The city (Don't drink the water)

Prelude

It was May 12th. The winter day was shrouded in clouds, filled with the uncertainty of rain or snow. The convoy travelled in silence, the only sounds were that of the crunching of gravel under tire treads, with the occasional rustle of what ever it was that lurked in the forest that lay on either side of the beaten track we were travelling down. The awkward silence intensified as the convoy rolled past a distinct boundary.

 A sign, weathered by time, stood sentry where the road had transitioned from old coarse gravel to old crumbling tarmac scattered with moss. It had the picture of a lighthouse, though the sea was miles away from where we were currently located. The sign itself was partially covered in vines, its words had long faded, but the population number at the edge of the sign was still barely legible. It stated that the town was the inhabitance of a population of 12,383 souls. 

How wrong the sign was. The town had been notoriously known  to have had been abandoned for unknown reasons, though rumors had  begun to circulate that the city's hydroelectric dam had simply run out of water, and the occupants were relocated to a different place. A more dark and sinister rumor stated that the hydro dam had never existed, and that a secret nuclear reactor  instead powered the town. And that for some unknown reason, it simply suffered some technical failure and irradiated the town, killing all its occupants in their sleep.

 I shuddered, and looked out to the forest that hugged the outskirts of the region intel had indicated as the approximate location of this ghost town. Whatever it was, it had left its marked. The convoy continued its journey through the remnants of a forest, with trees left bare of any leaves, with jagged branches pointing accusedly at the skies. Not a soul stirred within. I glanced at my wristwatch, the time was a quarter to 5 pm. I pulled out a granola bar and dolefully ate, observing the devastation left by some unknown force. 

The radio cackled, and an announcement played. It was the fifteenth time it had played, and everyone in the entire convoy probably knew it by heart. The objective was to establish a base of communications a few kilometers from the town, as radio communication was hindered by high rise buildings in the area, and to provide a continuous level of communication with our superiors. The next objective being to search through the area for potential individuals who may be loitering around, and to , as they put it, observe the buildings. ( am not certain why we were being deployed, and in such a large number, as someone had joked on the open coms earlier, for an egg run.) I sipped water from my canteen, and washed down the remains of my granola bar. The convoy travelled further. In the corner of the horizon, I saw a glimpse of light shimmering in the distance.