I had trouble finding a spot near Adrian with 3-4 square miles of untouched land. Sure, the Hatchlings can be stealthy, but there has to be a logical limit to how blind the locals can be. The area in the thumb just had more untouched land.

Another option might be to find some empty real estate near the home of a particular Infected reviewer at Amazon: from "South Florida, Center of the Universe"... Let him have the privilege of reviewing another story... yesssssssssss. (OK, that's too dramatic of a location change, but it was fun to think about.)

"Everything takes longer than it does." --Me