Through the Killing Glass (19 page)

Hu’s plan was
to let the Biters cause some mayhem before the Red Guards got to the city
center and placed Wonderland under ‘protective custody’ until they could have
an election where someone sympathetic to the Central Committee could be
installed as a puppet. With everything that had happened, he hoped that enough
people in Wonderland would see that allying with the Central Committee was the
only way to get security. As for Alice and her followers, Hu had more than
enough Red Guards headed for the Deadland to deal with them. So far his plan
had gone almost exactly as he had thought it would unfold.

Arjun watched
the first Biter appear on the scope of his rifle. There were four; a good
number. Just as they passed a building, Arjun pressed down on a nearby plunger,
detonating the improvised explosive device inside the construction. The
explosion tore off much of the side of the building and obliterated the Biters.

There was no
way to guard all of Wonderland’s many routes, so Arjun and Satish had decided
to essentially focus on defending the city center. His scouts were in the
outskirts in constant radio contact with the Looking Glass, and Danish had
managed to piece together a pretty comprehensive picture of the battle as it
unfolded. There seemed to be about fifty or so Biters who had entered
Wonderland, and other than a group of six spotted traveling as a group with the
Red Queen, the others were marauding at will. That made them relatively easy
targets to pick off, but it also meant that many different teams were engaged
in hunting them down, leaving precious few defenders to guard against the Red
Guards who were almost certainly now entering Wonderland.

Captain Tso was
leading his squad of eight Red Guards into the ruins. They had been helidropped
just two kilometers away and from what he had already made out from the radio
reports of other helicopters being shot down, they had been lucky to not be
ambushed as they landed. He motioned for his men to stop as he scanned the
buildings in front of him. His men had no combat experience but Tso had spent
two tours of duty in the Deadland and hated having to go into such a congested
area where an enemy sniper could be hiding in every window. But his orders had
been clear. They were to go into the city and ensure safe passage for the
armored carriers that were to soon follow, carrying more Red Guards. He had
discounted much of the propaganda that the Commissar had spouted about them
going into the city to save the hapless citizens from Biters. He had spent
enough time in the Deadland to know that the people there had no love lost for
Red Guards, especially since the Yellow Witch had taken over command. But
orders were orders, and he just hoped that he did not lose too many of the boys
walking behind him.

One of them
shouted, ‘Comrade Captain, I see a young boy sitting there. Maybe he needs our
help.’

Tso looked to
see a boy of no more than ten sitting calmly by the roadside, watching them.
Three of Tso’s men jogged over. Something did not look right to Tso and he
raised his riflescope to his eyes to take a closer look. He saw the boy’s hand
close around something and before he could shout a warning to his men running
towards the boy, a bomb exploded near them.

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.

***

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.