The city (Don't drink the water)

Chapter 1: The town that never grows old

The convoy approached the town. From a few kilometers away, the few scrapers that donned the towns skylines arose in the distance, like skeletal fingers arising from a grave. The eerie sense of  stillness enveloped me, like a cold fog that settled on my bones. The radio crackled again but this time the message being broadcasted was garbled. The monotone voice that relayed the earlier transmissions had been replaced by the voice of a man  hoping that his message would not be cut off by interference.

 "Alert, new intel has been received and is being relayed, there is [static]..do not...[static]the water. I repeat, do not drink[static]"

   The message felt mundane, the idea that we travelled without taking account water was probably lost amongst the chain of memos that were probably made prior to this operations move. As we approached the entrance of the town,  the convoy branched off into three parts, one to lay down a communications center on the outskirts of the town, the rest to comb through the residential and commercial areas, then set up camp. Was it a reclamation project, reconnaissance, terrorists? No one knew at the time the importance of this man-made forest, abandoned to the elements. Though directives weren't clear, the feeling of the place had already become ominous, if not, foreboding...

Contrary to the view of the town from a distance, the city seemed relatively new, to the confusion of many, it was almost as if it was never abandoned to begin with. The streetlights beamed like they were newly installed. The few multistory buildings towered to the sky, its polished windows causing light to cast off like beacons into the night sky. The light was an eerie, but welcome sight, as the first group, call-sign unit one was setting up communications, and already rolling out a command center tent. Call-signs unit 2 and three began to disembark. as I got out of the armored jeep, the evening frost instantly hit my bones, though being cramped in a vehicle a long period of time was mildly unbearable, the idea of curling into a ball on the floor of a heated vehicle seemed increasingly similar to a luxury. Turning to the entrance of the city I realized that unit 1 had shifted their position closer to the town. Probably the feeling of being the feeling of being caught in the deadwoods by an ambush probably drew them closer to the almost comforting lights of the area. Turning back to the task at hand, I shouldered my rifle, and walked to join in on the reconnaissance. I teamed up with three others. One was tall ,gauntly and carried himself with an awkward gait, another was a cheerful bloke with cheeks turning red from the cold.  The final person said his name was zloveshcheye predchuvstviye, but his friends called him Doug. 

As we walked though the sidewalks peering into the large display store windows,  Doug started talking about the rumors that circulated from people that he knew that knew people who heard about this place. We broke into a slow walk as he regaled about how it was rumored that people in the city saw strange sights, like lights in the skies, to large shadowy creatures seen walking in broad daylight before disappearing into thin air. The tall gauntly one turned to Doug and said

"Did any of the rumors describe why the lights are still on?"

Doug shrugged, then replied

"Probably, but its probably lost in the corner of my mind"

The tall gangly guy smirked, I frowned, but looked away. The idea of spooks and things that go bump in the middle of the night was already sending shivers down my spine. A short distance away a soldiers were happily carrying armloads of something. We approached to see what the fuss was about. One, as he saw us approaching, lifted and brandished a can, and started making his way back to his group. Glancing at the store he was in, they had found canned goods in stock in the aisles, past the refrigerators, containing milk and other products. I walked in and went straight to the cold foods section. I carefully nudged the door open, expecting the smell of rancid milk to flood into the surrounding area, but instead was greeted by the musty smell of that came from age, and the smell of non-expired milk. I picked up a carton, and opened it. The contents smelt fine....so I checked the expiry date, but where the expiry date of the milk was meant to be, a symbol of a lighthouse was present. I walked to the shelf and picked up a random can and placed it in my pocket. As I walked out a few people were already opening the cans and heating them over a fire. The events transpiring as they were began to feel mildly suspicious, but shrugging it aside, I caught up with my patrol a few blocks in. They had barely noticed I was gone.

Filling me in on what I missed, they had cleared out a few blocks with nothing but empty clothing stores and an ATM, which actually gave out currency (Doug waved it enthusiastically), the currency was outdated, but apparently still crisp. Strange. We approached a mall. It was the only place without any lights on....