Free Through the Killing Glass by Mainak Dhar Page B

office. He had grown up as the son of a loyal
Communist Party member and joining the Army had seemed a natural progression.
He had first started questioning what he was doing when the regime started the
brutal crackdowns in 2012 on popular protests in rural areas against land grabs
and official corruption. That had culminated in the second bloodbath at
Tiananmen Square when it had first hit home. Some of his fellow officers had
dared to talk about mutiny, and Chen remembered conversations with his wife
when they began to weigh their options. The Rising had changed everything.
Biological attacks by the United States, regional wars and instability and
retaliatory strikes by China had made everyone forget internal issues and
everyone, Chen included, had rallied around the national cause.
    Then came the
horror of the Biters, and Chen and his fellow officers were thrown into the
forefront of a terrible new war. Several months went by in a blur of savage
fighting and Chen had initially been relieved when the Central Committee was
formed and announced, hoping it would mean some stability and security.
Securing food and safety for mainland citizens was the declared priority, and
Chen signed up when the elite Red Guards were announced. Then came one
revelation after another. The fact that they were to work with Zeus, an
American Private Military Contractor, and then a war that soon shifted from
being one waged in defense of the Mainland to an aggressive war of
counter-insurgency in the Deadland. Chen had gone along, putting aside any
misgivings before the terrible threat of the Biters and the need to secure food
sources for the Mainland. He had directed the struggle with brutal vigor in the
Deadland, with the clear understanding that the ones he was fighting were
inhuman Biters and human terrorists who were disrupting the flow of food.
    And then he had
come face to face with Alice and the Biters, and his conviction had been
shaken. He had already paid dearly for the doubts he had expressed then. What
was he to do with what he had learnt today? How did one reconcile to being part
of a campaign whose first salvo had included the murder of innocent children?
     
    ***
     
    'All but two of
my recon teams are back within the city limits! I never thought they would fold
so easily.'
    The
disappointment and hurt on Satish's face was clear. Most of his men were those
he had commanded in Zeus for several years and then fought shoulder to shoulder
with in the war against the Red Guards. To have them now effectively desert him
and report back to the city on Arun's orders had come as a shock.
    Alice was
silent. She understood Satish's frustration but also knew that many of the men had
wives and families back in Wonderland. They would not risk being cut off from
them – but at the same time, they were now willingly blinding themselves to the
Red Guards’ next move. There were just two recon teams left, no more than a
dozen men patrolling the vast expanse of the Deadland.
    Vince was
drawing something on the sand. Alice asked him what he was doing.
    'We can figure
out how to convince this Prime Minister of yours later. Right now, the best
thing we can do is to prevent another attack. I spent the last two hours
talking to Satish to understand the lay of the land and how your city is
situated. I flew V-22 Ospreys in the Marines for years, so I can guess where
their chopper pilots will try to come in.'
    Satish radioed
his teams to cover two of the likely ingress routes. He and Alice would have to
cover the third. As they gathered their weapons and backpacks, they saw Vince
shoulder his rifle as well. Alice looked at him and Edwards.
    'You don't have
to join the fight if you don't want to. This is not your war.'
    She saw Vince's
eyes narrow.
    'Alice, this is
my war. My squadron was wiped out when we refused to do what Zeus and their
masters wanted, and I lost my whole family in a Red Guard missile attack.'
    Alice went
ahead on her bike, intending to also