Through the Killing Glass (15 page)

‘Greetings, is
Commissar Hu here, or do I need to go anywhere else to meet him?’

The officer
chuckled. Then her voice changed, taking on a harder edge.

‘Prime
Minister, my brother died somewhere here in the Deadland, cut to pieces by the
Yellow Witch and her monsters.’

Arun stopped in
mid-stride.

‘I listened to
survivors of his unit talk about how people like you cheered and clapped as
they were hunted down by her. It was a war, I admit that, but why would you
allow the slaughter of those who were willing to surrender?’

After a moment
of fumbling for a response, Arun said, ‘No, such a thing never happened. We
always let surrendered Red Guard units go. That was Alice’s order.’

‘You lie!’

Li spat out the
words and took another step towards Arun. He saw her reach for something at her
belt and, suddenly very scared, Arun took out the one signal flare he was
carrying and lit it. As he held it in front of him, he got his first look at
the Red Guard officer facing him. He took in the red, lifeless eyes, the teeth pulled
back in a feral grimace, and the decaying, yellowed skin. He stumbled back, the
flare falling to his feet.

‘What are you?’

Li picked up
the flare and held it close to her face.

‘I am the Red
Queen, dog!’

Arun clicked
the transmit button on his radio. He screamed, ‘Looking Glass, I need help!’

Before he could
say another word, Li had crossed the distance between them in a single leap and
hit him with an outstretched palm. Arun doubled over in pain as he felt his
ribs crack. He struggled to his feet as Li pivoted, cracking the edge of her
palm against Arun’s nose. He felt warm blood spurt out over his face and mouth
and he screamed in pain. He tried to reach for the gun at his belt, but Li
grabbed his wrist in a lock, applying pressure until she heard the bones snap.
Arun’s screams became incoherent.

Li wanted to
make him suffer more, but her orders were clear as to how this man was to die.
She brought him close and then leaned forward, opening her mouth to bite.
Behind her two of her Biters approached to finish the job.

***

Danish had
stepped out to stretch his legs. Sitting in front of the terminals and radio
equipment for hours every day was not doing his aging joints any good. Not
being able to access the American sites was frustrating but he had nowhere else
to go, as he slept most nights in a small room adjoining the Looking Glass. He
had decided to call it a night and sleep when he heard the scream on the radio.
He rushed back inside, but he heard nothing else. Had he imagined it? He could
have sworn he had just heard Arun scream. Falling down into his seat, he tried
to call Arun’s tactical radio.

‘White King, do
you copy? This is the Looking Glass.’

He flinched as
he heard a low moan, sounding more like an animal in pain than a human being.
That was followed by a roar that could have come only from a Biter.

***

‘White Queen, I
think I saw some movement about a kilometer east of your current position.’

‘Roger, White
Knight. I’m on it.’

The moment they
had been alerted by Danish to the transmission from Arun’s radio, Alice, Satish
and Arjun had been scouring the area around Wonderland. Arun’s wife did not
know where he had gone, other than the fact that he had stepped out late for a
meeting. That set off alarm bells in Alice’s mind, so they agreed to not only
search Wonderland, but also the land bordering it. Vince was in his helicopter,
using its motion sensors and heat detectors to aid in the search. Not knowing
what they were getting into, Alice radioed Satish and Arjun to join her before
they investigated what Vince had just spotted.

Vince reached
the location well before they did and what he saw was clear. There was a heat
signature in the darkness almost directly below him. From the limping way the figure
seemed to be moving, it was either a badly wounded man or a Biter. He would
have taken the helicopter down for a closer look but Alice had told him to stay
in the air to provide warning in case this was a Red Guard trap.

Alice was
riding her bicycle and so far had been cautious in the darkness but was now
pedaling as fast as she could. Arun and Satish were on their own bicycles just
behind her. They had debated coming out in a jeep but Arjun had cautioned that
it would make too much noise and alert any potential adversaries. From over
Alice’s head came the soft hum of the helicopter; she was close. Vince must
have seen her on his sensors as he turned on the powerful spotlight below his
copter, lighting up the figure below him.

It was Arun;
Alice could recognize him from his clothes.

‘Arun, are you
okay?’

She dismounted
from her bike and ran towards him, and then skidded to a stop when he raised
his face to look at her. His right hand was clearly broken and hung limp at his
side, his face was bloodied and torn, and he had several bite marks visible
beneath his tattered and bloody shirt. His bald head was covered with blood and
his red eyes had a vacant look in them. He looked at Alice and snarled and then
took a step towards her, baring his teeth. Alice sensed Satish come to a crouch
beside her, his rifle at his shoulder.

‘Don’t shoot,’
she warned.

Alice had done
this dozens of times with Biters that had joined her band, only she had never
imagined doing this with someone who had been a person she had spoken with just
hours ago. Removing the charred book from her belt, Alice held it above her
head with her left hand.

‘Stop and look
at me!’

The way she had
screamed her command startled even Arjun and Satish, who had never witnessed
this ritual and took a step back. Arun bared his teeth and jumped at Alice, who
sidestepped him and kicked him down with ease.

‘You fool! Do
you think I am a mere girl to be bitten? Look at me!’

Arun’s eyes
went to hers. He stopped.

‘I am your
Queen and this is the book that contains the prophecy that is our fate. As long
as I hold it you will obey and follow me.’

Arun snarled
again and was about to leap when Alice kicked him hard in the chest, sending
him sprawling.

‘Follow me or I
will tear you to pieces. Look at me, look at the book and remember that you are
destined to follow me.’

Arun stayed
crouched, his voice a low growl, but he did not attack. Edwards had been
curious about how Alice got the Biters to follow her, and she had told him her
about her own experiences and also what she had witnessed among the Biters who
had followed Dr. Protima. Edwards had said that perhaps it reflected the fact
that even though they were now no longer fully human, Biters perhaps had one
thing in common with people. Like people, Biters needed symbols to follow and
believe in, and the charred copy of Alice in Wonderland had become such a
symbol.

Alice knelt
down and took a closer look at Arun. When Satish and Arjun joined her, he
snarled at them but did not attack. Alice heard Satish draw in his breath.

‘My God, who
did this?’

Arjun replied,
‘Probably one of those damn Biters the Red Guards seem to have following that
Red Queen. Though why they would do this escapes me.’

Bunny Ears
emerged from the darkness, looking first at the figure and then Alice.

‘Bunny Ears,
take him with you and teach him how to follow you. Keep him safe till we figure
out what’s going on.’

The bunny eared
Biter grunted and then pulled Arun to his feet. As the trio watched him
disappear into the darkness, Arjun said in a low voice, ‘I may not have agreed
with him, but he was not a bad man. He was just blinded by his ambition and the
hate he had for Biters. Sometimes when we hate something too much, we are fated
to become the very thing we hate.’

They took their
time coming back into Wonderland as they swept the area where they had found
Arun. Satish found indentations in the sand that could have been created by the
landing gear of a helicopter but there was no way of being sure. They found
some blood nearby, presumably Arun’s, and a discarded signal flare. There was
no doubt that Arun had come out here by himself to meet someone, but whom that
had been was a mystery. Alice’s mind went back to the so-called Red Queen she
had encountered in battle and she found it easy to imagine her and her Biters
setting an ambush for Arjun, though what the Central Committee would gain by
doing this was uncertain.

Their first
stop back in Wonderland was the Looking Glass, where Danish was waiting for
them. When they told him what had happened to Arun, his eyes widened.

‘I have a
really bad feeling about this.’

Vince arrived
at that moment. To Alice he said, ‘So far the Reds have been playing us quite
well. They’ve alienated you and Satish from the rest of Wonderland; they’ve
made the humans and Biters stop working together; and they’ve got the
youngsters in Wonderland eating out of their hands. Whatever they’re trying to
do with Arun has to be a part of that plan: gradually dividing people in
Wonderland to weaken it.’

As if on cue, Danish
spotted a new message flashing on the Central Committee Intranet. It was an
invitation for the people of Wonderland to gather and watch a special news
broadcast on TV that morning.

The word had
spread like wildfire by the time of the broadcast, so thousands of people were
gathered around the Council building, and Arjun had to bring the TV outdoors so
more people could watch it. When even more people landed up, he ended up
hooking up the second TV, too.

Several of
those gathered asked where Arun was.

Arjun stepped
up on a table. ‘Folks, I have no idea what they want to broadcast, so please be
silent so we can all hear.’

He made no
mention of Arun. He, Alice, Satish, Vince and Danish had resolved not to let
anyone else in on the secret of what Arun’s fate had been until they got a
better idea of what the Central Committee was up to.

Before long a
red star replaced the static and then the familiar newscaster appeared. Today
she looked even more somber than usual as she began her report.

‘It is with
profound regret that we must report the passing of one of our dear friends and
a steadfast champion of the fraternal bonds between the Mainland and
Wonderland.’

A buzz spread
through the gathered crowd as she continued, ‘Late last night, Arun Chowdhury,
the Prime Minister of Wonderland, was apparently set upon by a group of wild
Biters and killed. Please wait as we show photos from one of our circling
drones.’

A series of
photographs flashed across the screen. They were fuzzy and the night-vision
optics gave them an eerie glow, but what they showed was clear enough. Arun lay
sprawled across the ground with two Biters leaning over him.

Commissar Hu
appeared on the screen next.

‘I mourn the
passing of a statesman who had the vision to see that our nations could put
aside past misunderstandings and start a new relationship. It is clear that
with the Zeus traitors having been exposed for the criminals they were and the
so-called Queen losing control of her Biters, the people of Wonderland need
security. If the Prime Minister, our dear brother, could not be protected, what
will happen to ordinary citizens of Wonderland?’

Alice felt a
stirring in the crowd and one or two teenage boys pointed at her and Satish.
But what Hu said next scared her more than any potential disturbance in the
crowd.

‘Dear brothers
and sisters in Wonderland, we will not abandon you in this time of need. Until
you are able to secure your own borders and elect a worthy successor to Comrade
Arun, I am dispatching a small force to help secure your borders and protect
you from these heinous Biter hordes.’

***

‘Dakotas at
Netaji Subhas Chandra.’

It was the
fifth time that day that the Americans had made that enigmatic transmission on
the radio. While Danish had been unable to access the American websites, he had
hidden Arun’s old ham radio set when the Red Guard technicians had come, and
had been using it to listen into what the Americans were saying. He had caught
snippets about ongoing battles in the American Deadland and also repeated pleas
for Wonderland to re-establish contact. Then had come the mysterious
transmission, repeated several times every day for the last two days.

Vince asked,
‘What the hell are they talking about?’

After the last
TV transmission, Alice, Satish, Vince and Edwards had essentially sought refuge
inside the Looking Glass. Satish’s men were on edge, but he had asked them to
stay in their barracks. Arjun was spending every minute passing through
Wonderland, trying to soothe frayed tempers and nerves. A few young men had decided
that attacking Satish would be a good idea, but Arjun had dissuaded them at the
point of a gun. Wonderland was a powder keg about to explode at any minute, and
Alice worried that when the Red Guards arrived they would be able to
essentially take over Wonderland with little resistance.

‘I have no idea
how, but the Reds have made a mistake and we need to use that against them.’

All eyes fell
onto Arjun. He continued, ‘They left Arun there, thinking he was dead. That Red
Queen of theirs did not get transformed by being bitten. She and her Biters
were created in a lab, so she probably has never seen a human get bitten and
transformed. She did not know that a person looks dead and then wakes as a
Biter after a few minutes. From their TV transmission, the Reds believe Arun is
dead, maybe because they spotted Vince’s helicopter and scooted before Arun
woke up as a Biter.’

‘Let’s call
everyone and tell them what’s going on now!  We must get organized and
ready before any Red Guards get close,’ Alice cried.