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“I’m going to hold you to that. ”

Out of the throng of people eating breakfast Eric appeared, his brow furrowed. Close behind him was Stacey. She was crying. Pepe, their little dog, stared up at her sadly.

“What’s up, Eric?” Travis asked.

“We have a situation,” Eric answered. His expression was stricken and tears glimmered in his eyes. “Peggy’s gone. ”

“What?” Their voices chorused. Travis and Katie glanced at each other briefly.

“Took herself and her kid out last night,” Stacey sobbed.

“Define the whole took herself out part,” Travis said. “Out of the fort?”

“You could say that. She poisoned the little guy and slit her wrists,” Eric explained.

“Oh, Jesus,” Katie murmured, raising her hand to her brow.

“Shit,” Travis said. “Shit!” He shook his head in disbelief. “I knew she was scared, but not that scared. ”

“She’s not the only one. We have about four more. At least two jumped over the wall. . . headfirst. Old Harris took himself out by hanging. Shea took himself with a shot to the head through a pillow. ” Eric sighed. “So a lower suicide count than we expected. I was really hoping there would be none. ”

“Peggy was going to run communications,” Katie said softly.

“Gotta pull Yolanda to do it,” Travis decided.

“She’s not as experienced as Peggy,” Katie pointed out.

“Without Curtis and Ken, she’s the best we got,” Travis answered.

“I’ll find her,” Stacey said, vanishing into the crowd, Pepe skittering along behind her.

Eric rubbed the bridge of his nose with one finger, shoved his glasses in place, then shook his head. “I better take another swing around the wall.

We don’t need fresh blood luring those things in. ” He hurried off.

From the sound of the crowd, people were finding out about the deaths.

There were looks of dismay and a few tears. Word traveled fast in the fort.

As Peggy would joke, “There were no secrets in a small Texas town. If you farted, everyone knew what you had for dinner. ”

“Oh, gawd, Peggy,” Katie whispered softly.

“I’m sure she did what she thought was right for her and the kid. ”

Katie pressed her hand to his cheek. “They need to know there is hope.

That we can do this. You and the Reverend need to speak to the fort before those things get here. Everyone needs it. ”

Travis started to protest, but already the Reverend was on his way to Travis through the crowd. As usual, Katie understood very well what was needed.

“Travis,” the Reverend said drawing close. “The people are in despair. We need to rally them. ”

“I agree. Let’s head down to communications,” Travis said, kissing her cheek.

Both men moved toward the elevators.

With a sigh, Katie brushed her blond hair from her face and looked out over the desolate swath of land before the fort. In the distance were the edges of the ramshackle mounds that formed a wall around the fort. There was a massive opening right down the middle. It was the killing zone and huge fire traps were set to ignite in the gap.