From the journal of Nathan Sanchez, March 22

March 22, 2017

     I have never been so scared in all my life. I thought rescuing Darren from the detention center was the scariest thing I would ever have to do, but today was so much worse. The ranch was swarmed by a group of around 25. It took all of us to defend the place and we had to secure the kids, and those too old or infirm to fight, in the basement. Luckily, there is the old boot legging tunnel so they could escape no matter what happened to us defending the ranch. We only have 5 rifles and ammo was pretty thin. The swarm made it clear that we were going to have to make guns a big priority in our scavenging missions.

   We placed Uncle Ramon and two of his brothers upstairs and had them take out as many of the undead as they could with the ammo they had. Of the 25 or so in the group, they were able to take out 13. The male cousins all prepared to go out to fight hand to hand while the women prepared to defend the windows with whatever they could find. We found some old hockey and football protective gear and a couple of old leather jackets and we added duct tape to the sleeves. Then we grabbed all the large knives and blunt objects we could find.  Ten of us slipped out the back windows and made our way around to the front where the undead had grouped together. We each chose one and started the work of taking them out. This part brought back memories from the detention center and again I found myself in the grey world between life and death with only my own strength and reflexes to get me through. We put our backs to each others and kept hacking and swinging at the undead. It felt like hours passed while we kept moving through the swarm.
     A couple of the undead made it onto the front porch and were taken out by the ladies while the rest of them were dispatched by us. Only 10 minutes had passed when it was all over. I was covered in black blood and pieces of the undead. When I looked around, the other male cousins were covered as well. The front yard and porch looked like a slaughter house floor. Rico went inside to tell the family to keep the kids inside until we could get it cleaned up. Consuela came out to take stock of the defenders and that's when I heard that Joaquin and Alejandro had both been bitten during the fighting. Mateo had been killed by the undead and had to be stuck in the head so he would not come back. None of us knew what would happen to Joaquin and Alejandro. They were put in the downstairs bedroom where Maria cleaned and dressed their wounds.
     An hour after we had finished with the swarm, the family was in the cleaned up yard discussing what we should do about the two who had been bit. We talked for hours and got nowhere. Finally, Papa said we should take a wait and see position and keep them locked in the bedroom. We made a family schedule to routinely check on them and always in pairs. I had myself and Darren put on in the middle of the night and got something to eat. It felt like the middle of the night but was only around noon. We had decided to take the rest of the day to work on our defenses. Ditches were dug so the undead would hopefully fall in before making it into the yard again. Fences were reinforced and platforms were built at the corners of the yard so we could keep a better watch. Again, a schedule was made and Darren put us on right after our turn to check on the bitten. I found a spot to sleep for a while and am looking forward to falling asleep. I wanted to write this down before I slept so maybe it will help me not relive this morning. Hopefully, I will have some dreamless sleep, but that has not happened since the detention center. Here's hoping.

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