Phantoms of the North: An Alice in Deadland Adventure (Alice, No. 6) (17 page)

The Khan fired another grenade,
incinerating the position behind the rock where Alice had been hidden. In the
confusion, he had not spotted Alice move behind the other rock and he loaded
another grenade as he closed in to finish the job.

Three of the Phantoms were moving
around, trying to flank Alice and cover The Khan when Arjun ordered a rocket
fired at them. Six more of his men had reached him, and while he was still
bloodied and in shock, he quickly ordered the two men with rockets to fire. The
Phantoms were torn apart by the salvo and Alice took the opportunity to come
out from behind her cover and fire a burst at The Khan. He felt a stinging pain
in his left leg as a bullet grazed him and then Alice watched as he moved with
a speed and agility that belied his size by leaping over a rock and taking
cover himself.

Three of Arjun’s men were now
coming down the hill, firing at the Phantoms. With the advantage of terrain and
surprise, they felled three of the enemy before the Phantoms began to organize
and deal with this new threat. The Khan fired a long burst from his M249 and
two of Alice’s men fell. It was now clear that this was to be a battle to the
finish. The Phantoms who were ready to abandon their leader and the battle were
already gone, and the ones left looked to be in no mood to give any quarter
despite being now outnumbered and outgunned.

The Khan popped up and fired
another burst, catching a man in the side and sending him down, screaming
before he took cover. Alice moved behind another rock, shooting a Phantom and
coming face to face with another. The cloaked man was about to raise his gun
when he howled as Bunny Ears bit into his neck from behind. Alice smiled at
Bunny Ears and ran on, shooting from the hip, sending two Phantoms scurrying
for cover and the assumed safety of a rock. A safety that proved to be illusory
because they stumbled into the direct line of fire of Arjun and his men and
were cut down. Alice saw Bunny Ears standing behind her, with two cloaked
Biters in tow. It was a cruel thing to do, but these men had long lost their
right to live by serving a demon like The Khan. Alice nodded and Bunny Ears
sent them ahead, straight towards The Khan.

***

The Khan smiled. If Alice thought
he would show any compassion towards those who a few minutes ago had been his
followers, she was sadly mistaken. He took out his handgun from his belt and
calmly shot both in the head.

But it was not attacking him that
Alice had in mind, it was distracting him. While he was shooting the two
Biters, she had run across diagonally, as fast as her feet could carry her, and
leaped onto a small ledge on the hill face. Without breaking stride and with
minimal loss of momentum, she jumped over the rock next to the one where the
Khan was sheltered. She caught a glimpse of his cloak and mask and fired two
shots from her handgun before coming down on the ground, rolling to break her
fall.

The Khan jerked back as the bullet
entered his left shoulder and exited the back. He dropped the M249 he had been
holding in his left hand and began to run back towards the cave. Alice was now
up and firing on the move, but soon he was lost in the darkness of the cave.

The remaining Phantoms saw their
leader leave the field of battle and one or two hesitated, wondering if they
should give up. By now Arjun and his men were in the middle of the camp, and
they mowed down any Phantom who stood up. There was to be no surrender. All the
fighters knew what evil had lurked in this camp, and there were to be no
prisoners tonight.

The Khan stumbled ahead, deeper
into the cave. The rational part of his mind told him that he had been
outmatched. He had badly underestimated how Alice and her people would react
and also how his men would fare when taken by surprise in a full-on firefight
against professionally trained fighters. But, still a part of his mind refused
to give up hope. He had survived everything that had been thrown at him; he had
been to Hell and back, and out of the ashes that The Rising had left, had
managed to create some sort of a life for himself and those who had followed
him. He might be defeated this day, but he would live to fight another day, to
start afresh. He did not have much time to take too many supplies with him, but
over the years, he had trained himself to live off the land. All he really
needed was some water, a gun, and a knife.

He picked up a sword, which he
stuck into his belt next to the handgun that was already there, and kept going.
There was a hidden exit out the back of the cave and within a few minutes he
would be out of the reach of Alice and her men. His shoulder hurt but he would
tend to his wounds later. Right now, he wanted to get away. It never crossed
his mind that his men were being slaughtered behind him. What had kept him
alive all these years was a keen sense of self-preservation, and he was not
about to lose that now.

Alice ignored the carnage around
her and ran into the cave where The Khan had disappeared. She knew that no
matter how many foot soldiers they killed, the threat they faced would never go
away till she got rid of The Khan. She had raced into the cave at full speed
but then slowed down, giving herself the few seconds she needed for her eyes to
start adjusting to the darkness. There were boxes lined along the walls filled
with weapons and ammunition and a few boxes that seemed to contain bones. Alice
quickly averted her gaze from those and continued her search for The Khan. The
cave curved slightly to the right, and she figured that he might be lying in
ambush there, hidden from sight.

That was when she heard the sound
of coughing. A loud, hacking sound that momentarily overshadowed the sounds of
gunfire behind her.

The Khan was down on his knees.
No, not now. He was just a few feet away from the opening at the base of the
cave. He would have to push aside the small boulder that concealed the escape
route and then he’d be safe. He willed himself to stop coughing, but there was
no stopping it now. He tore off his mask to stop himself from choking on his
own blood and spat out a huge amount of blood that streaked the wall in front
of him.

He had known for at least a year
that he was finally falling to the cancer that had claimed so many of his men
over the years. He had borne the warts and clots that had afflicted almost
everyone in the valleys, a legacy of the nuclear exchanges and radiation exposure
during The Rising. For several months he had thought his body had somehow
contained the cancer when the coughing subsided, but of late it had resurfaced
with a vengeance, and now it looked like it was going to have the last laugh.

He heard a sound and felt at his
belt for his gun and as he pulled it out partially, he realized it had no
magazine. He had not loaded it with one of the magazines he had in a separate
pouch at his belt. He would not have the time to load it now. He turned to see
a young woman.

Not quite a woman. No, not quite
only a young woman. She was thin, almost frail-looking, with long blonde hair
that came down halfway down her back. But her face was not human at all. Her
skin was stretched back and her eyes had a vacant expression in them. Her body
was covered in blood and she seemed to be bleeding from several recent wounds,
yet none of them seemed to be slowing her down or causing her any pain. A woman
and a Biter. A formidable enemy, one he had underestimated.

Alice.

Alice saw The Khan kneeling a few
feet ahead of her and when he stood to face her, she saw that his face and
chest was covered in blood. He coughed again, splattering the floor in front of
him with more blood. He had no weapons in his hands, but Alice could see a sword
and a handgun tucked into his belt. He inhaled deeply, as if trying to contain
his coughing, and spoke. To Alice’s surprise, he spoke fluent English.

‘Perhaps I was meant to duel a
worthy opponent before this disease took me. I admire your loyalty to your
friends and your courage. It is an honor to face someone like you. Just us, one
on one, right here.’

He took out his handgun and Alice’s
grip on her rifle tightened, but he dropped the gun to the floor. He then took
out the sword and moved it in front of him, in slow, rhythmic motions, cutting
circles in the air.

‘Perhaps you feel this sword gives
me an advantage. Maybe we can select knives, or fight hand to hand. What do you
want, Alice?’

So far, Alice had not uttered a
single word. She saw the monster in front of her, someone who had perhaps once
been a man, but through his actions had ceased to deserve any mercy. He had
preyed on the weak, he had reduced himself and his followers to a shocking
level of depravity by feeding on fellow humans, had attacked her home and
killed her friends. And she was sure that if he lived, he would try and kill
more of them. No, such a man deserved nothing, certainly he did not deserve
what he so seemed to crave—to somehow dignify his life, and his death, with a
duel. To die a warrior rather than be killed like the rabid animal he was.

‘Alice, we are alike. Survivors,
warriors, strangers among our own kind. Perhaps you are more like me than you
would ever admit. I learned about your past and we are both from the United
States, both stranded so far from home. I served the same government your
father served so loyally. Our lives seem intertwined, built in parallel, to
cross today, here.’

As he was talking, he was edging
closer. A few inches at a time, but certainly, he was moving towards her.

‘Alice, come on. Let us dance and
let one of us walk out alive.’

Alice raised her rifle and shot
him in the head.

***

‘They had some really nasty stuff
here. One of the boys is ex-Army, and he says he spotted some poison gas
shells. Good we took them out before they got near Wonderland again. We should
go back and celebrate and honor those who fell today.’

Arjun and his men had won a
hard-fought victory and shed blood to rescue Aalok and Bunny Ears and keep
Wonderland secure. So their celebrations were certainly in order, and certainly
those who had fallen deserved to be honored and remembered. However, Alice’s
thoughts were elsewhere. She was looking at the human captives they had found
at the Phantoms’ camp, people who had been reduced to little more than animals.
Fearful of the slightest gaze or touch, unwilling to grasp freedom now that it
had been handed to them. Many of them chose to stay in a corner, refusing to
have their ropes taken off. More than one had lost his mind, after having seen
and endured unspeakable horrors during their captivity.

Arjun had Aalok bandaged and
carried back to one of the Jeeps, and their dead were being loaded into
another, to be taken back to Wonderland.

‘Alice, we’re almost ready to
leave.’

Alice thought of the captives
before her, most of whom could not be persuaded to come with them. She thought
back to her conversation at Wonderland during the party. She thought of just
how lacking in purpose her life had seemed of late. Wonderland was now a very
different place from when she had started creating it, fighting and bleeding
for every square mile liberated from Zeus and the Red Guards. Now, Arjun and
the others like Aalok could take it forward. Haroula and her farms could feed
it. Sayoni and others could infuse spirit and laughter into it. They could do
all this because they were free. But there were many out there who were not
free. There were predators out there like The Khan who still preyed on the
weak. Alice had come to realize that there was a much bigger world out there,
much vaster than the small slice she had called home, perhaps full of people
who still didn’t enjoy the kind of freedom she and her people had achieved,
still living in fear of tyrants like The Khan.

She wanted to see more of this world,
to see if she could help more people. Perhaps that was what would give her
peace. Perhaps that was what would give her the sense of purpose and direction
she had been seeking. Could she help all of them? She knew better than to even
imagine that, but then she thought of a gentle man, one who had died so that
she and the others in her settlement might live. A man called Robert Gladwell.
Her father. He had said that the only good reason to fight was to protect
others. Alice figured that her fight was still far from over. She began
gathering weapons from the stash she found in The Khan’s armory.

‘Arjun, you guys go on.’

He touched her shoulder. ‘Let’s go
home. We’re done here.’

Alice turned to look at him. ‘Wonderland
will always be my home, but I cannot go back there till I know what else is out
there; who else is out there.’

She was looking at the captives
who were huddled, babbling, crying not to be eaten, so crazed with terror that
they did not even recognize their own liberation. Arjun knew Alice enough to
know that she would go her own way, and that she would not be persuaded
otherwise once she had made up her mind.

‘Just come back. What would
Wonderland be without Alice?’

Alice smiled as Arjun went on to
join the others for their journey back. She heard a shuffling movement behind
her, and she knew who it would be. She knew that wherever her path took her,
she could count on one companion to be there by her side. She reached into the
pouch at her belt. It contained two objects—the old, slightly charred book that
the Queen of the Biters had once given her, and a pair of faded, pink bunny
ears. She took them out and handed it to the figure behind her.