Through the Killing Glass

Copyright ©
2012 Mainak Dhar

All rights
reserved.

www.mainakdhar.com

ISBN-13:
978-1470055035

ISBN-10:
1470055031

This is a work of
fiction, and all characters and incidents depicted in it are purely the result
of the author’s imagination, or have been used fictitiously. Any resemblance to
real people or incidents is purely co-incidental.

Contents

THROUGH THE
KILLING GLASS

ABOUT THE
AUTHOR

What Alice
regretted the most about not being fully human was the fact that she could no
longer cry. More than a year had passed since Alice set in motion events that
had changed her life and that of everyone in the Deadland by following a Biter
with bunny ears down a hole in the ground. Events that had led to the creation
of a new settlement, a settlement unlike any the world had seen since The
Rising. What had followed had been the re-settlement of the city of Delhi by
thousands of humans who had streamed in from the Deadland to live together in a
community. A community that had laws, security and houses for people to live
in. A community where every  night was not spent in dread of marauding
Biters or raids by the Red Guards. A community that was now known simply as
Wonderland.

The cost of
this victory had been high. Thousands had perished in the Deadland during the
struggle against the Red Guards, and hundreds more in the air raids that had
been unleashed when Alice had been captured. Alice
’
s personal costs had been high, too. She had
lost her entire family, and her identity. No longer was she the mercurial
fifteen year-old girl her father had doted upon. She was now the Queen of
Wonderland, whom people looked at with awe and fear. But being part-Biter, she
could never taste food again; she now simply had no need for it. She could
never dream of her family again, for Biters could not dream, and while she
often thought back to all she had lost, she could not cry to lessen that pain,
for Biters shed no tears.

To her enemies,
Alice was a formidable adversary, with the training and battle-tested instincts
of the most elite human soldier, but also with the inexhaustible stamina and
immunity to all forms of damage short of a direct head shot that her Biter half
gave her. To her human followers, she was a messiah who had rescued them from
the Deadland to give them hope that they could live again like civilized
people. To the Biters who followed her, she was the leader of the pack, to be
followed with animal instinct and devotion.

But to herself,
she was still Alice Gladwell, daughter and sister to her murdered family. She had
taken her vengeance against the Red Guards, and what had begun as a mission of
personal vendetta had led to something much bigger. Alice had never fashioned
herself as a leader, but now she knew more than ten thousand humans in
Wonderland depended on her. Whether or not she wanted this burden of
leadership, it was now hers, and she was determined not to let down those who
counted on her.

Much of her own
young life had been spent forged in battle, and her education had consisted of
little more than learning to fight and to survive in the Deadland, but today
Alice was going to do something she had never done before. She was going to
inaugurate the first school in Wonderland.

There was a
hush among the gathered thousands as she stepped onto the makeshift podium.
Arjun, her confidante and trusted advisor, had chosen the location with his
usual sense of humor. The school was to be located in what had once been the
Delhi Zoo.

‘
People of Wonderland,
thank you for coming. I myself had little education beyond learning to survive
in the Deadland, but now our children will learn what people did before The
Rising, and one day they will revive our world the way it was.
’

There was
thunderous applause, but when Alice stepped off the podium, she felt a bit
hollow inside. She knew nothing of what life had been like before The Rising,
and while she was proud of what they had achieved together, she wondered if she
was really needed in Wonderland anymore. She knew nothing of managing a city,
with its squabbles over water and romantic affairs. She itched for the
camaraderie she had known in the settlement where everyone knew each other, not
the anonymity of urban life, where people huddled in their apartments in the
center of what had once been posh government colonies in Delhi.

She saw a young
couple holding hands, and she looked away. That was another experience she was
never to have. She was young enough and human enough to regret never being able
to be loved, but she was Biter enough to never feel such emotions. Besides, her
appearance did enough to seal that deal.

As she walked
back to her room in what had once been the Red Fort in the heart of Delhi,
Arjun caught up with her.

‘
Alice, we
’
ve sent out patrols north
of Wonderland again this week, but people are beginning to complain about the
patrols. They say that we haven
’
t
seen Red Guards for months.
’

Alice turned
towards Arjun and she noted with dismay how even he flinched at her sight. Her
impish smile and twinkling eyes were long gone, replaced by a vacant, yellowed
gaze and skin that seemed to be rotting, giving off a foul stench. She turned
away, trying not to see the expression on his face.

‘
Arjun, people grow fat and
happy. They forget that this safety was won with blood, and that the war still
rages outside of their apartments, and any day it may visit us again.
’

Arjun was with
Alice
–
she knew that
–
but she also knew
the pressure he faced. It was no longer popular to talk about the war. After
their crippling losses in battle, the Red Guards had effectively ceded control
of what had been the Deadland in North India. Occasionally a jet would be
spotted high in the skies, but even they did not come lower, knowing that
Wonderland
’
s defenses
bristled with hand held Surface to Air missiles wielded by experienced troopers
who had once served Zeus, the mercenary arm that had done the Central Committee
’
s bidding before they had
mutinied and the Red Guards had been called in from the mainland in China.

At times like
this, Alice got on her bicycle and rode alone, crossing the dried up Yamuna
river to the forested area that had now been reserved for Biters. Someone had
said it was like an animal reserve from before The Rising, and strangely Alice
had felt herself bristle at that comment. The Biters were kept confined in a
wooded area ringed by electrified fences with tunnels that allowed them to go
out to the Deadland. Was the Biter part of her so strong now that she
identified herself more with them than with humans? She drove with the wind
blowing her flowing blond hair behind her. That was the one part of her body
that had not changed when she had been transformed into the hybrid she had
become.

By now, the sun
was setting and darkness settling over the forests, and she saw a couple of
familiar shapes. Closest to her was a Biter wearing bunny ears, with a
shuffling gait and a left hand that been taken off below the elbow by a Red
Guard grenade. The second was a hulking Biter wearing a hat. If Alice was the
leader of the pack, then Bunny Ears and Hatter were her enforcers. After being
transformed, she realized that while the Biters could not really communicate in
any human language, they did communicate like animals, and had a strong pack
mentality. Bringing an end to the war in the Deadland meant not just fighting
the Red Guards to a bloody standstill but also ensuring that Biters and humans
could at least co-exist, if not actively work together. Doing that had meant
establishing herself as the leader of the pack. Now she commanded an army of
thousands of Biters who emerged from the dark forest, kneeling before her.

Alice held an
old, charred book in her left hand. It was the last book left in the Deadland
and she had first encountered it in the underground base of the Biters in the
possession of the Biter Queen. Its title was Alice in Wonderland. The Queen had
believed that the book held a prophecy for healing the world, and that Alice
was destined to carry out the prophecy it contained. Now that Alice had brushed
up on her reading skills, she understood the coincidences leading to the Queen
’
s belief in the
‘
prophecy
’
and Alice
’
s part in it. Alice did
not know if there was any truth to the supposed prophecy, but she did know two
things. One, until someone actually sat down and wrote another book, this was
indeed perhaps the last book in the Deadland, and that in itself made it a
precious thing to protect, and second, that the Biters held it in an almost
religious awe. That was the reason why she carried it with her every time she
came to them.

Alice had come
to realize that loyalty from Biters was never a given, since they were as
impulsive and as aggressive as rabid animals, and when one or two of the
newcomers shuffled towards her, Hatter stepped in front of them and swatted
them away. Before, Alice had been disgusted by their fetid smell of rot. Now it
barely bothered her.

She sat down by
a tree, looking at the night sky. But now more than stars illuminated what had
once been the Deadland: lights from several apartments flickered in the dark.

‘
They grow complacent. They
light up the settlement to be the easiest target for miles.
’

She had just
whispered to herself but Bunny Ears came and sat down next to her, awaiting her
orders. While the Biters communicated in grunts and screeches, they seemed to
understand human language to some extent. Perhaps some part of their brains
still functioned despite the virus that had reduced them to this condition.

‘
Don
’
t worry, Bunny Ears. Nothing I can
’
t handle.
’

She waved him
away when the tactical radio strapped to her side came to life.

‘
White Queen, this is White
Rook. Please come to the Looking Glass immediately.
’

Alice got up
and sped away towards the nearby temple that served as their communication
center, their only real window to what was happening in the outside world.
Satish
–
or White
Rook
–
had named this
place Looking Glass. Before he defected, Satish had been a Zeus warrior, and
over time he had effectively become the head of the armed forces of Wonderland.

For months they
had tried to get in touch with the ongoing resistance in what had been the
United States, but without much success. Other than that, they used captured
computers and handheld tablets to monitor what the Central Committee and its
minions were up to. There was no news other than what the Central Committee
allowed to be transmitted, but at least it gave them some idea of what was
happening outside their settlement. Looking Glass had been initially located in
the heart of the city, but then people had asked for it to be moved to the
outskirts, since they did not really want to hear the bad news from the outside
world. That was another sign that people had grown complacent, and forgotten
the struggle that had won them this peace.

Alice wondered
what Satish had learnt that required her to be in the Looking Glass at this
time of night.

***

‘
The fools want to create
political parties and have an election.
’

Alice could
sense the disdain in Satish
’
s
voice. She knew that with relative peace, people in Wonderland had been quick to
lapse into the jockeying for power that was perhaps inherent to man. It was a
shame that it required something like The Rising and being hunted by Biters for
men to realize that petty tokens of power and prestige were not what really
mattered.

‘
That bastard Arun is
riling everyone up, telling them we need true democracy and that they no longer
need you.
’

Alice tried not
to get involved in the politics of men like Arun, who had been a politician
before The Rising.  She had continued to run Wonderland the way it had
been, by a small committee of elders, and with every big decision being put to
a vote.

‘
Satish, they will talk
because they have nothing better to do. I don
’
t
think it means anything.
’