From the journal of Correctional Officer Steven Williams, May 13

May 13, 2017

We were going to leave yesterday, but Mike Cox, one of the former button pushers, wandered off on his own. It has been said and stressed so many times to not go off by yourself, no one thought anyone would just wander away. No one knows how long he was gone before it was noticed, but everyone had to stop getting ready to leave. We had to form search parties and spend yesterday looking through the housing complex and surrounding area.

It took us three hours just to search the houses and then we branched out to the area directly around the complex. There are a couple of strip malls and some grocery stores and we split into teams to search for him. After about four hours, we did find him in a liquer store about a mile from the complex. He had been bit trying to get a basket load of alcohol back to where we were by the cashier. He told us he was so excited that the store was still fully stocked and hadn't been robbed. Mike had his back to the counter, drooling over the high end liquer in a locked cabinet. The cashier heard him, or smelled him, and crawled around the end of the counter and latched onto his right leg before Mike could react. He took the zombie out, but too late and too loud, by using his pistol and he drew a few more to the store. They started pounding on the windows and he was stuck. He said he craweled behind the counter and lay there, waiting for someone to realize he was gone and come looking for him.
Aaron told the rest of us that he has been caught searching for alcohol when he was on scavenging missions before. He was pulled from going out on them for a couple of weeks when he almost got someone bit when he was supposed to be watching Larry's back. Instead, he was trying to break into a locked liquer cabinet in the next room over. One of the other guys was just walking something to the pile of supplies when he saw the undead about to pounce and stepped in. But just disappearing without telling anyone where he was going? When he knew we were supposed to be leaving today? Stupid, stupid, stupid!
We got him back to camp and into Dr Ben's care, then gathered the adults to discuss what would happen next. It was decided that we would spend the rest of the day where we were and then head to Aspen today. We will make Mike as comfortable as possible in one of the vehicles, but we can't let this keep us here any longer. We need to move on and find a more permanent place to survive.

The children need stability and we need to get them settled and set up a school for them. It would be, by necessity, a little different than before. Yes, they would learn the basics of English, Math, History and Science. But, other subjects would have the included now. Like firearms use and safety, or hand to hand combat and survival cooking lessons could go a long way.
This morning, we got up, packed the last of the gear still out, and headed to Aspen. It took us almost twice as long to get everyone there than it did for Williams and Gary to get to the trucks drop spot. Once we were there, Williams and Gary headed off to talk to the group already here and the rest of us are making our group secure while we wait. We circled the vehicles up, set up sentries, and got everyone else in the center area to wait for the men to return with news. Either we would be welcomed into their compound and make one group out of the two. Or, they would threaten us and a decision will have to be made to either move on or find a place to settle here anyway.  I am hoping for us to be welcomed.

As a writer and artist, I appreciate any readers and their comments. Thank you for taking the time to read this blog. Please, come read the other blog I write for our artisan collective, Raven's Castle Creations, on our website at www.ravencastlecreations.com. It includes posts on art, the mythology of symbols we use in our art, history and more! Also, come see the art we produce in our Etsy store at etsy.com/shop/RavenCastleCreations. Follow us on Twitter at @ravencastleart and on Facebook at @ravencastlecreations.