Alice in Deadland Trilogy (2 page)

She took a look around the room she was in and saw that it
was lit by a single small kerosene lamp on the ceiling, and was filled with
papers and files that crammed the shelves lining the walls. There was a small
desk in a corner and when she walked to it, she saw some old newspapers on it.
She had never seen a newspaper in her life, and was fascinated by the pictures
and words she saw. She didn't need to read the words to know what they showed.
They were relics of the last days during The Rising and its aftermath. There
were grainy pictures of the first appearances of the undead, which she imagined
for those who had never seen before them must have been quite a sight. Then
there were pictures of burnt and charred cities: the remains of the Great Fire
that the human governments had unleashed on so many cities when it seemed like
all was lost. That was the barren, bleak landscape that Alice had known as
home: the wastelands outside New Delhi, where millions had died in the Biter
outbreak and then millions more as governments tried to contain the outbreak by
using nuclear weapons on the key outbreak centers. Man had proven to be the
most jealous of lovers, preferring to destroy the Earth rather than give her
up. But it had not been enough, and in the fires of that apocalypse was born a
renewed struggle for survival between humans and the undead in the wasteland that
was now known simply as the Deadland.

Alice had been so transfixed by what she saw that she had
forgotten all about securing the other doors to the room, and she screamed in
agony when she realized that there was another door, partially obscured by a
chair, which was ajar. She heard footsteps behind it, and realized that what
she had taken for escape was in fact nothing more than a death trap.

She took out her handgun from her belt and as she felt for
the safety, remembered with dismay that in all the chaos she had forgotten to
reload. As she saw shadows enter the door, she realized she had no time for
that any more. She unslung the sniper rifle from her shoulders. As such close
quarters, there was no hope of her putting it to much use as a long range weapon,
but there were other ways to make it count.

As a child, Alice had forever been getting into scrapes, and
her parents would never tire of telling her to back down once in a while,
instead of wading into every fight. But once, after she had shot two Biters
during a night-time raid, her father had got quite drunk to celebrate and told
her that he loved her spirit and that no matter what the odds, she should never
give into fear. To be afraid in the face of the undead was to die, or worse, to
become one of
them
.

As Alice remembered her father's words, she felt her fear
slip away. She knew that the Biters tried to bite and turn every human they
found, but also that the humans who fought back the hardest sometimes enraged
them so much that they ripped them apart, killing them instead of turning them
into the undead.

Better dead than undead.

That had been the motto of the school where they had been
taught survival and combat skills. Whereas little girls before The Rising may
have been playing with their toys or watching TV, Alice had grown up playing
with guns, explosives and learning the best way to destroy the undead. And she
had been the best in her class.

She was now swinging the rifle in front of her like a staff,
moving it around her fingers so it cut sharp circles through the air. Three
Biters came in, and as the first reached for her, she cracked him across the
forehead and leaned toward him, sweeping his legs under him as he went down.
The next up was a squat woman wearing the tattered, bloody remains of a saree,
and incongruously enough, a huge diamond solitaire earring on her left ear. The
right ear was missing. Alice delivered a roundhouse kick that sent Ms.
Solitaire stumbling back and then reversed the sniper rifle in her hand, firing
a single shot that disintegrated the Biter's head. The third Biter, a tall man
with his jaw missing, was almost upon her when she hit him hard in the face
with the butt of her rifle. Biters might feel no pain, but it unbalanced him
enough for Alice to jump back a few steps and put another round into his chest.
Only a head shot would put down a Biter for good, but a high powered sniper
rifle bullet did impressive enough damage and slowed one down no matter where
it hit. A gaping hole opened in the Biter's chest as he slumped back. Alice
knew he'd be at her throat soon enough so she tried to chamber another round in
her rifle.

That was when she felt her right arm caught in a cold,
clammy grip that was so strong she screamed and dropped her rifle. Bunny Ears
was back and he was bringing his face back to bite her arm. Alice kicked him in
the shin, but he did not even wince as he came closer to delivering the bite
that would be the last thing Alice felt before she became one of
them.

Alice did the last thing he perhaps expected. She
head-butted him, and as he staggered back and loosened his grip on her arm, she
vaulted over the desk and stood with her back to the wall. There were now no
less than six Biters gathered in front of her, and Alice suppressed the welling
panic within as she unsheathed the curved hunting knife that was always by her
side. Bunny Ears snarled and screamed in rage, a hellish concerto that was soon
taken up by all the Biters in the room. Alice had heard of this ritual before.
It meant the Biters were going to rip some human apart instead of trying to
convert them. Alice reversed the knife in her right hand and stood with her
legs slightly spread apart, just as she had mastered in countless hours of
unarmed combat practice. Her teacher there had been some sort of elite commando
in the armies of the old governments, and he had told her she was his best
student. She slowed her breathing, focusing on the creatures in front of her,
trying to block out her fear, trying to still her mind. As Bunny Ears stepped
toward her, she gripped the knife handle tight and readied herself. Better dead
than undead.

***

TWO

When Bunny Ears lunged at her, he was met with a sharp kick
that had him rocking on his heels, and then Alice delivered a knife thrust to
his chest. He just looked up and snarled through bloodied teeth before Alice
kicked him again, sending him down on one knee. Alice knew it was a losing
battle. She was hopelessly outnumbered and even if by some miracle she managed
to drive the knife through one of the Biters
’
brains, that would still leave several of them to rip her apart. Be that as it
may, she was not about to go down without a fight. A Biter with half his face
torn off reached towards her with a hand that had several fingers missing.
Alice put all her strength into it and drove the knife through his skull. The
Biter fell back and did not get back up.

Now she had no weapon to defend herself with.

As two more Biters reached towards her, Alice overturned the
desk in front of her, sending both of them sprawling, but she knew that at best
she was merely delaying the inevitable. She felt a painful blow to the side of
her head as Bunny Ears hit her, and she fell over hard against the wall.

As she scrambled to get up, she felt cold hands grip her
legs and sharp nails dig into her jeans. She grabbed onto the bookshelf by her
side and it toppled over with a crash, scattering papers and files all around
her. She was now being dragged along the ground, and could hear the Biters
screeching in anticipation of the kill, like a pack of wild dogs around their
prey.

Alice looked up to see Bunny Ears looming over her, his eyes
yellowed and wide, his skin peeling off in places and his stench unbearable as
he bent over her.

Then he suddenly stopped. A couple of the other Biters tried
to get to her, but he stopped them with an authoritative roar. Alice cringed as
he grabbed her hair, but instead of attacking her, he seemed to be examining
it, turning it around in his fingers. Alice was nearly paralyzed with fear,
wondering what torture he had in mind for her, half wishing that he would just
get it over with and grant her a quick death. As far as she had ever imagined
Biters capable of emotions, she saw a flicker of doubt cross Bunny Ear's face,
and something had clearly caused him to put his bloodlust on hold. Whatever
that was seemed to be something right behind Alice since he seemed to be
looking beyond her at the wall where the bookshelf had been seconds earlier.

He reached out with a torn and callused finger and Alice
cringed, only to find that he was reaching for the wall behind her. The other
Biters were now gathered around him, looking at her. A few of them were
jostling and pushing, eager to get at her, but he snarled again, and they held
back. Clearly Bunny Ears was in charge here. Whether that was a good thing or
not was something Alice reckoned she would find out very soon. He grabbed her
hair again, this time almost yanking them out from the roots, and Alice
shouted. That got him focused on her again, and he brought his face close to
hers. Alice tried hard not to throw up as she smelt his stench and saw his torn
and decayed face up close. He was but a few inches away from her face when to
her shock he said one word.

'A...a...lisssssssss.'

Alice thought she had imagined it but when he repeated
himself, she recoiled in horror. Not only did this creature speak but it was
calling out her name. She had not said anything, but her reaction must have
given her away. Bunny Ears leapt back, as if he had been electrocuted, and the
other Biters all took a step back. She was alone, unarmed and utterly at their
mercy, but the tables had somehow been turned in an instant. They seemed to be
terrified of her. No, as Alice studied them almost bowing down before her and
heard a few more of them growling, trying to utter her name, she realized it
was not just fear. They were in awe of her.

Alice scrambled to her feet, unsure of what was going on,
when Bunny Ears pointed to the wall behind her. Now that she had got her first
close look at Biters outside of the heat of battle when all that mattered was
killing them or being bitten, she realized that while they certainly looked
hideous and were capable of savage violence, they were also capable of some level
of rational action. She hoped that if she did as they wanted, she had at least
some chance of appealing to that part of them and getting out alive. As she
turned towards the wall, it felt as if the world had stopped around her. On the
wall was a drawing, with smudged lines and crudely filled colors, as if it had
been made by a small child. But what it showed was clear enough.

It showed a blonde girl jumping down a hole. In front of her
was a creature that was wearing some sort of coat but had the unmistakable ears
and whiskers of a rabbit. Just above the drawing was, etched in a childish
scrawl, 'Alice.'

Alice's reading skills may not have been great but one thing
she did know well was how her own name was spelt. She sat down on the ground,
oblivious to the bloodthirsty Biters just feet away from her.

What was going on?

She felt strong hands grab her by her shoulders and pull her
upright. The Biters were now in a state of considerable agitation and between
grunts and screeches, Bunny Ears was trying to tell them something. Whatever it
was, they seemed to agree on it soon enough, and Alice was pushed out of the
room and into another tunnel.

She was too shell-shocked to resist or even ask where they
were taking her. And so Alice was bundled off even deeper into the Biter base.

***

They continued in darkness and total silence for many
minutes, and the only consolation Alice had was that if the Biters had wanted
to kill her they would have done so long ago. They clearly wanted her alive,
but to what end she had no idea. They soon began a steep climb and while the
Biters seemed accustomed to both the darkness and the area they were going
through, Alice found herself stumbling and falling more than once. Finally they
rounded a turn and she felt hands holding her back as if asking her to wait.
She saw a sliver of light open up ahead, gradually growing as the door out of
the tunnel was pushed open. As she came closer, she saw that it was not much of
a door but branches and twigs gathered together, which were now being pushed
back into place as their group came out of the tunnel.

The bright sunlight hurt her eyes after having been in the
dark for so long, and as Alice squinted and looked around, she saw that they
were now very much in the heart of what had once been the bustling city of New
Delhi. Now all that remained was rubble, but she recognized the broken edifice
of what had once been some monument called India Gate. She had only heard about
it from the adults, since this was an area that was firmly under the control of
the Biters, and was avoided by humans. All around her, she saw evidence of
that. There were small groups of Biters lumbering around, and when one or two
of them saw her, they snarled and were about to launch themselves at her. Bunny
Ears swatted one of them away, and growled a warning to the others. Whatever he
said, she realized that her name had been mentioned more than once, and the
effect on the Biters was immediate. They all backed away, as if fearful of her,
and she continued with the group that was now herding her along to their
unknown destination.

Alice subconsciously tried not to breathe too deeply. While
the Great Fires had taken place years ago, nobody really knew how much
radiation still lingered. When Alice had first heard of the Great Fires and the
terrible weapons that had been unleashed, she had wondered aloud how much of
the Biters' hideous nature was the result of the radioactive fallout and how
much was due to whatever had caused The Rising in the first place. Nobody
seemed to have much by way of answers. Most of the nuclear blasts had
supposedly been air-bursts designed to incinerate the Biters but keep the
ground as free from radiation as possible, but nobody could really be sure what
their legacy had been. Her father had by all accounts been someone senior in
the Embassy, but things had moved so fast that even he had no real idea of what
had been the exact chain of events during the last days.

Alice saw that they were headed towards what seemed to be an
opening in the ground. Clearly the rumors about the underground bases had been
an understatement. Far from being an isolated base that she had stumbled upon,
it seemed like the Biters had a fairly sophisticated network of underground
tunnels and bases. She filed away all the details she could spot so that she
might be able to help others when she got back. That kept her thinking
positively that she would indeed somehow make it back and also took her mind
off the growing fear about just where she was being taken.

She heard a dull whirring sound coming from the sky above
and she froze. She had heard similar sounds before, and in the past they had
always been an unwelcome omen. Today, they signaled hope for her liberation.
Bunny Ears pushed her behind the walls of some ruins and they hid as the three
black helicopters came into view. As they came closer to the ground, Alice
could see that most of the Biters had taken cover. Most, but not all. Two
Biters were running around frantically, as if in a state of panic, trying to
find safety. A door slid open in one of the helicopters and two men leaned out
with sniper rifles at their shoulders. Two shots rang out and both Biters went
down, their heads split open by high velocity rounds.

Alice looked around her at the Biters cowering behind the
ruins and she saw them in a totally new light. She had grown up thinking of
them as rabid, vicious creatures who had to be destroyed because their only
reason for being was to destroy humans. Now, as she looked at Bunny Ears and the
others, she realized that they were absolutely terrified. They certainly did
not display much by way of evolved intelligence, but they seemed more like a
pack of terrified animals being hunted by humans than a band of evil, ferocious
killers. She saw several of them shake in terror as the helicopters came closer
to the ground.

She saw the golden trident and lightning bolt drawn on their
side, and did not need to read the letters to know which group these
represented. Zeus.

She had sometimes overheard her father talk about Private
Military Contractors, and how much power they had begun to wield in the chaotic
times before The Rising. She did not understand much of what had been talked
among the adults, but knew that Zeus was the most powerful of those armies, and
its power had only increased after The Rising and human governments had ceased
to function. Nobody knew who really controlled them, but they were the only
visibly organized, and certainly best armed, human army around. Every few
months, they would visit the independent settlements like the one where Alice
lived and try and ask for volunteers to join them, or try and coerce the
settlements to accept the rule of the Central Committee. It was unknown who
made up this Central Committee, but this group controlled Zeus and it was
common knowledge in the Deadland, as the area where Alice lived had come to be
known, that once you accepted their rule, you signed away your freedom.

Alice had been lucky to be born in a settlement that had
been begun by her father and the remaining contingent of US Marines guarding
the US Embassy in New Delhi. They had then linked up with a group of Indian
Army officers and their families. So, unlike most other settlements in the
Deadland that had proved easy prey both for human looters and Biters in the
chaos that prevailed in the early days, their settlement had been able to repel
the assaults, and quickly established a reputation of being a group not to be
messed with easily. Even then, whenever the Zeus soldiers had come to visit,
Alice had felt a stab of fear at their sight. The men she had grown up with
were mostly professional soldiers, or men like her father, fighting to save
their families. The Zeus troopers, in contrast, were guns for hire, and
displayed little compassion or sympathy for those in the Deadland. If you didn
’
t join them, they would
turn their back even when you were under assault by Biters.

As snipers on the helicopters provided cover, men dressed
all in black rappelled down from the helicopters and began fanning out. Alice
was only too conscious of the reputation Zeus had, but right now between being
herded to an unknown fate as a prisoner of the Biters, and getting a chance of
going back home, even if it meant trusting the Zeus troopers, she would choose
the latter in a heartbeat. She waited for the Zeus troopers to come closer,
since she knew that if she tried to attract their attention too early, Bunny
Ears and his friends would surely kill her. She kept waiting for the right
moment, but then without her having to do anything, a distraction presented
itself.

A female Biter near Alice lost her nerve and ran into the
open, screeching wildly. Two Zeus troopers knelt and fired their weapons on
full automatic at her, the crisscrossing lines of fire turning the Biter around
like a puppet on a string, before she was thrown to the ground. When she tried
to get up, a sniper on a helicopter shot her head off with a single bullet.
Another Biter ran towards one of the doors leading to an underground base when
several shots sent him down, and once again a sniper delivered the coup de
grace.

Alice watched, realizing that this was no battle. This was a
massacre. She saw Bunny Ears and the others with her huddling, as if deciding
what to do, when she decided to make her move. She stepped out from behind
cover, hoping that the Zeus troopers would not shoot her, and screamed at the
top of her voice.

'Help me! I'm human!'

***

Alice's eyes widened in fear when instead of coming to her
assistance one of the Zeus troopers knelt down and aimed his rifle at her. She
was pushed to one side as the bullets tore through the air where she had stood
scant seconds before. She looked up to see Bunny Ears glaring at her before he
grabbed her by her arm and dragged her behind cover.