He hadn't been able to see the location of the shooting sounds the day before because a slight curve in the road that had blocked his view. So when Dave reached the curve and could see around it, he could see something surprising: a make-shift defensive position. It was in an intersection to some main roads.
The intersection was a small, local shopping area. As Dave rode up to the intersection he could see a supermarket on the furthest corner on his left. To his immediate left was a clothing store that also seem to have camping equipment. On the far right of the intersection was a cafe. And to his immediate right was a pub. Around this hub were a variety of other stores that Dave would find later like post offices, a small police station, a butchers, and other tiny businesses.
Dave stopped in front of a line of defences that blocked the road. The defences were simple, made from random materials that had most likely been found nearby. The defence walls were all made in a similar way. Large vehicles like buses or cargo trucks were parked across the roads accessing the intersection in order to block off as much of the road as possible in one action. If there was any room left over then small vans were wedged into the gaps to create a continuous wall of vehicles that stretched across the roads. Slabs of concrete, clearly lifted out of the nearby sidewalks, were placed over any spaces that could let a person walk through. Random rubble like concrete pieces and stones were wedged in all manner of left-over spaces underneath and between the vehicles. This created a rough but continuous wall that linked the four buildings that were at the corner of the intersection, creating a defensive position at the intersection itself.
Dave clambered up the wall and stood looking over the intersection. The roofs of the buses and trucks had been where the defenders had stood. Dave had to be careful not to slip on the hundreds of empty bullet casing that were underfoot. But it was a sight that made no sense at all. Dave could imagine each wall had thousands of its own empty bullet casings but there wasn't a single thing to show for it.
With thousands of rounds fired, Dave should have found some bodies. Human or not. Something. Anything. Even assuming an unrealistic miss rate, there should have been something to see. All Dave could see were defences, and the signs that the defences were used, but there was no sign of any of the actors that had been involved in what happened.
In the middle of the intersection was a somewhat organised pile of crates, making what looked like a supply depot. Dave felt a tingle of excitement. Surely within one of those boxes was a forgotten firearm and some ammunition for it. Dave had spent so long feeling defenceless that the prospect of gaining some sort of offensive power made him giddy with excitement.
Carelessly, Dave dropped down from the wall and started picking through the military-looking crates. It wasn't difficult to search through them as the crates were all opened. Because of that it took only a few seconds for Dave to see that all the crates were empty. There was no miracle weapon to save Dave and his spirits slumped faster and deeper than he expected. He internally berated himself and tried to rally himself.
Dave could only surmise that these had been ammunition crates. Whoever had been here had fought until they had run low on ammunition and then abandoned this base. Dave then remembered hearing vehicles being driven south from this intersection and so he walked to the southern defensive wall and climbed up.
By the lack of empty bullet casings on this wall, Dave could tell that this wall hadn't been placed under a lot less pressure. Looking over at the other walls Dave could roughly estimate that the east and northern walls had been the locations of the most shooting. The west wall had roughly a quarter of the empty casings as the east wall. The south wall had almost no casings on it. Why most of the combat was directed to the north-east was a mystery to Dave.
Not expecting to see anything, Dave looked south and received a rather large shock. Dave had seen a lot of roads on his journey and though the exact density varied there were alway some cars and other vehicles on the roads. But what shocked Dave so much about the road leading off to the south was that there was nothing on the roads.
For as far as Dave could see to the south, the roads had been cleared with all abandoned vehicles pushed off the roads. The area south looked to have a number of semi-rural housing blocks, so there was plenty of space to get the vehicles completely off the road. This wasn't the sort of task that one long man could do and Dave wondered what sort of organisation existed that could clear the roads in this way.
Dave looked south then looked back at the intersection that had been made into a defensive position. An idea was beginning to ease into his mind. Although he was tempted to head south, another purpose was forming in his mind. It was a bit of a crazy purpose and so Dave couldn't bring himself to state the purpose clearly, even to himself.
But the purpose was strong enough to override his desire to head south. And to satisfy his growing purpose Dave needed to secure for himself a base where he could safely stay the night. There were a number of shops in this area so he had some decent supplies available. What he still lacked was a secure place to sleep at night.
Dave looked to the roof of the supermarket. Living on rooftops was getting old, but so far it hadn't failed him yet. Dave needed to look
