Page 82 (1/2)

They reached Juan’son a bench with Lenore The big, black girl was crying silently, clutching a bright pink teddy bear Peggy sat nearby dabbing at her eyes and sarette

Maddie sat beside Rune, eyes closed, tears staining her face Rune had his head down, his arrief etched into his posture

"This is just the beginning of it," Kevin said somberly

"I know," Travis answered

Both of theas if they were about to enter sacred ground Above theht thing," Travis said finally "We’ve diverted half of them today"

Kevin nodded "Doesn’t h, does it?"

"No No it doesn’t," Travis agreed

Katarina ca both men’s hearts They turned as she drew near and she forced a smile

"He died like he wanted to," she assured theed her first and kissed her cheek He could feel the deep shudders inside her body and it broke his heart She turned to Kevin and hugged him, too

Katie caarden For a brief ed a deep, sorrowful look The Reverend joined the mourners and took a seat, his Bible clutched in his hands

"Dale was a good guy," Peggy said

"He was, Peggy," Travis agreed

Peggy nodded and dabbed at her eyes with her daain

Travis and Kevin moved on

"I didn’t know," Kevin said finally "About Dale and Peggy"

"I think it was new," Travis said "Poor Peggy Poor Ken and Dale"

They reached the doorway to the hotel and both , but they could not depend on that i into the hotel

Kevin followed

Chapter 30

1 The Fine Line

The rooht tucked into a wall socket across the roo, pale hand It felt slightly cool to his touch and he pressed his other hand on top of it to warracefully alongside her face

Her strong features were not what soant Kevin wondered what she had looked like as a young Israeli sniper

It was nearly ht and the fort was very quiet The day had drained everyone It was hard to find one dry eye in the entire fort Dale, Ken and Bill werewith people trying to attend an i in the er’s office had been crazy Calhoun had crashed it, bearing his camera like a samurai sword A few other concerned citizens had forced their way in as well It had been a tense event with quite a few raised voices

The recon mission with Juan had showed just how successful they had been in their attempt to draw off the zombies The two trucks had directed athe road toward West Texas

That had been the good news

The bad news had been a large swarh the wild and nowhere near a road A sego with Ken and Dale inside So in the road around the Durango Another portion had drifted off toward the West Another faction was traveling down the road

Despite the success of the mission to direct the zoh Since most of the zombies were off the roads at this point, it was deter to have to fight them on the outskirts of town We control this area There are too many variables out on those roads that we cannot control," Travis had said

"The secret govern the clones, I tell you," Calhoun had declared i to wipe us out cause on’t obey their stupid laws"