Alice in Deadland Trilogy (31 page)

When the smoke cleared, all three Red Guards were down and
the boy was nowhere to be seen.

***

Alice was pedaling as fast as she could, towards the last
location where the Red Queen had been sighted. Arjun’s teams had neutralized
many of the Biters and small groups of fighters were stopping advance elements
of Red Guards with snipers and improvised explosive devices, but not yet the
Red Queen, who was now pushing deeper into the city. Satish had also ordered
most of his men to fall back, other than a few teams he was leading left on the
borders with RPGs to ambush incoming APCs. It now looked like the fate of
Wonderland would hang in house-to-house fighting.

Alice spotted movement to her right and came to a skidding
halt as she saw three or four Biters. She unslung her rifle and fired, bringing
two down with headshots. She was about to fire again when she saw a familiar
figure emerging from behind a Biter.

Alice was once again face to face with the Red Queen.

***

TEN

Li stopped when she saw Alice and for a second the two girls
just stood there, looking at each other. Then Li motioned to the two Biters
remaining with her to attack, and they started towards Alice. Li knew that they
would never stand a chance, but they’d buy her time.

Alice calmly dispatched both Biters with a single shot to
the head, but that had given Li the time to get off a shot of her own. Alice
tried to roll aside, but the bullet grazed her neck as she came up in a crouch
and raised her own rifle. Li had learnt the lessons of the last battle, and
this time she would take her time to destroy the witch and not act in haste.

Alice felt something hit her neck, and while she would not
feel pain like humans did, she knew it had been a close call. She had her rifle
up at her shoulder and saw the Red Queen disappear inside a nearby building.
Alice ran towards her, jumping over an overturned barrel and flattening herself
against the wall as bullets tore through the plaster and bricks in front of
her. Glancing around the corner she fired a burst, not expecting to hit much
but at least hoping it would cause the Red Queen to take cover while Alice
sought a new position.

Li dove as the glass shattered in front of her, showering
her with shards that tore into her face. Bloodied, she screamed in rage as she
saw Alice run to the other side of the building, presumably to try and enter it
through the side door. Li took out a grenade from her belt and threw it towards
the door Alice was headed for. Alice saw the dark object land just feet in
front of her and dove to her left as the grenade exploded. The wall she had
dived behind took much of the impact of the explosion but she felt a tug at her
leg. Looking down, everything below her knee was a mess of blood and skin. But
it still moved normally, so she wasn’t out of action yet.

Tso motioned for the two APCs behind him to stop. His squad
had joined up with more than fifty Red Guards who had managed to fight their
way into Wonderland and were now proceeding block by block. They had come
across only two Biters whom they had shot with ease, but what had shocked them
was the resistance they were facing from the human citizens. Tso had seen two
conscripts walk up to wave to a woman in a window only to see her shoot them
both before rockets fired by the other Red Guards had blown her apart. It
seemed like every human in Wonderland was trying to fight them, and while many
of them were clearly not trained fighters, in the congested city ruins Tso and
his men were paying for every block they secured with blood. When he had asked
for support, he had been told that an armored column was on its way, with more
than a dozen APCs laden with Red Guards. The two APCs he saw behind him now
were the only ones that had survived ambush after ambush with RPGs and grenades
on the outskirts of Wonderland. He had been ordered to his current position to
go to the help of a female Special Forces officer reportedly inside Wonderland,
known by the code name of Red Queen.

Arjun had been stalking the group of Red Guards for some
time. He knew they had inflicted heavy losses on the Red Guards, but it was
impossible to seal every entry route into the sprawling ruins. Also, with
attack helicopters buzzing around in the skies, the defenders of Wonderland had
also paid a steep price. Satish’s missile teams had inflicted heavy damage but
the reality was that they had only a small stock of surface to air missiles and
it was impossible for them to knock down every single helicopter when the first
waves of air attacks came. In the brutal fighting that had raged for the last
two hours, the helicopters had by and large disappeared, after their pilots
discovered that in such congested areas, with every rooftop bristling with
machine gun toting men, women and children, missiles were not the only things
that could bring them down. Arjun had been in a particularly vicious firefight
with a dozen Red Guards, and with years of practical training in urban warfare
he had lured them into ambush after ambush, thinning their ranks until he
cornered the last three and he and his men killed them in close combat. But the
fighting had taken its toll on his men as well. He had started the last
skirmish with three hardened fighters, all of whom were now dead, and two young
boys he had using as runners and scouts. In the chaos of the last battle, he
had lost track of both of them. So now it was just him, following this group of
Red Guards and APCs. There was no way he could hope to cause more than nuisance
value before they gunned him down, so instead of attacking he was on the radio
with Danish, trying to coordinate reinforcements.

‘Looking Glass, where are White Rook and his pawns?’

‘No idea whatsoever. They are still mixing it up on the
outskirts. I imagine White Rook has his hands full there since I haven’t heard
from him in more than an hour.’

Arjun grunted in frustration. He had known this would be
ugly, but he had never really bargained for just how unprepared many people in
Wonderland were from the months of sitting around and squabbling over domestic
disputes and fawning over the toys the Central Committee had sent. Other than
some of his and Satish’s men, and of course Alice, most of the other adults had
not even fired a gun in the last year. The comforts of city living had made them
forget that freedom was a fragile gift that they could be called upon to defend
at any time.

The Red Guards turned a corner up ahead and Arjun took a
shortcut through two abandoned buildings, coming abreast them as they passed.
Then, suddenly, the Red Guards stopped. Their officer seemed to be telling them
to go slow. Arjun raised his scope to his eyes and saw what the Red Guard
officer had seen.

It was Alice, locked in a hand-to-hand struggle against a
girl in a Red Guard uniform inside a nearby building. The Red Queen. One of the
Red Guards near Arjun raised his rifle, trying to take a shot, and Arjun knew
that terrible odds or not, he could not leave Alice to be attacked from behind
like this. He took his last remaining grenade and was about to pull the pin
when he saw dark shapes emerge from the buildings around the Red Guards. Next
he heard screams from the Red Guards as they were pulled away.

Alice’s Biters had come to the rescue.

Tso had ordered his sniper to take out the Yellow Witch when
his men started screaming. Biters were streaming out of the adjoining buildings
and at such close quarters, his men were being massacred. He shouted for the
APCs to open fire and a burst from one of their turret mounted guns mowed down
several Biters, but then the Biters were too close for the APCs to fire with
their heavy weapons. Tso saw a Biter with bunny ears bite into one of his men
and throw the bloodied body aside. The Biter then faced Tso, looking at him
with his lifeless eyes. Tso had his rifle ready, but when he saw a dozen more
Biters emerge from the shadows, he knew that it would be suicide to make a
stand. He shouted for his men to retreat and they clambered atop the APCs as
they backed down the street, Tso firing at the hordes as they rolled away. The
Red Queen would have to fend for herself for now. He radioed back and heard
Commissar Hu himself at the control center. Where was General Chen? The
Commissar had never seen combat and without Chen to guide them, the Red Guards
were stumbling along, losing far more men than was necessary. The Commissar
asked Tso to take another route, saying that the Yellow Witch had to be
destroyed and also that another group of APCs was on the way.

Danish was having a hard time making sense of the mass of
confused radio transmissions. He had heard the term the fog of war, but had
never truly appreciated it until now. The main armored forces had been stopped
but at least two groups of APCs had entered Wonderland, and from the last
reports the scouts had sent in, Alice was alone and right in the middle of
where both armored groups were converging.

***

Alice felt the knife tear through her right hand, taking
with it a chunk of flesh near the elbow. Li brought the knife back for another
strike, but Alice blocked it, trapping Li’s knife hand between the palms of
both of her hands. Before Li could bring her left hand up to strike, Alice
headbutted her, sending her staggering back against the wall.

After a few minutes of stalking each other through the
building, Alice and Li had finally come face to face at close quarters. Both
their rifles were lying on the floor by their feet, their magazines empty, and
now the two adversaries were grappling hand to hand. For a minute Alice had
been without her knife, losing it in the scuffle, but as Li regained her
balance she snatched it back up. The two circled each other, and Alice saw that
while Li’s lifeless eyes betrayed no emotion, she was spitting and hissing.
What had made her so angry? Li struck out again with her knife and Alice
brought her left hand up, deflecting the blow, and as Li overextended, Alice
turned on one foot, slamming her right elbow hard against the back of Li’s
head. Li crashed against a window, shattering the glass. When she faced Alice
again, her face was covered with several cuts and gashes.

Alice knew that Li was a more formidable opponent than any
human she could have faced. Like Alice, Li would not tire, would not feel pain,
and would not stop unless Alice managed to put a knife or a bullet in her head.
However, at such close quarters, Alice held the advantage. Li had been trained
in the martial arts from an early age, but unlike Alice, she had not spent her
youth fighting to survive every day in the Deadland.

Li snarled and lunged, bringing her knife up in an arc.
Alice blocked the blow, elbowed Li in the face with her left hand and then
followed through with a knife strike to the throat. Li pulled back, the knife
still embedded. She felt no pain, but she wanted to scream at this witch, to
tell her of all she had caused her to lose – but all she could manage was a
sickening gurgle. Blood and spittle bubbled up at her mouth and she spat at
Alice.

Alice turned her face away as the bloody spittle hit her and
that gave Li the opening she needed. She sliced at Alice’s left wrist, cutting
through veins, and as blood spurted out the knife fell from Alice’s grasp. Li
brought her knife up, aiming at Alice’s head, but Alice moved out of the way,
backing up. As Li closed in, Alice pivoted on one foot and kicked, catching Li
in the solar plexus. As Li staggered back, Alice rushed at her, pushing her
like a battering ram straight through the window. Both of them landed on the
street outside, covered in shattered and bloodied glass fragments, and as Li
tried to get up, Alice smashed her head into the bridge of Li’s nose,
shattering it. Alice reached down and pulled her knife out of Li’s neck, but
before she could strike, Li managed to get her foot up and kick Alice off, and
the two once again faced each other, knives in hand, circling each other.

Several bullets hit the wall around Alice and she felt at
least one tear through her shoulder as she dove to the ground. A full squad of
Red Guards was approaching now, guns trained on her. Li roared in frustration.
She wanted to finish the Yellow Witch herself, but she was unable to speak, her
vocal cords severed. So she raised her hand, signaling for the Red Guards to
cease fire.

Tso ordered his men to pause. He had left the APCs behind
and come through the buildings, fighting a running battle with Biters and human
defenders, trying to get to the Special Forces officer he had been ordered to
aid. Now he was finally close enough to look at her through his scope and he
stopped in horror. She looked like a Biter. Both of them did: the Yellow Witch
they had been tasked to kill and this mysterious Special Forces officer called
the Red Queen. What was going on?

Alice took advantage of the momentary lull in the fighting
to take cover behind a wall. There were at least a dozen fully armed Red Guards
and the damn Red Queen. Armed with only a knife, Alice knew she would not last
long. She tried to move to the open area to her right but a volley of fire from
one of the Red Guards pinned her down.

Several of Tso’s men had seen what he had and one of them
asked, ‘Sir, that Red Queen is a Biter. I thought our mission was to save
people here from Biters.’ Tso had no answer to that, but he did have a mission
to accomplish. He ordered his men to fan out. They had the Yellow Witch trapped
behind the wall and he would finish her. He saw the Red Queen approaching, and
he felt himself pull back at the stench and recoil at her blood-covered
appearance. What was a monster like this doing in a Red Guard uniform? Li held
out her hand and grabbed an assault rifle from one of the men and then she
started walking towards the position where Alice was trapped.

Glass crunched underfoot as Li approached. So this is how it
all had to end; surrounded, outnumbered, trapped. Alice felt no regret or
sorrow. She had no real life to look forward to anyways and the way she figured
it, she had already died thrice. First when she had looked on as her father and
his friends were massacred at their settlement; second when she had looked upon
the charred remains of her mother and sister, killed in an air strike; and
finally that day when she had ceased to be Alice Gladwell and become the Queen
of Wonderland. She closed her eyes, thinking back to everything she had gone
through. If it all had to mean something, to be worth anything, then she could
not let Wonderland be taken without one last fight. If she was going down, she
would take as many of her adversaries down with her. Growing up in the
Deadland, she had been taught from an early age that there was nothing worse
than becoming one of the undead. Better dead than undead. That had been the
motto drilled into her during combat training. But in the past few years, she
had learnt that there
was
something worse than that: losing one’s
freedom.