Okay, change of plans.

Holding this bridge for any length of time is a no go now.

The creature moves slowly across the bridge, aiming directly toward me. There was no way in hell I was fighting that thing. The weapons I had were nowhere near sufficient.

“John! We got to get behind the barrier.” He called over to me as I pulled my axe head out of the zombie that had attacked me. “Covering Fire!”

I did not need to be told twice.

We quickly began to squeeze through the gap in the barrier. The soldiers on the barrier were supplying covering fire. The zombies were dropping, but the other thing was walking forwards, absorbing the bullets hitting it. It was hunched forward and walked like a gorilla using its knuckles as support.

The officer in charge was trying to coordinate the defence. As we got through the barrier, the tractor quickly pushed it closed. The soldiers on top of it continue to put fire onto the bridge.

I do think they were slowing down what was coming.

“Follow me!” Gregson ordered. We quickly cross the junction behind the barrier. Here’s a stop to take stock of the situation.

“We can’t stop that thing.” My assessment was blunt.

“I know. We need air support.” He was looking over to the lieutenant in charge of the bridge. He was on the radio and I think you have the same idea. I looked across the river to the other bank. The zone edge had almost reached it.

“Incoming.” Gregson pointed to an attack helicopter vectoring into attack the bridge.

It should be firing its missiles at this range. To take down the bridge and the creature on it. But it opened up with a chain gun. Even from our position behind the barrier, we could see chunks of concrete from the bridge flying in the air from the impacts.

From inside the zone edge on the other side of the river, there was a blue flash. Out from the fog streaked a blue flaming ball. The helicopter couldn’t manoeuvre time and hit and with a flash, there was an explosion. This caused the helicopter to veer out of control as it was clearly on fire, burning and crashing into our bank. It hit the road to the south of us and careened into a building.

There was quickly a secondary explosion.

“Fuck Me!” I exclaimed.

“They’ve got fire support now?” Gregson was not happy.

“I think it’s time for us to go.” I say to him. “We can’t hold here.”

For a few seconds, he doesn’t say anything. He makes the calculations and knows I am right. And from the looks of it, so does the lieutenant. He is pulling his men from the barriers.

As they jump off, a large greyscale-clawed hand reaches and grabs the top of the barrier. I could see chunks of flesh were missing. The only thing holding the barriers in place with their weight. Whatever that thing was on. The other side was able to pull the barrier down.

With a massive crash, it hit the floor.

“Okay, time to go.” Gregson agreed. The soldiers around us had made the same calculations and were pulling back. Zombies have come through the new gap in the barrier and were being gunned down.

A secondary crash, only that second barrier had come down. Looking back as I moved down the road away from the bridge, I could see whatever it was coming through.

“We need anti-tank weapons to stop that thing!” I called Gregson.

“No shit!” Was his reply. The stress of the day was now finally getting to him. “Follow me. I know where the next rally point is.”

Any pretence of defence behind us had disappeared. The soldiers were moving as fast as they could, turning to fire at zombies behind them. They were trying to make a staggered withdrawal but the sheer number of zombies coming through put an end to that.

We were running for our lives.

Today was the day I thanked God for the cardio you have been doing. Even with my armour and kit, I was able to move. Being chased by many flesh-hungry zombies was also a great motivator.

We ran down the road to a junction. There we ran through a plaza of some sort. To another road where we turned south. We kept moving but only a short distance to another junction. We turned east again. We quickly move through a wooded and green area in front of the castle.

We saw soldiers manning defensive positions. Here they had heavier weapons and better fortifications in the form of trenches and sandbag emplacements. I think that we were soldiers manning the castle.

They quickly engaged the zombies that were trailing us. We didn’t stay to help them. Gregson seemed to have an idea of where it was going. It seemed important that we got there quickly.

We looped around the castle and came out on another road. We moved south for a little distance to close to the river. I could see another bridge, but we turned east onto another road instead.

Here there was another set barrier set up. Not the concrete ones on the bridge but some chest hight mobile metal ones I had never seen before.

We stopped at the gap in the barriers to catch our breath. The sounds are weapons fire was loud and constant behind us.

A sergeant came out to speak to us. He understood quite a bit of English and after Gregson explained who we were, they allowed us inside the barriers. We walked down the long road. There were two more sets of barriers set up. There were many turns off this road, but the roadblock now. It looks like the Italians would make a stand here. I didn’t see many Euro Corps soldiers outside the Italians.

Those series of explosions from behind us near the castle we had passed. There was one hell of a fight raging there.

The faces of all the soldiers we passed were grim but determined.

As we passed through, the third set of barriers for me was a wide-open plaza area. An obelisk sat in the centre, with pillars holding up a roof section at the top and bottom of this overall shaped area. Further on, there was a large domed building.

I had a feeling I knew this place, but I could not place it.

The plaza had a large number of soldiers moving around crates of supplies and arms. They, too, had been arranged in a rough line barrier. I recognise quite a few people here.

“Hey, Lou! What the Fuck are you doing here!” I shout over to him.

He looks up from what he was doing behind a crate and smiles when he sees us.

“Fucking Hell! You guys made it!” He exclaims, genuinely happy to see us.

He quickly comes over to us but stops before he hugs us. He noted our condition/smell and then thought better.

“We feared the worst when the east of the city fell.” He told us.

“It’s bad out there, Lou. We almost didn’t make it.” I tell him as he nods.

“Sgt Grayson. Operative Harrington. Good to see that you’ve made it.” Major hawk had appeared from amongst the crates, followed by Lt Walker and some Euro Corp officer I do not recognise. Sgt Grey was organising a large group of British soldiers.

“Major.” Gregson salutes. I wave vaguely in his direction.

“I need a full report of what happening out there. We’ve been getting conflicting reports here.” Gregson was quickly ushered off to tell them of what we had seen.

I used the opportunity to sit down and unzip my armour as I was sweating like there was no tomorrow. I quickly began gulping the water from a canteen even though it was lukewarm.

Lou was still with me and quickly supplied me with more water when I finished my canteen.

“You need resupply and anything?” He asked. Lou was in business mode right now.

“Grenades and anti-tank weapons.”

He starts laughing until you see the look on my face.

“Fuck, what’s coming?” He asks, now clearly concerned.

“Grenades and anti-tank weapons.” I repeat.

He moves back to the crates he was at. Quickly issuing orders to the soldiers around him. I know many, as they are part of his team. They quickly start looking through the crates for things he is demanding.

After a few minutes and feeling a little better, the heat inside my armour has partly escaped. Lou comes back to me, holding four grenades in his hands.

“No anti-tank weapons. But I have two thermite and two high explosive grenades for you.” He hands them over to me and I attach them to my webbing.

I had been looking around the area while you can do this and I noticed something a bit odd. There was a large number of priests and quite a few nuns wandering around. Some of the priests had this weird red getup on.

They were going around helping the soldiers and ministering to those who needed it.

It seemed that the police had been pulled back now completely. Around me, there was nothing but soldiers. I had begun to notice the patches of other nations as well. I was wrong about earlier turns out Euro Corps was still here in force.

I can still hear the sounds of fighting around the castle. But the sound of the heavier weapons had become less pronounced. From the reactions of the soldiers listening to the radio, I think the positions were being overrun.

I stood up and rezipped my armour. I knew that we would soon be back in it. I still have no idea how to stop that big grey thing I’d seen. I knew that we probably see more, but I felt better having the grenades.

Lou was busy organising his men and stacking the crates so that they could still be accessed but acted more coherently barrier now.

Looking across the plaza, I noticed another group had joined us.

“Henry!” I waved to him. He sees me and jogs over.

“John, you’re still with us.” He, too, is happy to see me. I take a moment to notice his condition as he does to me. It was clear we had both been through it. Our armour was torn up and covered with different types of gore and blood.

“We’ve just been pulled from the North. I heard you are assigned out to the east?” He starts.

“Yes. I spent the day moving from fight to fight.”

“Us too. The zone has been pushing us back no matter how good our defences were.” He slumped slightly at that. Like me, he was tired.

Before I could say anything, else another joined us.

“Harrington.”

“Goldsmith.” We were cordial but nothing more.

“It seems that we are concentrated here to make our stand.” She said to us. Henry nods at this.

“That sounds about right. If there were a place to stand, it would be here.” He acknowledges something I’m missing.

“No matter what you got here, we’re not going to hold.” I told them.

“What do you mean?” Goldsmith demands. “No matter how many grave types they throw us, we will be able to hold the line here until the zone reaches us.”

“It’s not the grave types I am worried about.”

“What have you seen, John?” Henry asks.

I look at the two of them, perplexed for a moment.

“Have you seen what’s out there?” I asked.

“Just zombies and a few ghouls.” Henry answered.

“Well fuck me!” I explained to them what I had seen over the last few hours. The Tigers and the greyscale thing I was calling a troll now. Looks like one. I’ll call it one. I also went on about the thing shooting down any helicopters that got too close and were used to blast open defensive positions.

The colour had drained from their faces as I took them through what I had seen. I realise that they thought that we were facing waves of grave types. They have not encountered any of the other things running around.

They quickly came to the same conclusion I had.

We were well and truly FUCKED!