'Comrade General, are you sure you want us to land at the forward base?'
Chen glared at the pilot next to him.
'Comrade Colonel, do I take it that your revolutionary fervor is waning in the face of the enemy?'
The pilot blanched and looked away, taking the helicopter into a slight turn as they approached the base near the Deadland. He knew that for all that had changed in the last six months, a mere insinuation from someone like Chen could send him and his family to a labor camp for indoctrination. That, he knew, was a death sentence in all but name.
Chen looked down at the parked APCs and the Red Guards milling about the base and wondered just how long they could keep any meaningful presence in the Deadland. Expressing such thoughts in front of his masters in the Central Committee would be unthinkable, but as a professional military man, he knew the momentum was against them. While he knew his career, and indeed his life, depended on unquestioning obedience to his masters, he also knew that when political masters refused to see battlefield realities, it usually meant that defeat was around the corner. It had begun with the events in the Deadland revolving around that damned Biter Queen and the girl called Alice. The rout of the Red Guard base and Appleseed's death was a minor tactical reverse, but the larger strategic ramifications of those events had been great. The large scale defections among Zeus had meant that the Central Committee had deemed that only frontline Red Guard units be used in the Deadland. That in turn had meant fewer troops for the continuing war in the Americas, where the enemy was making steady progress in its brutal insurgency campaign. But that was a military campaign-one Chen knew how to wage. What had happened in the Deadland was different, and more dangerous. An idea had been born-the idea that humans and Biters could somehow coexist and that the Central Committee and its masters were behind the catastrophe that had been The Rising. The idea that it was possible to start to recreate civilization without the control of the Central Committee and it's Red Guards. That idea had taken root throughout the Deadland and had begun to seep into the cities of the Mainland. That, Chen mused with a bitter smile, had perhaps less to do with ideology and more to do with the choking off of slave labor from the Deadland. When the citizens of Shanghai and Guangzhou were called on to work the farms, they realized the utopia the Central Committee had promised was not quite the same without slave labor from the Deadland to lubricate the wheels of their utopian society. A nascent campaign of resistance had begun, and many of the dangerous messages which had preceded The Rising-calls for freedom, democracy and accountability were once again whispered in the Mainland.
The helicopter landed and Chen stepped out, saluting the Red Guards outside who stood at attention. He singled out the commanding officer, a burly officer whose eyes seemed to be constantly scanning the horizon. Chen had read his dossier-the Major had never been in combat before, but had been a rising star back in Shanghai due to his political connections. The mere fact that officers like him were being shipped out to the Deadland to make up for losses among frontline troops was a clear sign of how the war was going.
'Comrade Major Liang, how is the war progressing?'
The Major snapped to attention, but Chen noticed that he seemed to be on edge.
'Sir, we are carrying on our struggle to liberate the citizens of the Deadland from the tyranny of fear that the Biters impose and the counter-revolutionary ideas of the terrorists.'
Chen smirked. The young officer no doubt had excelled in his political education back in Shanghai. He just wondered how long he would last out here. As Chen sat in the Command Center and was subjected to a briefing containing what he had little doubt were largely fictional figures of losses the unit had inflicted on the enemy, his mind began to wander. He had no wish to be out here, but the Central Committee had decreed that senior officers needed to visit forward bases to bolster morale and no doubt provide photo-ops which would reassure the people back home that things were under control.
He was snapped back to reality when they heard a sentry cry out on the radio.
'Multiple contacts coming in fast.'
Liang was instantly at his command screen where live video from a circling unmanned drone overhead was being streamed. The looting of man-portable SAMs from overrun Red Guard armories and experienced Zeus operators to use them had meant that several drones had been lost in the last few months. As a result, drones were being used for largely static defense, hovering close to bases like this one. Still, it was better than getting no warning at all. Chen peered over Liang's shoulder and saw six jeeps kicking up dust as they approached the base.
Something didn't seem right to Chen. From all he had heard, the enemy was not so stupid as to walk into overwhelming firepower. Liang barked into his radio.
'Get the two gunships in the air. I want them obliterated before they get within RPG range.'
Another display showed the footage from both helicopter gunships as they took off and turned towards the approaching vehicles. The radio crackled with another transmission from the drone operator.
'Sir, I have three more jeeps coming in from the opposite direction.'
Chen had a sinking feeling in his gut. They had two gunships at their base and should theoretically be able to deal with such a threat, but he had heard of too many bases being overrun. Part of him told him to get to his chopper and get out, but he could not abandon his troops when they were under attack. He heard Liang speak in little more than a whisper.
'It's the witch. She rides with them.'
Chen's attention snapped to the display and he saw a close up of one of the jeeps, and standing there was a young woman with her fair hair streaming behind her, her eyes covered by dark glasses. The other jeeps seemed to have only a driver, with the cab behind covered in what appeared to be canvas.
'Sir, she cannot be killed. I have heard so many comrades…'
Chen shut Liang up viciously.
'Comrade Major, you are the ranking officer in charge of this base. Weakness and superstitious babbling will not help your men. Decisive action will.'
Even as Chen said the words, he had to admit that he too felt a stab of irrational fear. It was one thing to fight men who could be killed and to hunt mindless Biters, but it was quite another to fight an enemy who supposedly could not be killed but could fight like the best trained soldier and handle the most sophisticated weaponry. This witch had been leading the enemy to victory after victory and now she seemed to be bearing down on him. Liang was so focused on the jeep carrying the witch that he paid little attention to the three jeeps that the drone had picked up.
'Pilots, fire at will and aim at the third jeep from the left. That's where their leader is'
The drone operator screamed out.
'Sir, those three new jeeps are firing SAMs…'
His transmission was cut short as the screen relaying footage from the drone was filled with static. A second later he heard calls for help from the two gunship pilots who reported multiple SAM trails headed towards them. Chen watched in impotent fury as the gunships tried to evade the incoming missiles, and then their display screens were also replaced by static. Liang seemed to be on the verge of panic having just lost the edge in firepower he had. In his panic and anger, Chen snapped, all trace of civility gone.
'You idiot! Stop staring at those screens. We still have our eyes and our weapons. Come on to the deck and get binoculars.'
Chen walked outside and saw through his binoculars that the jeeps had stopped and all of them had their canvas covers removed, revealing multi-barrel rocket launchers of the sort that were carried underwing by Red Guard helicopter gunships. Chen's lips tightened.
'So that's why they've been reported to be so interested in picking dry the wreckage of the choppers we lose.'
He had no time to admire the ingenuity of the enemy as one of the jeeps fired. He saw a flash of light and six rockets streaked towards the base. It was an inaccurate weapon, but at such close range, they did not need pinpoint accuracy. Three rockets exploded short of their target, but three arched into the base, exploding in the grounds outside, sending Red Guards scampering for cover. Chen looked down and saw several men lying bloodied after the strike.
Liang was screaming at his men to open fire with the Gatling gun emplacements. Chen shouted at him to shut up.
'Liang, they are out of range. They have clearly thought this through better than you.'
Liang blanched as Chen walked back into the command center, trying to salvage the situation the best he could.
'Order everyone into the underground shelters. They can fire all the rockets they want, but they can't get us there. If they try and close in after that, we still have a fighting chance since they only seem to have a handful of men and we have more than two hundred fully armed soldiers here. Liang, get on the radio and call in an air strike.'
Chen knew that any air strike would be at least fifteen minutes away, but he wanted the men to feel that the initiative still lay with them. That was when one of the guards on the perimeter wall wailed on the radio, the fear in his voice apparent. The words he said robbed Chen of all the fight he had left in him.
'Sir, Biters are coming in from all sides. Hundreds of them just popped up from tunnels! What do we do?'
***
Chen went back to the deck and froze at what he saw. As far as the eye could see, there were Biters walking towards their base. Each wall had a remotely controlled gun turret and he shouted for one of them to open fire. He heard the familiar buzzing sound as the gun turret fired, cutting through the front ranks of the approaching Biters like a scythe, tearing limbs and bodies. He could see some of the undead monsters still try to crawl towards the base as the others behind them stepped over them and continued approaching the base. Just then, two more of the jeeps fired rockets. This time, their aim was better, and most of the rockets slammed into the base. One tore a gaping hole in the front wall, destroying the gun turret, while others hit the inside of the base, and Chen dove for cover as the helicopter he had come in exploded in a giant fireball.
He crawled back inside, feeling the skin on his arm burn from a near miss from shrapnel. Liang was staring at him open-mouthed.
'Sir, they are on the radio.'
Chen heard a female voice on the radio.
'Red Guards, surrender and I guarantee that you will be left alive. Fight us and you will be destroyed without mercy.'
Chen had heard enough stories about other bases that had received similar messages. Some had fought till the end, but others had surrendered to be looted of all their weapons and equipment. The survivors brought back tales of horror that spread further fear and discontent in the Mainland, and uncomfortable questions about the nature of the enemy and the war they were really fighting. The Central Committee had initially reacted the only way it knew how-to sentence the officers and troops to long stints in labor camps to build back their `revolutionary fervor'. But that had only further sucked dry the supply of battle hardened troops. Which is why fools like Liang were now here.
Liang seemed to be on the verge of total panic and grabbed at the holster on his belt.
'Sir, we cannot let those monsters take us!'
Chen sighed. It would sound brave to talk of fighting to the end, but then he saw the frightened faces around him. Young men, many with families back in the Mainland, fighting a war that now had no clear agenda, far away from home, against an enemy whom they had been misled about. General Chen had always been a good Party Man but he could not let these young men be slaughtered for no purpose. He would surrender and take accountability for it, and plead that the soldiers had wanted to fight, but he had overridden them. He knew that he would not survive long in a labor camp, but perhaps it was time he finally did his true duty as an officer-to his men, not to his masters back in the Central Committee.
He grabbed the mike from Liang and spoke, noting the horror in the Major's face.
'I agree, but we will surrender to humans. Ask those monsters to hold back.'
He asked all his men to put their weapons away, and then walked to the deck. He saw that the Biters had indeed stopped and wondered how this witch exercised such control over what were surely mindless brutes and monsters. The jeeps closed in on the base, and he saw black-clad men disembark from them and enter the base, assault rifles at the ready. The witch was among them, her blond hair marking her out from all the others. The black clad men fanned out across the base and gathered the Red Guards outside in a group, herding them into a room where they were locked. Others began to climb to the Command Center.
Chen turned to see the door open and four heavily armed men walk inside. They were all locals, and wore old Zeus uniforms. One of them looked at Chen and whistled.
'I never thought we'd have a General here as our guest. Everyone, get down on your knees and put your hands behind your head.'
Chen nodded to his men and they all complied. He noted that he could not see Liang and wondered where the fool was. Then he looked up and saw the witch enter, flanked by two men wielding shotguns. She seemed little more than a girl, dressed all in black and with her mouth covered by a mask and her eyes obscured by dark sunglasses. She was armed to the teeth, with a shotgun and sniper rifle slung across her back and a pistol and knife at her belt. Tied at her belt was a book. When Chen took a closer look, he noticed that it seemed to be some old children's book. She may not have looked physically imposing, but her very sight made several of the Red Guards break out into sobs of terror, crying for mercy.
She walked towards Chen and motioned for him to stand up.
'General, my men will be clearing out all your weapons and communications equipment. We will leave enough food to last you a day and then leave. I'm sure your reinforcements will be here soon enough.'
She came closer, and Chen found himself involuntarily shrinking back.
'When you get back, do one thing for me. Tell your masters that the Deadland is now free, and we don't want any Red Guards here. Not a single settler will go to your camps and we will continue rebuilding society the way we want.'
Chen saw a blur of movement from the corner of his eye, and the girl saw his reaction, turning just in time to see Liang emerge from a closet, carrying a pistol. He fired a shot at point blank range before two of the black-clad men shredded him with shotgun blasts. Chen watched the girl stagger to the ground and then gasped in horror as she got up, calmly picking at a hole in her torso. There was barely a thin trickle of blood, and a shot that should have killed her did not even seem to faze her. She turned to Chen, pointing at what remained of Liang.
'Tell your other men not to be so stupid. I don't want any unnecessary bloodshed.'
Chen stammered out the words that were paramount on his mind.
'What…..what are you?'
The girl came closer and said in almost a whisper.
'You should remember me, General Chen, and you should have killed me when you had the chance all those months ago.'
Then she removed her glasses and mask and Chen gasped as he looked into her lifeless, yellow eyes and skin that was peeling off in patches from her face. She said her last words to Chen and disappeared with her men.
'My name is Alice Gladwell. They call me the Queen of Wonderland.'