Rebuilding

A few months before the place had been a wreck. Buildings had been changed from places of work and living space to great piles of bomb-blasted concrete and twisted rebar. The smell was what really got to you though. The concussion of the blasts had broken underground pipes allowing raw sewage to bubble and flow up to the street level. Worse, somewhere under the heaps, dead people and animals rotted away. Everyone working clean up wore surgical masks. They didn't keep out the smell, but did a good job with the flies.

All that was starting to change though. Once the inhabitants had died or run off, the insurgents also left. I guess they didn't like not having people to hide behind. It certainly took away the one advantage they enjoyed. Soldiers were now abundantly evident. Martial law was the only way to keep the place under control, so patrols were constant and a curfew for the workers was enforced.

It had taken an incredible amount of effort, but the thousands of tons of wrecked buildings had been removed or crushed to create the foundation for new structures. As part of the effort massive stone blocks had been trucked in and were stacked along the dirt road through the construction area. In the distance I could see a concrete minaret being constructed. For the first time since arriving I started to feel things would work out okay.