At some point torches and pitchforks are preferable to servitude and starvation.
The light is a spotlight to conceal the combatants. The flash was a discharge from some kind of ordnance rifle. Can a .50 cal do that much damage at that close range?
Bill Cooper hinted at it being Beverly Hall Rosicrucians.
Number 20 of the Mystery Babylon Series, The 68th Convocation of the Rose Cross Order, is about the activities of the Beverly Hall Rosicrucians. They hold rituals in a stone pyramid there. In Quakertown, Pa.