Read Hunting The Snark: An Alice in Deadland Adventure (Alice, No. 4) for Free Online

a
beefy man carrying an assault rifle, spoke up.
    ‘It’s almost a two-day drive there, through Biters and Zeus
patrols. You don’t want to do that, girl, it’s suicidal. We should just wait.’
    Alice took a step towards the man, and looked him straight
in the eye.
    ‘I don’t have time to wait. My people face destruction if we
don’t get to this Cape Canaveral and take out whatever this Snark is. As for
suicidal, you may not have noticed, but you could say I’m half undead already.’
    Satish bit his lip as the man blanched under Alice’s glare
and Vince stepped in.
    ‘Let’s get going, but we will need all the firepower we can
get.’
    He turned to the group gathered around him. There were four
men and a woman, all carrying rifles.
    ‘Folks, you heard Alice. Are you joining us or have you
decided you’re all too chicken to go on a little road trip?’
    Several of them stiffened and from the look in their eyes,
most, if not all, of them were hardly enthusiastic about joining her on the
journey. However, none of them would back down in front of his or her peers. As
they got their gear ready, Bunny Ears walked into view, and growled at the big
man who had spoken to Alice. He took a step back and shook his head, and
muttered.
    ‘Now we’re going to have to babysit Biters. We must be
really out of ideas.’
    Vince came out of the terminal building in a few minutes,
carrying a large backpack and an assault rifle. Satish was a step behind him,
and he leaned towards Alice as he passed.
    ‘Without the General there, are we sure they’ll stick with
us in case we run into trouble?’
    Alice had her own doubts, but she had few options. Vince
gathered everyone together for a round of introductions. The beefy man spoke
first.
    ‘The name’s Larry Sullivan, though I can’t remember the last
time anyone called me that. Now my call sign is Butcher.’
    When Satish raised an eyebrow, Larry actually looked
sheepish, as the woman in their group spoke up with a snort.
    ‘Larry ran a meat shop in Atlanta when the shit hit the fan.
Was a real gentleman, doing bloody origami in his spare time. Then Zeus
confiscated his shop, and he went Rambo on them.’
    Alice didn’t get the references but she liked the fact that
the group was not as tightly wound as she had thought as more than one of them
smiled. The woman was next. She was not much taller than Alice’s five feet, but
much broader and carrying a large shotgun.
    ‘Hi, I’m Cynthia, call sign Baker. When I’m not killing
mercs, I bake cupcakes to destress.’
    The next man was black and tall, even taller than Vince, who
towered over Alice. He seemed the most friendly of the lot, and he was armed
much like Alice, with an assault rifle slung across his shoulder, a handgun in
a holster at his left waist and a large hunting knife on his right.
    ‘Good evening, Ma’am. My name’s Josh Baskins, call sign
Beaver. I was a Navy SEAL in the old days, and I guess the enemy’s a bit more
complicated than it was back in Afghanistan or Iraq, but the war is still very
much on. We’ve all heard a lot about you and I’m glad to have you here.’
    Alice nodded at him, smiling.
    The next man was slight of build, wearing glasses and
carrying a sniper rifle.
    ‘I’m Tom Riley, call sign Broker. I run the accounts and
supplies for our group but I’m pretty handy with this beauty here.’
    The last man was a heavily bearded man who seemed to be by
far the oldest of the lot. He didn’t seem to be carrying any weapons, but he
opened the top of his backpack to reveal several cubes of C4 explosives and
cords.
    ‘I’m John Garner, the Barrister. I was a lawyer in New York,
and soon I realized that in this new world, my old education counted for
little. I did, however, discover a new talent of mine—blowing stuff up.’
    As they loaded up their gear on the SUV that Vince had
arranged for their trip, Alice looked at Josh.
    ‘Josh, I mean Beaver, we seem to have the same taste