Chapter Four - Chapter Four

Chapter One Can be Found: https://steemit.com/fiction/@andrewgenaille/hunting-indians-chapter-one

Chapter Three can be Found: https://steemit.com/fiction/@andrewgenaille/hunting-indians-chapter-three

1. Chapter 4

It was several weeks before Kevin was back on the reserve. He came here a month ago with Karen to gather information but he spent most of that time with Rachel. Rachel and him had known each other since they were children on and off again, considering he grew up in the forest while her family stayed here. However over the years they stayed friends, which blossomed into something more.
They were both young and going through that period of time of coming into their own; young adults maturing. Their playful friendship shifted from humorous friendly encounters to awkward glances and stuttering.
Unfortunately for them Karen came across some urgent information that had her, Kevin and their relation Peter pack up and head south. Kevin was given half an hour to say good-bye to Rachel. There were promises to return, she packed him some perishable food and then they kissed their goodbyes.
Now he was back, and while Karen went to meet with the community leaders, Kevin was given leave to find Rachel. She was surprised to see him and they continued their earlier kiss, but Rachel had other plans that they had to leave the house for, she had six roommates including her parents.
She took him half an hour into the fields where they stopped at a collection of six birch trees that created a secluded room. She unraveled her sleeping bag and a wool blanket she knitted herself. It was here that they made love under the half moon and stars. It was her first time so Kevin was nervous wanting to make it perfect.
Afterwards they spooned naked and enjoyed the surreal sense of peace the moment created. Kevin kissed her shoulder and she smiled while his fingers lightly traced her body. He moved them down her arm to her hand where she curled her fingers in his.
He settled for awhile but began to move again, to her breasts using the back of his fingers, testing their softness before he moved to feel the side of her stomach and swell of her hips. He used his full hand to move toward her pelvis but stopped just above where her pubic hair began. She thought he was being sensual as he was still using an enjoyable light touch, but then she realized what he was doing and smirked.
"Are you checking me for scars?" She mused.
"What?" He said, and pulled his hand back to her hip. "No."
"It's ok," She shifted until she was fully on her back and put herself on complete display for him. "You can look."
Taken off guard, Kevin's breath caught in his throat, but he smiled and kissed her before looking her body over. There was nothing overly special about Rachel to the world at large, she was average height at five foot six, her skin was a tanned shade of brown and her dark hair stretched down to her waist. In a crowd she would simply blend in. Kevin thought she was flawless though, and stood out anywhere.
"I haven't done anything. I wouldn't let them." She said. Parents were given the option to have their daughters sterilized in exchange for more rations. When they became adults the option was given to both men and woman, with the added benefit of being removed from the Hunted list. You get to live, but your race dies. "Satisfied?"
"In every way possible," Kevin kissed her again, hating himself for checking but hating more that he had to. He pulled back when she laughed into his mouth. "What are you laughing at?"
"You," She smirked, "Sex one time and you're already thinking kids."
"I'm not thinking kids."
"You just checked to see if I was still fertile or not, that's a good indication you're thinking kids."
"Maybe."
"Have you thought maybe I don't want kids?" She raised her eyebrows.
"You don't want kids?"
"I'm a young woman with her whole life ahead of her, I'm not really old enough to know what I want. Maybe I want a career. I'm smart with a lot of prospects, and you want to tie me down with a pack of rug rats?"
"You're a loon."
"I read a lot, they fill my head with a lot of crazy ideas."
"Yeah." Kevin went back to kissing her.

Three weeks before, a young lady in Karen's network let her know that months of planning were paying off south of the border; but she would have to be there personally to see it through. The problem wasn't that she wasn't willing to go, it was the obstacles that separated her from the United States.
Karen, Kevin and Peter spent a week travelling toward the border, finding food along the way; that was child's play to them. Things started to become more difficult the closer they got to the border; they had to move sporadically as they encountered security patrols. Natives were strictly forbidden to leave the reserve, so the Government invested heavily into the Civilian Militia and Military Reserves to patrol south of Indian Territories; more so toward the border as it was imperative Canadian problems didn't leak out.
Ten kilometers from the border they knew there were unmanned drones overhead. They couldn't see them but they were there, watching everything with state of the art high definition cameras. Even travelling at night was an issue. The cameras had both thermal and night vision low light technology. All it took was to be spotted by one of them and they would've had an army on top of them, or worse, a rocket from the same drone. No fuss, no mess.
They crossed the border in a small town that straddled both countries, with the pharmacy in Canada and their bowling ally in the United States. The border itself was the yellow line down the middle of the street. There were border security here as well as in the form of uniforms and cameras, but once inside the Pharmacy they felt safe. This was the first time Karen has made this trip but she's been told through reliable sources it was safe to let their guard down, not that they would though. The Pharmacist led them to the basement where a tunnel was dug fifty feet below the street.
The Pharmacist took them through the narrow passage with flashlights, the walls were dirt and gravel mixed with wood planks, well below the towns plumbing. It was angled downward till the middle of the street before angling up so it formed almost a 'V' shape. Peter had to help the Pharmacist as they started up on the other side, holding onto the ropes; their feet gripped rock steps. Soon they could see light from the other end as it led into a basement of pipes. Peter tensed up when he saw the distinctive black uniform of the Homeland Security officer.
"It's ok." The pharmacist said to them, in his sixties with wire thin glasses he just gave off the complete vibe of being trustworthy. He moved forward toward the officer. "Hello Bob."
"Steven, what have you got for me tonight?" Bob said; a bearded man six foot two, bulky from years of loving at the gym. A monster of a man.
"Well, I've got some..."
"Refugees?"
"Nope, nope. I don't think they're planning on staying." Steven looked back at Karen. She shook her head. "Nope, here for a day or two and then back across."
"Come forward." Bob ordered. Karen and her two companions stepped into the basement, noticing there were two other uniformed men watching, both armed. A large Doberman dog sat next to one of the men, docile looking but everybody knew that with the right word it would become almost Satanic. The basement was what they expected in a bowling alley, pins and boxes, spare clothes and food supplies for the snack bar. What was out of place was the almost militaristic presence.
"Name?"
"Karen Cardinal."
"Weapons?" Bob asked as he typed the name into the laptop computer next to him.
"No." Karen answered.
"You have a good reason why you'd be crossing this border and then going back?"
"I do."
"You want to share it with the class." Bob said. Karen glanced over at the other two men wondering if she could take them out.
"We're visiting someone."
"Who?"
"What is this?" Karen looked to Steven for an explanation.
"I'm asking the questions?"
"Sorry Bob," Steven stepped forward, "I don't think she's from the area, she's not come through here before, I don't think she actually knows what's going on?"
Bob sighed, then nodded. "You're only illegal on that side."
"Ok." Karen said.
"What he means is that in the United States you can move around freely, the Jay Treaty is still recognized here. So they are aware..."
"It doesn't mean we're going to let undesirables in," Bob added. Karen didn't know what the Jay Treaty was, signed in 1794 it was an agreement between Great Britain and the United States recognizing that Indians predated the border and were allowed to cross unhindered for work and trade. Canada had a history of ignoring treaties involving Indians and this one was no different.
"So you still have border guards...hidden?" Karen asked.
"Think of it like the reverse Underground Railroad." Steven states.
"Does Canada know you do this?"
"I don't live my life based on what Canada thinks." Bob smirked.
"You and me both." Karen said. She liked Bob, "We're here to see Doctor Susan Smith."
"I see." Bob knew who she was. After being assigned to this job he kept up on the relevant politics. "Welcome to the United States of America."
Kevin and Peter went through the same line of questioning before Steven escorted them up the stairs into the bowling alley. Using the back halls they're led to the alley way where a Subaru waited for them. Heather stood in front of it.
Heather was only five feet tall with short slightly curled black hair, dressed in a green and yellow dress that hitched at the waist, designed so her large breasts stood out more. Karen could only wonder why this white suburban Mom was here to welcome them. She should've been off somewhere running a bake sale.
"Wow, you guys look tired," Heather looked them over, three Indians from the bush covered in two weeks worth of mud, "And smelly."
"I'll leave you with Heather, you can trust her. She'll call me when you're ready to come back and I'll get you across the border." Steven said. Peter shook his hand and the elder man left.
"Thank-you," Karen acknowledged Steve and then looked back to Heather.
Karen was right during the drive out of town she sat in the passenger seat and she talked with Heather while the men slept in the back. Heather was a suburban mom that spent her time helping the PTA with bake sales with three kids all entering their teenage years. Her husband was a dental surgeon so they were well off. None of which explained how she became involved in this.
"Oh, that's my friend Angela's fault. She heard about what was going on and got everybody involved. We made pins and everything." She smiled, "You'll like Angela. She's Jewish."
Karen arched her eyebrows.
Somewhere along the drive Karen fell asleep and when they came to they were pulling into the yard of a two story farm house in the middle of nowhere; the sun had already gone down but there was enough light to see the tractor and large barn in the back.
"Is she here?" Karen asked.
"No, this is just were we meet." Heather said as she turned off the horn and started climbing out.
"Great, our contacts are Heather of the PTA and Ma and Pa Kettle." Peter joked from the backseat.
Karen sighed and climbed out.
Inside the house Peter was almost right as they were introduced to an elderly white couple named Bill and Diane both were in their sixties but were still spry enough to run a farm on their own. Karen scanned the living room to see a wall of kids and grandkids. The area whole area was light brown and very homely. The three Indians seemed awkward here but went with the flow.
They're offered one of the two showers so Peter and Kevin took one each to get cleaned up. Their clothes were replaced as Diane took theirs to the laundry room. Karen was taken to the kitchen and given her first full meal in two years; scrambled eggs, back bacon, hash browns and toast. She wolfed it down quickly and didn't even mind that Bill, Diane and Heather stood by watching her.
Once the boys were done their showers Diane ran the tub for Karen, and she took the first warm bath she's had in ten years, settling into it with a sigh.
An hour later she climbed out, dressed and was then given a queen sized bed in the guest room. Settling in she fell asleep almost instantly, and didn't wake until just after two in the afternoon.

"They're guns?" Kevin asked in the basement of the barn, he was down at the bottom of the steps with Peter and Bill. All around them covered in brown tarps were wooden boxes marked food.
"Yup, all of them," Bill had one box open to show the military AR-15 assault rifle in pieces for travel. "Well, some of them, lot of them are ammunition. The trick now is getting them across the border. I've seen that tunnel you guys got, ain't going to do the trick."
"Why?" Kevin asked.
"For you guys, Care of the United States government...not openly though. Hush hush stuff, and they only paid for half. Angela and her girls raised the rest." Bill closed the case.
"That must've been one hell of a bake sale." Peter grinned.
Bill chuckled as he covered it with the tarp. "Angela is no suburban housewife." Bill motioned up, Peter and Kevin headed up the stairs.
Karen stood outside the barn in her new clothes, they were more fashionable and she was told they belonged to Bill and Diane's daughter. The Kaki pants and white blouse would never hold up in the bush so she decided she'd just enjoy them now. She watched a black SUV come toward the house in the distance, just a dot in the distance as the three men joined her.
Diane watched from the porch as the truck pulled up the gravel driveway, it came to a stop near the barn and the engine shut down. Karen moved a strand of hair off her forehead and crossed her arms. She would've felt more comfortable if she was armed.
"It's ok, that's Dakota. He's one of us." Bill said after noticing Karen's tension.
The driver’s door opened as Dakota climbed out, a large Native man in his thirties. He had hair down his back with clear dark brown skin. He was dressed in jeans, leather vest and a t-shirt. Underneath they could see he had a build, muscles held on a six foot two frame. Karen relaxed when she saw a Skin, even more so when Brian and Lucas climbed out of the back.
The second two natives weren't as big or strapping as Dakota but clearly from the same genetic family. Those two were twins.
Mike Preston climbed out of the passenger door, dressed in beige slacks, dress shirt unbuttoned at the top with his sleeves pulled up. He was average height, white with a short hair cut out of a catalogue. A politician in his late twenties. Not who Karen was expecting.
"You Karen?" Dakota asked in a deep baritone voice. She nodded. "Dakota Temptleton; my brothers. Brian and Lucas. The Yakama nation welcomes you to our traditional territory."
"Thank you." Karen said, glancing at Mike. "This is my cousin Peter and his nephew Kevin, from the Cree Nation."
The Indians exchanged handshakes. Dakota chuckled as he saw that Peter and Kevin were about the same age, with Kevin being a few years older than his Uncle. "Yeah, only in Indian Country."
"Hi," Mike stepped forward with his hand. Karen hesitated before taking it. "Michael Preston, United Nations human rights envoy."
"Where's Doctor Susan Smith?" Karen asked, "That's who we were expecting."
"Uh, well, she couldn't make it."
"Why not? She's who we were expecting." Karen used her deeper voice, a challenge.
"I'm her proxy, I can speak on her behalf..." Mike said.
"We came a long way, through very dangerous waters because we were assured she would be here to listen to us, not a proxy, not someone on her behalf, her." Karen backed up a bit.
"I will vouch for Mike, he's a good man." Dakota said.
"Me too." Bill backed him up.
"I don't know either of you. How am I supposed to take that on good faith? As far as I know this could be a trap to just bring out the resistance. We know Doctor Smith. We've seen her pictures, we don't know you." Karen glanced around at the others, if it was a trap she had to figure out an order of attack.
"In all fairness, I was expecting someone else as well. We were expecting to be dealing with Marcus or Patrick. Not you." Mike stated.
"Dead." Peter said.
"Who? Marcus?" Dakota asked.
"Both. Marcus by a hunter last month, Patrick from a measles infection." Peter continued. "Dale as well, all dead."
"So who's in charge?" Mike asked.
"You're looking at her." Kevin stated.
Mike sighed, he was at an impasse as to what to do, then Dakota moved. He reached back and pulled out a Colt pistol. This caused everybody to tense up.
"What are you doing?" Mike asked.
"Hold on." Dakota popped the magazine out and showed Karen that it was loaded before putting it back in. He chambered a round and then held it out butt first to Karen. "I want it back before you leave."
Karen let it hang there for a moment. She nodded and took the weapon. "Ok."
"Ok. This should be fun." Mike said.
The group moved into the house where Diane served the three Indian brothers apple pie with ice cream while Mike sat down at the table with Karen. He updated her on the small pockets of resistance across Canada springing up on and around the reserves.
"Canada's closing down the border as much as they can, but more and more people are going up. It's not as evident out west, but we've seen some results in Ontario and Quebec."
"Bloody Mohawks, leave it to them, eh," Peter said. Kevin smirked.
"We're not getting much though, just this and that..."
"Are they hunting them?" Karen asked. Mike stared at her processing the question. "What?"
"Uh, we don't know." Mike shrugged, "People go in, some refugees coming back...we think so though. That's what they're saying."
"That's because they are." Karen emphasized. She's never met an Indian from Ontario before, she was young when the boundaries were put in place so travel was virtually non-existent for Indians. "What's...what's happening this side of the border?"
"To date..." Mike didn't know where to start.
"As long as the oil keeps flowing people are keeping their mouth shut." Dakota said with a mouth full of pie.
"There's strong opposition to what's happening, in Congress and the senate. There's voices." Mike added.
"So why don't they do anything?" Kevin asked.
"Because..." Mike didn't want to say it, "Nobody believes it. And those that do are shut down by the right and Christians."
"Nobody wants to believe it." Dakota backed Mike up, emphasizing the key words.
"What do they think? That we're making this up? People are dying? We're dying?" Karen raised her voice.
"What they think...what they've been told is there was a war, and things happened so extreme measures had to be taken. Until that war is over..." Mike shrugged, there was no way to finish the sentence.
"They're hunting, for sport. That's not a war." Karen lost her temper. Kevin had never seen that before.
"We need proof...so they know it's happening."
"I'm proof! I'm telling it! They need to get in there and stop it." Karen hit the table.
"We can't. It's politics."
"Fuck politics." Karen stood up and moved to the counter. "They're just going to let us die. This is all just a fucking waste of time."
"What kind of proof?" Kevin asked.
"Video?"
"You want us to get video of them hunting Indians?" Peter was puzzled. "You know how messed up that is?"
"But it'll change how the world sees you."
"We have to let them kill someone, and just stand there as they do it." Karen continued. "Who the hell does that?"
"Plus a camera needs a charge." Kevin stated.
"So?" Dakota chimed in.
"They have sensors and things, anything with a charge they pick up and find. Moment you turn the camera on, or a phone, or anything they'll know it's there." Karen explained. Their world was literally stone aged. "We don't even wear watches anymore."
Mike nodded. "I know what that is...we made it."
"Oh yay." Karen said.
"We built it to find people in earthquakes stuck under buildings, but we built it so I know some people that'll know how to get around it." Mike shrugged. "I can get you a camera that'll do it."
"And if we don't?" Karen asked.
"Nothing changes."
"Yeah, it's bullshit." Karen handed the gun back to Dakota and left the room. There was a moment of awkward silence in the room.
"Get us the camera." Peter said to Mike, who nodded.

Several weeks later.
Kevin watched as Rachel put on her bra, clasping it in the front and then turning it all the way around; she noticed him watching. "You perv."
Kevin smiled, he laid back and looked up at the sky; they were still in the birch trees but he could see the stars through the branches. He dressed first and was now waiting for her.
"Come back with me." He said, "Rachel..."
"This is not something I want to talk about, not right now." She said as she pulled on her shirt, getting to her feet.
"This is our only chance to talk about it. We head back out tonight."
"And that's what you want then, our last hour together fighting about it?" She knew where this conversation was going. They've had it before.
"It doesn't have to be our last hour together. Come with me." Kevin got to his feet.
"Into hiding? There's nothing out there for me."
"There's nothing here for you."
"My life is here."
"This isn't a life! You're fucking cattle to these people. You're not even cattle, at least cows have some use to them dead." Kevin got worked up. He spent a lot of time trying to convince people to join the resistance and couldn't understand why they would choose the life of servitude.
"Stop it!" Rachel put her foot down, "My family is here, and you know they wouldn't survive out there and I'm not about to leave them here by themselves."
Kevin stared at her then waved her off as he moved to one of the trees. She was choosing a culling over life. A betrayal of everything he was raised to believe in.
"You could stay here with me."
Kevin smirked and turned back to her, for a second he wondered if he could get her and her family south to the border and across as refugees. He dismissed it.
"We could change things here." Rachel said. She smiled. "Not all of them are evil, some are good."
"Who? Who’s not all evil?"
"The Agents. Some of them you can reason with, sometimes, kind of." Rachel shrugged. She's seen some interactions that were ok.
"Some? Just some." Kevin arched an eyebrow.
"Some are better than none, and it has to start somewhere, Kevin. One's nice, then two. Pretty soon we're all treating each other like people again."
"You're delusional." Kevin said it with humor but disbelieving that was possible.
"I'm an optimist." She chirped, "Stick around and I'll show you. I see it everyday. Sure, you have to look for it sometimes, but it's there. One act of kindness, leads to another, to another…next thing you know we're all handing out flowers and frybread."
Kevin stared at her then frowned as she winked back at him with a grin.
"There's too much going on, I was going to be in a lot of shit trying to explain bringing you back. You know how bad it would be if I didn't go back?" Kevin shook his head.
The two knew there was no meeting each other halfway. This is the world and it can't be changed right now. Rachel put her hand on the tree and used to her foot to fiddle with the dirt on the ground. She sighed.
"They took Jacob."
"I know."
"You knew?" Rachel looked up at him and stepped forward.
"We have someone feeding us info. We heard he was tagged."
"And you didn't do anything?"
"There wasn't anything we could do." Kevin said, "It's not like we can drop everything we're doing and come racing in. They've got militia out there looking for us now, with special security papers that let them kill us on sight."
Rachel chuckled.
"What?"
"Security papers, hunting licenses for free range Indians."
"Yeah, he's Alex's cousin too. So we wanted to come for Jacob, but couldn't." Kevin said. Alex, who was a traditional runner for them, delivered messages out in the bush by foot so everybody knew him and everybody liked him. They all felt it when he heard he was going to lose his cousin.
"Sucks all around, doesn't it?" Rachel stated.
Kevin nodded.

Chapter five can be found at: https://steemit.com/fiction/@andrewgenaille/hunting-indians-chapter-five