Deadland: Untold Stories of Alice in Deadland (Alice, No. 5) Read Online Free PDF Page A

axe.
Sunil was busy as well—he was not as fast or skilled as Jones was with knives,
but he was big, a large hulking giant of a man who stood well over six feet tall,
and had supposedly been a bouncer or bodyguard before The Rising. He had his
axe in a two-handed grip and decapitated the first Biter that came towards him
with a single blow. Blood sprayed across his face as the next one lunged at
him. He broke the Biter's leg with a single, well-placed kick. Biters could be
put down permanently only with a shot or severe trauma to the head, but a
broken leg meant the Biter lost his balance and fell down to one knee, and
within a couple of seconds, his head was lying next to the rest of his body.
    Gladwell was going about his task in grim silence. Stab,
slash, cut, kick. Turn to face the next Biter. Kick him down, slash across the
neck, axe across the top of the head. His arms were moving as if of their own
will, and Alice was watching every single kill, every spray of blood, every
decapitated head.
    Finally, Jones whispered, 'It's done. There's no more
coming.'
    There were bodies and body parts scattered all around them,
and they were all drenched in the blood of the enemies they had slain. Alice
had not said a single word, not cried out once. She could feel her father as he
breathed hard through the exertions of the battle, she could feel his shoulders
move as he swung his arms and she could feel the sweat that rolled down his
neck as she clung to him. She could feel the wetness of the blood that had
sprayed onto her face when her daddy had cut a Biter's head off.
    Gladwell lowered his hands down by his side, his shoulders
burning. He spoke in a hoarse whisper.
    'We're going home, sweetheart.'
     
    ***
     
    'How is it out there?'
    Gladwell sat down heavily as Jo took his gun and backpack
after he came back from his patrol the next morning. He had seen a lot since
The Rising, but the wholesale massacre of a settlement still made him pause.
    'We got lucky. A settlement some four kilometers out to the
East got hit. Maybe someone panicked and fired or maybe they were careless. The
Biters swept through them like a swarm of locusts. We just found small body
parts, not even a whole human body.'
    Jo closed her eyes as she realized just what a narrow escape
they had the previous night. As more patrols had gone out at daybreak, it was
clear that the main body of the Biter horde had passed them, and only a few
stragglers had come close, the ones Gladwell and the others had killed while
rescuing Alice.
    'You know what's weird, Bob?'
    Gladwell held his wife close, glad that he was alive, that
they were all alive, to be able to enjoy such simple pleasures. But what Jo
said next made him wonder what truly was going on.
    'Sunil came back with his patrol a few minutes ago, and they
met some people hiding out in the forest up North where they were cut off from
their settlement last night. They swore that they saw Biters disappear into the
ground.'
    'Honey, I'll talk to him. The last thing we need are more
stories about Biters spreading in the settlement. We all survived today, and
let's be thankful for that. How's Alice doing?'
    He felt Jo tense as she replied.
    'She didn't sleep much. Kept waking up and screaming all the
time you were gone.'
     
    ***
     
    Alice's Daddy walked in and sat down next to her. Her face
was still streaked with tears, and she looked at her Daddy and began sobbing
again.
    'Daddy, Doggie...'
    Gladwell took her in his arms and kissed her head. They had come
back to find that the puppy had died, probably of a broken neck after the Biter
had flung him against a tree.
    'Sweetheart, I'm sorry about him and I'm sorry that you had
to see what you did last night.'
    Alice looked at her daddy, her eyes filled with guilt.
    'Daddy, Doggie saved me. He fought that Biter, but I
couldn't save him.'
    It broke Gladwell's heart to see his little girl have to go
through things that no child should ever have to endure, but unfortunately