From the journal of Nathan Sanchez, April 25

April 25, 2017

     Last night we had another family meeting. It turned into the argument from hell! I brought up needing outside blood and the need to watch for people who might fit in and everyone hit the roof! The yelling incoherently over each other lasted for about a half hour before Uncle Ramon could get everyone to shut up. Then he calmly agreed with me. He told the family that he had already been thinking out it and was going to bring it up himself, if not at that meeting, then in the future.

     Consuela went purple in the face and was livid. She kept trying to spit out what she wanted to say, but she stumbled over the first word over and over again. When she finally got it out, she was totally against bringing anyone else onto the ranch. She wanted us to get the stuff to build the greenhouse.
     Fernando said we could do both, since we would be concentrating on our list of possible targets and just keeping an eye out for anyone we could watch. He said we would not go out of our way and would only start surveillance if, and he stressed the if, we saw anyone alive. And only if they didn't act like mutant bikers.
     Uncle Ramon changed the subject to the proposed targets and we put the first five in order of the importance of what they could provide. We also decided to send out two man teams of the lookouts and snipers to watch multiple targets. The teams would be changed every six hours. The local building supply store was chosen as number one and the local medical center was made number two. Some of the older family members were getting low on their needed medicines. It was not critical yet, but why wait until it got to that point.

     Points of defense we next up for discussion. This went quickly, since  everyone was all for anything that might make us safer. Then talk turned back to the topic of other people. The yelling started again and took almost 15 minutes for Uncle Ramon to bring to order again. He suggested that we all think about it and talk to each other informally for the next couple of days, then meet again to discus it again. Everyone agreed and the meeting was ended.
     Darren and I went for a walk and just wandered around the nearest fields. We both agreed that it was frustrating that most of the family that was immediately against the idea of watching for outside people already had spouses. They had someone they could be with, while the rest of us were just shit out of luck. I decided I am going to talk to as many of them as I can in the next couple of days and point that out. Maybe, if some of us in the singles group can talk to the other, just maybe, we can change their minds. It's worth hoping for!

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