Hardstorm Ahead Ch. 01

One Hour Later

When Travis left the town hall he sought out the nearest bar. It had a sign on it that said, 'Will be back after meeting.' Obviously everyone was at the meeting and as the townspeople trickled out of the town hall, a couple more people stood outside the tavern. Most looked away from Travis and some left once they saw he was here.

Then he saw her. Sarah Warner. She had lived closest to his cabin when he was a child and his best childhood memories were of spending time exploring the mountains with her whenever he visited during the summer. They had stayed in contact sporadically after he graduated high school and went into the military and they had eventually lost contact altogether after he got out. He figured it was because the same reason that all his friends looked differently at him after what had happened in the war.

She was as even more gorgeous as Travis could remember. Long auburn hair and blue eyes sat on top of her 5'6" height and her breasts and legs were always something to look at.

Sarah stopped short of the tavern door as she noticed Travis off to the side. She studied him briefly as he stared back at her. Uncomfortable she looked away, and dug out a set of keys from her purse and unlocked the door letting everyone in. "I will be there in a minute, TOM! Just wait a minute." She was hollering at an old regular that liked to make himself at home. Turning back Sarah noticed Travis had walked towards her. "Hey, I... I heard you were back in town and was meaning to call until, you know." She tossed a loose strand of hair out of her face as she held the door open for him. "What's it been? Almost 10 years."

Travis had to squeeze by her as he entered, his arm brushed her breasts and his memory of his lifelong boyhood crush came back to him. "That seems about right. It was right after it happened I guess."

Sarah was behind the bar getting drinks for the couple customers that came in. Travis ordered whiskey on the rocks and after Sarah told him there was no ice since the power was out he ordered it strait and she quickly got it for him, "Trav did Mayor Johnson tell you anything yesterday?"

"No, should he have?" Travis took a drink, the whiskey was smooth as it slid down his throat. The last time he had a drink was when his father died. Now seemed like as good of a time as any to start.

"I told him to go ask you to do it. He didn't want to at first. I had tried several times to get myself to go see you since you got back in town." She smiled at Travis as he finished his drink, "Do you want another."

It was almost noon, and Travis was going to meet with Mayor Johnson later about plans as to what to do and that could take hours. "Sure, I'll have one more for now." Sarah had her back to him as she poured another drink, Travis was taking his time staring at her butt. Straight whiskey is not an easy drink. Travis was definitely feeling the buzz as he left around thirty minutes later, he and Sarah didn't talk much more, he did do a lot of staring at her. It had been 10 years since he saw her and she was more beautiful now then ever.

Fairweather Estate: April 24^th, 2052. 7:34PM.

Travis had just gotten back to his cabin he had checked all of his trip wires he set up and none had gone off. A quick survey of the open ground surrounding the cabin and he relaxed as he set about preparing another dinner of canned food.

The planning with Mayor Johnson had taken a while. There was a lot to do and based on the preliminary amount of volunteers that had signed up, there were only 30, but they were mostly former military so that was good. The main thing that needed done was road blocks outside of town to make it harder to get in. The mayor had suggested using jersey barriers that were on Route 4. The mayor was very helpful, he was more familiar and even thought to bring quad maps that showed the elevation of hill, valleys, and the general lay of the land. There were eight main roads that came into Hardstorm, three from the west, one from the south, one from the north, and three from the east. They combined into four just before they made it into town. All the road blocks would be set up at the major intersections and just outside of town.

Travis was making mental notes as to where to scout and see what locations were the best for ambush. He had learned in the Third Iraq war to spot ambush locations, because it would save your life. The difference with Hardstorm and the war was that Hardstorm couldn't just keep throwing troops at the problem like the government could. It would be a difficult task.

The Mayor and Travis also talked about setting up observation stations that would be concealed from the road and to hard wire communications to report activity. This would be the easiest way to respond to trouble. The mayor was even suggested using his cabin as a headquarters. Travis was reluctant to have other people around his cabin, but the Mayor insisted. It was isolated on a back road, in between the main road north and the main road west towards Laketon. The windmills were even between the cabin and Laketon, and the position outside of town would be more difficult to locate if any of the bandits roaming the roads tried to spy on the town before attacking someone. Travis consented, and after several hours of tedious details, they called it quit and arranged to meet tomorrow after the vote and get the volunteers out to his cabin.

His cabin was more of a house, just that everyone in his family referred it to it as their hunting cabin so they kept calling it that. It was two floors, large kitchen and living room, with 5 bedrooms. It was a big weekend destination when he was a kid and his father and friends would take hunting trips in the fall. The summers they spent there were great, and he realized he still knew the surrounding forest from muscle memory.

The last time Travis could remember anyone coming up here in a group was three years ago while his father was still alive. Other than that Travis periodically visited the cabin a couple times a year to check for any damage that needed fixed before moving there permanently three months ago. Travis set about cleaning up the place after he ate. If the place was going to get busy again, he wanted to make sure all the rooms were aired out properly. There was a trap door in his bedroom on the first floor that lead to a cellar. It had been used as part of the underground railway when his ancestors from the north originally bought the land and settled here. It seemed like as good of a place as any to store his weapons and ammunition now that people would be coming and going quite often.

He washed up after all his work and started a fire for the night, it was going to be chilly again, and he slept on the couch as the fireplace was only in the living room and went to sleep.

Fairweather Estate: April 25^th, 2052. 1:20PM.

Travis was already waiting for the Mayor as the caravan pulled up to his driveway. His cabin was set back from the road a few hundred yards, and with the thick woods it was hidden from sight.

"Travis good to see you again" Mayor Johnson always seemed cheerful and optimistic, Travis was worried that it would rub off on him and grimaced at the thought. "Here are most of the troops behind me." He motioned to the chain of cars and trucks, "do you need a ride up? Climb in then."

Travis had walked down to the road so that his truck wouldn't be seen by anyone else that could have chanced to come by. "That's alright, I am going to set up the flares behind you all. Take them inside, we can meet in the living room."

After Travis had set the flares and brushed out the tracks on the part of the dirt road that was visible from the road he got back to his house and was faced by about 25 people that almost all avoided his eye contact.

David Johnson was talking to him right away, "This is Sam Wydant, he was a sergeant as well..." He trailed off listing the names of everyone here, Travis was not that good with names, and tried to pay attention.

After the introduction was finished Travis spoke up, "Alright lets get this started."

"Wait a minute," David spoke again, "Sarah isn't back yet. She went out to use the toilet." He said referring to the outhouse that was in the yard.

"Sarah is here?"

"Yes she volunteered this morning."

Travis didn't see her in the convoy of cars, but he wasn't paying that much attention. He went outside and met her as she was climbing up the steps to the porch. "Hi, I..." Travis muttered as she smiled up at him.

"Wow, this is kind of an awkward moment." Sarah giggled and Travis laughed, it had been a while since Travis had done that. Sarah had always been a kidder when they were younger. An obvious bonus to a gorgeous woman. "Hey, David said that people were going to be staying here full time, so I brought some of my stuff if you don't mind, I feel like this place would be safer than town."

His smile went away, he had an enormous crush on her all of his life and now she wanted to be part of the action where she could get hurt. "Why did you come out here, it won't be safe with what we have to do."

Sarah smiled and pushed past him into the cabin, "Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. Besides, I know these woods around here better than you do and I've been hunting since I was 12, I am more qualified than what you need."

Later

Travis had led the meeting to organize people based on their skills, and told everyone the basic plan for defense of the town. He then gave everyone tasks that would take the rest of the day, and maybe a week to secure the cabin to make it a headquarters. David had set up a meeting for tomorrow with the Mayor of Laketon and their leader of militia to coordinate with Travis. They were going to meet in Laketon and Sam had also volunteered to go as 'more security' when it was obvious he was trying to get out of digging foxholes around the cabin.

Sam was a very likeable guy, a little smaller than Travis, he was he was around 6', had black hair Italian decent, around Travis's age of 30, and was also in the Third Iraq War. Unlike most of the people there he could talk easily with Trav and they were soon getting along like they were old army pals. Most of the other men were getting more comfortable with Travis and not thinking about the stories as soon as they got busy.

There were several women in the group as well as Sarah, some had been former military and some were just there for the same reason as Sarah. Travis had them doing less of the physical work, but they were still helping out. He had Sarah go into town with someone else to get all the containers they could to help store water while the electricity was still out. They were gone most of the day and when they got back, almost everyone had left. Sarah being her usual self offered to start a wet t shirt competition to choruses of laughter when they got back with water.

The guard position at the road was completed first, because Travis had asked for the most effort on that, secondary positions could wait a couple more days, they weren't going anywhere. For those that were staying overnight he set up shifts, and then made a weekly schedule of all the volunteers to work there. He realized people had other things to do and it could be modified but this was a good start.

Sarah popped her head into his room, "Hey, we are about to eat, you coming? Whoa this is nice." She stepped in looking around the room and glancing at Travis who turned from his desk and was staring at her. She was wearing shorts and a tank top and looked sexy as hell with a pony tail under a ball cap.

"It works I guess." Travis started to stand as Sarah flopped onto his bed.

"This is so much more comfortable then the bunk bed I got stuck with."

"Maybe if you were nicer to your host he would let you stay here." Travis meant it to be sarcastic but it sounded more like a proposition and he blushed when he realized how it sounded.

Sarah smiled, "I'll keep that in mind." She offered her hand out for help to get off the bed, Travis gave her a pull, and she jumped a little and they ended up chest to chest. Sarah looked up as Travis moved his hand from hers up her arm. They made eye contact and leaned in to each other.

The kiss was 20 years in the making, Sarah opened her mouth and lightly touched his lips as they embraced each other. Her hands wandered down his back as his held her tightly to him. Their tongues danced and Sarah broke this kiss. "I've wanted to do that for so long when we were younger."

"Me too."

Travis kissed Sarah again and his hands grabbed her butt as she moaned into his mouth feeling his erection through his jeans. Sarah's hand was at his belt opening it she then unbuttoned his pants and pulled them to the floor. On her knees she looked at Travis cock and slowly closed her mouth over it. She slid down towards the base and back to the tip. Grabbing it with a hand she repeated the slow sucking and Travis was moaning in pleasure. Sarah took his cock out of her mouth stood and pulled her tank top over her head revealing her luscious breasts in her bra. She stepped towards Travis and they kissed again as his hand found the clasp and undid it and her 36 C breasts came into his hungry view.

It was his turn and he pushed her onto the bed as he kissed his way down her neck towards her heavenly body. He paused on one of her nipples bringing it to attention he caressed her other breast and kissed his way down towards her stomach. He hooked his thumbs in her shorts. Sarah was moaning with anticipation and she lifted he butt and he pulled them and her panties off. Licking his lips he descended on her and kissed her thighs, she arched her back and her fingers found his hair and she drug his face towards her pussy. Travis licked at her lips slowly as he grabbed her thighs and squeezed hard as he concentrated on her clit.

Sarah orgasmed and she pulled Travis up to kiss her as her other hand sought out his hard cock and she guided him into her tight wetness. They both moaned as he pushed himself all the way in on his first stroke. They kissed again as he held himself inside her. Then he began to slowly work himself in and out of her. Slowly working his way up to an orgasm Sarah closed her eyes and arched her back. They climaxed together and he laid on top of her for several minutes as he softened and slipped out of her. They dressed and went out to the kitchen where everyone else was for dinner.

That night

Travis had gone to bed soon after dinner and making sure everyone knew what needed to be done for tomorrow. Sarah slipped away from everyone that was awake and was in the bedroom soon after Travis had fallen asleep. She curled up next to him idly playing with his hair as she drifted off to sleep.