Hardstorm Ahead Ch. 03

Chapter 3: Calm Before the Storm

Hardstorm Kentucky: July 31^st, 2052

Dazed Travis looked around him and saw David Johnson. His lips were moving but Travis could only hear the ringing in his head. A moment passed and he was reminded of the battle as a chorus of gunfire slowly entered his recovering hearing. He realized that David wasn't talking but shouting at him.

"Travis we need to get out of here!" They were hunkered down behind a pile of logs. In the distance behind David he saw his .30 caliber manned by Greg and Scott rattling away and Travis nodded in agreement to David. "You take the rest and get them out of here!"

Travis looked behind him to see who else was still there. "No David, I'll stay and hold them off with the gun!" He shouted pointing at the .30 cal.

David shook his head, "You are the only one that can get everyone ready before we get back, now get out of here!"

Travis frowned but David was right. Travis didn't want to leave anyone behind but they were currently in a good defensive position and a few people could hold off the small advanced group while they fell back and got everyone else ready. "Ok, but don't be too far behind us, they won't risk pursuing us very quickly." Travis motioned for everyone to disengage and turned when he heard an explosion from what looked like a grenade. "Fuck!" There was David collapsed next to him.

4 weeks ago: Hardstorm Kentucky: July 1^st, 2052

It had been almost four months since the bombs went off and life continued. The town was making incredible progress working together as a community with most of the thanks going to the leadership of Mayor David Johnson. There had been a few robberies after the incident on the road but for the most part the peace was kept without much work. It took a while but a daily routine had been reached for most of the town. There was such little contact with outsiders that news of cities in eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina and Virginia surviving untouched surprised everyone; Knoxville, Greensboro, even Charlotte, and Richmond were spared from the nuclear war. As for the chaos in the aftermath details were sketchy.

It might have been the dynamics of the small community of Hardstorm that kept the town from descending into chaos. The closest neighboring town of Laketon, had it worse off. The larger size and the dependence on surrounding communities made it difficult to maintain order. It had been on the verge of collapse several times, but with the commitment of food from Hardstorm and other neighboring communities in exchange for goods and defense pacts they made it through the trivial weeks following the war.

Contact between the two towns had been a priority and Travis had taken the brunt of the effort making sure the roads were safe. They cleared out trees and thick underbrush from near the road to help guard against ambush as well as set up checkpoints and road blocks around their town for their own defense. Travis had the town militia busy for weeks and it finally seemed that the rest of the summer would be relatively relaxed.

Fairweather Estate: July 1^st, 2052. 1:35 PM

Sarah looked up from the sink when she heard Travis enter, "oh, hey, I am just finishing lunch detail." She looked around and said coyly, "so anyone else here?"

Travis shook his head knowingly, he and Sarah had been having difficulty getting their alone time with so many people around the cabin lately. They found themselves trying to get to the cabin in the early afternoon when they realized that most of the time everyone was out and about.

She wryly smiled as she started to lift the hem of her camisole over her taught stomach. Travis never thought that she was such a wild sex kitten and was surprised the first time they were in the cabin alone and they did it on one of the living room couches. She tossed him her shirt as they both hurriedly unclothed in the kitchen.

She was on her knees looking at him with her blue eyes as she slowly licked his cock from the base to the tip. Her tongue circled the head and she slowly took it into her mouth moaning at the same time. Travis shuddered at the touch and pushed some strands of her auburn hair out of her face as she looked up at him. She took his shaft into her mouth again and held it in place a few seconds as she deep throated him and repeated the process as she loved hearing his whimpers and moans as she worked her tantalizing mouth on his member.

Travis could take no more. He guided her to stand by her shoulders and she dragged her tongue across his chest lustfully before he kissed her hard. She tried to embrace him but he pushed her arms aside as he grabbed her waist as he picked her up and set her on the counter. They both smiled at each other as Travis settled between her legs and gave her one slow lick up her wanton sex. She had shaved everything in recent weeks and Travis showed his appreciation every time as he delicately worked his tongue and mouth around her clit, but never touching it for several moments.

Sarah gasped and moaned as he would approach it and then at the last second skip over it and move to another area and start all over again. She leaned back and pushed her breasts out the second Travis touched her clit with his tongue and she orgasmed and added her wetness to his. "Oh, my god, get up here and fuck me already." She panted as Travis continued his work.

Standing he could line up his cock to her sex as she sat on the counter top and pushed forward as she leaned into his body their arms wrapping around each other as they kissed at their union. Travis held her there for a moment not moving just enjoying her soft mouth on his as he ran his hands up and down her smooth back and stopping briefly each time with a feel of her soft auburn hair that she currently had in a pony tail.

Stopping the kiss he looked at her as he withdrew and entered with another moan from both of them. They panted as he worked his member in and out as they started to glisten with a light sheen of sweet from the early July heat. Sarah was working her way up to another orgasm as she held onto Travis as his pace picked up.

"Oh, I'm cumming" she squealed as she shook with pleasure.

"I'm close too." Travis said between gritted teeth as Sarah noticed like he always did before climax.

"Quick, in my mouth." She said as they disengaged and smiled realizing that was the first thing he said since he got home. She got between his legs and took his member back into her mouth. Travis had no chance of lasting long as soon as Sarah got back to work on his cock and he cummed with a grunt and she swallowed it down greedily. "Mmmm, baby, I love your taste when mine is all over your cock." Sarah giggled and added, "and it makes for an easier cleanup when we aren't in the bedroom."

She stood up giving his cock a squeeze and they gathered their clothes and got dressed.

"I'll be late tonight Sarah, I got a ton of work to do, getting the town ready for the party, another food shipment to Laketon, and some final stuff before the wind turbines get turned on tomorrow." He turned to see a disappointed face from Sarah, "don't wait up, but I will definitely be around tomorrow to help with the party preparations while you are there too."

They kissed goodbye and Travis was out of the cabin and down the driveway as Sarah stood by the front door staring.

"Damn I haven't been fucked like that in a long time." Sarah jumped as she turned to see her best friend Amanda Trickle standing in the living room. "Remember Freddy from Frankfort, he used to fuck me like that all the time, damn I miss that." Amanda and Sarah had been friends since college and lived in Frankfort briefly before the nuclear war.

"Geez, you scared the shit out of me, I didn't think anyone was home." Sarah said looking around nervously.

"You're lucky it was just me, and not that joker Sam, he would have been telling everyone." Amanda reclined on the couch and closed her eyes and Sarah was visibly relieved when she realized it was only Amanda in the house. "So when are you going to let me ride that stallion?"

Sarah looked at Amanda questionably thinking back to college when Sarah and Amanda had traded a couple boyfriends, and that one time when they were both drunk and had a threesome with Sarah's boyfriend. In the past they had gotten drunk and kissed to amuse guys, but just that one time they did take it to the next level. But neither of them talked about that night with each other afterwards, only some nervous looks for a few weeks and when Sarah broke up with him everything drifted back to normal between the two coeds.

Sarah wondered if Amanda was joking or not. Sarah had never said anything about the incident because she thought she had a crush on Amanda and felt that Amanda was equally embarrassed but didn't feel the same way about her. She was also sure her boyfriend didn't want to bring it up because Sarah might have accused him of wanting to fuck Amanda more than her. So in the end Sarah had convinced herself that the whole event happened because they were drunk.

Sarah looked at Amanda while she laid with her eyes closed on the couch thinking back to her lust at the time over the raven haired beauty. She could almost remember the sight of her green eyes staring up at her from between her legs...

Amanda sat up and looked at Sarah when she noticed the awkward silence, "Oh, Sarah, um, I didn't mean anything, I was just kidding... Crap, I gotta meet Sam in town."

"Yeah, I got stuff to do too." Sarah got up at the same time as Amanda and they bumped into each other briefly and with a weak smile they were both out of the room in opposite directions.

Hardstorm Kentucky: July 4^th, 2052. 9:30 PM

The next couple of days were a blur of activity in and around town. Travis had to do some final checking of Hardstorm's area of the power grid before the turbines were turned on late afternoon on July 2^nd and barely got into town long enough to see Sarah for half an hour while they finished off decorations in the square.

On July 3^rd he oversaw the gathering of a food shipment to Laketon as well as seeing it to the last checkpoint before checking up on the status of the turbines as well as holding a meeting in the town hall about the status of any electrical problems which luckily were all minor. The biggest complaint was about the mandatory blackout ordered by Mayor David Johnson during evening hours.

"We are not big enough to protect ourselves at night like Laketon is." David had said. Most people were upset and wanted some sort of compromise and while they argued into the evening Travis had to go oversee the return of the convoy returning from Laketon with among other things a shipment of ammunition that was hidden among the other things that had to be taken back to the cabin. It wasn't that the ammunition was stolen, Travis just didn't want word getting out about what they had stockpiled and what they didn't incase anyone was in cahoots with any bandits.

Finally if the week wasn't hectic enough Travis had to make sure everyone that was on guard duty for the party didn't try to sneak away. To be fair he made everyone work, even Sarah but he had at least promised that everyone would be able to go at some point making everyone choose when they preferred to attend. Discipline was difficult in a volunteer militia where people could just not show up on time or at all. Mostly it Travis getting angry when people were being careless. It was the easiest thing to get them to straighten up when he told them that they could get killed if they did that again and complacency was the biggest danger they could ever face. Travis made punishments as easy as possible, guard duty at night, cleaning up around the cabin, etc. and tonight the people who still had some time to work off got the last choice of when they wanted to work.

Travis and Sarah had chosen the early evening shift and were joined by the youngest member of the militia Greg who just recently joined when he turned 18 a month ago. They had taken his truck to a checkpoint a mile outside of town and spent an uneventful 4 hours there before being relieved by the first night shift. With the limited personal they had gotten into the routine of guarding the four main checkpoints just outside of town, the cabins entrance, and rotating the other four checkpoints one at a time daily and even sometimes hourly in random patterns to confuse anybody watching.

They had just gotten back to town where they were going to pick up Sam and Amanda and bring them back to the cabin for the night where Sam had chosen to get the late shift at the cabins entrance checkpoint.

Travis had to search the dispersing crowd through the dim street lights that the mayor had allowed to stay on a little late tonight just for an hour or so. David had conceded to letting people have lights at night but only if they had blackout curtains and that if the sheriff or the couple officers found them breaking the rules they would lose power for a week.

He found Sam and Amanda after a few minutes and started back to his truck where Sarah and Greg were already waiting. "Ah, I have to go talk with, ah... David" Amanda stammered as Sam and Travis looked at her puzzled. "Don't wait up I will catch a ride back to the cabin with someone else." She turned and went the other way as they stood there and shrugged to each other.

"Ok, will do." Sam replied and added in a hushed tone when she was farther away. "Damn, I could look at her ass all day if you know what I mean." Sam added the obvious and unnecessary wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

As they got back to the truck Travis asked Sarah "Hey, what is up with Amanda the last couple days? She has been acting weird."

Sarah blushed and turned to get into the passenger side of the truck. Luckily it was dark enough that no one noticed her blush, "I don't know, I haven't noticed anything." She quickly climbed into the cab of the truck and everyone else followed suit with Travis bringing up the back.

"Mr. Friar?" a boy asked behind him. Travis turned to see that there was a group of youths behind him the oldest was maybe 15. The boy looked to the ground as he continued, "We were wondering if you could tell us what you did in the war because no one will tell us."

Travis was surprised at the question and only replied "maybe another time" as he climbed into his truck. It had been a long day as he sat in the driver seat and the sound of the other doors closing brought him back to reality. He had not thought about it in a couple weeks the longest it had ever been that he didn't think about it.

Sarah from the passenger seat put her hand on his thigh and rubbed it slowly. "It's ok, you don't have to talk to anyone about it."

"Yeah," Sam said from the back, "If I hear how great of a fighter you are one more time I will seriously have to beat you up so they stop talking." Everyone laughed.

"Next time you kill a hundred guys, and the last one with your bare hands we will talk about you." Greg joked as Sam punched him in the arm.

"It wasn't nearly that many," Sam countered, "He mainly just waited for them to walk up to him as he politely asked for them to surrender and if they didn't Travis punched them out."

The gullible Greg ate up almost everything Sam told him on the way home as Sarah often laughed at the ridiculous things that Travis did during the war.

It was the first time that anyone had ever joked about what he did during the war in front of him and Travis realized that things had changed at his cabin. The people thought less of him as a hardened soldier and more of a friend.

Fairweather Estate: July 4^th, 2052. 9:50 PM

The joking continued as Travis parked at the cabin. As they got out of the truck Travis turned to Greg, "Do you really not know what happened?"

"Not really, I was only 8 at the time and most people here just tell me vague crap like, 'he killed a bunch of people' and bullshit explanations like that."

"Well maybe I will tell you sometime." Travis said as they got onto the porch.

"It's not too late, why not now?"

The group came to a halt on the porch as Greg asked this question. Travis figured he would have to eventually tell everyone his side of the story seeing it was never documented accurately. He sat into one of the porch chairs. With a bit of a frown Travis answered, "just this once, and don't go telling the kids that are too young about it."

Greg nodded eagerly in reply.

Sarah rolled her eyes. "I need something to drink, anyone else?" Sam asked for one and took a seat that looked more off to the side of the porch as Sarah went in.

"Now to tell this story you need to know what was going on at the time." Travis took one last deep breath as he recounted his story and stared off out over the yard fireflies scattered over the light crescent moon.

The insurgents had captured some diplomat's family and told the reporters where to find them after a couple days. They wanted a big production of how they captured this guarded family and try to make a point that they could just go anywhere and take anything they wanted. They made sure it was a tough place to attack too. Out in the middle of nowhere they could see for miles in every direction with just scattered brush less than a foot high in the rocky landscape. At first the reporters hesitated going out there but eventually one dumb reporter did and soon the rest followed seeing that all they wanted was the publicity.

They sure did make their big show of it too. They paraded the youngest of the girls outside for the cameras to see everyday for the first five days. The reporters loved it and from what I've been told it had a hell of an effect here with all the war protests.

My unit was stationed the closest to their base, and we were in charge of maintaining a perimeter so no one could go in or out. We even refused to let the reporters bring any food and little water so that the insurgents couldn't take it for their own use. But one day they let one cameraman inside to show them that they had food and water to last a long time. That was their first mistake. It allowed us to get an idea of what was inside the front door. We didn't see all the captives but got a good idea of how many people they had there when they claimed it could last for 3 months.

That ploy was to get us to let the camera men to bring food and water in themselves so they could get all the news coverage they wanted. After they failed to show the girl on the sixth day it was obvious to us that they were doing it to get a response back in the States that they wanted and were not expecting to get out of there alive at the end. The problem was that convincing the politicians that we had to go in there as soon as possible to have a chance of rescuing the hostages because it was obvious from the way the insurgents wanted the news coverage that they didn't expect to get out of there alive.

Finally after another four days of not seeing the captives we got the go ahead to attack in the next 36 hours. Of course we had already had a plan and were ready to go immediately.

Our attack plan was very dangerous because of the open landscape but rocky and sparsely vegetated. The building that held the captives and food was approximately 50 by 20 and we knew little about it other than the two entrances and where the food was kept close to one of them. There were two other out buildings that were just used for their vehicles. The reporters were kept about one hundred yards away from the building and were guarded by at least five men at a time. They also had a checkpoint another one hundred yards up the road so they could inspect the news crews so we couldn't sneak in that way.