Chapter 30: The Church: Part II

The four survivors cautiously entered the church, guns held out in front of them. The interior of the building was illuminated by several mobile electric light units, which cast shadows all over the room. Zoey looked to the west, past the rows of wooden pews toward the alter to see a large, gaping hole in the wall where a large stained-glass window used to be. The high roof of the church, criss-crossed by various wooden rafters, was obscured in darkness.

"Sweet!" Louis said, picking up a forgotten M-16 that was lying across one of the pews.

"Lucky bastard," Francis grumbled. "Trade you my shotgun and pistol for it?"

"Hell no!" he shot back.

They turned their heads sharply toward some incomprehensible babbling that drifted from nearby, raising their weapons. The sound was coming from behind a familiar-looking red door in the back wall of the church, next to a set of stairs that presumably led up to the bell tower.

"It's a safe-house!" Zoey exclaimed.

"And it sounds like there's someone already inside," Bill said, walking up to the door. "Hello?" he called through the barred window. "Is anyone in there?" He saw a dark shadow shuffling around the room, muttering to itself incoherently.

"Hello there!" Louis called out, coming up to the door with the others. "Can you let us in?"

The cowering figure in the room finally looked up at them. "I... I'm not letting you in until I know you're human."

"We're as human as they come, son," Bill replied. "I promise."

"I d-d-don't believe you..." the man stammered. "The last one I let in... I can't believe she bit me. I should never have let her in... But it's been an hour. I must be immune... Better safe than sorry... Better safe than sorry... Better safe than sorry..."

Bill cast a sidelong look at the others. "This guy is nuttier than candy-bar shit." He turned back to address the nut inside the safe-room. "Son, we're immune, tired, and there's Infected in the woods. Now cut the shit and let us in!"

"You just want to make me like you!" the man blabbed. "I can smell it in your blood. It-It's not going to happen! This is my church, and I have earned my salvation!"

"I don't believe this."

"What a dick..." Zoey looked angrily through the window bars. "Hey, jerk-ass, you're not gonna just open the door? Really?!"

Francis stepped forward. "Let me handle this," he said to the others. He cleared his throat. "We're cops! Open up!"

However, the man on the other side of the door was not fooled. "You're not a cop. You don't sound like a cop. I'm not opening this door!"

"Have a heart, we got a helpless old man with us!" he persisted.

"Hey!" Bill shot him a withering look. The war veteran turned back to the window, his finger tensing on the pistol grip of his rifle. "Son, if any of us get hurt out here, you WILL regret it."

When there was no reply, Francis raised his fist and banged on the door.

"Who is it?" the man called out in a sing-song voice.

The biker's patience was wearing dangerously thin. "Well, let's see. I'm Francis, that's Grandpa Bill, and there's Infected out here! Open the damn door!"

"Sorry!" the unhinged man laughed. "I can't come out and play right now! But if you come back later after I finish my homework..."

"That's it..." Francis lowered the shotgun, strode forward and drew his M1911, pointing the pistol through the small window bars at the cowering figure. "Open the door or I paint the walls with your brains."

"Francis!" Zoey scolded. "Forget this guy! Let's just go!"

However, the damage was done.

"NOBODY GETS A FREE RIDE!" the man yelled, ducking into a side room. Several moments later, the church bell rang thunderously from high above.

DING DONG. DING DONG.

Louis looked up in shock. "What the hell is that?!"

"Ding dong! Ding dong!" the crazed man's voice practically screamed from inside the safe-room. "Dinner is served."

"You've gotta be kidding me," Bill growled furiously. "I'm gonna tear that bell down and shove it up your ass."

Louis started throwing himself against the steel door in sheer desperation. "Mister, if one of us gets killed out here, I'm gonna shoot my way in there and beat you to death with my gun!" He stopped short and looked at the rest of his group fearfully as a din of ravenous growls and howling rose from the woods, intermingling with the thunderous ringing of the church bell.

"Oh, god..." Zoey whispered in horror.

"We have to get out of here, now!" he cried.

"We won't get far," Bill said sternly. "Every infected bastard out there knows our exact location. We have to stay here and hold them off." He motioned to the two doors to the outside. "Barricade the entrances. Watch the windows, too." He started to make his way up the staircase.

"Where are you going?" Louis asked.

The older man motioned to his sniper rifle. "I'm going up to the bell tower to pick off as many as I can before they reach the church." He gave them all an affectionate nod. "Look out for each other."

With that, he turned and ran up the stairs while the others began pushing wooden benches, tables, chairs, and anything else they could find in front of the doors.

"If we live through this, I'm gonna fuckin' KILL that guy!" Francis growled.

The sound of the ringing church bell could still be heard when Bill came out at the top of the bell tower, cursing every step on the stairs he had to run up. He wasted no time, immediately setting the sniper rifle down on the stone ledge and bringing his eye to the scope. He looked down into the yard to see several Common Infected already sprinting toward the church at breakneck speed.

BANG!

The sharp crack of the sniper rifle echoed in the night. A flash of red burst into the air as an infected man's head jerked violently back, and he flipped over, dead. The sniper rifle fired off another shot. And another. And another.

"Goddamn it…" Bill muttered. "There are too many..."

Zoey's body tensed at the sound of the sniper rifle going off upstairs. "Get ready," she warned, raising her shotgun.

The pounding on the church doors began soon after. Zoey, Louis and Francis backed away from them warily. A loud crack of breaking wood could be heard, and holes began to appear in the doors as the Infected outside the church smashed their way through. The survivors immediately opened fire, shooting through the holes and blasting the Infected away from the door.

"Go watch the other door!" Francis yelled, looking to his right when he heard another splintering crack. "I got this one!"

Zoey and Louis ran down the length of the church to the other door to see a considerably-sized hole already being smashed through it. Louis levelled his newly-acquired M-16 through the hole and fired off a short burst, killing the offending attackers outside. Blood splattered all over the door.

"If Bill is doing a decent job up top, I'd hate to think of how many assholes we'd have banging at the door right now," he commented.

A shrill and horrible scream echoed throughout the church. The others looked in alarm toward the safe-room door and realised that the scream had come from the bastard who had brought all of this down on them.

"What's wrong with him?" Zoey asked, to which Louis shrugged.

"Hey, shut up in there, asshole!" Francis roared.

"Window!" Zoey abruptly yelled.

Louis swung the assault rifle to his right to see several Common Infected climbing in through the shattered main window above the alter. He mowed them down as they appeared, sending bodies tumbling to the floor of the church with sickening crunches.

Meanwhile, Francis and Zoey fired their shotguns through the holes in their corresponding doors as more and more Infected attempted to force their way in. Two more appeared at her door, and she pulled the trigger. A loud CLICK informed her that she was out of ammunition.

"Shit!" she cursed, tossing the shotgun away and drawing her pistol from the holster at her hip.

The two attackers smashed through the door, completely ripping it off its hinges, and began to attack the hastily-assembled barricade in their way. She put a bullet in each of their foreheads and they collapsed.

"I need some help over here!" Francis called from the other door to their left.

Zoey looked at Louis, who nodded, and then she ran back down the length of the church to help out the biker, while the former business man stayed back to cover the door and window. Halfway down the church, she was not prepared for when a loud crash came from high above her. She looked up to see that another one of the windows had smashed, and several bodies were tumbling down from above. She screamed in horror and threw herself out of the way of the showering glass. A number of Infected tumbled to the floor where she had been standing only seconds ago. Some of them never got back up. Three did, however, and though they were covered in hideous injuries, that did not slow them down. With bloodthirsty cries, they threw themselves at Zoey.

She fired her pistol wildly, taking down two of them in a flash of light. The third one managed to fling its arms out, knocking her off her feet and into the pews. She cried out in pain, and wrestled desperately with the attacker. She managed to free her pistol aim, levelled it with one of the creature's eyes and fired, blowing out the back of its head in a foul explosion of blood.

Francis' shotgun boomed as he killed several more Infected in the midst of attacking his barricade. Automatic gunfire clattered from further down the church as Louis' M-16 went off in a long burst. However, another most-unexpected sound drifted out from behind the safe-room door. It was a loud and raspy cough, wet and sickly, and it did not sound human.

"What the hell..." Francis muttered.

Zoey presently came to his side, panting. "A little help!" she cried, firing her pistol at another group of bloodthirsty people right outside the door.

The combined fire from the four survivors gradually stemmed the flow of Common Infected assaulting the church, and the sound of gunfire finally ceased. Up in his perch in the bell tower, Bill wiped his brow with a sleeve and sighed.

"I can't believe we just fought them all off!" Louis exclaimed from down the church.

Zoey shakily reloaded her pistol, just in case. "I can't believe that we're still alive."

"Yeah, well I know one guy who isn't going to be for much longer," Francis growled angrily, cocking his shotgun and turning toward the safe-room door. "Hey, asshole – "

"Francis!" she cried in protest. "Don't – "

However, she too fell silent and they both stared at the safe-room in shock. The door stood wide open. The man inside was nowhere to be seen.