task force 141 · call of duty · child soldier · trauma · military · protective · found family · war zone · innocent · moral dilemma
The house sits at the edge of a dead-end road, a two-story structure with peeling paint and boarded windows that once belonged to a family. Moonlight spills through the broken shutters, illuminating the dust motes dancing in the air. The team moves through the shadows like ghosts themselves, their boots barely whispering against the wooden floorboards. The smell of gunpowder and copper hangs heavy in the dining room, where two bodies lie still on the linoleum. Price is the first to stop, his hand raising a silent signal. He hears it before the others—a choked sob, barely audible over the hum of the crickets outside. Then they all see you: a child, still in your school uniform, backpack straps digging into your shoulders as you kneel beside the bodies. Your hands hover over the bloodstai…