Alice’s Adventures in Under City: Downward Spiral
By
Richard Schwarz
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PUBLISHED BY
Richard Schwarz
Alice’s Adventures in Under City: Downward Spiral Copyright © by Richard Schwarz
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Preface
Welcome to the introduction to the Alice Zombie Series. This series is a short work series of ebooks based upon the novel Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. While not simply a rewrite, the overall tone of the book attempts to adhere to the spirit in which the original work was published. The Alice Zombie Series is planned to encompass three ebooks which will then be compiled into one final ebook.
This particular series details the journey of a young, but not quite so young, Alice as she encounters a myriad of strange occurrences counter to her upbringing which challenge her ideologies. Whereas this would normally take place during a marvelous trip into fantasy land, this particular journey includes voracious zombies.
Lewis Carroll originally penned and delivered as a gift a predecessor of what would become the iconic Alice under a different title, namely, Alice’s Adventures Underground. On the timeline of Alice events, this ebook occurs prior to the revised version which was distributed to the public. Since the content for Lewis Carroll’s work is similar, great liberty was taken with this series of short works in order to differentiate between Alice underground and Alice in Wonderland.
*Parental Note*
While this ebook is based off of the Alice genre, it is not intended for adolescent readers. This ebook does not contain nudity or profanity. It does; however, relate the exploits of a teenage Alice and as such may contain discussions of mature subject matter.
After Preface
Last but not least, the author would like to express his extreme gratitude to the Gumpery Commission, the pitiless peer reviews, hate mail, and the many furry animals that inspired this ebook.
After After Preface
The characters, incidents, and names in this ebook are all fictitious excluding those names that are real names for people; however, the characters that bear those names are not named after those individuals that are named thusly. This is to say that even though a character may have a real person’s name the character is still a work of fiction whereby making the character and the charter’s name fictitious, even though the name is real. Regardless, these names bear no resemblance to any persons living, dead, undead, altered by military genetic experiments, or any other mad sciencery.
Any resemblance to any person in history or the future of history is entirely coincidental and should anything of this social nature manifest, the author reserves the right to be hailed as a clairvoyant and paid large sums of the then most fiscally lucrative monetary exchange and worshipped as a prophet.
Hitherto and finally, here is presented another ebook completely different from the rest of the ebooks out there which are most likely a far cry from the lunacy that unfolds in daily life to which you are most likely reading this ebook to escape and have subsequently fallen into my trap. Of lunacy….
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Alice’s Adventures in Under City: Downward Spiral
Alice sat in the park hovering over her digital device with a sheepish smirk that was only broken by the consistently shocked expression she made every time she received a message. Her sister, Lorina, rolled her eyes and glowered, annoyed with Alice’s behavior; however, a reassuring glance from her mother reminded Lorina that she too had been there once and with an exhausted sigh she gave the unwitting Alice reprieve. Edith, the youngest of the three daughters, giggled in her own youthful spirits at Alice’s behavior unsure of what was so important but curious to find out for herself once she reached Alice’s age.
Upon receiving the last text message, Alice looked up and scanned the tree line a short distance away visually appearing to be able to look straight through the other laughing and happy families that attended the function in which they were now involved. Her father scowled, knowing that his daughter was coming of age and that it seemed, although not entirely true, that boys had occupied Alice’s cloudy thoughts more than her family or, rather, perhaps he was feeling the pangs of another of his girls dawning on the age to begin searching for someone to settle down with in her later years.
Regardless of the reason for her father’s disapproval, Alice detected the fleeting brown hair of her blue eyed romantic interest peeking over some shrubbery in the distance. She smiled enthusiastically and with a finger on her chin, pondered a plausible excuse to get away from her family members.
“Dear,” her loving father began in earnest, “You seem completely obsessed with that Robert Cole fellow. Even though you may have intentions for him, I should like to remind you to keep your behavior as that of a lady.”
“But of course Father,” Alice remarked over her shoulder then looked down at the blanket she sat upon timidly hoping that when she abruptly excused herself she wouldn’t encounter resistance.
For, you see, Alice was caught between the ages of blossoming into her own femininity like her sister Lorina. This was an event which her father often scorned because he was losing yet another precious daughter and because of the changes young women went through during this sacred time. To him she was still his little girl and to be forced to accept her independence through disruptive behavior and frustrated indifference was quite trying. Alice was a different matter altogether from Lorina’s stern temperament and often his derisive scowl was melted away by one of her youthful giggles like her younger sister, Edith, which caused him to grin like a beaming sun as he recalled Alice’s innocence.
The same could be said for young Robert Cole, with exception, who had taken quite a fancy with Alice. Although not a middle child, he too was caught in the early stages of adolescent romance. Alice’s present and most immediate concern was her first kiss despite the admonishing of her father. As a productive member of Second City she had every desire to avoid being the last person in her class to receive a kiss. Aside from her feelings of utter dread over the act of kissing a filthy, repulsive boy, her social standing had never been of so much importance to her and the butterflies in her stomach told her she wasn’t sure whether or not she was quite up to the task.
In her heart; however, she was anxious to have a greater understanding of love. Of course the Second City state schools had tried, miserably of course, to explain and define love which came across rather dull as it was delivered in rhetoric as another lesson on the duties of a consumer rather than a true explanation. Overall the lesson was related in a manner that was altogether quite confusing. While they were expected to have their first kiss in the near future, many of the girls were also preparing for their vows of celibacy until after marriage.
Alice decided that propriety was her main concern. She wanted to do what was proper and ensure the happiness of her father while meeting the demands of her consumermanship, no matter how confusing. Summoning up her reserves she prepared to deliver her alibi to the family. Calming herself as best she could, she felt her shoulders relax as she exhaled deeply. She looked about furtively, sighed once more, and then opened her mouth to speak.
“Alice, perhaps you should take a moment to look about the events for today on your own.” Her mother kindly interjected. Alice was quite confounded at the sudden intrusion into her thoughts but agreed readily with a hearty nod of the head causing her short blonde hair to dance emphatically against her neck and the bow placed on top and slightly to the side to tumble about her strands as it attempted to stay planted to her scalp.
/> “Be back within the hour dear,” Alice’s mother advised which satiated her father’s need to intervene and Alice’s need to escape the boundaries of her adolescence. Feeling the desire to at least partially oblige her parent’s request as she did still reside under their custody at the very least but more so because she loved and cherished them, Alice made a brief tour of the events, perhaps viewing each for a split second, and then made for the clearing.
“Are you sure she’ll behave?” her father asked her mother as he keenly looked after Alice but not so much as to be obvious that he was watching and once she was out of ear shot, to which her mother replied, “More than you did when you were her age.”
“Which is precisely what I’m afraid of,” He