by Mainak Dhar
'This one I want alive.'
Two masked Red Guards pulled her up and one of them put a mask on her face. If she had any notions of fighting back, they dissipated when one of them injected her with something that made her muscles go limp. She could see Chen standing there in front of her, and he pointed to the sky. When she looked up, she saw waves of heavy bombers headed south. Towards Wonderland. When she tried to struggle against the men holding her, one of them hit her in the head, knocking her out.
Her last thought was that, yet again, she was going to fail those who had depended on her.
***
FOURTEEN
When Alice opened her eyes, they were watering and her mouth was dry. She tried to bring her hands up but found that she could not move them. As she moved her head to look around, she found that she was lying on a bed and her hands and legs were tied down by thick belts. She was in a room where there was no other furniture other than a single metal chair, and there were no windows, only a single door. When the door swung open, she saw a familiar shape walk in.
It was Appleseed.
Then the memory of what had happened kicked in, and she thrashed about on the bed, trying to free herself, trying to get at the men who had caused her so much loss. Appleseed calmly sat down on the chair next to her.
'Alice, it's no use. You should just relax.'
'What happened to Wonder...the people with me?'
Appleseed smiled. 'It's a miracle what two dozen heavy bombers, each carrying ten thousand pounds of fuel air explosives, can do. I overflew the site of your so called Wonderland in a helicopter soon afterwards. Let's just say most, if not all, of your friends are burning in Hell, as they should.'
Alice felt hot tears streaming down her face. 'But Commander Li and the others...'
Appleseed cut her off. 'Do you really think we would negotiate with you for one man, no matter whose son he might be? The Central Committee ordered the raid after Commander Li's father himself denounced him as a counter-revolutionary. The old man was forced to do it when the Central Committee figured they had a plan to kill or capture you. Now I hope you understand the kind of men I serve, and the kind of men you chose to pick a fight with.'
Alice cried silently at the loss of so many innocent lives, and then spat at Appleseed, who flinched as the spittle hit his face.
'All we wanted to do was to be left alone. That's all any of us ever wanted.'
Appleseed wiped his face clean, but to Alice's surprise, there was no anger in his voice. 'Alice, don't you get it? It doesn't matter what you want or what your father wanted. If there's one thing you should learn from all this, it’s that the world has always been ruled by a few powerful men. Men who brought about The Rising, men who make up the Central Committee, and don't for a moment think they're all Chinese. You'll be surprised who from the Old World is there: billionaire businessmen, bankers, Presidents, arms brokers – all part of one brotherhood that was planning for a day when the world would not have enough resources to support its population and when the masses would start turning against the power they held. We are just tools to get their work done. The sooner you reconcile to that, the longer your life will be.'
Alice wondered why he was confiding in her and what his masters wanted with her. Appleseed saw the question in her eyes.
'You are different. You became a visible symbol of opposition to them, and that started making other people think that there is a way to live in safety outside of the Central Committee's New World Order. It started giving people dangerous ideas about who and what the Biters may be, and whether they could actually be cured or assimilated. You were a public threat, and they will make a public spectacle of you. Tomorrow you are to be flown to Shanghai to be executed, and that execution will be broadcast live to all settlements in the New World.'
The prospect of death did not scare Alice as much as she had thought it might. Instead, what scared her the most was the emptiness she felt inside. She literally had nothing or nobody to live for anymore. She had failed those who had put their faith in her, believing naively that they could make a fresh start in a world where the only thing that mattered was power and everyone was but a puppet dancing to strings that were in the hands of the men who commanded Appleseed and Chen. She had never felt so bereft of hope before in her life, and cried for everything she had lost.
Appleseed walked over to her, resting his hand on her stomach. Something about his touch made her look at him.
'Get your hands off me!'
Appleseed smiled and leaned closer.
'I don't think you are in much of a position to tell me what to do. Do you realize just how much you have cost me? I lost my best men, and the army I once commanded is now hunted down by the Red Guards. I survived only because of my loyalty and because I personally helped track down and eliminate deserters.'
His hand was now moving up her body and Alice struggled against the belts holding her down in vain as his hand came to a stop just below her chest and he leaned down closer towards her face.
'Once, I would have been tempted with a young girl as attractive as you lying in front of me. I often wished that I could punish you for all you have done by making you beg and scream for mercy as I forced myself on you.'
Alice lay still, listening to Appleseed. She had already made up her mind. If he did try to rape her, he would have to undo at least one of the belts holding her legs together. Even with just one leg free, she would try and cause enough damage for him to be angry enough to end it all. She had heard the slogan better dead than undead many times in training, but she knew that sometimes, there were things worse than being undead, and being at the mercy of a brute like Appleseed was one of them.
Appleseed paused. 'Now that you're in front of me, I just want to blow your brains out. Too bad I have to leave that pleasure to the folks in Shanghai. But at least I won't be deprived of all pleasure.'
Appleseed began loosening his belt when suddenly several shots rang out. Someone was firing on full automatic. The door burst open and a Red Guard walked in. When he saw Appleseed with his belt open, he paused till the general barked at him.
'Which idiot is firing outside?'
The Red Guard was ashen-faced as he replied, and Alice could see the fear in his eyes. 'Sir, we're under attack.'
Appleseed was irritated at having been interrupted and waved his hand to dismiss the Red Guard. 'An attack? We wiped most of those fools out in the Ruins two days ago. If it's a rabble of some insurgents, tell the men to get the choppers in the air and send out a squad of Guards. I'll be with you shortly.'
Appleseed had turned to face Alice again when she saw the Red Guard hesitate as he spoke again. 'Sir, we need you at the Command Centre. We've never seen such an attack before.'
Appleseed turned on him in fury. 'What the hell is wrong with you? Don't you understand a simple order? Ok, tell me, who is attacking us?'
Alice saw the Red Guard's eyes widen and he spoke in what was barely a whisper. 'Sir, we're under attack by an army of Biters. Thousands and thousands of them.'
***
Alice watched the look of surprise on Appleseed's face as more shots rang out outside. She could see him hesitate for a moment before his face hardened.
'Thousands, my foot! Must be a band of Biters that has wandered our way. Come with me!'
As he went out of the room, Alice's relief at being spared was quickly replaced by anxiety about what was happening outside. She heard more gunshots and then she heard something that chilled her. It sounded like thousands of animals baying and roaring together, creating a bizarre symphony. She didn't know if there were actually thousands of Biters outside or not, but she had never heard so many of them together, and screaming with such ferocity that they could be heard above the din of gunfire. She then heard the buzz of helicopters taking off, and then loud explosions as what she presumed were rockets streaked into the approaching Biters. She had grown up thinking of Biters as mindless monsters, but had also seen them at clo
se quarters as more like frightened, infected animals. She wondered what could be making them walk into a slaughter with the firepower that Appleseed and the Red Guards would have arrayed against them.
Then the room seemed to shake and Alice saw several bricks fall off the wall. Another loud explosion and the bed fell over on its side. Alice cried out as her head hit the floor and wondered why the Red Guards were firing on their own base. Another explosion shook the base and she felt the belt holding one of her hands snap open as the bed shook from the impact. Alice quickly undid the other belts and then stepped towards the open door. The corridor outside did not seem to be guarded and so she walked down it and then peered around the corner, where she saw what appeared to be a Command Centre with many display screens and a large window. It was from here that Appleseed and his staff seemed to be directing the battle. There were at least twenty staffers with Appleseed and they all seemed to be focusing out the window, so nobody saw her behind them.
When Alice looked out the window, she froze at the sight. There was a small courtyard with a helipad to one side, and then a high perimeter wall ringed by automatic gun turrets and guard towers. Outside the wall, as far as she could see, was a sea of approaching Biters. The Red Guard had been right: there must have been thousands of them, and while they were steadily being mowed down by fire from the turrets and rockets from two hovering helicopters, with their sheer weight of numbers they kept closing in.
Appleseed was screaming to his men. 'Morons! Biters don't fire RPGs. There are people mixed in among them.'
Alice saw several smoke trails from the mob of Biters outside and realized what had hit the building, freeing her in the process. Several RPGs reached out towards the perimeter wall and a guard tower was obliterated. A cheer went up from the mob outside, and Alice heard a few human voices mixed among the howls of the Biters. Part of her wondered how this army had been assembled and who was leading it, but for now she was transfixed by the battle unfolding before her. Appleseed was screaming at his men to pick off the humans in the army outside since they presented the biggest threat with the RPGs they were carrying, but what was obvious to Alice was that this battle was already lost for Appleseed and his men. There were just too many Biters approaching to be taken out by two helicopters and the handful of Red Guards she saw, and clearly Appleseed's men had never anticipated that there would be humans with firearms mixed in among them.
Appleseed was screaming as to why nobody had told him earlier when one of his subordinates blurted out, 'Sir, we saw only a dozen Biters and we thought our patrol outside could handle them. Then they started streaming out of holes in the ground.'
'Have you called in for air support?'
'Sir, they say close air fighters are airborne, but won't get here for at least another fifteen minutes.'
As Appleseed screamed out his rage, Alice looked outside and saw a jeep appear over the horizon, speeding towards the base. In the glow created by exploding rockets she saw a figure standing in the jeep, grey hair flowing behind her, holding aloft a book in one hand.
It was the Queen.
Appleseed had seen the jeep as well and shouted to his men, 'That bitch is leading them! She's that freak they think is their Queen. Take her out first.'
As one of his men moved to the radio to relay his orders, Alice moved into the room. She had no weapons with her, but saw a small fire extinguisher behind her on the wall. She picked it up and threw it at the Red Guard who was about to order an attack on the jeep. The extinguisher hit him on the back and he fell from his chair.
Appleseed turned to see what had happened and glared in unadulterated fury as he saw Alice. He reached for the gun at his waist when Alice leapt forward, grabbing the fallen Red Guard's pistol and coming up in a roll behind the console next to Appleseed. He fired two rounds that destroyed a monitor, showering Alice with bits of glass and plastic. Alice saw two Red Guards get up from their chairs and move towards her. Both were reaching for their pistols, but they were communications officers who had never seen close combat before and were just too slow. Alice squeezed off three rounds in quick succession, felling one of them and sending the other diving for cover.
She heard some of the men scream, the despair in their voices clear.
'Sir, they shot down a chopper!'
'The Biters are at the wall!'
The room was suddenly plunged into darkness, and Alice heard Appleseed shout to his men, 'Finish her and join me for extraction.'
And then Alice was left in a dark room, facing more than a dozen Red Guards, armed with only a pistol that had eight rounds left in it.
***
Alice heard the Guards fumbling in the dark, shouting to each other in Chinese. She thanked her stars that these were not combat troops and also that they did not seem to have automatic rifles. Even if one of them began spraying with a rifle, life would get very interesting for her. Alice tore a piece of cloth from her shirt and wrapped it around her right hand, grabbing a broken shard of glass. In her left hand was the pistol. The Guards were moving around noisily, perhaps confident that they had her cornered. She stayed glued to where she was sitting, trying not to make any noise. When she sensed movement to her right, she swung her right hand out, feeling the glass bite into something soft. The Guard howled in pain as Alice swept his feet from under him and brought down the glass shard on his body, feeling his blood spurt onto her hands. She then rolled over behind another desk. The explosions outside were bathing the room in occasional flashes of light, and Alice saw two Guards illuminated briefly and fired at them four times. Moving and in near total darkness, she wasn't sure if she put them down, but the shouts of pain she heard told her than she must have scored at least one hit.
Four rounds left.
Alice knew that she could not hope to kill or incapacitate all her opponents. It would be a matter of time before their numbers worked in their favor, so she consciously crawled towards the thin sliver of light showing from the door through which Appleseed had fled. In the darkness, she felt something bump into her, and without looking, she fired two rounds and heard a man scream. Her muzzle flash had attracted attention and she felt a bullet whistle past her face. She rolled on the ground, firing twice at the muzzle flash of the Guard who had fired at her. She didn't know if she hit him or he was just diving for cover, but she heard the sound of a body hitting the deck.
No bullets left.
The door was now barely ten feet away and Alice got up in a crouch, ready to make a run for it, when several bullets pinged off the floor near her. She sat down behind an overturned table as she heard the continuing sounds of the battle outside. The difference was that she could no longer hear the helicopters and the gun turrets were silent. The only sounds were the howling of the Biters, rifles firing on full automatic, and the occasional thump of an RPG round hitting home. That would mean the wall must have been breached. She took her pistol and hurled it towards a corner of the room, and as it landed, several of the Guards opened fire at it. That gave Alice the window of opportunity she needed, and she sprinted out the door, closing it as she felt bullets impact into it from the other side. She locked the door, and while she knew that the Guards would probably break it down soon enough, at least she would buy herself some time.
She was in a corridor that was illuminated by only a handful of small lights along the ceiling. She couldn't see any doors or windows along the corridor other than a single door at its end. As she heard the Red Guards start to try and break down the door behind her, she ran down the corridor. When she reached the door, she found it unlocked and found a single Red Guard standing on the other side. He turned around, surprised to see anyone inside other than fellow Red Guards. He had an assault rifle in his hand, but before he could bring it up, Alice grabbed the rifle with both hands and brought it up, smashing the butt in the man’s face. As he staggered back, Alice reached into the holster on his belt and took out his pistol. By the time the man had recovered enough to charge at her, she fired two
rounds at point blank range. The Red Guard went down and did not get up. As eager as she was to go after Appleseed, she realized that blundering on ahead unarmed was going to be sure suicide. So she took a minute to take the Red Guard’s rifle, pistol and the belt that held his spare clips. Then she set down the dark corridor. The first thing she noticed were the growling noises coming from both sides.
She picked up a lamp from the wall and shone it around, and saw a row of cells lining the corridor. From several of the cells came moaning or growling sounds, and the whole place had a foul stench. Alice figured this was a prison where Appleseed and the Red Guards kept prisoners, and she approached one of the cells, trying to see who was inside.
‘Hello, is someone inside?’
A yellowed hand grabbed the bars and a decayed, torn face smashed up against them. Alice was so stunned she fell back as the Biter began beating his head against the bars. The lamp in her hand shattered against the ground, and the room was enveloped in darkness. Biters in several other cells along the corridor began screaming as Alice grabbed her weapons and ran down the corridor, trying to get away as fast as possible. She couldn’t figure out why anyone would keep Biters in cells like these, but knowing Appleseed and his masters, she knew that they must not have been up to any good.
She saw a stairwell at the end of the corridor and climbed up, opening a small door to the outside. When she stepped out, she found herself on a narrow ledge near the rooftop. She could see Appleseed with two Red Guards on the roof and she heard him shout to one of his men.
‘Get on the radio again and ask how far that chopper is.’
