The humvee lumbered up the driveway. It was not alone, 'two, three, four.' Sarah counted to herself as more vehicles emerged from the treeline. She was standing in the open between the cabin and driveway, she realized Amanda had run to join her, pistol in hand, but they were clearly out gunned.
The lead vehicle turned and drove methodically towards the two women. It came to a stop in front of them as the next truck continued towards the cabin. 'Five, six, seven,' the seventh wasn't a humvee but another larger truck, Sarah locked eyes with the man stepping out of the passenger side of the vehicle. She couldn't take her eyes off of him.
"Boy, isn't that a sight for sore eyes." The driver said as he stepped out looking Amanda up and down in her bikini.
Sarah barley noticed what he had said. She ran towards the passenger and lept into his arms. "Don't you ever do that to me again Travis Friar."
Travis
Fairweather Estate: July 17th, 2052. 6:23 PM
"Oh my God, that feels so good." Travis moaned, "you have no idea how much I missed this."
Sarah laughed and smiled, "of all things you missed the shower?"
"Among others." Travis stuck his head out of the shower and looked at Sarah and she shook her head at him as he smiled.
Travis had spent the afternoon helping Lieutenant Driver's platoon unload and set up their tents and park their trucks out of the open field. He had called for a meeting with the rest of the militia so that he could go over everything. The mayor, David Johnson, had taken his truck into town when they had gotten back so that no one in the town saw the military convoy yet.
After his shower he got dressed in the uniform provided to him, it was an older pattern but worked well for this part of Kentucky. He thumbed the eagle on his lapel thinking how odd it felt. Sarah had left the room while he was still on the shower, she had been organizing all the shifts for the militia and was probably had a lot to do with the addition of a platoon of soldiers.
Everyone had gathered outside now that the living room of the cabin wasn't big enough to hold everyone. Lt. Driver, Sam, Sarah, and David were waiting on the porch.
Lt. Driver snapped to attention as he stepped outside. Sam snickered to himself and turned away so no one could see him laugh.
Travis started while ignoring Sam, "I will try to keep this brief, while I was away we were called into Frankfort, turns out Kentucky held together pretty well the last few months compared to elsewhere." Sam had quieted down and everyone was actually paying close attention Travis noticed. Word from outside the county was hard to come by. "The governor has appointed me colonel," Travis heard Sam trying to contain his laughter, "of the state militia in the eastern mountains."
"Kentucky and parts of Ohio and Tennessee are now working together to help everyone through this." Some small whispers were spreading, "the government and military leadership of this country is mostly gone. Our state government is one of the few that remained mostly intact, Texas, North Carolina, and..." Travis tried to remember the others but trailled off in an awkward pause.
"Nebraska and Idaho." Lieutenant Driver spoke up.
"Yes, thank you. For the most part, we are on our own. These men are from Fort Cambell. They have had a tough couple months and are here to help us secure the county. Their platoon is led by First Lieutenant Driver, and the rest of their company is in Laketon with another unit from Fort Knox. None of these men here are from Kentucky. They have all lost friends and family and were given the choice to leave or stay on so they are here for us. I want you to treat them like they have been here all their lives." Travis was glad to see everyone nodding along.
"One last thing." Travis reached for the two envelopes in his jacket. Opening the first Travis read, "Samuel Wydant is hereby granted the rank of captain in the Kentucky State Militia by the powers vested in me by the state of Kentucky signed governor Randall Paul." Sam's smile disappeared, "and Sarah Warner is hereby granted the rank of second lieutenant in the Kentucky State Militia by the powers vested in me by the state of Kentucky signed governor Randall Paul. That is all for now everyone." Travis turned and motioned for Driver to follow him, "Sarah, Sam, David, Amanda, we need to talk."
Travis had just gotten the door to his room closed when everyone started talking at once.
"Captain are you fucking kidding me?"
"What the hell is going on?"
"What did you want me here for?"
Travis looked around the room, it was a mess. "Sam, it wasn't up to me," he nodded at Dave, "Sarah, we are housing lieutenant Driver's platoon for an undetermined length, and Amanda you are here because I need you to tell everyone what is going on."
"But I don't even know what is going on." Amanda was standing next to Sarah as Travis thought about what happened the last time he was in the room with Amanda. He had surprised her in the shower thinking it was Sarah and that he would join her. Amanda was masturbating and ended up giving Travis a blow job when she fell on him.
"The governor wanted this official. Sam you are second in charge here, Sarah, you are third, and Driver you are fourth." Travis was about to continue when Driver interrupted.
"Colonel, I am well aware of your military record, but Mr. Wydant and Miss Warner are not qualified to be in this position of..."
"Lieutenant! I am not going to argue this. Sam, I mean Captain Wydant, is a senior officer, address him properly." Travis could almost hear Sam's jaw hitting the floor, "Warner and him have lived here their whole lives. They know every mountain, stream, and every dirt road and path. You are assigned to be my executive assistant, and please watch your complaints in front of the soldiers." Driver shut up and let Travis continue.
Travis noticed Amanda's confused face. "Amanda you are the liason between Driver's platoon and everyone else, see to it they are comfortable and have everything they need. Driver you and Amanda are dismissed."
The lightbulb went off in Amanda's head, "oh, I'm the soldier."
Sam couldn't contain himself and burst out laughing as Amanda and Driver left the room.
Sam stopped laughing enough to say, "you should have gone easy on 'em, I was only a sergeant."
Travis frowned, "so was I." Travis looked at Sam, Sarah, and David. "This is not going to be any joy ride by far. We have a lot of work to do. These guys have been through a lot. It's a lot different out there then it is here. Lt. Driver was gaurding a food line at a shopping center outside of Cincinnati. The squad was overrun when people at the back of the line started fighting, when they tried to break it up the people attacked them. Driver refused to let the squad open fire. She and a private escaped by getting onto the shopping centers roof while everyone else was beaten to death. Private Fridel was from Chicago, the nuke that hit there wiped out his entire family, Sergeant Rodriguez moved his family to an off base apartment from California just last year. His wife was killed when a mob attacked the grocery store she worked at the day the bombs hit, his kid was killed the day after that when a neighbor had a shootout with an armed robber. The kid was hit by a stray bullet while staying with another neighbor."
"I'm sorry Trav I didn't know," Sam muttered.
"Every single man and woman in that platoon out there has a similar story. They were all thrown together a week ago and then dispatched here so they could be out of the way to recooperate mentally and physically. We need to give them the structure that they need to not lose any skills and training."
Sam nodded in agreement.
"David, I know that you have to get back into town before the rumors start to go crazy, but there are two things I want you to do." Travis went over to his desk and pulled out the quad maps that they had gotten from the library. "First, even though the platoon out there was given food for themselves, I want to save as much of it as we can for winter, we have 30 extra mouths to feed and Laketon has about 200. You need to figure out the rations."
The mayor nodded, "understandable, what else?"
"I want you to figure out what is going on with the military." Travis said laying down the quad maps from Laketon south to Cumberland.
