I want to believe her, I really do.

A place, a safe place I should add, to stay with my family, where we no longer had to ride herd on these highly motivate but very poorly equipped, both physically and emotionally, friends we brought with us. When we left Green Bay, I knew that this would be a highly stressful trip, I just had no idea it would have been this bad. All the motivation in the world didn't make up for the lack of skill.

I want to believe that there was a place could still existed in this septic tank of a world that would welcome others in with an open hand and not a closed fist. I was sure the Fireflies could be the answer but … I had no clear idea where the Fireflies were, just vague hints from my contacts but nothing solid.

Instead of the Fireflies … I found these people … I want to believe.

However, if I am wrong I could kill not only those who choose to follow me out of Green Bay but my family as well.

I'm so tired and so desperately want to believe.

My past life, as a history teacher, told me that her group is not only possible but also inevitable. No matter how bad things got for humanity, some people would group together to rebuild civilization. Unlike the Zones and places where QZ had existed, these places would be built on trust and cooperation and not fear and force.

Still, the past twenty years had burned out any lingering trust I had for people I just met, not without a lot of verification that is. Even my smuggler contacts, some who I have known for almost my entire time in Green Bay, I always had kept an eye open for any hint of betrayal. I never truly trusted anyone but my wife and my kids. The only people I came close to completely trusting had been Herb and Holly, Heather's parents, but … after Heather failed to come back from the mall and with Sammy's condition; they shown themselves to be unreliable as well. It would have been one thing to just back out of the trip, I could've had understood their reasons, hell I did understand their decision, but to set the authorities on Sammy? No, not even they couldn't be trusted.

Yet, here was this adorable, cheerful, little red-headed girl sitting on a ticket counter, her legs swing out in front of her, asking me to trust her and her group's good intentions, blindly.

And I want to believe her.

Ellie answered all my concerns about her group without once consulting her radio that she wore on her hip; so either she was very well prepared and coach ahead of time on what to say or else … you don't need coaching to tell the truth, do you?

Then again, how many slim balls did we blindly elect year after year who knew just what we all wanted to hear?

"Larry," Linda called out to me quietly, when I looked over towards her, she waved me to her side.

"Give me a second Ellie," I said as I glance at Sammy, I nodded towards Ellie hoping Sammy got the hint and watched her.

"Sure thing," Ellie said lightly, blowing out a stray hair out of her face. "Just remember I have dinner reservations at five at the Four Seasons."

"Well," I asked Linda quietly as the girls argued about what kind of meals were the tastiest.

"I think she might be telling us the truth," Linda said letting out a sigh. "However ..."

"Yeah, still do we really want to risk everything on the word of a small child?"

"Well, if they told her what to say, they thought of everything, hadn't they? School? Library? Electricity!" Linda shook her head as she looked over at the two girls, "especially the library, she had a lot of information about their library. She is quite proud of it."

"I know ..."

"Ewe, Freckles that horrible!" Sammy screamed out suddenly while Ellie was smiling from ear to ear.

"Oh come on, that was a good one. Just to let you know, I have all kinds of books back home; heck on the way out here, I picked up a book on anti-gravity but I couldn't put it down."

Puns?

Was she actually making puns?

"I have a friend who want to learn how to juggle but he just didn't have the balls to do it."

My God!

"That's just horrible!" Sammy straining not to laugh and look properly indigent, just as she always does when I start doing my jokes. And she was just at bad at it with Ellie as she was with me.

I exchange looks with Linda, she also had that look of half amusement and half exasperation, while trying hard not to giggle as well. I know a large part of that exasperation was seeing the look on my face, I'm sure I'm wearing the biggest, most stupid grin on my face.

She knows puns!

"Hey Ellie," I said while walking over to her after making sure I was wearing a straight face. She kind of tense up a bit but kept her bright smile on her face. "Do you know what college is, right?"

"Yeah," she rolled her eyes while smirking, "it a place where adults actually paid good money to get homework."

"Well, I will have you know my wife and I both went to college. While I was there, I did a theatrical performance about puns. Really it was just a small play on words."

"Fuck me," she said with her jaw dropping before she let loose a laugh that made my day. If it was possible, her eyes seem to get brighter as she answered with. "I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger. Then it hit me."

Linda and Sammy both groan out loud while Ellie and I both drown them out with our laughter.

"A small boy swallowed some coins and was taken to a hospital. When his grandmother telephoned to ask how he was a nurse said 'No change yet'."

"Ha ha, that a good one how about 'The other day I held the door open for a clown. I thought it was a nice jester.'"

"Need an ark to save two of every animal? I Noah guy."

"The butcher backed up into the meat grinder and got a little behind in his work."

"Bakers trade bread recipes on a knead-to-know basis."

"I should have been sad when my flashlight batteries died, but I was delighted."

"What is the purpose of reindeer? It makes the grass grow, sweetie."

"God, please! Both of you stop!" Sammy moaned out as she covered her ears.

"I wish I knew how to stop your father, I've heard this kind of stuff for over twenty years," Linda said while sticking out her tongue at me.

"It is like scotch, my dear sweet child," I said in grandiose tone, "one must learn to appreciative the finer things in life."

"I don't think I could stomach enough awful scotch to enjoy anymore of those puns." Sammy said making a face while Ellie and I laugh. She then ask Ellie, "Does your dad like those jokes too?"

"He isn't my dad," Ellie said shaking her head, sadly, if I am any judge. "He is my partner."

Linda stiffen slightly when Ellie said that but never let those thoughts show on her face. Those unspoken implications of Ellie's relationship between her and that old man also seem to fly over Sammy's head, which is just as well, I guess. I really had to reign in my own urges to ask her about it, left over responses from days long gone I guess.

When you wish to be a teacher, as both Linda and I once had, you develop a desire to protect young girls and boys from older adults who wish no good upon them. But I guess that would explain his actions the other day. Plus, really, it wasn't any of my concern, it wasn't twenty years ago and there was no national fight against child abuse and exploitation. However, if they had that kind of relationship and it's tolerated in their village, that bit of knowledge was something I would have to keep in mind. I will be damned if I let any overage pervert get his or her hands on my children! Damn it, I knew that place sounded too good to be true!

"And," her grin grew bigger, maybe a bit too big to be taken hundred percent seriously, "he loves my puns! After he was hired to get me out of Boston, I started sharing jokes with him every other day or so. He claims he never like them at first. I always called bullshit on that but now he has come clean and admit he just loves them. On those rare nights when we are home together, just before I go to my room to sleep; he is always like 'Hey Ellie, why don't you go get that there book of your and share them puns with me.'"

"So you guys share a house?"

"Yep, just me and him; no one else can stand his snoring but after spending a year traveling together, I've learned to drown it out. There are just enough houses in town that most families are able to have one, although a lot of the single guys and girls share houses and a few families share large ones as well. We have a small three bedroom we remodeled ourselves, nice, quiet, neighborhood, since no one else is in that part of town." She stopped and eyes some of the people milling around on the other side of the terminal. "Guess if you guys come in, we might have to start dealing with neighbors. Pftt, good with the bad I guess."

"Three bedroom, a big house for just the two of you," I said, unable to stop myself. So much for not getting involved.

"Well, we each have our own rooms, and not moving around as much means we have more gear to store so it isn't that big."

"Wow, your own room!" Sammy said with undisguised envy. "My twin and I have always shared a room, heck sometimes during the winter when we were younger, the four of us had to share a bed to stay warm."

"Pftt, tell me about it." Ellie said with a toss of her hair. "My partner and I had to sleep next to each other for months on the trip out here. Old habits die-hard, you know. Shit, sleeping longer then a couple of hours was a bitch to get use to at first but having my room has been so cool! It's taken awhile but neither of us are all that comfortable sharing that close of space anymore." She then made a face as if she bit into a lemon, "of course, now, I have to listen to him go on about how now that we were safe, I will met some nice boy one day and all that garbage. Pftt, as if!"

"Worry about how he will react, are you? Or you just know no one will ever be able to live up to his shadow?"

"Naw," Ellie said staring at her shoes. "He would be cool with it, annoying cool with it but there are … reasons … that makes thinking like that … something I don't need to deal with right now. It's … complicated."

"Yeah, well you're lucky," Sammy said rolling her eyes and making a face. "All I get is 'no daughter of mine is going to hang out with that boy or this boy.'"

"Yeah, well; for all his bluster, I still find it funny how he scares the hell out the only three boys our age when ever he see them."

"Not much of a choice then," Linda ask as casually as possible.

"Yeah, you know how it is. There is a big …" Ellie stopped grimacing at her own mistake. Quietly, she added under her breath, "Shit, too much."

"So your group is in the same boat as our then?" I ask giving her a small smile. "Sam and Sammy are the only teenagers with us, the rest of the kids are under twelve. Don't feel bad about slipping up, back in Green Bay, there was a huge gap in the ages that started back when everything went south. I know no one really likes talking about it, especially the big wigs in charge, but anyone between twenty-four and sixteen are a rare sight."

"Yeah, I'm not sure about Boston but the military boarding school I was raised in had a lot more kids younger than me then anyone older." She shrugged as she glance at Sammy. "I guess it make sense in a way. When the shit hit the fan, most people who made it out looked out for themselves first and the hell with most. Parents and families tried to stay together to protect each other but, you know, small children, really old folks; they were probably easy pickings. Later, most people probably decided it would be fucking stupid bring kids into this world. So ..."

"Yep," Linda and I agreed softly. I then ask her about something else, "So you are a military rat? Is that how you know your friend? He ex-military as well?"

"Oh no," she said grinning brightly. "No, no, nothing like that. An old friend of my mom knew him and his brother; she got him to get me out of Boston; as a favor you could say."

"'A favor' uh? That a mighty big favor."

"Well, he was good as a supply runner, you know." She simply said but I could see the quotation marks hang in the air.

"We know a few supply runners ourselves," Linda said softly with a knowingly smile that Ellie understood but, once again, flew over Sammy's head.

They were smart, those people she worked for, sending Ellie out to meet us. Ellie seems to have a better understanding of the real world, and quicker on the uptake, then my own children. Being a military orphan and knowing smugglers, totally would love to hear the full story on that later, has given Ellie a unique perception and enough knowledge to sniff out bullshit but she was also charming and adorable enough to make you feel at ease with her. They were not your normal group of survivors, not at all.

"So your parents were, like, okay with you running off with that guy?" Sammy asked.

"She's a rat, honey, not a brat," I said gently. The look of confusion on her face made it clear she still didn't get the differences.

"A brat is someone who's parents was already in the military, they grew up in the military life style and went to boarding schools because that is what they wanted to do with their lives." Linda let out a sigh. "A rat is someone who was raised by the military because no one else would." Linda then let her disgust show in her tone and face. "Always hated that term anyways. It is demeaning, insulting and just plain fucking stupid. Children like Ellie had no choice, no say, in the way their lives turned out. Calling them rats is just some fucking assholes way of being superior over those poor children but all they are proving is how they are really just a bunch of worthless cock sucking fuck wads who were fucking cowards anyways."

"Mom!" Sammy said a bit shocked while I let a small grin play on my face. Sammy wasn't use to hearing her mom let loose like that very often. Ellie, however, just shrugged and let her feet swing against the counter. Sammy, to my annoyance, just had to asked Ellie about it anyways. "So is that true Freckles? Your parents are … you know."

"Yeah, you know, my mom died couple days after I was born. Never found out who my dad was, my mom's friend never told me before I left so … you know."

"I am sorry."

"Don't sweat it Bright Eyes, endure and survive, you know."

"You know Ellie," I said after a long, awkward pause, "I have to be completely honest with you. Since you have been here, talking with us, I have found you to be one of the most adorable and charming negotiators I have ever met."

"Yeah, I get that a lot," she said with a disarming smile while wrapping her arms around her right leg and leaning back slightly. With a wiggle of her eyebrows, she add "I am the L, resistance is useless."

"Yeah, I bet," Sammy said grinning back at Ellie who responded by turning up the smile.

"You could have been a great salesperson back in the day, selling ice to Eskimos and all that," then I let the smile slip as I add. "And, I do not lie when I say that you also scare the living hell out of me." We both kind of straighten up more as I watch her closely. "I can't decide if you are angel sent down by God to lead us to the Promise Land or Hades sent to fuck with us before we are sent down the River Styx."

"I am not here to lead you in to any kind of trap, Larry." She stretch out her arms as if to hug the entire world. "And I get it, you know, I do. When my partner first suggested we stay here I was skeptical too. After all I have seen, all I have done … it is hard to believe. Now, I have enough to eat, everyday! I … I sleep peacefully, I have friends that we get together once a week and play board games at my house. I don't worry, much, about Infected or bandits and if they do come around, I have a whole village at my back to support me. I matter down there, I am fighting for something, to make the world a better place one day at a time. It hasn't been easy or anything, they didn't exactly kick their heels up for me at first either. But you know, we got there. And more importantly than any of that, my friend is safe. He is safe and …" She pause while something flash across her face, an emotion that I couldn't pin down. "The things I have done to keep him safe, to protect him … what I will do to make sure he is always safe. Being down there makes that so much easier, so less draining you know?"

"Yeah," I said softly while nodding, I do get it.

"And when you boil it all down, Larry, that is all I want for you and your group. A place to be safe, even if it is only till spring. You know, when spring arrives and you all decide you don't like it there, we won't hold you back. I'll probably miss you all, I like meeting new people and learning about things but we will not keep you there if you don't want to be there."

"But once we are inside your camp we are, in effect, under your control. We'd be trap if your people decided not to let us go in spring."

"I could have killed you last night," Ellie remind me with a frustrate sigh. "no one here would have been the wiser, your wife would have asked herself for years to come what happened to you three. I could have let you starve or left you out there without your weapons or clothes. Either way, you wouldn't have made out of these mountains alive. We could have launch an attack on you guys while you slept. I'm pretty sure it hasn't escape your notice just how easily I found you today."

"Yet, here we are."

"Here we are, with me ... alone … in your camp. You could easily have killed me by now or worst. I might be able to defend myself against you guys for a short time, maybe take out one or two of you guys, but after it is all said and done, I would be dead. My back up would eventually get here and lay waste to any survivors, it would be a massacre but it wouldn't help me much since, again, I would be dead, Larry. No matter how you look at it I might have sign my own death warrant by coming to you guys. I knew that before I walk out here, knew it but ignore it because I want to help your group. This is what we are working towards back home, to make it a place safe for anyone who wants to work with us." Spreading her hands out wide, she let out a bitter laugh. "So am I wasting my time here, Larry? If I am let me know now, please, because I work afternoons and nights. And right now, I am missing out of some serious crappy nightmare time."

"Dad? We should trust her," Sammy said quickly pushing on ignoring my look to stay quiet. "She is right, you know. She could have done all kinds of bad things to us but she hasn't, has she?"

I look at Linda, she reach out for my hand and gave it a squeeze; yeah, she believes too.

And I want to believe too.

I turn my head slightly, seeing a few adults trying to look as if they weren't paying attention. They mean well, those we travel with but can they survive more weeks wondering the waste land? Do I want to be Moses? Or had the angels been sent to lead me to the promise land?

I guess … I guess I believe as well.

"Okay, Ellie," I gave Linda's hand a hard squeeze. "Okay, lets see how we can do this."