V. Massacre in the Meadow

The forest was starting to give way to sunny fields and Alice grinned in anticipation. She was remembering her last trip to Wonderland and knew who her next victims would be. She giggled gleefully and continued walking until she reached a meadow with a large brick wall at the edge of it. Sure enough there was a big white egg dressed in blue suspenders with yellow buttons and a ridiculous red checked tie. A few feet off to the left were 10 giggling, idiotic, flowers planted in a straight line. Every so often they left their places and formed a different pattern, then went back into the line. Alice strode across the field.

* * *

Humpty Dumpty was sitting on his wall. "Everyday the same thing," he thought grimly. "Some silly little girl comes and I fall off the wall. I get cracked up and all the kings' horses and the kings' men come and carry me off. My cracks get patched up and hidden by my clothes or white base. What a fun job I have. And now here comes another one." The flowers giggled again. "And there's another thing." He thought. Humpty's main course of thought was how much things sucked for him and he was such a great guy. "Those stupid flowers, how annoying they are. Just a bunch of ninnies planted for eye candy. Why did the Queen have them planted by me? It's not fair. A great brain like me having to suffer through endless days of pain and dim bulbs. It's a crime and a shame." He was already in full whine mode.

He looked at the girl coming across the field. "Odd, she's striding so purposefully. Most of them are skittish and terrified. And now that I think about it I've seen that little girl before. It's Alice! Now how did she get back here? She's been here before, gone through the growing up process." Humpty was confused, and this shocked him. He was never confused! This upset him. "Stupid girl. How could anyone have to do this twice? She must be very immature." Finding an explanation made him feel intelligent again but he was still furious with her for making him feel stupid. "I'm really going to give it to her. I'll be at my rudest." He thought, sniffing haughtily. His nose was perpetually stuck in the air, it seemed. He'd lowered his eyes to tiny, snobbish slits. This was why he didn't notice that Alice was covered in blood and that her eyes had a wild, crazed look. It had been blank at first, until she got closer. He also didn't pay too much attention to her stride, which was not immature. He had conveniently forgotten his surprise earlier when he noticed she wasn't skittering about. Being so stuck up has it's price, he may have thought he was intelligent, observant, and above everyone else, but he was very, very wrong. And he was about to pay for it.

He impatiently waited a few minutes before risking a side-glance at his approaching "victim." What he saw made him loose his composure for the second time that day. He almost fell off the wall too early. At first glance it looked like she had dyed red streaks in her hair and got the dye all over her clothes. He opened his eyes wider as he realized it was blood. She was holding an axe, that he thought once might have been a bird. Her eyes were distant, large, and wild looking. He was very frightened. "She's had a terrible accident of course, that's it. She's come here for help because she knows I'm smart. The axe must be one of those birds and it died in the accident. She's bringing it around so we can bury it." His thoughts were almost incoherent they were so idiotic but as usual he ignored how much of an idiot he sounded like. "Besides, even if she is an axe-murder she can't get me up here! It's impossible." Another moronic thought. Murders, the psychopaths, cannot be stopped by the fact that the intended victim is sitting on a wall. Alice was almost as tall as the wall anyway; it wasn't as high as he believed it to be. It made him feel important to think that he could fall from a great distance like that and still be mostly intact.

Humpty was still gibbering to himself when she reached him. She looked up but said nothing. His gibbering turned into a sort of keening whine mixed with blubbering. Alice raised the axe, but used the blunt side, as she smashed the egg right in the middle of his "stomach." The shell caved in and he flew of the wall, smashing into a tree at the edge of the meadow. The flowers, who had been paying no attention at all, looked up at this. Humpty was pretty much crushed. He moaned, but he knew he wasn't going to last long. On this he was right. Before he knew it Alice had crossed the field. She raised the axe and smashed him with the blunt end, again and again. Soon he was just a mess. "You deserve it, you stuck-up fat bastard!" Alice didn't shout this time, but there was a lot of hate and malice in her voice.

The flowers had been watching, stunned, until they saw Alice finish her job and look at them. Then they started to scream. Rose picked up Rose Bud and tried to run, pulling their roots out of the ground. The rest of the flowers followed suit. Alice strode toward them; in their panic they were going nowhere. She swung her axe, but she swung it low. Instead of chopping off their heads she was chopping just above the roots, leaving them unable to run. "Look at all the pretty flowers I've picked." Alice said, in an oddly child-like voice. "What a wonderful bouquet." Rose Bud was crying and the other flowers were either groaning in pain or screaming in terror. They didn't understand. This wasn't supposed to happen! What was going on? "I think I'll play a little game." Alice said. She went over to the daisy. She grabbed hold of one of the petals and pulled it out. The daisy screamed in pain. "I'll kill you." Alice pulled another. "I'll kill you not. I'll kill you. I'll kill you not. I'll kill you. I'll kill you not. I'll kill you!!!!" Alice ended triumphantly. She raised the axe and chopped the daisy's head off.

Then she headed over to a dandelion. She placed one foot on what would pass for a neck and placed another foot upon the back of the dandelion's head. It gasped as all the air rushed out of it. "Mama had a baby and its head popped off." Alice said, repeating a childhood rhyme. She pushed her foot down as hard as she could against the dandelion's head and it popped off. It skittered a few feet and landed by Rose Bud. She started to cry. Alice took no notice of this; instead she headed toward the tiger lily. The tiger lily saw her coming and started trying to squirm away. Alice grabbed her by the petals, stopping her retreat. Holding the lily at arms length she raised the axe and chopped it neatly down the middle. This started a whole round of screams and cries but Alice just kept methodically going on to the next flower. It was a violet, and it had fainted. In fact she thought it might be dead. "That doesn't matter." She thought. "I can still make her pay." Alice stepped on the back of the violet's head, mashing it into the ground and effectively smothering the fainted flower and crushing its stem at the same time.

Alice walked over to a pansy. True to its name it had also fainted. In fact, it was dead. From the shock, a sort of flower heart attack. Alice ripped it in half and then moved on. The next was a tulip. Alice grabbed both sides of its petals and started to pull before the stunned flower could do anything. She pulled as hard as she could, ripping its head in half. It was a rather unimportant flower; she was saving all her fury toward them for Rose. Next were two Queen Anne's Lace. Their leaves were around each other as they tried to limp to safety. Alice caught up with them quickly. She chopped off their heads, just below the petals. Then she held them up to herself as if she had those feathery headdresses and tails some Las Vegas showgirls wore. As quick as that flight of whimsy came it ended and she threw the blossoms down and advanced on Rose and Rose Bud. Rose Bud was crying and Rose actually looked like she was praying. "Surely she knows there is no God, especially here." Alice thought. Stony faced, Alice pulled Rose Bud from Rose's arm. Rose didn't even protest, in fact it seemed as if she didn't notice. Rose Bud was crying and shuddering. She started to squirm a bit but Alice quickly put a stop to that by twisting her head around completely backwards.

She threw the little body beside and knelt before Rose. She stared at her for a moment, and then sat upon Rose's body so that she couldn't get away. It really didn't matter, Rose seemed a million miles away, appealing to some higher power that was not going to help her. Slowly, one by one, Alice pulled off all her petals leaving Rose bald. Then she pulled off all her leaves. Rose was crying now, quietly. She was obviously in great pain but for some reason she wasn't screaming. Alice got raging mad and let out all her rage on Rose. "SCREAM YOU BITCH!!!!! SCREAM!!!! NO ONE'S GONNA HELP YOU!!! PAY FOR YOUR SINS YOU BITCH!!!!!" Rose did scream then, as Alice ripped at her with the knife that she had removed from her apron. Alice's face was red and her voice sounded hoarse from screaming. She got into Rose's dying face, filling her vision. "DAMN YOU ALL!!! DAMN YOU ALL FOR RUINING MY LIFE!!!!! NO ONE EVER CARED AND YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD COME IN AND CHANGE IT ALL??? DAMN YOU!!!!!!!!" Alice stabbed the knife through both of Rose's eyes, and then scratched at her face. Long after Rose was dead she slowed down, than stopped. Then she staggered to her feet. "What was that all about? Rose wasn't the biggest perpetrator? Why did I attack her like that?" For a brief moment a troubled look crossed Alice's face, then it was gone. "No problem. She paid and I got to have a little fun. No matter." Alice brushed at her apron, as if it was only a little rumpled and in need of smoothing instead of drenched in blood and various other a sundry items. After a moments pause to glance back at the massacre in the meadow she went back to the path and continued on her journey.