Chapter 242
They were running as fast as they could even though they were hungry and tired beyond measure. They had hidden in the wilderness of the Border Exclusion zone inside an abandoned hunting lodge for days, trying to get the schedule of the patrols that passed on the road a mile away worked out while the daughter of the three-headed family was fighting with a bacterial infection that almost killed her.[1] What had worried mother and Father more was that their six year old daughter was among the first of the 'New Americans', people that had never known life under the old United States, she was fully indoctrinated and had been looking forward to joining the Youth Movement of the Party. When her parents had decided to 'Go North' she had protested, he had tried to run away several times only to be stopped by her parents several times and the last time by the infection. She wasn't too fond of her parents in the first place because they were under constant suspicion, her Father had been the Mayor of their hometown and unsuccessful candidate hopeful for Governor of the fine state of Washington, and thus classified as a 'Politician of the Old Order'. This wasn't that bad, the Communists had said numerous times that those that had served the Old Order had a chance to redeem themselves, and they had acted upon it, but the Father still wanted the old system back. He was no great fan of the British, his members of his family had fought and died in 1776 and 1812[2] and his own father had joined the Navy to avoid having to go to France. Now that the Land of the Free was no more it's roles as a safe haven had been taken over just by those British and their former colonies.
What had made them decide to go north was when their sweet little girl had started to make noises about going for a Party Career and when she had begun express her disgust at her parents. That they had been arrested two times on suspicions of seditious activities under the new, wartime 'Preservation Act' was only the tip of the iceberg too. They simply wanted to breath free, and if rumours were true that was what one did in Canada and in the United King... British Empire in spite of the name.
“How is she?” the Father asked as he stepped into the derelict room where his wife had made up a bed for their daughter. His heart rose when he saw is wife smile.
“Once she wakes up we are ready to go.” He didn't reply and instead just walked over to her and hugged is wife tight.
“Dear God..happy enough now, Betty?”
“Yes.” she said and nodded.
“Good. Wake her up then, we have to move yesterday.”
“Are you sure?” Betty asked with concern clearly evident in her voice.
He nodded. “The Reds have patrols out everywhere and we have to move while it's still dark.”
“Oh Luther, I hope we can make it.”
“We have no Choice...we can't go back.”
Betty just nodded.
An hour later the tree Americans were stumbling through the woods that comprised much of northern Washington State and British Columbia, it was an area that the Border Guards still hadn't done more than a patrol road and a few miles of non-barbed wire fence. Crossing over into Canada was in itself not hard, they simply dashed across the road between two motor patrols, cut their way through the fence and crossed into Canada.
The Canadian Border Guards were still consisting of RCMP patrols even though there was talk of founding a separate Branch of the Federal Police that would take over these duties, working together with the Army. The Carter Family had however picked a spot that was about as far as one could go between official crossings and any given RCMP posts, it would be almost an hour in any direction. Knowing that Vancouver City was at most a day away on foot, Luther decided that it may be better to go there, the closer they got the better the chance to stumble across civilization. They dashed into the woods, gave the last of their remaining food to their daughter and then sat out the rest of the night, knowing that even if they were found by someone they wouldn't be shot for 'desertion of the People'. For the first time in almost a week they all slept at the same time.
When they woke they were not only relatively rested and staring into the high sun, but also looking at an actual horse-mounted patrol of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police which weren't wearing the 'classic' Red Tunic but rather Army-issue Fatigues with an RCMP badge over the left breast pocket.
“Can we help you?” asked the Staff-Sergeant-Major who had already dismounted and approached the group. Their ragged clothes and generally dishevelled appearance made it clear that they were yet another group of refugees from America and one purpose of these patrols was not only to do the impossible and prevent American spies to enter but also to find these small, scattered groups before they starved to death in the wilderness of the Canadian south which happened far more often than anyone liked to admit.
One of the men had a wireless set on his back and thirty minutes later a lorry came rumbling down the road that was a mere forty-something yards farther into the woods. Loaded onboard and given some of the C-Rations the Mounties carried the Family was taken to a location near Vancouver.
The Family was lucky that they had come over at that point, because British Columbia's biggest 'Processing Camp for Displaced Persons' was only two hours away, a few miles outside Vancouver. While they sat in the back of the lorry they were given better food, real food and generally excellent treatment. For Elisa this was a very novel experience. For all the 'Common enemy in the Japanese Aggression', the propaganda painted the Canadians as Imperialists that were busy with repressing Indians, exploiting the working Class and being hard-faced unfriendly people that scratched a living from the cold and frozen north. That the Canadian Policemen could be polite and adored children, what bought the little Elisa over was not the smile of the Mounty in front of her but rather the Chocolate Bar that was one of Canada's largest exports thanks to almost undisturbed shipping lines to South America.[3]
“Say thank you.” her mother said when she saw what the Canadian had done and a meek and timid “Thank you.” could be heard from the Girl. It was a mixture of shyness, fear and genuine dislike that shone on her face, but since she was a little girl for all the indoctrination her attention immediately reverted to the chocolatry goodness in her hand. Her Parents on the other hand were still worried, years of propaganda against the Canadians had left an impression even on them, and it didn't help that they drove past various military bases that trained, amongst other things, the “Royal Canadian Marine Division” made up of volunteers from all parts of the Country. Soldiers marching where nothing new to them, but it still made them feel uneasy.
“Where are you taking us?” Luther asked when the lorry stopped at an intersection to let the British Columbia Volunteer Marine Regiment march past.
“Up to Vancouver, Sir. We have a facility up there, you will be taken care of. We'll be there in...” The Sergeant looked at his watch, “about twenty minutes.”
And with that they entered the outskirts of Vancouver, the biggest City in the Canadian West and the Allies most important base of Operations on the West Coast of North America, not that there was much going on at the moment, the Canadians were still building up and planned to start deploying their remaining Field Forces to the Far East, the last few Units of the Canadian Marines would embark tomorrow in fact. The newest members of the Expatriate American Community didn't know that of course, they were busy staring out of the back of the lorry as it drove northwards through Vancouver. The Camp Facility they were heading for was actually on the outskirts of the city and consisted of brick buildings that had once been the home of the local Boy Scouts before they had moved to another camp farther north some years ago, and now it was the British Columbia processing centre for Displaced Persons. When the lorry moved through the camp the family saw that they weren't alone, there were several dozen people of all ages moving around, but what was the most surprising, aside from a fence around it all and an attendant at the entrance who went to take their names there were no guards or anything.
The family was off-loaded and led into a building where a doctor was giving them a medical check-up, then to another one where they were fed properly for the first time in days.
Betty and Luther were just sitting there and watching their little girl devour a thick soup that was laced with more meat and fat than anyone in their Ration Group had seen in years. The next few days were nothing but a whirl of new and almost totally forgotten things for the family. They were given new clothes, temporary papers (wartime necessity) and most of all, some pocket money and train tickets, since they had expressed a desire to travel to Montreal where a cousin of Betty's was living since the late 1920s.
“Why weren't our papers checked?” was Elisa's first question when they were in the third-class compartments of a troop train that went back east almost empty. She hadn't travelled much since the family had spent the last four years in the village some three dozen miles south of the Border, but even she knew that any voyage that went over a meaningful distance entailed a wholesale nightmare of paperwork and permission slips that needed to be obtained. Here all you needed were a ticket and and proof of Identity in case you went through a restricted military zone. As the train hurtled eastwards Elisa began to realize that not everything that the nice woman at school and at the youth meetings told her was true. The Canadians had not taken her away to re-education, her Parents hadn't been arrested for 'bringing the enlightenment of Democracy and Freedom' to Canada and it didn't look like they were being turned over to the American authorities.
“Daddy, why have we come here?”
That threw Luther into a loop. How was he to explain concepts like Liberty, Democracy and the basic human Freedoms that had once been enshrined in the constitution? How was he to explain everything that he had fought for during and before the Civil War and for what the Allies had gone to war in Europe? When he had been younger he had taken the freedoms of the United States of America for granted only to discover that they were anything but. The UAPR Authorities liked to sprout the usual crap about the Allies fighting for less than honourable causes (which weren't clearly defined ever since the Japanese entry into the war) but it wasn't true. The US had liked to say of itself that it was the land of the Free, and yet the very nation the Thirteen Colonies had broken away from was now the only major power on the globe that was still holding true to these ideals. History did have a certain irony, that much was clear. What would the future bring? Would the dark forces win or would the British win the war, Against all Odds? He sipped on the first Coca Cola he'd had in almost a decade and began to explain...
[Notes: Go Canada! ]
[1] Penecillin is pretty much on schedule, which means that mass production won't begin in earnest until a few months later, and in any case the Yanks wont get any until after the war.
[2] A British victory, considering what else was going on in the world.
[3] Remember, the U-Boats are almost totally defeated in the Eastern Atlantic and are a non-factor in the West Indies, the Western and the Southern Atlantic, the Battle of the Atlantic will be over the moment the Tallboy comes into being, even though the Allies will most likely win it before then