As soon as we all entered the church, the first thing we did is to catch our breath desperately, and it took us a little while until we regained our stamina again. It was after that, that I started to look at our new surroundings, but not after I took a peek at my watch that showed the time 08. 10 a.m.
So far as I knew, the church that we were currently in was built and finished in the middle of 19th century. However, once I looked at the window stained glass designs, I would suggest that the church had started its building progress perhaps as far as the early 19th century.
It was not easy for me to assume the length and the width of the church, but it must have more than 120 feet long and more than 80 feet wide. The church also had the second floor with the total area of roughly a quarter of the total area of the first floor, and it faced the direction of the altar. Most of the chairs were pushed to the front of the main entrance door, which proved us that we made the right decision to enter the church through the back entrance.
"Okay… so, what now?" Ryan asked, softly.
"Look for any survivors, I suppose…" Jonathan replied.
We decided to roam for a while, checking any signs of presence of other survivors, when suddenly a small wooden chair was thrown from the second floor below in the direction of where Jonathan was standing. Fortunately for Jonathan, he managed to hit the object with his garden fork and destroying it as a result. Right after that, a figure of a person emerged from the second floor.
"Who goes there?!" said the figure with a male voice.
"We are survivors! Let us stay here for a while!" I responded with a quite loud tone.
"Yeah, and rob us all of our supplies?! No, will not happen! Beat it!" answered the figure.
I was about to respond again, when Ryan patted me from behind and also started to talk to the figure.
"Please, it is just us three here. There is no one else with us." plead Ryan.
"Wait, three? Were you guys from the direction of the fire department? That explosion was also you guys?" asked the figure.
"Yes… and yes. Well, the explosion was mostly him, actually…" answered Ryan while pointing Jonathan as the main character of the explosion event.
"So… please?" asked Ryan, again.
The figure stood still for a little while before finally giving out a hand gesture. As he gave out his gesture, many more figures appeared from behind him at the second floor, revealing to us that a group of survivor did indeed take refuge at the church. They must be at least around 40 people in total.
"Wait there a moment." said the figure again, as he opened the door at one side of the second floor wall.
We waited for a little moment until a wooden knocking sound was heard at the corner of our left side. It turned out that one section of the wall was a hidden door that could led one who entered it into the second floor.
"This way." said the figure, who was indeed a middle-aged man.
The three of us followed him inside the hidden door, and saw for ourselves a hidden path inside that led to three other paths. The one that the man took was the one straight ahead of us. The path was also lit by few old lanterns, and I assumed that it is lit by candle as the lighting was quite dim.
The man led us to a room with a couple of blocked doors and spiral wooden stairs, and told us that second floor could be accessed by using the stairs.
He did not mention anything about the 2 doors that were blocked with various wooden furnitures, suggesting that it was blocked to hold any trespassers trying to breach the room from outside. We kept following him to the second floor, and finally to where the survivors were before we sat down and converse with the man.
"We appreciate for the hospitality, sir." Jonathan said to the man.
"I am very sorry for what I did earlier, I thought that any unfamiliar faces would be a threat for our safety so… I was just doing what I thought was the safest." The man replied, and then continued again.
"But, before we go any further, I wanted to say that we cannot provide you with any food provisions, as we are currently still struggling to feed ourselves as well. Earlier in the morning, we sent four of us to look for any food supplies, but all of them were wiped out right before us in front of this church…" the main said.
"It is okay, we understand." Jonathan responded, "In that case, can you tell us how it happened?"
The man then told us that right after the sunrise, they sent 4 adult men to look for food provisions. Three of them were armed with handgun, and one was equipped with a crowbar. As soon as they were ready, they exit the church through the back entrance where we entered from, and proceeded through the main road in front of the church.
However, as soon as they stepped on the main road, large purple beams were shot from above and zapped the three armed men one by one almost altogether, leaving the man with a crowbar the only one left. He decided to flee back inside the church through the main entrance, when suddenly a couple of aliens shot him with their beam rifle, killing him instantly. However, that was not the end of it, as the two aliens approached his body and dragged him away from the church and into the depths of the dense fog.
The rest of the survivors inside the church witnessed the whole incident through the second floor window. It was right after that, that they decided to put on the blockade on every possible access to the second floor from outside, except for the hidden door and the back entrance. The man also told us that the night before, there were a couple of attempts on their food supplies robbing from other survivor groups and that it was a serious struggle to hold their food supplies.
Since that most of the survivors there were either children around the age of 14 and below or elders, they had no plans on going out to look for food supplies, and therefore we could not stay with them. The man added that it was not that long after they finished blockaded various access to the second floor that they heard a loud explosion from the direction of the fire department, and that they saw three people running away from that direction shortly after, which were the three us.
He also stated that they witnessed several flying objects and aliens were also rushing to the scene right after the explosion happened, before they saw us running to the church.
When the man finished talking, we were all put to heavy silence for quite some time before Jonathan finally said something.
"In that case, sir," Jonathan said "Does this church happen to have any alternative path to get outside, other than the back entrance that we entered from?
The man did not speak anything for a while, until he suddenly seemed like he came across something on his mind.
"I do not know if this may be useful, but I may know a way out from one of the other paths earlier." The man replied.
The three of us then backtracked all the way to the hidden path earlier on the first floor, led by the man, until we arrived at the path junction that we came across before. The man said that at the end of the path that we did not take earlier was a door that led to a lower level connected to an old underground passage.
If he was not mistaken, the old underground passage would lead to a canal outside. The problem was, he was not sure whether the door was sealed tight or just casually locked that breaking it open by force would not be a problem. Nevertheless, since we all agreed that it was too risky to be out in the open again, especially after the explosion, we had to take the underground passage.
The man led us to the end of the path where the door was, and we tried to open it normally, to which it did not budge. It was then, that Jonathan asked the man for his permission to break the door open. Once the man said yes, Jonathan kicked it three times before the door fell down, and a new path was opened before us.
We thanked the man once again for his hospitality, and proceeded along the underground path, as we were readying our minds again on what might happen next.