Unclaimed

Now, here's a funny thing. Someone commented on yesterday's post, worried that I might have spooked whoever the guards were waiting to meet. That must have been the case, because by late afternoon the two of them had given themselves up to our scouts.

I don't know any details about what they might have told Will and the others who questioned them. If those guys gave up any information it's not public yet. All I do know is that this morning on my jog I saw their bodies being burned. I'm making no judgments on that. I think they had it coming.

As far as I know those two men are still unclaimed by any group. I don't see their execution causing much of a fuss, because anyone that might come forward to give us trouble about them is going to have some explaining to do. I mean, we've done some terrible things. I know that. I'm not blind to it. But we did them in reaction to aggressors or to defend others who couldn't defend themselves. The Exiles were keeping to themselves on the other side of the river. Distasteful as their actions have been in the past, the ones living over there seemed to have learned their lesson. They had abandoned their fellow Exiles--the ones who attacked us--and tried to settle down.

That act didn't earn my forgiveness, though I can't speak for anyone else. It did earn a certain level of tolerance. Enough that we let our differences slide. Live and let live, that whole spiel.

Those two fuckers brutally murdered a bunch of people who weren't hurting anyone. It might have been a different story had the Exiles been planning something, but our people have found zero evidence of that in the fallback point. If anything it looks like the Exiles were truly settling in for the long haul. They had a setup that would have seen them through the winter and enough seeds and tools to make a decent go at farming in the spring. The heavy weapons were stored away, dusty and unused.

Not a group that seemed on the edge of going after anyone, I have to say. We're still watching Henry as he struggles to stay alive. If he pulls through we might get some answers, but the evidence is already strong that the Exiles were staying peaceful. The larger question remains unanswered and is, if anything, more confusing at this point. Why? Why do this? Whose agenda does it serve?

Whoever is behind this, assuming the killers weren't just psychopaths trying to set some kind of record, will have to own a pair of balls so big they drag the ground to own up to it. I don't know which possibility is more chilling.

It's so cold. Give me zombies to fight any day over this kind of insanity. Their need to kill I can understand and easily quantify, but the depths to which human beings with free will of their own will sink continue to amaze and disgust me. Considering the things I've seen and even done myself over the last few years, that's saying quite a fucking lot.