Phantoms of the North: An Alice in Deadland Adventure (Alice, No. 6) (10 page)

‘Nothing. Those horsemen wouldn’t
have come by just for a joyride. Something’s up.’

‘I know, but now all we can do is
wait and watch.’

A few hundred meters away, Alice
was holding a class for kids—both those who lived in Wonderland and the new
arrivals. There were about twenty kids there, all under the age of fifteen, and
Alice was teaching them unarmed combat skills. She still remembered her own
lessons from back in the settlement, when Jones and others had trained her, and
while the war with Zeus was over, she wanted to make sure that her people were
never found wanting if they were called upon to fight again. The horsemen
worried her. It was one thing to fight against enemies like Zeus or the Red
Guards, whose agenda and mission was known. It was quite another to fight
against enemies whose identity, let alone their agenda, was a mystery.

Two girls were sparring, and one
of them caught Alice’s eye as she deftly threw her opponent with minimal
effort. She had come in with the last flight from the Homeland, and was
reportedly the daughter of a famous resistance fighter who had fallen in
battle. Her mother was a scientist who was working on the farm equipment, and
she had accompanied her over.

‘What’s your name and how old are
you?’

The girl, sweat glistening on her
olive skin, straightened up to look at Alice.

‘I’m Teresa.’

‘You did well. Now, let’s get some
firearms practice before we call it a day.’

Teresa grinned at the praise and
joined the other kids as they sat in a circle and Alice trained them on the
finer points of shooting a handgun while on the run. When Alice had been Teresa’s
age, she would have been carrying a sidearm at all times, but now weapons were
stored in the armory and a small batch had been brought out for training.

‘When do we get to fire for real?
We just practice here.’

Alice saw the pout on Teresa’s
face and suppressed a smile. When she had been younger she would pester Jones
and her Dad to allow her to go out on combat patrols, and had even stolen out
of the settlement on more than one occasion, trying to get some action. ‘Teresa,
we train to fight so we can if we don’t have a choice, but I wouldn’t ever wish
for a battle.’

As she got up to leave, she
wondered if that had been her speaking or her Dad. Alice had always been keen
to get into battle, but now, having seen what it did to people and learned what
it felt like to lose those you cared most about, she had learned for herself
what her Dad had tried to teach her when she had been growing up.

She found Aalok near the farm,
walking alongside Bunny Ears and Norbert. When they saw Alice, Aalok called her
over.

‘I’ve been spending some time with
Bunny Ears, and something struck me. That’s why I got Norbert along for a
second opinion.’

‘What’s up?’ Alice could see the
excitement in Aalok’s eyes as he talked.

‘I don’t know if it’s all Biters
or just him, but he reacts to things. We used to think Biters had no memories,
but when we were on patrol in the Ruins looking for spare parts for the
factory, we found something and Bunny Ears just sat there, looking at it for
the longest time. I swear I could see some hint of emotion there.’

‘What did you see?’

Aalok held out an old framed
certificate. It had a symbol Alice didn’t recognize and the certificate itself
was faded and torn, but the words ‘Make A Wish’ were recognizable. She looked
at Bunny Ears and saw him standing there, with a low growl that she had come to
recognize meant he was excited about something. Norbert smiled. ‘We were
focused on a chemical solution, and a cure is perhaps needed, but clearly this
means something from Bunny Ears’ past and he is reacting to it. If Biters
retain some memories, we could trigger them with the right stimulus, and
perhaps that may hasten the recovery process.’

Alice walked up to Bunny Ears and
touched his arm gently.

‘I don’t know who he was or what
his name was. All I know is who he is—my Bunny Ears, a dear friend and someone
I trust with my life more than I would any human. That’s what matters.’

As she walked away, she turned and
smiled.

‘Bunny Ears, if they pester you
too much, feel free to take a bite.’

Bunny Ears growled and Aalok took
a step back.

‘Norbert, she’s kidding, right?’

As they began to walk away, Bunny
Ears growled again and Aalok took another discreet step aside.

***

‘Haroula Aunty, can I at least see
the cake?’

Haroula smiled as Christopher came
by, for the third time that day. It was his birthday after all, and each time
Haroula had indulged him with a drink of cold milk or fresh fruit. The boy
worked hard and had earned the treats, but she was not going to spoil the
surprise by showing him the cake now.

‘Paula, your boy wants to see his
cake again.’

Christopher’s mother, an
agricultural scientist who had come on the first flight, smiled.

‘Kiddo, go on and work. Earn that
cake.’

Chris ran out and got back to
work, as Paula watched him wistfully. How he had grown. Her husband had been in
the US Army, stationed at Fort Bragg. When The Rising had happened, he had used
all his training to keep her alive, and had recognized that the New World Order
promised by Zeus was nothing but a tyranny that preyed on the weak. He joined
the resistance and became one of its celebrated fighters. They spent the early
years on the run, fighting to survive each day, and in that chaos, Chris had
been born. His father had disappeared two years ago behind enemy lines, holding
off a full company of Zeus troops to help his comrades escape. Paula still held
out hope that he was out there—in some camp that was waiting to be liberated.
But for now, all she had was Chris, and she was so proud of how her son had
grown up.

She saw Salil, Brittany and the
others at the perimeter of the farm. She had been an Army wife and knew what
she was seeing. They were getting ready for something, but what?

***

The Khan rode ahead of his men. He
had lived in the valley so long that he had almost forgotten how wonderful it
felt to be out in the plains, to see the land stretching to the horizon ahead
of you, to see trees around you. He had brought along a dozen of his best men,
and also Rashid, who now rode up beside him.

‘My Khan, we have been riding for
eight hours straight. Should we stop for the men and horses to rest?’

The Khan looked at Rashid. How
much did he know about The Khan’s deteriorating health? Was this a suggestion
born out of concern for the men or a subtle challenge to The Khan’s orders that
they take a break only when they reached the deserts of what had been
Rajasthan, which would mark the rough midpoint of their journey, and then on to
Wonderland? They had stopped briefly two hours ago, when they had come across
the ruins of an old army base. It had already been cleaned out of all its
weapons and food a long time ago, but The Khan did find something he kept—an
old regimental sword that must have been kept for ceremonial purposes. He had
hung it by his belt and they had continued their journey.

The Khan had estimated it would
take them almost a day of hard riding in total and he did want his men rested
before they engaged in any sort of combat. Still, he would not deviate from his
announced plan on Rashid’s suggestion. He did not want Rashid to gain favor in
front of the men. The Khan knew that when he passed, Rashid was the natural
leader, but he would make the transition on his terms, and if he could get
access to modern medicine and doctors of the sort Wonderland was reputed to
have, then perhaps there was hope he could extend his reign.

‘We ride on and rest when I say
so.’

They had gone about twenty minutes
more when Rashid was back at his side.

‘Alice’s people are numerous and
well armed. We only brought a dozen men.’

If The Khan had been willing to
give Rashid the benefit of the doubt earlier, now there was no question in his
mind that by repeatedly questioning him and perhaps sowing doubt in the men’s
minds, Rashid was building himself up to perhaps challenge him. The Khan could
have explained his plan, could have told Rashid that even if they brought every
man and horse, they would still be vastly outnumbered and outgunned, told him
about how the balance of terror favored those who knew how to use asymmetrical
tactics. He could have explained how their continued survival had depended not
on their numbers and firepower alone, but on the terror they were able to
create that was out of proportion to their actual numbers. But all of those
would likely be wasted on Rashid, and anyway, The Khan didn’t need to explain
himself to anyone. His eyes bored into Rashid’s till Rashid yielded and fell
back.

With that, The Khan spurred his
horse on and went on ahead of the group. He spotted some movement to his right
and a figure shuffled into view. The Biter was wearing what at one time seemed
to have been a uniform—not surprising given the number of military bases in the
area—and must have survived the missile and nuclear strikes that had ravaged
the area during The Rising. The Biter looked at the approaching riders and
growled. The Khan stopped and looked at the Biter now walking towards them,
snapping its jaws.

Rashid was once again alongside
The Khan and had unslung his rifle from his back. The Khan stayed his hand.

‘Some people don’t think of the
consequences when they turn on someone they are no match for.’

The Khan rode towards the Biter,
gathering speed as he closed in. When he was but a few feet away, he took out
the sword that had been hanging at his belt, and sunlight glinted off metal as
the sword sliced through the air as he crossed the Biter. The Khan kept riding
and Rashid and the others followed in silence, passing the headless body of the
Biter.

***

It was easy to get carried away in
the celebrations. It was not just Christopher’s birthday—Aalok had also
declared it to be the groundbreaking ceremony of the canned food plant. The
building for the factory itself was some two kilometers away from the farm, and
to be honest, Alice couldn’t see any discernible change in it compared to a
week ago. It was still the broken-down hulk of a building, and while they had
managed to scavenge several spare parts and a few more were due to be flown in
from the Homeland, the factory itself was no closer to being operational than
it had been a few days ago.

Arjun must have seen her expression
and came and sat down next to her. ‘Getting bored?’

‘No, just wondering if Aalok
declared the groundbreaking ceremony as another excuse to have a party.’

Arjun chuckled. ‘Quite likely, but
people are working really hard on the factory and at the farms, so the
occasional party to let off steam and to have some fun doesn’t hurt.’

The kids had all gathered and
Haroula brought out a huge cake that she had been laboring on. Teresa came up
to Alice.

‘Come on, we’re about to cut the
cake.’

Alice joined them as they all sang
for Christopher and then slices of the cake were passed around. She noticed
Salil and Brittany talking in a corner and made her way to them.

‘Nothing?’

‘No, we’ve had a few recon teams
out, and no sign of any horsemen. A couple of the guys radioed back asking if
they could get back and join the party.’

Salil saw the indecision in Alice’s
eyes.

‘Look, I’ll go out in a Jeep and
do a round so the guys out there can have a break.’

Alice nodded and Salil left after
finishing his cake. She found Aalok talking to Bunny Ears, and she walked up to
them.

‘I see he hasn’t bitten your head
off yet, so you’re not boring him too much.’

Aalok grinned. ‘Alice, I was
telling him all about myself, about my job before The Rising, my friends, my
hobbies. I’m hoping that triggers memories of who he was.’

As the two of them continued,
Sayoni walked by.

‘That man spends more time with
Bunny Ears than with me.’

‘Jealous?’

Sayoni smiled. ‘Hardly. Come on,
the kids have put on a show and they insist on you being there.’

‘What show is it?’

‘It’s a retelling of your story,
and Teresa’s playing you.’

***

Alice always felt uncomfortable
when people made her out to be some kind of hero or savior. She had done what
she had because of the circumstances she had found herself in, and she knew
people who had been far braver than her. People like her father. Yet, more than
the people of Wonderland, the new settlers from the Homeland saw her more as a
myth or legend than a flesh-and-blood person, their image of her shaped by the
stories they had heard and General Konrath’s retelling of her story in his
book. On the small makeshift stage, Teresa was fighting off Red Guards armed
with a gun and a knife and Chris was doing an admirable job as Bunny Ears, to
laughter and cheers from the crowd.