The 'stick girl' was still huddled in her corner, lost in her sorrow as thing went on in the church. It wasn't until after the people returned form downstairs did she even glance up. One of the men had just mentioned about keeping watch...

"If you have nothing left to do yourself, be useful for others! can't hurt to lend someone your idle hands." James told her as they were packing up for their camping trip...

Last summer...a fun trip into the mountains...she almost started crying again at the thought, but stopped herself. She needed to be strong now, no one would look out for her now. The girl wiped her eyes and got to her feet, renewed determination flowing into her fatigued muscles. She headed over to the woman Will spoke to, her staff tapping on the cold floor as she went, waving to get her attention.

"I will see about that." She grabbed the radio from his grasp and began to look over it. "So there is our little problem." She opened her tool box,looked around for a few tools she might need and opened her flashlight."Hold this please." She passes it to Peter and began to fix it. A few minutes later with the decent amount of light she had, she managed to fix it. "Catch." She threw it to Peter as she collected her flashlight back,turning it off,put her tools away and closed the tool box. "I hope I fixed it good enough for it to work."

Sam over heard what he could. These people seemed safe but as for how he would get in was another matter. Somewhere high would be the best place, as those things could not follow him in, but climbing was hard for someone of his size, he had little choice in the matter other than being shot by the people within from breaking down one of the outer doors so it looked like he had to be polite...

Walking around to the entrance that lead out from the kitchen Sam knew that someone was there so he gently knocked on the door, hoping that whoever it was would get their attention caught "Come on.. Hello? Please open the door." He said impatiently, not really comfortable around where dead people were buried, more so now the dead seemed to get up for a stroll and light snack.

St. Albert’s Catholic Church 2nd Floor

Fleur had followed Henry upstairs, while the others had either split up downstairs or went into the basement. So far they didn’t have much luck with most of the rooms; the storeroom and the Priest’s office were both locked. “Well, at least three rooms are open.” Henry opened the door to one of the bible study room; warm, musty air filled his head. The room’s ventilation was poor, and the dust and warmth made Henry’s head spin. He grasped a chair for balance as Fleur said something, but the pain in his head drowned her voice out.

“I’m alright,” he muttered. “Just...a little light headed.” He eyed the room, noticing a piece of paper with something down. “Hey, what’s that?”

He let Fleur walk over to it, taking a moment to sit down and let his head stop spinning. On the top of the paper was a small key, with a tag on the keychain. It read: storage! Well, that was something! The note had some writing on it as well:

Father Bellman,

I took the liberty of locking up Johnny Moats’ pocket knife in the storage room. He kept flicking it in bible study, and we’ve repeatedly told him that there’s no place for knives in the lord’s house! His father can get it back after service. I also noticed that you keep misplacing the spare key to your office! I decided to hide it somewhere obvious: I hid it behind where the lions lay with lambs.

Also, I know that you keep the key to the alleyway exit in your office, but can’t you get a door that doesn’t lock both ways? I just worry that if a fire breaks out, people won’t be able to get out!

-Abigail

The door to the alleyway was locked! But, now they knew where the key was: in the pastor’s office! But the question was, where was this spare key? Where did lions lay with lambs?

Henry forced himself to stand up. “Well, want to check out the storage room?”

---

Rooftop of the Hotel Barum

Delta Team member Maurice Rodriguez eyed the entrance of the city arboretum with the scope of his rifle. “Pretty smart, eh Cap? You got that big metal fence around the place, and then there’s that big fancy glass building for people to sit in. Why the hell do they have a big ol’ greenhouse like that?”

“It’s not a greenhouse.” Evan Simms fixed the rappel rope from the side of the hotel. “It’s some tropical plant exhibit. They keep it enclosed so the weather doesn’t kill the plants.”

“Makes sense...” Maruice took his mark on the rappel rope. “Well, let’s evac us some civvies!”

---

St. Albert’s Catholic Church, Priest’s Office

Father Bellman’s corpse had laid still for some time now, hunched over his desk in the office, a bible dropped on the floor. His vestments had come loose when he reeled back in the feverish pain from the sickness leading to his death. His face had turned gray and cold alone in the office, even though the room was stuffy and stank of death.

His body laid there for a good bit, when the sound of creaking floorboards in the room next to him caused his white pupil to dilate slightly. One of his bony fingers began to move.

St. Albert's Catholic Church, Basement Level

Peter Simpson took a breath as the girl attempted to work on the radio in the dark basement, would it not have been better to work on it upstairs? It was at least a little entertaining to see somebody as impatient as he was and had the nerve to get things done then and there. The whole “sit and wait” thing bored him, which was one of the reasons he became a self-made man and while there was waiting in the realtor business you made your own hours on your time.

“Let’s take it upstairs and see what else can be done with it, no reason to wait down here.”

With that he turned toward the stairwell they had gone down.

---

St. Albert's Catholic Church, Main Floor

Officer Levitski smiled, albeit nervously—despite being six foot one, he had a smaller frame than most and it made his presence as a police officer was something that his fellow officers in the police force mocked him for, and his former partner, Liam Masterson, had always joked with him about how he looked more like a dorky scientist than an officer of the law.

“That’s a good skill.” He said, complimenting Ellie’s ability to get into smaller places before she spoke a comment about the state of the city. He frowned—he had seen his partner die out there today among many others.

“A good question—”

The thumping on the door adjacent to the kitchen caused William Robens to stop almost on instinct. The first thoughts coming to him were that of his instincts and before the voice of a human being came asking for admittance into the church Robens rose his crowbar from his right hand to a defensive position. He would not let this be the end of him—what was it that those damn movies said about this kind of thing? Hit them in the head? He didn’t remember. But all of that defensiveness changed when he heard the voice on the other side of the door.

“Come on... Hello? Please open the door.”

With a distinct frown he pressed his hand on the door. “Are you infected?”

At this point Levitski had moved from his position in the main part of the church to the kitchen after hearing the knocking on the door—he stood in the doorway looking over Will and gave him a sort of cautious look, but in Levitski’s mind a need to protect others made him feel uneasy about Will keeping the door shut. Levitski looked back to Ellie for a moment. If the man outside was infected, he’d risk the safety of the others—and he couldn’t let that happen.

The two men waited for the voice outside’s response.

Fleur smiled, she was happy that something good was going right for once.
"Oui, let us go to ze storage room, there is sure to be something uzeful, like ze aforementioned knife"
Before they left Fleur had another quick search of the room, but found nothing of use.
"Okay, les us go." She helped Henry out of the room. "Vemember, if you start veeling any pain vat all, you let ve know"

The two made their way to the storage room. Fleur used the key that they had found in the previous room to open the storage room. The doorknob was cold, and the door made a eerie creaking noise, like it hadn't been used in awhile. The room itself wasn't even that big, it was dusty and dark, there was a pullstring light. It didn't work. Although there was enough light to see in the room without it, thankfully.

"Ah! The knife! Tre Bein~" Fleur turned to look at Henry. "If you do not mind, I'll hold onto vis, I don't vink you are in ze right state to use it, sorry"
Looking around abit more, Fleur decided to grab something, it was a long rag, it was clean, and you never know when something like that will come in handy.
After exiting the storage room Henry and Fleur stood outside.
"Henry, after thinking abit... What zat note said, ' Where The Lions Lay With The Lambs' I think I solved abit of the riddle. Lambs in churches, normally refer to people, 'lost lambs'. Although, I'm not so sure about what the lion could represent... perhaps there is a lion figure somewhere? Hmm, perhaps we should discuss this with the others..."

There was silence, for a second, well, despite the moaning from outside. Something was itching at Fleur, she thought she had heard something. But it was probably nothing.

St. Albert’s Church, Second Floor
“Hmm, I don’t remember seeing a lion statue anywhere in the main church. Maybe there’s one in some of the rooms?”

He entered the other bible study room, to find it spare with the exception of some potted plants on the floor. Henry had no idea what they were, but Fleur may have recognized them. Popular handbooks had been released on a certain kind of herb, well, several kinds of herbs which held medicinal effects which became more potent when mixed with one another. Experts researching the herbs put it simply it a botany book released around 1998:

Each herb has different colors and different effects as medical plants: the green one recovers physical strength, the blue one neutralizes natural toxins, while the red herb does not have any effect by itself. The red herb is only effective when it is mixed with with other herbs.

By grounding the herbs into a powder, Fleur might be able to alleviate Henry’s pain, or she could hold onto them in the case of an emergency. The choice was hers, as Henry shook his head and went on into the Children’s Nursery.

The nursery was dark from pulled curtains, but a large bookshelf could still be made out. Henry peered at it; since it seemed to be the focal point of the room. On the top shelf was a picture of a pastoral scene, with Jesus sitting with a flock of lambs.

The other three shelves all had bookends:

-The first shelf had two ornate wooden horse heads as bookends.
-The second shelf had twin lion bookends, both perched on a pedestal.
-The third shelf had two fierce stone dragon bookends.

“Odd,” Henry muttered.

Ellie looked back at Richard, then slowly backed away from the door towards the kitchen with him. She decided to break the silence "We'll ask again. Are you infected?" She said slowly, yet with a little quiver in her voice. She was tensed up a tiny bit. She was paranoid about the fact that these people outside the church could be infected or crazy psychopaths. Ellie looked back at Richard then too the door.

St. Albert’s Church, Second Floor, Before Henry And Fleur Enter The Nursery
Fleur did indeed recognize the plants.
"Henry, zese plants, zey're your basic medicinal herbs, not great compared to modern medicine but still working wonders! zit'll take a few seconds, but I'll be able to grind zis into poweder that zat will help you feel much better"
Fleur smiled. There were three pots, each a different colour, one red, one blue, one green.
"Now Henry, since zis is basic stuff, it won't be zas powerful on zits' own, so we have to..." Fleur plucked the leaves off the green and red plant and began to crush them in the palms of her hands. "Ze need to crush.... zem together. I've done zis many times before" She then finished. "Okay, now, this won't hurt, but im going to have to take off the bandage for a second. Fleur, carefully unraveled the bandage, revealing Henrys' wound. Using the rag that she had found, she spread the powder across it and placed it on his wound. She then proceeded with slowly wrapping the wound back up.
"Zare! You should veel better in no time" She smiled, happy that Henry would finally start to feel better. Before leaving she collected some of the blue plants' leaves as well, in case she needed them.

---

St. Albert’s Church, Second Floor, The Nursery
Fleur giggled a little. "Hehe, yes, I finally understand the riddle." Henry looked at her funny. She explained that the sheep, meant the sheep in the painting, the lion, referred to the bookends on the second shelf.
"The key must be in, or behind one of these books. The two started to search for the key. With great luck, they found the key.
"Tre Bein! Now we can get into ze office!" Smiling once more, Fleur was very pleased with herself. It also looked as if Henry was getting progressively better.

St. Albert’s Church 2nd Floor

Henry was feeling much better, and he smiled as Fleur held the key to the Priest’s office in her hand. “Alright, now we have the full run of the place!” His head was no longer throbbing, and he definitely felt more focused now. The two left the dark nursery, and walked down the hall to the Priest’s Office. Outside the large, solid oak door, a placard read: Father Reggie Bellman.

“I wonder if the priest was here today...” Henry muttered, as Fleur opened the door.

The lack of power and the closed curtains kept the room very dark. Light from the fires outside gave the room a slight orange glow, but the room seemed just hot and empty. Until they were hit by the smell. “Urgh!” Henry said, covering his mouth. “What IS that?”

He stepped inside, noticing something slumped over. “Oh god, it’s the priest. He’s dead.” The body remained slumped over, and Henry took a cautious step towards it. “Oh geez...” he frowned. “Let’s...find that key...and get the hell out of here,” he muttered.

He found it-near the hand of the dead priest. The key to the alleyway; the only clear exit they had if they needed to leave this church. He slowly reached for it-and quickly grabbed the key, taking a fast step away. The body remained motionless.
“Phew, for a second there-”

THUMP

“Urrrghhhhh...”

“Uh, Fleur...” Henry said, gently pushing the nurse out the door. “Let’s...get out of here.” He closed the door behind him. “I think we should tell the police officer we have a uh...a monster up here.”

St. Albert's Catholic Church; Basement Level:

After all the searching, it was all finished.The radio have been found.Matthew took a deep breath and exhaled.Matthew then returned to the stair from where they had gone down and he took the stairs.

St. Albert's Catholic Church; Inside
Matthew was seating in one of the pews.He took his laptop and turned it on.It was half a battery left and he forgot to bring his hand-operated charger by panic when he was in his house.Matthew sighed... Also, there is no internet connection but he used his pocket wifi and started browsing about the events then he found this internet article.

ZOMBIES HAVE ATTACKED PARRIS CITY!

"Zombies are everywhere in the city! in the streets,in the buildings, in the sewers, they are everywhere! Many people started to eat each other and the one who got eaten turns into one of them! The mayor of Parris City was doing everything to prevent more deaths.So, the mayor told everyone to evacuate at St.Albert's Catholic Church or at the Parris City University.Any flights going to Parris City have been cancelled even the ferries.This is all the information all i got, stay tuned for more."

Matthew was shocked then turned off the laptop to save batteries.He doesn't know what he is gonna do.So he explored around the church for a while

St.Albert's Catholic Church; Nursery
Matthew was walking around the nursery,he noticed the little beds for kids that have been abandoned by their parents.

St.Albert's Catholic Church; Inside
Matthew was very tired,so he slept in one of the pews.

“Are you infected?”

Sam could not help but give a blank stare and gained a snarky tone "Oh yes, will that be a problem?" He then continued to talk before they could freak out "If I was I would be one of those things by now, or I wouldn't tell you, but just so your mind is at ease, I am not infected. Now can I come in? These things may notice me before long." He knew how to handle himself and being within the church seemed like a bad place to hold up, but he hoped he could convince them to go along with his plan, safety in their numbers and all that..

She returned up stairs with the radio and tool box in hand. She sat at one of the pews trying to figure out how to work the thing. "Hmm.." She turn the knobs on it and a small sound came out of it. Hmm...I can't pick up anything. Maybe it needs tuning? She thought as she started to tune it as she pushed up her glasses up once in a while.

St. Albert's Catholic Church, Main Floor

William Robens frowned with a feeling of annoyance, whilst he had been sarcastic before it seemed that he didn’t particular care from hearing the same sort of attitude from somebody else. But the man on the other side of the door of the church kitchen had a very poignant point—the longer they waited talking loudly at that the more likely that the currently infected would be waltzing down their direction. With a heavy sigh he looked to Officer Levitski who cautiously nodded while he kept his handgun at the ready. William wasn’t sure about how essential Levitski was a leader, but the man had a firearm which was certainly something essential to Will’s survival.

“Okay.” He said as he carefully opened the door, to see the visage of the man behind the voice. “Come in, and do it quietly.”

It was after this that Peter Simpson’s group from the basement returned with a small battery-powered emergency radio; one of them almost immediately started fiddling with it—trying to find a frequency. The sound of this caused Levitski’s eyes to move from the new survivor to the radio. Levitski wondered if they would have any luck finding any frequencies, but he was holding on to hope that even an automated message would have been on rotation on one of the frequencies. Such hope seemed to be not wishful thinking as a message although badly buffered and thick of static came through the radio.

“—not a test, this is an alert stationed by OBS.” The message was in a bad sort of shape, the reception tower it was originating at was likely damaged and running under massive issues. But at least the first part of the message was clear: the Office of Bioterror Security, a more ‘newer’ government agency tasked with counterterrorism of biological weapons originating a few years ago under President Graham’s organization during his last term.

“We advise survivors to relocate to optimal safe zones for extraction. Suggested locations include the central police precinct off Dumont Street or Ramsey College off Lorren Road. Extraction teams are on the way to principal loca—not a test...” The second bit in the circular automated message suggested extraction was imminent and that optimal locations included the central police station and ramsey college—but both of these things while downtown didn’t sit right with Peter Simpson but he didn’t know why.

Ellie quickly made sound of the radio transmission. "Dumont Street or Lorren Road..." Ellie pondered. "I know that Lorren road's a while away. So Dumont street is our best bet." Ellie said. "If we can find a car that isn't too heavily damaged I could hot wire it and we could make it there faster. Trouble is that I passed down a street close to Dumont on my way here and it's crammed with infected." Ellie sighed. "So I guess we're going to have to think of something else."

St. Alberts Church Second Floor
Fleur nodded. "Oui, let us make haste and tell our friends of the good news"
The two hurried down the stairs to report to the group what had happened.

St. Alberts Church Main Floor
They came down to see thr other group listening to a radio. Fleur noticed that there had been an addition to their group. He had blood on his shoes, he must have come from the outside, perhaps, he's seen Navine... She thought to herself.

Fleur shook her head, no now is not the time, I must tell them the great and terrible news.
"Everyone, Henry and Vi..." Fleur began to give them the details of what they discovered.
She told them about the note, the exit, the medicinal herbs, but not about the priest, she didn't want to cause alarm.
She went over to talk to the officer in private.
"Officer, you see... We vound the priest... He's.... Unfortunetly, deceased... Vut he is also vone of those things..."

Sam looked as the door opened for him, thankfully it seemed these people still had some sense in their head, which was good in his book. Coming through the door, the large man turned and closed the door behind him, making sure to bolt it like it was before, it pays to be polite, more so when it could save your life. "Thanks, I will remember this." Moving from the kitchen and into the main floor with the two officers, Sam noticed there were a few more people than he first through, more so when the ones from upstairs joined them.

With the radio going off he waited to introduce himself as he wanted to listen in too. With a sigh Sam ran a hand through his messy hair "Bio-terrorism... You would think stuff like this would be harder to get a hold of." It was then that suggestions started flying, mainly about the police station which he wondered why the cops had not mentioned anything about it. Were they not from that station? "I think you are all forgetting something... Sorry, Samuel, that's my name. There are more than a few of you, more so if you don't mind including me, you are going to need at least two cars, a large van or small bus."

His gaze went over to the ops for a moment "What about you? This the first time hearing of it, or don't you come from that station?" He then dared to mention a small fear "Or maybe you have not heard from them in a while?" If they didn't then it was possible that it had been surrounded, but if they lost their radios then there was one right here they had to use... He hated ruining the parade but these were concerns that needed to be addressed, more so before they were noticed.

Main floor

Henry was happy to be back downstairs; with some candles and some battery powered lights, it looks slightly more homely than the dark and hot upstairs; and at least, there was no undead walking around. In his hand, he clutched the key to the alleyway; he made a note where the door was; a large metal door towards the back of the church; probably a place where heavy things like pews or statues could be delivered without causing any issues in the front of the church. It also made a possibly route of escape. With the streets outside surrounded by the undead, at least an alleyway may be safer for people to travel; which might be good considering they had no idea how much food or medicine they still had in the church.

Fleur began explaining to the officer what had happened, and something hit Henry's chest hard: fear. Had...had he locked the door to the priest's office? He knew he shut the door. And these things...they were probably too dumb to open doors, right?

Henry paced around, accidentally bumping into a girl with what looked like a staff. "Omf!" He stopped himself from falling over, and then looked at the girl's...stick? "Excuse me..." he said, looking at the weapon quizically. "What is that?"

Priest's Office

The body moved. Inside of the brain of the former priest, the only instinct now was hunger. He wanted to feed. He slowly moved towards the door, flopping against it. It wouldn't budge. But, a cold hand felt something...familiar, in the instinctual fog, the hand turned. And the door opened.

St. Albert's Catholic Church, Main Floor

Everything was happening so damned fast and Officer Levitski felt the pressure of it as the radio, the new survivor, the return of Henry and Fleur, and the stress of the situation came to be. Levitski’s eyes moved from scene to scene, as if he couldn’t keep up with the amount of everything he was expected to keep in order. His inexperience began to crack in his mind, but his drive to protect everyone kept it from appearing too much on his face. The new survivors admittance that transportation would be more trouble than it was worth was correct, and while Levitski had not seen the central police station’s status with his own eyes he worried how they were holding up considering his own police communicator had been lost during the chaos and this radio was not one he could contact the station with—it was not a two-way radio, but simply a receiver and one that was badly damaged at that.

He held out his hand as Fleur came in claiming there was a priest upstairs who had become infected and averted his attention. “Don’t worry.” He managed to reply.

Peter Simpson raised a brow, “Don’t worry? There’s infected outside and inside; sounds like a pretty big deal to me.”

“There’s likely to be infected wherever we go. We need to—”

William Robens shrugged as the group began to converse, rather erratically at that. “There’s not enough supplies in the kitchen or restrooms to stay here.” He spoke in his deadpan tone with his left hand shuffled in his pocket with his right one holding a crowbar which he pressed against the floor.

“We also need to be quiet.” He added in a bored manner.

“Yeah… noise attracts them, right?”

“Likely.” Will shrugged.

Esa had fallen into something of a daze as the woman simply ignored her, resting against her staff right in the middle of the pews. She was used to being ignored, but at least people could learn to be more aware....It was only a matter of time until someone bumped into her, and when someone did, she was startled out of her stupor. Whirling around, she gave a bow of her head in apology, hair falling around her face, concealing for a short moment her red, embarrassed face.

As she glanced back up, the first thing her eyes rested on was the unkempt beard. It reminded her of- No. Move on. higher up, her gaze met the man's, so much taller that she had to tilt her head back. Deep brown eyes. just above the usual purple bags of a hard worker or a midnight oil burner. She knew the causes well enough. But only after actually realizing the quizzical look on his face did she note that he had asked something. Her mind churned as it tried to kick back into gear.

Esa presented her staff, kicked the bottom outward to her right and flipped it over her right hand, catching the kicked end with her left while simultaneously pushing her left foot back and whipping the right tip of the staff forward so quickly it whistled, barely six inches from the man's face. A pause, then she whirled the staff backwards in a swish, tucking behind her right arm and bowing in what ignorant people would most likely say a Japanese bow. Straightening, she smiled at the man, hoping he caught onto what she used the 'stick' for.