Taking It Back by Joseph Talluto

had been used for directing people to the center.
    We crested a small hill and were able to see the center in the distance. It was located at the edge of a lake and corrugated rooftops gleamed in the morning sun. I could see it was roughly square in layout, surrounded by twin fences separated by a ten foot cleared area for patrols. Guard towers were placed every sixty to seventy feet with double towers at the corner. Large and small buildings were systematically laid out in an efficient pattern. I didn’t know what the individual buildings were or what their function was, but I could guess.
    Surrounding the centers were cars and lots of them. They were parked in neat rows on three sides of the center and they were parked at such angles that a person could not fit between them. I wondered about that for a second until I realized they were put that way as another line of defense, funneling potential zombies into kill zones. Of course, zombies tended to do things rather single-mindedly, so they probably tried to crawl over the cars, which would screw up their orderly disposal.
    I focused on the buildings and didn’t see any activity. In fact, the entire base seemed to have been abandoned. I didn’t see any movement in the visible yards, but that meant nothing. I could feel the hairs sticking up on the back of my neck and it wasn’t from the breeze out of the north. Something was not right with this place, but if it had the answers I was looking for, then it was worth the risk.
    I put the binoculars away and turned back to the group assembled outside the cars.
    “I don’t see any activity, but you all know what it means to let your guard down. We’re going in hot, so everybody watch your muzzles and shoot only as a last resort. We’ll stop for an equipment check before the gate. Any questions?”
    Tommy spoke up. “If we’re expected at Coal City, why are we stopping here? Chances are anything left has been looted a long time ago.”
    I nodded. “You’re right, I’m sure everything is gone of value. But this is the only place where we might be able to get some answers. What the hell happened to our government? What happened to our military? If these centers were to be manned by state guards, where did they go? Was there a national fall back line we missed? What about other countries? Who’s left? I don’t expect to find all the answers, but I hope to find out something. I’d hate to think we’re killing ourselves just trying to survive when the rest of the survivors are living safe and well just a few miles away.”
    Tommy nodded with the rest of the group and we piled back into the cars to see what we could find out. We would likely turn up nothing, but it was worth a look.
    We drove up to the front of the gate and I was surprised to see that it was wide open. I expected some sort of barricade, but there was none. The fence was ten feet high with razor wire topping the edge and there was a second fence inside the first. The area in between was covered in fine rock and I could see boot prints pressed into the gravel as soldiers went about their patrols. I could also see what looked like bare footprints and dragging marks in the gravel as well. The grass surrounding the front of the center was flattened down, as if it had been trampled by a thousand feet. A trail led away to the south, but I paid it little attention.
    We turned the cars around for a quick exit if we needed it and I figured to leave the vehicles running. We weren’t going to be longer than ten or twenty minutes and the sun was getting higher in the sky. I wanted to get to Coal City as soon as possible without spending the night in an unsecured area.
    Once the cars were ready we checked weapons and loaded chambers. Magazines were secured and topped off if needed and clothing was checked for rips and loose material. I hunkered down into the gravel of the driveway and drew a crude map of the complex as I had seen it from the hilltop.
    “Okay,” I