by Dhar, Mainak
‘Look through your scopes at two o’ clock. You’ll see a small barn when I send up a flare. Aim for that barn. Shoot your rockets and then get on your horses. We do one pass on the farm at that area, and then retreat to the staging area like The Khan ordered.’
Salil thought he had got his man, since he saw movement that could have been an arm flailing, but then it could have been nothing more than wishful thinking. Still, he was pretty certain he had a bead on them and he settled down, ready to take another shot if he got the opportunity.
Just then he saw more movement, slightly to the right, and the unmistakable shape of a man was visible in the green glow of his scope. The man brought a tube-shaped object up to his shoulder. Salil was temporarily blinded as a green flare went up, bathing the area around him in bright light. He blinked and got back to his scope.
‘Gotcha.’
Salil fired a split second before the man fired his rocket. The man was hit just as he pulled the trigger on the RPG launcher and as he fell back, the rocket went a bit high. However, Jamal had spotted the muzzle flash from Salil’s rifle on his own scope and ordered the second shooter to aim slightly to the right of the barn.
The second rocket homed in on where Alice and Salil were lying.
The first smoke trail went high and slammed into the field somewhere behind them.
‘That was close. Did you…’
She never had time to complete her sentence before the rocket struck the barn above them and exploded. Alice instinctively covered her head and flattened herself against the ground, and felt a push that rolled her into a depression in the ground near her. As someone who was now half Biter, she could be killed only by a direct hit to the head, and while she felt no pain, she could feel fragments from the rocket and pieces of the barn slice through her skin.
Salil had spotted the rocket coming in and knew that it was too late to do anything. Alice was just feet away from a small hole where water had been collected for irrigation. He couldn’t do much to save himself but he would try and save Alice. He kicked, sending her sprawling into the hole seconds before the rocket hit.
Then there was darkness.
***
From the back of the farm, there were gasps of horror as everyone saw Alice and Salil’s position get obliterated by a rocket.
‘Come on, we’ve got to help them!’
Chris was racing towards the burning barn before anyone could stop him, followed closely by Teresa. Haroula, carrying a shotgun she had retrieved from the main building, was behind them. Teresa was the fastest of them, and she skidded to a stop near the barn. Salil was lying under rubble, bleeding from several wounds. She had no idea if he was alive or not. A few feet away she heard some movement. It was Alice, and her legs were trapped under some heavy planks that had fallen and trapped her.
Alice managed to turn halfway and looked up at Teresa.
‘Get this stuff off me.’
Teresa tried, but it was just too heavy for her to budge. By now, Chris had come by and he stood there, looking at Salil’s body.
‘Help me!’
He was shaken back to reality by Teresa’s shout, and he went over, trying to help her move the plank, but even with the two of them putting all their strength into it, they could barely raise it a few inches. Enough for Alice to turn a bit more so she could face them, but not enough for her get out. That was when they heard horses galloping towards them. Teresa looked up at the darkness outside and thought she could see shapes moving towards them. The ground around her was suddenly riddled with automatic weapon fire and she dove to the ground.
‘Take this.’
Alice handed her the handgun she had been carrying at her belt. Like every other kid her age, Teresa knew how to shoot, but she had not seen much combat, just two ambushes against Zeus back in the US, where she had been one of the spotters. She had called in their position, but never got a chance to fire in the battles that ensued. Now as the horsemen closed in, firing on the move, she clicked the safety off on the gun.
On her left Chris picked up Salil’s rifle. It was very big and heavy for him, but he lay down flat on the ground, resting it on the rise that Salil had used. He looked through the scope and saw three horsemen, now no more than fifty meters away. Two of them were firing from rifles, while the third had his hand hanging limply by his side.
‘Teresa, shoot!’
He aimed and fired. He had never fired a rifle, having been trained on handguns as was the norm for young kids his age, and was certainly never trained as a sniper. So he didn’t compensate for the movement and his first shot went wide.
Jamal had been watching the rocket hit and in the glow of the explosion, he was sure he had seen blonde hair moving below. It had to be Alice, and now was his chance to finish her, if she was still alive. He had two fragmentation grenades at his belt that he would throw into the burning barn and finish them off before they rode back.
He was firing when a bullet passed within a couple of feet of him. Then someone opened up with a handgun. Several shots, fired in quick succession. Not necessarily very well aimed, but so many rounds, coming in with the element of total surprise, did their damage. Faizal, the wounded man, took at least one round in the leg and screamed in pain. He aborted his run towards the barn and turned his horse around. Never matter, Jamal would finish this himself.
Teresa had emptied the clip and wasn’t sure if she had hit anything or anyone, but she would not let these men take Alice. She asked Alice for another clip and loaded it, getting ready as the horsemen came closer. Meanwhile, Chris had seen one of the men get hit.
‘Good shooting, Teresa. You got one!’
He aimed at one of the two shooters and fired. At such close quarters, he did not miss.
The man to Jamal’s left went down, thrown off his horse as if an unseen fist had come out of nowhere and punched him. Jamal was now barely ten meters away and he snarled as he threw his rifle away and took a grenade in each hand. That was when Haroula stepped up, standing above Alice, shotgun in her hand.
‘Nobody ruins my party.’
She fired as Jamal was about to take the pin out of the grenades. He was peppered with pellets that tore into his body and fell, dead before he hit the ground.
Between the three of them, Haroula, Chris and Teresa managed to free Alice and she ran out to check on their enemies. She was bleeding from a dozen shrapnel wounds, but nothing serious enough to slow her down. She looked to see if Salil was alive, and was relieved to see his hand moving. He might have been badly wounded, but at least he was alive. Two bodies lay just meters outside the farm wall, and she turned one over, shining a flashlight on the body to see who they had been attacked by. Teresa, Chris and Haroula were next to her. The man’s face was covered in a mask, and when Alice wrenched it off, everyone gasped as one. Alice stared at the face she saw.
What kind of creatures were they up against?
She heard a distant boom and looked to see a fire rising from the direction of Wonderland.
***
The Khan threw his second grenade into a building at random. He had been carrying two grenades, and had asked his men to aim at windows that had their lights on. Some of his men had marveled at people having electricity, and in his own mind, so had The Khan. However, to his men, all he said was that it made for easier targets. A couple of his men had wanted to go in and loot and ravage, but he ordered them to stay together. They wanted to strike and get away before reinforcements got there.
The people of Wonderland had been too shell-shocked by the attack to respond, and for the crucial first few minutes, The Khan’s men rode and attacked at will. Then the first sign of organized resistance came, not from humans, but from Biters.
From a narrow alley to their left, a dozen Biters streamed out towards them, and a rider who had been too distracted admiring his handiwork as he watched a building burn was caught unawares. Hands reached up and pulled him down, and he screamed in terror once before his throat was ripped
out. At such close quarters, the horses were terrified at the smell and sounds of the approaching Biters, and a horse reared, throwing his rider off balance. The Khan watched in frustration as three Biters swarmed over the prone man and tore into him.
He took out his handgun and shot a Biter in the head, but then realized that it was futile to keep at it now that the element of total surprise had been lost.
‘Pull back!’
His men wheeled their horses around and he was about to join them when a solitary figure rode into view on a bicycle. It was a girl, but not just any girl. Blonde hair flowing behind her as she rode, an assault rifle slung across her back.
Alice.
‘Rashid, Alice is here.’
Rashid also stopped and saw what his leader had seen.
‘Let our men pull back. So many in this narrow street and we will get swarmed by the Biters. Come, let us ride down an enemy together, just like the old times, side by side. Come, my brother. You can have the glory of cutting off the witch’s head and I’ll watch your back.’
The Khan looked back and saw his riders fade out of view in the darkness and threw his sword to Rashid, who caught it expertly by the handle, smiling at this unexpected honor.
‘Yes, My Khan. I will bring you her head.’
Rashid yelled and galloped towards Alice. The Khan watched him pick up speed and then calmly turned his horse around and rode away, narrowly avoiding two outstretched hands as Biters lunged for him. If Rashid did manage to kill Alice, it would be an unexpected bonus. Either way, there was no way he would get back alive. It was a win-win all around for The Khan. He would allow Rashid the honor of a martyr’s death, one which he would celebrate with his men. Also, he would ensure that the one man who could have challenged his leadership would be now out of the picture.
***
A rider charged at her, screaming in a foreign tongue. It was surprising for one man to attack while the rest of his comrades escaped, but if he wanted to die, she would gladly grant it to him. He was carrying a sword in his left hand and a submachine gun in his right hand and guiding his horse with the reins between his teeth. It was a fantastic display of horsemanship, but Alice had no time to stand and admire him. He began firing when he was about twenty meters away, spraying the wall on the building behind Alice with bullets. She jumped off her bicycle and rolled on the ground, coming up in a crouch behind a garbage disposal bin that was nearby. Several bullets pinged off the bin but did not penetrate it, stopped by the metal or the bags stuffed with garbage inside. At such short range, Alice did not want to risk using her rifle. Instead, she took her handgun in one hand and knife in the other and got ready to face her attacker.
Rashid admired how fast the girl had moved to get behind cover, but it would not be enough to stop her. He picked up speed, headed straight for the bin behind which Alice was hidden. It was about three feet tall, and he guided his horse straight towards it, firing all the while. Alice peeked out the corner and pulled her head back just in time as a bullet slammed into the can. The rider was headed straight for her and firing continuously. He would have to stop at some point, or take cover and fire. Otherwise, there was no way he could get a clean shot at her. Of course, Alice had never seen horses used in battle and had little idea what they were capable of in the hands of an experienced rider.
Rashid pulled back on the reins and his horse cleanly vaulted over the bin. As he jumped over the bin, Rashid looked down and caught a glimpse of yellow hair. He slashed down with his sword arm and then he was over the bin. He rode on for a few feet, carried forward by the momentum before he began to turn back for the kill.
Alice jerked her head to the right as the blade scythed down towards her. That saved her life as the sword sliced through her left shoulder, cutting a couple of inches deep. The rider turned around to come at her again, and he had half finished his turn when she brought her right arm up and threw the knife at him with all her strength.
Rashid was bringing up his gun to fire when he felt a jarring impact against his right shoulder. He looked down to see a knife, buried to the hilt in his shoulder. He screamed in frustration and pain when he tried to raise his arm. The gun fell uselessly to the ground. Fine, he would behead the witch. Maybe this was how it had to end. He raised his sword and rode towards her.
Alice stood her ground, legs slightly bent and well spaced, gun held firmly in both hands. The man was brave to come at an enemy holding a gun armed with a sword, but courage was not the only thing that won battles. She aimed and sent a single bullet through Rashid’s head.
***
The Khan caught up with his men after a few minutes. A few of them looked back, searching for Rashid, but The Khan just motioned for them to ride on. Explanations would come later. Right now, he had to get far away before Alice and her people mounted a counterattack.
He was happy with how his men had performed, but that had largely been due to the element of surprise and the tactics he had made them follow. In open battle, vastly outnumbered by what Wonderland could bring to bear against them, they would be slaughtered. He was gambling that their raid would make Alice think that their capabilities and numbers were far higher than they actually were. He did not have the numbers yet to ride on Wonderland in frontal battle, but he would bleed them with raid after raid like this, striking terror into them, robbing them of the safety and security they had come to take for granted. He would burn their crops, kill their workers and then let the bandits rise up and join his forces in taking their own revenge on Alice and her people, confident that The Khan was the new force to reckon with in the Deadland.
He had left his message for Alice, but he had no hope that she would actually agree to those terms. Instead, he planned on it further sowing panic in their midst.
Then they would take Wonderland down.
As he rode, he saw two figures hurrying into the shadows. One was a thin man and the other moved with the unmistakable gait of a Biter. A Biter with strange, pointed ears. The Biter who was supposed to be Alice’s special companion. The Khan looked on for a second and then made up his mind.
‘Grab those two. The thin one can be our dinner and that Biter will get Alice thinking twice about taking us on.’
***
SEVEN
Each of the eight bodies was covered by a sheet, and a sudden gust of wind lifted one of the sheets and sent it fluttering away, revealing the bloodied body it concealed. Someone cried, someone else called out for the sheet to be put back and kids rushed in with rocks to hold the sheets in place. Alice just stood there, watching the lifeless bodies of those who moments ago had been friends, brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters. People took on many responsibilities and titles that went with them in life, but in death, every single person took on only one title—a body.
Alice was no stranger to death, but that did not make confronting it any easier, especially when these were people she was sworn to protect. She walked away, trying to collect her thoughts.
The enemies they were up against were not just well equipped, but displayed a level of tactical thinking that Alice had not encountered before. The Red Guards had been so complacent that the resistance had taken them completely by surprise and they had spent the rest of the war on the back foot. But these enemies were taking the initiative, and in creating a distraction at the farm and then destroying the Looking Glass and attacking the heart of Wonderland, they had totally taken Alice by surprise.
She saw that shaken confidence all around her. The people of Wonderland had begun to assume that they were secure, that they no longer had to live in daily fear of attack. Now, that illusion had been shattered. Also, they were now cut off from the outside world. Danish had said that he could get the Looking Glass up and running again, but it would take him several days. However, from a stage where they had taken for granted the ability to stay in touch with the Homeland, this was a huge setback. What made the level of anxiety and fear even higher were the rumors swirling about the na
ture of their attackers. Alice and Arjun had made sure that the bodies of their attackers had been carried off to a sealed room in their clinic so Doctor Edwards could have a closer look before they were cremated, but the word had gotten out.
Their attackers did not look human.
Alice had heard the whispered suggestions—that they were really monsters, or ghosts; that the tag of Phantoms that they had acquired among the bandits was well deserved. Arjun had snapped at a couple of youngsters saying that these were not ghosts, they bled and died like any men, but Alice needed to know what they were up against. She walked to the clinic and found Edwards and Norbert outside. Edwards pulled her inside, and further adding to Alice’s anxiety, his face was creased with worry.
‘Come and have a look.’
He pulled the sheet off one of the bodies and Alice now saw it in much more detail than she had in the darkness outside the farm. Edwards had cut off the cloak to reveal a muscled form covered in boils and warts of some sort. The face was swollen beyond recognition and the eyes were puffed up, surrounded by boils, reducing them to mere slits.
‘What the hell are they?’
Edwards pulled the sheet back over the body.
‘For sure, they are not monsters or ghosts. They are very much men.’
‘Why do they look the way they do?’
Edwards had a thoughtful look on his face. ‘I wish I had more equipment to give you a conclusive answer, but I do have a hypothesis.’
‘What?’
‘I think these men were exposed to very high doses of radiation, which caused the tumors and mutations. I suspect many of them would have died of cancer over the years, and the ones who remain may also have a limited lifespan, but that could explain the tumors.’
