Zomblog: Snoe's Journey by TW Brown

thing is this movie series called Star Wars . Now, personally, I heard Mama Janie talk about it, but I guess you had to actually see those movies to get it, because they just seemed too far out there for me. Space ships and robots? Whatever makes you happy, I guess.
    Anyways, the first night in, we were asked as honored guests (I will get back to that later), to attend the opening night stage show of Star Wars . I sat next to this old guy named Mel Tufo. He almost cried when this little blue and white thing that looked like a giant, upside down drinking glass on wheels came out beeping and whistling.
    “I wanted to be Artoo when I grew up,” he said to me during the intermission. “I think I went as that little droid for Halloween every year until I was twelve and thought I was too cool to trick-or-treat. I actually met my wife at a Star Wars convention. She was dressed as the Jabba’s Palace version of Princess Leia.”
    I had no idea what he was talking about, but he was so sad that I wanted to give him a hug. And then I find out that he had killed his wife and gotten life in prison when he was just twenty-four. I tried to picture this old man killing somebody, and I just couldn’t.
    So after the show, there is this group of men and women waiting for us to escort us to some sort of reception area where Angel and a few of the others are supposed to meet with the people in charge. When Angel insisted that I be part of that meeting, there were a few doubtful looks, and even a couple of nasty scowls.
    I didn’t take offense. I think it is obvious that I am just a kid running around with a bunch of adults, but I was allowed to be present for the meeting.
    So, it seems that the Native Confederation has already made some sort of agreement with not only this group—why was I not surprised to discover that there are other prisons that have become central hubs for civilization?—but a half dozen others. It seems that these facilities actually made an excellent bastion to hold out against the undead. Now, some of them apparently fell to in-fighting, but not as many as one would think.
    And here is something that I find interesting. They claim to have an almost ‘zero’ crime rate. Drugs and alcohol? Strictly prohibited! They do say that not all the other prison-based cities have the same rules, but apparently the group that seized power here were a bunch of guys who were die-hard believers in the drug-and-alcohol rehab program.
    They live by their own codes. If you have an issue with another, it is settled in an arena. Strictly hand-to-hand fighting, no weapons. Once the fight is over, the issue is considered ‘squashed’. (That is their term for ‘resolved’ from what I could gather.) Stealing is punishable by exile and sex crimes of any nature are handled quickly. If guilty, the person ends up on one of the crosses we passed. I guess the first thing they did once they took this prison was execute every single sex offender. Unlike the prison Sam found himself in, the numbers were not as favorable.
    This ‘code’ they live by is a bit odd. For instance, the death sentence can be given for lying, refusing to work, not paying a debt, and accusing somebody of something they did not do. All in all, I find these people to be more than just a bit unstable, but this is their house…their rules.
    But that is only one side; some of these men and women travelled to the far ends of the state to try and find their families. The ones that did brought them back here. They also brought people they met along the way.
    And now for the connection to the Native Americans.
    It seems that a couple of the ‘lifers’ (guys who have life sentences…not an overly clever moniker, but I guess it fits) were Natives. It seems that they were pretty well respected, and when they left to find family out on the Warm Springs Reservation, they became heavily involved in closing off their land. One of them was even there when Erik and Meredith came