Okay so I feel like I must repent for making you guys wait an absurdly long time for the last two chapters. Also, writing this is far more entertaining than studying the general chemistry portion of my MCAT book.
Cheers!
Chapter XXVI: Once More, with Extra Doses of Feeling
Alice explained her madcap plan to awaken the oysters as they made their way to the Game Room where most of them were cloistered. Hatter only half-listened, merely content to hear her voice after spending hours fearing he would never hear it again (he was not counting the Tweedles' crude simulation of Alice). His eyes could not seem to tear away from her either. The Diamond uniform revealed more creamy skin than the blue dress, but he also caught glimpses of bruising on her back, no doubt from the tree limb which had saved her life. Though she walked briskly, Hatter had learned her so well that he could tell she was plagued with pain. He wanted nothing more than to whisk her away from this place and tend to her injuries (and then, perhaps, to his own). But his Alice was determined to see her duty through to the end, and he would be damned if he would not practically glue himself to her side if he could at least make sure she came through it in one piece. He was not going through that emotional hell again.
Just as Alice had told them, the corridors were deserted. No Diamonds, lab workers, or Suits roamed the halls as usual in their stern silence. She briefly showed them the reason for the empty hallways by pointing to the windows. Indeed, there were figures in white armor covering the slopes surrounding the casino. Bits of silver where the paint had peeled off gleamed in the evening sunlight. As angry as he was with Charlie over deserting him and thereby indirectly leading to what he had thought had been the death of the woman he loved, he had to admit the knight really pulled through on this one. Perhaps, with time, he could find it within himself to forgive the old man.
"So, from what the Cheshire has shown me, it seems like the oysters are hooked up to some kind of drainage system…kinda like cattle," Alice explained, her brow wrinkling with distaste at the thought.
"Yes," her father confirmed; his voice still raspy after his near strangulation by Mad March, but steadily improving. "The raw mass…" he paused to take in a breath, "of emotions feed into a distillation system where the emotions are separated."
"You monitor the emotions that feed into it, right?" Hatter asked. He had always been a little curious as to how the process which had supported his livelihood of selling emotion-enhanced teas worked.
"Of course," Robert replied, almost looking insulted.
"Right and your system is all about getting positive feedback," Alice said. Her blue gaze swung over to Hatter. "But if we wake them up, that positive feedback will suddenly become negative. Can the distillation system handle it?"
Robert shook his head, his eyes darting around the area. The Game Room was just up ahead and still they had come across no resistance. "It can't. Mixing in negative emotions would threaten the stability of the tanks at a biochemical level. In fact, at the beginning stages, we were still experimenting with ways to keep the oysters in a semi-conscious, dream-like state for an extended period of time. It wasn't always successful. On one occasion, many awoke at once."
"And I'm betting they weren't thrilled with their situations," Hatter remarked dryly.
"No," Robert replied. "Once the negative emotions of all those oysters mixed in with the positive emotions, we nearly had an entire system break down. One of the tanks burst and flooded the laboratory. Several lab workers were exposed to pure, undiluted emotions and went insane." The man then halted, his eyes widening.
"Dad?" Alice said worriedly.
"It wasn't just the lab that experienced damage. There was also damage to the casino infrastructure. It was minor, but that was only because I released those oysters before too much damage could be done. But it nearly led to complete ruin," he informed them gravely. Coughing slightly, he then added in a quiet, morose voice, "Perhaps it would have been better if I had not interfered."
Hatter and Alice gawked at him. "Whoa, whoa, back up, there, Dad. Are you telling me that if we overload the distillation system we could potentially take out the entire casino building?" Her voice was incredulous.
"Who the bloody hell built this place?" Hatter wondered aloud.
Robert shrugged. "I suppose it's like a plumbing network, with pipes interwoven throughout the framework. But I'm no architect, so I can't fully explain why it happened."
"Wow. I didn't think 'bringing down the whole house of cards' was supposed to be taken literally," Alice quipped ironically. She plucked her hands upon her hips, her face twisting into a cute expression of hard thought. "But seeing as how a whole building falling on top of us might be somewhat bad for our health, I'm all for not taking out the entire casino."
"I agree," Hatter said, prompting a small smile from Alice.
"But it would effectively ensure the destruction of the queen's foundation of power, literally and figuratively," her father pointed out.
Alice sighed heavily. "Well, so would waking all the oysters. I mean, she can't get any new ones since she doesn't have the ring."
Once again, Hatter had completely forgotten about the ring. Alice had refused to hand it over to Jack, a move which had pleased Hatter to no end. Did she still have it with her, or had she lost it in the fall which had nearly killed her? He found himself half hoping the ring had been lost. If the ring was lost, there was no conceivable way for Alice to return to her world…to leave him. On the other hand, the ring was the symbol of power Jack would desperately need to gain a hold over his mother if he wanted to wrest the throne out of her grasp.
"Where is the ring?" Hatter asked reluctantly.
Color bloomed on Alice's cheeks. "In a safe place," she said succinctly, her voice pitched oddly high. He cast an intrigued glance when he saw her eyes flit towards her bosom. Changing the subject back to the matter of waking and freeing the oysters, she turned to her father. "Dad, can the oysters be released outside of the laboratories?"
"Not all at once," Robert said, shaking his head. "The Spades which patrol the Game Room carry remotes designed to release individual oysters should the need arise. They can only be released all at once from inside the laboratory."
"Dammit," Alice swore.
"So, someone would need to be in the lab to release them before things start…combusting," Hatter said.
"Yes," said Robert, his eyes darkening. No one needed to say aloud who that person would have to be. There was only one person here who knew how to properly work the equipment.
Alice sucked in a deep breath and ran both her hands through her hair. Hatter knew she did not like the idea of sending her father off on his own, especially after being injured. But there appeared to be little choice in the matter if they did not want to become buried in the rubble of the Happy Hearts Casino. His heart twisted in agony for her. But there was no way he was willing to leave her side, not even for the man who had delivered him from the Tweedles.
"Well, there are other people working in the lab," Alice noted with a distinct air of desperation. "I mean, someone else could release the oysters before all hell broke loose, right?"
As if responding to her rising distress, Hatter moved closer to her to lend his quiet support. Gratefully, she leaned into him.
"Well, yes," Robert answered. "But…"
"You don't trust them to do it in time," Hatter filled in for him.
"Essentially."
Alice was quiet for a moment, digesting the information. "Well, maybe we should hit up the laboratory first and make sure you won't have any…problems." In other words, she wanted to make sure no one would be able to stop her father, or hurt him.
"No, Jellybean, we can't waste the time," her father argued. He patted the gun which was stowed back in the waistband of his trousers. "I have this, and, besides, I doubt my own technicians would rise up against me if it was in the mutual interest of survival. I'll be fine. You two get in there and do your part."
Robert had apparently gotten the message that Hatter was not separating himself from Alice for anything or anyone. His hazel eyes crossed paths with Hatter's dark brown ones, and the older man nodded, passing on a silent message of his own. Take care of her, it said. Hatter nodded back, feeling his heart swell with an unfathomable sense of self-pride. It meant a lot that her father trusted him to take care of his daughter, especially after the horribly botched rescue attempt which had nearly cost Alice her life.
"But, Daddy—" Alice protested, her voice shrinking.
Robert cut her off. "No, Jellybean, it has to be this way." He reached out to embrace her, rubbing her back. "Just you be careful. We don't want to lose you again."
No, Hatter said in silent agreement, we definitely don't.
Alice wiped at her eyes, but otherwise put on a brave front, sealing off the worry and fear she felt for her father.
"Oh, and once this is all over, you have a lot of explaining to do, young lady," her father added before turning to head for the laboratory. His voice was filled with mock sternness, but his eyes danced with amusement.
"Radioactive spider-bite?" Alice tried weakly.
Hatter stared at her with incomprehension.
"Yeah, you'll have to do better than that," Robert shot back with a smirk. And then he turned around and strode off.
As if expecting him to ask the question, Alice waved her hands dismissively. "Pop culture reference. Another occupational habit."
They turned towards the doors to the Game Room which stood ominously before them. Hatter felt Alice's fingers wind through his and he squeezed her hand. "You ready for this?" he asked softly.
"As I'll ever be," she replied.
"Now, can you please remember to obey that rule of yours this time?" Hatter asked her in an aggrieved voice.
"Hey, technically I didn't even break it," Alice retorted, whirling on him with her index finger thrust out.
"Well, you came too close for comfort," he shot back with vehemence.
Alice snorted ironically. "Oh please, I've come..." She then trailed off, perhaps thinking better of saying what it was she had been about to say. "Never mind. Besides, the rule applies to you, too. Break it and I'll kick your ass."
He chuckled at her fierce expression. But the laughter was quickly doused when, together, they strode up to the double doors of the Game Room and pulled them open. The sounds of coin slots, rotating roulette wheels, and throwing dice meshed together along with the low hum of voices. Diamonds dressed in glitzy, gauzy outfits with feathered headdresses twirled around on a central stage, throwing their arms out to gesture provocatively at their literally captive oyster audience. Though the casino was officially "under attack", the operations of the Game Room continued undisturbed. It appeared nothing would interfere with the queen's quest for stealing oyster emotions.
Jerking his head towards the stage area, Hatter threw in a rather inappropriately timed joke. "You couldn't have stolen one of those outfits?"
Alice rolled her eyes, but a smile played at her lips nonetheless. "Look at you, making jokes in times of peril. Makes a Slayer proud."
"Reckon we should bar the doors so we don't get interrupted?" Hatter asked, his eyes scanning the area for the Game Room Spades who would soon notice their presence. Alice's Diamond outfit might buy them a little bit of time, but being accompanied by a man with unkempt hair and a collection of bruises and scratches compromised the illusion.
"Yeah," Alice said; her voice distant as she surveyed the room. Beside the doors was a metal pole screwed into a round metal base. A red velvet rope was suspended between it and another metal pole further down. Alice marched over to the pole, unhooked the rope, and yanked the pole out of the base. She threw it to Hatter who slid it through the handles of the doors.
"What do we do about them?" Hatter nodded towards the two Spade guards who were lackadaisically strolling through the mass of oysters.
"What happened to you?" a Diamond asked, presumably to Alice. Straps extended from her shoulders to hold up a tray filled with poker chips. She appeared not to notice Hatter for the moment, most likely assuming he was just another oyster.
"Uhhh," Alice stammered, caught off guard by the question. "Some captives got loose and attacked me." She lied unconvincingly by Hatter's standards, but it seemed to be good enough for the Diamond. Those girls were not recruited on the basis of their intelligence levels, after all. "I think they're in league with whoever's attacking the casino."
The Diamond's red-colored brows rose in horror. "The casino's under attack?"
Alice glanced over at Hatter, thrown by the fact that the Diamond had been completely unaware of that fact. "Yeah, so I, uh, came to alert what's left of the security in the casino."
"Of course," the wide-eyed Diamond said, turning towards the Spades. "Reginald! Nero!" Hatter wisely chose to slink away, keeping his body angled away from the direct view of the Spades. Hopefully, they would peg him as one of the oysters as well. He did not wander too far, for he wanted to remain close by in case Alice needed him.
"What's wrong?" one of the Spades asked.
"She says some prisoners have escaped and attacked her!" the Diamond declared with all the melodrama of a true stage actress.
Immediately, the men began to reach for their side arms. But Alice must have decided the ruse had gone far enough. With the Spades too close at range to her to get in a decent shot, she latched onto one man's arm. In the space of a few seconds, she flipped the man over onto the blackjack table beside them while snapping out her leg to kick the other man to the floor. His sidearm tumbled out of his hands and Hatter swooped in to pick it up.
"You can stay there, mate," Hatter told the Spade lying on the ground, curled up into the fetal position and moaning in pain.
Alice disarmed the other Suit, staring at the gun for a few seconds as if trying to decide what to do with it. Then she raised the gun up in the air, screwed her eyes shut, and squeezed the trigger. The gun blast shocked the entire room into silence. The only ones who appeared unaffected were the oysters, who stood staring blankly ahead.
"What are you doing?" the Diamond shrieked, backing away from Alice. "Have you gone crazy?"
Alice ignored the girl. "Seal the other exit," she told Hatter as she lowered the gun. As he ran to do just that, she directed her words to everyone else. "Deal another hand, spin another roulette wheel and, I swear, it will be your last." She slowly moved the gun back and forth, aiming it at the Diamonds dotted throughout the room, who had all stopped what they were doing and were staring at Alice in blatant terror.
"Where the hell is security?" one of them asked.
Alice walked over to the stage area, which was now cleared of those dancing Diamonds in the feathered headdresses and nimbly hopped on top of it. Hatter followed suit, stationing himself in one of the dance cages brandishing his own gun. Now this was the part where Alice executed her brilliant plan of waking up the oysters. He hoped she had something elaborate planned, for the drugs they were under were strong. They had shown no reaction to the gun blast.
"Wake up!" she screamed. Well, that was not as elaborate as he had hoped.
"You're not dreaming! This is real! You have to wake up!" Alice pleaded. "Look at me! Just try, please! You have to snap out of this…it's killing you guys!" She threw a desperate look at Hatter, who could only shrug helplessly. He had no more idea what to do to reach these people than she did.
"Just, gah, think about your families! Remember? Where are they? You were taken from them, remember? Your jobs! You there!" Alice pointed towards a tall, dark skinned man in a blue button down shirt and black slacks. "You're a cop! Protect and serve! Remember that?"
The man stirred. He reached for his pockets and murmured, "Where are my keys?" Though that had probably not been the epiphany Alice had been trying to evoke, it was certainly better than no response at all. Hatter motioned for her to run with it.
"That is a good question. Where are your keys?" she asked. "Or your car? Or how about your house? Where are you? Think about it? Do you really think you're supposed to spend your lives in a casino game room? Try to remember how you got here! What about your names?" Her voice grew more confident as more oysters scattered throughout the room began to blink and move, the vacant expressions on their faces slowly transforming into looks of confusion. "What are your names? Try to remember that at least. Just…try to think."
"Taylor," a man with salt and pepper hair uttered. His brow wrinkled with uncertainty. "No, wait, that's my son…" Then, as if a veil had been lifted from his eyes, his expression brightened. "My son," he whispered with fierce affection.
Hatter felt hope surge through him. She was slowly but surely getting through to them.
"Look down at your feet! Try to move away from the tables!" she encouraged them. Almost all the oysters were awake, becoming horribly aware of their situations. Moans of dismay and outrage filled the room when they complied with her order and found themselves inexplicably adhered to the tiled floor.
"I can't move my feet!" a woman cried out.
"Oh my god…what the fuck is going on?" one young man bellowed.
"What's happened to us?"
"People!" Alice shouted, raising up her hands, seemingly forgetting one of them held a gun. "Calm down, okay. We're going to get you out of this, but you have to calm down." Calm was the last thing these people were going to be feeling. They were confused, probably disoriented, scared, and angry, and all those things led to panic. There was no way Alice and Hatter could prevent them from feeling what would come naturally to anyone in such a situation.
The situation worsened dramatically when everyone heard thumps up against the blocked double doors and angry voices demanding to be let inside. People frantically tried to free themselves, some of them merely succeeding in falling onto their bottoms, their feet still stuck flat on the floor.
"You hear that!" Alice yelled. "They're trying to break in to stop us. They don't want you to wake up!" Panicked, she looked back at Hatter. He knew what she was thinking. Why had her father not freed the oysters from the floor yet?
Then the doors broke open and Suits flooded in, guns drawn. The Minister of Clubs fronted the procession, bearing no weapon of his own. His presence was surprising. If Hatter recalled correctly, the man was supposed to have taken a retinue of men to search Alice's body at the bottom of the city. Of course, there was actually no body to search, but there was no way they could have gone there and back in such a short amount of time. Charlie's unexpected "siege" must have changed the plans.
The Suits opened fire on Hatter and Alice, who were standing exposed on the stage. Hatter fired off a few shots of his own before jumping down off the dance cage to avoid being hit. He took refuge behind the stage, crouching low to avoid being hit. Unfortunately, he could not see what Alice was doing, or if she had even managed to dodge the attack. His heart skipped a few beats when he thought about the possibility of her being shot.
No, not after everything…Fear rather than bravery caused him to tentatively peak over the side of the stage. There were at least a dozen Suits at the other end of the room. The two Spades whom Hatter and Alice had disarmed were stumbling over to the group, frantically pointing towards the stage area. The oysters were in a frenzy of panic and terror. Their screams almost drowned out the sounds of the gunfire. This was not good. If they had been feeling scared and trapped before, the Suits' appearance along with the immediate gunfire had exacerbated matters exponentially. As if in confirmation of that fact, Hatter felt small vibrations beneath his feet, and he looked down at the floor in alarm. Just as Alice's father had said, the oysters' overwhelmingly negative emotions were overloading the system, making it highly unstable.
"Alice!" he cried. Her father should have released the oysters by now. Something must have gone terribly wrong.
Alice flung out every curse she could think of when the Suits came bursting through the doors. They did not even stop to tell her or Hatter to freeze or to drop their weapons. They just immediately began firing at them. Of course, they did have all the makings of a bunch that shot first and probably did not even bother with the questions later.
Instinct forced her to dive for cover, which turned out to be a painful maneuver with her broken posterior ribs. She hit the floor in a somersaulting move, stifling the cry of pain which bubbled up her throat. Scrambling for the scant cover a blackjack table provided, Alice could only hope that Hatter had been able to seek out cover as well. She had not heard him cry out in pain, but, granted, it was hard even for her sharp ears to discern such details when the room was filled with gunfire and the motley screams of the oysters.
The oysters were understandably terrified. They had just woken up to find themselves in a place they had never been before without a single memory of how they had gotten there and how long they had been there. To top it off, they were immobilized by unseen restraints. Unable to flee, they were trapped in this bizarre room and now there were over a dozen men firing guns. Though the guns may not have been aimed at them, it was still quite terrifying to hear those blasts at close range.
Alice's stomach knotted with dread. Why had her father not released the oysters by now? Keeping them hooked into the distillation system with all this chaos going on around them had to be pumping an alarming amount of negativity into the tanks. Her alarm heightened when she felt the minute tremors in the ground. Fuck. The oysters' flood of fear, panic, and confusion was destabilizing the system, ultimately compromising the structural integrity of the whole building.
I do hope the queen fired whoever designed this building because he fucked up…big time. Alice took back that thought when she remembered that the queen did not "fire" people, she simply had them beheaded.
"Alice!" In spite of the situation, Alice sagged against the blackjack table in relief to hear Hatter call out her name. He was all right. So long as Hatter was unharmed, she felt there was some way they could resolve this situation.
She glanced down at the gun in her hand, frowning. Her skills with firearms were practically nonexistent. Vampires could be harmed with bullets, but they could not be killed by them. Some demon species could be killed with bullets, but most had hides too thick for the small projectiles to penetrate. Besides, the operations of the Slayers had to be executed with a degree of stealth, for the most part. Guns were not quiet, stealthy weapons. Her ringing eardrums could definitely attest to that. So Slayers were not typically trained in the use of firearms. They did not even appear to have a natural, instinctive skill over how to use them as was usually seen with more archaic weapons.
She swiftly pulled the butterfly knife out of her boot and flipped the blade open. Yes, that weapon felt far more natural in her hands. Before she could even contemplate how she would take out the Suits with one knife against over a dozen guns a voice called out "Stop!" The gunfire and the screams ceased, which was an amazing transition from just moments before where it had been almost too loud to think.
Alice's breath stilled. That voice had belonged to her father. A stream of questions ran through her mind. What was he doing here now? Why had he not released the oysters as they had planned? This plan had been on shaky grounds to begin with, but it was the best she had been able to come up with under the circumstances. Now it was all going to hell. As if in testament to that, the tremors which had been mere vibrations before grew more intense. Plaster cracked from above, showering the room with a faint spray of white dust.
Oh shit. Are these guys not noticing this?
"You're frightening the oysters," her father admonished the Suits as if they were all a bunch of unruly, misbehaving children. "I'll deal with this."
Unable to help herself, Alice peaked over the edge of the blackjack table to view the proceedings at the other end of the room, her heart in her throat. The rumbling quakes, which were still relatively minor, did not appear to deter the Suits from their duty. They all had their guns trained on her father. The Suits would not shoot her father, would they? He was supposedly very important to the queen. That gave him a measure of protection, right?
"Carpenter!" the bowler hat man (Alice still had not learned his name) cried out in stark surprise. "Are you…" the man fumbled for words, "…you?"
A frisson of fear ran through Alice. That was a good question, for even she could not tell at this moment. But he had been gone not even half an hour. There was no way they could brainwash him again in that amount of time. But, then again, this was Wonderland. Perhaps they knew techniques of brainwashing far more advanced than her world.
Alice swallowed back her trepidation and stood, prompting a hissing protest from behind her which no doubt came from Hatter. At first there was no recognition from the Suits or the bowler hat man since she still wore the Diamond outfit. Eventually, the bowler hat man's eyes widened and his jaw dropped. "You!" he shouted incredulously. "But you're…you…you're dead!"
Alice had to smirk a little at that remark. It was difficult not to throw in a quip about how some of the people she worked with (three immediately jumping to mind) had died and had not stayed that way for long. Besides, she could not include herself in that category. She had never actually died.
Her father regarded her, appearing for all intents and purposes to be unmoved by her appearance. It was only his eyes, his warm hazel eyes, which gave him away. Alice saw the love, fear, and relief in his gaze. He was still Robert Hamilton. They had not stolen his mind again. She wondered what they were supposed to do now. Put on an act of some kind?
"Miss, just put the gun and the knife down," her father instructed, keeping his voice neutral toward her.
"No thanks," Alice replied coolly.
She kept a watchful gaze on the Suits. A blanket of tension had descended upon the room. It was better than the rampant terror and chaos of gunfire and screams, but now it felt like they were on the verge of something worse. Everyone was waking up to the fact that the ground beneath their feet was quaking and there were spidery cracks forming along the ceiling and walls. Even the Suits were glancing around nervously, but they stubbornly held their ground.
Her father's eyes darted from side to side. She could see he desperately wanted to gain a measure of control over the situation. It would have been much easier if he had just stayed put in the lab. Why had he come to the Game Room, throwing himself into the risk of being shot? Or had he come because of his worry for her? Had he wanted to stop the Suits from shooting her and Hatter?
Oh you stupid, stupid man. I appreciate the concern, but you may have just killed us all.
Beyond her father, there was a movement of color amongst the charcoal of the Suits. A rotund man with a wide, yellow, ruffled collar surrounding his neck and a gray-blue jumpsuit came stumbling into the room. The ridiculous collar made his head look extremely small, except for the large drooping mustache which gave the impression of a walrus. With one hand, he clutched at his huge stomach where blood poured from a wound. With the other, he grasped a gun. He lifted it up to aim it directly at her father, who, with his back turned, was completely unaware of the danger. The trigger was squeezed.
With a speed which was unprecedented for even a Slayer, Alice launched forward, simultaneously tackling her father to the ground and flinging out her butterfly knife. They crashed to the ground, Alice landing atop her father in a heap of numb bewilderment. She had practically felt the heat of the bullet's momentum as it hurtled through the air, just barely missing her shoulder as she had fallen to the ground.
She had thrown the knife with no particular aim. In fact, it had not even been a conscious decision to throw the knife. Instinct had made her react to the threat, to eliminate it. A strangled, guttural moan of pain accompanied by sickening gurgles told her the knife had hit someone. Her face stark white, she looked up to see the knife had struck the walrus man in the neck. It was a definite kill shot. His stomach wound forgotten (indeed, rendered irrelevant now), the man's hands flew up to his neck where the handle of the blade stuck out prominently. Blood spurted down to soak into his collar and the behemoth stumbled back, eventually collapsing onto his back, choking up his life's blood.
Oh fuck…I just killed a guy, Alice thought to herself in horror. Manslaughter quickly became the least of her problems though. The act of spilled blood was evidently the straw which broke the camel's back. Tremors rocked the entire room now, sending the disco ball at the top of the stage crashing to the floor. Sparkling, reflective shards scattered throughout the room. Support columns at the side of the room groaned alarmingly and huge cracks appeared in the walls.
"Alice!" Hatter's voice reached her through the fray of screams and rumbles. She was roughly pulled to her feet by her companion. "We need to get out of here!"
Her father rose to his feet, his own face sapped of color and appearing far older than it had just minutes before. "The oysters," he murmured, his gaze locked onto the screaming, trapped people.
Mercifully, someone in the lab must have hit the release switch because within a few seconds, the oysters quickly found they were able to lift up their feet. Immediately, they swarmed towards the exit. The Suits and the bowler hat man had already vacated the premises.
Ceiling panels popped and fell to the ground, smashing into several pieces just a few feet from where Hatter, Alice, and Robert stood. That jolted the three of them into escaping, heading for the exit after the mass of oysters. Once they stepped outside the Game Room, Alice screeched to a halt, the blood draining even further from her already leeched face when she remembered there were three individuals who would still be trapped in the casino. The two Suits and the Diamond whom she had imprisoned in the back ground entrance would be unable to make their escapes. One life had already ended because of her. She could not let those three die as well.
"Hatter! Where is that little back entrance place?" Alice grabbed him by the shoulders, spinning him around.
"What? Why?" Hatter asked, gazing at her with shock.
"Because I tied up three people down there so I could get into the casino and find you and they'll die if I don't get them out!" she cried desperately.
Hatter shook his head. "No, Alice, there's no time. We have to save ourselves."
"He's right, honey," her father said in agreement.
"No!" Alice vehemently declared. "I can't let more people die because of me."
Hatter stared at her, the building falling down around them, before comprehension slowly dawned upon his features. A few Diamonds and lab workers rushed by them, and he glanced towards them. She knew he desperately wanted to be following them, but only if she was in tow. She did not even bother to ask him to take her father and leave her to find those three people herself. The answer to that insane request was already well known.
"All right," he complied quickly. "Follow me."
"Dad, you should go!" Alice implored him, fearing her father would not be able to keep up with her or Hatter.
The man fervently shook his head. "No way, Jellybean. I'm not leaving you now!" he replied fiercely.
There was no time to argue the point. She would just have to hope he could keep up. Luckily, the archway leading to that ground entrance was not located far from the Game Room. Alice, so anxious to reach the room in time to free those people, wrenched the door clear off its hinges. The spiral stairway buckled and heaved as they descended the steps. The two Suits and the Diamond were right where Alice had left them, handcuffed and taped to the protruding pipes in the walls. The one Suit had woken up and all three of them were cowering in terror against the wall, not knowing why the building was shaking so violently.
In the interest of saving time, Alice wrapped her hands around the pipe and mustered up her strength in one great heave. It tore from the wall, spewing out cool, acrid smelling water. The Diamond and the Suits slid their arms free of the pipe and, without so much as a thank you, shouldered past Alice to get to the door. She could not be too insulted by the lack of gratitude, seeing as how she had put them there in the first place.
"Oi! My hat," Hatter remarked brightly. He snatched it up from the table where Alice had left it, smiling with surprise.
"Okay, now we can go!" Alice announced.
She, her father, and Hatter sprinted out the door, heading for the hills where a mass of people, oysters and Wonderlanders alike, were gathering to watch the complete destruction of the Happy Hearts Casino.
It was like spectators of a car wreck or a bank robbery. The carnage was just too horrible to tear the eyes away from it. Her heart beating rapidly, Alice's gaze became fixed on the crumbling casino. She felt Hatter's fingers wind through her own, which instilled a sense of calm over her. She glanced over at him and could only smile when she saw he had wasted no time in securing his hat back to his head.
The building gave one final shudder before completely toppling over, disintegrating into a pile of rubble. A great cloud of dust and debris whipped up from the building's demise and the spectators on the hills gasped almost as one. The great towering edifice of the Happy Hearts Casino was no more. So versed in the destruction of what had been a prison for some and a workplace for others, no one even seemed to notice the skeletons dressed in peeling white armor surrounding them on the hills.
Is it sad that I wanted them to go back to that ground entrance more in the interest of saving Hatter's hat rather than the three people? I mean, it's not like I wanted those three to die either…
Oh and major kudos to anyone who gets the reference made in the title of the chapter!
Anyway, please review!