Parable of the Sower Chapter 8 Summary

Tracy Dunn still hasn't come home, and she still hasn't been found by the cops. Lauren thinks she's dead.
Bianca Montoya, age seventeen, is pregnant from Jorge Iturbe.
Lauren wonders how anyone can get married and have kids when the world is getting worse. She thinks Bianca's life is one of her own options, but there would be nothing to hope for in that life. Having a child would also make traveling north harder.

At target practice, the group finds a corpse of an old woman. Yuck.
The incident frightens Aura Moss into giving up target practice.
The two oldest Payne kids, Doyle and Margaret, do participate, and Lauren likes their toughness.
Keith begs to go to target practice, but he isn't old enough.
Keith takes Cory's gate key and slips away beyond the gate alone. Yeah, that sounds dangerous.
Keith soon returns, dirty and bleeding. Yep, dangerous. He was beaten up by five guys who also took the gate key—and they took his pants, shirt, and shoes.
Lauren's father is furious.

Lauren's father makes Keith apologize to the community in front of the whole congregation at church.
When Dad and Keith argued about what Keith did, Keith told Dad that he, Keith, was a man and didn't need to stay hiding in the house.
Lauren's father was eventually able to get Keith to admit that he'd done something wrong.
At church, the sermon is on the Ten Commandments, with emphasis on honoring parents and not stealing.
Keith can barely restrain his anger.