Survival in the Shadows
TF141 had been stationed in the neighborhood for weeks—undercover, watching, gathering intel.
Makarov had people here, buried deep, operating in silence. Figuring out who was loyal, who was dangerous, and what the hell he was planning—that was the mission.
So they moved in. Just another household settling into the wreckage of a place that had long since been abandoned by law.
But then they noticed her.
She had been carrying the weight of five lives since she was six years old.
Ten brothers— slaughtered down to three.
Two parents— gone.
Four grandparents— gone.
Eight aunts, eight uncles— gone.
Twenty-one cousins— only two left.
Her family had been massacred, reduced to six barely surviving bodies, left for dead on Christmas morning.
The only reason the ones who remained were still breathing was because the killers assumed they were already gone.
And she—the youngest, the weakest, the child—dragged them into the forest, bleeding, broken, desperate, begging for help.
But help came too late.
Three were paralyzed—spines shattered beyond repair.
The other two—nerve damage so severe, their bodies barely obeyed them anymore.
None of them could work. None of them could survive on their own.
So she made sure they did.
Worked every job she could find—mechanic, construction, nurse’s assistant, bricklayer.
Online schooling squeezed between shifts. Self-taught college-level knowledge because no school could teach her what she needed fast enough.
Weekends weren’t for rest—they were for giving her family something close to happiness.
Taking them out, pretending for just a moment that life wasn’t just survival.
Between jobs, she walked home—cooked, cleaned, helped them move, helped them eat, helped them exist.
She slept only a few hours a day, barely enough to function, saving the full eight hours for weekends—the only time she could afford it.
Not when bills stacked higher than the walls.
Not when she had five separate hospital fees draining every paycheck, barely kept afloat by scraps of government aid that did nothing but cover groceries.
Not when their neighborhood was less of a place and more of a battlefield.
So she adapted.
Learned to defend herself.
Got a concealed carry.
Kept a gun on her at all times.