Author's Note: So, I got a review asking for more on the other members of the team and a bit more on the war, so I hope to answer to the review in this chapter! Hope you enjoy!

CSI: New York

I walked in to the lab the next morning with Stella and Christine flanking me. Last night with Christine really brought back a bit of my strength that had been seeping away for so long because of no love and humanity in the world of chaos. Once again, I was dressed pretty simply, a t-shirt and jeans, but something else was on my person today besides my badge and Glock. Around my neck dangled my dog tags from days as a Marine. Christine had unearthed them from the world of my apartment earlier, since we didn't go to bed until 3 in the morning, and she'd convinced me to wear them.

It hadn't taken much convincing. So, with a new determination in my eyes, I led the two ladies through the lab to the conference room to meet up with the team and discuss what the hell we were going to do about this hell hole of a city that we lived in.

"What's on the news this morning?" I ask as the three of us walk in, I heading for the head of the table to snatch a seat beside Danny and Adam while Christine and Stella staid near the door.

"More news on the war, they're going over how this all started," Don said.

I guess I did leave that out when I started telling you this story of heartbreak and pain…well, they do say there's no time like the present, and so I'll take a break from telling you our story and tell you more about the war itself.

So…the war…we kind of all saw it was coming. Maybe not to this extent, but we knew that something would happen. Countries had started getting a bit on-edge with each other-you know that whole political shitload…I hate politics…but anyways, that's a different story-and then we all turn around twice and there's a news report on how the entire world is at war. We're talking North Korea, South Korea, China, Russia, the United States, Europe…every country in the world seems to be at war, especially the major ones. It was so sudden! Of course, me being a former Marine, I had knowledge of how they most likely would deploy troops…but God…my understanding was far more limited than what you may think. After all, my days as a Recon Marine are over 10 years behind me and I've kind of settled in to this slightly more regular life of working in New York City and being a Crime Scene Investigator. Hmph…I would've never thought in a million years that we would ever go in to something even remotely resembling a thing that we would one day call "World War Three." I mean, every typical teenager had grown up learning about WW1 and WW2 in history class, right? It never crossed my mind that one day, I may be able to tell my own kids about my experience in World War Three…not for one second.

It just didn't seem possible.

Anyways, the world was at war. It was totally official across every country on Earth. It just went downhill from there. The major cities fell in to what can only be described as an undying chaos-almost as if we fell right on to the set of something like The Walking Dead only without all the zombies running around. One of those cities, as you probably already know or have guessed, was New York City. It was one of the first cities in the United States to go in to such a state of chaos and crime. Some cities, however, like Chicago-that being the reason I sent Christine, Jo, and Ellie there-managed to stay mostly free of such a hell.

Alright, I think that's enough you guys…We should get back to the story now:

"What are they saying?" I asked, turning my attention to the screen as I started to truly pay attention to the news.

"They're talking about how politics went nuts and then the geniuses that run the governments all declared war on each other and then the entire fucking world fell in to chaos," Don said. His sarcasm was so evident when he mentioned the political leaders that I found it comical…to a point at least. I was still sore from yesterday and the days before, not to mention I was still tired and suffering from a minor headache at the moment.

I nodded. "I hate politics," I muttered.

Danny put a hand on my shoulder, but neither of us looked at each other. Our gazes remained fixed on the screen as we listened and watched as they showed pictures of the cities that had succumbed to the chaos and told the story about what was going on beyond America's borders and how we all had ended up in such a terrible, terrible war.

After a while, we finally turned off the TV and got down to business. I looked down at the sheets of paper in my hands, looking over what cases we still needed to start looking in to, what cases needed finished, and what cases I needed to file in a new box that I had added to the others on my shelves in my office that we all knew as "Solved-Unfinished."

Truthfully, we could say that the cases were finished, but they technically still needed to be taken to the DA and the killer put on trial. In this world, we didn't have that extent of a justice system, so we just called them "Solved" cases and, based on past experience with those types and extents of crimes, locked up the killers for a set time that was decided by me, Stella, Don, Danny, and other senior officers on the force that remained.

Some system of justice, huh?

I know, it may seem unfair, but it was the only way we knew how to keep the killers off the streets with the resources we had.

I sighed and looked over the first two scenes that hadn't been processed yet on the list.

"I want Hawkes and Don to check out the scene downtown and Stella," I said, looking up at Stella standing behind me, "to take Lindsey and do the scene in Brooklyn."

Stella nodded and headed off to gather Lindsey as I pulled my cell out to alert Hawkes and Don of their scene.

I assigned myself to work on the case Danny and I had started the day before and then I decided I'd work on filing our solved cases and going over the case reports with those cases.

Just another day at the office, right?

I frowned just a bit at that thought and stood, heading in to the lab. Christine headed back to my place in her car. I had promised I'd call her if I needed her before she left and then we'd kissed and we'd just looked at each other for a moment.

It still nagged at me that she seemed to have warned me to be careful. To make sure I came home that night to her safe and sound.

As I pulled the evidence and those thoughts ran through my mind, I found myself running a finger or two over the engraved words on my dog tags. Those tags had my full name, rank, and division written on them in a form that was something similar to this:

McKenna Llewellyn Taylor

Major

United States Marines

What was written on them exactly, I didn't quite remember or stop to look at. I took a bit of strength from my past though. I'd keep fighting this, just like we'd been taught to do in the Marines. That kind of dedication ran in my blood, and I didn't plan to let my father down. Or my team, or Christine. We'd find a way. Besides, I remember hearing somewhere this phrase,

"Life finds a way."