Rod's Quest Ch. 01

This is a story about renewal. That means there is a dark pit for our heroes to climb out of. If you are looking for sweetness and light, try the later chapters. I don't know that it happened this way; I don't know that it didn't, either. First posted March 2014.

*****

Day 34

"Damn Damn Damn . . . Damn." The last word louder and more agonized as June ran to her brother's room. His nightmare continued to grip him as he fell into tears. June, free of her nightmare tonight, slipped into his bed and hugged him tightly.

"It's all right, Rod, I'm here, I'm OK, it's all right."

Her big brother awakened as his sister's silky smooth skin slid over his.

"No, I was too late, I was too late, I failed . . . "

"You did what you could, Rod - it wasn't your fault, not yours. Without you I'd be dead now. And Amy, too."

And that was true.

**********

Day 0-June

June and her inseparable friend Amy had been cutting through the woods behind the dorm to meet Rod at the parking lot. They'd had plans for the evening. The two girls frequently went out with Rod. They'd all known each other since Amy and June were two - seventeen years ago that was.

It was a typical April evening. The sun stayed up later but there was a nip in the air still. Tree branches seemed to look forward to getting their leaves back. The grass was starting to get greener.

The woods was a stretch of trees and bushes a couple of hundred yards wide, kept undeveloped partly for landscaping reasons, partly as a reserve for future development. The university planners hadn't decided whether they would use the land for classrooms or dormitories.

About half way through, June and Amy were attacked by five men intent on rape and perhaps robbery and murder. They'd had knives. They'd grabbed tiny Amy and thrown her down. She screamed.

June had kicked the foremost with a soccer toned foot where it would do the most good - regretting she'd taken off her cleats. He, at least, was out of the fray for good. Three others, though, grappled with her and threw her down, ripping off her T-shirt and bra in the process.

"Too snooty for the likes of us." one muttered. "We'll see about that."

As two of the men held her arms, the third yanked her shorts and underwear down her long legs despite her kicking. He brandished a knife.

"Hate to mess up that creamy skin," he threatened.

For a moment June froze. He dropped his pants and freed his erect member. She started kicking again. He sliced the skin of her flat belly.

"Hey, save some of that for us!" one of the others yelled.

"Later, bitch," the first man said and forced his prick hard into her unready, dry vagina. She screamed at the pain of it. She wasn't a virgin - hadn't been since six months after her eighteenth birthday, and that had been a year and a half ago. But she wasn't into pain, either. Her past encounters had at least been loving even if most had been unsatisfactory. This felt like someone had thrust a red hot poker into her guts. She screamed, too. She feared as much for Amy and what was happening to her. Amy was still screaming in fear and pain. Her attacker thrust in and out, causing terrible pain each time. Slowly the pain diminished as he became more lubricated - by her blood, not her vaginal juices. She heard Amy screaming continuously, fading a bit. Whether the screams were from pain or fear or both or why they faded she didn't know.

Suddenly she heard a familiar voice - "Damn Damn Damn . . . Damn". She saw one body, not one of her attackers, go flying and lie still. The next moment the man who was raping her went flying off her, his prick dripping her blood, his knife gouging the strong arm that had smashed him in the throat.

The other two, with the odds in their favour vastly reduced, started to rise. She managed to grab one and hurl him into a tree. He broke her grip and tried to run. The other just ran. Thank heaven that was where June's nightmares usually ended.

Her saviour dropped to his knees and hugged her tight.

"June, I'm so sorry, so sorry . . . I let you down."

"No, brother", she told Rod. "Roddie, you saved us. They were going to kill us." June was on the edge of hysteria herself by then. She shuddered and shook, her naked body grasped tightly by her brother, her breasts mashed against his chest. She realized there was no other sound.

"Rod, where's AMY?" June shrieked. Amy's screams had accompanied her own horror, but were now gone.

In a moment they found Amy's bloodied naked body. Her attacker lay next a tree, unmoving, his head at an odd angle. Amy was unmoving, too, her thighs oozing blood. June found her unresponsive. At least she was breathing. Rod had saved her life, too. For a long while Amy was not so sure that had been a good thing.

"Rod, call the cops. Get Amy an ambulance. She could die of what those bastards did." June's directions were screamed in his ear. Having someone to look out for seemed to be keeping her from collapsing herself, but just barely. Rod grabbed his phone and called 911, asking for every kind of help they had.

First on site were the campus cops. They covered June and Amy with T-shirts and blankets, being careful not to move Amy in case there had been broken bones. She was so badly bruised it was impossible to tell until the paramedics came.

Then more paramedics, the police, and soon they were at the hospital. June saw her mother, knew she was safe, and collapsed.

**********

Day 36

"Get him off, get him off, get him off." The screams echoed down the hallway from June's room. Then true agony: "Where's Amy? Did they kill Amy?"

Rod raced in to seize and hold his sister as she fought her unseen assailants. He caught her thrashing arms, held her struggling body, calmed her hysteria.

"It's OK, it's OK, Roddie's here," he murmured into her ear.

He massaged her naked legs, working out the knots that the nightmare had driven into the taut flesh. His hand lingered but a moment over the delicious curves of her ass. He stroked her firm back, feeling the muscles relax in response.

He continued to touch her, bringing her recovery through contact. Her body remembered his. Her skin was so smooth, her muscles so hard, her breasts so delectable. But she was in pain and needed his comfort, not his lust. He stroked her sleek, strong legs, seeking to revive her physical memories while her mind was still far away. The warmth and concern and simple physical presence emanating from Rod once more settled June into sleep and the siblings drifted off to sleep, curled tightly together.

**********

Day 0 - Rod

Rod was dawdling near the edge of the parking lot in a nondescript sort of way, if a six-footer built the way he was can actually ever be nondescript. He was waiting for his sister June and her friend Amy. Even though June was about twenty months younger than he was they hung out together simply because they enjoyed each other's company. They had a lot of shared tastes. They were each other's best friends. Both played soccer. They weren't the top stars, but they weren't forgettable, either. June was built for speed - long legs and a trim body - and was a top striker. Rod was a mid fielder. He wasn't quite as fast but could go all day.

Amy was a cute little thing who had been a gymnast in high school. Now that they were at university the standard was a little too high for her. She was strong but too small, even for a gymnast, to have the upper body strength she needed for intercollegiate competition.

Amy and June were the same age and shared a birthday. They had been friends for ages. Rod could barely remember a time when Amy hadn't been around. He looked on her as a younger sister, too, and a very good friend. Amy didn't go out much with boys. Rod would take her to the odd dance - he'd gone home for the weekend, taking time off work at his summer job even though he needed the hours, just to make sure Amy had a date for the prom in her last year of high school. He'd done it again for the graduation dance. Mostly the three of them would go out together, but Rod and Amy had even gone out a time or two without June, here at university.

The girls were, unusually, a little late tonight. They were comfortable enough together they didn't need to play dominance games like who could make who wait. Rod wandered over towards the paved road in case they'd chosen to come that way. He was almost out to the main road when he heard a scream from the woods. He was almost certain it was Amy. He started to run back towards the woods.

Another scream, June this time, "Roddie, Roddie, help," almost strangled at the end.

"Damn Damn Damn . . . Damn." Rod ran as fast as he ever had. Anyone who thought him slow would have been cured by that race. He saw a small bundle on the ground, a man just rising, his prick dripping blood and semen after raping or killing Amy, his baby sister. Rod took off and the deep kick ended at the man's throat - Rod had played as if the ball was three inches farther back. The body just flew. There was no movement. Amy was unmoving, silent. That was where Rod usually woke up in his nightmare.

Just to his left he saw another man trying to rape his sister June - and succeeding - at least until Rod smashed his face with a solid forearm. The man had had a knife. Rod hadn't noticed the knife until long after. Then he found he'd been cut to the bone. There were two others holding June. They took off when they saw Rod's smash. One fell heavily into a tree - June was down but she wasn't out yet. Later they found yet one more hugging himself - June's first victim.

Rod seized June, hugged her tight, perhaps half suffocating her. He never noticed she was nude, just that she'd been hurt. Was hurt bad.

"Rod, call the cops, call an ambulance. What's happened to Amy?" Trust June to be looking out for someone else, he thought. She could be half dead and she'd be thinking of someone else. Come to think of it, she was half dead. How had he messed up so badly. If only . . .

Rod called 911. "We've had an attack." He gave the location. "Get campus security. Get the cops. Get us an ambulance. Fast. Someone could be dying."

"Rod, it's Amy. Get over here." June stood hesitantly over Amy's body.

"She's still breathing, no thanks to them."

"Don't move her, keep her warm." Rod warned.

The first of the campus security types seemed to be not too far away. "Look after her," he called, "I'm all right."

"What about him?" they asked, pointing at the moaning attacker.

"Don't know, don't care. Take care of the girls."

A moment or two more and two paramedics arrived. One took a look around and immediately called for back up - at least two more vehicles, maybe more. "And tell the cops to bring the meat wagon," he ended.

The other had a quick look at Amy. June was still wrapped around Rod. One or both were bleeding copiously.

"Get the board and some shirts and blankets," she ordered her partner. "And tell the cops we've got two live ones and a body."

"Done that," he replied, and ran back to their vehicle.

The police arrived next - good response time for all, Rod thought disjointedly. A sergeant directed two constables to take over security on the live ones.

"There's two more," June chattered through her shivering. Right now she was more stable than Rod.

"We got one, hammered into a tree it seems and pretty woozy. Don't have the last one, but we will," the sergeant told her grimly.

A third constable started taking their statement. "Shit, Sarge - these are cop's kids. A chief down south."

"Get him up here."

"Her, Sarge."

"Oh shit, that one. Do it, now."

Rod didn't hear what happened next, but there were sure a lot of yessirs flying around. He was vaguely aware that the first paramedic team had eased Amy onto the board and toted her into the ambulance. It took off, siren screaming, for the hospital. Strange, he hadn't noticed the sirens before. Another paramedic moved up.

"Look, sir, let go of the woman. She's safe now. We have to get her warm and to the hospital." Rod continued to hold June tightly. "You're hurt, sir. We have to stop that bleeding. Your arm is really chopped, sir."

June pushed away. "Fix him," she growled. "Roddie, go with them. I'll deal with the rest of this until Mom comes."

"Ma'am, please come too, We can take both of you to the hospital in the one vehicle. Just get in and lie down as soon as we fix up this arm. That knife went halfway to China in there."

As Rod and June stumbled to the ambulance they noticed the arrival of the EMT supervisor. June never knew what happened next. Rod found out a couple of months later.

**********

Day 0 - the EMT supervisor

First the EMT supervisor checked the attacker June had kicked so effectively, who was still moaning and hugging himself.

"This hurt?" he asked as he grabbed the young man's testicles.

"Shit, yes!" the man screamed.

"Good. No nerve damage. I think she's ruptured you, my son, and a good thing, too."

The sergeant nodded in agreement.

"This one's a deader." The constable pointed to the body of Amy's attacker. He wasn't going anywhere, ever again.

"Looks like he broke his neck on the tree when the young lady threw him off," the supervisor noted.

"Excuse me," the constable started, "that young man kicked him in the throat. You can see the larynx is crushed. That little thing couldn't have done that, not even break the skin."

"Amazing what can happen to someone facing evil. Hysterical strength, they call it."

"The boy's a hero. You can't take that away from him."

"I don't intend to. But Judge Prendergast has peculiar ideas about what constitutes reasonable force. We aren't going to put that boy through that. He's a hero and we are not going to make him pay for being a hero. Accidental death in the commission of a crime, I'd say."

"Right," the sergeant growled, and looked meaningfully at the constable.

"Of course," the constable relented, "should have seen that for myself."

**********

Day 0 - the hospital

Rod and June were at least ambulatory wounded as the paramedics offloaded them from the ambulance at the hospital and ushered them into the emergency receiving room.

"Mom!" they both exclaimed as they saw their mother waiting for them, in full uniform.

"It's OK, kids," their mother reassured them. "You're checked in. Let's go see the doctors and then you can tell me what's going on. It's all under control for now. Later, someone's going to pay big time. Later . . . ."

With that reassurance, that someone else would look after Rod, and she no longer had to hold on, June fainted dead away.

***********

Day 40

"Get him off, get him off, get him off." The screams echoed down the hallway from June's room.

Rod raced in to seize and hold his sister as she fought her covers.

"It's OK, it's OK, Roddie's here," he murmured into her ear, kissing lightly and urgently along the line of her jaw. He started to massage her arms and her back, suddenly realizing both he and his sister were stark naked. He knew he slept raw but always thought June wore a nightshirt. What the hell, he thought. June needs me.

He continued to touch her, bringing her recovery through contact. He rubbed her breasts, noting with interest and pleasure how her nipples rose to the occasion. Her skin was so smooth, her muscles so hard, her mind so fragile. He stroked her sleek, strong legs lightly, cupping the curves of her firm and delectable bottom. The warmth and concern emanating from Rod once more settled June into sleep and the siblings drifted off into slumber, curled tightly together.

Neither noticed their mother smile wryly at June's door. "Naked as the day they were born. Don't know how I'm gonna handle this," she muttered to herself. "But for now, whatever works."

**********

Day 0 - at the hospital

After June collapsed at the hospital the staff had diagnosed delayed shock and maybe blood loss. No one had sorted out how much blood was Rod's and how much June's. They carted her off for treatment, leaving a couple of orderlies to make sure neither Rod nor their mother followed.

"She'll be all right," an intern lied soothingly.

A doctor saw to Rod's cut, irrigated the wound, stitched it up and prescribed tranquilizers and antibiotics. "Take vitamins with those," he warned. "Antibiotics leach vitamins out of your system as part of the cure. You were a damn fool, you know. That knife was sharp and he knew how to use it. And if you say you only did what a man had to do I'll kick your ass. Dead heroes," he muttered. Rod didn't answer. He'd never thought about the guy's knife. He didn't remember that he'd even seen it.

Later they'd tracked Amy down, still unconscious from shock and blood loss but finally stable. "For now," the charge nurse told them. "I've seen all too many just will themselves to die when they realize what's happened. We try, but she's going to need a lot of support. She's not going to want it from you, young man - or any man, not for a good long while. Get her parents up here - "

"They're on the way," Rod's mother interrupted.

"- and I'll let you know when you can see her. The doctor's very worried about this one."

They tried to follow June's stretcher and were shooed out by another nurse, perhaps the first person in the hospital who hadn't looked nervously at Rod's uniformed mother absently shifting the regulation five-cell flashlight from hand to hand. "This one'll be all right, eventually. She's just exhausted. Later on, she'll seem strong and be fragile. Pay attention to that.

"You two are almost as bad as she is. Go, get some sleep, we don't have any more rooms if you collapse on us. Come back in the morning - late morning. She might be awake by then."

They tried to get out as prescribed. Before they could do so they met Amy's parents hurtling through the emergency receiving doors. Amy's mother, distraught, screamed.

"Rod, how could you let this happen! It's so demeaning. We trusted you, counted on you . . . "

"Shut the fuck up, Livia," Rod's mother ordered. "The boy's almost out on his feet. He saved their lives, Livia. From what I hear if it weren't for him they'd be dead now. Leave him the hell alone. He doesn't need this shit." A mother bear would be less fierce in defence of her young.

"You can't talk to me like that, Joan."

"Watch me." His mother wrestled Rod out the door. Amy's step-father just stood there, his mouth hanging open. Amy's mother was aghast.

"Stupid bitch cares more about what people will say than she does about her daughter," Joan commented. "Get in the car, Rod."

Rod and his mother got into the cruiser, emergency lights still flashing. The sergeant who'd been at the university had hung around - one of the constables had been keeping an eye on the vehicle.

"Sorry about all this ma'am. We picked up the last of them a couple of hours ago, wandering around screaming to himself. I'd guess your son scared the piss out of him. We'll need identifications from your kids, later, sorry."

"We're not going anywhere until June gets out, sergeant. Rod, give him your cell and landline." She passed over her card . "Not that you need that, sergeant. After they feel she can go we'll check in, and you know where we'll be after that."

"Fine, ma'am. Thank you. Maybe this time we can get them to implement proper security, but ... Anyway, I'm real sorry for your family." He saluted and left. "OK, Rico," they heard. "Let's go. Time enough to check out the perps in the morning."

Now they were both in the patrol car. Rod's mother started up, driving the two of them over to Rod's dorm.

"Gee, Mom," he tried. Something, anything, that wasn't about the assault, or whether June would survive, or whether Amy would survive, or how slow he'd been when they needed him. "How'd you get here so fast? It's at least a two-hour drive anytime I've done it. Not that I don't really really appreciate you being here for us."