The camp Don and Ash had been taken to wasn't an actual camp in the traditional sense. It was SHQ.
The difference hit immediately the moment the helicopter had descended through the floodlights earlier.
The last time Don had seen SHQ, the structure had looked almost abandoned beneath the citywide blackout.
Dark windows. Empty checkpoints. Hallways operating under failing emergency systems while blood and bodies spread through portions of the compound during the collapse.
Now the entire place looked awake.
Floodlights blazed from every corner of the massive compound, casting harsh white illumination across rows of military tents, mobile command stations and temporary medical facilities erected throughout the grounds.
Thick cables stretched between generators humming near supply depots while portable communication towers blinked red against the night sky overhead.
At the center of it all stood the main SHQ structure itself.
Alive again.
