Hardstorm Ahead Ch. 06

Travis drank in silence as he pondered if that was why the military was stationing troops in the mountains.

Just then Scott ran inside, "FIRE!"

Travis ran outside with everyone else. Smoke was rising in the distance. Gabe's sons were coming in from the farm as Travis was shouting orders, "David go back to town with the jeep and get help!"

Gabe came up behind Travis. "I'll send my youngest to town, I'm going with you, I know exactly where that is coming from, follow me." Gabe headed for his car with one of his older sons following him while another got into their farm truck.

"Ok, let's go." Travis jumped into his truck and noticed the wind was picking up as the clouds in the distance were darkening.

They drove for about 20 minutes making several turns. 'Gabe was right,' Travis thought, 'I would never have found this.' They had stopped there earlier that day and Travis tried to remember their names as the pulled up to the house that was now a raging inferno.

They got out of their vehicles and watched the fire. "They're not here," Sgt. Rodriguez said, "maybe they had already left."

Travis noted that their car that was there earlier and wasn't now. "Maybe. But spread out let's take a good look."

Travis caught himself staring at Amanda as she walked in front of him. Her blue tank top stopped just above her khaki shorts that clung to her ass. Her thigh holster stood out on her tanned legs and made her boots look more in place on her smaller frame. As she walked her tank top would shift and expose a little of her skull and crossbones tattoo.

Sarah had noticed Travis looking at it several times in the past, she had even said to him in the that she thought Amanda's tattoo was hot. Most of the time Travis would end up looking at Amanda's ass, like now he had to force himself to stop but not before thinking about the shower he interrupted. As she had sucked his cock on all fours he found himself looking at her ass and the tattoo, her wet body dripped onto him and the sight of her green eyes looking up at him lustfully as she swallowed his load still ran through his mind every time she looked at him.

Travis shook himself out of it and split off from the group as they circled the building.

He walked around to their shed and noticed the lock was broken on the ground and that the door was slightly ajar.

"Colonel?" Lt. Driver had joined him as he stood a few feet from the shed. "What is it sir?"

Travis gazed at the ground between him and the shed and noticed the shell casing. He pulled his pistol out of his shoulder holster as he motioned to Driver to be quiet. She drew her sidearm and positioned herself to cover Travis as he stepped toward the door.

He noticed a second casing and a third as he got closer. He reached for the latch and felt something wet. Pulling his free hand back he saw the red liquid and showed his hand for Driver to see. Travis opened the door quickly, gun at the ready.

Empty. A blood soaked cloth and some drops of blood were among the random tools and lawn mowers.

"Lieutenant, get everyone back to the vehicles and get our rifles out." As Driver left Travis looked around the shed one last time. He turned and followed Driver as the roof of the house gave way and fell into the building with a loud crash. Even 100 feet from the house the flames were close to unbearable.

"What's going on Travis?" The mayor asked when he got back.

Sgt. Rodriguez handed Travis his M8 rifle as he told everyone what he had found. He ordered Scott and Greg to get the 1919 mounted on the jeep David would stay with them at the vehicles. Driver, Rodriguez, and Amanda were going to go with him to circle the perimeter of the yard looking for more clues as to what happened.

"Need another two sets of hands?" Gabe spoke up with his son behind him. "We know this area well and more eyes would help."

Travis looked at their pistols and told Rodriguez to get them the extra M4s from the truck. The military had a lot of extra guns ever since the last gulf war ended. They were handing them out to the militia units and Travis had been able to grab enough plus extra M4s, M8s, and even a few SAWs plus plenty of ammunition. The real prize was the mini gun mounted on one of the humvees. Everyone had begged to shoot it, but Travis didn't want to waste ammo and had it dismounted and put in his storage locker in the room beneith his cabin.

They combed the yard and found more shell casings. There were several places where it looked like someone had gone into the woods recently but that turned up nothing.

The wind was really picking up now. Travis guessed 10 to 15 mph from the south. They circled back to their vehicles empty handed.

"Must have cut themselves getting out of the house," Gabe pondered aloud, "the shell casings could be anything, people shoot a lot around here, game, practice, sport."

Everyone seemed to agree. Travis didn't like it and remained silent.

"When do you think the fire trucks will get here?" Amanda asked.

"Hopefully they don't come." Travis said, "the storm will put out the flames easy enough, and we don't want our resources wasted." Travis knew that sounded cruel but the house was finished, the winds might spread the flames to the trees but they wouldn't catch as easy from the relatively wet summer and the rain looked like it would start at any second.

After watching the fire for another couple minutes Travis told everyone to load back into the vehicles. They still had a few roads to check in on and warn people about the hurricane. As he was about to step into the truck he noticed it.

Across the road was a set of tire tracks that went off the road and into the foliage. Twigs were freshly snapped and some vegetation was leveled. Travis realized it had to be the missing home owner as it was almost directly opposite of the driveway. He hated that he hadn't seen it earlier.

"Sergeant, drive us out of here and back the way we came." Travis didn't think anyone else had noticed as they were all staring at the fire.

The small convoy left the burning house behind and Travis spotted the perfect spot to turn off a few hundred yards down the road. The road serpentined around two hills that came together. It gave a good field of fire to cover the road, the vehicles could easily be concealed, and a speedy withdrawal under cover of the hill was possible.

Travis told everyone what he saw when they had stopped. David had wanted to go back to help, but Travis suspected foulplay. He ordered Driver to set up the machine gun on the hill and have everyone else put into a good fireing position. He would go back to the house with Rodriguez.

They made their way back to the house in a few minutes. There was no sound other then the fire and the wind. They cautiously followed the path of destruction and soon saw the white car wrapped around a large tree, the driver halfway out the windshield.

Rodriguez pointed at the trunk as they got closer. Bullet holes. Travis went around to the drivers side of the car to see if he was still alive as Rodriguez took up a defensive position. There were more bullet holes on the side and as he got to the front he realized it was useless. A bullet hole was through his head, and the shell casing at his feet only meant one thing. He shook his head at Rodriguez and they headed back to the road.

They were not alone anymore. There was five cars and trucks across the street at the house now. Travis and Rodriguez took cover on the other side of the road. They were too far away to hear what was being said between the men across the street but Travis could tell they were well armed.

'One, five.' Rodriguez signed the numbers to Travis.

Travis counted and got the same. He signed back for Rodriguez to follow him. He moved back a few yards into the woods where they wouldn't be seen and headed back towards their group stopping every once in a while to look back. It was slower then the road but it was safer.

As they approached the turn in the road where they had left everyone else they went closer to the road so they didn't surprise them.

Travis looked back towards the house before stepping out onto the road. 'Oh Shit.' A truck pulled out of the driveway and turned towards them. It had closed half the distance on them and Travis raised his gun and fired. The trucks driver veered off the road as the bullet hit the windshield. Travis and Rodriguez used the opportunity to run back to everyone else.

....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....

Travis was halfway down the hill, he was carrying David on his shoulder. Rodriguez was racing ahead of him carrying their three guns. One on his shoulder the other two in hand. He dropped the tailgate to the truck and threw one of the guns in. Gabe's son ran over from his spot keeping an eye on the vehicles to help Travis get Dave in the flatbed and climbed up after him.

Scott and Greg were coming down the hill now with their gun and headed towards the jeep as Lieutenant Driver, Amanda, and Gabe covered their retreat.

Travis was about to yell at them to get out of there when he noticed Lt. Driver ordering them all back. Rodriguez had started the truck and Scott and Greg had got the jeep started as Driver ran to jump in the back of it.

"Amanda's hit!" Gabe's son shouted and pointed as Travis turned in time to see Amanda tumble down the hill.

"I'll get her!" Travis shouted. He ran out towards Amanda. As he passed Gabe going the other direction he shouted, "tell Rodriguez to get going I'll be right behind you."

Gabe tossed Travis his keys, "take mine, I'm going with David."

Travis caught the keys on the run. He stopped as he realized Rodriguez had his gun in the truck. He turned to see Gabe jumping in the back of the truck and Rodriguez took off. Greg quickly followed in the jeep.

"Fuck." Travis turned to run back to Amanda. He noticed the gunfire had stopped as they probably figured out that they had fallen back.

He reached Amanda who was writhing in pain at the bottom of the hill.

"Where are you hit!" Travis was looking her over, a thin line of blood was seeping on her forehead, her shirt was torn and she was grabbing her ankle.

"I tripped." She mananged to work out between her ragged breaths.

"Can you stand?" Amanda tried to put pressure on her ankle and cried out in pain. "I'll carry you," Travis bent to pick her up, she didn't weigh nearly as much as David, but he dropped her immediately.

"Ow," Amanda started but Travis threw his hand over her mouth and pulled her down into the bushes. She looked at him questioningly as he looked towards Gabe's car.

The men had pushed up faster then he expected. There was four of them shooting at the car.