Short Story: The Indians Take on the Devil 1/3

"I'm not a thief."

"We're not stealing, don't think of it as stealing, think of it like we're taking back what's already ours." Karen explained, motioning to the display case in front of her with exuberance. "No, not what's ours, you can't own people Jason, and these are people; sure, long dead people, but still people, we're not stealing, we're freeing, we're rescuing. This is a rescue. We're rescuers, not thieves."

Karen realized that anybody walking through the Museum would be able to hear her, so she lowered her voice. The forty year old, petite native quickly moved closer to Jason, her ten-year junior cousin to talk softly.

"We're here to take them home, burry them somewhere safe, somewhere they aren't exploited." Karen turned back to the glass wall. "Look at them, just look at them. Do they look happy to you? No, and do you know why? Aside from a cramped living space that must spell like damp socks, they're on display so hundreds, if not thousands of people a year can come by and gawk at them, that's wrong Jason, that's really wrong. We have to make that right."

Jason arched an eyebrow and put his hands in his jacket as he glanced around the room. The two of them were in the First Nations wing of the British Columbia Natural History Museum, surrounded by the artifacts of their ancestors; in fact, they were in front of a case with two of their ancestors.

Two sets of bones were laid out side-by-side wearing their brown and grey leathers, surrounded by the items they were buried with. Jewelry, knives and some pottery; all still partly covered in the giant slab of dirt and clay they were hauled here with.

"You're thinking about it, I can see the little wheels turning."

"I'm thinking about what we would tell the judge." Jason arched an eyebrow.

"I don't know about you, but if a judge asks I'm going to plead insanity." Karen smirked. "Seriously, who in their right mind steals dead bodies, you know, other than...museums."

"Tara?" Jason mentioned their other cousin, who was in the museum somewhere with her boyfriend Karl. "Does she know what you're planning?"

"She's in." Karen nodded, she didn't need to mention Karl; whatever Tara did he was always a foot or two behind her.

Jason took a deep breath, reluctant to get involved in another one of Karen's schemes; but deep down he knew she was right, this was something that had to be done. Jason nodded. "Yeah, ok."

"Ooooh, awesome."

It was nearly a month later when the four natives were delivered to the museum by giant crate, dropped off and moved into the freight room.

This took a month to plan out. Two weeks were spent living in the hotel across the street from the museum, staking out the schedule of the Guards, visiting to get a feel for the security system as well as the floor plans.

Then Karen phoned her Uncle Grayson, the Chief of their Band to arrange the lending of Local Artifacts to the museum. The call took an hour as Grayson wasn't as easy to convince as Jason but he did eventually relent.

"What happens when you get away? You willing to go to jail for this?" He asked in his deep, stern voice.

"If I have to, or I can come home. Hide there."

Grayson considered this; if she brought the remains home she would have to hide there until the authorities gave up. Indefinitely. "Your days of travelling would be over."

"I know." Karen couldn't hide the shake in her voice. She hadn't been home in nearly ten years, and wasn't something she was looking forward to.

"Ok."

Grayson arranged the shipment with the museum, with specific orders the crate not be opened until their delegation arrived to 'Smudge' it. This let Karen, Jason, and Karl use the rest of the day to keep low inside the building; where they waited until sundown before they emerged.

Karen popped the end of the crate off and climbed out, she stood up and looked around the warehouse style freight room. Except for several small lights it was dark and full of other crates, some giant filing cabinets; the floor and walls were all cement.

"We're clear."

Karl and Jason emerged from the box, both took a moment to stretch out the knots that formed from a day in the cramped space.

Karl typed out a text message letting Tara know they were on the move, so she could be ready with the get-away vehicle to come for them.

"You know, this is the one room we couldn't stake out." Jason clearly didn't like the unknown.

"Actually this is perfect," Karen loved the unknown. "We just need to get Tara to park on the other side of that door, Karl can figure out how to open it. You and I can go grab our ancestors, and before you can say Bob's your Uncle we're on a plane back to the Rez."

"It looks like a padlock." Karl stood at the end of the cement bay. "I have bolt cutters but that's going to take some work."

"See. He's got it covered." Karen grabbed her backpack from the crate and started looking for the inner door.

Jason picked up his gear, slipped it over his shoulder and followed her.

The inner door was unlocked and opened into the Mesozoic era, made all the more creepier with the lights either off or dimmed down.

Karen and Jason, with their olive coloured skins and black clothes blended into the shadows pretty well; but still moved cautiously on the lookout for the three Night Guards they knew were around.

"I don't think it'd be a good idea to use the elevators." Jason said as they crossed into the Jurassic era.

"Are you sure, it's still forty-five million years and four floors up from here." Karen quipped.

"All it takes is one Guard to see the Elevator moving and he isn't on it..." Jason stopped at a corner to peer around.

"Yeah. I know."

"Clear." Jason led Karen into a hallway filled with fake fish tanks, lined with the evolutionary process of amphibians. "Did you actually tell Grayson you'd move home if he helped us?"

"What?"

"That's what he told me."

"Do you really think this is the time and place to be having this conversation?" Karen moved ahead of him toward the next corner and peeked around. "Stairs."

"Yeah." Jason looked up the stairs; they were the length of nearly two normal flights of steps before it reached the second floor. "This is the only time and place we could be having this conversation."

"Why?"

"Because I know you." Jason locked eyes with her. "And I think you're lying, when this is done I don't think you'll be getting on that plane with us."

Karen stared at him for a moment and then started up the stairs, she took them two at a time as she looked out to her right; giving her a view of the large main hall of the building.

At the top she looked around the next corner as she waited for Jason to reach her, then before he could say anything further she started up the next set of stairs to the third floor. There she stopped when she heard a gentle humming.

Jason came up beside her. "I'm just thinking..."

"Shhh...." Karen reached back and covered his mouth; she didn't let go until she was sure he heard it as well.

"Is that chanting?"

"Don't know, wait here." Karen put her backpack down by the wall and started down the hallway. She moved past the displays of medieval weaponry until she saw a red glow on the wall up ahead, it came from one of the large doorways.

Jason caught up and stopped when she gave him the 'what did I just say!?' look. He ignored it and followed her down the hall.

The chanting grew louder as the two reached the doorframe, at the same time they peaked their heads around the corner.

Three security Guards stood at the back of the room with their hands at their waists, their thumbs locked onto their belts. It was as if they were simply watching a soccer meet or afternoon puppet show.

Instead they were watching a meeting of sorts, as twelve women dressed in white and red robes chanted centuries old prayers. All of them faced a large cement alter covered in red candles that lit the room up with an eerie glow. The High Priest stood behind the Alter where he held up a bowl and a knife as he spoke a language that Karen didn't understand, but had heard before.

"Wiccans..." Karen said softly. "I hate Wiccans."

"Why? They're harmless." Jason whispered back.

"Clearly you've never been asked to interpret a dream about talking potatoes for one." Karen moved away from the door and headed for the stairs. "But at least we know where security will be."

Jason watched her go and looked back at the Witches, smirked at how pretty some of them were; than followed his cousin. "That seems unusual, how is that not unusual."

"Says the guy breaking in to steal remains."

On the fourth floor Karen led Jason through a hall of totem poles and twenty-foot canoes carved hundreds of years ago. They walked up a curved walkway into the hall of Native Masks, which always felt forbidding to Jason.

"Problem?" Karen caught his look.

"Flashback stuff." Jason kept pace with her. "Weird childhood."

Karen walked through the two giant Welcome Carvings into the room of the dead, her attention focusing on the Plexiglas housing that held what they came for. "Ok, let's get this done and get out of here."

"Agreed."

Jason dropped his bag and went through it, he pulled out a small propane powered torch that he lit up; adjusting it until it spit out a blue flame. Karen pulled out two suction cups that she attached to the Plexiglas housing, then stepped back as Jason moved the blue flame forward.

The torch hit the glass, which instantly melted; Jason pulled the torch back as the negative air pressure inside sucked oxygen from the room; creating a whistling sound.

The two of them tensed up as their instincts told them an alarm was going off, but it stopped when the pressure equalized.

Jason smirked to Karen, then slowly cut out a giant square piece of the Plexiglas they would be able to reach through.

Karen grabbed the suction cups when Jason was almost finished and held it in place long enough for him to turn the torch off. He grabbed his side and together they moved the piece to the side.

Karen grabbed a large rubber body bag with foam inserts, designed and shaped for transporting remains quickly. "Ok, make it quick."

"Make what quick?"

"Reach in there, pick them up and put them in the case." Karen said like he should know this.

"Um...no."

"Jason, we don't have a lot of time here, get going while I keep watch."

Jason glanced at the entrance and then to the bodies, then back to Karen. "No."

"Why? What's the problem?"

"The problem? The problem is this was your plan, and them...those...them...their not doing so well." Jason didn't want to say out loud what he was thinking; he didn't want to touch dead people.

"Are you kidding me? Don't be such a wuss."

"Me? If it's so easy, you do it."

"I would, but that's why we brought you. So man up and do it."

"We can't just...do it; these are our ancestors here, you can't just go out and disturb them, it doesn't work that way; there's a whole generational respect thing going on." Jason stepped away from the display.

"You can't disturb them? They're already disturbed; being dug up and brought here is what did that. We're taking them back, that's what they want."

"Still a risk, last thing I want to do is piss off my ancestors." Jason figuratively put his foot down.

"You're being superstitious." Karen looked at the bodies. "Fine, I'll do this. I can do it. But I want you to realize this...these are our ancestors, ours; we can't piss them off. Their lives, their whole existence came down to them wanting us to exist. They wouldn't get mad at us, if anything they'd have gone out of their way to protect us, to look out for us, because that's who they are."

"Are you trying to guilt me?"

"Is it working?"

"No."

"You have no soul." Karen waved him off and moved to the case, she looked the remains over and built up her courage to move them. "It can't be any worse than changing a diaper."

"Karen?"

"I've changed diapers, I'm sure I have."

"No, we're not alone."

Karen looked back to Jason and then to where he was looking.

There the Guard, Kevin, moved quickly along the balcony overlooking the room. Jason moved back to Karen as she considered their options, the only exits being where Kevin now stood and or through a fake cave that went into a fake Long House.

Kevin was just over six feet tall in decent shape, drawing out his baton. "You want to come quietly, or you going to put up a fight."

Karen got the feeling Kevin was hoping they would put up a fight, "Neither actually; because let's be honest, this probably isn't going to look good for either of us."

"I'm looking at a medal."

"Maybe, sure; yeah, you caught two Indians robbing the Museum of Natural History. But you're also going to be hard pressed to explain when those two Indians start telling people about the Satanic style religious services you're holding in their government funded building." Karen played a bluff. "I know, they're probably Wiccan, but this is the Fraser Valley, Church capital of Canada; this is where the Religious Right comes from. They're not going to care if you're Wiccan or Buddhist, it's all Satanic to them. You're best bet, for both of us, is to let us take what we came for; give us ten minutes head start, which is what it'll take you to get your guys out, then call the cops."

"You saw that, eh?"

"We did, we took pictures, and we're willing to share." Karen smirked. "You have a PR problem, cause my friend, we've seen too much."

Kevin considered it, and then nodded. "You're right, you've seen too much."

Kevin let that sink in, and Karen arched an eyebrow. "Ah, right; so not a light Wiccan group. Dark Wiccans, is it?"

"Yup." Kevin agreed.

"I don't follow." Jason said.

"Well, on the plus side; he's not going to call the cops on us." Karen stepped back. "On the other hand, he's going to kill us, chop us up, and toss everything into the river."

"What?"

"Run!"

Karen shoved Jason one way and ducked the other as Kevin swung at them with the club. He swung twice more at her as he grabbed the Taser off his belt.

"The door, run for the door!" Karen yelled, ticked that Jason just stood there and waited. He bolted for the long house as Karen grabbed a club out of the display and swung it.

The club hit the Taser as it fired, the bolt and wire shot across the room into the Plexiglas housing masks. Karen reared back and the club hit Kevin across the temple, he staggered back through the entrance and hit the ground.

Karen stepped back, a little proud in herself. "Yeah, that should do it."

Kevin raised his head, as if he was unaffected by the club.

Karen looked down at the club, or what was left of it as it must've shattered when it connected with his head. Karen looked at Kevin. "Yeah, well, it's a thousand years old."

Karen tossed the club and bolted for the long house, through the door where she found Jason waiting for her.

"What's happening? I thought Wiccans were good?"

"Some are good, some are evil; some say their good but act evil." Karen said as she passed him. "We can debate that later. Right now the evil ones want us dead, and in my experience that's never a good thing."

Jason followed her. "In your experience, you've run into them before?"

"Yup, keep moving."