Gregson was looking at his map. I joined him, my body still aching. It was clear we were in the city proper now with a large park to the west and a dense number of buildings to the east and south. Greco’s troops were facing north. The rest of the soldiers and police were pulling out on foot.

“We are holding here for a few minutes until the rest evacuate, then we are following this road south. We are going to try to keep the road open.” She told us and indicated the road. We were close to her, so we found out first. She then set off for the troops.

The road was the one we drove down called Via Salaria. It ran between the park and the urban area.

The number of jets had increased in the sky and many were screaming overhead. We no longer looked at each that passed. They had become background noise to us now. We took this opportunity to rearm on ammunition.

Once we were restocked, Gregson and I walked back to the road where we were going to be retreating along. In the distance, we could see the zone it was across the river by now. I looked up northwards and back southwards. The road had numerous civilian vehicles scattered along it. They have been abandoned and pushed out of the way.

Looking at Gregson, he was covered in dust and there was a small trail of dried blood from one of his ears. I was aching from the near bombing we had received and expect he was in the same position.

“How are you doing?” I ask him. He looks at me, surprised. Not expecting the question.

“Should I be asking you that?”

“Probably. But I beat you to it. Not every day, you must get bombed by the Italian Air Force.” He grunts at that, which could have been a laugh, but I wasn’t sure.

“I was deftly not on my bucket list.” He admits.

“I need to ask you a personal question.” I said, looking at him squarely.

“What is it?”

“What is your zone rating?” I had to ask now as I knew this was a sore point for him. I need to know how far you can go in what is to come.

“Type 1.” His bitterness over this was plainly obvious. This was going to dictate how he was going to be fighting over this day.

“Okay.” I had to accept it.

“Don’t worry, John. I am going to stick with you as long as I can.” I could see he was determined in this. I had come to learn that many professional soldiers like him and Lou, who were not rated 2 or higher, found the whole situation bitterly frustrating.

“I know you will.” I said to him, knowing it was the truth. He will stand with me for as long as he can.

“It makes me sick that I can’t do more.” He admits. I was surprised at this because he was normally very reserved.

“Trust me, I understand.” The only nods in this.

Before we could say anything more, Greco and her soldiers came through the trees and joined us on the main road. They were quickly scanning the area for threats, weapons ready.

“No active threats reported in this area so far.” She tells us.

She quickly begins marshalling her men and positions them in defensive points around us. She knows that the danger could come from any direction and plans accordingly. Forming defensive lines in urban combat is next to impossible, so you must plan to be attacked from all directions.

I decide not to continue our conversation and walk over to Greco. She was standing a short distance away and was looking at her map, listening to the radio chatter.

“What’s the situation, Captain.” I ask. She looks up from her map at me.

“Things seem to be going better now. Most of this, but the city has been evacuated, but there are still civilians scattered around.” In the distance, we could hear increased weapons fire from somewhere in the East.

“We should form a barricade down by that junction.” I indicate the junction to the south of us that sees the road we are on open up into a much wider version. She consults a map again and nods.

“That’s a good idea. We’ll use the few abandoned vehicles around here for the barricade.”

“I was thinking the same.” I agreed with her thinking, as mine was similar. I had paid attention to the urban warfare tactic class, even as it was mostly theory when I attended.

Over the next 10 minutes, five abandoned vehicles were pushed into a rough barricade covering the road. To the north, we could see the zone, which was much closer. It was now passed motorway junctions and overpasses and was beginning to absorb the buildings. Gregson was standing next to me, looking north.

“I’m surprised that we have not been attacked again.” I say.

“So am I.” He agrees.

As we are looking to the north, I get a weird feeling. It was like a shiver down my back but not grave chill. It was something different. It was perplexing as I could not understand what was causing it. I rolled my shoulders in an attempt to remove the feeling. But it didn’t go away.

My attention was split between this feeling and that zone to the north, where the screen behind us came as one hell of a surprise. I spun around and found that one of the soldiers in the squad was being mauled by a massive creature.

It was a catlike creature the size of a tiger. It was coloured a light grey with darker streaks. The soldier in question was screaming as he was being viciously mauled. We are all momentarily stunned but quickly break out of it.

I charged forward, yelling to attract the attention of the creature. It looked up from the bloodied body of the soldier directly at me. Its eyes were not catlike but humanlike coloured red. I felt a surge of fear through me. That primal fear of facing a predator.

It tensed its body and I realised it was about to pounce. I quickly lifted my shield to cover my upper body. I kept moving forward as it impacted me. Its size and power of the jump knocked me down.

I hit the road surface hard, letting go of my axe. The impact sent a shock of pain through my body from my back. But my attention was quickly taken by the fact that this creature was savaging my shield and attempting to get to me.

I was forced to use my free hand to help hold up my shield, away from me, with it bearing down on me. It was heavy. And its clawed paws on into every surface contact with. I was pinned

I was so focused on keeping my shield up that I didn’t pay attention to what was around me until I heard the sound of assault rifles firing. The creature roared in pain and leapt off me. It didn’t go far, though, as the soldiers around me quickly gunned it down.

I quickly got back to my feet.

“Greco, keep everyone back.” I yelled to her. I advance on the body of the creature with my gun now drawn.

As I got closer, it was clear that instead as they were multiple bullet holes in the creature. I fired one round into its head to make sure. I took a closer look at what was a brand-new threat to me.

“We clear?” Greco called over.

“Yes.” I answered.

Gregson and Greco join me in studying the corpse. My first impression was quite accurate. It was like a tiger in shape. It also had a range of spikes along its back. They look like bones. The grey colouring and darker stripes were a forward natural camouflage I thought as I looked over it.

“It’s like a tiger.” Greco thought out loud.

“Yes, but about 40% bigger.” Gregson said.

“I have to radio this in.” Greco quickly began talking into her mic.

I never said anything, just continued to study what was in front of me. Other soldiers had run over and were checking the injured man. Unfortunately, the man was dead already from his injuries. The deep claw wound across his neck had severed the artery and he had bled out quickly. The body was moved to the side of the road where it was marked. We could not cover the body as we had nothing to cover it with. It was cold, but the soldiers took what they could in terms of supplies off the body.

This was a bad situation for morale. Unless transport arrived, we would not be able to take the soldier’s body with us. It would slow us down too much. I suspected that Greco was trying to arrange it and inform the city command of the new type of threat.

“Check yourself, John.” Gregson said, coming up to stand next to me.

“Why?” I ask. He motions down my legs.

Looking down, I realised that I had several claw marks along my legs. They were deep, but nothing had penetrated the armour sections. My shield also had several gouges in it due to the claws. I looked around and retrieved my axe.

“Seen anything like this?” Gregson asked me.

“No. I’ve not encountered many beast-type threats. They normally put me in the Grave-type zones, as you know. But I’m willing to bet that thing will be a level 2 threat at least.”

“I agree.” Greco said, joining our conversation. “Reports are coming from across the city. These things are emerging from the zone and ranging into the city now.”

“Any idea of numbers?” Gregson asked. Looking around.

“None so far. But they seem to act in groups as well as solitary hunters.” Well, today was just getting better and better.

“I think it came from the tree line over there.” I indicate the perimeter of the park to the west of us.

“I agree. I need to facture this into our defence posture.” Greco said. She went then and repositioned to soldiers to have one facing east, west and south. This was trying to prevent another attack like that had happened.

“Did you notice any side effects from that thing?” Gregson asked. He would make his own report and was getting all the information he could.

I spent a moment thinking about what you just asked me. On the surface, I could not detect any changes like what grave chill does to a person exposed.

“No. When it looked at me, I felt fear. Don’t know how to explain it, fear but more primordial type, I think?” I tried to explain to him what I had felt. It was hard many times for normal people to explain their emotions for me was far worse.

“I’ll call into our command and let them know what’s going on.” Gregson pulled out his sat phone and quickly called someone up. He walked off to get some privacy for his conversation.

Greco came back over.

“Is Sgt Grayson talking to UK command?” She asks.

“Yes, he’s updating your command team with this new threat.” She nods and remains quiet. I notice her darting looks to where the body of a fallen soldier lies. I decide to take a chance and ask a question.

“First life lost under your command?”

“Sorry?” The question catches her by surprise.

“First life lost under your command?” I ask again. She hesitates for a moment before she answers.

“Yes, it is.” I tried to put myself in her position to understand what she might be feeling. I try, but I fail. I have not lost anyone under my command. Many had died on missions with me when I was not in direct command of them.

I also think it doesn’t help to see death differently from others. How can I put it? I don’t fear death, but I don’t want to die. It is the best way I can put it. To me, death is a state of being one that we cannot avoid. It comes to us all, no matter how long we run from it. I know happened to me one day, just hopefully, any time soon. What people really fear is the unknown part of what happens after.

So how people handle grief has always been strange to me. The only time in my life I’ve ever gotten emotional over any death was when my sisters died. Due to my sessions, I know that I have not truly accepted their deaths. Hence anger issues, which are being compounded by my present occupation. No other deaths have had the same impact on me.

So, I find myself standing on a roadway in Italy, wondering what to say to the captain next to me. So, I try my best.

“Greco. I am bad at these things, so please stay with me. You are a soldier who knew this could happen. Look around you. We are in the middle of a major shift show. Focus on who you can save, not who you have lost. It’s been a horrendous day and it’s only gonna get worse. Lock everything away and keep pushing forward is the only way to survive.” I let the words flow out to me, hopefully communicating my intention to her.

She looks at me for several moments and asks.

“Was that your attempt at a motivational speech?”

“Yes.” That was the only answer I could give.

“God, that was terrible!” She said as she burst out laughing. I think that helped some of the tension.

“What’s going on?” Gregson asked as he came back to us after his call.

“Operative Harrington gave me what he calls a motivational speech!” She said, still laughing.

“Oh God, I’m so sorry, captain. I should have warned you he occasionally does that.” Gregson said, laughing as well now.

“What am I missing?” I asked, confused.

“Sorry, John. But it’s well known just how bad your motivational pep talks are.” Gregson told me. They become something of a legend around command of just how bad they truly are.

Well, fine then. Before I could say anything else in reply, trouble reared its head again.