Chico City Center: 39.72554 -121.80200
Oroville City Center: 39.50528 -121.54100
Orland City Center: 39.74507 -122.18456
Marysville City Center: 39.15757 -121.57146

DESCRIPTION: When the infection hit, most of California fell almost immediately. Los Angeles suffered from a meteor impact, and the infection was quick to overtake the Sacramento and San Francisco Metropolises, while San Diego was swarmed within a few days of L.A.'s infection. The military retreated from the West Coast immediately, leaving the residents to fend for themselves. But unknown to them, most of Central California was left relatively untouched, with Chico and it's surrounding communities having just enough time to begin building defenses. Chico was the most successful in this effort, erecting a 20 foot tall wall from local concrete resources and salvaged housing materials. The Chico haven soon expanded to smaller pods in surrounding communities, offering help to similar, smaller pods of survivors in Oroville, Orland and Marysville. Eventually the havens were interconnected by major highways, all of which are walled off by chain link fences but most protected by the relative countryside isolation. 
Chico, being the largest haven, holds most of the haven's population, it's center of commerce, and it's central government. Within it's walls, old houses and foundations were pulled up to grow small farms near the barriers, and within the city most of the inhabited houses sport vegetable gardens in place of lawns. It's city center and government building is the Chico College library, and it's trading center is the set of stores at the coordinates provided, at the very south of the haven.
Oroville is primarily responsible for the haven's abundant power and water resources. Being so close to the Oroville dam and lake, they were able to redirect most of the available water resources to Chico and the other communities, and hydroelectric power from the dam keeps the lights on in all four of the communities without trouble. Oroville is the smallest of the four communities, with it's few hundred members all being associated with the dam in some way, although it also sports a small farming community to it's west. It's city center is the former Oroville hospital, being one of the largest buildings in the entire town.
Orland is the agricultural center of Chico, with most of it's land inside it's walls being salvaged for farming, while the walls are constantly expanding and being added onto to provide more space. It's community lives mostly on these farms. It's city center is the former Mill St. School, chosen over the nearby city hall for the larger amount of space. A small amount of housing surrounds the center, but the rest has been demolished over the course of 5 years to make room for agriculture.
Marysville is the furthest south portion of the Chico haven, taking over an hour by driving to get there from Chico. It is the second largest residential center, and is also the most threatened of the four havens. It is continually threatened by a larger zed presence from Yuba City, as well as acting as a barrier between Chico and the rest of southern California. It is continually scavenging essentials from Yuba City and has a small agrarian community to the northeast, but for the most part it exists because Chico likes the security it provides. It's city center Marysville is a cultural center for the haven, and is generally considered one of the most luxurious spots to live on the West Coast, assuming you're comfortable having a hundred thousand zed pounding on the southern wall. It's city center is a former middle school, chosen for similar reasons to Orland's.

Chico is the only one of the central surviving havens to maintain a complete democracy. They even hold regular elections. They have the highest combined population of any haven, but also happen to be the most inaccessible. The landscape is beautiful, the food, water and power is abundant and there are thousands of people to welcome you back to a normalcy of life…if you can brave the countless hordes of zombie surrounding the area.

POPULATION: 50,000 

DEFENSE:
Chico is the most secure of the towns, sporting 40 foot high concrete walls coupled with a 20 foot deep moat to keep zed a comfortable distance away. The moat is flushed once a year to keep zed from piling up. The walls extend for about 2 miles to the northwest of the coordinates provided, making it the largest of the four parts of the haven.
Oroville is the least secure, but also the least threatened, of the four havens, with it's walls in some places being nothing more than a chain link fence, while in others it relies on old house fences or other makeshift wood boarding. It's barely 8 feet tall at it's highest point. It's hardly ever bothered, however, and the walls are constantly patrolled. The walls extend erratically around houses and roads, as Oroville in itself is fairly erratic in it's city planning.
Orland is similar to Oroville for security, as it's walls are being continually expanded to make room for more farms. But also similar to Oroville, it's rarely bothered by any heavy zed presence, and the borders are continually patrolled for safety.
Marysville ties Chico for the most secure of the four towns, with 30 foot high walls made entirely of concrete or steel, and a 20 foot deep moat to match it's rival town's. This moat is flushed closer to once a month due to zed constantly heading towards the city, and the Marysville Militia is Chico's primary military strength. Marysville is a stalwart defender of it's counterparts, and fills the role well.
In addition to the haven walls, the highways and roads connecting the towns are barricaded by fences and walls, and to the south, a line of "noisemakers" (an idea courtesy of Westley Jeromiah) runs for several miles parallel to Marysville, drawing any zed in the area west, instead of north.

SUPPLY: Chico will never go in want in regards to supplies. They are abundant in just about everything, but there's always room for another salvager looking to hawk his wares in Chico's commercial center, or an adventurer looking to join the Marysville Salaveger teams.

OVERALL RATING: 8/10