Uncertain where Dennis is, you silently move to the center of the church and walk down the aisle to retrieve the flagpole. Looking around the church, you ponder the best location to position yourself for an ambush. It has to be the office; after all, it provides a window with a view of the front door. Once Dennis enters the church, you can hopefully catch him off guard.
You glance out the nearest window before leaving for the office. He is nowhere in sight. You contemplate what to do with the flag as you creep toward the office. Reaching the front, you rip the flag from the pole and set it down on the floor. You enter the office and search the desk for thumbtacks. Finding a few, you return to the flag and pin it over the front door. You return to the office and position yourself by the window to keep watch. After a few minutes, the first signs of fatigue settle in and you fight back a yawn. You spot a clock on the wall and see that it is 2:10 am. It has been almost four hours since you left work. As your eyelids grow heavier, you think about what you would be doing right now if you had only gone home. You probably would have passed out an hour ago, on the sofa with the last beer bottle still clutched in your hands.
The sound that startles you awake is coming from above. Something is moving on the roof. There is a shuffling and splashing sound. You are gripped by fear, disoriented and cannot move. Literally, something seems to be restraining you. You try focusing on what it is, but your eyes just will not adjust in the darkness. It is then that you realize you are no longer sitting up, but lying down on. You try sitting up and smack your head on something. You fall back to the ground, which is exactly that. You slow down and focus on what is around you. You can now smell and feel the soil beneath you. There is something hard a few feet above you that prevents you from sitting up. Your hands and feet appear to be bound, and the texture on your wrists feels like twine. Moving your hands toward your pocket, you can feel your lighter still in there. You fish it out and flick it a few times until it lights.
Directly above you is some sort of flat wooden roof, with rafters or support beams. Turning your head, you see that darkness fades in every direction except to your right. On that side lays Michelle's body. Something moves directly above you on the roof, only it is not the roof, it is the floor of the church. There is more of the splashing sound and whatever it is drips through a crack and lands in your open mouth. It’s gasoline. You let go of the lighter immediately and begin struggling to free your wrists.
The twine is not thick, but tightly tied. There is only one way out of this and it has to be quick. You feel for the lighter in the dirt, retrieve it and aim it toward your wrists. A few seconds later, the twine is weakened enough by the flame to break free. You do the same thing with your feet. If he put you in here, there must be a way out, but which direction.
You struggle with the notion, but decide you should check Michelle's pockets for her keys remembering that there was a key light. You obviously cannot crawl underneath a gasoline soaked floor with an open flame. Both pockets turn up empty, but you find something better. He has placed her purse next to her. Reaching into it, you find the keys instantly. You depress the button and the darkness is once again broken. On the key chain, there is also a small Swiss army knife. You quickly scan the contents of the purse and find some Mace, a half-eaten candy bar you quickly devour and her cell phone. You check it for service knowing that it will not have any from underneath the church. It was worth a shot. The time on the phone shows that it is now 3:33 am.
The light only shines three or four feet around you and the walls are not within that radius. Either Dennis crawled down here as well when moving your bodies, or there might be some sort of hatch in the floor. Of course, even if there were a hatch, you would blindly be entering a room where Dennis is soaking the floor with fuel. He undoubtedly has some way of setting it on fire and probably a gun. You could try crawling toward the front or back of the church, inspecting the walls for whatever entrance he used if there was not a hatch. As long as there is movement above you, getting out from underneath could mean your freedom. Once the movement stops, so does your chance of getting out of this mess without burning alive or running into him outside.
If you decide to crawl toward the front of the church, turn to page 63.
If you decide to crawl toward the rear of the church, turn to page 62.
If you decide to search for a hatch in the floor, turn to page 66.
