Fourteenth Entry: A Priest and a Hard Place

That momentary lapse in concentration almost put an end to me. I didn't hear the groans and shuffling footsteps before it was almost too late, and it was only when the walker was practically on top of me that I opened my eyes and saw it.

For a brief moment, I thought it was a living human being. An old man dressed in the black robes of a priest with pale skin and white hair. If not for the dead eyes, you wouldn't have been able to tell that he was a walker. The eyes and the fact that he tried to eat my face.

The dead priest threw himself at me. I screamed and brought my spade up just in time to stop it from sinking its teeth into me. I pushed it off me and scrambled into the corner of the doorway. The space between the door and the pews was too small to use my spade effectively. The walker lunged again, teeth bared in a vicious snarl, just as my hand closed over the cleaver's handle. I brought it down in a sweeping arc and split the walker's head down the middle. It gave a final gurgle, bloody foam sputtering from its exposed trachea, and fell to the floor in a bloody heap.

I got up on shaking legs and surveyed the church interior. It was very spartan, with plain white walls and a wooden floor trodden thin after many years of use. The main chamber was about 20 paces across and 40 deep, with two rows of dark wooden pews taking up most of the space. At the end of the room stood a podium and a small table with something on it. I couldn't quite make it out. A large wooden cross hung on the far wall. To my right was a staircase that presumably led up to the bell tower.

I couldn't see any walkers, but I wasn't taking any chances. Stepping gingerly over the impromptu barricade, I made my way slowly down the aisle, methodically checking the remaining pews for lurking walkers. I found none, and proceeded to examine the three items on the table: A full bottle of wine without a label on it, a box of communion wafers and a plain silver chalice. The podium was empty, but I spotted a door built to look like part of the wall. It wasn't exactly a hidden door exactly, just designed to be unnoticed.

There was nothing more to see in this room, so that just left the "hidden door" and the bell tower.