The Du Page Affair Ch. 13

This is an original work by Zeb_Carter and is protected under (c) copyright by U.S. copyright law. It is only being submitted at Literotica.Com and any submission to any other site has not been authorized by the Author.

I sat watching Susan work. She was trying to save the limb of a patient who had been bitten by a wild dog. Mauled, would be what actually happened to this poor soul. Half the meat on his calf was missing and infection had set in. We were in another survivor's camp, trying to make a difference. The wasteland that Chicago had become was a wild place with few amenities. Doctors were a scarce commodity and every survivor camp wanted one. It was all we at Campus Du Page could do to easy some of the suffering.

I and one or two of the Doctors would make trips to the camps that had been set up around the area that had been Chicago and its surrounding suburbs. Sometimes we were able to stay all day, sometimes not. It depended on how far from the Campus they were. We tried to get them to come to the Campus but most were leery of a place that had survived the shockwaves. Most of these camps were led by an individual who did not want to give up their control.

They were glad that we would come and treated their sick and injured. Some had even tried to get us to say permanently with unfortunate results for them. There was always another to step in and take control. Eventually, the lessons provided to a few, taught the rest that we were not free for the taking. It was unfortunate that those lessons resulted in death. Well maybe not to unfortunate.

Susan was finishing up with her patient when Rudy came bounding into camp. He ran right up to me and sat looking up at me. A little excitement rippled through the camp as dogs had been scarce and the ones that were around ran in packs and attacked people. To have one who looked healthy and seemed to be a friend was unusual to say the least.

"Does he have to be here?" Susan asked pointing at Rudy.

"Yes. What is it boy?" Rudy whined then turned the way he had come and growled.

Taking my scanner out I scanned in the direction he had come from. Four blips appeared. For blips that the scanner said were dogs. A small pack of wild dogs was headed our way.

"I'll be back in awhile," I told Susan as I turned and walked away.

With Rudy walking beside me, I headed in the direction of the wild dogs. They sat about four hundred meters outside of camp. As we approached they held their position, waiting. Rudy and I came over a rise in the terrain and there they sat at the bottom of the hill. Four dogs of various types, a beagle, a collie, a terrier of some type and a pit-bull stood at the bottom of the hill. The beagle started wagging its tail when I came into view. The pit-bull started whining and wagging its stub.

I was amazed. It was Sunshine and Jasmine. They bounded up the hill to see me. Rudy was going crazy with joy as they all said hello. The terrier and the collie slowly came forward to meet me. They were a little standoffish at first but soon were jumping and jostling along with the others. I turned and headed back to the camp. The people there would just have to get used to these dogs as they would be coming with me and there was nothing I could do to stop them.

As we walked into camp people would back away in fright. Then close behind us in curiosity. The dogs stuck by me the whole way. Sunshine seemed to be the leader and must have taken the other two under her wing so to speak. As we approached Susan her jaw dropped at the menagerie I had following me.

"What the hell," she shouted.

"I seemed to have found some pets." I winked at her.

"Those are your dogs, the beagle and that big brown one."

"Yep, say hello to Sunshine and Jasmine." A crowd was gathering around us at a distance.

"How on earth did they find you?" Susan was staring at me in amazement.

"I don't know. I do wonder now where Jenny is. All though I have talked to her, she is pigheaded enough to get back into the zone and come looking for me."

"She wouldn't? They wouldn't let her?"

"You know her, she would and she would make them." I just shook my head as I pulled out my radio-phone.

"You can't use that here," Susan said looking around at the crowd. I too looked around slipping the phone back into its pocket.

"I guess you're right."

"We'll be back at the Campus in a little while. Who's are the other two?" Susan nodded toward the other two dogs.

"I haven't a clue. Maybe someone here can watch after them." I rummaged around in our supply bag, pulling out the bag of dog food I had found and poured some out on the ground for all the dogs. "Rudy, no!" I yelled, Rudy reluctantly backed off and let the others eat. I looked around for the camp leader and spotted him rushing over to us followed by his usual 'yes' men.

"Well, looks like we're in for now," Susan said under her breathe.

"Not really," I responded.

"What's the meaning of this...bringing these dogs into our camp? Well, speak up!" Old puffin' stuff was demanding of me. He was the leader of this camp, a little bit of empire he carved out of the rubble. He must have been some kind of politician before the attack.

"Are you talking to me?" I said pointing at myself and looking at him like he was a bug on my shoe.

"Yes, I'm talking to you. What are those dogs doing here?"

"These dogs?" I asked pointing at them.

"Yes those dogs, the one at your feet, what the fuck dogs would I be talking about?" He was steamed now, just about done in fact.

"These are my dogs and if I want them here they well be here. Is that clear?" I pulled my sidearm from its holster pointing it down at the ground but ready for trouble. "And if you don't like it then we will be going and will mark this sight as a "Do Not Return Sight" in our log books."

"Uh, no, no that's okay, as long as these are your dogs then its okay for them to be here." He was back pedaling as fast as he could. He knew we provided a service that he couldn't. And to not have us come when needed would mean he would lose people he needed to help support his little empire.

"That's what I thought you said." I smiled at him. He smiled back not realizing how close he had come to resigning from his position. "Now I seem to have two extra dogs here. They appear to be well train..." I broke off my little sales pitch as the look on his face became a mask of evil. I just knew in my heart if I left the dogs here they wouldn't live long after we left. "...never mind, I'll take them with me back to Campus Du Page." I turned and left him standing there and went over by Susan who had moved on to another patient.

"So that went well, didn't it," she scoffed at me.

"Sure it did. You saw how fast he cooled down."

"Yes, I did. You can put away that gun now. I think?"

"Oh," I said, "I guess you're right." I put the pistol in its holster. It was the only weapon that I carried on my person. I had four other weapons in the tri-dimensional portal that went with me were ever I went. But I rarely had a need for them anymore.

As Susan finished up with her last patient Jasmine went up to her wagging her tail and wanting to be petted. Susan reached down and scratched her behind the ear in just the right place. Susan was a dog person.

"We better go. I don't want to get caught out in the dark again. Even though we have our night vision goggles I would prefer to trudge through here during the daylight."

"Me too, after the story Michelle told me about the blackness out here at night, day time is a lot better to trudge through than night time." She was packing her gear when a youth, about fifteen came running into camp. He ran right up to Susan and me. He was too out of breath to speak right off. I took out my canteen and poured him a drink while we waited for him to catch his breath.

"Let me through here," came the god awful voice of puffin' stuff. "He's not from this village. Why didn't he report to me when he got here? We have rules here?"

I waved my hand for him to shut up. He opened his mouth to say something and a single bark from Sunshine had him snapping it shut. I poured the boy some more water which he gulped down. His breathing was slowing as he squatted in front of Susan.

"Doctor..." he wheezed.

"Don't try yet son." I poured him some more water.

"Doctor, my mother has been hurt. Can you come to our village?" He looked so forlorn.

"Sure, which village are you from?" Susan asked.

"You designated our camp A434.G, eight klicks to the north of here."

"I know the one, it's on our way back, kind of. We'll only be going two klicks out of our way," I told Susan as she picked up her backpack. I pulled mine from the ground and hiked it up on my shoulders.

"Wait a minute..." Puffin' stuff just couldn't learn.

"What!" I shouted whirling around on him. I bumped him with my shield causing him to take a step backward a surprised look on his face.

"Nothing...nothing, have a safe trip."

"Let's go." I led off in the direction the boy had come. Susan grabbed the boy's hand, pulling him after her. The dogs ran to catch up to me. "Rudy, guard."

Rudy went running ahead in the direction I pointed. Sunshine looked up at me questioningly. I patted her on the head as her tongue lolled out the side of her mouth. "Sunny, protect." She jumped happily and was off to the side of us to cover our flank. The other three just trotted along with us.

"What happened to your mother son?" I asked the boy.

"She was helping plow the field we work when a stake of some kind was thrown up by the plow. I hit her in the thigh going right through the muscle. She is in terrible pain. There wasn't much blood."

"It shouldn't be too bad then," Susan told him as we continued walking. The kid wanted to run ahead but I held him back with us. It was just caution that had me do that, I didn't want to be surprised in anyway. No harm if this panned out but if it didn't no need letting the kid run ahead to warn anyone.

We would be to his camp in little over two hours at the pace we were traveling. The boy seemed impatient at our slow progress. But I wasn't going to rush into any place just on the say so of a boy. Even if he did look worried and appeared distraught about his mother. He very well could be but not for the reason he told us.

Rudy was back to us to check up on what we were doing. Sunny ran over to him and gave him a nip on the hind quarters telling him she was with us. Rudy went running ahead out of sight. Susan halted about an hour and a half into our trip. She found a rock and sat down.

"I need a little rest," she told me with a wink of her eye. I called Sunny in, she came bounding up to me full of energy.

"Protect," I told her, pointing at Susan. She looked at me with her head cocked to one side. "Protect," I told her again, this time I put my hand on Susan's head. Sunny barked softly, her signal that she understood.

"I'm going to scout ahead a ways, be back in a minute or two."

"I'll come with you," the boy said.

"Why don't you stay here and keep me company," Susan spoke softly to him holding his hand in hers. She signaled me to go.

I turned away and headed for the camp. Susan had almost read my mind as we approached the camp. She knew I wanted to have a look first and I couldn't do what I wanted to do with the boy tagging along. Pulling my phone, it's called that for what it looks like, not for what it can do, I tapped a few buttons. Supposedly I would now be invisible. The shield was now bending light around me so I wouldn't be seen.

Coming up over a slight rise in the ground sat Rudy, waiting for us. I walked right by him. He turned his head as he picked up my scent but remained seated, waiting. The camp was just over the next rise in a little cup in the landscape. There was a stream flowing through the camp, which on either side were built small shacks out of whatever could be scrounged.

As I walked down to the camp all seemed normal. People were going about their everyday routine of trying to survive. I saw nothing out of the ordinary as I skirted the village of shacks. I climbed the rise on the other side of the little valley and stopped dead in my tracks. There must have been fifty men laying in wait. There were some villagers sprinkled in among them, ropes tied around their necks.

So it was a trap. I walked around the outskirts of the horde looking for the leader. I found him in the back, surrounded by ten men in body armor. He too sported body armor. Pushing my way through the ten men I grabbed the leader's neck and pulled him inside my shield. I placed my sidearm to his skull.

"What are you doing here?" I whispered in his face.

"Wha..."

"What are you doing here?" I could feel my shield being jostled.

"Who...?"

"I am the guardian of the doctors of Campus Du Page. Now tell me why you are here?"

"Shit...what they say about you is true."

"What's that?"

"That you can walk among us as a ghost does." I was glad to hear that I was having the desired effect.

"So, tell me or suffer the consequences, why are you here?" As if I couldn't guess.

"To try and capture a doctor for our village. We are too far away and you won't come to our village." The man was pissing himself as I held him.

"You go back to your village and tell everyone there that you have ruined any chance of the Doctors ever coming there. You also tell them, if they want medical treatment they will now have to come to us."

"I can't tell them that, they will lynch me."

"That's your problem." I said as I uncloaked myself. There were twenty men trying to get through my shield. I swept my arm through the air sending them flying. I literally threw my captive twenty feet.

"These villagers will now die because of you!" he shouted as he got up.

"Not likely," I said under my breath as I shot him in the face. "Now who else would like to threaten me or these villagers?"

Four shots rang out. Four bullets hit my shield. Four rounds went flying to their targets. Four heads started bleeding and then stopped before the bodies hit the ground.

"Anyone else?" Silence was my answer. "Drop all your weapons...NOW!" I roared. The sound of weapons clattering to the ground was deafening.

"Now, let those hostages go." The villagers went running toward the hilltop.

"Now you get out of here." They all looked at me with fear in their eyes. "Go."

"Sir, without weapons we will be at the mercy of any who we come upon." I smiled at him.

"You should have thought of that before you came here. NOW GO!" I pulled one of the four major weapons I had with me and fired a blast into the ground at their feet. An explosion of dirt and grass and fire blasted up into their faces. They turned and ran down the hill.

I turned and started to climb back up the hill. As I topped the rise I found all the villagers armed to the teeth ready to defend themselves. I shook my head as I walked toward them cradling my weapon in my arms. As I closed with them they stepped aside, all but the leader of the village. I stopped in front of him looking him in the eye.

"Why are you ready to fight now but not when they came here in the first place?" I asked softly.

"I don't know." His shoulders sagged and his chin dropped to his chest.

Rudy came running up to me just then growling and snarling at everyone around me. They backed away even further.

"Sit!"

Rudy stopped and sat at my side. As I waited for an answer Susan and the boy came running into the camp. Susan was yelling for me as they crossed the creek and started up the hill. I signaled her to be quiet.

"I'm waiting." The leader of the village jumped at my words although they had been spoken softly.

"I don't know. There were so many of them and they had a lot of guns..." his voice trailed off to nothing.

"Well you now have those guns for the taking, just over that rise, if you're man enough." He squared his shoulders, looking me in the eye now and headed up the hill. He signaled for a few of his men to follow.

"One other thing." He halted at my words. "I am leaving them here for you to use in defense of your people and only for your use in defense of your village. Be warned." I said with ominous tones in my voice. Susan stood there shaking her head.

"What?"

"You men and your toys" was all she said as she turned, with the boy in hand, back toward the village.

"So, was the story about his mother being hurt just that?"

"No, she is hurt but not as bad as he made out. I'm going to have a look at her now." I dropped in behind them as Sunny and the rest of the dogs showed up.

"Where have you been girl?" I asked Sunny. Rudy came bounding up from where he had been sitting.

"Don't blame her, I told her to stay. The others stayed with her." She was a dog person after all. Although Sunny was trained to listen to a woman or young girl I hadn't expected Susan to know that.

"I don't, she's a good girl." I scratched her behind the ear. "Protect," I told her pointing at Susan. She went running ahead to be at Susan's side.

By the time I caught up with them she was already assessing the woman's wounds. She did have a bad gash on her thigh but whatever had hit it had not penetrated the leg. Susan cleaned the wound and re-bandaged her leg. She gave her a couple of pain killers and said her good-byes.

"How long until nightfall?" Susan asked.

"Two hours."

"Is that enough time to get home before its dark?"

"Yes, if we leave now. If you want to look at any other patients then we should probably stay the night." I was leaving it up to her as to what we would do.

"I don't know, I've never stayed out here all night. Is it safe?" I looked around us, five dogs, two of them trained to protect us. A village full of grateful people now armed to the teeth. Then I indicated our shields.

"How much safer would you like it to be?" She frowned at me, pouting her lips at me.

"I guess you're right. I'll be looking at several more patients then." She started for the village center as she spoke.

I decided to make a round of the perimeter of the village just to be on the safe side. Sunny barked once and Jaz and the other two dogs took off to catch up to her. Rudy was by my side as I climbed the hill once more. As I topped the hill I took my scanner out. Opening it I scanned in all directions. I could still pick up the group that had been waiting in ambush. They were headed away from the village. I was also picking up a smaller band of blips just to the east of them. That group was headed to the north on a direct path to Campus Du Page.

They would be out of the path of the larger group before the larger group crossed their path. I scanned to the north, nothing. I scanned to the south, a lot of blips close in, the village, but three blips just the other side of the hills to the south of the village. They weren't moving at all. All other directions were clear. I re-scanned to the south and those three blips were still there. I started to make my way around the village at the top of the bowl.

As I was approaching the southern end of the bowl the three blips remained where they were. As I started down the hill away from the village Rudy started to growl deep in his chest. I cloaked us as we approached the three blips. As I started around some bushes I could hear giggling, a woman's giggle.

"God you're beautiful." I hear a male voice say.

"She sure is." I heard a different male voice that time. Rudy started to growl once again but I hushed him with a wave of my hand.

As I step around the last bush I saw three young people lying on a blanket, on the ground. They were all in some state of undress. The young lady was just about naked lying there between the two, I couldn't call them men as they were all so young, boys. They were touching each other in preparation to having sex, I would have to assume.