From the journal of Correctional Officer Steven Williams, July 21

July 21, 2017

     It finally happened. We had to decide what to do with a small group of people we rejected for membership in our community. Since we started getting survivors showing up on our doorstep, we've taken in 22 people. We'd been on a winning streak when it came to the people who came to us. But yesterday, we had a group of five people come to the gate to. They seemed like normal people, a man, two women, a teenage boy and pre-teen girl. They were dressed in dirty clothes, but they were not torn or in bad repair, just dirty from traveling.

     We took them to the transitional house outside the current wall that we use for new people just starting the interview process. We'll have to choose a different house, just outside the new, larger wall when it's done. This group made it obvious to all of us that we have to keep new people outside our community until we've decided if they can join us or not.

     Linda, Aaron and I got them settled in and a meal in their stomachs, then we explained the rest of the process. They were to rest tonight, and then tomorrow the committee for new members will meet with all of them and start the interviews. The interviews usually take about a week to complete and then the decision takes a day or two to make. Charlie, the man, said they understood and were happy to cooperate in any way. The two women, Irene and Carla, didn't say a word and neither did the two younger people, Mason and Faith. But it didn't seem odd, since I assumed they were tired and Charlie was their leader.

     We left them for the night, but put guards on the front and back doors. While we will take a chance and take people in after our process, we're not stupid and don't trust anyone at first. It wasn't even twenty minutes after that, Charlie was spotted checking out both exits and was not happy they were guarded. Gary saw him obviously cursing while he looked out the back window next to the door. Strike one.

     This morning, Linda, Aaron, John Archer, Gary and I went over to the house. We had breakfast from Amanda and her crew and had a bag of clean clothes in a variety of sizes. Every other time we had done this with people, they were glad to see us and thankful for the food and clothes. But Charlie met us at the front door and wouldn't move from the doorway to let us in. Archer had to talk to him for a half hour before we were allowed into our transitional house. And it went down hill from there.

Charlie's group- found in a backpack

     Within five minutes, he was telling us to leave the food and clothes and get out. I pointed out that he was in our house, at our behest, and if anyone was leaving, it would be them. Irene, jumped up and started talking really fast about how “they were sorry, it was just the stress of being out there”. Charlie struggled but did finally get himself under control and we all sat down and their people ate the food. Then, Linda got the clothes out and we had Daniel, from the construction crew, bring a generator and turn on the water pump and the power to the water heater and bathroom. They took turns taking showers, with Charlie going first and Faith going last. They took the whole bag of clothes to the master bedroom, so they could get clean clothes that fit, they said. I knew we'd never see the bag again.

     When the showers were done and it was time to start the individual interviews, Charlie flipped out again, refusing to let us separate them for interviews. He demanded that he be the only one asked questions and only in the room with everyone in it. We went around and around with him, for a couple of hours. Finally, Gary called a halt to it and we told them to rest for a couple of hours, and we'd be back to talk again.

     We went back to out compound and straight to our meeting room. It only took five minutes for us all to know there was no way these people could be let into our group. But what to do with them? We couldn't just let them go. They know where we are and could bring another group after us. We couldn't keep them locked up for long, it's a waste of resources. That left killing them. I think we all knew that's what we'd have to do with rejected people or groups, but none of us had said it out loud until three days ago.

     We called together a larger team and made sure everyone was experienced and well armed. Gary and I both had a feeling that something bad was going to happen. Boy, were we right.

     Only an hour had passed when our guards were under fire and calling for backup. We jumped up and ran to the trucks, rushing out of the wall and to the transitional house. Thank God we had set up the cover positions for our guards, they were pinned down, but safe from being hit. We parked the trucks behind the non attached garage, then we moved into our positions, surrounding the house and taking the planned positions while providing cover fire for each other.

     Once everyone was in position, I yelled out for Charlie to cease firing long enough to talk to me. They stopped firing but Charlie yelled back that if anyone moved, they'd shoot. We yelled back and forth for hours, with occasional periods of gunfire, mostly from Charlie and his group. There were five people shooting from different windows, so all of them were with Charlie. We had discussed giving Mason and Faith a chance, if we could convince them they were better off, but now we knew no one was worth saving.

     By early afternoon, the committee made our way to behind the garage to hold a meeting. We decided to bring in more of our people and up the ante. Smoke bombs, tear gas, and percussion grenades to start and after dark, an all our assault. The house didn't matter, taking out this group now entrenched so close to us was all that matters.

     It's time for me to stop writing so we can put our plan in action. God, keep us safe and let us protect our people.

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.