The Outpost — Paul Lederer

In a lonely army outpost, a group of misfits waits for rescue -- or death

A few minutes before midnight in the barren New Mexico desert, Big John leads a prisoner to his doom. Although only nineteen years old, the boy is a killer, and will be hanged as soon as they reach the next town. But between these men and civilization lies an expanse of hell.

Not far from the outpost, they find a family slaughtered by the Comanche. The outpost should mean safety, but the army has gone to hunt the Indians, leaving behind no one but a tubercular corporal, a green lieutenant, and a group of wandering ladies. The party hunkers down to pray for reinforcements, but there will be more arrivals at the outpost before the Comanche strike. As Big John waits for deliverance, he wonders where the real danger lies -- in the moonlit desert sands, or inside the walls of the fort.