Narrator:
Chapter 6 = the Climb...Upon fleeing the train station, Alice finds that this part of Wonderland consists of rolling hillocks with patchy groves of pines and hemlocks. The vibrant colours awakening brilliantly in the predawn light. Viridian grass writhes in the wind. The dancing amber light of the rising sun bounces off the red clay shingles on the station platform behind her.
Pink and yellow wildflowers blink and yawn around her, speckled through the grass as they rise from their nocturnal slumber. Alice's dress dares the sky to match its blue until suddenly she realises she has been standing out in plain view, mesmerized by the colours. Remembering the target on her back, she presses onward.
Eager to keep pressing onward while avoiding detection by the Red Queen's Cardmen, she sets off down an overgrown side trail, thus avoiding the main roads. Finally reaching the end of the trail, she clears the overgrown brush, cresting a large hill and looking over the landscape below. Alice stops and allows herself to catch her breath. The hill slopes down to a flat expanse which ends abruptly at the base of the Wall of the Farthest Edge. Sprawling out before her as far as she can see to either side, encompassing the entire flat land, is a town made up of one and two-story buildings. Several gently moving streams enter the city from her right, disappearing among the structures.
The buildings along the outer rim of the town closest to her are mostly hovels or shacks, but farther towards the centre of the town you go, the larger the buildings become. The buildings start alongside the road at the bottom of the hill where she stood. From there, they spread out left, right, and forward, growing more condensed closer to the wall. Her eyes spot a humble wooden sign that reads 'Welcome to the Township of Fanoth'. Alice slides down the hill and onto the main road, trying to appear as nonchalant as possible. Vendors lean from their stalls as Alice passes on the road.
Random Vendor:
"Umbrellas! Hey, little miss, you've never seen umbrellas like this."
Alice Lordell:
"But it isn't raining,"
Random Vender:
"Then perhaps flutes! Spatulas! Sweet onions! Everything you need for your next tea party!"
Narrator:
Alice continues walking, turning the corner and starting down the main street towards the centre of town. Alice looks down the street towards a large ornate central fountain, there are many small and medium-sized shops and stalls lining the street and hurried-looking well-dressed mice bustle up and down the sidewalks passing smoking dogs playing dice and a feline street performer playing the flute.
Alice Lordell:
"What a jovial and cozy seeming little town. It is actually kind of charming in it's own strange way."
Narrator:
Alice lets her mind relax a little as she wanders the cobblestone streets, taking it all in. She passes a bunch of singing porcelain boys and dancing marble girls as various species of animal children dressed in school clothes play nearby. The air is pungent with the essence of ginger, sugar, baking bread and cooking meat wafting out of the many restaurants along the road. After a while, she feels a gentle tugging at her skirt. Alice turns to see a small raccoon-child. A little girl, she guesses, judging by the clothes. The girl stares up at her with big yellow eyes as if mesmerized by Alice's appearance.
Alice Lordell:
Oh, my dear child, aren't you adorable? Why aren't you just the cutest little raccoon-child I've ever seen… Well, actually, you are the first raccoon-child I've ever seen, but you are still cute all the same.
Narrator:
Alice's voice is soft and tender, and her smile full and bright as she beams down at the raccoon-girl staring transfixed at her. Alice slowly reaches in and gently scratches the girl's head, causing her to purr slightly before suddenly running off behind one of the nearby buildings with her friends.
Alice Lordell:
Well, this will make a fine experience to tell mother and sister about when I get back home. I wonder if they will believe me.
Narrator:
A sudden explosion of noise erupts from the other side of town, near where the next train stop is supposed to be;
Trumpets thunder as furious shouting and terrified screaming ring out from the other side town. The playing children look up from their games and saucers of milk, their faces contorting with terror. Alice rushes for cover with the rest of the stampeding crowd of frightened townies as mass panic consumes the whole of Fanoth. Alice crawls beneath a nearby porch. The sounds of violence and murder saturates the air. The screams and shouting grow ever louder… A large group of Cardsmen appear, making their way through the town, unleashing terror and bloodshed. One of the Cardsmen rushes up to a pair of trembling vicenarian feline girls that seemed to be hanging their family's clothes out to dry together just moments prior.
Queen's Cardmen:
"HEY! YOU THERE! HAVE YOU SEEN THIS GIRL?!
Narrator:
The menacing Cardmen closes in the two feline lasses, his already bloody sword at the ready.
Queen's Cardmen:
"She has long, yellow fur growing from the top of her head, but none on her face. She is tiny and pale, and is garbed in the blue of the sky and the white of the clouds."
Narrator:
The two catgirls, having been so abruptly dragged from their typical daily mundanity, by these obviously psychotic threatening brute with a blade, just stare wide-eyed with fright at the Cardsmen.
Terrified Cat-Girl #1:
"W… we uhh umm, I mean… that is to say,"
Queen's Cardmen:
[Savage impatient roar]
Narrator:
The Cardsmen rushes forward with his blade, sinking it deep into the belly of the stuttering cat girl. The Cardsmen's steeled eyes are colder than the shimmering metal of his sword as he twists the weapon inside her, churning her guts.
Terrified Cat-Girl #1:
[disgusting guttural shrieking of agony]
Narrator:
She writhes in agony as her gory innards pour from her pierced abdomen. The Cardsmen drags his blade forcefully down her stomach until finally ripping the blade free at her groin. The feline girl's lifeless body falls limply to the ground not more than five feet from the porch where Alice lies hiding.
Alice Lordell:
[horrified, first time seeing both death and brutality and not reacting well to either] Dear god… this is insane…. Madness. I'm not worth this… should I… Should I reveal myself? No! I can't do that. I made a promise to my sister and I must keep it… I must get home.
Narrator:
Alice covers her mouth to keep from crying out. The remaining Cat-Girl cries and cowers in a fetal position on the ground.
The Cardsmen advances upon her. He picks her up by her ears as he pulls out a small dagger and slices off the girl's left ear, causing her to fall back down to the ground.
The girl's mind shatters further into a frantic, weeping mess as her sanity is ripped away by the pain and fear. She picks up her severed ear, desperately trying to reattach it as blood pours from the wound, drenching her head in crimson.
The merciless Cardsmen lifts the girl back up, but by her throat this time. He pulls her whimpering face close to his and places the tip of his dagger just centimeters from her right eye.
Queen's Cardmen:
"Cease your crying girl so that I may ask you again, and for your sake, I hope you have a better answer than your friend did."
Terrified Cat Girl #2:
The girl continues to blather in his grip, fear smothering her sanity.
Queen's Cardmen:
"TELL ME, WHERE IS THE GIRL?!"
Terrified Cat Girl #2:
[blathering sobs in tone desperate for mercy] "Ple… please Sir I… I... don't know a… about any girl, sir!"
Narrator:
The Cardsmen chokes her even harder, causing blood and saliva to burst from her mouth as he slides the tip of the dagger into the corner of the girl's right eye, carving it out and flinging it to the ground before stepping on it. [Insert the sound of the Cat-Girl Screaming at background level 2 during the eye removal part]
Queen's Cardmen:
"SILENCE AND LISTEN! The girl we seek was on the train heading this way. Given her head start, she undoubtedly beat us here, so stop lying to me with that deceitful tongue of yours before I cut it from your mouth. TELL ME WHERE SHE IS!"
Narrator:
It's no use as the terrified girl's mind breaks completely turning her into a broken wreck of nonsensical wretching sobs and tears.
Queen's Cardmen:
"Have it your way then,"
Narrator:
Without a second thought, the Cardsman thrusts his dagger deep into the girl's ear wound, piercing her skull, sending great spasms through her body as she goes silent. The girl's body convulses as it dangles from his hand. With a satisfied smirk, he tosses her corpse to the ground.
More soldiers on horseback pass by the deck where Alice is hiding. Their axes arc down, cleaving bone and tearing flesh, bringing death to all in their path. Alice scurries from under the deck after they pass, disappearing around the corner of a nearby mushroom house.
Alice Lordell:
How do I do this? How do I get to the wall unseen? Think Alice… think…
Narrator:
Alice casts her gaze to her surrounding in search of an answer. And then she sees… her only chance.
Alice Lordell:
That's it, the trench… it goes right to the base of the wall on the other side of town. I have to stay low and move fast to get the trench unseen. 1… 2… 3!
Narrator:
Alice rushes low and fast from the shadows of the mushroom house, scurrying towards the trench. Just as she is closing in on it some more horsemen come around a nearby corner. With no other choice, the young girl leaps into the trench tumbling hard into the muddy sludge-water stream flowing along bottom.
She crawls through the putrid muck and waste of the glorified open sewer gutter that is her only path to salvation for nearly an hour, pausing for a moment as she comes upon the scene of a group of soldiers tossing the lifeless bodies of a racoon-man and his small boy down into the muddy trench. Their bodies roll down the sloped edge of the trench, coming to a stop in the trench just a few yards ahead of her current position.
Alice Lordell:
What monsters! Wicked soldiers of a wicked queen!
Narrator:
Alice slowly crawls her way to the slain bodies of the man and the boy. The man lies on his back, his face locked in the horrfic contortions of a painful death. Alice examines the slain body of the small racoon-boy as she mutters a brief silent prayer for him and then leans close to his ear.
Alice Lordell:
Please forgive me for this… all this was my fault. I'm so sorry. I know I have no right and I do not deserve it but I'm afraid I require your cloak… I cannot offer you anything in return that would equal what you have already given for me. So this is yours.
Narrator:
Alice places a soft goodbye kiss on the boy's head and then, not wanting to linger any longer than necessary, she hurriedly puts on the boy's brown cloak and smears globs of river mud onto her dress to cover up its bright blue colour.
Alice continues to slither as fast as she can along the gross, grimy edge of the stream.
From a nearby carpentry workshop comes a chorus of horrible screams as the whole thing erupts in a blazing conflagration of scorching heat and choking black smoke. Cardsmen toss gentlemanly otters, pleading weasels, and crying ferret children into the flaming workshop. The smell of their burning flesh fills the air.
A woodsmanly boar-man bravely charges one of the Cardsmen with a pitchfork, piercing its plate-mail armour. The Cardsman cries out in pain as a dark, oily ooze drips down the metallic scales of its armour from the wound. Ethereal steam curls off the strange black sludge. The boar pushes the pitchfork in even harder, driving the impaled Cardsmen to the ground as two more Cardsmen rush him from behind. cutting off the brave boar-man's arms. The boar-man falls to the ground in a squealing, bleeding mess as the Cardsmen crowd around him, mocking and laughing before proceeding to stomp him to death under their heels.
More explosions ring out on the east side of town, causing a shift in the flow of the chaos. Feeling the attention move away from her area, Alice bolts further down the trench. Violence and death sing their song of torment behind her as she moves ever onward.
Eventually, the bloodshed is far behind her that she feels safe to climb to her feet and sprint instead of slithering.
Late-Afternoon pink tints the clouds overhead, and a bitter chill breeze swirls past as she finally reaches the monolithic wall.
Alice takes refuge inside a gigantic pile of broken clocks. The base section of the wall appears to be made of mountainous slabs of cut stone. The sheer overwhelming scale of the wall fills Alice's heart with dread and awe, its massive height piercing well beyond the clouds. Finally safe, Alice curls up among scattered gears and lifeless cuckoos as she tries to catch her breath and recompose herself. Exhausted and on the verge of tears from the brutality she had just seen, she sinks into her own thoughts in the dark of her ticking refuge.
Alice Lordell:
"I can't do this. I'm just a little girl. That's all I am. That's all I can be."
Cheshire:
[playful teasing] "Did you know humans are the only creatures to feel self-pity?"
Narrator:
The sly grin of the Cheshire Cat forms on the face of a nearby clock. Ears grow out of the top and whiskers sprout from the centre.
Alice Lordell:
[Exhausted and on the verge of crying] "Oh, Mr Cat… I'm far too tired to answer your questions."
Cheshire:
"Very well, I'll answer it myself…" [continue in a mockingly high impersonation] "No, I didn't know that. I don't know very much at all because I'm just a dumb girl who doesn't think too deeply lest it gives me early wrinkles,"
Alice Lordell:
"You don't need to be nasty. I'm already having a terrible day.. All those people died because of me and as if that weren't bad enough, I have no hope of reaching the top of this wall… no hope at all."
Narrator:
Cheshire's smile melts from the clock, morphing into the spectral shape of his full feline form.
Cheshire:
"Oh my… my… my. If it's hope you're searching for, you will have a much longer journey than I thought, yes indeed." continues Cheshire.
Narrator:
Alice lets her face disappear into her arms as tears rain from her eyes.
Cheshire:
[Impatient tone] "How disappointing! Do you act like this every time you see a wall? Don't you know the whole point of a wall is to find a way past it?"
Alice Lordell:
[whimpering tone]"Oh, silly me. I thought the point of a wall was to keep people out,"
Cheshire:
"Only the people who build walls believe that,"
Alice Lordell:
[desperate for an easier way through the hardship looming before her] "Is there not a tiny door I can go through, or a magic vine that can lift me to the top?"
Cheshire:
"Until now, you have been in a part of Wonderland that is bound by its own set of rules. You haven't had to truly work at all, you have just moved from situation to situation dealing only with some slight changes to your body."
Alice Lordell:
[blurts out in frustration] "Slight changes? I'd say they were more than slight,"
Cheshire:
[subtle taint of sinister menace] "Yes, yes, you got bigger, then smaller, then bigger again. These changes are child's play. Soon you will face a world far less whimsical than the one you've grown accustomed to,"
Narrator:
Alice sits up with a huff.
Alice Lordell:
[angry but still a bit whimpery] "This was the plan all along, wasn't it? To have me go through Wonderland learning nothing and then just kick me out into this other place, being completely unprepared,"
Cheshire:
"Plan? Hmm… plan. Does it have to be written down to be considered a plan?"
Narrator:
Cheshire grins wide.
Cheshire:
"No. It's a plan if it's something that was decided beforehand, right?"
Alice Lordell:
[still crying] "Why? Why must getting home be so hard? Oh, how I miss my mother, her soothing songs before bed and her gentle cheek kisses, I want my sister…the smell of her hair and the feeling of her arms around me as we slept. "
Narrator:
The twisted grin of the cat folds in on itself as his feline visage fades into little more than dust while sheer exhaustion consumes Alice, dragging her off into tormented and tearful sleep.
******
Narrator:
Alice is awoken by the sound of scurrying feet as a tiny Vole-Woman dressed in olden pioneer clothes with an elegant red bonnet emerges from a nearby nook. Spotting the still clearly sad Alice, the small Vole-Woman hops onto an old sardine box and then climbs steadily up, a miniature trellis adorning the side of a nearby clock. Her brown fur is speckled with grey. Alice admires the tiny but immaculate stitching on the woman's dress.
Kindly Vole-Woman:
"Why are you crying little one? Why are you sitting there in the grime?"
Narrator:
The Vole-Woman smiles cheerfully at the upset Alice.
Alice Lordell:
"I need to get past this wall here, but I have no hope of climbing to the top of it. I don't know what else to do," explains Alice.
Kindly Vole-Woman:
"Then do not hope… Hope can be nice, yes, but if you waste your time waiting for time, it just might waste you. Instead, decide what would make you happy and pursue it with your full heart."
Alice Lordell:
"How can I start working if I have no hope of succeeding?"
Kindly Vole-Woman:
"When I climb to the top of these clocks, I'm not thinking about being at the top. I'm only thinking about the next step in front of me… That which must follow and is immediately achievable."
Narrator:
She gestures to the path she used to climb up to Alice's level before smiling one last time at Alice and scurrying away about her original errands.
Alice nods and crawls out of her ticking-clock sanctuary. Approaching the base of the grand wall, she doffs the dead boy's cloak and takes a moment to stretch out her muscles a little.
Alice Lordell:
"The only thing that will make me happy is leaving Wonderland and never coming back. I hate it here and I will not let myself die here,"
Narrator:
She feels the wall for even the slightest crevices between the stones. The ancient, weathered stone allows plenty of handholds. She breathes deep and with one last glance behind her, she starts to climb.
After nearly an hour of climbing. Her shoes are scuffed. Her knuckles are skinned, and she is sweating like crazy but she makes it up to a narrow lip where she can stand for a moment to catch her breath and relax her hands for a bit. Knowing she cannot stop her for too long she turns herself back to the climb. The stonework is interwoven with mirrors the size of windows, cracked fine-china, dingy silverware and old saw handles. As she continues the climb, she sees her face reflected in one of the mirrors. Her face is covered in acne. Her brow has thickened into one solid unibrow, accentuated by the bones themselves as if she had a Neanderthal's bone structure.
Alice Lordell:
[Disgusted shriek sort of tone] "DEAR ME! I'M HIDEOUS!"
Narrator:
She scrambles further up so that she doesn't have to see what a troll she has become. Alice looks up, watching only her handholds.
Alice Lordell:
Have my arms grown or have I still not regained my original size since I last eat that strange mushroom? No… that was so long ago and I was my normal size on the train. Have I been here so long that I'm naturally taller and I just had not yet noticed till now?
Narrator:
Feeling suddenly very self-conscious, questions swarm around in her mind like busy buzzing bees as she continues to not just climb but also take stock of herself as she does so.
Passing another mirror, she shuts her eyes until her face has passed. Unfortunately, to her dismay, after a few more meters of climbing, she is caught off-guard by a third mirror, showing her another queer reflection of her own face. This version of her face is unblemished by acne but covered in muck, dirty, feral… untamed… yet somehow strangely beautiful. The more she focuses on the odd reflection the more she notices how much older her face seems to look not full-grown, but older than she remembers it looking.
Alice Lordell:
How long have I been here? She asks herself… funny… I actually no longer know… is something happening to me?
Narrator:
After nearly another hour of climbing, there is a row of large-reflective crystalline masses jutting out from the masonry of the wall. This row of crystalline protrusions seems to stretch horizontally along the entire length of the wall, from what she can tell. As Alice climbs up between two of these crystals, she notices that one of its reflective sides provides her with a full-length image of her own reflection that profiles her entire body. She is horrified at her own appearance even more than before. Her arms are fat. Loose skin bunches at her elbows, filled with flab. Rolls of fat on her back and waist test the seams of her dress. Alice looks down at her actual body. It is her normal body, dirty and tired, but still the body she remembers coming in with. She looks back at the mirror. The fat arms and back rolls quiver in the cold, brisk air. She decides it's best not to stare any longer and continues to climb higher.
Alice Lordell:
Is that how others see me?
Narrator:
She decides to ignore all other mirrors and reflective surfaces. The wall is a world unto itself. She shimmies past terrariums. Ant farms pulsate with pixelated life. Birds swoop into mailboxes. The inhabitants form cliques in the patchwork habitats, beetles with beetles, Sky Monkeys with Sky Monkeys. There are signs along the climb. One reads 'Congratulations Ravens! Mid-wall Champs three years running!'. She needs to rest and soon. Staring up, she sees protruding wind chimes and a fishing pole with a basket tied to the line. They sway slightly in the breeze. The material makeup of the wall shifts abruptly from weathered stone to compressed mud with metal pipes inlaid like a bird's nest.
Alice Lordell:
"I can't do this any longer. Everything hurts… the air is getting so thin… I need rest."
Narrator:
Alice's arms burn and shake with exertion. She is sweating so bad it reminds her of the time at her grandma's when she got pneumonia. Alice curls up to rest in a group of pipes projecting out in a medium basin-like shape. Curling up and using the cloak like a blanket, she closes her eyes and lets sleep take her for a bit as the wonderlandian moon takes its place in the sky.
******
Narrator:
It is still night when Alice resumes her climb under the voyeuristic gaze of the stars. Although it is hard work to move up the wall, she grows accustomed to the grind. It becomes familiar quickly. She even makes a few friends every so often.
Another sign reads 'There is no "I" in team but it is hard to play blind'. She rolls her eyes. Some parts of the wall are lined with stacks of books. "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles. "Catcher in the Rye" by J. D. Salinger. "The Giver", Lois Lowry. A Shakespeare anthology. "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe. The next section of the wall's masonry is littered with smashed and battered statues. As she climbs she accidentally slips almost falling to her death but is saved by the most finely crafted and beautiful looking stone-bosom she has ever seen, she is grateful that it provides something for her to catch herself on but there is another strange feeling… a warm feeling sparking slightly somewhere deep inside her as looks at them beautiful stone breasts. She pushes the feeling down, unprepared to confront it.
After about another four hours or so of climbing, she takes another break, sitting on the stone legs of a nameless general's horse. As she sits, she notices a small butterfly lands on one of the horse's hoofs.
Sister Butterfly:
"Hey! Hello. Hello there. You seem new new. You look pretty. You remind me of the Yule-Father. What did you get for Yuletide?"
Narrator:
Alice is shocked to find that the absurdity of a butterfly talking to her no longer feels all that strange to her. She processes the feeling and responds.
Alice Lordell:
"Well, it's been a while, but I remember my parents got me a new Sunday-Dress and a diary. As for Santa, he brought me a flute even though I asked him for a piano,"
Sister Butterfly:
"You do know there is no Santa?"
Alice Lordell:
"What do you mean?"
Sister Butterfly:
"Santa is just something your parents make up. He's not real. Nope, Nope Not at all. There is only the Yule-Father."
Narrator:
The butterfly laughs sweetly and as she does Alice thinks about her words and then something clicks in the girl's head. A truth switch triggers, and she realises rather abruptly that perhaps elders are not infallible… or at least all-honest.
Alice Lordell:
What other lies have I been told I wonder?
Narrator:
The idea that she had been lied to by adults or that words are not always true ignites a small simmer inside her, she uses it to push herself onward. The butterfly twips gracefully around her as she climbs.
Eventually, Alice reaches an intersection of two materials. One section is made of barbells and jump ropes. The other is made of yarn and cluttered with spring-form cake pans and flower pots. She scoots onto the softer section.
Alice Lordell:
"You know, my little sister is a wonderful gardener. She grows cucumbers, strawberries, and herbs. She lets me help sometimes,"
Narrator:
Alice as she uses the flower pots as hand-holds making the next leg of her climb much easier and far faster.
Sister Butterfly:
"I don't have a sister. Sometimes I wish I did,"
Alice Lordell:
[ tone of deep longing to be with her sister once more] "Oh yes. Having a sister is wonderful,"
Narrator:
Alice feels a warm flush in her cheeks as she reflects on all her best memories with her beloved little sis. And recommits in her heart to getting home one way or another.
Sister Butterfly:
"Maybe we can be sisters!"
(---- Insert Alice giggling briefly at the idea ----)
Alice Lordell:
Having a butterfly for a sister. How absurd!
Alice Lordell:
"But then again, you're the best friend I've had so far here in Wonderland. So I suppose… oh, very well you can be my sister her in this strange place"
Narrator:
The Butterfly giggles with joy at Alice's words. The warm company and jovial conversations Sister Butterfly provides helps Alice forget her burning muscles and the calluses forming on her palms. Occasionally Sister Butterfly will leave her for a bit to run errands, but she always eventually returns. Alice stops counting the days, sleeping intermittently where sturdy protruding junk allows. As she nears the top, the climb becomes harder, the wind more intense, and the air colder and ever-thinner.
Alice Lordell:
"Dear me, Sister Butterfly, whoever built this wall seems to have just piled up a bunch of nonsense in my way,"
Narrator:
Alice now finds herself trapped in a constant struggle to breathe and unable to shield herself from the bitter chill of the air now enveloping her. But she does her best to focus on other things.
Sister Butterfly:
"They would make it better, but the Red Queen refuses to give them proper funding,"
Alice nods and continues to climb until at last one day, gripping the strap of a purse, she lifts her other hand and finds only air.
Alice Lordell:
[Heart-felt Triumphant Scream]
Narrator:
She mounts the top of the wall, victorious and exhausted. After a few minutes of rest, she rises back to her feet and turns to look out upon the wild new land that stretches out before her. She finds the wall follows a mountain range, perfectly bisecting them at their peaks. The mountains are covered by evergreen forest to their belt-line. The trees thin out near the top, being replaced with craggy boulders. The forest continues as far as Alice can see. Mountains make the land ahead uneven, like explosions of stone frozen in time.
Sister Butterfly:
"Wow, we got the whole wide world ahead of us now,"
Alice Lordell:
[in a tone of awe and uncertainty] "Yes, and I have no idea what I'm supposed to do next, and no time to doddle"
Sister Butterfly:
"Well, whatever happens, let's promise to be friends forever,"
Alice Lordell:
"Deal."
Narrator:
Alice curls up her pinky, and Sister Butterfly lands on it. They climb together down the other side of the towering wall.