by Mainak Dhar
But getting Arun on the radio had been the easy part. Actually getting him to listen to what Alice had to say was proving impossible.
'Alice, thirty-four innocent people are dead, including more than twenty children. All killed by Biters, some of whose bodies we found. All this talk of Red Guards flying in Biters is fantastic but why would I not look closer to home and ask why all the Biters in the Reservation disappeared after the attacks?'
'I asked them to hide to avoid a bloodbath till we could clear things up.'
There was a pause. When Arun next spoke, Alice knew she had already lost.
'Alice, we got everyone together and had a snap election. We cannot be leaderless in this time of crisis, and I am now Prime Minister of Wonderland. I now bear the responsibility of taking care of all the thousands of people who depend on me, and I cannot act with the impulsiveness of youth that has perhaps led us to where we are.'
Alice heard Satish snort in disgust, but the last thing on her mind was bothering about barbs thrown her way.
'What if you are wrong? Do you want to risk more deaths?'
'We have strengthened our security. I have ordered all of the recon units to come back within Wonderland’s borders just a couple of hours ago.'
Satish exploded at that.
'Those are my men! You cannot order them back. Without them out there, we will get no early warning about what's going on outside.'
'Satish, you no longer command anyone,’ Arun replied. The civility had vanished from his voice. ‘You ceased to have that privilege and trust when you helped a fugitive escape. All your trigger-happy antics achieve is to provoke the Red Guards – even more so on this latest fugitive rescue mission of yours. The last thing I want is to have your fugitives inside Wonderland and risk retaliation by the Red Guards. The bottom line is that we have known months of peace, and I do not want to risk that.'
Alice said, 'Arun, please listen to me. You spend so much time in the Looking Glass yourself. You know as well as any of us that the world outside that we see through the Looking Glass is far from being at peace. Please give us a chance.'
'The only thing we need to talk about is you standing trial for complicity in the murder of so many innocents.' And with those final words, Arun ended the transmission.
***
'Comrade General, meet Lieutenant Li.'
Chen took in the neatly pressed Red Guard uniform, the shoulder labels of a lieutenant, the thin and wiry frame, and then last of all, the face that stared back at him. The face of a young woman with yellowed skin, red eyes and a wound on her left cheek that had left a large chunk of her skin hanging loose. She snapped to attention and saluted.
'Comrade General Chen. It is my pleasure to be working under your command.'
When she extended her hand, Chen took it without thinking and then felt a stab of panic as he realized she was as cold as a corpse. He stepped back.
'Comrade Commissar, who is she? What is going on?'
Hu now had a smug look on his face, as Chen began to realize that he had been totally oblivious to some of the moves occurring on this chessboard of war.
Li answered, 'Comrade General, I lost my brother and my father in the war against the terrorists in the Deadland. My brother was killed in battle against this so-called Queen, this witch that the terrorists follow. I was in our Special Forces, and wanted to strike back against the enemy who had caused me so much pain. But as you well know, our tactics were of little use, and when the Central Committee asked for volunteers for a special experiment to help us strike back, I raised my hand.'
Chen studied Li, seeing not the half-Biter monster that the scientists had somehow produced at the bidding of the Central Committee, but a young woman who had lost her family to a war based on lies. A woman who had been a good comrade, a good soldier who had never questioned the story sold to her. Was this the future? Did human salvation really lie in making monsters of us all? Was that the solution the Central Committee had to all their problems? It would surely be expedient; Biters would not ask questions and if they followed this so-called Red Queen like they followed the young girl called Alice; they would go to their deaths without any objections. It would mean not struggling for conscripts and the war could be waged in the dark, while the masses in the Mainland once again hid behind the facade of security and stability. But how would they win the war? What could one hybrid like this and a bunch of Biters really achieve?
Hu must have sensed the emotions on his face.
'Comrade General, any chess player will tell you that one piece or one move cannot be decisive. Our Red Queen has already made a couple of important moves, but we also have other pieces in play who will come into their own when the time comes. But now, Comrade General, let me tell you of what you need to do. So far we have made a few small forays but for bigger operations we will need your men to work together with Lieutenant Li and her forces, to co-ordinate our actions. Come back to your office and I will brief you on what needs to happen next.'
Thirty minutes later, Chen was back in his office. He had grown up as the son of a loyal Communist Party member and joining the Army had seemed a natural progression. He had first started questioning what he was doing when the regime started the brutal crackdowns in 2012 on popular protests in rural areas against land grabs and official corruption. That had culminated in the second bloodbath at Tiananmen Square when it had first hit home. Some of his fellow officers had dared to talk about mutiny, and Chen remembered conversations with his wife when they began to weigh their options. The Rising had changed everything. Biological attacks by the United States, regional wars and instability and retaliatory strikes by China had made everyone forget internal issues and everyone, Chen included, had rallied around the national cause.
Then came the horror of the Biters, and Chen and his fellow officers were thrown into the forefront of a terrible new war. Several months went by in a blur of savage fighting and Chen had initially been relieved when the Central Committee was formed and announced, hoping it would mean some stability and security. Securing food and safety for mainland citizens was the declared priority, and Chen signed up when the elite Red Guards were announced. Then came one revelation after another. The fact that they were to work with Zeus, an American Private Military Contractor, and then a war that soon shifted from being one waged in defense of the Mainland to an aggressive war of counter-insurgency in the Deadland. Chen had gone along, putting aside any misgivings before the terrible threat of the Biters and the need to secure food sources for the Mainland. He had directed the struggle with brutal vigor in the Deadland, with the clear understanding that the ones he was fighting were inhuman Biters and human terrorists who were disrupting the flow of food.
And then he had come face to face with Alice and the Biters, and his conviction had been shaken. He had already paid dearly for the doubts he had expressed then. What was he to do with what he had learnt today? How did one reconcile to being part of a campaign whose first salvo had included the murder of innocent children?
***
'All but two of my recon teams are back within the city limits! I never thought they would fold so easily.'
The disappointment and hurt on Satish's face was clear. Most of his men were those he had commanded in Zeus for several years and then fought shoulder to shoulder with in the war against the Red Guards. To have them now effectively desert him and report back to the city on Arun's orders had come as a shock.
Alice was silent. She understood Satish's frustration but also knew that many of the men had wives and families back in Wonderland. They would not risk being cut off from them – but at the same time, they were now willingly blinding themselves to the Red Guards’ next move. There were just two recon teams left, no more than a dozen men patrolling the vast expanse of the Deadland.
Vince was drawing something on the sand. Alice asked him what he was doing.
'We can figure out how to convince this Prime Minister of yours later. Right now, the best thi
ng we can do is to prevent another attack. I spent the last two hours talking to Satish to understand the lay of the land and how your city is situated. I flew V-22 Ospreys in the Marines for years, so I can guess where their chopper pilots will try to come in.'
Satish radioed his teams to cover two of the likely ingress routes. He and Alice would have to cover the third. As they gathered their weapons and backpacks, they saw Vince shoulder his rifle as well. Alice looked at him and Edwards.
'You don't have to join the fight if you don't want to. This is not your war.'
She saw Vince's eyes narrow.
'Alice, this is my war. My squadron was wiped out when we refused to do what Zeus and their masters wanted, and I lost my whole family in a Red Guard missile attack.'
Alice went ahead on her bike, intending to also make contact with the Biters and get them to join the battle. The problem was that they would only follow in helping the humans if she were there to lead them. Edwards was already frail and the escape had taken a heavy toll, so he sat behind her. Vince and Satish would cover the ten-kilometer distance on foot.
Alice reached one of the nearby tunnel openings that she knew the Biters used and threw a flare down. She hoped it would be noticed in time. She was about to reach their patrol area when she felt Edwards grip her shoulder tightly.
'I can see them coming.'
***
FIVE
Alice watched the two transport helicopters come in low and fast. She had not heard them until they were merely a few hundred meters away, but Edwards had seen them in the fading light. The moment she saw the helicopters, she ditched the bike and she and Edwards took cover behind a sand dune.
'I've never seen a helicopter as silent as these. No wonder they managed to come in for their attacks without us realizing it.'
Edwards peered around the dune’s edge. 'Stealth, or maybe it’s some sort of noise suppressant technology. The United States, China and some other countries had such technology before The Rising. Clearly they've been saving these for whatever they have in mind.'
Both helicopters landed as Alice kept watching in impotent rage. With her assault rifle and pistol, she would be able to do precious little against them. Edwards had been given a pistol, but it transpired that he’d never fired a gun before, so he would be of dubious utility in a fight. Even with Satish and Vince here they’d be hopelessly outnumbered.
The rear doors swung open on the large helicopters and Alice saw several figures walk out. From their shuffling gait it was obvious they were Biters. Alice raised her rifle scope to her eyes to take a closer look and saw what she had noticed before in Wonderland: these Biters were all wearing clean clothes and did not seem to have the many wounds and mutilations that Biters in the Deadland would almost inevitably have.
'Doctor, they seem to have produced their Biters, but one thing makes no sense to me. Biters would never follow a human being this way. How did they manage it?'
Edwards had no answer but kept watching as a total of more than fifty Biters filed out and stood there, as if awaiting orders. Alice gasped almost audibly as a woman in a Red Guard uniform walked out and the Biters knelt before her. The woman was wearing dark glasses and had her mouth covered in a mask, presumably to keep out the stench of the Biters.
'That's impossible! I've never seen Biters take orders from a human.'
Edwards’ mind reeled, grappling with the science. 'I know they managed to inject healthy, loyal Chinese citizens to transform them into Biters. Perhaps they were able to create variations in the virus.'
Alice stayed focused on the assembled Biters. Their origin was unimportant; the main concern now was preventing them from reaching Wonderland. She did not fully understand what the Red Guards' plan was, but with the two Biter attacks they had effectively stripped Wonderland of much of its defenses. Alice and Satish, two of the most experienced in combat, were essentially outlaws; the Biters who had provided Alice's forces with much of its strength of numbers could no longer be counted on to defend Wonderland; and now the deep recon teams who served as their eyes and ears in the Deadland had been withdrawn to the city.
As Alice watched, the Biters began walking behind the Red Guard officer. It was less than a thirty-minute walk to the borders of Wonderland and once inside, Alice knew the kind of havoc they could wreak. The two helicopters stayed where they were, and other than the pilots there did not seem to any other Red Guards on board. That was at least one saving grace; that meant there would not be anyone to man the Gatling guns mounted on the helicopters.
Alice heard a double click on her tactical radio. That meant Satish and Vince were almost there, but she could not afford to wait. She had to do something to delay the Biters. The Red Guard officer was now striding past them, with the Biters following her, and as Alice watched the Biters began to disperse. If she didn’t take them out as they were bunched up, it would be almost impossible to track them all down.
Alice took out a grenade from her belt and pulled the pin. She took a deep breath and then hurled it at the passing group. To her dismay, the Red Guard officer either had great instincts or was just very lucky. She looked up to see the dark projectile coming through the air and screamed and dove to her right. The Biters could not react with such speed and agility and as the grenade exploded, Alice saw at least three of them go down. It might not have killed them, but at least they would not move any further. The officer was now shouting orders and the Biters began to converge on her position. Edwards had his gun out and was firing, but all he managed to do was to distract them for a second before they again closed in on them. Alice now had her rifle out and was firing on single-shot mode. She took out two Biters before pulling Edwards back with her, climbing a short hill. Her only hope was to hold out until reinforcements came and to trade space for kills. She saw the Red Guard officer screaming orders and five of the Biters detached from the main group and came around from the left. Biters who could follow combat tactics on a human's orders and flank enemy positions was something Alice had never seen, but clearly this officer had some such control over them. She knelt and fired again, felling one more Biter before retreating further up the hill.
Suddenly she heard a loud roar and saw dark shapes emerge from a hole about a hundred meters to her left. Her Biters had got the message and come to her assistance. Hatter was the first out, followed by Bunny Ears and twenty more Biters. When Hatter saw the danger Alice was in, he screamed and the Biters following him tore into the attackers. Alice watched as Hatter caught one of the Biters by the neck and nearly tore his head off. Bunny Ears had only one good arm, but he and another Biter wrestled a six-foot giant down. All around Alice, Biters were locked in hand-to-hand combat, clawing and biting each other to shreds. What was clear was that Hatter and his Biters were both outnumbered and outmatched. The Biters who followed Alice had been transformed years ago, and their bodies had all the damage and wear and tear that came with being a Biter in the Deadland. The Red Guard Biters, meanwhile, were healthy by comparison, young and fit.
They were now too mixed up together for Alice to use her assault rifle, so she handed it to Edwards and took out her favored combination for close combat: knife in one hand and handgun in the other. She ran towards the melee and saw a Biter come at her from her left. A shot to the kneecap sent him stumbling down and another to the head took him out as she ran past him, barely breaking her stride. Another Biter came at her and lashed out at her. Alice was momentarily knocked off balance, but she recovered in a second, going down on one knee to avoid the next blow and stabbing up with her knife, severing the Biter’s hamstring. As the Biter stumbled, she put a bullet in his head. Alice's mind was a mask of concentration, filtering out everything other than the immediate threat in front of her, and her hands and legs moved as if by their own volition, driven by years of training and combat experience.
Another Biter went down before her and then she saw the Red Guard officer. Alice saw the officer was armed with a short sword and as Alice wat
ched, she swung it in a deadly arc, decapitating one of Alice's Biters.
Hatter was now behind the officer and Alice saw him grab the officer's arm and bite into it. Before Alice could see what happened next, a Biter came in front of her. His teeth were dripping blood and his face was torn in several places. He lunged to bite, but Alice swiped with her knife first, catching him in the throat. Before he could recover, she shot him in the face.
She paused for a second to get her bearings. It seemed that Hatter had succeeded in taking out the Red Guard officer; and without someone to control and co-ordinate them it would be easier to pick off the remaining Biters.
Alice heard a scream and looked up, and for a second her mind refused to believe what her eyes were seeing. The Red Guard officer had a large chunk of flesh torn out of her left arm but she was hardly out of the fight. No human could have been bitten by Hatter and not been affected. The officer pivoted on one leg and kicked, making solid contact with Hatter's face, stopping him in his tracks. In one fluid movement, she turned and brought her sword up and cut through Hatter's stomach, slicing upwards as she cut through his chest. The move would have killed any human, but Hatter was oblivious to pain, and the unexpected resistance only enraged him further. He tried to claw the officer's face and she swerved out of the way in the nick of time, losing her glasses and mask in the process. Before Hatter could attack again, she had cut him off at the right knee with her sword. Hatter collapsed on the ground and she brought her sword down on his head.
'No!'
Alice ran – but it was too late. Hearing her scream, the Red Guard officer stood up to face her. Now Alice was close enough to see her features and she stopped, her mind trying to reconcile to the impossibility of what she saw before her. The Red Guard smiled.
'This is an unexpected bonus. I had not hoped to meet you so soon. Now die at the hands of the Red Queen!'
