Head Full of Ghosts

Chapter 6 - Life After Death

Mills, Kevin, Jensen, and the rest of the group, minus Nano who stayed behind to continue monitoring his post, and Zahra, who Mills had demanded go home, rounded the corner of a building and came into one of the best views of the whole town.

Mills waved his hand to indicate all that lay before them, like a salesman, and stated, "Welcome to our town."

"It's massive," said Kevin, simply. From the vantage point from the crest of the small hill you really could see quite a distance. The towering wall that contained the community stretched out past them until it almost managed to disappear in the distance, barely visible through the tops of trees along the horizon. At one point between here and there, though, the wall dove inward to a smaller, though still quite large gated area. This smaller area was a singular neighborhood, comprising, Kevin guessed, several dozen houses.

No, not houses. Even from the distance he could tell they were bigger than any house he'd ever been in. They must have practically been mansions. Or, at least, mini-mansions.

It must have been a gated community at one point, and possibly that gate had allowed it's inhabitants to better close themselves off from the brewing apocalypse, and then, as it became safe to do so, they had built out a newer wall, connecting undoubtedly to some existing structures to complete that wall. This allowed for them to have a fully functioning town similarly defended, but also serving as an extra barrier for the houses in the fancy community.

"It's like an old castle town," he added after a while.

"What's that?" asked Mills.

"Uh, castles. In the middle ages, you know, everyone was constantly at war. So you built your castle, heavily fortified it with its own wall, and then beyond that wall would be a town. You built a second wall around the town, usually smaller and simpler, so that if anyone invaded you could bring all the people into the main castle which was easier to defend."

"I guess it's like that, sure," said Mills.

Kevin realized that his remark probably sounded like strategizing to the sheriff, and decided that it would be better to keep further such observations to himself. So instead he quickly changed the subject.

"What do you call this place?"

Mills scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Honestly, mostly we just call it our town. The original gated community was called Wimbledon Falls. I kind of like to call it, 'Providence.'"

Kevin nodded. "Fitting."

Mills motioned everyone onward. "This way," he said, and led them down the hill and around the building. They traveled down a few streets, and Kevin noticed that a lot of the area was empty or abandoned, mostly a lot of empty storefronts. Stores nobody would ever need again to sell things that would probably never exist again.

"Why all this space if nobody's using it?"

"We've been continuing to build outward from the original community. Partly it's to create a greater barrier between us and... well... them. But partly it's because we have plans for these spaces. We hardly have everything we need contained in a single neighborhood.

"Also, it's probably not as big as you're thinking it is. A group of us can search every nook and cranny of the place in under an hour. A good sprinter could probably get from the farthest point to the farthest point in no more than fifteen minutes. Believe me, it would be difficult for something to happen here and not have everyone know within a few minutes."

"You're still worried I'm planning something."

Mills shrugged noncommittally. "Just making sure you know the score."