say something sarcastic or provocative. Instead, he looked genuinely
shell-shocked.
'Alice, I know
we've had our differences. I know that in the last few months people have been
questioning why we still live in a state of war when there is no war to be
fought, and I know that yet others question why we keep the Biters close at
hand. But I'm willing to forget all of that if you help us find out who was
responsible for this massacre.'
Alice looked at
him, trying to gauge whether he was sincere or he just wanted to maintain the
status quo since that best served his political agenda. She was perhaps too
young to judge and took him at face value.
'Arun, we have
known some measure of peace, but the world outside is still at war. I know we
situated Looking Glass outside the center of Wonderland because you thought
people would get alarmed at all the bad news. The reality is we cannot pretend
away the fact that the world is still bleeding, and today some of that blood
seeped into Wonderland.'
Arun looked
away sheepishly as Arjun took up where Alice had left off.
'Arun, you and
others had voted to reduce patrols and cancel regular combat training. We
cannot pretend this is the Delhi the way it was before the Rising. We know
peace now, but that might change at any moment. Let us get to the bottom of
today's killing, but you as an elder need to help people understand that things
are much more dangerous outside Wonderland than they may want to believe.'
Suitably
chastised, Arun went back, and then Alice mounted her bike.
'Alice, do you
want me to come?'
Alice refused
Satish's offer. This was something she had to do alone. Maintaining her
composure had been necessary in front of the bereaved families, but now she was
gripped with fury. Whoever had killed those children would pay dearly.
***
The groaning
Biter went down on his back, his hand cracking in several places as Alice
twisted it and threw him over her shoulder. Before he had been turned, he had
been a slight old man, but there was no sympathy or pity in Alice's eyes as she
kicked him, dislocating his chin. That did nothing to improve his face, which
already had skin peeling off in several places and an ear missing from a
gunshot.
'What lunacy
made you let outsiders into Wonderland?'
She was not
sure how much he understood, but she was so angry she really did not care. The
Biter was now on his knees, snarling, all obedience to Alice gone. His teeth
were bared, jagged and covered with dried blood. He snapped as she came closer
but she easily weaved out of the way. In the time she had spent with the
Biters, she knew that they would only obey a leader who spoke from a position
of strength. With Dr. Protima, their first Queen, who had first opened Alice's
eyes to the true nature of the Biters and the conspiracy behind The Rising,
that authority had come from her ability to speak and reason like a human and
her possession of the tattered copy of Alice in Wonderland that the Biters had
come to revere as their holy relic. For Alice, that authority was backed up by
her combat skills honed in years of fighting to survive in the Deadland.
The Biter
lunged at her again, and this time Alice caught his right hand, snapping it back
and then bringing the heel of her own right hand snapping against his nose. The
blow would have killed a grown man, but Biters did not die so easily. The Biter
fell back and struggled to get back up, his face mangled and bloody, when Alice
took out her combat knife and stabbed him through the head. He did not get back
up again.
Alice had come
to the Biters’ reserve and told Hatter and Bunny Ears about what had happened.
They knew the potential implications and she sensed their panic, and within
minutes they had brought the old Biter in front of her. He had screeched and
groaned as if pleading for mercy, but the hand gestures Hatter made were clear
enough. This Biter had let in a band of outsiders in return for a thick bunch
of ganja leaves that