What about Barabas?

I had a thought today after seeing a storyteller recount the Passion narrative from the gospel of Mark: I wonder what thoughts went through Barabas' mind when he was released.  I imagine they might have read something like this:

• Thank God!
• Wow, I wonder what that guy did that was so bad?
• Trading one rabble rouser for another...
• What do I do now?

Then when he realized (because I assume he found out) who took his place, I wonder what thoughts went through his mind.  I would guess it might have been one of the following:

• Wow, they really did trade one revolutionary for another.
• Woah, he was way less of a threat than I was.
• I don't care as long as it's not me.

But what I presume set in at some point (I don't think it's too modernist of me to believe this) is that eventually survivor's guilt set in.  Someone would have a hard time convincing me that Barabas never felt a twinge of guilt for getting released instead of Jesus.

I'm still working on understanding why this is so striking to me.  It might be in part because in retrospect, knowing how Jesus became the Christ after the resurrection, if there were a way for him to not have died, I somewhat would prefer that gospel.  However, these people lived at the time of Jesus.  Not at the time of the Christ and the Jesus movement of Paul, Peter, and the other apostles working after the crucifixion.  It makes sense that Barabas would not question his release or who took his place or initially feel bad for how those events transpired.

And now back to studying the undisputed letters of Paul...