Through the Killing Glass (2 page)

Satish turned
towards Alice. With all they had been through together, he saw beyond the
decayed skin and yellow eyes. He still saw the incredibly brave yet naïve young
girl who had done so much for everyone in the Deadland.

‘
Alice, you don
’
t know how men like them work.
They are no better than the leeches in the Central Committee in Shanghai. Give
them half a chance and they will become tyrants in their own right.
’

It was an old
argument. Both Arjun and Satish hated how all they had fought for was being
lost, and people were lapsing into petty politicking. A few months of security,
one which they and their friends had shed blood to win, had led men like Arun
to proclaim that they no longer had a war to fight, and they needed to create a
more peaceful, democratic society. One where people like Alice and Satish did
not need to have such a prominent role, and of course one where, conveniently
enough, politicians occupied the highest rungs of the ladder.

‘
Satish, I
’
m sure you didn
’
t call me here at this
time to bitch about Arun.
’

Satish slapped
himself on the forehead in exaggerated apology.

‘
No, no, of course not.
Come on, we have some exciting news. For the first time, we actually may see
something of value though our Looking Glass.
’

Alice followed
him to a console in front of which an elderly man was sitting, hunched over a
computer terminal and with headphones around his ears.

‘
Danish, have you got
anything yet?
’

Danish raised
one hand as he focused on tuning the radio in front of him. Danish had been a
Communications Officer in the Indian Army before The Rising, and now he was in
charge of running the Looking Glass in their continuing endeavor to learn about
what was happening outside Wonderland, and also to try and make contact with
others like themselves.

‘
We
’
ve finally made contact! Check this.
’

Alice peered
over his shoulder to see a single message displayed on the computer screen.

‘
We are your brothers in
arms, fighting for the independence of the United States of America. We have
heard much of you and your Queen. Listen for us in a day
’
s time.
’

Danish was
visibly excited, his old, wrinkled eyes twinkling as he spoke.

‘
They managed to get an old
server up and put up this page. This is the first Internet posting in sixteen
years, and looks like the Central Committee hasn
’
t
seen it yet.
’

Alice had been
born after The Rising, when people were more bothered about escaping from
hordes of Biters than surfing the Internet, but she had seen how powerful
information could be in their own struggle against the Central Committee. With
tablets brought over by defecting Zeus officers, they had managed to hack into
the Central Committee
’
s
Intranet. Since then they had been posting messages that led to further
defections among Zeus and also started creating discontent among the masses in
mainland China, who had begun to question the true nature of the war they had
been sold.

Before Alice
could say anything, Danish hushed her, putting on his headphones, and then
passed them on to her.

‘
Alice, they want to talk
to you.
’

Alice put on the
headphones and heard the crackle of static. Then there was the deep voice of a
man.

‘
Alice, this is General
Konrath of the Free American Army based out of Forth Worth, Texas. We have been
fighting our own war against the same enemy you face, and we are all proud to
call you a fellow American.
’

Alice
’
s father had been with the
American Embassy in New Delhi before The Rising, but she had been born in a
world where the countries of the old world were little more than memories.
Still, it was good to make contact with people from outside the Deadland where
she had been born. It made their struggle feel less lonely.

‘
General, we have had a few
months of relative quiet in Wonderland, and the Red Guards don
’
t really come here
anymore. How are things in the United States?
’

There came a
pause before the general
’
s
reply.

‘
Alice, we are facing
brutal house to house fighting against the Red Guards and the still loyal Zeus
mercenaries. Our bigger problem is that we
’
re
fighting them and also fighting against the damned Biters.
’

Another pause,
before he added,
‘
You
know what I mean, Alice.
’

‘
General, there
’
s no need to apologize. I
lived in fear of Biters for the first fifteen years of my life as well.
’

‘
Alice, I wish we had someone
like you to bring peace with the Biters. But for now, we need your help. Two of
our people have escaped from a labor camp of the Reds and are making their way
to the plains. They have nowhere else to go, so they are trying to escape to
your city. Help them if you can.
’

Static muffled
the connection, and then the line was terminated. Alice felt Satish exhale
loudly beside her. She knew that they were being asked to re-enter a fight that
many in Wonderland believed was over.

‘
Alice, what do you plan to
do?
’

Alice answered
without a pause.
‘
Satish,
I lost my entire family so we could live free. I will not allow others seeking
their freedom to be hunted down when I can help them.
’

Satish just
sniggered.

‘
Satish, what are you
thinking?
’

Satish grinned.
‘
I
’
m thinking that fat old
Arun will have a heart attack if he knows about this.
’

‘
He doesn
’
t have to know, does he?
Well, we don
’
t even
know that they
’
ll
make it anywhere close to Wonderland.
’

Danish coughed to
get their attention. He had one of his tactical radios held to his ear.

‘
Folks, something
’
s up. One of the advance
recon parties saw a convoy of Red Guards a hundred kilometers to the north
east, on the old National Highway 8. They report two trucks and some jeeps.
’

‘
Satish, I
’
m getting my kit. You get
some men ready and join me.
’

Five minutes
later, Alice was outside near her bike. Her kit consisted of a handgun in a
holster strapped to her left thigh, a serrated combat knife on her right thigh,
an extra handgun on an ankle holster, and an assault rifle across her back.
Satish was there with three of his men, getting into their jeep.

‘
Alice, are you sure you
want to go along? This could be a trap for all we know.
’

‘
I
’
m all dressed up for the party. I cannot back
out now, can I?
’

As she started
off on her bicycle, Satish felt a lump in his throat. The thin girl he had
first met in the Deadland had become a true warrior queen, and while she looked
fearsome, he still remembered the crying girl he had met in the forests of the
Deadland. A girl who had just lost her family to the Red Guards.  He had
nearly lost her once before, to a Red Guard trap. There was no way he was going
to let her down again. He checked his own assault rifle and shouted to the driver.

‘
What are you waiting for?
Let
’
s go!
’

By the time
they started, Alice was well on her way, blond hair billowing behind her. Just
a couple of years ago she would have felt fear at the prospect of such imminent
danger. Now she welcomed it like an old friend. Far from the petty politicking
of Wonderland, now it would be the way it had been, the way she had always
liked it.

***

Alice saw that
there were at least two dozen Red Guards, all wearing night vision goggles and
armed with assault rifles. Their trucks were parked on the road behind them.
She had left her bike a kilometer behind, tracking them the rest of the way on
foot. They may have had night vision goggles and the latest equipment, but with
the frontline ranks thinned by months of vicious combat, she knew from the
Central Committee
’
s
Intranet that young men with no combat experience were being drafted and sent
on combat missions. In contrast, she had spent her entire life training and
fighting in circumstances like this. Also, one added benefit of her current
state was that like Biters, she felt no fatigue. She could keep running and
fighting all night long if she needed to.

Satish and his
men were nearby, but for now she was alone. She saw the Red Guard officer raise
his hand and shout a command in Mandarin. The Red Guards started to get back in
their trucks. It seemed that they had achieved whatever they had set out to do.
Alice wasn
’
t sure
what they had been up to, but she did not like it one bit. It certainly wasn
’
t recon; they wouldn
’
t need two large trucks
and so many men for that. There was only one way to find out, and also to send
a message to their masters that the Red Guards were not welcome here any more.

She raised her
assault rifle to her shoulder and aimed at the officer through the night vision
scope. The crosshairs were on his forehead when she shouted her warning.

‘
Red Guards! You are in our
territory. Lay down your weapons and surrender and we will send you back
unharmed.
’

The Red Guards
froze. Some of them muttered something she knew very well:
‘
Nu wu.
’

‘
Witch
’
in Mandarin. Alice had
come to be known among the Red Guards as the Yellow Witch, and she hoped that
the fear her reputation generated would lead them to surrender. She certainly
had no wish to slaughter green conscripts.

But that was
not to be the case tonight. Whether driven by fear or perhaps to act brave in
front of his men, the officer took out his handgun and fired in Alice
’
s direction. That was the
last mistake he made before a single round shattered his head. The Red Guards
scattered, several of them firing wildly despite the fact that they were
wearing night vision goggles. Alice had her rifle on single-shot mode and was
now moving in an arc around the Red Guards, picking them off one by one.
Several other rifles barked and she saw three Red Guards spin and fall.

Satish and his
men had joined the battle.

Sandwiched
between Alice and Satish
’
s
men, the remaining Red Guards gave into wild panic and rushed towards her. Alice
put her rifle down and rose to meet them, handgun in one hand and knife in the
other. The first Red Guard was but feet away when she put him down with two
shots. The one behind him was about to bring his rifle up to fire when Alice
dove towards him, rolling on the ground and coming up in a crouch near his
feet. She fired thrice, feeling more then seeing him fall as she pivoted to
meet the next threat. The Red Guard she faced was terrified out of his mind and
screaming incoherently, but with a rifle in his hands he was still a threat to
be dealt with.

Realizing he
could never get a shot off in time, he swung the rifle like a club at Alice
’
s head. She rolled under
the blow and passed the man, stabbing him twice in quick succession, getting up
behind him as he fell to the ground. Another Red Guard was behind her and
stabbed her with a knife in the chest. But Alice felt little more than a prick,
and the man staggered back in horror as she calmly extracted the knife.

He stammered in
broken English,
‘
Yellow
Witch! Please let me go.
’

Alice tossed
the knife aside as she heard Satish and his men mop up the remaining
resistance. The Red Guard in front of her was little more than a boy, perhaps
not much older than herself. She drew closer to him and saw that he was shaking
in fear.

‘
Go back and tell your
officers that Red Guards are no longer welcome in our land.
’

The man ran
without hesitation and never looked back.

Satish and his
men were gathering the captured weapons and equipment. So many night vision
goggles and extra ammunition were always welcome but Alice had her eyes on
something else.

‘
Satish, those trucks would
make for nice school buses.
’

He smiled and
then stopped on seeing the wound in Alice
’
s
chest. She caught his gaze. The wound was a couple of inches wide and there was
some blood on its edges. Alice shrugged.

‘
It looks far worse than it
feels. I
’
m more
worried about ruining a perfectly good shirt.
’

Satish grinned
and continued as Alice went back to gather her rifle. Short of a direct shot to
the head, Alice could not die, and she had taken more than her share of
gunshots and knife wounds in the months of fierce fighting that had followed
her transformation. As a result her body was crisscrossed with bloody wounds.
While ordinary Biters were oblivious to these and walked about with their
wounds plainly visible, Alice still retained enough of her old self to not want
to be seen as she really was. So she insisted on wearing black turtleneck
sweatshirts, jeans, gloves and boots at all times. It had become a trademark of
hers, but nobody really knew the solitary pain behind the look.