Through the Killing Glass (5 page)

Alice
remembered the bodies of the children and vowed to make these Biters pay dearly
for what they had done.

***

Alice cursed as
her first burst went wide, and the Biters in front of her scattered behind the
bushes overlooking the farmlands north of the city center where the Biters had
been reported. Alice had let her anger get the better of her and fired even
before her bike had come to a complete halt. Firing her assault rifle
one-handed and on the move was something her trainers back at her settlement
would have frowned upon, but then they had also always advised her never to
fight angry.

Stilling her
mind she slipped off the bike, selecting single-shot mode on her assault rifle.
Spraying rounds was hardly a smart tactic when all that mattered was putting
one round into a Biter's head.

There.

She saw a Biter
round the corner and she aimed and put a round into his chest. The Biter
staggered back and bared his teeth at her when another round drilled him
through the head. Another Biter was coming up just behind her to the right and
Alice swiveled towards him, firing at him. One shot, one kill. By now Arjun and
Satish had joined the battle and were firing away. Alice saw Arjun kick a large
Biter down and step on his chest before shredding the Biter's head with
automatic fire. Clearly she was not the only one who was fighting angry today –
but given the scene of the slaughtered children, it was no surprise.

That momentary
distraction almost cost her dearly. A gnarled, bloody hand swept at her face,
scratching her just below the eyes. She turned towards the Biter, looking at
her with red eyes, his skin coming off in bloody patches. She brought her rifle
around in an arc, shattering his jaw. Then she kicked his feet from under him
and shot him twice in the head.

The shooting
had stopped.

‘Did we get
them all?’

Satish was not
about to let his guard down and swept the area, his rifle raised. Arjun kicked
one of the Biters to make sure he was gone. It twitched, so he fired into the
back of its head.

‘I think we got
all the bastards now.’

The three of
them looked at each other for some time, mixed emotions coursing through all of
them. They had not been in such an intense fight this far inside Wonderland for
many months, and certainly they had all thought that the days of defending
against Biter hordes was over. However, along with that concern came a sense of
catharsis. They had avenged the deaths of the children, and while nothing would
bring the kids back, this would hopefully start bridging some of the rifts that
had been created between Alice and the settlers who seemed to favor Arun.

Satish and
Arjun took a break, taking out their water bottles. They were about to go back
to their jeep when Alice noticed something.

‘Guys,
something is not right here.’

They stopped
and looked where she was pointing.

‘Check out
their faces and bodies. They are decomposed like Biters, but they don’t have
too many visible wounds other than the rounds we put in them. Normally they’re
covered with unhealing wounds from their conversion. These guys are barely
scratched.’

Satish peeled
off the clothes of a Biter at his feet with his knife and stepped back,
shocked.

‘Shit, this one
has a totally clean body.’

Arjun was still
taking it all in.

‘Maybe they got
infected recently. Maybe that’s why there aren’t too many wounds.’

Alice wasn’t
satisfied.

‘Could a dozen
of them be infected at the same time? All of them without a single visible bite
or scratch mark?’

Just then
Satish heard a message coming over his radio in the jeep. He ran to it and
picked up the mike. As he spoke, Alice saw the color leave his face.

‘Satish, what
happened?’

He looked her,
a fear in his eyes that Alice had never seen before, even in the thick of
combat against the Red Guards.

‘Alice, come
on. We need to get you to the Looking Glass. That’s the only safe place I can
think of now till things cool down.’

‘What
happened?’

Satish looked at
her, his eyes filling with tears. ‘This was a decoy. Another group of Biters
got into the city. They got to some apartments before some of the men stopped
them. They’re saying more than twenty of us are dead, most of them women and
children. Some of the Biters got away, but they killed eight of them. From what
Danish said, they seem to be the same sort as the ones we killed.’

Alice held onto
the side of the jeep for support, trying to comprehend what was happening.

‘Biters don’t
use tactics like these. I don’t understand what is going on.’

Satish grabbed
her hand and pushed her towards the jeep. ‘We’ll figure all that out later. Now
we need to get you to safety.’

‘Safety?
Satish, this is my home. We started this place together. I am not going to hide
in my own home.’

As soon as she
finished her sentence, a bullet whizzed past her, missing her head by inches.
Driven by instinct and training, Alice rolled to her right, bringing up her
handgun in a two-handed grip, aiming at where the shot had come from. The shooter
was a young boy, perhaps no more than twelve years old, carrying a rifle that
was too heavy for him. He was crying and had blood covering his shirt.

‘Your Biters
killed my brother!’

Alice lowered
her handgun, too shocked to react, when Arjun snatched the gun away from the
boy. Satish was still on the radio and Danish spoke with renewed urgency.

‘Don’t bring
the White Queen here. My men report that a large mob is headed here, and
another group is on its way to the Biter Reservation. They’re saying that it’s
time to wipe out the Biters.’

Satish put the
radio down.

‘A war with the
Biters will destroy Wonderland, and everything we’ve created.’

***

‘Hatter, I know
you did not do this, but we don’t have time to prove or explain anything!’

As soon as they
had got the news, Alice and Satish had rushed to the Biter Reservation on
Danish’s bike, while Arjun had headed to the Looking Glass, both to try and
pacify the people headed there and also to keep Danish safe. Danish was not as
closely associated with Alice as Satish was, but neither did he have any qualms
about making his distaste for Arun known publicly. Alice had gathered the
Biters and told them what had happened and their reaction was clear. Even
without human language, their surprise and indignation was apparent.

Hatter reared
up to his full height, roaring in frustration. Alice reached out, touching the
rough, bloodied skin on his hand.

‘If you fight
the humans today then all will be lost. We will be back to what our lives had
been like in the Deadland, fighting and slaughtering each other, and then the
Red Guards and their masters would have won. Do you understand what I am asking
you to do?’

Hatter had put
his head down, but refused to acknowledge what Alice had just asked. Bunny Ears,
however, stood next to him and emitted a low keening sound. Alice knew that he
was sad, much like a pet being asked to go away, but that he would listen to
her. Alice just wanted them to get out of sight while she tried to figure out
where the attacking Biters had come from, and also try and cool things down
with people in Wonderland.

Within minutes,
there was no sign of the Biters. They had disappeared down the warren of
underground tunnels and bomb shelters where Alice had first encountered them.
Arun and his closest supporters were relative newcomers and would have no idea
of the full extent of the tunnel network. The ones who had some idea of where
the tunnels opened were the recon teams that worked for Satish, and they would
not betray him or Alice.

‘Satish, come
on! Let’s get to the Looking Glass.’

As she started
the bike, they got their first glimpse of the approaching mob. There were more
than a hundred men on foot, some carrying lit torches, and all of them armed.
As they saw Alice speed away, a couple of them fired, sending dust and gravel
flying all around her as Alice rode away. The fact that they had opened fire
without even giving her a chance to explain meant that things had totally gone
out of control. She also knew that sending the Biters into hiding would only
make her and the Biters look even guiltier, but that was a better option than
the bloodbath that would have followed otherwise.

When they
approached the Looking Glass, Alice knew that something was wrong. Arjun had
driven in Satish’s jeep, and now it was lying on the side of the road,
pockmarked with bullet holes and with its windshield shattered. Anxious about
her friend, Alice jumped off the bike and was about to run to the Looking Glass
when Satish grabbed her hand.

‘This could be
an ambush. Let’s not rush into it.’

Both of them
unslung their assault rifles and approached the temple complex.

Alice said, ‘I
saw some movement near the doorway.’

Satish knelt
down, looking through his scope. ‘There’s someone hiding there.’

Alice crept
along the far wall while Satish hid behind the jeep, covering the doorway.
Alice did not want to harm any of the people of Wonderland– after all, they
were like family. But if any of them had hurt Arjun, there would be hell to
pay.

Alice was now
just feet away from the doorway and she dove in front of it, coming up with her
rifle raised. She saw Arjun sitting huddled against the door. He had his rifle
in his hands, but there was a small pool of blood forming under him, and he was
struggling to keep his eyes open.

‘Arjun, no!’

Hearing Alice’s
anguished shout, Satish ran over and they took Arjun inside the complex. Danish
was there, his hands and face cut. Some of the glass surrounding the
communications room had been shattered and there were three bodies lying among
the bloodied glass fragments. The men wore filthy, dust-covered clothes of the
sort that Alice had not seen since her people formed Wonderland.

Satish was
tending to Arjun’s wounds while Danish filled them in on what had happened.

‘They heard
that you were headed to the Reservation so most of them went there. That
bastard Humpy Dumpty ordered the mob to go there. I heard him myself on the
radio.’

Humpty Dumpty
was Danish’s preferred term for Arun, in reference to his weight and nearly
bald head.

‘Arjun and I
were here when these three bastards came to kill us. These were not our people,
Alice. They are stragglers from the Deadland someone must have hired to do
their dirty work. I bet some of them are mixed in with the mobs, riling them
up. Arjun took them all out, but they managed to shoot him.’

Alice took it
in, but her mind refused to believe it. There were still people out in the
Deadland, mostly small groups of bandits who had terrorized the settlements before
Wonderland had been formed. Alice had steadfastly refused to let any of them
into Wonderland. Alice knew they would have hated her for that decision, but to
think that someone from inside Wonderland had let them in to kill her was too
much to believe. Satish would have seen her doubt.

‘Alice, you are
still too young to know how messed up people can be when they want power. I
don’t have any trouble believing Arun could have done this. I say we get my
boys and bust him.’

‘No. No.’

Everyone
started at Arjun’s words. He struggled to sit. Satish had bandaged the wound on
his thigh, but he was clearly weak from the loss of blood.

‘No, Satish.
That would mean civil war, and ordinary folks would believe that Alice and our
Biters were guilty of the attacks and side with Arun. We would destroy
Wonderland.’

‘What, then?’

‘Look, these
three goons here are obviously Deadlander bandits and even if Arun hired them,
he would never own up to it publicly. But people are baying for blood and I
can’t blame them. So many families have lost people in the last two days that
they aren’t thinking straight.’

‘So what do we
do, Arjun?’

‘Alice, you
need to find out who’s behind this. Those Biters were inserted here for these
attacks, and someone human, someone very smart, thought it all up. But you
can’t do that from the inside. You need to get back to the Deadland and find
out what’s going on.’

‘What about
you?’

‘Hey, I’ll just
say these bandits hurt me, which is true enough, and that I’ve got no idea
where you are. Remember, I used to sell useless vacuum cleaners for a living to
people who didn’t need them. I can sell Arun any story I want.’

Arjun smiled as
he said the words, but there was a pained grimace apparent on his face. Alice
took a look around, weighing the decision before her.

‘Danish, radio
the folks in town, telling them bandits attacked the Looking Glass, and ask for
medical help. Tell nobody we were here.’

Danish looked
at her, grim determination on his face.

‘Alice, you can
trust me. Here, take this so you can know what’s going on inside and I can tell
you what Humpty Dumpty is up to.’

Alice
gratefully took the portable radio set he had given her and put it in her
backpack. She was about to leave when Satish joined her.

‘I’m coming
with you.’

‘Satish, you
don’t have to…’

He never let
her finish. ‘We’ve fought too many battles together for me to let you go alone
on this one.’

And so Alice
and Satish walked out through the shattered glass facade of the Looking Glass,
the bloodied glass fragments crunching under their feet as they set out for
their trip back into the Deadland.

***

General Chen
watched the black helicopter glide in and land in a far corner of the airfield.
It was always cold in Ladakh, where he was based, but he felt a chill go
through him that had nothing to do with the temperature. After he had
surrendered a forward base to Alice and her forces, he had been stripped of his
command of the Red Guard forces in the Deadland, and had been sent to an
indoctrination camp near Guangzhou. The Central Committee propaganda machine
called these camps ‘holiday camps for tired veterans to recuperate and regain
their revolutionary fervor’. In reality, it was a torture camp where veterans
who had become politically inconvenient or had started asking uncomfortable questions
were shipped out. Like the purges of all dictators in the past, those who were
perhaps most capable of defending the regime were punished, because the best
soldiers are also those who dare to think. Chen had made that mistake when he
surrendered his base to Alice to prevent his men from being slaughtered. He had
been an officer in the Chinese Red Army before The Rising, and with the nuclear
and biological weapon exchanges with the Americans and the chaos enveloping the
world in the days that followed, he had devoted himself to defending his people
against the Biters. It had been a clear-cut mission, one where he had little
doubt as to whether he was doing the right thing or not. That was until he
learnt of this girl called Alice and the stories she was spreading. He had
dismissed them as propaganda, and had captured her once, intending to send her
to the mainland for execution. But something had changed when he had looked at
her during her attack on the Red Guard base he had been inspecting close to a year
ago. He had seen the Biters following her, had seen that she was not quite
human, yet not Biter either. That had planted the seeds of doubt in his mind,
and he had confided to a brother officer back in Shanghai. He had raised
questions about whether what the Central Committee had been telling the people
about the true nature of the Biters and the war in the Deadland was entirely
true. That more than his battlefield surrender had been his undoing. Chen’s
only relief was that his wife had been spared the horrors of the camp.