Deadland: Untold Stories of Alice in Deadland (Alice, No. 5) (4 page)

'We're going home, sweetheart.'

***

'How is it out there?'

Gladwell sat down heavily as Jo took his gun and backpack
after he came back from his patrol the next morning. He had seen a lot since
The Rising, but the wholesale massacre of a settlement still made him pause.

'We got lucky. A settlement some four kilometers out to the
East got hit. Maybe someone panicked and fired or maybe they were careless. The
Biters swept through them like a swarm of locusts. We just found small body
parts, not even a whole human body.'

Jo closed her eyes as she realized just what a narrow escape
they had the previous night. As more patrols had gone out at daybreak, it was
clear that the main body of the Biter horde had passed them, and only a few
stragglers had come close, the ones Gladwell and the others had killed while
rescuing Alice.

'You know what's weird, Bob?'

Gladwell held his wife close, glad that he was alive, that
they were all alive, to be able to enjoy such simple pleasures. But what Jo
said next made him wonder what truly was going on.

'Sunil came back with his patrol a few minutes ago, and they
met some people hiding out in the forest up North where they were cut off from
their settlement last night. They swore that they saw Biters disappear into the
ground.'

'Honey, I'll talk to him. The last thing we need are more
stories about Biters spreading in the settlement. We all survived today, and
let's be thankful for that. How's Alice doing?'

He felt Jo tense as she replied.

'She didn't sleep much. Kept waking up and screaming all the
time you were gone.'

***

Alice's Daddy walked in and sat down next to her. Her face
was still streaked with tears, and she looked at her Daddy and began sobbing
again.

'Daddy, Doggie...'

Gladwell took her in his arms and kissed her head. They had come
back to find that the puppy had died, probably of a broken neck after the Biter
had flung him against a tree.

'Sweetheart, I'm sorry about him and I'm sorry that you had
to see what you did last night.'

Alice looked at her daddy, her eyes filled with guilt.

'Daddy, Doggie saved me. He fought that Biter, but I
couldn't save him.'

It broke Gladwell's heart to see his little girl have to go
through things that no child should ever have to endure, but unfortunately he
also knew that The Rising had meant more than just the end of the world as they
had known it—it was also the end of innocence, the end of childhoods spent
sheltered from the ugliness that lurked in the world around them. Alice had
come face to face with that ugliness, something that the rational part of
Gladwell's mind knew was inevitable, but not at such an early age.

Alice sobbed in his arms. 'Daddy, I was so scared.'

Gladwell thought back to the heart-wrenching sight he had
seen when he had reached. His little girl, standing defiantly in front of a
Biter, throwing a rock at it to try and save her dog.

'Alice, look at me.'

She looked up at him, her eyes still brimming over with
tears.

'There's nothing wrong in being scared. I was also scared
last night. Being brave doesn't mean not being scared, but what we do when we
are scared. Some people just think of themselves, but others stand up for those
they care about. They put the fear aside and try and help others. I saw you
throw that rock, and I was so proud of you. You may have been scared, but you
were very brave. Do you understand that, sweetheart?'

Alice nodded, though the tears still flowed.

'Now, try and get some sleep and we'll have lunch together.'

Alice listened to her daddy and went off to sleep, her head
on his lap. She dreamt of Biters with their skin flapping open, of heads being
split open by axes, of blood spraying all over her face, but she also dreamt of
a little puppy who had given his life to save her, and she dreamt of how good
it had felt to throw the rock at the Biter.

When she sat down for lunch at the large community dining
room, Alice tore into the bread and soup that was their meagre meal. She had
not eaten since the previous night, and now she ate wordlessly as Gladwell and
Jo looked on. Jones was at an adjoining table, and as he finished his meal, he
began calling out to the older kids, and Jane shuffled along hesitantly to join
the afternoon lessons in firearms and unarmed combat that Jones taught.

Gladwell watched his elder daughter join the other kids, and
he knew that it was but a matter of time before she would have to do her share
and join in patrols out in the Deadland, foraging for food, sweeping for Biters
or bandits. As Jones walked by, he just nodded with a smile at them and
lovingly tousled Alice's blonde hair.

'You doing good, darling?'

Alice looked up at him, not a hint of a tear on her face
now. Instead, Gladwell was surprised to see a look of resolve on her tiny face
that he had never seen before.

'Uncle Jones, when will you teach me how to fight Biters? I
don't want to be scared next time I meet one of them.'

***

SIZE AND TEARS

Alice watched in goggle-eyed fascination as the boys and
girls drilled with Jones. He had them sitting in a circle and was lecturing
them about Biters before the afternoon's exercises began. At seven years of
age, Alice was still too young to join the classes, but she would hide nearby
and listen and watch. She had been asking Jones for some time to teach her, but
he had always refused, saying her Daddy wouldn't want her to start her training
before she was a few years older. That seemed so unfair to Alice. So what if
she was just seven? She knew she could run faster than any of the other kids,
and she was the only kid her age who had actually seen a Biter up close. These
kids heard lectures about how to kill a Biter—she had seen it for herself when
her Daddy, Jones and Sunil had fended off Biters to protect her.

The kids in front of her got up and stood in a circle around
Jones and he called two of them into the middle. One was a boy called Ram, who
was ten, and another was Vineet, a year older.

'Remember, with a Biter, no point in getting fancy. Go for
the legs, unbalance him, and then finish the job.'

Alice had to stifle a giggle as Vineet tried to do his best
Biter imitation, with a loud growl followed by moaning noises. Jones tapped him
hard on the shoulder.

'Cut that out! This won't seem so funny when a real bloody
Biter is ripping your head off.'

That shut up all the kids. Vineet lumbered in towards Ram,
trying to grab him with his arms and snapping his jaws in to bite as a Biter
would. Ram swept his legs but could not move the larger boy and soon was
grabbed in a bear hug.

'Game over, kids. Ram just joined the undead or had his guts
pulled out and torn apart.'

Jones took Ram's place and asked Vineet to come in again.
His right leg swung out in a blur of motion and in a second, Vineet was on the
ground. He then repeated the action in slow motion.

'Move your right shoulder in to get into position. Plant
your left leg for leverage, and then sweep your leg in, aiming behind the knee.
If you just kick out at random like Ram did, you'll just have a pissed-off
Biter in front of you. Now what do you do when you have a Biter down on the
ground?'

'Go for the head?'

Jones turned towards the kid who had ventured the
suggestion.

'Very good. But not just tap him on the head or punch him
like you might a human in a fight. You need to smash his head in, with a knife,
axe, rock or whatever you can get your hands on. That needs strength which kids
your age still don't have. That's a very good and practical reason why we don't
send kids out on patrols till they're older.'

Alice was watching and moving her own legs, imitating Jones,
when Jane came up behind her.

'I've been looking all over for you. What the hell are you
doing? Didn't Mom tell you that we were going to plant some tomatoes today?'

Alice groaned inwardly. Her older sister could be such a
pain at times. She would just do whatever the grown-ups had asked her to do. How
boring to be out there, planting tomato seedlings in a straight line in the
garden they had set up in the back of the settlement. How much more fun would
it be to learn how to fight with Jones—or even better, to actually go out on a
patrol and come back laden with food, weapons or supplies for the settlement. Or
better still, go head to head with Biters and defeat them. Alice wasn't sure
she could bring herself to smash a Biter's head in, but she had been paying
attention to Jones' lessons, and she was sure she could bring a Biter down and
run so fast he would never be able to catch her.

'Alice, are you even listening to a word I said?'

That snapped Alice back to reality and she reluctantly
joined Jane as she walked back towards the garden. Alice's Mom was there, along
with a dozen other women and an equal number of younger kids. They had furrowed
the ground and were now busy putting the tomato seedlings in. Alice was handed
a bunch of the small cups and pots into which the seeds had been planted a
couple of weeks ago. Small green leaves were now visible, and Alice knew that
now they had to be put into bright light. It helped that it was sunny all day,
and then at night, the grown-ups would bring some bright lights in to shine on
the seedlings.

As Alice got to work, she thought that the only saving grace
was that her favorite soup was tomato soup, so at least there was something to be
gained from this drudgery.

Most of the others had left for lunch break, and Alice had
just two cups left to plant, so she said she would join them in a minute when
she finished. That was when she heard the voice she dreaded hearing.

'Hey, Goldilocks! What's the pipsqueak doing today?'

She groaned when she turned to see a boy walking towards
her. Jones Jr, or just Junior to everyone at the settlement, the only son of
the same Jones who had been her Dad's friend and the instructor in unarmed
combat to all the kids in the settlement. Jane was a few feet away, and she
hissed at Alice.

'Just keep your mouth shut and he'll go away.'

The problem with bullies like Junior was that it was hard to
avoid them by just shutting up. They sought out those they thought they could
bully, and for Junior that list was pretty long. He was eleven years old, but
very big for his age, so his size played a role in it. But so did the fact that
he was Jones' son, and so thought that he could kick anyone's ass. To compound
his delusions of machismo, he had shot a Biter they had stumbled onto on his
last patrol. It was whispered that there were four adults with him and they
took out the Biter, and all Junior did was to fire a bullet that hit the Biter
somewhere in the leg, but those were all unnecessary details he didn't get
into. Take all of that together, and you had a kid who spelt nothing but
trouble for those smaller and weaker than him.

'So, Blondie. Why is that you get a nice house in the middle
of the settlement just because your Dad thinks he's the big shot?'

Alice looked at him, a hard glint in her eyes. Nobody messed
with her Dad and got away with it. 'Why is it that you don't even have a name
of your own and are just called Jones Junior? Did your Dad think you were too
ugly to be given a name?'

The problem with Alice was that she could never keep her
mouth shut.

Jane shouted something, but all of Alice's attention was
focused on the big boy now making his way towards her, his hands clenched into
fists.

'I'll teach you a lesson, you yellow-haired witch!'

Alice remembered what she had heard Jones say in one of the
many classes she had watched surreptitiously.

Don't watch the fist. Watch the shoulder.

Even before Junior had started his punch, Alice knew what
was coming from the way his right shoulder rolled back. She remembered the
morning's lesson and moved in, turning her right shoulder in and planting her
left foot as firmly as she could. As Junior's right hand swept out to deliver
his blow, Alice struck with her right leg, aiming behind the knee just as Jones
had taught.

The shock of being attacked by a little girl so much smaller
than him probably did Junior in more than the actual force of the kick Alice
landed. He stumbled back and fell in an ungainly heap on the ground.

'I'll...'

Before he could complete his threat, a deep voice boomed
out.

'Junior, get your ass back here!'

Junior got up, glaring at Alice as he ran towards his
father. Jane was now shouting at Alice. 'What's wrong with you? Why do you keep
asking for trouble? Couldn't you have just kept your mouth shut?'

Alice ignored her sister. She would never understand. She
would never know how important it was to stand up for yourself, even if you got
the crap beaten out of you. Alice planted her last cup and got up to see the
elder Jones standing there, watching her intently. She thought she saw a smile
forming at the corner of his lips.

***

'Bob, we need to talk about Alice.'

Gladwell suppressed a smile. This was a familiar
conversation starter between him and Jo, and one which invariably had an
unhappy ending. It was all too familiar—Alice had gone and got herself into
some trouble again. Gladwell would say that she was just spirited, Jo would ask
why she couldn't be more like Jane, and the conversation would then rapidly spiral
downwards.

'What happened, Jo?'

'She hit Junior. His mom came and told me.'

This time, Gladwell couldn't stop the laughter. 'That boy is
a bully. If Alice put him on his ass, good for her, and he's a sissy if he's
going and complaining to his mom about being beaten by a girl smaller than
him.'