-|-Hope Center-|-

Hope Center rests in the center of what was once Lexington, Massachusetts. Hope Center is a ramshackle hub of survivors patched together on the skeleton of high society from a dead world. Formerly an upscale gated community, Hope Center utilized the small walls and two-way entrance and exit system in place in order to further shield their small home against the threat of undead, raiders, and weather.


Statistics

Population: Approximately 750

Defenses: 20-foot-high concrete wall gated community. Small police force. Firearms and ammunition cache kept under lock and key.

Accommodations: Housing, Trade, Bar, Medical services, Basic Education, Electricity.

Primary Monetary System: Barter

Primary Language: English

Primary Ethnicity: Diverse

Primary Religion: None. All religions are permissible. Proselytizing is not.

The Defenses

Hope Center boasts a twenty-foot-high concrete wall. The concrete for these walls was brought in shortly after Edward Sullivan realized that life as we all knew it would change in an instant. Shipping in mixing trucks while the world went to war with the undead, Edward burned the precious resource of fuel to bring in enough concrete to completely bolster the already-established community's gates. As the walls reached their creational apex, Sullivan used the remaining concrete to build a few chest-high walls at the two entrances to the Center, a protective shield in case raiders would come calling with firearms or projectiles. The gates at each end of the community are shipped in from a storage yard. Ripping the rolling doors from six different sheds, Sullivan created a track on which three roller doors would swing roll across the entrance. To walk in the front doors, an opposing force would have to break through the three layers of sheet-metal reinforced with wooden braces. Aside from the structural defenses of Hope Center, Sullivan has a team of 40 roaming guards armed with suppressed firearms, bows, and crossbows patrolling the wall and watching the gates. Inside the complex, Sullivan has a team of guards that patrol the streets, focusing on internal security.



The Population

Hope Center currently has a residential number hovering around 750. People arrive, depart, and die fairly frequently. These men and women are the workforce that keeps the community thriving. Either they act as manual laborers, tradesmen, guards, or the intellectual base of information. A portion of Hope Center's population live in homes that were already established and managed to escape wear and tear from the outbreak. It's not uncommon for the larger homes to support two or three families under the same roof. To save space, however, most of the old homes were demolished and their remains were used to build something of a shanty-town around the Center's various markets. Currently, the shanties cover the second largest square footage in Hope Center, second only to agricultural space.



The Services

Medical - Hope Center has a makeshift hospital to the south of the community, headed by the Master of Medicine. Most of the staff aren't certified doctors, though some can be found walking the halls alongside the volunteer workforce. Placed inside of a large three-story house left over from before the settlement, most of the rooms have been connected by knocking down walls to allow more space to fit patients coming in and out.

Agriculture - The main food sources in Hope Center are: goat milk/cheese/meat, chicken, eggs, grains, corn, squash, potatoes, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, apples, and berries. This is made possible by the agricultural section of the Center, which takes up over a quarter of the Center's viable territory. The agricultural section is located in the north of the community, just off to the side of the northern gate. What once was a membership-only 18-hole golf course, is now the cultivating grounds for Hope Center's food supply. Split into two halves, one supporting livestock and the other supporting fruits and vegetables, most of Hope Center's food is found grown in this area. Animal husbanders, butchers, and tanners arm the workforce on the livestock side of the agricultural process, raising a few animals for the slaughter to feed the hungry mouths of the Center's residents, and tending the rest for eggs and milk. On the vegetation side, eager hands tend carefully to organic foodstuffs. The most precious of commodities, the food source from the grown plants has its own three-man protective detail assigned by Sullivan wielding the most powerful weapons in the Center - rifles.

Monetary - The Hope Center Exchange is the forefront of trade in the Center. Focusing on a barter system for gain, traders come in to give one useful item away for another. At any given time of the day, scavengers can be seen walking the aisles of the interlocked markets in the center of the shanty-town that houses most of the Center's residents. Aside from the Exchange, there are individual black markets found throughout the Center, though the prices are often never in the buyer's favor. If one has some loose goods in their pocket, they're also welcome to barter for a meal or some spirits at the friendly watering hole, the Wagon Wheel.

Security - Sullivan erected a working 'police' station at the front entrance of the Center, acting as the hub of security for the Center. Whenever a grievance arises, the victim goes into the old community's former watchouse and puts their complaint forth with the guard on duty. The complaint is then filed along the line until it gets into the hands of the guard responsible for patrolling that area of the Center, upon which time he or she will exercise their better judgment in the case. If arrested, criminals are taken to the Law House located a few feet from the hospital and tried before a jury of seven randomly selected peers. Since most crime is seen as heinous given the circumstances of survival, the idea that you'd be punished severely for stealing a towel generally puts most people off that track.

Energy - Since electricity has been out for years, alternate means of energy have been explored. Hope Center houses three windmills that have been erected by a team of engineers that have joined the Hope Center crew as the head engineers. These three windmills supply power to four floodlights located on the outer walls of the Center, one for both gates and two located on opposite sides of the walls. It's not a perfect cover of light, but it allows for spotting the odd Infected or raiding party trying to sneak in. Aside from the spotlights, the windmills also power a building whose sole purpose is to heat meat brought in from the butchery, as well as the makeshift water sanitization building that is hooked up the remnant plumbing in the leftover structures. The remaining power from the windmills is circuited along with that from a few scavenged solar panels to power a few road lights along the main pathway, the scraps of special machinery used at the hospital, as well as machinery tended to by engineers and workers.

Education - There is a small schoolhouse where children and adolescents are taught basic mathematics, grammar, and history in the early mornings. They are released in the late morning to aid in tending the agricultural fields, or other labor with their parents. Teenagers are often apprenticed to specialists if they choose not to follow in their parents' footsteps. In the evenings, the schoolhouse is used by the Master of Academia to seminar to any adults that want to attend. The Master of Academia focuses on history, art, philosophy, and all of the other cornerstones of humanity that may be forgotten in the desperate bid for survival. Tradesmen - Hope Center boasts a hub of skill that can expand to almost any field. There are tailors, metal-workers, cooks, laborers, and any number of other specializations dotting the horizon of people. Whenever necessity dictates, these skilled tradesmen and tradeswomen put their best foot forward and help out in any way they can.