Alice had a quiet dinner back at the settlement, but found it impossible to sleep. Jane was lying in her own sleeping bag just feet from her, and Alice considered waking her up, but then dismissed the thought. What could she possibly tell her older sister that would make the story she had to tell sound anything other than ludicrous? She lay in silence for a few more minutes, but soon realized that she was so on edge that there was no way she could sleep. Her ears seemed to be picking up every sound and magnifying it, mirroring her fears. A solitary footstep sounded like a full squad of Zeus troopers, the sound of a bird or bat flying made her wonder if a helicopter was on the way. Finally, Alice sat up and realized that the risk of her being laughed at or not believed was nothing compared to what would happen if Appleseed did carry out his threat and the settlement was taken totally by surprise.
She got up and quietly walked to the room her parents were in. Her mother was asleep, but her father was poring over some papers. The brutal fact was that everyone who had survived so long in the Deadland had to know how to take a life, and she knew her father had done his share of fighting and killing, but he always was more in his element as a man of peace. Which was why he was the de facto leader of their settlement. He was the person people knew they could rely on to get fair advice on how to solve a dispute. He was the one who was trusted to tally and apportion their stocks of food and fuel, which he was doing now. And he was the only person in the world whom Alice could contemplate trusting with her secret.
He looked up at Alice and smiled, motioning for her to sit down next to him.
'Dad, can we talk outside?'
He put the papers aside and joined her in the chill of the night. As they walked together around the settlement, he didn't say a word, choosing to wait for when Alice would be ready to say what was on her mind.
'Dad, I think I found out some stuff. It sounds crazy, but I think it's true and because of it, we may all be in danger. I'm really scared.'
He stopped and looked at her.
'Alice, all those years ago when everything suddenly went to hell, I was just as scared. Your Mom was expecting you and with all the chaos in the last few days, I had no idea how I could protect my family.'
'So what did you do?'
He smiled, the light from torches burning around the settlement's walls reflecting in his glasses.
'I got help. Sometimes the bravest thing you can do is to ask for help. I went to a General in the Indian Army who had become a friend, and he let us shelter with his unit in their barracks when the Biters came out. He and I started this settlement once we had to leave the cities after they became unlivable and we realized that there was no more government and no more help coming our way.'
Alice wrapped her hands around herself, not just because of the chill, but because she needed to brace herself to tell her story. Her father put an arm around her and they continued walking as she spoke. He didn't interrupt her once, though he did see his face cloud over with a flash of anger when she related what had happened with Appleseed.
Finally, he stopped and seemed to be staring off into the distance. When he said nothing for several seconds, Alice tugged at his hand.
'Dad, I know it sounds crazy. That's why I was so afraid of saying anything to you.'
When her father turned to look at her, Alice was shocked to see his eyes well up with tears.
'Alice, when the first infections emerged and within a day or two all law and order broke down, a lady had come to meet me at the Embassy, pleading with me to pass on some information to my superiors in Washington. The Ambassador was in the US so she wanted to meet me. Just before she was to come and visit me, I got a call direct from someone in the White House that I was not to meet her or to entertain anything she had to say. I thought she was another wacko who had lost it in the madness of those days and I did not meet her.'
Alice felt her heart almost stop as she guessed what was to come next.
'That lady's name was Dr. Protima Dasgupta. She was an Indian-American researcher who had recently left the Government. My background check showed that she had been working on some Classified projects, which had such a high level of secrecy that I couldn't even find out what they were.'
'So everything she said is….'
Her father exhaled loudly, as if clearing his mind and trying to come to grips with what he now faced.
'Alice, I don't know if everything she said is true or not, but what's clear based on what you saw is that there is more to the Biters than we've always been led to believe. In the five days after The Rising when the media was still on, did you know what was on TV every single day?'
Alice had never watched TV but knew of it from her parents and sister so she just shook her head.
'Reports about how horrible these creatures, these mutants were. Reports about how our brave troops were fighting a new war on terror. Every single channel was screaming about how these creatures needed to be wiped out. But what was funny was that ordinary folks had no real protection-most National Guard units in the US were pulled back to barracks. Then all of a sudden, wars started breaking out all over. If I were a conspiracy nut, which I most certainly am not, I could start connecting all those dots and say that what this Queen or Dr. Protima has to say may well be more true than not. But that's not what worries me most. Something else terrifies me.'
'What, Dad?'
He looked at Alice, his eyes dead serious.
'Till Protima lives, there is a chance that this secret could come out, and getting to her is the only chance Zeus and it's masters have of wiping out the Biters as per their plan and then bring the surviving humans under their control. Appleseed now suspects that you know where she may be. He will be coming for you.'
Alice tried to put on a brave face.
'Dad, can we hold them? We have almost two hundred men and women who can fight. We can all shoot well, and we know this area better than they ever will.'
He shook his head sadly.
'No, sweetheart, we won't be able to hold them. You've seen a lot more death and evil than I would have ever wished upon a child of mine, but the most evil thing in this world is what one man can do to another. If Zeus comes here with their air power and heavy weapons, we won't last more than a few minutes. They will wipe us out and take you away.'
Alice didn't know what to say. Part of her felt guilty for having involved her father. The rational part of her knew that the dangers would have been just as great and just as real even if she had not told a soul, but telling her father and seeing how scared even he seemed made it even more real, and infinitely more frightening.
***
'Gladwell, we don't know if even a word of this is true.'
The speaker was Rajiv, a former banker who had become one of the pillars of their settlement ever since he and his wife had stumbled onto them while running from a horde of Biters. Alice had sat quietly for the half hour her father had taken to relate her story. He had thankfully spared her the ordeal of having to speak in front of more than two hundred people, most of whom looked increasingly skeptical as the tale progressed. Alice saw more than a few of them get up and leave. She knew they were among the many who had lost family and friends to the Biters, and even an insinuation that the Biters were anything but a mindless, bloodthirsty horde offended them. What made it worse was that the first accusation came not from one of the rabble-rousers but the normally placid Rajiv.
Alice's father looked at Rajiv, pleading with him.
'Why on Earth would Alice make all this up?'
Rajiv looked sheepish and shrugged his shoulders.
'She is but a girl. Maybe she just got scared in the tunnels down there and imagined things.'
'Or maybe this is just you trying to hold onto your so-called freedom!'
That stinging accusation came from the rear of the group, and Alice saw her father flinch as if he had been struck physically. His accuser was now standing up, and as three or four more men stood up, felt emboldened to continue his tirade.
'For years, Zeus has been coming to us. What they want isn't much-our boys to join their army, a share of whatever we find by way of salvage and maintaining a tally of our weapons with them. In return, we get some fixed rations, ammunition and safety.'
Alice saw her father's face tighten.
'We are FREE! That counts for something. We all owed allegiance to others, and several of you served in Government or in uniform, so we all know what that meant. But that was different-that was allegiance to a nation, to our identity. Zeus are a bunch of hired guns, and their real masters never reveal themselves openly. Have you forgotten about those settlements who signed up and then had their weapons taken because Zeus decided they were needed elsewhere? Who saved them from attacks after that? What about those who were resettled into farms to grow food, half of which is taken away by Zeus for their masters with no payment. What about all those young people who are taken away and never seen again-and the rumors that they are being used as bonded labour in the factories and mines of the elites who control Zeus. Why become their slaves when we can be free?'
It was an old argument, one that had consumed many meetings before, but tonight the revelations about what Alice had found had given it a new, bitter edge. The man who had been arguing with her father refused to back down.
'We all know how you feel about it, and you also know that there have been some of us who disagree. Some of us who are tired of fighting to survive every day, or scavenging for food every day for our families. And now you conveniently have this fairy tale from your daughter where Zeus and their masters are some sort of super-villains who destroyed the world.'
As the meeting disbanded, Alice's father took her aside.
'I tried, sweetheart, but their minds are closed. The problem is that if this General is indeed going to strike, we are running out of time. We cannot just sit here and debate and hope we convince these people.'
'Dad, what can we do?'
He hesitated, as if weighing in his mind whether to say what was on his mind.
'We need to meet this Dr. Protima. She's the only one who could convince them.'
Alice shuddered at the thought of going back to the Biters in their dank, dark underground world, and also of what they would do to her when they found her after her betrayal.
'Dad, I don't know if what they said is true or not, but that silly prophecy and that book she has freaks me out.'
'Darling, that's just an old fairy tale called Alice in Wonderland. I don't blame her if she has lost her mind a bit down there and believes it to be some prophecy. I guess they heard your name and saw the way you met them, and wanted to believe it was this prophecy come true, that's all. If that's what it takes to save us all, then just play along for a little bit.'
Alice could see her father's conflicted face, because he knew he was putting her in harm's way. But the sheer fact that he was willing to even contemplate that told her just how desperate their situation was.
The next morning, Alice walked along the woods where she had followed Bunny Ears down the hole. They were a good five miles away from their settlement, and if there was trouble, they would not be able to make it back in time, and of course, there was no way they could expect help or reinforcements. Alice held a pistol in her right hand and a shotgun slung across her back, but she had already seen that up close, with the weight of numbers on their side, the firepower she carried would count for little if the Biters were intent on attacking her. Her father was sitting a hundred meters away, hidden in the trees, his face daubed with camouflage paint, his eyes glued to the scope of his rifle.
Alice had no idea if Bunny Ears or any other Biter would even show up again at this location, but as far as she knew, no other human had found this entrance, and now that she scanned the area, it was so well hidden that she could not spot it either. So if it had not been compromised, there was a chance that they would still be using it. Also, she reminded herself, they were probably looking for her. That thought made her grip the handgun in her hand even tighter as she waited.
They waited for what seemed to be an eternity, and as Alice was about to give up and go to her father and ask if they should just return to the settlement, she saw some movement in the bushes. She froze, both hands gripping the handgun, but she forced herself to not bring the gun up. If their plan was to work, she had to make sure that she was not seen as a threat. She held her breath as the bushes parted, reassured by the fact that at this very moment her father's rifle would be trained on whatever was emerging. She saw two pointy ears emerge first, and then Bunny Ears was in front of her. He growled, spitting in her direction, and for a moment, Alice thought that he was about to attack. He pounded his feet on the ground and raised his head to the skies, howling, but as Alice watched she realized that his roar was not one of fury but more a plaintive wail.
She tucked her handgun into her belt and took a step closer. As she looked at Bunny Ears, she saw that he too was looking at her with his lifeless eyes. She had no idea if he would understand what she wanted, but she had no other choice. She spoke in a gentle voice.
'I am so sorry. I did not know what Zeus and their masters were up to, and I did not believe the Queen. I know now, and I need your help. The only way we can survive is if we help each other. Please tell the Queen that I need her help. We've tried convincing others in the settlement but many of them don't believe us.'
Bunny Ears just looked at her for a few seconds and then he disappeared back into the bushes. Alice wondered if he had understood a single word she had said.
***
Alice was sleeping with her shotgun near her head, and her parents had insisted that she and her sister sleep in the same room as them. It was hard to believe that things had got so bad so fast. It had begun with a fight between two young boys at lunch-time, one of them supporting her father and another insisting that they should just go the way of so many other settlements and do what Zeus wanted. When things had got more personal and some harsh words had been said about Alice, a couple of her friends had waded in. Soon words had given way to blows and before anyone could control it, the settlement had been neatly divided down the middle. What was apparent was that it had to do with more than whether they believed Alice's story, or even what they thought about joining Zeus. It had become a battle for power. A battle between Alice's father and some of the original founders of the settlement and others who had joined them more recently, and resented the authority the old-timers wielded.
Alice's father would have normally waved it all off as yet another of the countless arguments that had been inevitable over the years when you put strangers together in such a high-stress situation. But now things were different. He knew the imminent danger of Zeus moving against them, and he had also now seen first-hand that what Alice had said had some truth to it. He had been tempted to pull the trigger the moment he saw the Biter emerge in front of his daughter, and he had to fight years of conditioning to not blow his head away. But then he had seen it stand there, apparently listening, apparently understanding, and then walking away. With all the devastation the world had endured, if there was even a small chance that things could be set right, then it was worth fighting for.
He had called a meeting just after breakfast and as the entire settlement gathered, he noticed that the lines were drawn. People were sitting in groups, and those he knew supported his views were sitting around him and his family. However, an even larger group was now sitting around Rajiv, who had somehow taken on leadership of the splinter group. Better him than one of the rabble-rousers, he thought, as he began his account of what he had seen.
He was less than a minute into it when he saw the dissenters stirring. Rajiv stood up.
'Gladwell, we go way back, but you cannot seriously expect us to believe this. I understand you're trying to help your daughter but this is too incredible to be true. After all the Biters have done to us, why are you doing this?'
He heard a few catcalls and a man's voice boomed out from the crowd.
'He's just scared of no longer being the head honcho if we join Zeus, that's all. And if he hates Zeus so much why did he strike a deal to save his daughter?'
Alice could see her father wither in the face of the criticism and he put his head down, defeated, knowing that nothing he could say was going to make a difference.
Just then one of the lookouts shouted.
'There's an intruder headed our way.'
Immediately, all differences were forgotten as guns were picked up, safeties switched off and men and women began taking their defensive positions. Those too young, old or sick to fight were herded to the middle of the village to shelter in the building that served as their communal dining hall. Everyone else was expected to fight. Alice was one of the first to reach the wall where the shout had come from, and she was on top of the boxes that served as the perch for snipers before many of the older and slower men had even reached the wall. She put her rifle to her shoulders and peered through the sniper scope. She could hear others take position around her and the nervous shuffling and swearing of those who had not seen combat before. As Alice waited, she found a clarity that had eluded her in the confusion of the last few days. This was what she had been trained to do since she could walk. This was when there was no ambiguity to deal with-where it was simple-kill or be killed. A familiar adrenaline rush washed over her, and she welcomed it, waiting for a target to present itself.
'Alice, got something on your scope?'
Alice grinned and asked the man to wait. It was one of the men who had been heckling her father just minutes ago. It was reassuring to know that they still realized and respected the fact that Alice was one of the best shots in the settlement.
'Ram, did you actually see anything or were you drinking more of your hooch again last night?'
That question from Alice's father brought laughter all around and helped to lessen some of the tension. Alice was still too young to fully grasp it, but she had an intuitive understanding of just why so many men and women had followed her father over the years. It was not because he was the strongest or even the bravest, but because he could keep people calm in a crisis, he could think when others were losing their heads. She peered through her scope once again and this time she saw someone emerging from the early morning mist. As the figure resolved itself, she saw someone covered in a full-length coat, one that seemed several sizes too big, and walking towards their settlement at a steady, almost leisurely pace. She moved the scope up and caught her breath as she realized who was approaching. It was Dr.Protima, or as she preferred to be called nowadays, the Queen of the Biters.
Alice heard one or two rifles being cocked so she called out.
'Hold your fire. It's just an old woman.'
Two men from the settlement unlocked the gate and went out, cautiously approaching the figure who was now just a hundred meters away. Alice watched them trade some words and then heaved a sigh of relief when they led her in.
When the Queen walked in through the gate, every man, woman and child in the settlement had gathered to see who this stranger was. In the early days they had often encountered solitary stragglers, but by now, people were either in groups, or dead. A single person, least of all an old woman, had virtually no chance of surviving on their own in the Deadland. Alice saw that the Queen had prepared well. The oversized coat covered her body and arms, and she wore long gloves to conceal her hands. She was wearing tinted glasses that obscured her eyes and as she came in, she glanced towards Alice once, but betrayed no hint of recognition.
As someone offered her a chair, she sat down and said that she had to talk to someone in charge. When Alice's father and some of the other men sat around her, she looked around at the dozens of people gathered around her, perhaps waiting for them to leave. But there was no chance of that happening-the entire settlement wanted to know what this strange old woman had to say. And then she began her tale.
'My name is Dr. Protima and I was a Biologist of Indian origin who lived and worked in the United States for several years.'
Alice saw her father's eyes widen as he realized who she was, and saw several of the men stir, but they all sat and listened. And the Queen had indeed come prepared to meet a skeptical audience. Under the coat, she had a small bag from which she produced old faded passports, identity cards, official documents bearing the seal of the US Government. Some of the younger folks would not know what many of those were, but were suitably impressed, but all the older ones, the ones who had known a life before The Rising, saw and understood. Alice saw some of the men who had been opposed to her father pass the documents among each other, and saw several of them glance at her.
Rajiv finally worked up the courage to speak, when the Queen concluded her tale, ending with how Alice had landed in their midst.
'Dr. Protima, we have heard some of this before from Alice, and it still seems incredible. How can we believe any of this?'
She did not say a single word in reply, but stood up and loosened the coat so it fell at her feet. Then she took off her gloves and glasses and looked straight at Rajiv. There were gasps all around her, and one or two women screamed. Rajiv stumbled back, holding onto another man for support as he looked into the decayed, lifeless eyes and the yellowing, bloodied arms of the Queen. No one said anything for a few seconds, and then Alice's father spoke.
'Dr. Protima, if this vaccine got into the right hands, could it save any more humans from being…'
As he fumbled with what to say, she answered.
'Yes. It would ensure that no more humans have to worry about the virus being transmitted through a bite. Imagine what that would do to the chances of people finally coming to grips with the fact that we are not just dangerous animals and an existential threat to be wiped out? What would that do to Zeus's fear-mongering which they are using to wipe us out and bring all of you under their control?'
Alice heard many murmurs of approval in the crowd, as the Queen now looked straight at her.
'But there's more than that. Before it all went out of control, we were working on antidotes, not just vaccines. If I can get the vaccine to a good lab, we should be able to create a cure. It may take time, but I know it can be done. I don't know how much brain damage has already happened to those infected, or whether it can be reversed, but there is at least hope. Alice, I told you my prophecy was what would lead us to a way out.'
Nobody else present understood what she meant by the last comment, but they were all looking at Alice with a mixture of shame and awe. They had doubted and rejected her, but now they had proof before their eyes that she had been right. Moreover, they suddenly found themselves the bearers of a terrible secret. Many people began speaking at once, everyone with their own idea on what to do, but everyone in agreement that they needed to help get the vaccine into the right hands.
Alice's father spoke next and what he said stunned everyone into silence.
'The men who caused all this will not let us succeed so easily. We know they have been hunting Dr. Protima and now they will come for us.'
Nobody said anything for a few seconds. Alice was about to say something when the silence was shattered by the sound of an incoming helicopter.