Brian Boru

Brian Boru was a typical firefighter on the day the Undead appeared.  At thirty years old he was a veteran at his job, among the most daring of his station.  Already he had been commended by the mayor himself for his bravery in the line of duty on numerous occasions. 

On that dreaded day in July, the alarms began to ring. Fires were erupting throughout Malton.  The Higgin Square Station went into action, rushing to the nearest fire not three blocks away. 

Brian was among the first to enter the flame engulfed building.  There were people inside, people moaning and crying in garbled tones.  He grabbed a woman, threw her over his shoulder.  Before he got out the door, he dropped her. She had wrapped her arms around Brian's throat, and had tried to bite through his thick coat.  He dropped her in shock.  She looked up, her arm on fire, and said in a deathly tone, "Brains. Brains." 

Other bodies, now engulfed, began staggering towards him.  He backed up as they came, running out the door where the rest of the crew were beginning to open hydrants to douse the flames.

"Stop!" Brian yelled.  "The flames are not our worry.  There are those alive inside, yet not alive.  Let them burn!"

Brian stood and watched as the building collapsed from the fire, thinking this would be a salvation. 

"There are more," a fireman yelled, pointing down the block. 

And there were. Dozens more of the undead were staggering down the block towards the now panicked fire crew.

"What do we do," the engineer of the crew yelled. 

Before the Captain could respond, Brian walked calmly to the truck, pulled out his axe, and began to walk towards the horde approaching.  

He stopped after a few steps, turned, and said with a look of ferocity, "What do we do?  We save lives."

After this first battle, Brian Boru and other survivors sought protection in the now barricaded Fire Station.  Some were brave on that first day, many were scared and unsure of what to do.  It was a child who first heard the clawing and biting outside the doors.  There were screams, there was panic.  But, once again Brian walked over and picked up his axe.  He stood and listened for a moment, confirming the fears.

Then he spoke.  To the gathered survivors he said these words:

"On your valor rests the hopes of your city today; and what surer grounds can they rest upon? Oppression now attempts to bend you down to servility; will you burst its chains and rise to the independence of  the Living?

Your cause is one approved by Heaven. You seek not the oppression of others; you fight for your country and sacred altars.

It is a cause that claims heavenly protection. In this day's battle the interposition of that God who can give victory will be singly manifested in your favor. Let every heart, then, be the throne of confidence and courage.

You know that the Undead are strangers to religion and humanity; they are inflamed with the desire of violating the fairest daughters of this land of beauty, and enriching themselves with the spoils of sacrilege and plunder. The zombies have impiously fixed, for their struggle, to consume our brains.

Victory they shall not have!

From such brave soldiers as you they can never wrest it; for you fight in defense of honor, liberty and religion-in defense of the sacred temples of the true God, and of your sisters, wives and daughters. Such a holy cause must be the cause of God, who will deliver your enemies this day into your hands.

Onward, then, for your City and for all those yet Alive!"

The Zombies broke through at this moment.  Brian was the first into the breach, with others right behind him.  These undead were vanguished.  More remain.  There is only still to fight, and to live.