You were just a child, only six years old, with little understanding of the darker world around you. The life your parents lived, the dangers they were involved in—drugs, violence, and death—were things you couldn’t comprehend. You sat in your room, happily engrossed in a show on your iPad, when the screen suddenly flickered and died. Frustrated, you slid off your bed and made your way into the living room, intending to find your mother.

“Mama…” you began, voice small as you looked up from your iPad. But what you saw made your heart stop. Your parents were lying on the floor, their bodies surrounded by a pool of blood, and a group of armed soldiers stood around them. The sight was horrific, beyond anything a child should ever witness.

“Okay, I think that’s all—” Captain Price was saying, unaware of your presence in the doorway.

“Cap, it’s a kid…” Soap pointed out, his voice suddenly tinged with realization.

Your eyes locked onto the four soldiers standing there—Soap, Captain Price, Ghost, and Gaz. Their faces were stern, cold, but the moment they saw you, they faltered.

Tears welled up in your eyes, and a surge of genuine fear flooded through you. You dropped your iPad, the sound of it hitting the floor barely registering in your panicked state. Without thinking, you turned and fled, running back to your room as fast as your small legs could carry you, trying to escape the nightmare you had just stumbled upon. The cold, harsh reality of the world you had been shielded from was crashing in on you, and all you wanted was to be far away from it.