(Katze’s POV)

I touch my hair as I look in the mirror.

- You fucking kidding me, white hair already? – I said to myself as I run my hand through my hair, a few strands of white showing on the black short strands. – Ugh, age does really catch up… - say, looking down to my body.

Although my hair is starting to gray, my body is in perfect shape due the several years of training. I lost the thin body that I had n my youth, becoming more the bulky guy type. I have a six pack and thick, muscular arms and a body covered in small scars of several cuts and bullet holes and even a big scar on my back.

My height is good too, around 1,80, and I have a reasonably good face with green eyes, not that I’m overly handsome or something like that. I should shave, my beard is starting to grow again. I start shaving, taking care to not cut my pale skin.

What should I do today? it’s still early in the morning… ugh, life has been so boring recently after I left the Secret OPS. Life has been peaceful, which is nice, I suppose. I spent all my life in battlefields, even when I was young, so I’m having a bad time adapting.

The sewing helps when I’m feeling restless, but I’d like to get a wife, even though I’m a bit old… well, not that much, I’m just a middle-aged man. I guess marrying and having a kid isn’t an impossible dream, but I’d need a girlfriend to marry first, right?

Well, there’s that hot babe that I jog with during the morning, Cassidy. We jog together at the park almost every morning. I put on my jogging clothes, take my bag of emergency medical supplies if I scrape something or twist my ankle and go to my truck that I bought some time ago. The color is red, quite a nice look to it. The container that I usually leave at home is black, to a nice contrast with the red cabinet.

I turn on the truck and get it out of the garage, the container not attached. Since it’s just a medium-sized truck, it isn’t too big and cumbersome to drive. As I wait for the garage’s door to close, my neighbor, Mr. Clyde, a kind old man, greets me while trimming his rose bushes. I down the window and wave to him, the motor of the truck not as loud as it would be because of some modifications.

- Good morning, Mr. Clyde! How are you doing in this lovely morning? – ask with a smile.

- Just tending to these rose bushes, young Kat! – he said, calling me by the nickname that I usually go by. – Going out for a walk in the park again?

- Yes sir, indeed I am. – I say with a nod.

- Good, it’s nice to keep your health. Now you just need a girlfriend! – he said with a good-natured laugh.

- I’m working on that, Mr. Clyde, I’m working on that. See you later!

I say, waving to him. He waves back with a smile as I drive off. As I drive, I turn on the radio on the morning news, as per usual. As always, the world seems peaceful, except for any middle east country. The unusual thing is that there are some earthquakes happening in USA, which is unusual…

Apparently, we have nothing to worry about, it seems that’s just light tremors. There is some panic, but everything seems fine for the time being. At least I hope so, even in my whole years of live I heard of light earthquakes on USA, even less of an earthquake that travels from east to west.

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I stop listening to the radio when I get to the park that I jog at, I get out of my truck, taking my bag and putting over my shoulder, since it’s one of those diagonal bags for carrying some small stuff. There isn’t much, just some basic stuff for disinfecting wounds and sprains.

I lock the door of my truck out of precaution, making a final check on my running shoes before starting to jog. I run on the sidewalk, wide enough so that joggers can go around safely. Since it’s early in the morning, around 5:30 am, there isn’t anyone around, which is fairly nice.

I like the cold climate and the morning mist as the sun raises. It’s quite surprising that I met Cassidy here, I didn’t expect her to jog here. I run on my usual pace, which is fast for the usual runner. After all, I’m an athletic monster, veteran from special forces. And soon, I spot the person I’m looking for.

Red hair tied in a ponytail, bobbing up and down. from here, I can see her pale arms and nice figure, and I know that there is a pretty face with blue eyes hiding from me. I smile, increasing my pace to catch up to her quickly. When I’m close enough, I say out loud in ma mother tongue:

- Guten morgen, meine Dame!(Good morning, my Lady)

She jumps, startled, looking at me surprised as I reduce my pace to hers, jogging besides her. Cassidy blushes, flustered.

- Goddammit, Kat! – she says, frowning. – can you stop that? It’s every morning!

I smile to her.

- Oh, I apologize, Milady. – I say, smiling. – I didn’t realize that you had such poor health. Do you need any medical assistant.

She rolls her eyes on me, the link lips twisting in a light smile.

- Do I look like a frail girl, old fart?

I raise an eyebrow at her jab. Sher herself must be in her early thirties, so calling me old fart is somehow accurate, except for the fart part.

- Oh, then don’t let this old fart slow you down, young lady. Now if you excuse me.

I say, picking up my pace, quickly leaving her behind.

- WAIT! – she called, making me slow down my pace and looking back with a raised eyebrow. She smiles to me. – Will you let a young lady alone in tis park at this hour?

I smile and slow my pace to match hers, jogging by her side once again. She smiles to me and I smile back, saying:

- A lady sure, but young…

I make a doubting face. She blushes and hits my shoulder quite strongly. I laugh out loud, seeing her smile as well. Ah, this is nice. It has been two years since I retired already, meeting Cass as a nice change to the routine. Besides speaking with Mr. Clyde, I haven’t met or spoke with that many people.

After all, I stated on battlefields when I was 15, and haven’t stopped till I retired. So my social experience around this city was greatly damaged by that, as well me being a retired military middle-age with a truck didn’t suit well the peaceful sight, even worse with me being single. Apparently, I’m intimidating to the neighbor’s kids.

- So, Kat. – starts Cassidy, interrupting my train of thoughts. I glance at Cass, her face flushed and breath rough. Noticing my blunder, I slow down my pace, since I picked up a little while lost in thought, as she tried to follow me. – What are you doing today?

- Well, I was thinking of checking out the new shopping that opened recently. I’m going more out of curiosity though, since I don’t have anything to do there.

- Do you want company at the mall? – she said, her breath normalizing a bit due the fairly reduced pace, sweat starting to form in her forehead. – I could use a new dress.

I smile widely at her proposal, nodding.

- Alright. we can also grab something to eat if you want and do some more shopping if you want. We meet at ten? – I ask, looking at her. She smiles to me.

- Sounds good to me.

I nod to her, ad we chat a bit more while running for the remaining hour of running. After that, I head straight home. I take a good, warm bath and prepare my breakfast. Some bread, sausages and bacon with a mug of coffee. After eating, I go to the living room, and watch some tv, catching the last part of the morning news.

- Although their origin is unknown, monsters infest the east coast. We don’t have the exact number of casualties, but the army has assured us that the situation is under control and everything will be solved.

It then proceeded to show some images that I could barely believe. Small, red creatures running on the streets, causing crowds of people to run away. Big, ugly man dressed in scarce armor with skin ranging from faded yellow to green and pitch black. it also showed some soldiers shooting these monsters before cutting away.

After that, the news changed to other things, so I turned off the television… this… is messed up. Monsters? Seriously? What the fuck… the east coast isn’t that far from here, just a couple of states away. I don’t like this… I guess I’ll be taking my container to the shopping when I go to my date with Cass. I just hope that nothing serious happen.