“No shit?” Peggy was stunned. Ed rarely spoke of the three sons that were somewhere out on the deadlands. When he did, it was often when he was drunk. The boys were all Ed had left in the world after his wife, Edna, had died. All three had been away at school on the first day. Peggy knew Ed had hopes they were still alive, but this was amazing news. “Seriously. The boys were all alive?”
“Yep! They fought their way back to Ed's farm and holed up there!
They thought their Daddy was dead until they saw him in the peach groves with the team!” Ken danced around. “Lenore is trying to find out if any of them are gay. ”
“I swear to God, all you think about is finding a boyfriend,” Peggy groused.
“Like you don't?”
“Hey, my sex life, or lack thereof, ain't your business. ” Peggy shook her pen in his face.
“Hard up, aren't you?”
“I'm gonna kick your ass, Ken. ”
Katie smirked. “My money is on Peggy if they throw down. ”
Travis shook his head as he laughed. “Ken looks kinda vicious. ”
Ken playfully snarled at him. “Okay, good news time is over! Back to the communication center!” He bounced back down the hall.
“I'm gonna choke him. I swear to God, I will,” Peggy muttered.
Nerit looked up from her map, seeming impervious to Ken's exploits. “I think I see how we need to handle this. What we need to do. They're after resources: food, guns, drugs, and women. We're going to need to lure them out. I think I know how. ” She tapped the map with one finger.
Peggy leaned over and looked at where she was pointing. “Nerit, that's where you're from. No one is there. ”
“The gun store is there,” Nerit said calmly.
Travis shifted uncomfortably on his feet. “You said the weapons are in the safe. They can't get in there. ”
“Nope. They can't. But we're going to need those weapons. That ammunition. We've put off going out there. ” Nerit looked very pale, but calm. “We should have gone before. ” She pulled out her keys and handed them to Travis. “It's the round gold key and silver square one to get into the store. I will give you the safe combination. ”
Everyone gathering around the map looked uncomfortable. An excursion to the gun store to reclaim the last of the gun stock and ammunition had long been on the list of things to do, but they had found other stockpiles to keep them well armed.
Peggy shifted on her feet, feeling uncomfortable with where this was going.
Travis slid the keys into his pocket. “We didn't really need to go until now, you know. ”
“We didn't go because of Ralph,” Nerit said simply. “And we have no time for such sentimentality anymore. ”
Travis reached out and rubbed her shoulder gently. “We'll be respectful. ”
“I know,” Nerit answered.
Katie slipped an arm around the older woman's waist. Nerit, surprisingly, leaned against her for comfort
.
“If we head to the store and make a production of it, that will pull them out. And we can use it as a diversion to get the last of our survivors in,” Nerit said in a slightly quavering voice. “We need to pull them out. Get them to confront us. ”
“So we can get into a fight with the bandits?” Peggy looked at her incredulously.
“No, so we can show them they can't beat us,” Nerit answered grimly.
Travis looked at Nerit long and hard, then slowly nodded. “I get where you are going with this. ”
“We'll work out the details, but I have the general plan already in my head,” Nerit answered.