Chapters:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14
So who’s keeping up? We get more detail this week on what’s happening to each of the three parted characters, Snake, Meryl and Otacon. What do you think’s going to happen? Read this weeks chapter and share your best theories below.
Disclaimer: This story contains violent scenes that some younger readers may find disturbing. Many chapters contain detailed scenes of gore and peril. If you haven’t played the Metal Gear series, there will be spoilers in this story. If you haven’t read the previous chapters, just select the chapter number you want to read below.
A Raven’s Fury
“I want those figures.”
“Sorry?”
“Get me the damned figures”.
“Yes Sir.”
“Now…. thank you. Hmmm. What. Why are these not on zero? Are they accurate? To hell with those… ah forget it for now. That’s not important. Do you know where you’re supposed to be next?”
“Yes Sir. Although I need to leave right now if I’m going to get there in time.”
“Good. Then get a move on.”
…
Hal typed digits furiously into the wall panel. Sweat sealed the bridge of his glasses to the top of his nose. Digital bleeps denied him access to the next room, while his only hope fell screaming on the floor, out of reach.
He was lifted from the controls, away from the door. Someone was behind him. They grabbed his back, his lab coat, his skin, and thrusted him towards the window the the left head-first. Hal shouted in pain, and flailed his arms about his head in an impossible attempt to avoid any more injury. Again. The glass cracked.
Hal was thrown into the adjacent room, experiencing concussion. He twitched violently on the ground, before slumping motionless to one side.
Snake grunted as Vulcan Raven climbed in through the open window, pushing Johnny to one side. He didn’t know what to say. His hand flamed with pain. Raven was silhouetted against the artificial light from the torture room. Snake lay in his shadow. Johnny stepped behind the large man. Vulcan’s bare chest bared a scar from their last encounter.
“How did that heal?” Snake simply couldn’t say anything else. He knew Raven wouldn’t be in the mood for a catch-up gossip. He wished his hand would do the same.
Raven was here to return the favour. A knife to the gut. It would be quick, silent. Snake would leave the confines of the cell and expected a religious judgement. But it couldn’t end here. He had to save Meryl and Otacon. He shuffled backwards as Raven hopped through the next window to his cell. Raven blocked the only exit.
Snake pushed himself against the wall behind him, sliding up it to a slouched stance. Raven reached behind his back with back with confidence to reveal a shard of tank debris.
Raven wouldn’t murder Snake. They needed him. REX would never work without him.
But his instincts took hold of him. He ducked down to his right to slam his fist into the back of the man. The sharp blade of the debris scraped a dent across the hard wall. Raven didn’t lose his balance. His arm swung across to scrape Snake’s left hand.
Johnny expected an unbelievable scream of pain and mercy from the retired soldier, but there was nothing. He could still hear the hum of the computer nodes in the room behind him.
Snake’s hand was numb. After so much pain and mutilation, it was no longer a part of his body. An unnecessary side-growth. A deep cut left only a small red line. All blood had clotted at the wrist. As Raven pulled the blade away, the hand fell to the side of Snake, loose and limp.
He stood up and leapt through the broken window. Raven grabbed Snake’s other arm, pulling him back into the room, over the cemented wall, over the shards of glass still attached to the bottom of the smashed window frame. Snake’s bare chest took the strain. His muscles held tight, but he took a few shards, which embedded themselves into his side. The stained green glass tinted red.
“He’s not going anywhere” Raven said to Johnny, as Snake lay on the ground yet again. “Shoot the scientist. He’s dead anyway.”
“What?”
Vulcan Raven pointed towards Hal Emmerich, the unconscious computer programmer. Saliva dribbled from his mouth, and his glasses remained cemented to his face.
“No, don’t worry. He’ll follow Snake. We’ll see him again. Let these two go. They’ll be on their way in a few hours. That’s enough time.”
The guard and the beast left through the torture chamber. The door slid shut behind them. Snake had three shards of thick glass in his side. He wasn’t used to healing wounds like this. Let alone on himself. His codec rang. Thank God.
He tapped his ear with relief to speak to support.
“Snake. It’s Miller.”
“Liquid.”
“Yes, well, your comrades don’t know that do they?”
“Damn you.”
“Enough of the pathetic clichéd lines, Snake.”
“Get off this line.”
There was a mild pause. Snake could hear a clicking sound through the static.
“…No.”
“Where’s Meryl?”
“That bullet to my kneecap still has me wounded you know, brother. We should love each other really. We are family after all.”
Liquid’s posh, British accent spat the words across the codec, talking down to his brother.
Radio silence. Snake didn’t say anything. Perhaps if he were to stop talking, Liquid would leave the line, and he could get the medical attention he needed from his team.
“Did you know Meryl is the Colonel’s daughter? It’s a new one to me.”
“Shut the f..”
Snake’s shouting pained his chest, as the shards of glass wriggled in deeper.
“Are you injured?”
Radio silence. Snake breathed heavily.
“Just so you know, I’m on my way to see Meryl again. I’ll send her my love from you shall I?”
Snake screamed into the receiver. No words, just a scream. It didn’t last, as his muscles closed in around the wounds, pressurising the pain. Liquid switched off from his side.
“Snake. Are you alright?” Roy Cambpell ushered down the line.
“I have glass, stuck in my side. Get Naomi.”
“Snake.”
“Naomi.”
“It’s brute force I’m afraid. You need to remove the glass. The nano-machines in your body should help to a degree with the healing. Once you’ve removed them, push the suit hard onto the wounds. You need to compress the areas of bleeding.”
…
Her back slammed hard into the rising elevator, kicking her head back up into the air. She was forced against the ceiling of the elevator as it steamed upwards into the darkness. Liquid had closed the grated panel. There was no way she could get in.
The lift continued to rise at an astonishing speed. It was not stopping.
When would this shaft end? There must be a point at which there is a highest floor. Would Liquid let her bones squash between the lift and the top floor ceiling?
Meryl clung on for her life as the lift sped upwards into the black abyss.
