Alice in Deadland (10 page)

'Dad, I know it sounds crazy. That's why I was so afraid of saying anything to you.'

When her father turned to look at her, Alice was shocked to see his eyes well up with tears.

'Alice, when the first infections emerged and within a day or two all law and order broke down, a lady had come to meet me at the Embassy, pleading with me to pass on some information to my superiors in Washington. The Ambassador was in the US so she wanted to meet me. Just before she was to come and visit me, I got a call direct from someone in the White House that I was not to meet her or to entertain anything she had to say. I thought she was another wacko who had lost it in the madness of those days and I did not meet her.'

Alice felt her heart almost stop as she guessed what was to come next.

'That lady's name was Dr. Protima Dasgupta. She was an Indian-American researcher who had recently left the Government. My background check showed that she had been working on some Classified projects, which had such a high level of secrecy that I couldn't even find out what they were.'

'So everything she said is....'

Her father exhaled loudly, as if clearing his mind and trying to come to grips with what he now faced.

'Alice, I don't know if everything she said is true or not, but what's clear based on what you saw is that there is more to the Biters than we've always been led to believe. In the five days after The Rising when the media was still on, did you know what was on TV every single day?'

Alice had never watched TV but knew of it from her parents and sister so she just shook her head.

'Reports about how horrible these creatures, these mutants were. Reports about how our brave troops were fighting a new war on terror. Every single channel was screaming about how these creatures needed to be wiped out. But what was funny was that ordinary folks had no real protection- most National Guard units in the US were pulled back to barracks. Then all of a sudden, wars started breaking out all over. If I were a conspiracy nut, which I most certainly am not, I could start connecting all those dots and say that what this Queen or Dr. Protima has to say may well be more true than not. But that's not what worries me most. Something else terrifies me.'

'What, Dad?'

He looked at Alice, his eyes dead serious.

'Till Protima lives, there is a chance that this secret could come out, and getting to her is the only chance Zeus and it's masters have of wiping out the Biters as per their plan and then bring the surviving humans under their control. Appleseed now suspects that you know where she may be. He will be coming for you.'

Alice tried to put on a brave face.

'Dad, can we hold them? We have almost two hundred men and women who can fight. We can all shoot well, and we know this area better than they ever will.'

He shook his head sadly.

'No, sweetheart, we won't be able to hold them. You've seen a lot more death and evil than I would have ever wished upon a child of mine, but the most evil thing in this world is what one man can do to another. If Zeus comes here with their air power and heavy weapons, we won't last more than a few minutes. They will wipe us out and take you away.'

Alice didn't know what to say. Part of her felt guilty for having involved her father. The rational part of her knew that the dangers would have been just as great and just as real even if she had not told a soul, but telling her father and seeing how scared even he seemed made it even more real, and infinitely more frightening.

***

'Gladwell, we don't know if even a word of this is true.'

The speaker was Rajiv, a former banker who had become one of the pillars of their settlement ever since he and his wife had stumbled onto them while running from a horde of Biters. Alice had sat quietly for the half hour her father had taken to relate her story. He had thankfully spared her the ordeal of having to speak in front of more than two hundred people, most of whom looked increasingly skeptical as the tale progressed. Alice saw more than a few of them get up and leave. She knew they were among the many who had lost family and friends to the Biters, and even an insinuation that the Biters were anything but a mindless, bloodthirsty horde offended them. What made it worse was that the first accusation came not from one of the rabble-rousers but the normally placid Rajiv.

Alice's father looked at Rajiv, pleading with him.

'Why on Earth would Alice make all this up?'

Rajiv looked sheepish and shrugged his shoulders.

'She is but a girl. Maybe she just got scared in the tunnels down there and imagined things.'

'Or maybe this is just you trying to hold onto your so-called freedom!'

That stinging accusation came from the rear of the group, and Alice saw her father flinch as if he had been struck physically. His accuser was now standing up, and as three or four more men stood up, felt emboldened to continue his tirade.

'For years, Zeus has been coming to us. What they want isn't much- our boys to join their army, a share of whatever we find by way of salvage and maintaining a tally of our weapons with them. In return, we get some fixed rations, ammunition and safety.'

Alice saw her father's face tighten.

'We are FREE! That counts for something. We all owed allegiance to others, and several of you served in Government or in uniform, so we all know what that meant. But that was different- that was allegiance to a nation, to our identity. Zeus are a bunch of hired guns, and their real masters never reveal themselves openly. Have you forgotten about those settlements who signed up and then had their weapons taken because Zeus decided they were needed elsewhere? Who saved them from attacks after that? What about those who were re-settled into farms to grow food, half of which is taken away by Zeus for their masters with no payment. What about all those young people who are taken away and never seen again- and the rumors that they are being used as bonded labour in the factories and mines of the elites who control Zeus. Why become their slaves when we can be free?'

It was an old argument, one that had consumed many meetings before, but tonight the revelations about what Alice had found had given it a new, bitter edge. The man who had been arguing with her father refused to back down.

'We all know how you feel about it, and you also know that there have been some of us who disagree. Some of us who are tired of fighting to survive every day, or scavenging for food every day for our families. And now you conveniently have this fairy tale from your daughter where Zeus and their masters are some sort of super-villains who destroyed the world.'

As the meeting disbanded, Alice's father took her aside.

'I tried, sweetheart, but their minds are closed. The problem is that if this General is indeed going to strike, we are running out of time. We cannot just sit here and debate and hope we convince these people.'

'Dad, what can we do?'

He hesitated, as if weighing in his mind whether to say what was on his mind.

'We need to meet this Dr. Protima. She's the only one who could convince them.'

Alice shuddered at the thought of going back to the Biters in their dank, dark underground world, and also of what they would do to her when they found her after her betrayal.

'Dad, I don't know if what they said is true or not, but that silly prophecy and that book she has freaks me out.'

'Darling, that's just an old fairy tale called Alice in Wonderland. I don't blame her if she has lost her mind a bit down there and believes it to be some prophecy. I guess they heard your name and saw the way you met them, and wanted to believe it was this prophecy come true, that's all. If that's what it takes to save us all, then just play along for a little bit.'

Alice could see her father's conflicted face, because he knew he was putting her in harm's way. But the sheer fact that he was willing to even contemplate that told her just how desperate their situation was.

The next morning, Alice walked along the woods where she had followed Bunny Ears down the hole. They were a good five miles away from their settlement, and if there was trouble, they would not be able to make it back in time, and of course, there was no way they could expect help or reinforcements. Alice held a pistol in her right hand and a shotgun slung across her back, but she had already seen that up close, with the weight of numbers on their side, the firepower she carried would count for little if the Biters were intent on attacking her. Her father was sitting a hundred meters away, hidden in the trees, his face daubed with camouflage paint, his eyes glued to the scope of his rifle.

Alice had no idea if Bunny Ears or any other Biter would even show up again at this location, but as far as she knew, no other human had found this entrance, and now that she scanned the area, it was so well hidden that she could not spot it either. So if it had not been compromised, there was a chance that they would still be using it. Also, she reminded herself, they were probably looking for her. That thought made her grip the handgun in her hand even tighter as she waited.

They waited for what seemed to be an eternity, and as Alice was about to give up and go to her father and ask if they should just return to the settlement, she saw some movement in the bushes. She froze, both hands gripping the handgun, but she forced herself to not bring the gun up. If their plan was to work, she had to make sure that she was not seen as a threat. She held her breath as the bushes parted, reassured by the fact that at this very moment her father's rifle would be trained on whatever was emerging. She saw two pointy ears emerge first, and then Bunny Ears was in front of her. He growled, spitting in her direction, and for a moment, Alice thought that he was about to attack. He pounded his feet on the ground and raised his head to the skies, howling, but as Alice watched she realized that his roar was not one of fury but more a plaintive wail.

She tucked her handgun into her belt and took a step closer. As she looked at Bunny Ears, she saw that he too was looking at her with his lifeless eyes. She had no idea if he would understand what she wanted, but she had no other choice. She spoke in a gentle voice.

'I am so sorry. I did not know what Zeus and their masters were up to, and I did not believe the Queen. I know now, and I need your help. The only way we can survive is if we help each other. Please tell the Queen that I need her help. We've tried convincing others in the settlement but many of them don't believe us.'

Bunny Ears just looked at her for a few seconds and then he disappeared back into the bushes. Alice wondered if he had understood a single word she had said.

***

Alice was sleeping with her shotgun near her head, and her parents had insisted that she and her sister sleep in the same room as them. It was hard to believe that things had got so bad so fast. It had begun with a fight between two young boys at lunch-time, one of them supporting her father and another insisting that they should just go the way of so many other settlements and do what Zeus wanted. When things had got more personal and some harsh words had been said about Alice, a couple of her friends had waded in. Soon words had given way to blows and before anyone could control it, the settlement had been neatly divided down the middle. What was apparent was that it had to do with more than whether they believed Alice's story, or even what they thought about joining Zeus. It had become a battle for power. A battle between Alice's father and some of the original founders of the settlement and others who had joined them more recently, and resented the authority the old-timers wielded.

Alice's father would have normally waved it all off as yet another of the countless arguments that had been inevitable over the years when you put strangers together in such a high-stress situation. But now things were different. He knew the imminent danger of Zeus moving against them, and he had also now seen first-hand that what Alice had said had some truth to it. He had been tempted to pull the trigger the moment he saw the Biter emerge in front of his daughter, and he had to fight years of conditioning to not blow his head away. But then he had seen it stand there, apparently listening, apparently understanding, and then walking away. With all the devastation the world had endured, if there was even a small chance that things could be set right, then it was worth fighting for.

He had called a meeting just after breakfast and as the entire settlement gathered, he noticed that the lines were drawn. People were sitting in groups, and those he knew supported his views were sitting around him and his family. However, an even larger group was now sitting around Rajiv, who had somehow taken on leadership of the splinter group. Better him than one of the rabble-rousers, he thought, as he began his account of what he had seen.

He was less than a minute into it when he saw the dissenters stirring. Rajiv stood up.