and so they drove on the thin red roads between the fields , then through town and out the side past the new construction , past where gangs of workmen lived in rows of makeshift dormitories , out past where new wide roads were being scraped in directions where nothing was yet , to bring in equipment and move it into place for the dam , out past where hired police watched roads and guarded fences behind which lay equipment and supplies for the effort that would soon be underway .