18.

Within a small box room on the church premises, towards the main entrance and off to the side, the right side as you come in, Leon is trapped by fire, a fire blocking his only path out of the room. Shawn is at the door of this room, with fire separating the two, Shawn is trying to coax Leon out of the room.

Beads of sweat gather and multiply by the second on Leon's forehead and one or two stream down his cheek. Shawn begins to fear the worst, there is little to nothing more he can offer in the here and now than the obvious plan he more than suggested. In a place so used to light, a darkness has come and taken control. Trying to coax Leon to complete the one and only assured plan of action is a difficult thing.

As long as light exists it will fend off the darkness until the final flicker is forced to retire and retirement will not be willingly accepted. On the other side of the flames with which prevents Leon's escape, Shawn had spied the one and only option that has presented itself. A roll of vinyl carpet stands propped in a corner and it's within Leon's reach. Leon has wrapped himself in this carpet and it will shield him from the flames if only he makes a forward move.

'I can't ...' he tells Shawn.

Memories of the past have returned. Leon is as much back within a room where he had been held captive for nine years, he as much back there as he is here in this current moment.

'Yes, you can, Leon. I believe in you ... you can do this ...'

Shawn tells Leon again of what he needs to do and ...

Leon does what he is told. He is panicked, he is tired, he is frightened of the past and frightened of the present, and it has to be remembered, despite all he has been through, Leon is still only a child. He has barely become a teenager. In the now, more than ever, there is danger at every turn, the group has been and is being decimated. Those who remain alive need an escape and as it is, it really is a matter of out of the frying pan and into the flames.

Members of the dead have made it into the church through the flaming doors and with many more outside, leaving the church through the main entrance is not an option. Sally and Amber are fighting off some of those arriving burning dead while also making an attempt in retreating towards the top end of the church.

Shawn has multiple blades on his person, and he uses what he can against those who immediately approach him and he and Leon attempt to join Sally and Amber. Leon even gets in on the act. He too knows how serious this moment is. He can fall apart all he likes later, get out of the church alive first, this is key.

In the center aisle a reanimated Jenny has returned to a standing position, having seen off and fed off Jason. On the steps before the alter the most recent addition to the group lays motionless. A white, Ragdoll cat is looking on with an odd look of confusion on its face. If a small animal like this has given up on finding a way out of the church, then what chance do the remaining living Humans have.

Jenny ... how she has changed in so short a time. Her skin has darkened a sickly green; her eyes have glazed a thick layer of grey, and she is just standing there ... lost to the world, in more ways than one. The other ladies are getting close to her and are occupied defending themselves. A simmering growl builds just as she is about to make an attack of her own.

As if she has a second sight of her own, more like she has a battle-hardened sense of when trouble is imminent, Amber turns and does what she should have done when an earlier opportunity had presented itself. Jenny perishes for a second and final time without making good on an attack she was about to embark upon.

The fire continues to worsen. It's overwhelming. Sally notices the cat. There is something about that cat and for a moment or so, Sally is transfixed by the animal. She remains transfixed until she can no longer afford to be. She fights off another Zombie or two and with what seems a free moment, she looks for the cat again, but it is gone. Has it finally found a way out?

Then it hits her. How could she, or anyone else, not have realized or remembered before this moment? There is a door that leads outside, and it is situated back beyond the alter and off to the right. It is where the priest would commonly enter right before beginning to perform Sunday Mass. Speaking of which, where is the priest. From where she is, Sally cannot see Father Michael Anthony. Where is he?

The first opportunity she gets, Sally heads straight for that door, abandoning Amber while not meaning to. The most important thing is to get out alive so if that door is viable and if Amber can defend herself, and the boys too, for the next few minutes, then perhaps they all can get out.

Sally does get to that door though the first thing she sees is the cat. It's dead ... looks like it had been bludgeoned. There is no one else all so close to this door, who done this? The second thing Sally sees is a chain. The door is chained, padlocked and all, there is no getting out through this door unless it is somehow broken through, and such a thing is most unlikely given current circumstances.

Sally moves down the nearby corridor in hopes of finding something she can use on the door. The rooms down in this area have no windows so the door she previously was at is the only realistic way out. Neither zombie nor fire have reached this area yet. The machete Sally had used on that first zombie to have gained entry to the church, it, the machete, she had dropped it somewhere along here, but she cannot see it. Perhaps Shawn or Brad must have picked it up before they came away from the area.

There is a scream from the main church hall, a female scream. Jenny is no longer living so it must belong to Amber. Sally rushes back in, fearing Amber has become overwhelmed by zombies. This is not the case. Amber is lying unconscious on the steps right before the alter. It looks like she too has been bludgeoned though Sally cannot see by who.

The nearest zombies are twenty feet away and approaching. With a roar of her own, Sally goes on the offensive. If she were capable of thinking, or had a moment or so to remember, she wouldn't be able to remember the last time she was this angry. Anger has come to fill every cell within her.

When Shawn first sees Amber lying motionless on the steps before the alter, he drops everything and moves straight to her. He too had not seen what had happened to Amber. He kneels down and holds her up and onto his lap. He calls her name, and she is unresponsive. He calls her name again and realizes that it is no use ... she's gone ... his sister ... his twin ... and there was and is nothing he could do about it. If he could be honest with himself then he knew ... even before completely reaching her, it had been clear to see that she is gone.

Leon does all he can to keep fighting but he is just thirteen and is extremely distracted by what is happening with his honorarily adoptive brother and sister. He can only go so long before he is overcome. All the years of torture and torment he went through, for it all to come to this. He did have his months of freedom, he did get to laugh, he did get to play, and he had the opportunity to simply be ... a boy. Now ... now disaster has hit.

Sally now begins to become overwhelmed. There is so much smoke now filling up the church so quickly with nowhere to go. So many members of the dead too. There is nowhere to go. If she could get back to the door at the back of the alter ... she'd have no way to get through it. She calls out to Shawn. There is no reply ... she calls out to him again. Still, no reply come.

Through the smoke he comes ... not Shawn but a member of the dead, and Sally is caught off guard. The last thing she heard in her own mind was ...

Beautiful Dreamer, wake unto me,
Starlight and dewdrops are waiting for thee;
Sounds of the rude world heard in the day,
Lull'd by the moonlight have all passed away!

Fire runs its course and eventually takes itself out but not before everything else is snuffed out first. It's over; it's all over, done and finished ...

... As for Father Michael Anthony, well ... he once again trudges on through unending deluge in an utter daze, aware and unaware both at once. His white shirt anything but white, his jacket torn, and his collar loosened. There is blood on his clothing, most of which is not his own though he is responsible for some its existence.

... The end of the world has come, the end of his world. Everyone he knew is gone. Friends, family, parishioners, they are all gone and only he is left to walk a path, maybe the path to his own crucifixion ... a broken man definitely more unaware than he is aware. At least for him, life goes on ... for the time being.

I hurt myself today ... to see if I still feel ... I focus on the pain ... the only thing that's real ...

HURT - Songwriters: Trent Reznor

Hurt lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.

BEAUTIFUL DREAMER - Songwriters: Paul J. Frederick / Stephen Collins Foster

Beautiful Dreamer lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc, Universal Music Publishing Group.

WINTER WONDERLAND - Songwriters: Richard B. Smith / Felix Bernard / Dick Smith

Winter Wonderland lyrics © Wb Music Corp., Universal Music Publishing Pty. Ltd., Mike Stock Publishing Limited, Bregman Vocco & Conn Inc