Hunting The Snark: An Alice in Deadland Adventure (Alice, No. 4)

by Dhar, Mainak

  Alice nodded and went aside. Edward was kneeling beside Bellman and holding her up slightly so that he could make her sip some water from a glass. As Alice approached, she turned towards Alice and screamed out one sentence before she collapsed.

  ‘Stop them! The Snark is a Boojum!’

  ***

  SEVEN

  ‘White Queen, this will be tougher than I thought.’

  ‘What’s up, Beaver?’

  Josh had headed out for a more detailed recce to plan their escape and was now reporting back on the radio headsets they all carried. What he saw was not reassuring. The two gun turrets that he planned to take out were guarded by no fewer than a dozen Zeus troopers and getting through them would require numbers and firepower that Alice and her companions just did not have. The older Edward walked over to Alice.

  ‘You need to create a diversion from the inside if you want to get to those guns.’

  When Alice asked him what he had in mind, the old man smiled.

  ‘For the last year, all their news reports have talked about how you are an evil dictator who is oppressing the people of Deadland, and how you support Biters and terrorists in destroying humans. There have of course been rumors of what’s really going on there, so imagine what would happen if you got in front of all the people in this camp.’

  ‘How would I do that?’

  The younger Edward who had his son on his knee spoke up.

  ‘Dad’s got a point. This evening, they’re going to have their daily dose of propaganda. They play some silly news reports and then the camp commander goes live and says some junk. All we need to do is to get you inside the communication room where he sits in front of the camera and we’re in business.’

  Cynthia had also just come in and sat down next to Alice.

  ‘I swear I’ll break their hands the next time I meet them!’

  Alice smiled as Cynthia swore for a few more minutes. She had gone out into the camp and tried to get information out of the Zeus troopers, pretending to be a hapless new inmate. Of course, several of them had tried getting fresh with her. Her anger aside, it did look like she had got some useful information.

  ‘I chatted up one of the guys who guards the armory, and he thinks we have a date this evening at five.’

  At about four-thirty in the evening, all three generations of Edward John Hayeses accompanied Alice to the communications room. There were two guards in front of it, and they greeted the older man.

  ‘Hey, Doc. Are you guys planning a family picnic or what? Who’s this girl with you and why is her face hidden?’

  Alice tensed as the guard extended his hand towards her hood, but then he stopped abruptly as the older man intervened.

  ‘Son, she’s got a highly infectious skin disease that I can’t seem to treat. She’s already infected three more people and before this spreads through the camp I need to talk to the commander.’

  The guards opened the door and let them in. The younger Edward and his son went back to their tent, the plan being that he would see Bellman to safety when the attack began.

  A man in civilian clothes was readying a camera and other equipment and a thin man in the black uniform of Zeus sat at a table. The older Edward repeated his story and the camp commander called Alice forward. As she came within reach of him, he asked her to pull her hood back. When she complied, his eyes widened. It took him a second to register what his eyes were seeing and then he reached for the pistol in his holster. He never made it. Alice grabbed his hand and twisted it, hearing bones snap. As the man began to scream out in agony, Alice cut his cry short with an elbow to the throat that sent him down. The second man in the room looked on in shock and Alice took the commander’s gun and pointed it at him.

  ‘Operate the camera and videos as you normally do and no harm will come to you.’

  Half an hour later, all the inmates of the camp gathered in front of the giant screen. News reports talked of new drone strikes and new atrocities committed by Biters. Then came the now familiar ads promising a better life in the Deadland and asking people to volunteer. And then came something that took everyone’s breath away.

  When Alice’s face first appeared on the screen, many believed it was another propaganda video about her. But then she began speaking.

  ‘My name is Alice Gladwell, and I think it’s about time you all learnt the truth behind my tale and what has happened in the Deadland.’

  As she continued speaking, a buzz went through the crowd, and the guards gathered around the crowd began to move back, many of them now raising their weapons. A Zeus officer kept trying to reach the commander on his radio but got no response. Many in the crowd started shouting as Alice told them about Shanghai and the truth behind The Rising. Some men in the crowd pointed towards him and one or two of them began to pick up stones. The officer retreated and then it struck him what was happening. He ran towards the communications room, where two guards loitered outside.

  ‘You fools, she’s inside!’

  Before he could say any more, shots rang out and he fell to the ground. A split second later, both guards were down.

  Larry ran into view, carrying a rifle they had liberated from the guards at the armory, and Cynthia was a step behind, a rifle in her hand. He spoke into his headset.

  ‘Butcher here, we’re secure with the White Queen. Beaver, do your bit!’

  As Alice ended her transmission, Edward was standing near the crowd, and he picked up a rock and threw it at a Zeus guard. His five-year-old son also picked up a rock and threw it, imitating his father. Two more men near Edward joined in, and soon the guards were being pelted with stones. Having caused the chaos he wanted to, Edward retreated to his tent where he picked up the prone body of Bellman and went outside.

  Most of the guards were now either trying to take cover or waiting for orders from the camp commander, which were not going to come anytime soon, since he was lying unconscious in the communication center. Those few moments of paralysis proved decisive. Josh was now armed with a rifle and a handgun taken from fallen guards and he went close to the two gun turrets. Both were automated, controlled from somewhere inside the compound. The men who operated the turrets were presumably now caught up in the chaos unfolding in the camp. He leaned into the first one, exposed the control panel on its rear and cut open the wiring with a knife. A Zeus guard below shouted up at him and brought his rifle up to his shoulder but then went down as Cynthia brought him down with a shot to the legs. Josh cut the wires on the second turret and then spoke into his headset, choosing an open frequency so that his comrades waiting outside would also hear.

  ‘Beaver’s done his job. We’re good to go.’

  The assault on the camp was beginning in earnest.

  ***

  Alice saw two Zeus officers climb onto the walls in an attempt to rally their forces. One fell from a direct hit to the head. As the second officer looked around, trying to spot the attacker, he went down himself. Tom’s voice came on her headset.

  ‘Broker’s got you covered. Just stay back from the wall for a few minutes. Barrister’s got a surprise coming.’

  The mention of Barrister aka John Garner told Alice that she should expect something by way of explosives, and she was not disappointed. A pickup truck, its accelerator pressed down with a brick, sped towards the walls of the camp, aiming at a point between where the two disabled gun turrets were. Inside it was packed a jury-rigged bomb made of grenades and TNT. A Zeus trooper clambered onto the wall and began firing with his rifle, trying to stop the incoming truck, but he fell to another bullet from Tom’s sniper rifle. As the truck hit the wall, it exploded in a huge fireball, tearing a gaping hole in the wall.

  Even before the smoke cleared, Alice shouted to her companions. ‘Come on. Zeus will have its choppers on the way.’

  Larry, the biggest of them, had Bellman draped across his shoulders and Alice, Cynthia and Josh jogged beside him as they made for the wall. Alice looked back and saw all three generations of
Edward John Hayeses waving to her. With an old man and a young child, they were in a no position to fight their way out, but Alice hoped that they would find safety.

  She spotted movement to her right as a Zeus trooper raised his rifle at her. She rolled on the ground, coming up in a crouch, and sent three rounds from her rifle into him. As he fell, two more troopers ran up, but when they saw Alice, they froze with fear and astonishment. That hesitation cost them dearly as Alice and Josh sent them down with another volley. By now, several of the rioting inmates had seen Alice and before she climbed out of the ruined wall, she turned to call back.

  ‘Get out! Learn to live like free men, not as slaves of Zeus and its masters.’

  Several of them ran to follow her, but many others remained. It was perhaps human nature than when presented with a choice between an unpredictable and risky freedom on the one hand and a familiar tyranny on the other, many chose the latter. But that was not Alice’s concern. She could but hope to open their eyes to what was really happening in the Deadland. Whether they chose to fight for freedom or cling on to the crumbs thrown at them by tyrants was their choice.

  They were well outside the gate, and a muzzle flashed up ahead, and Alice turned to see another Zeus trooper fall from the wall behind them.

  ‘Broker’s got you covered, now just run straight to where you see me shooting from.’

  They were running straight for Tom’s position when Josh shouted, ‘Shit! They’ve already got reinforcements!’

  To her right two Jeeps came into view, each filled with Zeus troopers. Perhaps a nearby patrol had been alerted by the guards at the camp. With still more than a hundred meters to go till the relative safety of the undergrowth where Tom was hidden, she knew they would never make it in time. Satish’s voice came on the radio.

  ‘Alice, try to make it. We’ll cover you.’

  Vince, Satish, Tom and John all opened up with their rifles, and one of the Jeeps veered to the right as the driver was hit. The troopers jumped out and took cover behind the Jeeps and began firing back. Larry shouted out and Alice saw that he had been hit in the leg. There was no way they were going to carry Bellman across open ground with the Zeus troopers within such close range. Firing came from behind her and she thought they had been trapped in a cross-fire by troopers from the inside, but several of the inmates of the camp were on the walls, firing at the troopers. They didn’t score many hits but forced the troopers to take cover, which gave Alice enough time to stand up. She roared out as loudly as she could.

  ‘Bunny Ears! I need you!’

  A bullet whizzed past Alice’s face but then everyone stopped firing. All of them, Zeus troopers and camp inmates, paused to see the sight unfolding in front of them.

  The bushes parted and a tall, thin Biter wearing bunny ears came out. He looked at the Zeus troopers and roared in fury. A couple of the troopers thought of shooting but abandoned that line of thinking when several hundred Biters stepped out of the forest and stood together. The people of the Homeland had never seen anything like it before. Like Alice when she had been growing up in the Deadland, they had always thought of Biters as mindless ghouls, capable of nothing but wanton destruction. Now, the Biters were standing together, and they were all looking at Alice.

  She pointed at the Zeus troopers and shouted, her voice carrying across the battlefield.

  ‘Retreat or the Biters will come for you!’

  A young trooper panicked and fired a shot, grazing Alice’s shoulder. As she reeled from the impact, Bunny Ears charged at the troopers, the Biters close on his heels. About half of the troopers ran, knowing that they faced impossible odds. The remaining stayed and fired, but they never had a chance. They dropped perhaps a handful of Biters before the others were on them. It was less a fight than a slaughter, and in seconds, all the troopers lay dead. Bunny Ears looked up at the camp and the armed men and women ringing its walls. He took a step towards it, but then Alice shouted out to him.

  ‘No, Bunny Ears! Ordinary humans are not our enemies. Don’t attack them, and stop the others from doing so.’

  She followed her companions into the forests, leaving behind hundreds of astonished camp inmates. As they escaped, they carried with them tales of the incredible event they had just witnessed.

  Soon, word began to spread like wildfire. Not only were Alice and the events attributed to her real, Alice was in the Homeland.

  ***

  ‘General, it’s good to hear from you again and to know that you’re safe.’

  ‘Don’t worry about me, Alice. We need to find out what Bellman knows fast. With the messages the Exec Committee is sending out about resettlement of the Deadland, I have a really bad feeling about what they’re up to.’

  Alice looked at the woman lying unconscious on the ground a few feet from her and spoke again into the radio.

  ‘She still has not regained consciousness and we need to get her some medical help. Otherwise, I’m afraid that she won’t make it. Butcher’s also bleeding from his leg wound.’

  Larry waved his hand and mumbled, ‘It’s just a scratch.’

  Despite his bravado, he was weakening and his face was now almost yellow. They had patched him up the best they could, but at least one bullet was lodged inside his leg, he was weak from loss of blood and was unable to walk without someone’s support.

  Satish had been looking at a tablet in his hand.

  ‘I just got a report from Danish back in Wonderland. They made contact with a few survivors in Shanghai on the Net and what they say confirms that it was a nuclear weapon that destroyed Shanghai. There’s nothing much left now, just a few survivors hiding in the outskirts and Biters streaming in from the countryside. It’s much, much worse than the Deadland has ever been.’

  Alice turned to Satish and Vince, who had been professional soldiers, hoping they would know more about the subject.

  ‘Guys, they can’t just destroy Wonderland with such a weapon if what they want are our lands and farms, can they?’

  Vince’s downcast expression told her all she needed to know. Satish elaborated.

  ‘I’m no expert on nukes but they are of two types. Surface blasts like the one they used on Shanghai destroy most of what’s on the ground within the impact zone. However, there are what are called airburst weapons, like the ones many governments used in the days of The Rising, hoping to destroy the Biters. They explode high up in the air and kill people on the ground, but usually leave very little radiation or destruction of buildings or infrastructure.’

  Then it struck Alice. This was what the Executive Committee’s resettlement plan was all about. Having been unable to conquer Wonderland, they were now planning to kill everyone there and set up their slave camps there to work the farms, manned by labor they would fly in from the Homeland. Alice stood up.

  ‘We need to get going. Did the General give co-ordinates of where we could go to get Bellman and Butcher some help?’

  Vince was scribbling something on a piece of paper.

  ‘Yes, he did. Another safehouse located about a hundred miles from here. It’s getting dark so could take us three hours to get there.’

  ‘Then let’s get going.’

  Josh had gone back into the camp and come back driving an armored car that had been abandoned there, and they all piled into the back, other than Alice and Bunny Ears, who sat next to Josh.

  ‘What about all those Biters?’

  Alice looked at a couple of the Biters lurking in the shadows as they passed. ‘They would like to follow us, but I tried to explain to them that we can’t take them along.’

  ‘No, I mean, will they…’

  Alice answered when she saw Josh’s hesitation.

  ‘Will they attack humans again? That depends on the humans as well. They now follow me, and will stay away from humans. But if humans go out of their way to inflict pain and suffering on others, they should not be surprised if once in a while they are bitten back.’

  They drove in silence for some
time and then Alice was suddenly on guard.

  ‘Stop the car and pull into those bushes there.’

  Josh did he was told and a minute later, they all heard what Alice had heard—the rotors of an attack helicopter hovering nearby. Vince shouted from the back.

  ‘Bellman’s going into convulsions. We need to get her on a drip or she’ll not last long.’

  The sleek black shape of a Zeus attack helicopter came into view through the trees. She had seen first-hand the devastation such machines were capable of causing. Their own assault rifles and the machine gun mounted on the armored car would be no match for the armor-piercing missiles the helicopter carried under its stubby wings. As she watched in growing frustration, a second helicopter appeared. One of the choppers turned on a spotlight in its chin and began scouring the area, while the second hovered a few feet higher, waiting to attack any target that was discovered.

  ‘Should we try and surprise them?’

  Vince, who had been a helicopter pilot in the US Marines before The Rising, heard her and answered.

  ‘All we’d do is commit suicide. Those are Apaches, and they’ll destroy us before we cause any damage.’

  ‘Well, we can’t just wait…’

  Alice stopped in mid-sentence as the blinding light of the spotlight now shone directly into the armored car.

  ‘They’re onto us!’

  Vince opened the hatch on top of the armored car and leapt up to man the roof-mounted heavy-caliber machine gun. He had few hopes that its bullets could penetrate the armor that covered the attack choppers, but he was not going to go down without a fight.

  The second chopper was now coming closer, and no doubt the pilot had already locked in on the armored car when a smoke trail snaked up from the treeline below towards the chopper. A rocket slammed into it, and the helicopter was obscured in a giant plume of smoke. The second helicopter began to peel away to take evasive action as Vince fired on full automatic, raking it with shells.