Chapters:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14
More scene-jumping now, with Snake, Meryl and Otacon all separated on Shadow Moses. Here’s two of many questions to be asking: how come Meryl survived Psycho Mantis? and how will Wolf’s death affect the timeline?
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.
Prisoners of Fate
Hard footsteps ran across the dusty concrete, echoing across the large hall. Otacon ran for his life.
…
Johnny used the toilet. His most recent meal filtered into the bowl, churned away by the flush of water. Snake crawled under the bed in his cell. A cheap trick. It would work again. The guard sounded relieved. Two doors slid open and he was once again patrolling Snake’s cell. Then he stopped.
Snake looked out from under the rusty bed frame. The guard stood at the window, staring directly at him. There was no comment. The guard simply watched on in disturbing curiosity.
There were no air ducts leading to the cell, and it soon became stuffy around Snake. He coughed under his smokey breath. He needed another cigarette. David crawled out from the bed, the cold eyes of the guard following his movements. David walked slowly to the meshed glass and stared directly into Johnny’s eyes.
A scream filtered through the guard’s radio. He detached it from his belt and brought it to his mouth and spoke words muffled behind the thick glass. The two continued their emotionless stare at each other.
Johnny walked to the electric door to the torture room. He typed four numbers into a nearby keypad, hidden behind a metallic panel and hinge. The door clicked red. He walked slowly back to Snake, and leant against the wall opposite the cell, reattaching his fixation on the captive’s eyes.
Snake stepped back and pointed to the clean corner where the corpse of the DARPA chief should be lying, rotting. The guard didn’t react. Snake juddered his arm to emphasise his message. Johnny shrugged insultingly.
Snake turned and briskly lifted the stained mattress from the creaking bed frame. He carried it to the window, thinking of using it to cover the menacing stare of the rookie guard. It wouldn’t cover the whole glass, the window wrapped round two walls. Johnny could simply walk round to view Snake. He stood on the spot, thinking.
He moved the mattress to the door. If no-one could breach the now locked door from the torture room, Snake had to come up with an alternative escape plan. The mattress was placed vertically against the door, forcing pressure on its hinges in the wrong direction. The door could still be opened from the outside, but it would at least jam temporarily.
Snake turned away and tapped his ear. Radio silence.
The bed frame was tore from the ground. Johnny looked on in mild confusion and fear as Snake brought the frame towards the window at a speed, causing the glass to crack under impact from one of the bed’s steel legs.
The guard jumped. He raised his machine gun at the glass, his shouting muffled to Snake’s ears. He continued to ram the bed leg into the glass. The guard shouted demands into the distorted fragments of glass. The safety mesh held the shape of the window, but the section became white with small chunks of glass breaking off.
…
Otacon reached the door to the patrol area to the cell. A loud banging could be heard from the other the room ahead. Looking through the nearby window, a nervous guard brought a radio to his mouth, about to report Snake’s actions to a higher authority.
Hal could crack the lock. He just needed time.
Time he did not have. Snake tore down the glass, and the guard tactfully threw a gun clip at his left hand, causing him to grip the broken hand and stumble backwards, screaming in agony.
Someone answered the radio.
…
A pot of empty hair wax sat next to the closed door.
Meryl sat curled up in the corner of the room. Her time was up.
Liquid approached the door from the opposite side. She knew it. Mantis has left a temporary imprint in her mind. He’d walk in, kick the pot to the side… and rape her.
There was nothing she could do. She folded her legs together and huddled into the corner of the empty metallic room. The two oval bunker lights that lit up the space in a dirty shade of green made her cold. The sweat had left her forehead.
The door opened, and Liquid Snake stepped in. Fully clothed, he looked down at the empty pot of wax and laughed to himself, looking up to see the shaking woman staring back at him with a fearful gaze. He kicked the empty pot away from him.
“Are you going to tell me?” He spoke calmly into the shadow.
“No”.
Tears dripped down her innocent face.
“Are you going to tell me?” he repeated.
“No!” she cried back across the room. Her head fell into her hands.
“Very well”.
The door closed behind him. They were in the room together, alone.
“Meryl, I want you to…”
Meryl stood up and threw herself at the man, slamming her fist into his face, and kicking his wounded knee with her bare foot. Liquid screamed in a high pitch. She brought her knee up, delving it deep into his crotch. He leant forward, face red. She raised her knee again to greet his nose, which clicked on contact with her kneecap.
Liquid stumbled backwards, his hands flailing on the metal walls of the room. A panel fell off its hinges, and his hand brushed over buttons. He fell to the floor, which began to rumble. Meryl leant on the far wall to stable herself.
Movement. The room was moving.
Meryl ran to Liquid, who once again lay moaning on the ground. She knelt next to him and forced her clenched fist into his groin. His reaction was lost to the sudden downwards motion of the room around them. They were in an elevator.
Meryl was thrown into the air. The sudden downward force suggested the brakes were broken. Whatever the cause, Meryl found herself hitting the roof of the metal coffin and landing back on the floor.
One more shot at the ceiling panel.
She stood on Liquid and jumped. He reached out and grabbed her ankle, bringing her face smacking down onto the hard metal below her. The wound in her face slid along the vibrating floor as he pulled her towards him. She kicked with both legs, one toe landing in his eye, he let go and rolled over, gripping his throbbing skull.
Meryl jumped once again where she was, her back slamming into the roof. Hanging from the grated panel, adrenaline helped her to pull the last two screws out from their sockets without twisting. The panel turned and flew upwards, spinning into the darkness above. She climbed through the small gap, leaving a wounded Snake to pull himself up.
The brakes to the lift were screaming, but had no effect on its speed. Liquid stood up, watching Meryl jump and grab a nearby cable. He pushed all the buttons on the control panel to his side. The lift stopped quickly. He was lifted off his feet and thrown to the ground.
A defenseless woman was hanging on a cable in the shadows above. Liquid had time. He didn’t rush. He stood up, brushed himself down and called for assistance.
Meryl swung on a thick cable mid-air. A pinpoint light below her mapped the distance of the elevator to her. Her surroundings were pitch black, there was nothing to see. She was clinging on for life in total black. Cold air made the fine hairs on her arms to stand upright as it whistled from above her. There was nothing above. Only darkness. There was nothing next to her, just darkness. Below, just the white dot.
Which increased in size.
Nothing she could do. The lift would surely get there before her. She ignored her fears and pulled herself up further up the wire. Her muscles took the strain and her bare feet slid up the cable, wrapping around it to lock her body in place. Her hands slid up the wire again, and she repeated the process as fast as she could, her naked thighs burning against the coiled metal.
The light screamed towards her. Her hands filled with sweat.
She slipped.
The woman fell silently through the darkness towards the light.
