Deadland: Untold Stories of Alice in Deadland (Alice, No. 5) (15 page)

'Dad, I can take care of myself.'

'Yes, Alice, I know you can. And I'm proud of how brave and
skilled you've become, but being a true leader is not just about taking care of
yourself, but about taking care of others who depend on you.'

'I'm just a kid. Who depends on me?'

Gladwell smiled.

'We all do, Alice. We all depend on each other, old or
young. With the world outside as crazy as it is, we are all that we have and
can count on.'

With that, Gladwell finished his meal in silence and went to
the community center for a meeting. Several people were there, including Rajiv and
Sunil.

'Bob, Zeus is looking for something or someone. I don't know
who or what, but the way they're acting means they aren't just randomly seeking
out Biters to whack.'

Gladwell looked at Sunil. He had heard the theory once
earlier in the week and it still didn't make sense to him. 'Maybe they just
want to expand their bases or safe zones and so are clearing out Biters.'

'That could still be the case, but then they'd just come in
with overwhelming firepower. They're sending in recon patrols in beforehand,
scouting locations, and we've stumbled upon a Zeus patrol that was reporting
back to base saying that the target was not there.'

Rajiv had his own concerns.

'The security aside, so much fighting outside means that our
supply runs are severely disrupted. Just getting water means mounting a major
operation and we lost a man last week when Biters showed up. The funny thing is
that the Biters seem totally disoriented. A dozen have just stumbled onto us
and been slaughtered and didn't even seem to register our presence.'

'Shell-shocked is the term I'd use if they were people.'

Gladwell looked at the map on the wall. There were markers
all over it indicating areas where Zeus had launched major ground offensives
and air strikes and also where large Biter forces had been seen. There was a
war raging out there, and his settlement was right in the middle of it.

'Guys, we don't want to get in Zeus' way, whatever they are
looking for. So the instructions stay the same—if we spot troopers on a
mission, we keep our distance, These guys are shooting first and asking
questions later, and increasingly using air power. The last thing I want is for
some trigger-happy pilot to hit our people. As for the Biters, we stay
reactive. If they threaten us or come too close, we take them out, but we don't
seek them out. I'd use the time to deepen the moat and get the folks drilled on
defensive measures.'

That night, Gladwell came back to his home and lay down on
his bed with a tired sigh. Joanne was sleeping and stirred at the sound.

'Good night, sweetheart.'

Gladwell kissed his wife on her head and lay on his back. He
would not show it openly to anyone, but he was very worried about what was
happening out in the Deadland. The Biters had been there for years and were an
ever-present danger, but with Zeus going on the warpath, the Biters seemed to
be retaliating by going on a rampage against all humans. He had heard of a
settlement that had been wiped out by Biters the week earlier and pitched
battles between humans and Biters were reported from all over the Deadland. He
was doing his best to keep his people safe and out of harm's way, and part of
that was not taking an aggressive posture and trying to lie low.

The problem was that he wasn't sure what they would do if
trouble sought them out.

***

Alice was awakened in the middle of night by the sound of
her mother shouting.

'Bob, wake up!'

Alice rushed to her parents' room and saw both of them
awake, her father reaching for his gun.

'What's up, Mom?'

Joanne Gladwell had always been a light sleeper, and it was
a running joke in the family that she would inevitably find someone to blame
her lack of sleep on for snoring or moving too much in their sleep. Tonight,
she had heard something much more ominous.

'I thought I heard choppers flying by. Lots of them.'

They all came out, and Alice saw that her Mom hadn't been
alone. A handful of other settlers had come out and as they saw Gladwell, they
came over.

'Bob, any idea what's going on? They don't fly so many out
at night.'

Gladwell looked up at the sky, and shook his head. The
sounds of the choppers were now more apparent, and more people had started
coming out of their homes.

'Ranjit, I have no idea, but Zeus being close can never be
good news. Spread the word—get everyone armed and ready with the defences.'

All around them, people grabbed guns, rushed to the walls,
and pulled into place the giant spotlights they had recovered from an old film
studio. They killed all the lights, so as not to attract any attention to
themselves. The few night vision scopes they had were all fully charged by a
generator, and if there was danger coming their way, men with these scopes
would be posted along all four walls to give warning.

Gladwell watched everyone move with practiced precision and
felt his chest swell with pride. From a ragtag group of strangers thrown
together by The Rising, they had become not just a settlement of people living
together, but family. From bureaucrats, diplomats, soldiers, farmers,
accountants and housewives, they had forged a fighting force which would be a
formidable opponent for anyone.

However, Gladwell knew that there was no way they could
survive if Zeus really came after them with all the firepower they had at their
disposal. For years, he had kept Zeus away with a combination of diplomacy and
stubbornness. He had counted on the fact that Zeus would not want to take
unnecessary casualties in coercing them to fall in line when there were many
more settlements out there willing to trade their weapons and freedom for the
security Zeus promised. Also, he had heard that Zeus was actually happy letting
their settlement exist as a tripwire against Biters. They were by far the best
armed and most battle-hardened settlement in the Deadland, and with Zeus on the
warpath against Biters, it didn't hurt to have other armed humans out there to
thin the Biters' numbers.

Gladwell just hoped that nothing had changed in that
calculus to cause Zeus to come after them.

The choppers came closer and passed directly overhead. He
guessed there were at least a half dozen choppers, and he held his breath as
they passed. When they were cleanly past their settlement, he heaved a sigh of
relief.

'Dad, what are they doing?'

Alice's question was soon answered when they saw flashes of
light on the horizon, followed quickly by the dull thuds of explosions. Streaks
of lights reached out from the sky towards the ground as more explosions rocked
the Deadland.

Alice was watching in fascination. Even for someone who had
grown up around guns and violence, this display of firepower was overwhelming.

'Wow, are they hunting Biters?'

'Sweetheart, they sure are hunting someone but I'm not sure
who that is.'

***

The next morning brought with it wave upon wave of Biters.
Many seemed charred by the air strikes of the previous night and as Alice
looked at them streaming past the settlement in the distance through her scope,
they didn't seem interested in attacking anyone, only in getting away.

When the Biters kept appearing in the distance in large
numbers, Gladwell called a meeting. Everyone was armed, and nerves were on edge
after the overnight air strikes and the large number of Biter sightings.
Everyone expected Gladwell to have a plan, but more than that, he just wanted
to settle nerves and tell people to calm down.

'Folks, the first thing I wanted to tell you is that we
don't need Zeus or Biters to kill us, I suspect some of you will shoot
yourselves by the end of the day.'

There was nervous laughter as Gladwell continued.

'I know you're worried and many of you didn't get much sleep
last night, but that's no reason to forget basic discipline. Don't walk around
with loaded rifles and I personally caught three kids with handguns that had
their safeties off. So, before we do anything else, let's sort those issues
out.'

Sunil and three other men walked in, having just returned
from a recon mission.

'Bob, the Biters aren't coming towards us, but there are so
many running amok out there that a few might stumble onto us. There's a
particularly large group to the East that looks like it's headed our way.'

Gladwell took in the latest information and considered it
for a while.

'I don't want to be besieged by Biters. As is, our supply
runs are disrupted and we can't afford to be sitting here waiting for the
Biters to come to us. Let's get a force organized that takes care of this Biter
horde. Sunil can debrief us on their numbers and the shape they're in and we
can plan accordingly. I also want smaller defensive groups near the settlement
armed with sniper rifles to pick out any Biters that come our way while we
engage the big horde.'

What followed was a frenzy of activity as everyone got armed
and readied themselves for the upcoming mission.

Alice caught up with her dad just as he was about to come
out of their home, his rifle and kit in his hand. Her mom was right behind him,
carrying a handgun.

'Dad, do you think the Biters are trying to escape to their
underground bases?'

Gladwell smiled.

'Nobody has actually seen one of these bases, so I doubt
they even exist. I think they've been scattered by the Zeus attacks and are
just trying to get the hell out of the area.'

'Can I come with you guys today?'

Gladwell stopped to look at her, and his expression said
that he had anticipated this question.

'I need you to act as a scout to pick off any stragglers and
any Biters who get on our flanks. I'll be dividing the scouts into two-man
teams, or in your case, a two-woman team, as you'll be paired up with Jane.'

Alice screwed up her face to show precisely what she thought
of the plan, not just because she was going to left out of the main assault
force, but also because she'd probably have to spend several hours with Jane.
The Jane who never smiled, the Jane who was always full of gloomy predictions,
and the Jane who would be sure to tell on Alice for anything she did to deviate
from the script.

Of course, Gladwell knew all that, and that was precisely
the reason he had paired his daughters together for this mission. He knew how
skilled Alice was, but he also knew that her maturity had not yet caught up
with her skills. Some in the settlement called her wild, others called her
battle-crazed. As a father, Gladwell could never bring himself to look upon his
little girl in those terms, but he knew that Alice could be a loose cannon, and
it was better for her to have Jane looking over her shoulder.

'Dad, I can shoot and fight better than most of the adults
you're taking with you.'

Gladwell looked at his daughter's sulking face and knelt
before her.

'Alice, being one member of a twenty-man squad armed with
rifles is much easier than the task you have. You won't have the chance to ask
for instructions, you won't have reinforcements close by; you'll have to take
your own decisions based on what you see and act on them. I've told you before,
being a leader and a fighter is much more than knowing how to shoot and fight.
It's about taking responsibility for others, it's about learning to exercise
the right judgement in the heat of battle. I hope today's mission teaches you
some of that.'

Alice hugged her dad. She was disappointed at not going with
the main force, but she also knew better than to part on a bitter note. She had
learnt that life in the Deadland could be brutal and short, and you never knew
when you said goodbye to a loved one, never to see them again. She buried her
face in her dad's shoulder.

'Love you, Dad.'

***

Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her
sister on the hill, and of having no Biters to shoot. Once or twice she peeped
through her sniper rifle’s scope, but could see no targets. ‘What is the use of
an ambush,’ thought Alice, ‘without any Biters to shoot in the head?’

Alice was fifteen, and had been born just three months after
The Rising. Her older sister and parents sometimes talked of how the world had
been before. They talked of going to the movies, of watching TV, of taking long
drives in the countryside, of school. Alice could relate to none of that. The
only life she had known was one of hiding from the Biters. The only education
that she knew to be useful consisted of three simple lessons: if a Biter bit
you, you would become one of them; if a Biter bit someone you knew, it didn’t
matter whether that person was your best friend, they were now a Biter and
would rip your throat out in a heartbeat; and if you could take only one shot,
aim for the head. Only the head. Nothing else would put a Biter down for good.

So here she was, lying on a small hillock, her rifle at her
shoulder, waiting to pick off any stragglers who escaped the main force.

The first few years of her life had been ones of hiding, and
of surviving from one day to another. But then the humans had begun to regroup
and fight back, and the world had been engulfed in a never-ending war between
the living and the undead. Alice’s parents were part of the main assault force
that was now sweeping through a group of Biters that had been spotted near their
settlement. She could hear the occasional pop of guns firing, but so far no
Biters had come their way. Her sister was lying quietly, as always obedient and
somber. Alice could not imagine just lying here, getting bored when the action
was elsewhere, so she crawled away to the edge of the small hill they were on
and peered through her scope, trying to get a glimpse of the action.