The Church

The Church is the third chapter of the second campaign in Left 4 Dead, Death Toll. It takes place near the town of Riverside, beginning inside of a safe room located in a caboose. The Survivors must make their way through an abandoned train yard, down an empty street bordered by thick woods, and ultimately they reach a church with a safe house. However, something is... strange.

Campaign
When starting from this chapter, the AI Survivors will grab:
 * Bill will grab a pump shotgun.
 * Francis will grab a pump shotgun.
 * Louis will grab a submachine gun.
 * Zoey will grab a submachine gun.

When the Tier 2 weapons are found, they will grab:
 * Bill will grab an assault rifle.
 * Francis will grab an auto shotgun.
 * Louis will grab an assault rifle.
 * Zoey will grab a hunting rifle.

Otherwise, they will keep the weapons they had in the last chapter. (See "The Drains" for a list of weapons they will grab there.)

Those drains must have been awful, assuming you went through them. However, you're out now; enjoy the fresh air! If you're starting here, just get ready as usual. Have everyone grab a weapon (you only have Tier 1 weapons if you started here) or ammo if they need it. If anyone's injured from the past chapter, go ahead and heal up. You've earned it. When everyone's ready, open the door and head out into the dark, creepy train yard. Lovely, right?

At this point, there's a few key points of interest, which may even hold some nice goodies, like Tier 2 weapons or other supplies:


 * To your right, there's a big brick building. Inside the dark room through the door, there might be some nice stuff.
 * To the left, although it's pretty hard to miss it, there's a big tower. Ascend the stairs to the lighted room at the top and check the table against the far wall. Just be careful up there! There's one nasty fall.

Whenever you're ready, keep heading through the train yard until you reach some stairs. Looking to the left of those, there's another room which may yield good things. Head up the stairs, either way, and be sure to check the rooms to your left! There's an unbreakable door in the darker one, which is effective if you need a place to catch your breath, and items will usually spawn in the lighter one. Continue over the fence and drop down.

''This is one of the few most likely times for a Tank or Witch to appear. If you hear either before this, get ready as you will, and try to spare a Molotov for the Tank.''

Another dark street. Why is everything dark around here? Oh, well. Go up the street, where avoiding the woods is advised, and take a look inside of the building to your right. There's a first-aid station in there, and maybe further supplies (or weapons, if you're still looking) on the table. Get what you can, and keep following the street. Oh, nice, a cabin in the middle of no where... It's not as bad as it might sound. The garage to its right is a nice place to fight hordes from, and there are usually even more supplies inside of the house itself. If you've found no weapons yet, chances are, there will be some in here next to the television. Give it a thorough search if you can (you're going to need it), and get going.

An abandoned ambulance stands in the middle of the road, which usually has health supplies. Bodies pile up in front of a wall, and somebody painted over the sign so that it now reads, "Welcome to Hell." Totally a great omen, right? Ignore it and enter the graveyard. It's dark, it might be scary, but no; nothing is going to crawl out of the graves... yet. There's lights on in the church at the end of the path. Get there.

Though there might be a safe house here, don't open the door just yet. You might hear the disjointed rantings of somebody. Oh, a new friend? Maybe you can add him to your entourage! ...Not quite. There's weapons and ammo in the entrance room, and probably gas cans scattered around the place. As long as you don't leave the gates of the yard, you won't get jumped by anything. Set up, and be prepared to talk to the church guy.

At this point, a few hordes are going to come rushing at you in a mini-finale. Deal with them how you will, just watch out for each other. Take advantage of the supplies presented to you here. Once you've gotten through the several somewhat difficult waves of the Infected, you'll hear him start growling and making the most insane noises. When you're finally able to open the door, our friend the "Church Guy" will have changed into one of the Boss Infected. Kill him, but be careful if he's a Boomer (which he usually is)! Covered in bile, it's especially urgent to get everyone inside and close that door!

You've made it. You're in Riverside. But this is not the end, of course. Take a moment to catch your breath and heal up, and get ready for The Town.

Trivia

 * In the church is graffiti that has the names and death dates of the developers of Left 4 Dead. The majority of them died in October, 2009. It is also believed that most of the names are references to Valve employees that contributed to the making of the game.
 * There is a piano in the church which can be played with the "use" key, or by hitting it. Depending on which piano key the crosshair is centered on, the note produced changes. Strafing back and forth in front of the piano while holding "use" results in a rather ominous din. Striking the piano with a melee attack produces a sound akin to the smashing of keys.
 * At the chapter's starting safe room, if the player lingers in the caboose for too long (read as: a few minutes), the Infected will begin coming as though they had already left. This is an interesting way of racking up kills, since the Common Infected can't break down the door, and the Special Infected's attacks (i.e., the Boomer's vomit or a Smoker's tongue) won't get through the bars or windows.
 * The church survivor is voiced by Nathan Vetterlein, who also voiced the Scout in Team Fortress 2.
 * If you either listen carefully to the church guy, or search through the sound files; you can hear him talk about how the last person he let in attacked him. This is the reason he locks you out and is constantly heard muttering "Better Safe than Sorry". This also explains why he turns into a boss infected and gives possible clues about how the infection spreads.
 * While the caboose IS a safe room with barred-up doors and windows, it is not uncommon for railroads to include bars on the windows of locomotives and cabooses to prevent people from climbing or falling out the windows during movement.
 * Although this is extremely rare, a Tank may spawn right at the beginning of the Safe Room on the Expert difficulty; as soon as the game loads up, the Tank's music cue will play and a Tank is already trying to break down the Safe Room door, but it is unbreakable as long as the bar is on (this glitch can be found on the Xbox 360 version).
 * If the windows are smashed in the beginning of the level on versus mode, the Infected can Spawn.
 * The Church Guy may have been the only surviving member of all of the occupants both civilian and military that died defending the Riverside Church. Thus, hinting that he lost sanity due to his loss of countless friends and acquaintances being the dead military and civilians scattered around the proximity of the hill.