by Cameron Jace
97
White Hearts Hospital
Fabiola heard the news on one of the lesser-known channels — which usually told the truth to gain more viewers — about the possibility of a meticulously organized escape by the Inklings. The news covered the unexplained shooting near the river at the back of the asylum. It also mentioned that it was too dark for their film crew to see, exactly, what was happening.
The channel seemed to support the Inklings, saying they didn’t deserve to be executed but should have a fair trial.
Fabiola’s heart fluttered all of a sudden. Maybe she’d been given a second chance to let go of her stubbornness. If Alice managed to save the Mushroomers, she could in no way return to her Black Chess days.
The healing process of her injuries was expedited, but it was still a long time before she could walk.
Lewis Carroll dashed back into the room, looking like a nonsensical version of Sherlock Holmes. Heck, with these clothes he was wearing, he didn’t even belong to this timeline. People would make fun of him in the streets outside.
“All done,” Lewis said proudly. “I haven’t kicked ass like this since I wrote Alice in Wonderland.”
“You should have seen what he did.” The rabbit flexed its muscles.
“I think Alice is alive.” Fabiola pointed at the news.
“I know she is,” Lewis said. “I don’t need the news to make sure. So are you ready?”
“I am.” Fabiola smiled. “But I can’t move.”
“I will hold you until we get there,” Lewis said. “The Inklings need us.”
“Does this mean what I think it means?” Fabiola said, watching him pick her up from the bed.
“I told you, it’s happening,” Lewis said. “You just didn’t believe me.”
98
The Vatican
Angelo Cardone’s theatrical speech was nothing short of amazeballs — that’s what the crowd called him. The new pope was amazeballs.
Some said Cardone was what’d happen if Mick Jagger was a pope.
Cardone recited the same speech about them having to fight Wonderland monsters who are nothing but terrorists, focusing us on living a lesser life. He made the crowd hail and dance. Then he stressed on his message being addressed to his followers in Oxford, where the asylum situation took place.
At some point, he told them again about his new religion, which rhymed with ‘Christianity’, but no one could really grasp the word. The crowd didn’t care. They thought the new religion thing was only metaphorical, like a new order, or a reflection of how the people were going to take matters into their own hands.
Finally, Cardone talked about what he’d came to say from the beginning.
“My dear followers, all over the world.” He raised both his hands in the air. “From this day on, we’ll do things our way. No more authorities or police force to speak for us. No more governments to tell us what to do. If we, the people, want to rid our lives of those Wonderland Monsters, then it’s us who is going to do it.”
“Yeah!” The crowd went crazy this time, fireworks all over the place.
“But this isn’t just cheap talk, because today we’ll prove it’s not,” Angelo said. A few people tensed and stopped their celebrations. Angelo’s tone was too serious to be ignored.
“I came here to tell you about a prophesied war,” he began. “A war we knew would happen from the beginning of time. One that no one wants to talk about.”
The crowd was buried in silence again.
“It’s not the war against evil. Not the one against drugs. It’s not even directly against the terrorists in the asylum,” Angelo said. “Our war is the war against…” He stopped. Everyone halted their breathing. “Insanity!”
Not all of the people grasped what he’d just said.
“When a Wonderland Monster threatens to stuff our children’s heads in watermelons, and when another makes them smoke hookah, and another kills our world leaders, then this is nothing but insanity,” Angelo said. “We’re in an eternal war against insanity. We are the sane ones. They, the Wonderlanders, the ill in the brains, are the insane. They are the enemy. And no government will fight this war for us.”
The people continued listening, waiting for the punchline.
“And from this day on, it’s your responsibility, you the people, all over the world, to kill the Wonderlanders,” Angelo said. “Be it with a frying pan or a bazooka, it’s your choice. You see them in the streets, they’re like zombies, kill them.”
People hailed again, raising all kinds of silly weapons in the air.
“Our first declaration of independence is today. Now, to the people in Oxford.” Angelo faced the cameras. “I’ve been told that the Inklings escaped the asylum. So what if they did? They will not be able to escape you! Because you will not let them.”
All broadcasting cameras zoomed in on Angelo’s face. “I’ve been sent to you to teach you how to hunt them down. Every corner, ever street, every hole they want to hide in will prove futile. Because no one’s going to help them, and each and every one of you, boy or girl, child or adult, will hunt the Inklings down until they vanish from the face of the Earth, and we live happily ever after.”
The cameras zoomed in even more, now almost only showing Angelo’s lips, nose, and eyes.
“Like I said, it’s been mentioned in a prophecy,” he said. “We call it the Wonderland War. It’s either us or Wonderland!”
The crowd was going crazy, rocking the piazza with the stamping of their feet. Some cameras shifted to the cheering crowd in Oxford, who were now ready to hunt down the Inklings who’d escaped the asylum.
Then, the camera zoomed even closer, this time on Angelo’s mouth and nose.
“And like I’ve taught some of you earlier,” Angelo said. “We the people have a new salutation. It’s not with a hand. It’s not standing up. It’s not a wave or dance. It’s done like this…”
The camera zoomed even closer and closer on Angelo’s mouth. And there, he saluted his new brainwashed crowd with a grin. A wide, scary, and unholy grin.
“And if you haven’t been able to pronounce my new religion yet,” Angelo said. “It’s called Cheshiraty!”
Hypnotized and brainwashed, the people grinned back.
99
The River
We’re rowing as fast as we can, but the bullets keep raining down.
“Faster!” Constance shouts.
And we do. The Mushroomers, me, and everyone, we row as fast as we can.
“We need to reach the other side of the river!” I shout.
The bullets don’t stop, and a few Mushroomers begin to drop into the river.
“But I have something to say!” the March shouts against the noise. “You have to listen to me.”
“We know. We know.” Tom ducks behind him, using the March as a shield. “You are Patient 14. You know where the Six Keys are. You probably know what this war is about, but you can’t remember.”
“It’s not that,” the March argues.
The rest of his words are eaten by the noise from the bullets and our panic.
I row harder, staring at Constance next to me. “Don’t give up,” I tell her. “We can do it.”
She grits her teeth and does her best to row with her small hands. “Yes, we can do it. Family!”
The March crawls next to me, the cap with the screws still stuck to his head. “Alice, listen to me!”
“Not now, March. We’re trying to survive.”
“But this is important.”
“Just not now!” I scream at him, watching the edge of the river come closer. It’s only a minute or two and we can reach it. Then, we should escape in cars or something.
“I can’t believe every police force in the world is against us,” Tom says. “We’re doomed.”
“We’ll have to count on the people who believe in us,” I tell him. “Surely, not everyone believes the news. I trust there are those who are going to help us.”
&n
bsp; “Alice!” The March loses it. “You have to listen to me.”
“What?” I yell at him.
But then another boat crushes into us. The March falls back.
I grip him tightly and pull him back inside before he falls off the edge. Then I row away. The boat that has just hit us is full of dead Mushroomers; they didn’t make it.
“Are we going to die, Alice?” the Mushroomers in my boat ask.
“As I said,” I tell them. “We’re not going to die. Once we reach the edge of the river we’ll find help. I trust in the kindness of people.”
But those words are sucked back into my mouth when I see those who await us on the bank of the river. Hundreds of individuals await us with baseball bats and chainsaws and other unusual weapons, ready to take us down. It’s as if they’re zombies. Human zombies who have had their brains washed.
“I can’t believe this,” Tom says from behind. “We have nowhere to go. We’re doomed.”
Constance points at the two individuals leading those who want us killed by the shore. It’s Waltraud Wagner and Thomas Ogier; Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Waltraud, even though she is heavy, is riding upon a boosted board and ramming a baseball bat against her flappy hands. She is pretending to be one of the normal crowd.
“What are we going to do, Alice?” Constance stops rowing. “We can’t go to shore. We can’t stay here.”
I have no words to say. No excuses to give. No lies to make up. I just pull her closer, among a couple of other innocent Mushroomers and say. “We need to have faith. We’ll work it out. Just like a family.”
I speak the words without having the slightest idea of what to do. I’m just like any mother who needs to reassure her kids that everything is going to be alright. Solutions should come later.
“Hey Alice!” says Constance, staring back at the asylum in the distance. “There is something you should know.”
“What is it, Constance?”
“You need to know who the Dude is.”
100
The BBC Report
The Wonderland War — or in other words World War III
In what experts call World War III, we’re now witnessing a global attempt to kill every terrorist in the world. It’s not an attempt by a government or militants. It’s the people’s choice to end the insanity once and for all.
They call it the Wonderland War, where Wonderlanders are insane individuals threatening our world, and the people are the sane ones who make judgment. We’re not even sure what the war is about, but the common answer is ‘the most precious thing.’
In this war, led by a funky pope with a scary grin and sponsored by a shady organization called Black Chess, it’s hard to tell who from who.
Who is mad? Who is not?
Or is it like Angelo Cardone, the new pope, likes to say? ‘We’re all mad here.’
End of News — but not of madness.
Epilogue Part One
Control Room, The Radcliffe Asylum
The Dude hadn’t left yet, even though he’d taken off his cape and stood by the door. The Pillar could still hear him behind him, but not see him. The Pillar had swiveled his chair back and began playing the British anthem.
It was showtime.
“You better leave,” the Pillar told the Dude without looking at him. “Like I said. They will not suspect you outside. They think you’re one of them. Just close the door right away, because I have a job to do.”
“You will burn the place down?”
“With all Black Chess’ men roaming it right now,” the Pillar said. “I’m going to count to ten once you leave. You better get your ass out there before I burn you with them.”
“I will,” the Dude said.
The Pillar heard him pushing the digits into the door. “Don’t forget to find my Wonder note. It has your answers.”
“Will do, Pillar,” the Dude said. “And by the way, thank you.”
The Pillar said nothing. He fiddled with the shimmering buttons on the console before him.
Now, he listened to the Dude opening the door.
“One last thing,” the Pillar said, still not looking back. “You promise me you’ll take care of her.”
“I will, Pillar,” the Dude says. “Alice means everything to me.”
“Words are cheap.”
“So are promises,” the Dude joked.
“Then it’s love that counts,” the Pillar said. “As cheesy as it sounds.”
“That’s the best thing you’ve said, Pillar,” the Dude said. “Love is what counts.”
“See you in another life, Jack,” the Pillar says. “Goodbye.”
Epilogue Part Two
“I hope so, Pillar.”
Jack, having taken off the Dude’s cloak, stopped for a second before the door. The Pillar had talked him into faking the Dude persona a week or so ago. He’d visited him while at Lorina’s house and showed him evidence of what had happened in the past. How he was supposed to be dead and how Alice saved him. Jack admitted his unexplainable love for Alice, and the Pillar explained that time traveling messed up a lot of things, but failed to change the way Jack and Alice felt about each other. Jack had one last issue. He couldn’t declare his love for Alice or the Queen would kill him. She’d been under the impression that he had joined Black Chess.
So he made up the Dude.
The Dude saved Alice by day, and played Jack, loyal to Black Chess, by night.
And when the Queen insisted Jack should kill Alice, he agreed and contacted the Pillar, who faked Jack’s death in the limousine. Now, Jack wasn’t pressured to kill Alice, and was able to help Constance with the tunnels instead.
Once he opened the door, he’d pretend he survived and the police would consider him one of the good guys, having been trusted by the Queen and riding in her private limo. They’d show him out, and soon he’d find Alice and help her, now that the Queen was dead.
It was a perfect plan, executed by the one and only Pillar.
Jack turned the handle, stepped outside, and closed the door behind him.
The Pillar, on the other hand, fidgeted in his chair. Once he stood up, the chair would blow up. He counted to ten, giving enough time for Jack to leave the building, and then took one last drag from his hookah.
The sweetest he’d ever smoked.
The British anthem still played in the background, and he reminded himself why he was doing this. The most precious thing.
A wicked smile filled his face. It was time to stand up.
He listened to the part in the anthem that says ‘God save the Queen’ and laughed, saying, “Well, he couldn't save her from me.”
And then…
The Pillar stood up.
It was time to salute the British anthem and everything he loved about Wonderland.
Epilogue Part Three
The River
Constance tells me the Dude is Jack. She tells me Jack told her not to tell me earlier for reasons I should comprehend later.
But this later may never come.
In the middle of the crisis, stuck in the river, unable to row the boat to the shore, I turn my head back, watching the asylum.
It’s on fire. Burning like hell.
The Pillar must be dead now. So are at least half of Black Chess’ guards.
And Jack?
I only pray he is alive. I pray I’ll see him again one day and complete my little Wonderlastic family.
Until then, I have a war to win.
“What are we going to do Alice?” Constance asks.
“We’ll fight,” I say. “We have to get ashore and find the Pillar’s Wonder note.” I take deep breath. “And then I have to find out who this Mr. Jay really is.”
The END…
Alice will return in Mushrooms (Insanity 8)
Thank You
Thank you for purchasing and downloading Family.
Writing a story in a contained location wasn’t that easy, but it turned out well. I was surprised at the ongo
ing tension of having all characters in such close proximity. This is one of the books in the series where characters really acted on their own. Killing the Queen of Hearts wasn’t in my plans. The Pillar just couldn’t resist.
I’m also aware of Margaret’s unexplained fate, but it’s more like the Cheshire’s fate in the end of Checkmate, when we didn’t know what happened to him, but later did in Family.
My favorite character in this book is Constance. I’m looking forward to see her grow. And writing the scenes about the March made me fall in love with him more. I did know he held the secret to the Six Keys from day one, but never imagined his scenes to be so emotional and rich.
In the end, I am very satisfied with Family, but the final verdict will be yours. I hope you enjoyed it.
The next book is Mushrooms (Insanity 8) which I plan to release very soon. It goes without saying that a series reaching its 8th book is an accomplishment that would have never been possible without you.
Thank you again for being as mad as Alice and the Pillar.
Don’t miss the Pinterest page, where you can see all the places and riddles Alice and Pillar visited (I’ve updated it, so there are whole new places to see).
You can access it
(Pinterest) or HERE
Book 8 : Mushrooms
Prologue
Past: Wonderland
“March, wake up,” the voice said.
Pricking his ears, the March Hare stumbled out of his bed. His house was small. It smelled of carrots and six o’clock tea — for the six o’clock tea felt exquisitely different from a five o’clock tea.
