‘It’s a pun!’ the King added in an offended tone, and everybody laughed, ‘Let the jury consider their verdict,’ the King said, for about the twentieth time that day.
‘No, no!’ said the Queen. ‘Sentence first—verdict afterwards.’
‘Stuff and nonsense!’ said Alice loudly. ‘The idea of having the sentence first!’
‘Hold your tongue!’ said the Queen, turning purple.
‘I won’t!’ said Alice.
‘Off with her head!’ the Queen shouted at the top of her voice. Nobody moved.
‘Who cares for you?’ said Alice, (she had grown to her full size by this time.) ‘You’re nothing but a bunch of dead things!’
And with that, Alice reached down and grabbed the metal box. But with her huge hands, she crushed it without meaning to. The jeweled collars all fell away with a great metallic clatter.
The King and Queen paled and froze. Then the Queen croaked, ‘Do you know what you’ve done, you nasty little girl?’
At this the whole room erupted with the hungry moans of zombies, and the undead began to stumble and shamble their way toward the King and Queen. Several of them leaped into the crowd, gnashing teeth and tearing at wailing victims. A small mouse squeaked and was snatched up by a trio of the undead; it was torn apart without so much as a twitch. The zombies moaned in ecstasy and chewed its warm innards, spitting out hunks of bloody fur and bones. Another group of zombies had circled a dodo and were trying to grab it, but the great billed bird was pecking at their rotting hands and seemed to Alice to be coming off with the better of the battle. Bits of the zombies were flying every which way. In the jury box, two zombies fought over a piece of bloody flesh, clawing at one another in their hungry rage. A large white rabbit tried to dodge a group of the undead, kicking with its wide feet, but the zombies were too intent on their possible meal to feel any discomfort as it knocked bits of them into the jury box. But finally they closed in on the white rabbit and it didn’t stand a chance as they fell upon it with eager groans. The rabbit screamed as its head was ripped from its convulsing body, its feet torn to pieces. Across the room, Alice saw a snarling cat spitting and clawing at the door to the courtroom, trying to escape, as two zombies closed in from either side. It cried out and turned to defend itself. One zombie lost an eye and the other part of is face to the cat’s savage sharp claws. But it did little to slow them down. The cat tried to back away, but the cheekless zombie made a clumsy, but effective, leap for its throat, and before long, the cat was buried under the duo of tearing, biting zombies.
The scene was hellish, as small bands of survivors tried to battle the undead, but ultimately falling to their greater unfeeling numbers.
The Red Queen wasn’t going down without a fight, however. She pushed the terrified King before her and kicked him into the gathering dead. The poor little man disappeared under an onslaught of hungry zombies. Alice could hear his screams of agony as they tore him limb from limb.
Meanwhile, the Queen tried to use his death as a distraction and she hurried to back door. But along the way, a zombie who had been hiding behind the judge’s bench staggered out in time to catch her long robe. Its dead hands tangled in the fine material and pulled her back. The Queen gave a mighty roar and punched the zombie in the face. Its rotting head collapsed around her huge horny fist and it fell down, releasing her.
Alice could barely see her now, for all the zombies crowding around, but she did see her duck through the back door with a hearty laugh, and then she was gone.
Alice, terrified at what she had done by accident, gave a little scream, half of fright and half of anger. She didn’t want to be eaten by these disgusting dead things.
No! No!
Alice swung blindly at the undead as they closed in on her. She felt their tiny teeth sinking into her cool flesh. The smell of death overwhelmed her! She pushed at their heavy weight as they fell upon her.
Her eyes snapped open to a gray sky and dead trees all around.
She found herself lying in the graveyard.
Her sister was shoving her with her foot, looking down at her crossly. ‘Wake up, you little brat!’
Alice sat up groggily, brushing away some dead leaves that had fluttered down from the trees upon her face. Her head ached. When she touched where it hurt, she came away with semi-dry blood. Had she hit her head? When had she done that?
She was alive! Not dead, like those things!
She felt her arms and legs and was so happy to be alive she could hardly speak. She touched her hair; none of its came away in her hands; and she could feel all her teeth in her mouth—none had fallen out after all!
‘Wake up, Alice!’ said her sister. ‘You dragged me out here so you could sleep for hours!’
‘Oh, I’ve had such a terrible dream!’ said Alice, and she told her sister, as well as she could remember them, all these strange Adventures of hers that you have just been reading about, sobbing and shaking; and when she had finished, her sister sneered at her, and said, ‘Serves you right for hanging around graveyards like a creepy spider.’ Her sister began to turn away. ‘Let’s go! It’s cold out here and I want a meat pie and a nice cup of tea.’
So Alice got up and ran off, thinking while she ran, as well she might, what a dreadful nightmare it had been, but already tasting the meat pie. She was so hungry! She would devour two, at least!
Her sister watched her run away with that nasty sneer still on her thin, cruel lips.
Alice and her stupid dreams.
How she hated the little brat! She had come along to ruin a good thing. Everything had been perfectly fine without a baby sister in her life. Now Mother and Father doted on the little brat and treated her second rate.
She sat thinking of Alice and her silly nightmare Adventures, till she too began dreaming after a fashion.
Yes, the meat pie would be especially delicious and satisfying this afternoon, because—
The long grass rustled at her feet as a great Black Rat hurried by.
She snapped out a foot and stomped the nasty little thing until it was dead.
Yes, the meat pies would be wonderful today.
She wondered how long it would be before Alice, sweet, stupid little Alice, began to search for her kitten.
She left the graveyard, chuckling to herself.
After she disappeared in the distance, the cold wind moaned through the tombstones and weeds, whispered through the grass where the dead rat lay in a gory pool of its smashed innards and cooling blood. And after a moment, its whiskers began to twitch and quiver with renewed life. Its feet convulsed, scraping at the icy earth, digging little angry furrows and kicking dead leaves all around.
The Black Rat’s eyes popped open, bright and red with hungry fury.
About the Authors
Lewis Carroll was born in 1832 and wrote many beloved works of fiction throughout his life. Among some of his most notable works are Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, and The Hunting of the Snark. He died in 1898.
Nickolas Cook lives in the beautiful Southwestern desert with his wife and three hungry pugs. He is the author of The Black Beast of Algernon Wood, Paint it Black, A Kind of Blue and Baleful Eye. When he is not writing fiction, he is the editor-in-chief of The Black Glove Magazine, a free monthly online magazine devoted to horror culture and entertainment.
Visit the author at: myspace.com/nickolasecook
hare
Alice in Zombieland: Lewis Carroll's 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' with Undead Madness Page 11
