A Life Sentence

September 3rd, 2026

September 3rd, 2026

So Kate Lucas and I had gotten pretty bored. Other than the normal everyday tasks that we do every day there isn't much else to do. The dogs keep us entertained, but it even seemed like they were getting tired of just hanging around the house.

As we were whining about not having anything to do Kate mentioned an old church that was about 4 miles away that had been abandoned a long time even before the end of the world. She had always wanted to go in and look around just for hell of it. It was as good a suggestion as any, so we decided to go, well most of us. Lucas never was big about going into churches abandoned or otherwise, so he decided to stay behind and just go for a walk in the woods to stretch his legs.

I think that suited Kate fine. I can tell that Lucas doesn't really like Kate all that much. I am pretty sure the feeling is mutual with Kate. Even if that wasn't the case I think Kate would rather it just be me and her. It seemed like she was spending more and more time around me. Of course Chonk had to go. He never leaves my side, but that's ok I like the little bastard.

We all decided to be back to the house by nightfall, if we weren't then we would go searching for whomever was missing, Lucas included. Lucas was the first to leave and two of the dogs went with him. Kate and I headed out with Chonk right on our heels. Of course we had our backpacks and guns, but we didn't really expect to see anyone. Lucas was positive he wouldn't see anyone.

We headed out in the early afternoon. Of course the trip there was uneventful. It was easy to find it was up another off road from the branched off another side road that was near our house. We could have driven but we wanted to walk, it was only 4 miles and Chonk seemed to be enjoying the walk. He sniffed half the things he saw and peed on the other half. We just walked along the road and kept our eyes open. I knew the place Kate was talking about. I passed by all the time back in the day.

I never really paid much attention to it. It is like any other country church. It was a simple looking white building with a steeple and a cross on top. If I remembered right the windows were all boarded up and weeds, trees and vines had taken over the grounds around the church.

Once we got there I realized something, I made a huge mistake. Neither of us thought to bring a machete with us. I mean the brush wasn't that high, but we couldn't see where we were stepping, it would have been pretty darn easy to step on a snake in all that mess.

Kate wondered if we should go back and get one, but I was like screw it, lets just go for it. So in we went. Chonk couldn't have cared less. He just dived on in and started sniffing around. We were a little worried he might get overheated, but we had water, and once we got inside the church we would have shade too.

The place wasn't in very good shape. Most of the paint was gone and even some of the siding was gone, and the windows were still boarded up. Part of the cross beam on the cross had fallen away who knows how long ago. All in all the place looked like it was about to fall down at any moment.

As we waded through the brush Kate stayed behind me and tried to follow the path I left. I guess if anyone was going to get bit by a snake she wanted it to be me? At any rate it didn't really matter all that much. Once we got closer I noticed that the weeds and brush had been already hacked away and mashed down.

I started to follow the trail and it went right up the church, but then veered off to the side and around behind the church. This wasn't some old path that had not grown over yet, this seemed fairly new. It was new enough that I got out my shotgun. Kate must have had the same thought, she didn't have a shotgun, but she did have a .45, she was actually really good with it, better than me or Lucas.

We followed the trail and it winded all the way around behind the church and into the woods that were behind the church. There was no door at the back of the building so whoever was using this place came and went by the front door. They walked in from the back to avoid being seen.