the Red Guards could have landed a few
hundred men there without Arun and his politician friends even knowing about
it.

When their helicopter landed, Satish ordered his men to fan
out and guard the entry points to the airport. The Red Guards had made
extensive use of the airport to fly out labor for camps in the Mainland and to
fly in supplies for their forces in the Deadland, so the defensive bunkers near
the main gate were still there. When Alice checked, the gun turrets the Red
Guards had abandoned after the airbase had been overrun by Alice and her forces
still worked. When Satish was satisfied that they were in a defensible
position, he got on the radio to Danish.

‘Looking Glass, this is White Rook. I have the White Queen
with me and we’ve flown in to pay a little visit to Humpty Dumpty.’

The mention of ‘flying in’ gave a surprised edge to Danish’s
voice, but he sent a jeep to come meet them, Arjun at the wheel. He ran towards
Alice, relief apparent on his face.

‘Thank God you guys are all okay. I was so worried about you
being out there without much back-up. Danish filled me in on the battle but
what really is going on?’

When Alice and Satish had debriefed him, they saw that Arjun
looked quite worried.

‘I don’t know whether Arun and his friends will want to
believe that the Red Guards were behind the Biter attacks. He wants to sign a
treaty with them.’

Alice was dumbfounded.

‘After all we’ve been through, does he really believe that
we can make peace with the Central Committee?’

Arjun came close to her so that the Americans would not hear
him.

‘Alice, are you sure you want to take Vince and the doctor
in to meet Arun?’

‘Of course, Arjun! He may not believe me but they have just
escaped from the Reds and both of saw the battle against the Biters the Red
Guards flew in. They’re our best chance of convincing Arun that what we’re
saying is the truth.’

Less than an hour later, Arun arrived at the airport for the
meeting. He wore a bemused expression on his arrival at the defenses they had
set up.

‘Alice, surely you do not think I will try and attack all of
you on my own?’

Satish cut in, ‘Given how much trust you have shown in us
and the fact that there has already been an attempt on Alice’s life, we thought
we’d prefer to meet on our terms.’

Arun looked at Satish with a trace of irritation – and then
he was all business again, his smile back.

‘Come on. Let’s meet inside. I have much news to share with
you.’

‘Yes, Prime Minister.’

If Arun was irked at Satish’s sarcasm, he didn’t let it
show.

Inside, Vince and Edwards related their stories to Arun.
When they had finished, Arun looked straight at Alice.

‘I have heard all you had to say. Now, for the sake of
Wonderland, hear me out. The Central Committee has proposed a treaty.’

Alice cut him off. ‘How can we even think of a treaty with
them after all we’ve been through?’

‘There was a time for war and warriors, and people like you
and Satish did more than anyone could have asked of you in serving our people.
Now it is a time for peace and for statesmen, and I know more of that world
than you do. No enemy or ally is permanent, but only our interests are. If
Wonderland is to survive, we must learn to adapt and forget past enmities.’

‘What do you have in mind?’

Arun held up a tablet that had a message from the Central
Committee. Someone called Commissar Hu had signed it. Alice scanned it, the
disbelief in her voice clear when she spoke.

‘Arun, how can we take their demands seriously? They ask us
to stop aggressive actions in the Deadland when they are the ones attacking and
provoking us. They ask us to stop all contact with the Biters when you know how
much we owe the Biters in our war against the Red Guards. They ask us to open
trade routes when you know that means that they will take what they have always
wanted: labor to work their camps and farms to feed the Mainland. What do we
get in return?’

‘Legitimacy. Alice, let’s face it; the world is in ruins and
the only nation still standing is the Chinese mainland. They would recognize us
as another nation, and commit to a ceasefire. We would get access to their
technology; our people would stop scavenging for food and bare necessities. We
could once again start afresh as civilized people.’

‘Does having the comforts of so-called civilized living ever
make up for the loss of freedom?’

Arun was now almost pleading with her. ‘Alice, stop thinking
in absolutes. You were born after The Rising, but before that nations fought
great wars and then worked together driven by pragmatism. We can do the same.’

Alice stared. There was nothing she could say to convince
him.

‘My father used to say that our willingness to defend compromises
with tyrants as pragmatism is what has led to our ruin time and again. We
cannot compromise with the Central Committee.’

Arun sighed. He took the tablet back and said, ‘I was trying
to convince you because there are still people in Wonderland who look up to
you, and I know how much you have sacrificed for the people here, but I am not
asking for your permission. I am the elected Prime Minister of Wonderland and I
have already agreed to the terms the Commissar wanted.’

‘Did you even listen to what Vince and the doctor had to
say? Those attacks that killed our children were carried out by Biters created
by the Reds.’

‘Yes, the attacks were committed by Biters, but there is no
evidence that the Red Guards sent them, and as for your last battle, there is
no proof of what you say other than your own testimony – and we both know you
have a vested interest in making your precious Biters appear clean.’

‘So why did you want us to come here? What do you want of me
now?’

‘You have a clear choice. Stay with us in Wonderland and
abide by the new rules and I’ll ensure that people don’t pin any blame on you
for the Biter attacks. If not, you will be evicted from Wonderland and I’ll
ensure that the Central Committee knows that Wonderland has nothing to do with
you and your actions.’

Alice could feel Satish reaching for his gun, but she placed
a hand on his arm. So it had finally come to this. After all she had done and
sacrificed, she was to be sold out in a political compromise. Part of her told
her to fight the decision, but she knew that even if she managed to convince
some of the people in Wonderland, more than enough of its residents would side
with Arun. The only thing worse than a false peace with the Central Committee
would be open civil war in Wonderland.

Satish pulled her aside.

‘Alice, you cannot seriously be considering what he says.’

When Alice spoke, she could not look at him. ‘If we go on
our own, what will the handful of us achieve in the Deadland? We cannot free
those who want to be enslaved. Our best bet is to be in Wonderland so that when
the time comes, we can at least be of use here.’

Satish was furious– but deep down, he knew Alice was right.

***

Back at the Ladakh airbase, Chen could see the smirk of satisfaction
on Hu’s face as he listened to the barrage of complaints from Li.

‘Comrade Commissar, send me out again. This time I will
smash that White Queen and her forces! How can we make peace with those
terrorists?’

‘Comrade Li, not every war is to be won with brute force
alone.’

But that only made Li grow more agitated, so Hu stepped
closer with a conciliatory wave of his arms.

‘Comrade, your raids served their first purpose. The people
of Wonderland have a new leader, one we can work with. They no longer simmer in
open resentment of us under the banner of the Yellow Witch. There will be once
again a time when you and your troops take to the battleground. For now we will
open a new front in this war.’

‘What do you mean, Comrade Commissar?’

Hu looked at Chen with a broad smile.

‘Comrade General, our next battle will be one based on
lessons we ourselves learnt well in our history. We will smother them with our
kindness, and in that dependence will be born the seeds of our ultimate triumph
over these savages.’

***

Even compared to when the Red Guards had captured her, Alice
had never felt so imprisoned. At least then her status as a prisoner was clear
and she knew that, given half a chance, she would try and fight her way to
freedom. Now she was bound by invisible straps. Instead of physical chains her
shackles lay in the fact that she was helpless and powerless to help those she
most cared about. She knew that the only way she could still help the people of
Wonderland was to be one of them, not an outlaw in the Deadland. So she stayed
in her room and watched as Wonderland changed around her.

The first sign of what was to come was Danish radioing her
to tell her that the Central Committee had issued a message aimed at not just
the citizens of its Mainland but also the people of Wonderland. The message
said that after much conflict and bloodshed caused by terrorists and
counter-revolutionaries, the democratically elected government of Wonderland
had reached out to establish peaceful relations with the Mainland. The Central
Committee welcomed this move, as it believed that the last two remaining
bastions of human civilization needed to work together and forget past
misunderstandings. It apologized for the violence that had been caused by
terrorist leaders and renegade Zeus officers and pledged to bring about a new
era of prosperity for the people of Wonderland. It went on to claim that the
government of Wonderland had pledged to not give refuge to Biters.

To Arun’s credit, he had not tried to defend all that the
statement had said, but in the Council building where this had been discussed
he had said that the Central Committee was catering to its own domestic
audience. Looking at him addressing the large crowd and seeing how they seemed
to lap up what he said, Alice learnt an important lesson: people got the
leaders they deserved simply because people tended to follow those who
projected their own fears and aspirations.

That afternoon, she had an unexpected visitor in the form of
Arun.

‘Alice, I hope you are doing well.’

She had no interest in exchanging pleasantries, so went
straight to the point. ‘Looks like your plan for Wonderland is well underway.’

‘No, Alice, it’s not my plan alone. It is our plan. We all
share in the success of this plan for we will all reap the benefits. Don’t you
see that by signing this treaty we have brought peace?’

‘Arun, do you really believe we will achieve peace?’

Smiling smugly, Arun said, ‘Don’t think I spent all those
hours in the Looking Glass only fiddling with my ham radio. I’ve seen all the
Intranet reports, including the ones the Central Committee pulls down after a
few hours. The war here is very unpopular back in the Mainland as well, with
people asking why their young men are being sent to die in the Deadland for no
real gain. With this announcement, the Central Committee has effectively
announced an end to the war here. They will not be able to undertake any large
scale military operation without it totally losing them support back home.’

At that moment, Alice saw Arun in a new light. She had
believed that he was pushing for the plan only because he wanted power for
himself. And perhaps that was part of it, but it was clear that he had thought
it through and genuinely believed that he was doing what was best for the
people of Wonderland. It was as Danish had said: the road to Hell was paved
with good intentions.

Alice did not want to spend much time in the city center
where she kept catching people staring at her, some looking at her with
scarcely contained hatred and others asking a question with their eyes that
they dared not say aloud: why was she silent? The ones who had been with her
from the beginning, the ones who had felt the brunt of the fighting, felt that
all they had fought for was being given away. But some of her early supporters
had been shaken by the Biter attacks, and were no longer sure whom to believe
any more. And then there were the more recent arrivals like Arun, who did not
owe much personal allegiance to Alice but wanted to create Wonderland in their
own vision.

Alice rode her bike to the outskirts, passing the abandoned
Biter Reservation. On her instructions, Bunny Ears and the others had gone
underground, but Alice had clearly felt their sense of betrayal. She did not
doubt that Bunny Ears would remain loyal, but many others, once more wild in
the Deadland, and perhaps hunted by the Red Guards, would again grow to hate
and fear man.

She entered the Looking Glass to find Danish with Edwards
and Vince. The two Americans had taken to spending most of their days at the
Looking Glass, perhaps because it was the one way they could get a glimpse into
what was happening back in their homeland.

'Alice, come over here. The Americans seem to have more
servers up and running and there are several webpages now active. Some seem to
have disappeared – I think the Central Committee is fighting to block them –
but there are some that we can see.'

Alice quickly scanned through what the pages told her. The
story they depicted was one very familiar to her, since she herself had lived
through such a tale. The Americans were now waging their own war for freedom,
much as Alice and her friends had waged in the Deadland. The reports she read
spoke of terrible house-to-house fighting in the abandoned shells of what had
once been mighty cities, of Red Guard missile strikes that killed hundreds of
women and children, and of the continued menace of Biters. The Americans were
fighting hard but they had two things going against them. First, with the
relative peace in the Indian Deadland, the Central Committee had been able to
divert its elite combat-tested units to the American Deadland, leaving the
Indian Deadland to a few conscripts. Second, in the American Deadland, man and
Biter were still locked in a struggle for survival.