Alice in Deadland Trilogy (12 page)

‘What…’

Alice never got a chance to finish her sentence as her voice
was drowned out by the drone of multiple jet engines overhead. Alice looked up
see dozens of jets approaching from over the horizon. She had seen the
occasional Zeus attack helicopter, but she had never seen aircraft such as
this: large bombers with swept wings, flying in formation, darkening the sky
like a swarm of locusts.

'Nikhil! Are they coming to bomb where we last transmitted
from?'

She saw that Nikhil was staring at the approaching armada,
his face frozen in fear.

'Alice, they don't need so many heavy bombers to target one
location. That fleet could flatten many, many miles of land.'

'Could they get through to our underground shelters?'

Nikhil never took his eyes off the approaching aircraft as
he replied, 'I don't know. Some of them seem to be hardened bomb shelters that
were built before The Rising, but the rest are no more than old sewers,
maintenance tunnels and underground parking lots. Those wouldn't survive a
direct hit. And nobody in the open would have a chance.'

Alice thought of the hundreds of people, including her
mother and sister, in one of those shelters, and of the hundreds, perhaps
thousands, of human settlements overground in the Deadland.

'Nikhil, we've got to...'

Alice stopped in mid-sentence. She really didn't know what
she could say that would be even remotely adequate. They couldn't really warn
anyone, and there was no question of saving anyone else's lives. They were
still more than a kilometer away from the underground entrance that would lead
them to where the rest of their group was hidden. She stood quietly for a
minute, looking back at the direction they had come from, and she could see
several pillars of smoke rising in the horizon. Fires at the human settlements,
where people were seeking warmth or perhaps cooking their frugal meals, and
perhaps, like Alice and Nikhil, watching the approaching fleet, not knowing
what was coming their way.

Alice felt Nikhil pull hard at her arm.

'Alice, they aren't that far away. All we can do is run and
try and find some cover.'

Alice ran like she had never run before, and soon they could
see the three large yellow leaves laid across a branch that signaled the
entrance to their underground passage. Alice turned to say something to Nikhil,
and saw that he was struggling to keep up. She screamed something to him, but
her voice was now drowned out by the roar of the dozens of engines overhead.
Alice dove through the branches and clambered on all fours through the narrow
passageway, hoping that Nikhil was following. She knew that there was little
cover overhead other than tree trunks and kept going faster, her palms and
knees cut and scratched in a dozen places as she reached the near vertical drop
that led to the hardened bomb shelter below.

She dove in as the first bombs hit and she fell to the
concrete floor. As she managed to sit up and get her bearings, she felt the
ground shake all around her and bits and pieces of the concrete roof chip off
and fall as the bombs continued to rain down. There was no sign of Nikhil. She
screamed out for him several times but heard no response. In the darkness, she
felt along the walls for the unlit torch she knew would be there, and from her
backpack took out the small can of fuel and flint she needed to light it. When
it was lit, she saw that larger pieces of the ceiling were now falling down
towards her and when one particularly large piece missed her head by inches,
she hung the torch on the wall and lay down in a fetal position, with her head
covered in her hands. The rumbling continued and she thought she heard a voice
and she looked up to see Nikhil at the edge of the drop. He threw his backpack
down and was about to jump down when there was a huge crash that lifted Alice
cleanly off the ground and threw her across the corridor.

Then she saw no more.

***

Dewan studied the pistol in his hands, wondering just how
much easier it was to take another life than to contemplate taking one's own.
He had no family and not much that he could say he had to live for, yet it
seemed awfully hard to put the gun to his head and pull the trigger. He had
shot others, men and Biters, dozens of times without conscious thought in the
years of fighting that had dominated his life, but now he could not bring
himself to do the same to himself. It wasn't just fear that held him back,
though that was certainly there, but a feeling of infinite sadness that came
from realizing that his life had not really amounted to much after all. He had
spent most of his life serving a cause that had been a lie, and when he thought
he had a chance to make amends, it was all too little too late. He had seen the
heavy bombers fly in from Tibet and knew that Chen's orders were as simple as
they were brutal. He had ordered a saturation fire-bombing of the Deadland near
Delhi, with wave upon wave of flights till nothing remained. Dewan had been
unable to face his own troops in the cafeteria, local boys who had looked at
him with horrified eyes. He had no answers for the questions behind those eyes.
No answers as to why their friends and families had just been sentenced to a
horrific death by the same Central Committee they were serving to supposedly
help human survivors.

Hundreds of Red Guards had flown in the night before and all
Zeus units where desertions had taken place had been disarmed and were now
effectively under arrest. The Central Committee propaganda machine was in
overdrive with reports about how counter-revolutionaries and terrorists had
subverted some isolated units in the Deadland in North India and were currently
being pacified by the heroic efforts of the Red Guards. Dewan had taken the
risk of sending out his warning, but he knew it was likely to be too late. He
also knew that it was too late for him. The Red Guards would be coming for him
soon.

As he put the gun to his head one last time, he heard
footsteps outside his door and he paused. No, if he was going to die, he would
at least put what remained of his life to some use after all.

He brought up the Browser on his tablet and logged in to his
official email account. He had already barricaded his door with a bulky
bookshelf and he heard banging on the door as he began typing. He wrote at
breakneck speed, writing of what he had learnt, of the deception behind The
Rising, and then of how Chen and his masters in the Central Committee were
misleading all Zeus troops. He heard shots as the Red Guards outside shredded
the door with automatic weapons and began kicking it open. Dewan finished and
pressed ‘send' as the first Red Guard came in. Dewan flung his tablet at the
man and as the Red Guard lost his balance, shot him twice. Two more Red Guards
came into the room and Dewan put them down with single shots to the head. Years
of hunting Biters had taught him a thing or two that were finally going to be
put to some use, he thought as he picked up the first Guard's rifle and rolled
behind his study desk. He saw feet gathered outside his door and fired a short
burst, hearing screams as the Guards took cover. He heard something hit the
floor and looked to see a black cylinder rolling towards him. As the stun
grenade went off, he closed his eyes, but he had not been fast enough. When he
opened his eyes, he saw little more than flashes of white and black and he
stood up unsteadily, trying to gauge from the footsteps where the Guards were,
and fired his rifle on full automatic, not knowing if he hit anyone. He was
trying to blink away the bright lights when the first bullets struck him.

Alice opened her eyes, and the first thing she felt was the
wetness on her face. For a moment she wondered where all the water had come
from, but the rusty smell and the acrid taste told her that it was her own
blood. She got up gingerly, and as she looked around she saw that the
passageway she was in was bathed in light. She looked up to see a hole in the
ground above that had been blasted open by the bombing. Several large pieces of
concrete lay around her and as she felt the throbbing lump on her head from
which blood still flowed, and the countless scrapes and cuts all over her body,
she knew that she had been hit by her fair share or more of the debris. Still,
she was alive, and that was something to be thankful for. She took a deep
breath and felt her ribs hurt, and hoped that she had not broken anything
inside. The dust raised by the shattered concrete made her gag with every
breath and she found that the passageway leading onto the tunnels she had
planned to enter had collapsed. She tried to grab handholds on the walls to
climb out of the hole caused by the bombing – and then she saw Nikhil. Or
rather, she saw his hand, still grabbing his tablet. The rest of him was hidden
under a giant slab of concrete. Alice knelt down beside him for a few seconds,
feeling his lifeless, cold hands, and then she took the tablet from his grip,
putting it into hers.

'Goodbye, Nikhil.'

She climbed out and saw something that looked like the Hell
that the old religions had believed in. Some humans still prayed before their
idols and crosses and holy books, but Alice had never really been brought up
with any particular gods to believe in. Her father had once told her that there
must be a power beyond human comprehension, otherwise The Rising could never be
explained, yet it was vain and stupid to create our own vision of these gods
and fight over whose vision was right. The fear of Biters and human marauders
hunting you down had a good way of making people band together, irrespective of
the gods they once worshipped. Nevertheless, Alice now knew what the old
religions had meant when they spoke of a place called Hell. All around her, the
forests were on fire, vast charred swathes of ashes and burning stumps that
finally did justice to the name this area had carried for years: the Deadland.

Alice ran as fast as she could, desperate to reach her
mother, sister and the others. After a few minutes of running, she came upon
the ruins of a small settlement. The dozen or so small tents had been almost
vaporized by the bombing, and other than ashes and a few scattered limbs, there
was no sign of any people. Alice gagged and threw up on the ground, blinking
back tears.

How many thousands had died today? What kind of men could be
capable of such evil?

The answer was right there for her to see. The same kind of
men who had almost wiped out human civilization so that they could rule over
the ashes. The same men who now hid behind the anonymity of the Central
Committee and used the Red Guards and Zeus troopers to enforce their will,
wiping out any remaining trace of resistance and ruling over their empire while
the rest of humanity lived and died like animals.

Alice ran on, her mind plagued with worries for what had
happened to the others, but through the agony she felt in her mind and body,
one thought was crystal clear.

She would make sure Nikhil and the thousands of others who
had perished today would not go unavenged.

***

ELEVEN

Alice ran through a charred forest, trying hard to see
through the smoke and to breathe despite the suffocating fumes all around her.
Much of the ground was still burning as far as she could see. What kind of
weapons had the Red Guards unleashed that had caused such damage, turning acres
of land into a sea of fire? She raised her hands to her mouth, trying to stifle
a gasp of horror as she saw a gaping hole where the entrance to their shelter
should have been. She kept hoping that perhaps people would have had a chance
to go deeper into the hardened shelters further underground, but as she ran
closer she knew she was hoping against hope. People would have stayed in the
larger but less secure chambers close to the surface. There was no reason for
them to cram into the smaller chambers deeper underground as they had no
warning of what was coming. She stopped abruptly as she saw what the hole in
the ground revealed, and then she fell to her knees, crying and screaming as
she saw dozens of bodies heaped upon each other, many burnt beyond recognition.

Alice didn
’
t
know how long she just sat there, afraid to go in and see the true extent of
the horror inside and unwilling to confront her loss. She felt a hand on her
shoulder and whirled around, ready to fight. Instead she saw the Queen standing
there unsteadily, her body cut in dozens of places and her left hand a stump
below the elbow.

‘
Alice,
it
’
s all gone. They
are all gone.
’

‘
Mom
…’

The Queen shuffled away, mumbling to herself.
‘
All gone. All gone.
’

Alice jumped into the hole, and thirty minutes later was
back, sitting with her back against a tree, her mind vacant with the loss and
the horror she had just endured. There had not been a single human survivor,
and from what she could see, all the Biters inside had also been incinerated.
She took the pistol from her belt and toyed with it. A single pull of the
trigger was all it would take, and she could end it all. What was the point of
a life where she had lost every single person and thing she had taken to be her
own in just a few days?

She felt someone standing next to her, and she looked up to
see the Queen there. There was no emotion on her face, but she seemed to be
looking into the distance as she asked Alice to put the gun away.

‘
Alice,
the prophecy still lives.
’

Alice saw that she was holding onto the book she treasured
so much in her remaining hand. Alice grabbed the charred book and threw it
away, turning on the Queen with a fury.

‘
Damn
you and damn your stupid prophecy! Look around us: everything
’
s gone. Everything!
’

Alice walked away and sat down against a tree, sobbing. From
the corner of her eyes, she saw the Queen get up and walk towards the book. She
picked it up and then Alice saw her expression change as her lips curled back,
revealing her jagged teeth, and like a cornered wild animal she hissed and spat
at someone approaching from Alice
’
s
right. Alice looked up and saw more than a dozen fully armed Zeus troopers
standing there, automatic weapons in their hands. Instinctively Alice felt for
the gun at her belt and even before her hand reached the gun, she knew that she
would never have enough time.

A young trooper stepped ahead of the others.

‘
You
must be Alice.
’

Alice still had her hand on the gun, weighing in her mind
whether she should just try and take at least one of the Zeus troopers with her
instead of being taken alive. The trooper must have sensed what was on her mind
so he put his rifle on the ground.

‘
Relax.
We
’
re not here to
kill you or arrest you.
’

Alice kept her hand on the gun but now took a closer look at
the troopers. They looked like they had just come out of a battle; many had
cuts and scrapes from running through the forest, and at least one had a bloody
bandage around his head. The trooper extended a hand, and as Alice got a closer
look at him, she saw that he must have been very young, and looked like a local
boy; certainly not one of the dreaded Red Guards.

‘
Alice,
my name is Satish. I was from a settlement near the old city of Agra. All of us
were drafted into Zeus from settlements in the Deadland.
’

He turned to see the Queen, who was still on edge, and Alice
could see his eyes widen, but he made no threatening move.

‘
Dr.
Protima, I presume.
’

The Queen stopped hissing, but still stood rigidly, her book
clutched to her chest with her one remaining arm.

‘
Satish,
how do you know who we are?
’

The trooper smiled.
‘
A
blond girl and a half-Biter are not exactly a common sight in these parts.
Plus, Colonel Dewan had given all the details of who you were and what role you
’
d played so far.
’

At the mention of Dewan
’
s
name, Alice sat bolt upright.

‘
The
Colonel. Amit. Is he okay?
’

Satish motioned for the other troopers to fan out.

‘
Guys,
keep a watch while I fill them in on what
’
s
going on.
’

He sat down in front of Alice and took out a tablet from his
backpack. Alice saw that the Queen, while not feeling at ease enough to join
them, had come closer to listen to what he had to say.

He told them about how initially Dewan had pretended that
someone had just hacked into his account to post the first messages, and then
when messages started being posted from other accounts created by Nikhil, he
never showed any signs of support in public. However, when the Red Guards were
brought into the Deadland in ever increasing numbers and their tactics kept
getting increasingly brutal, his men had sensed a shift in his mood. When
troopers began deserting, he stayed at his post, but on more than one occasion
he saw troopers slip out but didn
’
t
raise the alarm.

‘
But
none of us knew just how deeply he supported your cause till in his last
moments; he posted this. We all saw his last warning when he learnt of the air
raids, but it was all too late to warn anyone in the Deadland. The Reds have
deleted his post, but I saved a copy to my tablet.
’

Satish held his tablet up and both Alice and the Queen
skimmed it. Dewan had laid out everything he had learnt. Coming from anonymous
posters, such messages could always have been dismissed and countered by
official propaganda. Coming from a veteran officer in Zeus, it would have been
explosive, and with the devastation the air raids had unleashed on the
Deadland, there was now more or less open mutiny among the local Zeus troopers.

‘
Is
that why you deserted? What happened to the colonel?
’

Satish looked at Alice and she noticed that he was quite
terrified.
‘
Red
Guards were hunting down all local troopers. We managed to get out just in time
to save our lives. I
’
m
not sure if the colonel made it, but I heard that they sent several units to
attack his quarters.
’

Alice looked at the Queen.

‘
They
’
ve now declared war on
their own troopers! That
’
s
crazy. Why would they do that?
’

The Queen was studying the tablet as she replied,
‘
Alice, troopers like
Satish have always been expendable. If what Dewan wrote about the ongoing
insurgencies in other parts of the world like America is true, then using local
troopers under Zeus just helped them wipe out the remaining Biters and ensure
human settlements continued to provide labor while their main forces were being
used to suppress resistance in what was the United States.
’

Alice was looking off into the distance and the Queen asked
what was on her mind.

‘
I
’
m thinking of how we could
fight this war.
’

***

The next week went by in a blur. Alice, the Queen and the
Zeus troopers spent much of it in hiding from the Red Guards who had been
airdropped across the Deadland to mop up any survivors. With much of the
foliage burnt out and a lot of the underground passages and tunnels exposed by
the bombing, they were forced to use a different tactic, and instead of moving
deeper into the Deadland, they moved into the heart of what had once been the
city of Delhi. There they sought refuge among the ruins of the buildings that
had once been the landmarks of the Indian capital. Almost all the buildings
bore signs of damage, the result of the many waves of devastation Delhi, like
many other cities, had suffered. The ravages of The Rising, the nuclear bursts
that came soon after, and then years of warfare that had followed till the
remaining human survivors had left the city to seek refuge in the Deadland had
all taken their toll on the city. Now what had once been the bustling,
overcrowded city of Delhi looked deserted, but Alice knew better than that. The
Queen had told her that several bands of Biters were likely hidden in the city,
usually emerging at night.

Alice saw a tall building which had half of its top cleaved
off, as if a giant unseen hand had taken an axe and chopped it off. The Queen
muttered,
‘
Well, I
guess we
’
ll have 5
Star accommodation tonight. Welcome to what
’
s
left of the Taj Hotel.
’

Satish, as young and inexperienced as he was, had become the
de facto leader of the Zeus troopers and he told three of them to take up
positions near the lobby to watch for any attackers while the others went
deeper into the hotel. Alice had never been in a hotel before, though she had
heard stories of the nice hotels her parents had been to when they had gone on
holidays before The Rising. Imagine that! Someone to bring you food and drink
whenever you wanted, and a warm, cozy bed to sleep in instead of a dirty old
sleeping bag. Alice wanted to go upstairs and look at the rooms but Satish
stopped her.

‘
The
stairs looks pretty unstable and I don
’
t
want us to be stuck in here if there
’
s
any trouble.
’

So they lay down in what had once been the lobby and Alice
was about to sleep when one of the sentries spoke in a hoarse whisper.

‘
Folks,
I see multiple shadows approaching!
’

All around her, Alice heard the sounds of guns being loaded
and cocked. She had only her pistol with her, having lost her rifle in the
bombing, but she quickly rushed to a window to see what was happening. As she
looked around her in the darkness, she realized that the Zeus troopers may have
been lavishly equipped with their night vision scopes and rifles, but most of
these boys had never seen much combat before. Satish was hurrying to get them
into position and she saw them fumble their way in the dark. With an army like
this, Alice realized their war was off to a pretty bad start.

Satish crawled up next to her, and she saw that he was
carrying a spare assault rifle, which he handed to her with a smile.

'I think you can use this better than most of these kids.'

Alice took the rifle in her hands and flipped on the scope
and looked through it. In the ghostly green light of the night vision scope,
she saw a large mob appearing over the driveway that led to the hotel lobby.
She switched off the scope, knowing that they needed to preserve the precious
batteries of the night vision sights till they found refuge someplace with a
generator which they could jury-rig to recharge them.

What she had just seen did not make any sense. The figures
were not moving like Biters, but like humans. However, there was no way such a
large group of Red Guards would just amble up to them in the open, where they
were sitting ducks for the defenders.

'What do you make of it? Should we fire?'

Alice shook her head. 'No, Satish. I don't think they mean
to attack us. They probably outnumber us three to one or more, but walking in
the open like that means we could pick them all off with probably little or no
losses. I think they're trying to signal that they're friendly.'

'Friendly? Who could they be?'

As if by way of reply, a male voice spoke up outside.

'Which one of you is Alice?'

Satish was about to rest a restraining hand on Alice's arm,
but she replied, 'Who is asking?'

'Why does that matter?'

Alice sighted her rifle on the man who had been speaking and
saw him through her night vision scope. He was heavily bearded, wearing a cap
and carrying at least two rifles slung across his back, but his hands were held
up in front of him. She spoke up again.

'It matters because it determines whether I greet you with a
smile or a bullet through that silly cap of yours.'

She heard several chuckles outside and the man answered, his
voice now much softer, 'We are friends. We come to join you.'

Satish and the troopers covered her while Alice stepped out.
She still had her rifle at her shoulder but she lowered it when she saw the man
smile and motion for all those with him to put their weapons down on the
ground. There must have been over thirty of them: men, women and some children.
Every one of them was carrying at least two guns, which Alice noted seemed to
be all weapons taken from Zeus troopers or Red Guards. The man stepped forward,
extending a hand that Alice shook.