I, Neil: An Alice in Deadland Adventure (Alice, No. 8) Read online

Robertson has no means of escape now.

  The ground explodes near my head and King hauls me off the stage.

  'Damn sniper. I think he was aiming for you, but the explosion must have jolted him and Appleseed got his head shot off instead.'

  I am now rolling on the ground as one of King's soldiers falls, a gaping red wound opening up on his neck. I am not sure if that bullet was also meant for me, but that unleashes mayhem among the soldiers. King's men turn on the black-clad soldiers and soon the camp is engulfed in a brutal close-quarters gunfight. King has his own handgun out, and he kneels, his gun held in both hands, expertly picking off men in black uniforms. At least a few cages are now unlocked and Biters stream out of them. I stand up amidst the mayhem and scream to them.

  'Only the ones in black. The others are our friends.'

  King turns to look at me, a strange look on his face.

  'King, you are neither my enemy nor the enemy of an enemy. I hope you can see beyond your own loss one day.'

  Then I am on top of the stage and over to the other side, looking for Robertson. Bullets whiz past my head and I see two soldiers shooting at me. One of them turns around and starts to say something to his comrade, but his words turn into a scream as three pairs of hands pull him down and tear him apart. The Biters are now all over the camp, and the soldiers in black are rallying in small groups, realizing that between King's men and the Biters, they have no hope of survival if they fight their own individual battles. It is not clear who their leader is and as I have seen in so many battles, once the leader is gone, an army, even if it has numbers and weapons on its side, can collapse fast. Perhaps their officer died in the initial volley of gunfire, perhaps he was outside and killed in the explosion, but now the men are on their own. They are fighting desperately for their survival. Three Biters go down as a group of five soldiers shoots them in the legs, shredding their legs with automatic fire, but then King's men flank the soldiers, killing two of them. That breaks the resolve of the others and they try to run for the gate.

  They never make it. Two are pulled down by Biters and one is shot. Similar scenes play out all over the camp. I don't know if King ever imagined that he would be fighting side by side with the Biters he so hates, but that is what is happening now. I sense some movement below the stage, and thinking it is Robertson, I reach down.

  It is the woman who was guiding the cameras. She is crying and begging for mercy. With her are three of the cameramen. Another lies dead just feet from the stage.

  'Please. I was just doing my job. Please.'

  I look at her for a second, all her composure and confidence gone.

  'Being a slave to a tyrant is not a job. It is a choice. A very poor choice.'

  As a group of Biters approaches the stage, I call out to them.

  'No harm comes to them.'

  I move on, looking for Robertson. The gunfire has died down now, and I can see no more black-clad soldiers standing. Biters are all over the camp now, standing around, waiting for me to tell them what to do.

  'Has anyone seen Robertson?'

  King motions towards the room where Appleseed used to conduct his experiments.

  'He's mine.'

  With those words, I rush into the room. The lights are off, as if Robertson thinks that he can evade me in the darkness, but I can smell him. I can smell his fear. I sense a blur behind me and turn just as an axe swings by my head, slicing off part of my upper arm.

  Robertson sees that he has missed with his cowardly strike, and all the fight goes out of him. He drops the axe, and joins his palms together.

  'Bunny Ears, I will ensure all Biters go free. I will stop all the weapons being sent to the Red Guards.'

  I take a step towards him.

  'Please, Bunny Ears. Let me live and you and Wonderland will never have to worry about me again. I'll go away from here, live my life someplace far from Washington.'

  I take another step towards him, and I am thinking of all the bodies that this man has left in his wake, in his hunger for power. The children dead in Wonderland, the bodies outside his palace in Washington, all the deaths at this camp, all the Biters captured and killed around the Homeland.

  'Bunny Ears, please. Please, I beg of you.'

  I am now standing within a few inches of him, as he cowers before me, crying for mercy.

  'Bunny E…'

  'My name is Neil.'

  Then I grab his neck and break it.

  ***

  FIFTEEN DAYS LATER

  It looks like I am moving in a sea, like the vast seas I have seen from the airplane on the way to the Homeland, a never-ending sea that is working its way across the plains ahead of us.

  A sea of Biters.

  It started with me and those from the camp, and I led them away from the city. The only question I asked King was where I could find the city and the big, open desert I had dreamt of, and I followed the broad directions he gave me. Biters do not tire, we do not need food, drink or rest, and we have been walking for days now. Along the way, more kept joining us. Some came from other camps whose guards abandoned their posts when they saw Robertson's fate; others were freed by their erstwhile captors who had never agreed with their masters but were too afraid to speak out; still others must have somehow learned of the sea of Biters making its way across the land and joined in. I guess they must be able to smell us from miles away.

  In the last few days, I have had more dreams. Dreams that made it clearer where I need to go. I wish I could keep asking someone for directions, but I have had to rely on what I saw before me. I dreamt of mountains and a huge gap between them, a place where we might be able to live in peace, safe from any tyrant who again decides to turn humans against Biters. I do not know what comes next, but I do know where we are headed. It is not so much a place on a map, as a place in one's mind.

  Freedom.

  The cool wind is blowing sand in my face as I stop to see the ruins of the old human city in front of me. There are broken buildings everywhere, buildings of strange shapes and sizes. One that looks like a glass cone, except it is shattered in many places, another tall tower that looks like it has been cleaved in half. Just a few days ago, I would have told you that Neil told me the city's name, but now I don't hear him as a separate voice. Our memories, our voices, our identities, are one, and they are playing back the city's name.

  Las Vegas.

  I know now that my destination is not far from here. Seeing the city has made the words come into my head, has made the memories all so clear. I remember telling my friends that I would one day come to Vegas and win big at the casino and never have to wash dishes again. That I would buy a little cottage near the Grand Canyon and live in the middle of nature. Neil loved nature, and always felt a bit out of place in a world where your worth is defined by your bank balance and the title of your job. He had no option but to work through the life he had, but the world he took for granted changed, and with it, the options I have had to make those dreams come true.

  Is that why I have been dreaming of this place? I used to have a photo of the canyon on the wall of my tiny bedroom. Idle dreams of a boy who dreamt of making it bigger than the meagre life he had been handed. Or were they merely idle dreams? The Neil who washed dishes at restaurants to pay for his education may not have been able to see this journey come true, but this Neil has. My journey has been very different than his, but the dreams that have guided us have been the same.

  I look around me at the countless Biters, stretching as far as the eye can see. Each and every one of them once had a life, a name, and a dream. I cannot give them grand buildings, airports, gadgets or titles, but is that really what civilization is all about? Maybe it is enough if I can give them the peace, the space and the feeling of belonging that helps them discover and remember their own identities and dreams.

  I start walking, and they follow as one. Do they really know what they seek from me? Or perhaps it doesn't matter. What matters sometimes is knowing that you matter to som
eone. I have heard some of the scientists back at Wonderland call it a herd mentality of the Biters. If you ask me, then the humans could do with a bit more herd mentality instead of turning on each other over things like land and oil.

  It is not far now. Maybe a day's walk and then we will rest.

  I hear a familiar noise and for a moment, Neil is gone, and Bunny Ears emerges, ready to face an enemy that rains death from the sky. An enemy against whom we have no defense. Is it all to end so close to our destination? But then I calm myself, and shout for the others to hold still and not run. It is one helicopter, and it is making no move to attack us. Instead, it lands just ahead of us and a single man in uniform jumps out and walks towards me.

  It is John.

  His nose is crooked, broken by Robertson's thugs, and he looks tired. But his eyes are ablaze with excitement. He has a broad grin on his face and he hugs me.

  'Am I glad to see you, buddy.'

  'How did you find us?'

  He laughs as he answers.

  'I just asked around if anyone had seen a million-odd Biters walking by. Kinda hard to miss, don't you think?'

  'What are you doing back here?'

  'The Red Guards are toast. Danish intercepted one of their comms from Wonderland and we uncovered who Tunks' people were—two techs who had come in with farm machines last month. Once I had a friendly chat with them, they talked easily enough. Turns out the Red Guards had no more rockets and once Tunks and Robertson fell, Alice and we swept through them in a couple of days. You should have seen Alice at work. Man, those Red Guards must have been wishing they never messed with us. I realized that Wonderland was safe, but my old home needed some help, and I came over.'

  I have heard nothing of what had happened in the Homeland since Robertson fell and I ask John what has been happening. I can see the pain in his eyes, but that pain soon gives way to a look of resolve.

  'We'll need time to get on our feet again, but you know, we tried to take the easy way out before. Always hoping someone comes along and tells us what to do, always trusting others to make our decisions for us. That's what led to the Rising in the first place, and then to people like Robertson. The country I served was one of the people, by the people, for the people, not meant to serve a few rich and powerful folks who look out for their own agendas. So now we'll rebuild America the way it was meant to be, and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. It won't be easy, but we're starting with elections in each small community and settlement, so that those who lead us are those who earn the trust of their people, not those foisted on us by corporations. We'll take it from there. I'm just helping King and others out in ensuring that local police forces are trained up again, and that ordinary citizens and communities learn to keep the peace again, instead of private military corporations or armies. Once we settle that, the next step is to reconstitute the volunteer military the way we had it—the one I served.'

  I can sense the passion in his voice. John was a warrior, but in preserving and creating a new peace, he may have found his real calling. Perhaps that is the mark of a true warrior, one who knows that the real battle is to ensure that peace does not give way to another war.

  'I think they do need you here, John. What is King doing?'

  Part of me feared that King would take advantage of the vacuum in Washington to take power, but what John says gives me hope for this land.

  'He has said that nobody stays in the White House till we elect a leader, and that his job is just to keep the peace till then. All Zeus troops have been disarmed and he has freed all the Biters and is sending them your way. You'll have a lot more company, I suspect.'

  Then he takes a tablet out from his backpack and turns it on.

  'I sure wanted to see you again, and there are a bunch of people back in Wonderland who wanted to say hi.'

  Alice's face comes on the screen, and she has Aalok and Danish behind her. They wave to me, and Alice smiles.

  'Neil, you have gone very far. I miss you.'

  'And I miss you, Alice. Wonderland has all of you to take care of the people there, but here there is nobody to help the ones you see around me.'

  Alice looks sad, and while some smart human doctor will tell you that Biters have no feelings, he will never have felt the tightening I feel in my chest.

  'Stay safe. You know, Neil, none of this would have ever happened if I hadn't jumped in after you down that hole. Who would have thought where that little adventure would have taken us?'

  'Sometimes the littlest adventure is what we need to get us started on much bigger journeys. No matter how far I go, I will never forget you. Do stay in touch.'

  I smile at her and John.

  'John seems to be pretty good at tracking me, and I hope he does come to visit us.'

  ***

  It has now been a day since John's helicopter left. We are now at the canyon and we can see birds in the skies above, the treeline around us full of animals watching us. There are no ruins of buildings, no corpses, no bullet casings lying strewn about. Things here are the way they were before the Rising. While man was busy destroying his world, nature carried on the way it did before man came to the scene, and will do when man disappears one day.

  All around me, little groups of Biters are settling down and looking at me.

  What do they want me to do? The sun is now low over the horizon and I speak to them, shouting so that I can be heard.

  'When the darkness comes, lie down and close your eyes. Know that there is no enemy here hunting you, know that there is no fear of what tomorrow will bring. Close your eyes and think of who you were. Think of those whom you mattered to, and who mattered to you. Think of the name you were once called. It will not come in a day or even in several days, but we have all the time in the world to remember. To remember our identities, to remember our dreams. Tomorrow, and every day after that, I will tell you my own story, my own memories, so you can remember your own. In our telling and sharing will we recover who we were.'

  They are all lying down now, and I have never known such peace. There is not a sound to be heard other than the occasional bird, not a single stirring that could signal any danger.

  What will we do when we all remember who we were? I don't know for sure. Will they still follow me? Will they even need me? It really doesn't matter, because it doesn't matter who leads us, but where we are headed. Alice knew that instinctively, and that is what made her who she is. I miss her terribly now. She would have loved this place as well. She has suffered much, has taken big burdens on her young shoulders, and she has never had the luxury of seeing the dreams Neil did. Like me, she has traveled far, seen many adventures, but when we feel lost and rudderless, we forget that the whole point of our life's journey is not finding a destination, but discovering who we are within. A destination and a purpose defined not by who we become or where we reach but how we matter to those around us. I think I am now much closer to that, and I think in creating and protecting Wonderland, Alice is doing the same.

  Maybe I am the way I am for a reason, maybe they are all following me for a reason. Maybe when they all are like me, we will get a shot at starting over, and maybe we will not mess up the world the way humans did.

  All that lies in the future. For now, I have nothing to do but watch all of them around me. Strangers, yet my friends, my family. I walk around to make sure everyone is safe and I see a small puddle of water with the moonlight reflecting off it. I walk up to it and look down at my reflection.

  Neil looks back at me and he is smiling.

  ***

  CREDITS

  Coming up with the idea for a novel and writing it is often a solitary exercise, but bringing it to readers as a finished book is always a team effort. I’d like to thank the following for their help in producing the book you now hold in your hands. They, and others like them, make independent publishing much more enriching and rewarding for both authors and readers.

  Cover design by Damon

  (http://www.damonza.com)


  Editing by R.J.Locksley

  (http://www.rjlocksley.blogspot.com)

  eBook formatting by Rebecca

  (http://www.indiemobi.wordpress.com)

  ABOUT MAINAK DHAR

  Mainak Dhar is a cubicle dweller by day and author by night. His first `published' work was a stapled collection of Maths solutions and poems (he figured nobody would pay for his poems alone) he sold to his classmates in Grade 7, and spent the proceeds on ice cream and comics. Mainak was a bestselling author in his native India with titles published by major houses like Penguin and Random House and with one of his novels (Herogiri) being made into a major motion picture. In early 2011, he began to use Amazon to reach international readers through his ebooks and became one of the leading independent authors in the world with more than 100,000 books sold in his first year. Mainak is one of the top selling horror authors on Amazon worldwide and in March 2013, became the #1 bestselling Horror author on Amazon, momentarily unseating Stephen King. His bestselling Alice in Deadland series is being made into a TV series in the US. Learn more about him and contact him at mainakdhar.com.