Deadland: Untold Stories of Alice in Deadland (Alice, No. 5) (9 page)

'What the hell is that?'

Alice didn't know who had asked the question, but she knew
every single person at the settlement was thinking that very same thought.

***

'Kids, try and concentrate, please.'

Alice didn't see how Sheila thought she could teach a group
of kids aged between seven and ten anything when there was so much excitement
rippling through the whole settlement. Her Dad had talked to Jones about
sending out a scout party to see what the explosion and smoke had been about.
Some of the grown-ups had been talking about it perhaps having been an airplane
crash, and that scared Alice. Those strange things flying overhead were spooky
enough, especially when one of the grown-ups told Alice just how big they
really were in spite of looking so small when they were high up in the sky.

Imagining one of those monsters falling to the ground,
especially on top of their settlement, was something that was playing on
Alice's mind. They could shoot a Biter and deal with bandits, but what could
they do about a huge metal monster diving down on them from the sky? Alice was
imagining such a monster flying down towards and her and trying to shoot it
with a gun before it crashed on top of her when her daydreaming was
interrupted.

'Alice, can I have your attention, please?'

Alice looked up sheepishly at Sheila, who was scrawling
something on an old blackboard they had salvaged from a school. Sheila had been
a teacher before The Rising, and once she and Rajiv had settled into their new
home, she had proposed that they start a more formalized plan to educate the
kids instead of each family doing what they could. The reality was that the
early days of fighting to survive each day had left little energy or time to
think about education, but now that things were more settled, Gladwell had
agreed to Sheila's proposal. However, that also meant that she had the
unenviable task of dragging into a classroom a bunch of kids who had never been
to school, and most of whom couldn't read or write beyond a very rudimentary
level.

'Please read this out for the class.'

Alice had been taught the alphabet by her mom, but had never
progressed beyond learning to read very basic sentences. What she did recognize
was how her name was spelt.

'That's Alice,' she said with a look of triumph.

'Very good, Alice. Yes, that is your name. Now, what are the
words before your name?'

She was not going to be let off the hook so easily. She
looked at the first word and it seemed easy enough.

'M...my...'

'Very good, Alice.'

'Namey.'

'That should be name, Alice.'

'Is.'

'Perfect.'

'My name is Alice.'

Sheila beamed at her. 'There you go. That wasn't so tough,
was it?'

Alice heaved a sigh of relief at having passed the test,
only to be mortified when Sheila scribbled another word on the board.

'Now let's try something a bit more difficult, shall we?'

Alice looked down, not willing to meet Sheila's eyes, hoping
that she would pick on someone else. No such luck.

'Alice, you're doing well today. Why don't you try?'

Alice looked up at the unfamiliar word. Try as she might,
she could not make head or tail of it. If she tried hard, she could decipher
some of the sounds, but the word sounded like it meant nothing. And she wasn't
going to make a fool of herself by saying something ridiculous. Maybe it was
just a trick, so Alice kept quiet and shook her head as Sheila guided her
through the sounds.

'The word is riddle.'

'What's a riddle?' someone asked, and Alice was relieved to
find the focus of the conversation shifting to someone else.

'It's something that's difficult to solve.'

'Like what to do when a Biter is stuck in the moat and
you're wondering whether you should use a bullet on it or use a knife instead
and save the bullet?'

A couple of the kids giggled and Sheila rolled her eyes,
trying to keep her composure. Before she could continue the lesson, there was a
huge commotion outside. Alice heard the sound of their jeep returning, the one
they had appropriated from two Zeus troopers who had tried to attack them a
couple of years ago. There were excited yells and cheers, and Sheila realized
it was a losing battle to try and keep the kids engaged in her lessons. As one,
they looked at her with pleading eyes. Finally Sheila put the chalk down.

'Okay, go on and see what's happening outside.'

Alice raced outside to see that Jones and a couple of the
men had returned from a recce to see what the explosion and smoke had been. All
the adults seemed to be crowded in around them, and Alice tried slipping
through them, but couldn't get close enough to see what had caused so much
excitement. However, she did hear a lot of the comments.

'Canned peas!'

'Tinned juice!'

'How much stuff is there in the wreckage that we can
salvage?'

'Should we get more stuff or would Zeus get pissed off?'

Above all the chatter, one voice rang out. It was Gladwell.

'Folks, calm down. Let me update everyone on what we know so
far and then we can get to whether Rajesh gets his apple juice or not.'

There was laughter and people calmed down, waiting for
Gladwell to continue. Alice ran to her father, hugging his leg. She loved how
he would make people, including her, smile. It was hard to be angry around him,
and everyone seemed to like him. What was more, he seemed to always know what
to do. If anyone could figure out what to do with the thing that had fallen out
of the sky, it would be him.

'Folks, it appears a transport aircraft with Zeus markings
came down. It was headed for the old airport and must have had some mechanical
failure. No survivors, indeed it seemed to have no passengers other than two
crew members who didn't make it, but it was full of supplies. Looks like
supplies for the Zeus troops garrisoned around the old city. There are a couple
of things all of you should know, so listen up carefully.'

There was pin-drop silence as Gladwell continued.

'First, this is a Zeus aircraft, no doubt about it. So if
they send a crew to salvage the supplies, they are within their right to do it,
and we would be stupid to get into a fight with Zeus over some supplies.'

Disappointed murmurs rose among the crowd, but Gladwell
raised his hand to request them to let him continue.

'Of course, out here in the Deadland, the usual rule is
finders, keepers. From whatever we know, Zeus stays in its bases and if they do
venture out into the Deadland, it'll take some time to organize the kind of
numbers they usually like coming out in. So, if we move fast, we could get
there before them. We'll need to go out in numbers, both to carry back as much
as we can and for security, so we'll rigging up the van, the jeep and as many
bikes as we can arrange.'

A few people began cheering, and Alice was grinning. What an
adventure! Going out in such force to a wrecked airliner, loaded with food and
supplies they could use. Out there in the middle of Biters and Zeus troopers
all around them in a race against time. What Gladwell said next sent her hopes
crashing down.

'It's twenty minutes out and back, so I hope we won't be
gone more than an hour. I don't want us to be out there any longer because I
don't want a Zeus chopper using us for target practice. Jones will work out the
roster, but some of the older kids and adults will need to set up patrols to
make sure we're not heading into a large group of Biters or Zeus troopers on
the way there or back; I'll take fifteen adults with me to the crash site, and
a few adults and all the younger kids will stay back.'

Gladwell had been tousling Alice's hair, but she abruptly
broke away from his grasp and ran to their home, where she had every intention
of sitting and sulking at having to miss out on all the excitement.

***

'Alice, where are you? Mom's been looking for you.'

Alice was sitting in their room when Jane came in. She was
carrying a rifle and a backpack loaded with water and ammunition, ready to join
one of the scouting parties. Alice always thought it funny to see her older
sister carry weapons, since it was so obvious that she didn't like the idea.

Jane had been ten, just a bit older than Alice was now, when
The Rising had happened, and once in a while, she would tell Alice about how
life was back then. She would go to school, watch movies, play on the computer—not
lug around rifles and watch out for undead monsters. Alice couldn't really
understand what was so exciting about having to go to school every day and
confront riddles like the ones Sheila posed. She had no idea what a computer or
the Internet was that Jane seemed to miss so much. The way she saw it, it was
much more fun to carry a gun and go out on adventures than to be sitting down,
solving riddles in a classroom or in front of a box where you supposedly saw
letters and pictures and did something called browsing that Jane seemed to have
done a lot.

She had been sitting in the room for the last thirty
minutes, devastated that she was not going to be out there with the others.
Jane sat down next to her.

'Stop sulking, Alice. We'll be back real soon, and besides,
I don't see what's such a big deal about going out there? It's basically
another supply run, just in bigger numbers. Most likely the most exciting thing
we'll do is load some boxes into the jeep and the van and get back.'

'Then let me go in your place.'

'You know I can't do that. Mom and Dad are both heading out,
and they were looking for you.'

Alice came out to see her mom, also loaded with gear for the
journey. Jo hugged Alice tight.

'Sweetheart, be good. We'll be back soon.'

Gladwell came by, and as the other adults were getting into
the Jeep and the van and patrols were setting out, he took Alice aside.

'Alice, do you know why you're being kept back while we go
out there?'

'Because I'm a kid and kids never get to have any fun.'

'Not just any kid, sweetheart, but the best shot and the
fastest runner among all of them, even kids older than you.'

Alice beamed as her dad said those words, loudly enough for
everyone around to hear.

'While we're out there, we need to make sure the settlement
is safe. If there's big trouble, some of the grown-ups will light the smoke
signal and we will see it and hurry back. That's the plan but you know how it
is—we've never really planned to be split up for any long period of time, and I
seriously doubt the smoke signal will work, especially if it's windy. That's
why we also need someone to watch out for, and fight, any Biters who happen to
come this way. That's where I'm counting on you.'

Alice was now grinning broadly, as Gladwell continued.

'Can you do that for me?'

Alice was grinning from ear to ear, and ran back to their
home to fetch her gun. While she loved carrying the gun around, the reality was
that her parents had forbidden her from keeping it loaded and the magazine and
bullets were with her Dad. Gladwell followed her back and took one loaded
magazine from his bedside and passed it to Alice. His eyes were now serious,
and Alice's grin disappeared.

'Alice, we're all headed out there and everyone's excited at
all the food and supplies we can get, but we've never had so many of us leave
the settlement at one time. There will be some adults around, but most of our
good shots and fighters are going out on patrol, so be careful. I know you can
shoot well, and I know you're brave, but just be very careful—this is not just
an adventure, but someone's life could depend on you.'

With those last words, Gladwell kissed her on the forehead
and left to join the others leaving for the crash site. Alice stood there,
thinking of what her father had said. Having an adventure and carrying the gun
was fun, but she wasn't so sure she wanted any of the responsibility he had
talked about.

As she came outside to wave goodbye, Junior passed her. He
was carrying a rifle and joining one of the patrols.

'Look out for Dakota, will you?'

Alice wished him luck, but the last thing she wanted to do
was to babysit Junior's five-year-old kid sister. Dakota always seemed to be up
to some mischief, and when Alice had once complained about her, her Dad had
said that she was very much like Alice had been at her age. That had made
everyone else laugh, but Alice had found nothing funny about it. She was sure
she had never been as much trouble as Dakota was.

Even as the Jeep and the van left, Dakota walked up to her.
'Will you play with me?'

Alice gave an exasperated look.

'Dakota, I am on guard duty. I don't have time to play.'

Dakota's lower lip quivered, and Alice found herself praying
silently.

Please don't cry. Please don't cry.

But cry she did, and soon Alice found herself comforting and
distracting Dakota and taking her around to the farm where they could run after
the birds who came down all day. Dakota ran after the birds, screaming and
hollering, but always slowing down when she got close to the birds. The birds,
for their part, seemed to know this was all part of a game. They would just hop
to a new location a few feet away, which would cause Dakota to break out into
peals of laughter and the chase would be renewed.

At first Alice just watched Dakota, hoping that she could
get back to guard duty. However, after a few minutes, she also got caught up in
the spirit of things and began running alongside Dakota, chasing birds up and
down the garden. They kept at it for more than ten minutes, laughing, cheering,
calling out to the birds to stop. Finally, they stopped, exhausted, and lay
down on the ground.

'That was fun!'

Alice smiled. Yes, it had been fun. A lot of fun. Part of
her wanted to get back to watching the walls for Biters, but part of her was
happy just being here, soaking in the laughter, liking the soft feel of the
ground beneath her, listening to Dakota giggle. Playing was not something Alice
or other kids who grew up after The Rising took for granted any more and Alice
realized that for all her protests at having to babysit Dakota, she was
actually having fun. She was about to prod Dakota into another round of chasing
the birds, when she realized playtime was over.