Tar-black clouds hung motionlessly in the sky over the vast grim swamps of the Floridian countryside, and not even a sliver of moonlight could slice through the iron curtain. Kira lay on her bed with a pillow over her head, fighting the drumming beats of rain from outside for a moment of rest. However, the heavens wouldn’t allow that, sending in a loud crack of thunder, sweeping away any drowsiness and further fueling her anger caused by insomnia. After struggling to fall asleep for multiple hours, she finally decided to get up and do something more productive instead of lying amongst the bedsheets and complaining about the weather, like checking if Perun has uploaded or posted a detailed argument about how the F-35 is the most breedable and submissive fighter jet. 

  “Well, better than doing nothing.” Kira plopped onto her chair, stretched her hands, and pressed the power button on her PC. The cooling fans turned alive, revving up to speed and coughing up dust and the smell of mould. Just as she put her fingers over the grease-covered keyboard caked with Cheeto dust in the valley between the keys, bright light slipped through her curtains and fell onto the NATO flag hung on her wall. No way in hell someone would intentionally show up here, in the middle of a forest around the dead of the night.

  Kira stood from her chair and walked towards the windowsill while staying in the shadows. She peeked slightly outwards, barely enough to see what was outside. 

 A white muddy minivan rolled down the country road, rocking up and down violently. Kira recalled from the recent news that late-night burglary was becoming more common in her area. Unsure whether a threat was driving towards her property, she decided to prepare for the worse.

 When the nearest cop station is a few hours’ drive away, you’ll have a higher chance of surviving betting on a gun than law enforcement. Kira dug through the towers of unsorted clothes in her closet, reaching for the massive gun safe at the edge of the room and opening it with a metallic clunk. The door swung open, creaking and knocking multiple piles of clothing in the progress. Her MP5 was lying against the wall, magazines filled with fmj 9mm rounds laid neatly on the floor, alongside sat a Kevlar vest and a couple of homemade pipe bombs with a lighter. The safe was the only thing Kira gave a damn about in her home, hence the significantly better upkeep compared with the rest of the house.

 The sound of glass shattering could be heard from downstairs, confirming Kira’s suspicions, and time was not in her essence. 

 Kira threw herself under the vest, putting multiple magazines in her pouches with one hand and grabbing grenades with another. She looked down at her hands, shaking from either excitement or fear. Unlike a fun day down the range, her life was at risk. Taking a deep breath, she grabbed her MP5, pulled back the charging handle, loaded it and gave it the iconic slap, chambering a round. 

 She swung the barrel towards the doorway to her room, raised her thumb and pulled the fire selector all the way down to full auto. Keeping the barrel pointed at the door, she started moving slowly towards it, avoiding any trip hazards she let on the ground she left on the floor with each step. Going past her bookshelf filled with books about tanks and other miscellaneous books about military and political history, she turned into the pitch-black corridor, only illuminated by the occasional lightning strikes.

 She continued her advance, passing the toilet to the left and reaching the end of the corridor. A set of stairs leading down to the living room, footsteps, shuffling and whispers could be heard. 

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 Kira tip-toed down the stairs, slowly avoiding loose floorboards and keeping herself concealed behind the handrail. Even though the lights in the living room had been switched on, the staircase was located on the darker side of the room, giving her some concealment. She grabbed a pipe bomb with her left hand, lit the fuse, and threw the spicy can into the air.

 The grenade flew across the room like a T-72 turret after getting hit by a Javelin missile, landing on a pile of plastic bags of trash two feet away from one of the intruders with a soft thud. 

 “Ay Robert, you heard somethin’?” One of the intruders whispered while looking at his partner-in-crime, who was half a body deep in a cabinet. “Nah, pretty damn sure no one has lived here for a–” Before he could finish his sentence, the grenade went off with a terrific bang, releasing a spherical grey cloud of smoke, peppering the two men with shrapnel. 

 Kira went out of cover, aiming her sights on the man lying in the kitchen area while walking towards him, squirming and yelling from the pain. 

 “AH FUCK! I CAN’T FEEL MY LEGS!” Half stuck in the cabinet, the man let out a coarse scream wailing for help, followed by a quavering voice behind the counter. “Hold on my man, I’ll shoot that motherfucker.” 

 “Shit, he has a gun.”Kira dove for cover behind a sofa as quickly as possible after the mention of a firearm. Despite having a vest, she didn’t want to take the risk of getting shot in the head, because she had decided it was a good idea to buy the MP5 from Heckler & Koch, instead of a copy, or the 22.lr variant, nuking her bank account, leaving her without cash for a helmet and causing her to now curse her past self for making poor financial decisions.

 While she tried to hide behind the sofa, the intruder raised his gun over the countertop and started spray firing, presumably using a small calibre machine gun. Tearing up holes in the walls behind her, punching lead into furniture, and a lucky shot in her left arm. Bullets whizzed past and through the sofa, spewing the stuffing out of the exit holes and pinning Kira on the ground. Having a sofa as a cover was not a great idea, but still better than none. Lying on the ground, she waited for him to empty his magazine, clutching her rifle tight to her chest. 

 The gunfire stopped shortly, and she took no time to spring back into action and seize the initiative. She produced another IED from her vest, lighting the fuse and throwing it over the counter. What followed was the clink clank of the grenade hitting the wall and the screaming of a man who couldn’t avoid incoming doom. It blew up and knocked him out immediately. Kira came out from behind the sofa to check on the damage, looking at the charred body knocked out cold. 

 She did it. She defended her property. 

 She sighed in relief, coughing and choking a few times from the smoke after doing that. Her adrenaline finally wore off, causing her to notice the pain from the wound on her left arm, so she ripped a part of her shirt off and tied the fabric to the area above the wound. “Might have to call the cops…” 

 The sound of a revolver cocking from behind made every hair on Kira’s back stand up. She flung herself around, pulling the trigger down so hard she almost broke it. But to no avail. The other man lying on the floor fired a round from his Peacekeeper just as the hail storm of 9mm rounds tore him apart. 

 She felt a sharp pain in her left eye. The next thing she knew, she was lying on the floor. Life flashed in front of her eyes. Why did she spend all this time studying war and history instead of something else everyone would study to get a high pay job? She could’ve formed a family with some other guy, but she didn't. She loved choosing her way. She loves freedom. Freedom is simply non-negotiable like those idiots at r/NCD always say, and no one shall take her rights away till her death.

 “If I had another chance to live… I’ll fucking do this again.”