 |
| Got a decent pic of the perimeter wall before the guards shooed me off. |
Thankfully, living where I do, I can pretty easily reach the border towns.
The traffic up that way is horrendous. I spent more time parked than I did actually driving. I fucking hated Mesquite with a passion before I even got there.
The "Mesquite Relocation Zone" as FEMA calls it, is a total dump. Most of the town is intact, but it's basically depopulated at this point. I can understand why. Can't tell you how many times I'd be in my hotel room, trying to sleep, and I'd get woken up by gunshots.
Probably a couple dozen, I'd guess.
Anyways, security doesn't allow anyone in or out of the camps without clearance, and that was something I'm rather lacking in. That said, they don't do a very good job trying to hide what's going on here. You can smell the camps long before you see them. It's kind of hard to describe, really. Just this overwhelming smell of people. I mean, it smelled a lot like shit too, but you get the point.
From what I've heard, the National Guard stages raids into the Zone occasionally. Not very often, though. I happened to see one go out this morning, and they didn't come back with as many people as the left with. It's probably worse out there than I thought. Who knows, really?
I know I'm sure as shit not going out there.
The military came back with people, though. Most of them looked like extras out of a Mad Max movie, honestly. They sure as shit didn't look like they wanted to be there. I managed to get a good look at how they screen people. I've heard it was bad, but jesus.
People in these bright orange hazmat suits, all working in this huge tent in the center of the camp. They hosed all the refugees down with some kind of bright blue fluid. Some kind of decontamination, maybe?
Then, they herded all of them into the big tent and I couldn't see them anymore. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that's not a good sign.
It took a couple hours, but the refugees finally came back out, and they were wearing these bright orange jumpsuits. Like a plumber's coveralls, you know? Each one had a number on it. I'm guessing that's to keep track of them, and I'm sure it's totally mundane, but I couldn't help but be reminded of a concentration camp.
A couple people that went in didn't come out of that tent.
