Chapter 30 Chapter Thirty

Cole took Puller and drove her patrol car to Trent's house.She said: "I'm going to cut a road. It will save a lot of time, but the road is very bumpy." She turned the steering wheel hard to the right and drove onto a narrow road with potholes. Puller felt a sense of déjà vu.After looking around, he discovered the reason. "What is that?" He pointed to a tall concrete building with a dome, covered with vines, surrounded by some big trees and dense bushes.He had seen the building during the moment he lost his way on the first night on the way here. "The people here named it the Fortress."

"Oh, the question is, what is it for?" "It used to be a government agency facility. It was closed a long time ago, before I was born." "But some of the older folks here must know what it's for. Some must have worked on its construction site." Cole shook his head. "Not really. No Drake ever worked there, at least not one I know." "I know government agencies are always black holes that waste money. But even the guys in Washington don't build a facility that big and don't use it at all." "Oh, they used it." She slowed the car, and Pooler noticed the large stretch of houses he'd seen that night.It looked the same in sunlight as it did when night fell.The houses were at least fifty years old, maybe longer.Most of the houses are abandoned and uninhabited, but some are also inhabited.Rows of stretched houses lie there, forming a large net woven by streets.They reminded Puller of barracks, each row of barracks looking exactly like the one next to it.

"You mean they brought men from outside to build this fort?" Cole nodded and said, "And built so many houses to provide housing for those people." "I saw that there are still people living in some houses." "It's only been in the last few years that people have started to live in them again. The economy has gone down and people have lost their jobs and their homes. The houses are in a state of disrepair, but when you're on the street, you can't pick and choose." "Are they troublesome? Desperate people sometimes do things that don't matter, especially when they're spatially grouped together."

"We patrol the area a lot. But the crime here is just a little bit of a small thing. People here are generally able to restrain themselves, and I think they are grateful to have a roof to live in. The county is trying to help them , often send some blankets, food, drinking water, batteries, and books for children. We have come here many times to warn them not to use kerosene stove heaters and so on, and to preach some safety knowledge. A family has almost died of carbon monoxide poisoning. " "The government just let them occupy the house for nothing?" "I think it's because the federal government has long forgotten that these facilities are still here, like at the end of the movie "Raiders of the Lost Ark", no one knows that there is a cabinet left in the warehouse."

Puller glanced back at the so-called fortress again. "When did it close?" "I don't know exactly when. My mom told me it was sometime in the 1960s." "What about the people who work here?" "Pack up your luggage and evacuate together." "The building just fell down?" "My dad said those people built it magnificently, the walls alone are nearly a meter thick." "one meter!" "That's what my dad said." "No one from Drake ever talked to those people, no one knew what they were doing here."

"As far as I know, the government provides almost all the necessities of life for those workers. My parents say that all the people who come here are in their forties and single. Of course some of them come to town occasionally. My dad Said their mouths were very strict, never said what they were doing." "If they had been in their forties then, most of them, though not all, would probably be dead by now." "I think so." Puller looked again at the fort and the fence surrounding it.There is barbed wire over the fence.Between this building and the row of houses, a large forest grows.Puller's eyes fell on a little boy and a little girl playing in the yard in front of the house.The boy was running in circles in front, and the girl was trying to catch up with him, and finally they got entangled and fell in the yard.

"Do you have a kid?" Puller turned to meet her gaze.She slowed down and let the car drive slowly on the rough road.She also turned her attention to the two children. "No," Pooler replied, "I've never been married." "When I was a little girl, what I wanted most was to be a mother in the future." "What happened next?" She hits the gas pedal: "Life. Anything can happen in life."