Alice in Deadland Trilogy (32 page)

Better undead than unfree. She wondered what her teachers
would have said to that as she stepped out, knife in hand, ready for the
inevitable.

***

Tso heard the helicopter fly in, and looked up to see its
sleek, black shape. He grinned at his men. Finally, they were going to get
reinforcements, and hopefully a helicopter ride out of this hellhole. He waved
to the helicopter and as the chopper came lower, the side door slid open.

Something was wrong. The man handling the Gatling gun was
not wearing a Red Guard uniform. Tso screamed at his men to take cover as the
gun opened fire, spitting death at the Red Guards below. More than half of
Tso’s men were cut to ribbons in the first burst and as the rest tried to take
cover, Biters appeared from the alleys behind them. Tso knelt and shot one in
the head, but there were too many of them. Tso ordered his men to retreat into
the buildings and as they ran across the street, another burst from the
helicopter’s gun killed two more of his men.

Alice did not know where the helicopter had come from but Li
had been distracted enough by its sudden appearance to give her a window of
opportunity. Alice ran towards Li as fast as she could. Growing up, that had
been Alice’s claim to fame: the fact that she could outrun anyone in her
settlement. Li tried to bring her rifle up, but she was too late. Alice held on
to the rifle with both hands and slammed it back into Li’s face, the butt
impacting against Li’s already shattered nose and pushing broken bone fragments
back into Li’s brain.

The last thing Li saw was the Yellow Witch looking at her.

The helicopter landed in the middle of the road and Satish
and six of his men jumped out, training RPGs at the building where the Red
Guard officer and his men had taken refuge. The Biters were now streaming
towards the building, and Alice took out the book from her belt, holding it
above her head.

‘Stop!’

The Biters stopped where they were, and Bunny Ears emerged
from the crowd. Alice looked at the building and called out to the Red Guards,
‘Surrender now or we will kill you.’

One of Tso’s men, a conscript barely out of his teens, was
crying like a baby, and the other remaining soldier looked to be in shock. Tso
knew he was finished, and while he might have been tempted to try and make a
last stand, he did not want to be responsible for the deaths of these two boys.
There had been quite enough bloodshed today, and for a cause that he was no
longer sure of. Looking at the shattered body of the Red Queen, he realized
that they had been fighting a war that had been based on lies. He stepped out
of the building, his hands above his head, and walked towards Alice.

‘I am the officer here. If you want, take me, but let my men
go.’

Studying the man’s nametag for an instant, Alice said, ‘Captain
Tso, nobody else needs to die today. We will see you to the outskirts tomorrow,
but please don’t come back to Wonderland and remember to tell your masters that
we are free and will fight to preserve that freedom.’

As Satish’s men took Tso and his men into custody, Alice
walked up to the helicopter. The cockpit window was open and she looked in to
see Vince, grinning at her.

‘The White Knight had to come to the rescue of the Queen
today, I guess.’

***

‘Looking Glass, sector 9 is clear.’

It was now early morning, and Danish had barely slept a
single minute, hearing reports as one sector after another was cleared by
Satish, Arjun or their men. Much of the previous day had been consumed by
fighting, street by street, house by house. The tide had finally turned when
Bunny Ears and his Biters had joined the battle. Their initial arrival in the
middle of Wonderland had caused many defenders to be alarmed, and indeed a few
Biters had been shot down by Wonderland’s panicked residents. Remarkably,
however, Bunny Ears and his band had not attacked a single citizen of
Wonderland, instead focusing on fighting the Red Guards and the Biters the Red
Queen had brought with her. With Vince joining the defense, they had managed to
get some air support, both to attack Red Guard units and also to provide
advance warning of incoming units.

By five in the evening, the battle had become one of
attrition, and finally Red Guard units had begun to collapse and surrender en
masse. Alice had struck a goldmine by capturing a young officer named Tso.
During his debriefing with Arjun and Satish, he had confessed that the rank and
file of the Red Guards had no idea about the Red Queen and her Biters. He had
felt betrayed and was bitter about the loss of so many of his men for a mission
that had turned out to be a lie. Tso’s testimony had been broadcast on the Red
Guard radio frequency and while Commissar Hu was quick to call it a
fabrication, Danish had no doubts that it helped convince many of the Red Guard
units in the city to give up and pull back.

The night had been one of securing the borders, mopping up
any last resistance, and of taking stock of the terrible losses they had
suffered.

Finally, Satish, Arjun, Vince and Alice arrived at the
Looking Glass. All the men were dead tired, and both Satish and Arjun had
several bandages to cover wounds from shrapnel or flying glass. The most
fearsome sight of all, however, was Alice. Her hands and feet were a bloody
mess and she seemed to be cut in a dozen places.

‘Alice, are you ok?’

Hearing the concern in Danish’s voice, Alice managed a
smile. ‘I’m ok. Being half undead has a few advantages.’

As they sat down, Vince told them about his journey. He had
reached Calcutta, and within a day a Dakota had landed as the Americans had
promised. While he had sent Edwards back to America, he had decided to come
back after refueling from stocks left at the old airport.

‘What made you come back? You could have gone home, Vince.’

Vince looked at Satish. ‘I was a United States Marine. I saw
action in Iraq and Afghanistan, and we all thought that if we ever died in
combat, it would at least be while serving our nation. Instead my mates were
butchered by hired guns after we were betrayed by one of our own once we
refused to fly for the Red Guards. I was carted off to a labor camp, where I
lived the life of a slave. So I would never give up the chance to finally fly
in combat again and be what I once was. Besides, the general wanted me to come
back with something for you guys.’

‘The general?’

‘General Konrath, Alice. He’s the leader of the American
resistance in the Deadland there. He is one stubborn man; I’ll give him that.
Do you know they lost five Dakotas and their crew before they managed to get
one as far as Calcutta?’

Alice wondered why anybody would go to such lengths and
sacrifice so much.

‘Because he knew that the only hope for lasting peace lies
in humans coming to terms with Biters. Two things can make that happen: the
vaccine, which hopefully Edwards is working on right now, and you. Your voice, your
story could change how people in America view Biters. Many there have heard of
you but they dismiss you as nothing more than a fairy tale or myth.’

‘How could I possibly get to them, Vince? You know our
computers have all been disabled by the Red Guards from communicating with the
Americans.’

Vince reached into his backpack and took out a large tablet.

‘The general sent this. Now you can communicate all you want
with the Americans.’

That afternoon, Alice walked through Wonderland. The damage
and losses had been high. Despite their lack of training and practice, the
people of Wonderland had fought to protect their freedom with a ferocity that
even Alice had not anticipated. Whole families had perished in battle, and she
had heard of small boys and girls setting off bombs that their fallen parents
had laid. Despite the terrible losses, she felt a surge of hope. If there was
one thing her own journey had taught her, it was the fact that liberty was
secured not by a handful of heroes and champions, but when every ordinary
citizen gathered up the courage to stand up against tyranny.

Bunny Ears and his Biters were waiting, so Alice approached.

‘You did really well, Bunny Ears. Thank you for your help.’

Bunny Ears seemed to have lost an ear in the fighting and his
face was a bloody mess, but he grunted and all the Biters knelt before Alice.
Then Alice saw something that she had never seen before. People began streaming
out of their houses, many still bloodied and bandaged, and they stood beside
the Biters.

One of them, an old man who had served on Arun’s Cabinet,
spoke up, his head bowed as if not wanting to look Alice in the eye. ‘Alice,
please do forgive us doubting you. We are free today because of you.’

Alice raised him up.

‘No. We are free today because we stood together. Let us
never forget that.’

Satish had walked up behind Alice and he took in the sight
before him, hundreds of humans and Biters, united in something for the first
time.

‘Alice, you know what you said about Biters needing symbols
to follow a leader? It’s not just Biters; humans need symbols to believe in as
well. For the Biters, that symbol is that old book. For these people, that
symbol is you.’

The rest of the day was spent beginning the monumental task
of cleaning, and the Biters returned to the Reservation, though this time Alice
noticed that nobody turned on the electrified fence or locked the gate.

That evening, Alice went to the Looking Glass, where Danish
hooked her up via the new tablet the Americans had sent. It had a camera on it,
and Alice soon found herself looking at a grizzled, bearded face.

‘Alice, I am General Konrath, but you may call me Jack.
Danish has been telling me about your battle, and the tale of your victory is
being spread far and wide across America. Now, all we need is for you to share
your story with our people. The camera will record everything you say.’

Alice spoke for the next twenty minutes, starting with her
childhood, her life in the settlement at the Deadland, the day she jumped into
a hole after a Biter, and then the adventure that had followed. Reliving it all
left her emotionally drained, and while Biters did not cry, she knew those who
heard could feel the pain that could only come from reliving the loss of loved
ones.

‘Thank you, Alice. One day we will meet, and our battles for
freedom will become one. By the way, Danish knows of one more operation you
could lead. Good night.’

Alice looked at Danish, who was grinning.

‘What did he mean?’

‘The Americans have managed to hack into the Central
Committee’s servers and broadcast systems. We can do this only once, because
I’m sure the Central Committee will block all further transmissions, so we have
to make it count.’

‘What do you mean?’

Danish pointed to the tablet the Americans had sent.
‘Reports of the battle for Wonderland are spreading through the Mainland. Many
Red Guard officers have been arrested for questioning orders, and it seems
General Chen is also in custody after he refused orders to assault the city.
Their plan is unraveling and once those veterans are killed or carted off to
labor camps, you can bet their families and comrades will seek answers. The
Mainland has been brimming with discontent, and one spark is all it will take
to set it off. That spark could be you. They have made you out to be either
something scared conscripts have dreamed up, or an evil witch. Seeing you,
hearing you in your own voice, hearing all you have gone through, hearing about
the Red Queen and her Biters, could change that. Also, Satish had recorded
Captain Tso’s testimony. So far only some Red Guards have heard it on their
radios. Now we can broadcast it to every citizen in the Mainland. But we have
only a few minutes that the Americans can assure us of. So let’s get started.’

Alice held the tablet in her hands after Danish had told her
they were ready. The people of Wonderland were gathered around the TVs, and
they saw the usual news broadcast and soap operas replaced by Alice’s face.
That same face was now being streamed into millions of homes in Shanghai,
Guangzhou and Beijing.

Commissar Hu was in Shanghai, dreading his meeting with the
Central Committee the next morning, where he would have to explain how their
plan to conquer Wonderland had turned into a bloody fiasco. He whirled around
in shock as he heard the voice on TV. The most devastating salvo in this long
and bloody war had been fired, not from a gun or a missile launcher, but from a
small, glass covered room called the Looking Glass. That was perhaps
appropriate because in any war against tyranny, the most effective weapon is
not a bullet or missile but the freedom of information. Hu held his breath as
Alice started speaking, her yellowed eyes looking straight at the camera.

‘People of the Mainland, your Central Committee calls me a
witch and a terrorist, but today I want to speak to you directly so that you
may know the full truth of the war they have been waging. My name is Alice
Gladwell, and this is my story.’

***

EPILOGUE

Two months later

Alice and thousands of other citizens of Wonderland were at
the airport, eagerly awaiting their visitors. Danish had reported that the
plane had left Calcutta over two hours ago, and it could be arriving at any
time. Vince was already airborne in his helicopter to watch for any Red Guards
who might pose a problem, but that possibility was remote. Red Guards were
seldom seen anywhere in the Deadland, though the people of Wonderland had
learnt their lesson well. That lesson was the fact that freedom from the shadow
of tyranny was not one that was earned or kept easily, but required constant
vigilance. So Satish and his men were, as usual, roaming the Deadland in their
jeeps and captured APCs, making sure that there was no danger lurking anywhere
near Wonderland. Arjun and Alice had been busy helping repair the damage to
Wonderland and making sure the many hundreds of wounded and displaced got
medical care and new homes. Bunny Ears and the Biters still preferred to roam
in the open spaces of the Deadland but every night they returned to the
Reservation, where Alice would meet them and read to them from the charred and
damaged book she carried.

Of all of them, only Danish felt as if he had little work to
do any more. Alice’s transmission had unleashed a firestorm of dissent in the
Mainland. Crowds had gathered in the streets, demanding to know the truth.
Friends and relatives of imprisoned Red Guards had attacked official buildings,
and most disturbingly for the Central Committee, units of Red Guards had
started to rise in open mutiny. Within weeks, the Central Committee had done
what tyrannies often do: shut off the flow of information in the hope that
would silence dissent. All networks from the Mainland were down and the TV
showed only propaganda speeches of the Commissar and old footage of Red Guard
parades and exercises. That did have one side benefit for the people of
Wonderland: No longer slaves to soap operas beamed through the TVs, they
quickly found other, perhaps more useful ways to spend their evenings.

Alice heard Vince on the radio.

‘White Queen, the White Knight sees the White King
approach.’

Alice strained to see a black speck in the sky, which soon
resolved into a propeller driven airplane. Danish had been in daily contact with
the Americans and knew that over the last month, they had converted Calcutta
into a fully operational base, with a serviceable runway and a permanent
detachment of Marines to guard it against any Red Guard attacks. For now, that
was not really a worry, since the Red Guards seemed to have their hands more
than full with the unfolding chaos in the Mainland.

The plane landed and taxied towards the old terminal
building. The thousands of people waiting burst into uproarious applause. A
ladder was lowered, and a moment later Edwards descended. He smiled broadly at
Alice and walked towards her, his arms outstretched.

‘My girl, it can now finally be over.’

Alice had heard from Danish about how Edwards and his
colleagues had used her blood samples to make a vaccine, which had already been
tested on humans in America. Just the knowledge that what the Biters
represented was not some supernatural evil but a disease that could be
vaccinated against had proved to be a turning point in how people in America
viewed Biters. Together with Alice’s testimony, it had at one stroke done away
with the fighting between man and Biter, and together with the turmoil in the
Mainland had meant that the Red Guards had largely retreated from America as
well. A cure was the next frontier, and Edwards was already working on it.

Next down was General Konrath. Alice had seen him before on
video but this was the first time she had seen him in person. After they
greeted each other, she and the general made a speech to the people gathered. A
speech where the general reminded people that if any good had come out of the
years of struggle and bloodshed, it was that people had learnt just how
precious and fragile freedom could be.

That evening, the general was sitting with Alice and her
friends in the Council building. He was to fly out the next morning, and the
question he asked was one he had already posed twice before in the evening.

‘Alice, are you sure you don’t want to come along with us
tomorrow morning? America was where your parents were from; that was your
home.’

Alice shook his hand and smiled. ‘No, thank you, General. I
am already home.’

The next morning at the airport, General Konrath looked at
the book at Alice’s belt.

‘Who would have guessed a book would have had so much power.
Perhaps now we can begin to write and read books again. It would be a shame if
our children forgot all that we fought for.’

‘General, I’ve heard you were a writer before the Rising.’

The general smiled. ‘Yes, I was a novelist. They started
calling me General when I led the people in my neighborhood to start fighting
back against the Red Guards. Alice, I am now old and tired of all the fighting.
Perhaps it’s time I got back to my old calling and wrote a book. It may well be
the first book written after The Rising.’

‘What’s your book going to be about?’

Smiling, the general said, ‘I still haven’t thought it all
through, but I do know what I’ll call it.’

‘What’s that?’

‘
Alice in Deadland
.’

***

Chen looked out of his one good eye to see who had come to
his cell. He had already lost his right eye in the beatings that had followed
his imprisonment, and his left eye was also almost closed shut due to swelling
and dried blood. He could not walk very well anymore and had to be dragged out
to the courtyard every morning, where he was beaten by the black clad Interior
Security forces of the Central Committee. Where or how his wife was, he no
longer knew. In one of his beatings, he had been told that she was also on her
way to a labor camp. If that was the case, Chen prayed that she was already
dead.

He heard something being dumped into his cell: a young man
in the blood-covered, tattered uniform of a Red Guard officer. The man looked
at Chen and recognition flashed in his eyes.

‘General Chen.’

Chen spat, a glob of blood hitting the floor, before he
spoke.

‘I am general to nobody now, young man. I just await the day
they shoot me and end it all. Perhaps they have such a long list of people to
execute that my turn has not yet come.’

Despite a broken nose and jaw, the officer spoke with a hint
of a smile. ‘Comrade General, you are very much still the commanding officer of
the Ladakh based Red Guards. For the last month, I have been leading them in
guerilla warfare against the liars in the Central Committee. We’ve assassinated
four of those bastards and killed a dozen or more Interior Security officers,
but it seems my luck ran out today. We still owe loyalty to you, General, and
we were all inspired by the sacrifice you made to try and save all of us.’

Chen sat up straight, warmth permeating his body, bringing
back emotions he had no longer thought himself capable of.

‘What is your name, officer?’

The young man sat up, facing Chen, his back to the bars of
the cell.

‘Comrade General, my name is Captain Tso.’

‘So what news of the outside, Captain?’

‘The people rage against the Central Committee. Thousands of
unarmed civilians have been killed in Shanghai and Beijing, but bullets cannot
silence the cry for freedom. More and more Red Guards mutiny and follow my example.
It is but a matter of time before the Central Committee falls.’

Chen smiled despite the pain. ‘So it has been worth it after
all. I had thought I would die a broken man who died for nothing.’

Tso smiled back. ‘Comrade General, you should have been with
me in Wonderland. In the midst of all the bloodshed and killing, I saw
something wonderful, a view of how our nation can be and will be one day.
People living free, ruled by those they choose, at peace with those different
from themselves.’

A guard shouted from outside the cell, ‘Shut up, you
traitors! The Commissar himself is coming to meet you. I think today is the day
you go to hell.’

But when the two guards outside began to whisper among
themselves, Chen heard snippets of their conversation that gave away what was
really happening.

‘The mob’s been building outside all morning. They want to
free all the prisoners.’

‘The Commissar has said we’ll execute all of them and fly
out in helicopters.’

Chen heard a few shots, which he thought meant the executions
had begun. But then came the sound of assault rifles being fired on full auto.
It sounded like a firefight had broken out outside the prison.

A few minutes later, the cell door opened and Commissar Hu
walked in. He had lost a lot of weight and Chen noticed a pronounced limp in
one leg.

‘Good morning, Comrade Commissar. It seems being back in the
warm fraternal embrace of the Central Committee has not agreed with you.’

Hu snarled and kicked Chen hard in the ribs.

‘Shut up, you fool! Have your last laugh, for I shoot both
of you traitors and put an end to your misery today!’

He called to the guards, and they entered. One of them
pulled Tso to one side and the other held Chen up, holding his arms behind him.
Chen looked at Tso and winked with his one good eye. For the last week, he had
been carrying a razor sharp shard of glass he had picked up in the courtyard
during one of his beatings. He had been trying to work up the courage to slit
his own wrist and end it all. Now he knew he would get a chance to put it to
another use. The man holding him was strong and young, but he was an Interior
Security thug, the sum total of whose combat experience came down to beating
civilian demonstrators.

As Hu took out the pistol from his holster, Chen rocked his
head back, making solid contact with the guard’s nose. It snapped. As the guard
loosened his grip on him, Chen turned and slit the guard’s throat with the
shard of glass.

Fumbling with the safety, Hu leveled his gun – but too late.
Chen grabbed his pudgy hand, snapping the wrist and taking the weapon from him.
The guard holding Tso was reaching for his gun when Tso punched him hard in the
face, sending him crashing against the bars. When he tried to get up, Chen shot
him dead.

Hu was now on his knees, begging for mercy. Chen wanted to
say something, to remind him of just how many lives men like him had ruined,
but finally he realized that no words would do justice to the rage he felt. He
kicked the blubbering Commissar down and shot him once in the head.

From outside came the heavy sounds of the Interior Security
guards’ boots, and the continuing sounds of the firefight raging outside the
prison. Even if those outside were trying to get in and rescue the prisoners,
Chen doubted they would get so far inside in time. However, he felt no fear.
Indeed, he felt a sense of release wash over him as he contemplated his end. He
looked at Tso and smiled as the officer saluted.

‘Come, my son. Today we finally fight together one last
time, but this time for something we believe in.’

As Chen took aim at the first guard to come down the
corridor, he realized that Hu had been so very wrong. Tyrannies fell not when
people simply began to desire freedom, but when they had already attained one
very special kind of freedom. Freedom from fear.

***