Benson, The Division Agent

“My wife and I took our three-year-old, Maddie, to the Rockefeller Christmas tree lighting. Even then, I remember thinking the crowd was kind of thin. A few days later, my whole neighborhood was like a ghost town.

"I knew things would get scary real fast. Just before the lock down, I reached out to some old Army buddies and arranged for my family to relocate. Had to look into my little girl's big blue eyes and tell her I wasn't going with them. She cried, but I promised her we'd have Christmas together again someday, with a big tree just like the one we saw. Hardest thing I’ve ever done, walking away from them.

"Right after that, the city started tearing itself apart, and the Division activated me.

"Fast forward a couple weeks, my foot patrol got into a firefight with a gang of escaped convicts. We rescued about a dozen or so people they'd been using as forced labor. As we were escorting them back to a CERA camp, we walked right past Rockefeller. And there was the tree, still standing, decorations and all. The world is falling apart around us but a tree from a Christmas that never was is still standing tall. I promised myself that my family and I, we'd see it again one day. And we will."

Stories of The Division offers an intimate look into the lives of 20 fictional New Yorkers living in the world of Tom Clancy's The Division. These conversations are set during the early stages of the outbreak. This series was written and produced by Studio 61 of CBS Interactive in collaboration with Ubisoft.