by Mainak Dhar
Alice leaned over and saw that the battle outside was all but over. Biters were now streaming into the courtyard and mixed with them were men carrying assault rifles and RPGs. She could not be sure in the darkness, but she thought she spotted Satish and a few of his men. As Alice saw them she hoped that more of her friends from Wonderland had survived.
There were still a few pockets of resistance as she saw Red Guards firing from windows, but it was a losing battle given the sheer numbers of Biters who were now rampaging inside, and the firepower their human comrades were bringing to bear.
The jeep carrying the Queen was also now entering the courtyard and Alice saw her look up straight at her. Next to the Queen was Bunny Ears.
‘Alice!’
The Queen had shouted out to her, obviously relieved at seeing her alive and well, but in doing so she had attracted Appleseed’s attention. Alice ducked as a bullet slammed into the bricks behind her and dove onto the rooftop, taking cover behind a water tank. Appleseed was on the other side of the roof and he and his men were now crouched behind a large satellite dish. Both Red Guards had rifles and seemed to know how to use them. Every time Alice tried to lean around the corner of the tank to take a shot, they would lay down a withering fire that had her ducking for cover. She heard a voice that she recognized scream above the din of gunfire and howling.
‘Save Alice. She must live!’
It was the Queen.
Alice watched as two black clad men climbed onto the roof, but the Red Guards were in a great defensive position, covered by the large satellite dishes and boxes near them. Both Zeus troopers went down under a steady volley of fire. However, that gave Alice time to take aim and fire a quick burst at the two Red Guards, sending them scampering for cover. She leaned out and saw several Biters try and climb up to the roof. Many of them fell in trying to climb the stairs, and even when one or two actually made it close to the roof, the Red Guards picked them off one by one with carefully aimed head shots. When two Biters actually seemed to be about to make it to the top, one of the Red Guards tossed a grenade that obliterated them.
Alice heard a helicopter approach, and that galvanized her into action. After all he had done, Appleseed could not be allowed to escape. She leaned out and saw that both Red Guards were now frantically firing at the mass of Biters. While the Biters were having trouble climbing the ladders, two black-clad men were now almost at the roof, and firing at the Red Guards. While both men went down to another grenade rolled at them, they had distracted the Red Guards long enough to not notice the new danger they faced.
A large truck had been driven up along the roof, and Biters were launching themselves off its top at the roof. Several fell short, but many made it, and all the while the Queen kept screaming.
'The prophecy must be fulfilled! Alice must live!'
The two Red Guards were now beginning to falter as they realized that there was no way they could hold back the flood of Biters, and they were steadily backing up behind the satellite dishes. Alice caught a glimpse of Appleseed, firing his pistol at the approaching Biters.
Even as Biters fell, more climbed over them, trying to get to the Red Guards. Alice saw that she had a clear shot and fired a burst that caught one of the Red Guards in the shoulder. He fell, screaming in agony, and his comrade now panicked, knowing there was no way he could hold his position alone. That split second of indecision cost them dearly as the Biters were on them, clawing and biting as they screamed for mercy, till they spoke no more.
Appleseed raced across the roof with a speed that belied his bulk, throwing two grenades that scattered the Biters in his path and firing with his pistol as he ran back towards the building. Alice fired but missed as her aim was thrown off by an exploding grenade, and saw Appleseed climb back through the door she had used to get to the rooftop. Thinking that Appleseed probably had another escape route planned, she followed him inside. As soon as she had stepped into the darkness, she felt a burning pain in her right thigh as Appleseed plunged a knife into her. He pulled the knife out and then pushed her backwards, sending her falling ten feet to the floor below. Alice landed hard, the wind totally knocked out of her as Appleseed climbed down the stairs. He kicked her pistol away when she tried to reach for it and stood over her.
‘You bitch, I should have just gutted you when I had the chance. But it’s never too late to set things right.’
He brought his hand up to stab her. Alice saw his shadow move and brought her left leg up in a kick that hit him in the groin, sending him back, doubling over with pain. She could hear him groaning and swearing as she got up and tried to get her bearings. There was moonlight coming in the through the open door above, and as her eyes adjusted, she saw him circling back for another strike. As he lunged towards her, she was ready for him. She grabbed his wrist and turned, using his weight and momentum against him. Appleseed went crashing to the ground as Alice followed through with a kick aimed at his head. Appleseed blocked the kick and twisted her ankle, sending her down again. He got up, rubbing his sore hand and swearing.
‘You think you’re so tough. I can crush you with my bare hands.’
All of Alice’s training came back to her and she made a conscious effort to relax and still her mind. Fight angry and you will make mistakes, and a single mistake can be fatal. That was one of the lessons her instructors had drilled into her, especially given her usually impulsive nature. But now those lessons learnt in classes, and more importantly in several life and death battles in the Deadland, saved her life. Appleseed feinted with his right hand and brought his left up in a punch aimed at her throat. Alice saw him telegraph the blow with the slight roll of his left shoulder and she stepped inside his blow, blocking his arm with her right forearm and then using her head to butt him in the nose. As he groaned and stumbled back, she followed with a punch to the solar plexus and then another to Appleseed’s already damaged nose. She heard a crunching noise and was sure she broke his nose when he screamed in agony. Appleseed fell back, but in doing so, pushed Alice hard, sending her bouncing off a wall and to the ground.
To her surprise, instead of attacking again, Appleseed ran towards the far door. Alice was on her feet, but with her twisted ankle was not able to move fast enough to catch him before he reached the door. He turned on a small table lamp and she saw his bloodied face as he glared at her.
‘Now rot in Hell with the Biters you love so much.’
He reached over to the wall and pulled a switch. Alice heard a creaking noise as all the cell doors swung open and Appleseed disappeared behind the door. Alice would have followed him except for the fact that now she saw Biters emerge from four of the cells. They all wore collars and were filthy and bloodied. One of them, a large man with one ear missing, snarled at her and lunged. Alice rolled out of the way and grabbed the pistol on the ground, coming up in a crouch and drilling him with three rounds, two to the chest and one to the head that dropped him. The other three Biters now charged at her, screaming and howling. She shot one more in the head before she realized that that they were too close for her to get another shot. She ducked under one’s outstretched hands and kicked out at the other, sending him down. She rolled across the corridor, hoping to put some distance between them and get another shot, when another figure jumped into the fray.
It was the Queen. She was carrying a large axe and brought it down on one of the Biter’s necks, and as he stumbled forward, she brought the axe down again on his skull. The last remaining Biter spat at her and lunged forward, swatting her against the wall as Alice fired, hitting the Biter in the leg. The Biter fell down, and Alice rushed to help the Queen.
‘Are you okay?’
The Queen smiled, a strange expression given her lifeless eyes. ‘Alice, am I glad to see you alive. The prophecy…’
Before she could complete her sentence, the Biter on the ground jumped at Alice and sank his teeth into her leg. She screamed in agony and on reflex shot him in the head. She grabbed her bleeding leg and stared at t
he Queen in horror.
‘Help me!’
The Queen seemed to flounder and then saw the vial around Alice’s neck.
‘We must use the vaccine now!’
The Queen wrenched the vial from Alice’s neck and took out the syringe, pressing the needle deep into Alice’s calf, but was able to inject only half the contents before Alice spasmed and the needle came out, spraying some of the precious liquid on the floor. Alice felt a burning sensation spread from her legs to her entire body. Her hands were shaking and her vision was blurring. She tried to say something but it felt like there was a giant lump in her throat. The Queen lay Alice on her lap and took the vial and opened it, pouring the remaining contents down Alice’s throat.
‘Alice, my child. You cannot die or become just another Biter. The prophecy needs you to live, to bring an end to all this suffering.’
Alice felt the liquid flow down her throat and it felt as if her entire body were on fire. She saw the Queen glance up and then she pushed something into Alice’s hand. Before Alice could say anything, she saw the Queen’s head disappear in a spray of blood. As the Queen’s body fell, she dropped Alice to the ground. Alice’s head hit the ground hard and through the red mist that clouded her vision she saw someone approaching, a pistol in his hand. Alice screamed as her body spasmed time and again, and then went still.
Appleseed had come back into the room, looking for the key card that he must have dropped in his struggle with Alice. He had only one hope now: to hide in the small panic room near the Command Center and hope that he was not discovered till Red Guard reinforcements arrived. When he entered the room, he saw that all the Biters were down but also noted with satisfaction that Alice was down as well. He had spotted the Biter Queen near Alice and had taken her head off with a single shot.
As he came closer, in the dim light he saw Alice’s leg twitching and he put a bullet into it. Her leg jerked once and was then moved no more.
Appleseed screamed at nobody in particular, ‘I got you all, didn’t I?’
He took out a small flashlight and began to search among the mangled bodies littering the floor for his key card. He could now hear footsteps on the roof, and he knew he had very limited time. His foot hit something and he looked down to see a charred book clutched in Alice’s hand. He stopped, wondering why anyone would be carrying an old children’s fairy tale into a battle.
‘All that’s left of your damn Wonderland is ashes.’
He began to move on when he felt a cold, clammy hand grip his feet. Appleseed froze with fear. One of the Biters was not yet destroyed. He spun around to face the threat when the door above him swing open and Satish and two other men ran in, rifles at the ready. Satish saw Appleseed and fired, grazing him on the shoulder. Appleseed fell to the ground, and his flashlight and pistol both fell from his hands. He clambered to his feet again, trying to find his weapon, when cold hands gripped his wrist and twisted it till he screamed in agony as his bones snapped. He managed to free his hand and saw his pistol lying nearby, but before he could grab it he saw a hand reaching for it and raising it towards him in the darkness. Bullet after bullet tore into Appleseed as he fell, not knowing who or what had killed him.
***
EPILOGUE
Six months later
‘Comrade General, are you sure you want us to land at the forward base?’
Chen glared at the pilot next to him. ‘Comrade Colonel, do I take it that your revolutionary fervor is waning in the face of the enemy?’
The pilot blanched and looked away, taking the helicopter into a slight turn as they approached the base near the Deadland. He knew that for all that had changed in the last six months, a mere insinuation from someone like Chen could send him and his family to a labor camp for indoctrination. That, he knew, was a death sentence in all but name.
Chen looked down at the parked APCs and the Red Guards milling about the base and wondered just how long they could keep any meaningful presence in the Deadland. Expressing such thoughts in front of his masters in the Central Committee would be unthinkable, but as a professional military man, he knew the momentum was against them. While he knew his career, and indeed his life, depended on unquestioning obedience to his masters, he also knew that when political masters refused to see battlefield realities, it usually meant that defeat was around the corner. It had begun with the events in the Deadland, revolving around that damned Biter Queen and the girl called Alice. The rout of the Red Guard base and Appleseed’s death was a minor tactical reverse, but the larger strategic ramifications of those events had been great. The large scale defections among Zeus had meant that the Central Committee had deemed that only frontline Red Guard units be used in the Deadland. That in turn had meant fewer troops for the continuing war in the Americas, where the enemy was making steady progress in its brutal insurgency campaign. But that was a military campaign – one Chen knew how to wage. What had happened in the Deadland was different, and more dangerous. An idea had been born: the idea that humans and Biters could somehow co-exist and that the Central Committee and its masters were behind the catastrophe that had been The Rising. The idea that it was possible to start to recreate civilization without the control of the Central Committee and its Red Guards. That idea had taken root throughout the Deadland and had begun to seep into the cities of the Mainland. That, Chen mused with a bitter smile, had perhaps less to do with ideology and more to do with the choking off of slave labor from the Deadland. When the citizens of Shanghai and Guangzhou were called on to work the farms, they realized the utopia the Central Committee had promised was not quite the same without slave labor from the Deadland to lubricate the wheels of their utopian society. A nascent campaign of resistance had begun, and many of the dangerous messages which had preceded The Rising – calls for freedom, democracy and accountability – were once again whispered in the Mainland.
The helicopter landed and Chen stepped out, saluting the Red Guards outside who stood at attention. He singled out the commanding officer, a burly officer whose eyes seemed to be constantly scanning the horizon. Chen had read his dossier. The major had never been in combat before, but had been a rising star back in Shanghai due to his political connections. The mere fact that officers like him were being shipped out to the Deadland to make up for losses among frontline troops was a clear sign of how the war was going.
‘Comrade Major Liang, how is the war progressing?’
The major snapped to attention, but Chen noticed that he seemed to be on edge.
‘Sir, we are carrying on our struggle to liberate the citizens of the Deadland from the tyranny of fear that the Biters impose and the counter-revolutionary ideas of the terrorists.’
Chen smirked. The young officer no doubt had excelled in his political education back in Shanghai. He just wondered how long he would last out here. As Chen sat in the Command Center and was subjected to a briefing containing what he had little doubt were largely fictional figures of losses the unit had inflicted on the enemy, his mind began to wander. He had no wish to be out here, but the Central Committee had decreed that senior officers needed to visit forward bases to bolster morale and no doubt provide photo-ops which would reassure the people back home that things were under control.
He was snapped back to reality when they heard a sentry cry out on the radio.
‘Multiple contacts coming in fast.’
Liang was instantly at his command screen, where live video from a circling unmanned drone overhead was being streamed. The looting of man-portable SAMs from overrun Red Guard armories and experienced Zeus operators to use them had meant that several drones had been lost in the last few months. As a result, drones were being used for largely static defense, hovering close to bases like this one. Still, it was better than getting no warning at all. Chen peered over Liang’s shoulder and saw six jeeps kicking up dust as they approached the base.
Something didn’t seem right to Chen. From all he had heard, the enemy was not so stupid as to walk into over
whelming firepower.
Liang barked into his radio, ‘Get the two gunships in the air. I want them obliterated before they get within RPG range.’
Another display showed the footage from both helicopter gunships as they took off and turned towards the approaching vehicles. The radio crackled with another transmission from the drone operator.
‘Sir, I have three more jeeps coming in from the opposite direction.’
Chen had a sinking feeling in his gut. They had two gunships at their base and should theoretically be able to deal with such a threat, but he had heard of too many bases being overrun. Part of him told him to get to his chopper and get out, but he could not abandon his troops when they were under attack.
He heard Liang speak in little more than a whisper.
‘It’s the witch. She rides with them.’
Chen’s attention snapped to the display and he saw a close up of one of the jeeps, and standing there was a young woman with her fair hair streaming behind her, her eyes covered by dark glasses. The other jeeps seemed to have only a driver, with the cab behind covered in what appeared to be canvas.
‘Sir, she cannot be killed. I have heard so many comrades…’
Chen shut Liang up viciously. ‘Comrade Major, you are the ranking officer in charge of this base. Weakness and superstitious babbling will not help your men. Decisive action will.’
Even as Chen said the words, he had to admit that he too felt a stab of irrational fear. It was one thing to fight men who could be killed and to hunt mindless Biters, but it was quite another to fight an enemy who supposedly could not be killed but could fight like the best trained soldier and handle the most sophisticated weaponry. This witch had been leading the enemy to victory after victory and now she seemed to be bearing down on him. Liang was so focused on the jeep carrying the witch that he paid little attention to the three jeeps that the drone had picked up.
