From the journal of Nathan Sanchez, March 8

This journal on a flash drive was donated to the archives by Darren Sanchez, brother of the author Nathan Sanchez. Darren requested that this journal be included to illustrate how regular people rose to challenges in the days of the beginning of the pandemic. If not for the bravery of his brother, Darren and the other men who were incarcerated in the Lincoln County Detention Center at the onset of the pandemic would not have had a chance.

March 8, 2017

     I had to go to the Lincoln County Detention Center today because the phones have not been working for a few days now and the family was worried about Darren. He was supposed to call home for Nana's 95th birthday on the 5th, but no call came through. I spent all day yesterday trying to get through to make sure everything is OK,  but the lines are not working like they do when a storm knocks everything out. Nana and Papa asked me to go check on my baby brother, even though he is in his 40's and has been incarcerated for most of his teenage and adult life.
     I left early in the morning because it usually takes me at least an hour to get to the detention center. Usually, we call on Tuesday between 9 am and 1 pm to make an appointment to see Darren on Wednesday. The phones would not connect the call all day yesterday, so I am driving down there only to be turned away, most likely. But, if it will stop the grandparents from worrying themselves sick, I will happily drive down just to be told not to worry and to call next week for an appointment.
     Today, it looked like a third world country at war on the way to the detention center. There were bodies in the streets and on the lawns. The stores were being looted or were on fire while people streamed in and out of them like they were already mindless freaks. What good do people think a T.V. is going to be when there is no electricity or internet? I mean, really! Cars were everywhere, some with people driving and some surrounded by the undead freaks banging on the glass like a 3 year old with their first hamster.
     I had to weave in and out of traffic, people and obstacles. I locked my doors the first block away from Nana's house to keep people from trying to open the doors. It took me 3 times as long or more to get to the detention center and when I got out of my 1990 Isuzu Trooper, I was not sure I could believe what I was seeing. There were a bunch of dead freaks in the yard and when I closed the drivers door, I heard men yelling from every pod for help. The front gate was wide open and there were 4 National Guards trucks in the parking lot. I made my way into the yard area and asked the first person I could talk to through a window about what was going on. I learned from this inmate, last name of Jackson, what had happened to the National Guardsmen and the Correctional Officers.
     I made my way to the body of one of the CO's and took his keys from his belt. His name tag said his name was Charlie Marks and he looked like a teenager in the picture on his badge. He was missing his right arm from the elbow down and looked like a wild animal had been gnawing at his face and neck. I saw that all the bodies in the yard had bullet holes in their heads and were staying dead. From what I could see, it looked like the Guardsmen and CO's fought their way out of the center and left the inmates to die slow, horrible deaths. If I could get my hands on any of those people right now, I would do to them just what they did to my brother and all those other men. I would lock them in a small space with minimal food from the commissary. I would leave all the lights on, so it is always light, even at night. I would give them one sink and toilet, out in the open. I would leave them with no hope that they will be rescued. If I had not listened to Nana and Papa, then all those men would have died and no one would have cared except maybe their families, if they were still alive.
     I had seen the guards open the doors it felt like a million times, so I was able to get into Darren's pod quickly. The inmates closest to the locks walked me through how to open the cell doors and once I got a few of them out, we were able to open the rest of the cells pretty fast. We then grabbed more sets of keys from dead CO's and went to the other pods to let the others out, too. We  did have to deal with a little over a dozen undead freak inmates, but we were able to control those situations with locks and take them on with the advantage on our side. I had found the remaining shotguns that usually shoot bean bags and had grabbed a duffel bag of them with live rounds to hand out to the inmates. One of them, a giant African American man named Malik stopped me  to ask why I was helping them. I told him about Darren and said that everyone had made mistakes, but they should all go see if their families were alright.
     Once everyone was free and fed, I explained what had been going on in the outside world and they told me what had happened at the center in more detail. I helped the men organize the 14 vehicles to get them to the areas that people needed to go in. We searched the bodies and found the keys. Once everyone knew what they were doing, I left with Darren and other men in my Trooper headed towards home to Elwood. We helped the others find working cars and dropped them off one by one on the way. Nana and Papa cried when I walked through the door with Darren. Once everyone had calmed down, we got the whole family together and Darren told everyone what had happened at the detention center. We decided to head to our Uncle Ramon's ranch outside town. It has adobe walls that are reinforced with a system of metal rods on the inside that form a scaffolding. He had a garden and an orchard in his yard, as well as chickens, sheep, goats, cows and rabbits. We sent the younger adult family members to collect those not present at Nana's and we headed out to Ramon's to hunker down.
     It is crowded in every building here. The old bunkhouse is where Darren and me are sleeping. The women spent the day cleaning and the men repaired the buildings as best we could. Tents were set up in the fenced yard areas for the children and guards were posed along the walls and in the several vantage points in the yard. We will be planning out a long term strategy this week. Hopefully, we can come to an agreement on how to go from here.
   

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