Peratus Preliator


Meaker withdrew his blade from the temple of what was once a middle aged Businessman. The wet thud of the final Z hitting the road seemed deafening, only to be drowned out by the cheers of the Survivors behind him. Crowbars and lead pipes were thrust into the air in sync with the victory cries of those left standing. Meaker checked himself over to make sure he had not been bitten, his Kevlar plates were scratched and bitten but held up more than sufficiently. He wore a Black balaclava to ensure no Ghoul blood sprayed into his mouth, although most of his uniform was covered in the substance including his Balaclava, he managed to avoid infection again. The Sergeant, or more recent Lieutenant looked to the survivors left, More had survived the onslaught than he had expected, They had won the Battle of Mattydale. A small victory in a war that most of those cheering wouldn’t live to see the end of.

3 Hours Earlier…

Meaker came running back full speed towards the survivors. Their numbers were only twenty strong, and only a few thousand meters away was a much larger group of undead.

“Alright, for those of you who are still here and haven’t started walking the other way will give me your full attention, Colonel Slater will agree with me when I for warn you that, I really don’t like to repeat myself.”

The group of survivors all gave the Sergeant their attention, although this was the first time he had spoken to many of them, they all figured he would be the one who would either fight them out of a bad situation, or teach them to do it themselves.

“We don’t have much time before Zack gets here, so If you don’t cooperate you will just die that much quicker. I want you to dismiss everything you think you know about the enemy, They may be shambling shells of their former selves but in numbers as vast as we are about to face they can be quite a problem.”

A few of the survivors nodded in agreement, most just listened intently. Meaker looked over his shoulder to Slater who was on the .50, Slater was keeping an eye on the direction of the Z’s. Meaker looked back at the crowd and began to walk parallel to those in front, studying the faces of those who he was about to fight with briefly before speaking again.

“I know all of you are here because you have fought and killed to be here. I also know that in most, if not all your cases you were running away, trying to survive. The few of you who think its not that hard to kill a Z are only correct when that theory is administered to the example I made.”

Meaker couldn’t help but notice a few of the strange looks he got.

“We will not be running, Those of you who are alive now will either Die by the enemy, or I will kill you myself as soon as you turn to run. I hope that is clear, There are no warnings for deserters.”

There was a pause as he looked down at his rifle.

“How many among you have firearms?” He said upon looking back up.

Only three men raised their hands. Meaker waved the three to the front, who uneasily made their way to him. One older man, an obvious Vietnam Vet. had with him an old M-1 Garand. Meaker looked at him and smiled a little.

“Its always nice to have at least one able bodied soldier in my ranks” He said to the man.

“I wont let you down Sir.”

“If you do then Zack will be the least of your problems.” Meaker said before moving to the other man. All in all they had two rifles and a shotgun, only one was meant for combat, and there wasn’t enough ammunition to say so.

Meaker looked at the three, “you three are going to be up front,  Don’t waste your shots and only fire when I say so. Aim for the head and watch your breathing, don’t overcompensate and don’t over squeeze the trigger. once your out of Ammo fall back to the rear of the formation, Hooah?”

The Vet sounded off a loud “Hooah!” in response while the other two civilians looked at Meaker and nodded. Meaker walked past the three to address the rest.

“Alright, the rest of you get at arm length intervals now.”

The survivors hesitated for only a second.

“Now!” Meaker shouted into the crowd, the years of yelling in combat had giving him a booming voice that instantly woke everyone up. once the survivors had gotten to arm length intervals he proceeded.

“This is how this is going to work, The line up front will be the ones doing the fighting, Line two you are to relieve the person in front of you when they get tired and cannot perform as well. We are going to try and keep as many of ourselves alive today so you people in the front need to sound off and let the person behind you know that your about to trade spots. DO NOT! Turn your back to leave the front, Always face your enemy Hooah?”

Only the Vet. Responded with his own “Hooah!”

“Once you leave the front go to the rear and everyone fill in the gap ahead of you, Everyone will fight today. Some of you will Die. Not a single one of you will run, Is that clear?”

The whole group nodded, and almost on cue. Slater opened fire with the .50 firing in short bursts. Many in the crowd were startled by the sound of the Machine gun, It was like music to Meaker’s ears. Meaker turned to see the encroaching sea of the undead, the first three lines were being peppered by the large rounds of the .50, The gun turned everything it hit into pudding. It wasn’t enough.

Meaker ran up to Slater and jumped onto the M113 next to him and tapped him on the shoulder.

“There’s way too many for you to be using slow fire mode, put it on Semi so you don’t burn up all the ammo.”

“There’s A semi Fire on this thing!?” Slater yelled back, the temporary hearing loss was normal when firing such a high caliber round.

Meaker set the gun to Semi and ran to the front as Slater started racking off much more accurate head shots. He slid to a halt in the front of the formation next to the Vietnam Vet. and shouldered his M-8 Carbine. He swept the red dot in his acog reflex scope over the heads of the Undead, occasionally watching one pop like a balloon from Slater.

He looked at the other three with guns.

“Only Fire on my command, remember what I told you!”

Slater kept firing till he heard a click, an unfriendly sound when faced with well over five hundred Zombies. He jumped off the M113 and ran over to the formation, taking his place to the right of Meaker. Slater pulled out his bayonet, holding it in his left hand while reaching for his pistol with his right. He looked to Meaker with a smile,

“I managed to get a hundred and fifty.”

Meaker cracked a smile before pulling his balaclava over his face.

“Keep it up Colonel, and you may catch up with me someday.”

Slater nodded and turned his concentration to the zombies who were now only twenty yards away.

“Glad to have you with us John.”

“OPEN FIRE!”


4 responses to “Peratus Preliator”

  1. I would’ve commented sooner, but the Myspace layout is driving me nuts.

    We’ll probably have to hammer out some continuity (Slater shot his eagles out of the M113 as an FU to the dink who gave them to him) but I like the other point of view on this compared to Double Eagles.

    Glad to have you with us, John.

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