Alice in Deadland Trilogy (10 page)

‘Hold your fire!’

She turned and saw Dewan standing there, with his rifle
raised to his shoulders. For a second, she harbored hopes that he would rescue
her, but she realized that his rifle was pointing straight at her.

Without taking his eyes off her, he spoke to the troopers.
‘Do you morons ever think with your brains? Check the Communicator and see who
she is.’

Alice was frozen in place, knowing that there was no way she
could get away without being shot as one of the troopers took out a small
device from his pocket and looked at it. All four troopers were now standing at
attention in front of Dewan as he continued to give them a tongue lashing.

‘She is a wanted terrorist, not a plaything for you idiots,
and I want her alive for questioning. Now go and join the unit and I’ll bring
her in myself.’

Suitably chastised, the four troopers left as Dewan walked
towards Alice, his gun still raised.

‘Colonel...’

‘Shut up!’

Alice was shocked by the reply she got from Dewan, who had
been so friendly and helpful when she had last met him. He kept his gun raised
in his left hand while he took out a small device with his right hand and
pointed it at Alice.

‘Take a look at this.’

The screen showed a picture of Alice with a lot of words
around it. On top were the words `Wanted’. Alice would have taken too long to
try and decipher all the other words so she asked Dewan what it said.

‘It says that you’re a dangerous terrorist wanted in the
deaths of several Red Guards and suspected of collaborating with elements who
are out to destabilize the peace that the Central Committee is trying to bring
to the Deadland.’

Alice almost laughed at the absurdity of it all.

‘Come on, Colonel, you know I’m no terrorist. Do you even
know what that Appleseed did?’

Dewan came close and now Alice could see that he looked
frightened.

‘I know it all, which is why I’ve been looking for you. I
know this terrorist thing is all garbage, but I don’t know why this is
happening. When I found out what happened to your settlement and that they were
hunting you, I came down to try and get to you first.’

Alice felt a wave of relief wash over her, but she noticed
that Dewan was suddenly alert.

‘The rest of the squad will be here anytime. Got anywhere we
can talk in private?’

Alice wondered if she should mention that her definition of
private meant being in the company of two hundred people and several Biters,
but thought better of it. She remembered what the Queen had said about finding
someone in authority who would be willing to believe them, and Dewan seemed
like her last hope.

She motioned for Dewan to follow her and they disappeared in
the jungle before the first trooper got there.

***

Alice guided Dewan through one of the hidden entrances to
the base, which had been carved out of the trunk of a tree. Dewan looked around
as he entered the narrow tunnel.

'How did you guys make such an elaborate hiding place in
just a few days?'

Alice did not reply, weighing in her mind when and how she
should break the full reality of her situation to Dewan. She needed him to be
on her side and to trust her, and she was not sure if revealing the true nature
of the Biters and Zeus would be too much too soon. As they progressed down the
tunnel far enough that Alice was confident they could not be heard overground,
she asked Dewan to sit down.

'Colonel...'

'Just call me Amit.'

'Ok, Amit. There's a lot going on here that you need to know
about. I don't know where to start. It all sounds crazy.'

Dewan laid a reassuring hand on her shoulder. He was very different
from her father. He was shorter, built much broader, and had a much squarer
face, but his eyes had the same kindness in them. Alice found it easy to be
relaxed in his company as he spoke.

'Alice, I was a newly commissioned officer in the Indian Army.
I had a girl I was going to propose to. I had a career to look ahead to. Then
one day, my life and my world collapsed around me, and I found myself fighting
for survival. I hid in the Deadland for months, surviving off the land, using
my special forces training in a way I had never imagined before, fighting
Biters and human scavengers alike, till I was picked up by a Zeus helicopter.
They were the first promise of stability and safety in this crazy new world,
and I signed up without a second thought. Since then, my life has had one
purpose: to fight the monsters who had caused so much loss and to help the
humans still in the Deadland. I never doubted anything I was doing, till now.
So compared to what I have seen and been through, nothing you tell or show me
can be too crazy for me to handle.'

Alice was about to begin when a shadow moved in front of her
and she gasped. It was Bunny Ears, standing there looking at her, as if
wondering why she was with a Zeus trooper inside the base.

'Holy shit!'

Dewan was on his feet and was about to bring his rifle up.
Bunny Ears, startled by the move, had bared his teeth and was hissing when
Alice grabbed Dewan's hands.

'Amit, no! Please don't shoot!'

'But, this is...'

Alice looked at him, pleading with him.

'Just believe me for a minute and come further down. You'll
see for yourself everything that I've discovered and the real reason behind why
Appleseed suddenly wants me and my friends dead.'

Dewan seemed to be struggling with himself for some time.
All his training and experience were telling him to open fire, yet he wanted to
trust Alice. When Alice let go of his hands, she saw him look at her but then
quickly shift his gaze to Bunny Ears.

'Alice, if you were a terrorist and you wanted me dead, I
wouldn't be alive now. So I will trust you – but not this...thing. Any sudden
move and I blow his head off.'

Bunny Ears growled as Dewan looked at him defiantly. An
uneasy truce having been established between them, the three of them walked
down the narrow path deeper into the base. When they entered the hall where the
humans were sheltering, Alice heard several weapons being raised and cocked at
the sight of a Zeus trooper in uniform. Alice stepped in front of Dewan.

'Please, he's a friend. He can help us.'

Everyone listened to Alice, but if looks could kill, Dewan
would have been dead within a few paces with everyone in the room looking at
him with undisguised hostility and contempt. Alice took him straight to the
Queen's room, and apparently having heard of the arrival of a guest, she was
dressed for the occasion, wearing her dark glasses and gloves and with a shawl
covering her body. One glance at her and something clicked in Dewan's head and
he took out his palmtop device.

'Let me guess. I am a wanted terrorist in your system, am I
not?'

He looked sheepishly at the Queen, who smiled, showing
reddish teeth that caused Dewan to blanch as he began to wonder who or what he
was dealing with. Alice asked him to sit and told the Queen about how he had
helped her earlier, and then looked at Dewan.

'Amit, please listen to what she has to say and read the
documents she has. That's all I ask of you. Just listen to it all first before
you say anything.'

Dewan sat impassively as the Queen took him through her
tale, complete with all the documents she had and topped off with her revealing
her true nature. Alice saw that Dewan didn't seem fazed at all by everything he
saw. If anything, he seemed lost in thought, almost as if his mind were
somewhere else. When the Queen finished, all eyes were on Dewan, waiting to see
what his reaction would be. He got up and let his breath out in an audible sigh
and then buried his face in his hands. Alice was worried that he was losing it
and started to walk towards him, but he held out a palm, motioning for her to
stop. When he finally spoke, it was in a tone that was barely a whisper.

'When people are scared enough, they begin to accept any
form of tyranny because unquestioning obedience to unknown masters is better
than facing known dangers.'

Alice sensed that Dewan needed to talk, so she stepped back
as Dewan continued, talking more to himself than to anyone in the room.

'In all these years, I never asked who we served. All I
heard was that the Central Committee had been set up in China and was
overseeing all rehabilitation efforts, but I never asked who they were. I met
my senior officers once in a while, and the only order they gave was simple:
exterminate the Biters and bring more humans in the Deadland into settlements
regulated by the Central Committee. When settlements refused to sign up, we
were somehow assigned other duties, and we saw Red Guards from China who were
flown in and kept in isolated camps on our bases, but we never asked why they
had to come in.'

He stopped, and then looked at Alice, and she saw the
beginnings of tears in his eyes.

'I saw thousands of people flown to China to be resettled.
There were always rumors that they were being taken to slave camps, but I
always ignored the stories, convincing myself that these were just conspiracy theories.
You know the funny thing about everything you've shown me?'

Alice watched the Colonel come to grips with himself as he
continued.

'The funny thing is that I, and perhaps many other officers,
guessed that there was something going on, that this mysterious Central
Committee was not just doing things out of the goodness of its heart, that we
were serving masters whose agendas were not always transparent. But we had seen
how chaotic and fickle life was in the Deadland, with no authority or
government, and we chose to close our eyes and hang on to the illusion that we
were fighting a just war. But what you've showed me goes so far beyond just
today's reality. This could change everything!'

The Queen had been watching Dewan and now she came closer.

'Colonel, we need your help. We know we cannot survive a war
against the Central Committee forever, but we need someone in the
administration to help get the truth out. Is there someone in power we could
reach out to?'

Dewan shook his head. 'I don't know, and with Appleseed now
so involved in the operations, I don't know whom to trust. As I said, I've
never even seen anyone on the Central Committee, but you don't need to reach
the top to get your message across.'

'What do you mean?'

Dewan looked at Alice as he answered her. 'We start at the
bottom: with the common troops, young boys and girls from settlements like
yours, who form the backbone of Zeus here. That's where we get this thing
started.'

***

NINE

Several of the humans were gathered around Dewan as he dug
into his backpack and took out a flat, sleek device.

'What it it?'

Alice's mother answered her. 'Looks a lot like a tablet
computer, but I haven't seen one in years.'

Alice had grown up without many of the technological
trappings and toys that kids had enjoyed before The Rising, and by the time she
had grown up enough to understand what they were, the people at her settlement
had lost or thrown away their computers and cellphones. She leaned over her
mother's shoulder to see what Dewan had in his hand. The device suddenly seemed
to come to life with bright, vivid colors appearing on its screen. She saw the
Zeus logo, which was then replaced by lots of numbers and letters and symbols.
As Dewan touched one of the pictures with a finger, a new set of visuals and
text filled the surface. To Alice, it looked almost magical. Her mother was
reading it aloud for the benefit of everyone around.

'The Central Committee has announced the beginning of the
new harvest season, where workers are joyously participating in planting seeds
and working the fields in preparation for a new year of prosperity. Chairman
Wang has said that the Red Guards are vigorously pursuing heroic actions in the
Deadland in India and America to continue their victorious charge against the
Biter hordes, and in helping bring more human survivors into the fold of the
People's Revolution.'

Alice could see her mother's mouth twist in disgust as she
looked at Dewan.

'What is this crap? Do the Chinese control everything now?'

Dewan looked at her, surprise on his face.

'Didn't you know? Oh, I forgot, you guys have been off the
grid for some time now. A few years after The Rising, when people started
rebuilding, China was the only major power that was relatively untouched, and
they set about taking charge under the Central Committee. They used the old
Chinese Army as the beginning of the Red Guards but then contracted Zeus to
help in the Deadland.'

The Queen was now right behind Dewan.

'I find it very convenient that the net outcome of The
Rising was that the US and other powers were largely scattered and destroyed
and China emerged as the centre of the new human civilization. I used to think
that the US decision to hit China was madness on our part. Now, I'm not so
sure. Perhaps it was true that the elites in the West who wanted a New World
Order joined up with the Chinese to engineer this.'

Dewan sat in silence, considering it in his mind. 'Look, Dr.
Protima, I was in the old Indian Army and we hardly saw China as a friend, but
I'm not sure they would have done this. Why destroy the whole world and rule
over the ashes?'

Alice's mother spoke up. 'Colonel, I worked in a bank in my
old life, and we all remember the way the world was. Markets were melting down
and the US on the verge of defaulting on its debt. There were protests
throughout the world against the elite who had brought the world to such a
state. China's economy was booming, but it was also the largest holder of US
debt: if the US had collapsed and defaulted, China would have been ruined. Add
to that growing demands for democracy in China, and the second Tinanmen Square
massacre of 2012, and I don't find it hard to believe they could have
engineered this. From what I see here, they seem to be fine, maybe because they
prepared for it. They still have big cities, and are using slave labor from the
Deadland to harvest their crops and feed their people. And every surviving
human is so terrified that they are willing to live with any level of dictatorship
if it means some level of safety.'

Alice's mind was reeling. Why would anyone destroy so much,
and kill so many countless numbers of people, to hold on to power? She began to
understand why her father had hated men who craved power and had tried so hard
to keep their settlement out of the clutches of Zeus and its masters. Now, as
she looked at Dewan, she began to see the first cracks appear as he perhaps for
the first time began to understand the role he had unwittingly played in the
whole conspiracy.

Alice sat down next to him. 'Amit, what can we do to fight
this army of theirs? Could you help train some of us or maybe help us get
better weapons?'

Dewan shook his head. 'No, Alice. You cannot win this war
through weapons alone. What you've seen is nothing compared to the firepower
they have. The Zeus troopers only have personal weapons and some air support,
but the Central Committee has missiles and heavy bombers. They would flatten us
without us even getting a chance to take a shot at them.'

'So what do we do?'

Dewan was up and he began pacing the room.

'Exactly as I said before, we need to get the rank and file
of the Zeus troops to know the truth. Once they know what they are doing and
who they are really serving, we'll get more allies in the battle.'

Alice's mother was now holding the tablet and she looked at
Dewan, an idea forming in her mind.

'We are totally cut from the information networks Zeus and
the Central Committee uses, but you are plugged into it. If you leave this
tablet here, we could post messages that all Zeus troopers would be able to
see.'

Dewan clearly didn't think that was a good idea as he shook
his head vigorously.

'They would track the tablet down in a few minutes and how
could...'

As he was saying something, he suddenly stopped, as if a new
idea had struck him.

'What if I lost my backpack in a firefight and someone took
my kit, including my tablet?'

The Queen saw where Dewan was going and chipped in, 'Could
any of us use this device? We haven't been near computers for years and this is
more advanced than anything we used in our time.'

A man stepped forward. 'Hey, I was really into tech and was
a blogger before The Rising. I'm sure I could learn if the Colonel here showed
me the basics.'

'Then we have a plan.'

Alice looked at Dewan. 'Plan? We keep the tablet here, and
figure out some way of getting messages to the Zeus troopers, but what about
you?'

Dewan looked at her. 'I go back to my base, pretending to
have survived a ferocious firefight, and then continue being a loyal soldier to
the Central Committee.'

Several people began to speak up at the same time, and the
Queen had to raise her voice to hush them.

'Quiet, everyone. Let him finish.'

'But how can we be sure he won't lead them here?'

Dewan turned to face the speaker, an elderly woman who
shrank back under his gaze.

'Look, you just have to trust me. I took enough of a risk
wandering out alone to look for Alice. If I just wanted to follow orders, I
would have arrested or killed her when I had her alone in the forest.'

Alice heard a few more people grumble, so she stood in front
of Dewan and addressed the crowd.

'Everyone, on this you need to trust me. The Colonel didn't
have to come down here with me, he didn't need to save me from his men in the
forest, and he certainly didn't need to put himself at so much risk by trusting
me. I trust him, and ask you to go along with his plan if you trust me.'

Her words carried the day, and as Alice watched everyone
back down, and many of the gathered people averted their gazes when she looked
at them, she was once more surprised at what she had become. She had never
wanted to be a leader of any sort, and certainly would not have asked for the
responsibility and burden that came with it, but now, whether she liked it or
not, she realized that everyone was looking to her. She just hoped that she did
not mess things up too much.

Dewan touched her gently on the shoulder. 'Thanks, Alice.
You'll all be better off having someone on the inside helping you.'

After brief goodbyes, Dewan gathered his weapon but left the
rest of his kit behind and slipped out into the forest. He turned once to wave
at her and then Alice saw him disappear behind the trees. Her heart was
pounding as she wondered if she had done the right thing by letting him go or
had doomed all of them.

***

Dewan was sitting at his desk, typing his After Action
Report for the third time. He had sent in his first draft, which had been sent
back by Appleseed with more than a dozen questions. He had tried to address all
of them systematically, but knew that no matter what he wrote down in a formal
memo, he could not address the underlying skepticism of how an elite officer
like him was caught in close combat with terrorists and managed to escape
without his kit. His second draft had gone through to the Central Committee in
Shanghai and had come back with more notations and questions. Dewan had
half-hoped that he would not attract too much scrutiny but with the high level
of anxiety, even paranoia, that Appleseed had about Alice and the escaped humans,
he was not going to let Dewan off the hook so easily. Dewan noticed that
Appleseed said nothing about the attack on the settlement and made no mention
of the Queen. If Dewan had any doubts about what he had heard from Alice and
the others, Appleseed's behavior nailed it for him.

The Messenger window on his screen beeped and he saw that he
was being called for a debriefing to Appleseed's office. When he reached there
a few minutes later, he was surprised to see Appleseed sitting with a Chinese
general whom he had never met before. The slight man was wearing his cap even
indoors, and as he stood, Dewan saw the red star emblazoned on it. Dewan
saluted and the man returned his salute.

'At ease, Colonel. I am General Chen from the Central
Committee. I flew down from Shanghai last night to meet you for myself.'

Dewan was instantly on guard.

'Sir, I would have been available anytime for a call. I'm
sorry you had to travel so far on my account.'

Chen smiled, his thin lips pursed back, and Dewan realized
that he was looking at a man who could be very dangerous.

'Colonel, you have had a number of brushes with the Biters
recently, and you brought in this counter-revolutionary, this girl Alice. We
have spoken to some of your men and it seems you had recaptured her when they
last saw you.'

Dewan tried not to betray the fear he felt.

'Sir, I had her, but when I was bringing her in, I was
ambushed by a force of her supporters and I lost her.'

Chen looked at him for several seconds before turning his
back to Dewan.

'Yes, Colonel, and it seems you lost much of your kit,
including your service tablet.'

'Yes, sir. One of them grabbed my backpack and pulled it
off.'

Chen was picking something off the desk and when he turned
to face Dewan, he was carrying a tablet in his hand. He powered it on and
tapped the Browser. When it opened up, Dewan saw a new post on the Intranet
Board used by Zeus. His heart skipped a beat when he saw the headline.

What is the real truth behind The Rising? Read more to
find out.

'Colonel, this was posted last evening. We triangulated the
location to somewhere deep in the Deadland, but of course nobody was there when
a squad got there.'

When Dewan replied truthfully that he had not seen the post,
Chen smiled.

'Of course you did not. It was up for only five minutes
before we removed it and locked your account, from which it was posted. That
won't stop whoever did it from creating new accounts and posting again, but it
does make you wonder. Biters cannot use tablets, but their terrorist human
collaborators can. Counter-revolutionaries like this Alice of yours.'

The last two words caught Dewan totally off guard, and he
realized he was walking a razor's edge and that anything he said could land him
in serious danger.

'Sir, I have devoted the last fourteen years to serving the
cause we all fight for, and I want to help in any way I can.'

Chen dismissed him and told him that he could go and rejoin
his unit.

'Colonel, I may take you up on that offer someday.'

Dewan reached his desk, his heart pounding. He knew his
story was wafer thin, and the fact that Chen was here showed just how a serious
a threat the Central Committee saw the situation as. Media and what had been
recreated of the Internet was strictly regulated, and nobody had really complained,
once again trading off democracy for security. But for the first time ever,
that tightly controlled information flow had been breached.

A few minutes later, he went to the cafeteria to have dinner
and saw several troopers there. He sat down next to a few young recruits and
while they quickly shut up when he sat, he could see that they had been in the
middle of an animated conversation.

'So, guys, what were you talking about?'

One of the troopers looked around, as if seeking support
from his comrades, and then looked at Dewan. 'Sir, it's nothing; just some
stupid rumors some of the guys had seen.'

Dewan had always been well liked by his men, not least
because he was always accessible and was someone they could count on to help.
Many of his men had been mere boys who had been picked up from the Deadland,
and Dewan had trained them and, in many cases, saved their lives in combat.

He looked at a young trooper he knew well. 'Satish, what are
these rumors?'

The young trooper seemed to be struggling with how to say
what was on his mind.

'Sir, it seems someone hacked into your account and posted
some stuff about The Rising last night. A few of the guys happened to read it,
and have been telling all sorts of wild stories.'

Dewan had to stop himself from smiling.

'I heard some bastards hacked my account. What did they
post?'

Another trooper spoke, seemingly hesitant to even say the
words out loud. 'Something about The Rising having been caused by human
governments and about how China was behind so much of it.'