This wasn't the first time I've been shot, but this was the first time a genuine fear of dying struck me as my back hit the floor and the air left my lungs. I heard a bunch of return fire and then yelling that was muffled as I tried to figure out if I'm about to bleed out on this cold warehouse floor in Ukraine.

When the gun fire stopped, someone was next to me and pushed my goggles and helmet off my face and head while another set of hands started to rip the front of my vest open to look to see if the bullet did damage, I couldn't look, didn't want to see the looks on my teammates face as I lay here dying when they can't do anything to stop it so I closed my eyes. That's when I felt hands on my face, her hands. Morgan.

"Daniella, you need to open your eyes, right now." Morgan said, her fingers running in circle patterns on my cheeks. Finally, I opened my eyes and found her looking down at me.

"The bullet hit your plate, but we need to finishing clearing the building, we aren't safe here." Morgan said her eyes not leaving mine.

That's when I felt my body slowly start to come back to me. My feet, then legs, hands then arms. My chest hurt pretty bad but slowly, I pushed myself up and felt someone behind me, supporting my weight as I looked down at my body. There was no red, no blood anywhere. My chest was tender to the touch, as to be expected for getting shot but my vest stopped the bullet.

"Let me see my vest." I said still having a hard time taking some breaths.

Warren passed it over and Morgan shined a light on the front of it. Sitting center mass was the end of a bullet. I reached out and plucked the bullet from my vest and held it in my hand for a moment. The lead curved in from the impact of hitting the plate sitting inside my vest. Forever a reminder how close we come to death when we turn every corner. I put the bullet inside one of my pant pockets for safe keeping.

"This plate is compromised; I'm going to need a new one." I said as I tried to collect myself for a minute and made sure the camera was still recording.

"We know, when we finish clearing the building we will find you another one, for now we need to move." Lionel said from behind me. I could only nod as I started to zip up my coat and tucked it into my pants before pulling a new magazine from a vest pocket and slipping it inside. Once I made sure it clicked into my rifle, I pulled my vest over my head and took a sharp breath as pain spread through my chest before I could secure it in place. I made the decision then to pull the damaged plate out of the front of my vest and dumped it on the floor. With it gone, I put the vest back over my shoulders and let Morgan help me secure it in place.

"Until I get a new plate, Leo I need to you take lead, I follow second, then Morgan and Warren to bring up the rear." I said and hear a few mumbles of agreements before Lionel grabbed the back of my vest by my shoulders to help me up onto my feet. It took a few seconds to pull myself together and get everything in order and just to breath. My chest is tight and in pain with every breath I take but for now, I just have to push through it.

"We finish the next three floors then I'll radio everyone an update, for now we move." I said and snapped my chin strap in place.

Everyone nodded as I slung my rifle strap over my shoulder and fell into line with the team. When I felt a tap on my shoulder I tapped Lionel's and we were on the move again for the next stair case. Leo took his time as we followed him up it. When we got to the top, he paused then looked out. There were no shots taken again so we slowly moved up behind him. As we cleared the floor, there was nobody home. The next floor was the same. More beds, but all empty.

As we crested the final floor of the building, I knew we were about to hit a jackpot. Computers and radios were all sitting on desks all around the room. Maps were hung up on the walls along with pictures of various places that look like were being scouted. I don't know how but there are five soldiers sitting at a few computer stations with headphones on, looking like they didn't hear anything that happened downstairs. I tugged on Leo's back to pull him back downstairs for a moment, wanting to put together a plan.

"I want to try and take them alive. If we can get any information from them, it could help us free the bunkers. But there are five of them and four of us, not the best odds but not the worst. Morgan are you confident in hand to hand to be able to take down one of them on your own?" I asked.

"It's been a long time, I don't know." Morgan said looking nervous.

"Okay, then you'll be on overwatch. If someone looks like they are about to get on a radio or pick up a gun, shoot them. You guys take the two on the right, I'll hit the two on the left, then whoever is done first can take out the guy in the middle, ready?" I asked slipped my rifle strap over my head and put it down on the stairs, it's only going to get in the way. Next came my backpack and I pulled out a few zip cuffs and handed them over to the guys.

Once we were all in position, Morgan stood up and surveyed the room rifle at the ready. When she gave a nod I carefully made my way up the stairs and walked over to the two men at the far side of the room. Quickly I wrapped one of them in a headlock and elbowed him in the chest to try and prevent him from fighting back. The surprise attack seemed to be working out in our favor as my guy quickly passed out and I was able to cuff him to the chair.

After he was down, I turned to the guy next to him and saw he was actually asleep. Quickly, I was able to wrap him up in cuffs and pulled them tight before I turned to look back at the room. Warren and Lionel were working on there guys who were putting up a bit of a fight while Morgan was in a stare down with the last man. His hand was on his pistol that's sitting on his desk. While there eyes remained locked, I was able to come up behind him and wrap him up in a headlock. This guy wasn't going quietly though because he elbowed me right in the chest and my grip faltered. I quickly sucked in a hard breath as pain blossomed in my chest and wrapped my arms around his neck again to swing him down and out of his chair. A few hard punches to the face and he was out cold.

When I pushed off of him, Warren and Leo took over for me and cuffed him to his table while I took his pistol from the desk and slipped it into the waist band of my pants.

"Recon, start up here and work our way down." I said still getting my breath back. As I stood straight and looked around the room I noticed a bulletproof vest sitting on the floor by the desk of the guy who was asleep. I walked over to it and pulled the plate out of the vest and looked it over. It looks like it will fit into my pocket. I took my vest off and pushed the new plate inside. The plate was a little bit smaller then what we use but it will do for now. Once there, I left my vest on the floor and walked over to the man who was no longer sleeping. He looked nervous but alert and was wise enough not to yell out for help.

I pulled my neck gaiter down and there was a brief flash of surprise in his face when he realized I was a women. The look came and went quickly and he tried to focus again and harden his mind.

"What is this place? What are your orders here?" I asked in Russian looking at the kid. He couldn't be older then 25. He didn't say anything but try and look around to see what the rest of my team were doing. I didn't let him though. One hand came up and grabbed the neck of his shirt and the other was on his cheek, forcing him to face me.

"Hey, look at me not them, I'm in charge here. What are you doing here?" I asked again.

"We are holding this base as a staging area." He said.

"What about the civilians in the bunkers? Do you know where they are?" I asked.

"The maps, they are on the walls. Some of them are damaged from the bombings. I don't know much else about them. I am mainly a translator." He said and I relaxed the grip on his shirt as a sign of trust.

"What did you mean that this plant is a staging area, for what?" I asked circling back to what he said early.

"The plant has been a place for troops to enter from the sea, from Russia. It's a meeting point before going into the country. But lately there have been more troops pulling out them coming back in." The solider said and I tried not to show the little relief I felt show on my face.

"Thank you. I'm not going to kill you or the other men up here. I'm going to knock you out and when you wake up we will be gone. You will wake up in custody of the Ukrainian military. Do you understand?" I asked wanting to make myself clear.

"Yes commander." The solider said and I stood up and walked behind him before putting him into a head lock. It didn't take long for him to loose consciousness and once I made sure he wouldn't fall off the chair I turned to look around the room.

All three of my teammates are standing in front of a wall full of maps. I walked over to them and saw they were all staring at five different maps of what look like bunkers that are somewhere around the plant.

"All units finalize what you are in the middle of and converge on my position. We have a jackpot. Gold Nine and Eleven will be waiting by the door for entry." I radioed out to the teams. I didn't want to pull anybody away from where they are but I can't do this part alone. We need to split up this information to be effective and move forward.

Lionel and Warren helped me move all of our prisoners to the far corner for now to get them out of they way and bagged there heads before I sent them downstairs to wait for our incoming teams. I continued to search them and made sure they didn't have anything on them that they could use to cut out of the restrains. Once I was done I found a few cell phones and I put them down on one of the desks in the room before taking a seat in front of the wall of maps.

"What are you thinking?" I asked Morgan as I could feel her eyes on me as I tried to make sense of all of the maps on the wall.

"That Emmett should take a look at you when he gets here." Morgan said and I turned to look at her. There's concern in her eyes and I know it won't go away until I've been looked at.

"Fine, but this is important. We need to send it all to command and try and pull some of this intel apart ourselves to see if it can help us now." I said.

"I can start on sending them the photos of the bunker maps then the hard drives." Morgan said and pulled out her secure phone and took pictures while I did the same. Once I finished up, I pulled out my SAT phone and called command.

"Major Collins." She picked up the phone after a few rings.

"I have a jackpot. Gold 13 is going to be sending things over. I also have five P.O.W.'s in my custody. All are currently unconscious and tied up. Is there any new update on our backup?" I asked and took a seat at one of the desks while Morgan pulled out her laptop to start sending over information.

"They are still five hours out. Good work on getting this information. Have your team help you come up with a plan on how to break down the bunkers. How much progress have you made so far?" Major Collins asked as Morgan tapped away on her keyboard.

"From the last check in with the teams, collectively, we are roughly seventy-five percent through the plant. A Russian solider in our custody told me that this plant has been being used as a staging area for the Russian army to come through from the sea. Not as easy way to get in, but a lot less eyes on them that way. He also said that they have been pulling out more then coming in. Could be good or bad, I haven't got a feeling about it yet. We also picked the right time as most of the soldiers that were here, are gone on a supply run." I said.

"Could be a toss up, I'll see if we can get any eyes on from the sea. Any injuries to report?" Major Collins asked and I sighed.

"I took a round to the chest; the plate stopped it. I don't have any other information on that one yet. When the teams converge I'll have to let you know." I said.

"All right, let me know if the status changes." Major Collins said and I just hung up the phone.

All I wanted to do was throw my phone across the room but I couldn't. Right now, I need to be focused on my three foot world. This mission takes priority over everything else. I turned to look at the bunker maps again and studied them for what felt like a while. The way all of the walls are lined up and how some of the corners match on different maps before a light blub went off in my head and I shot up from the chair. I pulled all the maps from the wall and turned them all over and around before stacking them on the floor.

"I wasn't done with those." Morgan said next to me.

"They aren't separate bunkers, they are different floors of the same bunker." I said and pealed back every page so she could see what I saw.

"Holy fuck Daniella, you're brilliant." Morgan said and pushed me over a bit to look over the maps.

"I thought we already knew the boss was brilliant, hench why she's the boss." I looked up to find Dexter and the rest of Robs team coming up the stairs.

I took a little sigh of relief when I got a good look at them all. They all seemed to be okay, no visible injuries. Rob came over to me and I pulled him into a hug.

"You okay?" I asked him quietly.

"Yea, we are all fine. What about you guys, there's a bit of a mess downstairs." Rob said.

"I took a bullet in my chest plate, but other then that, we are fine. Emmett will take a look at me when they get here and we have five P.O.W.'s for now until the army gets here." I said and pulled away from him and pointed towards the guys tied up.

"And the man who shot you?" Rob asked.

"Downstairs." I answered.

Before either of us could say anything else, Monica's team came up the stairs and I knew I needed a minute alone with Emmett. I told Rob what I had so far and pulled Emmett aside so he could take a look at me. He was not happy to hear about what happened and was even less pleased to tell me that the bullet cracked a rib on my left side. He wrapped my ribs tightly to hopefully help take the pressure of them then we went back to the teams. By the time we got there Alpha and Bravo have also arrived and I just pulled everyone over to take a look at the maps I put together. Looking over everything briefly with the teams, I knew we were about to have an uphill battle getting into and evacuating the bunker.

It took about an hour for Morgan to get all the information streaming over to command for them to pick it up from there. While she was working on that, myself, Ryan, Raymond, Rob and Monica started to come up with a plan to clear the rest of the base and work towards the bunkers. We made the decision to eliminate clearing some areas of the plant. Through all of our searching so far, a lot of the buildings have been destroyed beyond recognition and would be a waste of time and effort to go over and check them out. Instead, we would focus on taking a central path to the bunker. All the buildings around this central path would be cleared and then we would move onto the next. After we got to the bunker, we would reevaluate and work from there.

With the plan in place I looked at the time, 03:34. The army won't be here till basically sunrise, looks like we are going to have to make this work. After we were done studying the maps of the bunker and our own team maps, we put them all away and took a seat for a few minutes. Morgan was still working on sending over information to Command and I knew we could all use a bit of a rest before the rest of the night. I took out an old granola bar I had left over for a while and started to snack on it. Next came some water and by the time I was done, Morgan turned around in her chair and found my eye line.

"I'm done here, command is going to run everything from Poland. We are good to move when you are." Morgan said and started to pack up her laptop. I let her finish up and told everyone we will roll out in ten minutes so Morgan will get a little bit of a break.

Everyone started to gear back up and when I was about to pull my vest on again, Emmett appeared in front of me and held his hand out. I gave him the vest and he put it on for me. He pulled the straps and when he was satisfied, he gave me a smile before going back over to his own gear to get ready.

Once everyone was ready, I called command one final time to relay them the plan and to make sure the army knew to come and pick up these P.O.W.'s when they roll through. After Major Collins gave me her blessing, we started to make our way downstairs. I didn't pay any attention to the bodies we left behind as we made our way down the stairs.

Both Alpha and Bravo teams are going to lead the way and go wide while we just go for a straight gut punch up the middle. So once the coast was clear, they left the building first. My team collapsed into two teams, each taking one side of the road and going from there. All teams went back to channel one so we could all hear each other right now incase something happens. But as we started to clear up the path, most of the buildings were empty. Only a few had enemy soldiers waiting inside and they were quickly put down before we moved on to the next building.

It took just under two hours to close in on the bunker. It was located towards the back of the plant, closest to the sea. We couldn't see a clear entry way from distance so I knew we would have to make our way over to the bunker to get a better look. The bunker was located in the middle of empty flat land. So I wanted to put some kind of plan in motion because once we left this area, we would be exposed to anyone coming up around us.

"Aright, here is the plan. Bravo team is going to be on overwatch from that position over there to have a view of the sea to make sure the Russian's don't come back while we are out in the open. Alpha team, you are going to take the far side of the bunker to see if we can find an access point. Gold team, we are splitting in half to do the same. Once someone finds an entryway call out a jackpot and we will make our way over to your location. Do not breach until we get in position. We have to communicate to those who are inside that we friendly. Any questions?" I asked looking around at the teams.

"Can you spare two people to join us on overwatch? I want to split our location in two and it will be easier with two groups of four instead of just three." Raymond asked.

"Any volunteers?" I asked first.

"I'll go" Felix said and stepped forward.

"Same, I've already taken care of any tanks I've come across on our way over here." Warren said.

"Alright you got your two guys. Anything else?" I asked. When nobody said anything back to me I sighed and looked around at the group.

"We are so close now guys, we are almost there. This is the final push, when the sun comes up, the army will be riding through the gates and we'll be home free. Let's go finish this out." I said. Together, we moved as a team towards our final objective, freeing the people in the bunker.

a/n: did you guys really think I would hurt Dani now? we are in the endgame now. pretty sure the final chapter will be 45 and maybe an epilogue. any guesses for what's to come?

song on the side is called Get Out Alive by Three Days Grace.