Posted by AlOmega on October 06, 1999 at 16:52:30:
Haven't put a new story up for a while now. I do have a few more that I'll put up later. Enjoy
THE HUNTER
*The crisp morning air seeping into his lungs carried the scent of musty leaves and fading flowers. The leader of a small party of hunters stopped them for a moment taking in the smells and views of the mountain valley he had led them to. He was the only one without a weapon. Well, the hunting knife at his waist wasn't much of a weapon in his mind. But after all what more did you need when you were only guiding some hunters up here. And if he ever needed a weapon, he could always borrow one of theirs. That was the way it was always done.*
"Yep. Always liked comin here to the Reserve, leading a group of guys. What's that you say? Aw, come on. You're not so old as you remember the days of Women's Lib, are ya? Don'tcha know that I include women when I says "guys". So don't get yoass in an uproar. Smell the air. Yep, it's a little thin but don't it make ya feel good to be alive? Well don't it?
"And its a nice fine day to do a bit of huntin'. Yep, I can remember when we hunted deer and even the occasional elk and antelope. My da maybe coulda remembered huntin' bear or Big Horn. But by the time I was a huntin age, they was gone. Yep. Sorta wish the old days was back.
"But then was also the time when the air didn't smell so good nohow. And even the high streams had no fish and was chancy ta drink. Yep, the old days mighta been good for huntin but even the Reserve tweren't no place to breath free and clear. Things has changed a lot. Ya'll know that for sure better'n I. You folks all live in them cities where the air was fulla pollutants and the streams and rivers was all fouled so much that it cost almost more'n a day's wage to get a 10-kilo of clean water for drinkin. Yep. I remembers that, too.
"Well, we gots us some nice vittles and enough ta keep us up here over the long weekend. Ya'll get your quota, that be for sure. Sometimes they's hard to track. Smart they've become over the years. 'Course they was always smart.
"What's that you say? Sure I remember. Yep, that's an easy one. Started with a buncha ranchers and townsmen getting some guns. Figured to stop some o them trespassers, they did. Perfect right to do that, I suppose. The law gave em the right to shoot trespassers. So they shot any that come across. Shore was one waya keeping them over on their side. And the Mexican government protested. Sure enough. But that was afore I was born and my da was a little'n hisself. That was back in the late '20's. Then we was in the middle of a Great Depression. Now we calls it the Great Depression II - sorta like WWII. Hardly no jobs then so's I here'd. Now everybody's gotta job. 'Long with that we got rid of pollution and lots of other things which politicians call "social ills". Got no poverty either. And we're engineered sorta.
"Yep, I got this job cause they say - ya knows, the Scientist fellers - they says I gots a good tracking eye. Yep. That's why Ic'n shows ya where the game is. Sure 'nuf the trails taint hard to find. But then they's pretty smart, too.
"Oh, sorry. Ya wants to know about them Mexican fellers. Yep, that was afore my time. Stopped the Mexicans from crossing over the border it did. The citizens with the rifles that is. But this was still the GD II I'm talkin about. Our population was pretty big back then. Hadta cull it down a mite. The Chinie peoples done stopped the birthin of babies after their limit to one didn't hold up. That's what happens when the food supply is mighty short. They went some ten years with no kids except for the few accidents that happened when no one was lookin. And when we discovered the Life Pills, we knewed we hada do something bout our own. Chinie had a good 'nuff thing goin. Oh some of the liberal politicos thought what we did was wrong. And a lota Christians n other religious nuts had ta go first for the thing to be done right. But it was for the Furtherance of Man that we had ta cull the population. Oh we gots a nice mix now. About equal blacks n whites n yellows. That soothed the liberal politicos a lot.
"That's when the first National Lotto got started. Some folks was probably awanderin' bout why the politicos hadta have the names and 'dresses of those who applied. But they was needed for the Cull. And quite a few escaped from the first two Culls. That's cause the cops had no idea what they was about. That came later. Most holed up in less accessible places. But after a time, they was driven out. Or killed. And when the population stabled out, it weren't no problem to let the survivors live. They weren't no problem then. But cause they was less smart than the rest of us, they sorta bred more stupid. But some of em are pretty smart now. And I for one think they's getting smarter.
"Hey after all we only had so much resources and...
"Shush!! I thinks there's one nearby. Yep ifn ya takes a look down thataway, Ya'll see. Take careful aim. Wait until I tell you to fire. I hates ta track...
*CRACK*
*The echo rebounded from cliff to cliff.*
"Damn! Ya fool!! I tol ya to wait. Now I gotta do some trackin. Ya'll waits right here now n I'll get back to ya."
*The guide thought,* So I hasta track this one. I hate doin' that. They's smart, they is. I've walked into a trap or two doing this. 'Tis the only part I really hates. But the government allows this now. The hunting, that is. Only way to cull the herd so they says. But it aint something I like. Yet where else could I make the money I does. And at least I aint no Hunter. Bein' a Guide is good nuff for me.
*He finally managed to climb down to the place where the creature was. But it didn't take him long to pick up the trail.*
*The guide frowned a bit before trailing after his quarry.* Yep. That's a leg shot for sure. Damn thing's dead and don't know it yet. Figure 'twon't be far. I may be human - probably a bit too human - but I doesn't have to like what I does. Ah. Rested here a spell and... Yep. I hates it when they's sufferin so. Like when I killed my first and only deer. It's the eyes. Always the eyes. Sad n fearful at the same time. Why'd the government keep on doin' this. They shoulda stopped when the population became stable and we didn't need to do this no more. But I guess they like it too much. So what does that say about civilization? Ifn they wants my opinion, I'd say they's becoming smarter.
*The guide loosened his blade. Forgotten was the sweet smell of the clean mountain air or the gurgling of the pristine stream - both the results of government intervention and policy. He remembered his old grandfather telling about the killing of wild horses - his imaginary grandfather actually. An invention he had made up to fill in his own background. But his 'grandfather' had existed. Just not as HIS grandfather. He remembered Pat telling him of the old man - of the time before he was relegated to the death chambers in the first days of the Great Cull. 'Inhumane' he had called the horse killings. What he had said about his own death remained silent. However, the population of the United States had grown far beyond what could be supported agriculturally. Nothing science could devise could alter that. It was either population reduction or the end of the Human Species itself.
*Like he had told those people he guided here. Some of the people had escaped. Many were never found though most had been placed in Reservations such as this. He knew about these - and even more about the ones who were never found, like his father.
*He advanced toward the trembling blond female. Was there intelligence in those eyes? Maybe. Maybe not. Swiftly he plunged his hunting knife beneath her left breast. But he also wanted to make sure she didn't suffer. Going behind her, he grabbed soft blond hair and pulled exposing her throat. A quick slash solved his problem. He watched as her pale blue eyes lit bright one moment, glazed over as death claimed her.
Always the eyes. Always. Just like he remembered that day long ago. That day when he was nearly twelve and a Hunter had found them. The day his real mother had died.*
AlOmega