Chapters:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16
Welcome to the chapter where it all gets interesting. I personally love the ending to this chapter, and I hope you will too. Good luck with keeping up and understanding. If you’ve gotten this far, then you’ve shown some real perseverance. Now’s the time for some plot twists.
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.
Chaos
David slammed his fist against the grating. The skin parted, but he felt nothing.
“You need a sling.” Otacon stuttered, trying to be of help.
“Here. Let me help.”
Hal unravelled David’s bandana from his head slowly with the tips of his fingers. The dark fabric was damp and smelt like dried sweat moistened by fresh excreted adrenaline. He knew how to tie a sling. The bandana wasn’t strong, however. David had already used it to hold a sniper rifle by his side, which had inevitably snagged and torn. A double-fold would last thirty minutes.
“So you found your suit then?” Otacon tried to keep a tint of positivity in his voice.
David looked up at him. His face was still expressing his exhausted emotion, but the movement of the head was enough to confirm a ‘yes’.
“So what did they say?”
“Otacon.” Snake grunted. Hal looked on in hope.
“Go fix the elevator”.
Hal’s face fell. He turned and moved towards the lift door, mumbling to himself. “Is it even broken?”
Something wasn’t right about the surroundings. Before, Snake had thought it was too quiet. No, it’s too loud. It was. The sound of the Hind circling the top of the building had gradually built in volume during his codec call. If anything, it should have gotten quieter, as the helicopter moved towards the roof.
Sound easily echoed around the empty communication tower when it was loud enough, and the dimly-lit space amplified the ‘swuffa-swuffa’ noise from Liquid’s Hind D. Water crept from David’s eye as his ears popped. His right ear felt warm. He covered it with his left hand, his right now in a sling. Blood. A dribble of blood was evidently appearing from Snake’s ear as he looked at the swipe of red across his fingers. The codec and screaming had finally taken their toll on his body.
‘Swuffa swuffa swoofa swoof’
The helicopter blades were audibly slowing down, but increasing in volume.
‘swoof swoof swoofa swuffa sfwuffa swiffa swiffa-swiffa’
The blades sped up again. The helicopter was on level with Snake and Otacon.
A tiny beeping could be heard. It was distant, but very much consistent.
“Otacon. Is that you? Is the lift working?”
“No. It’s jammed.”
“Then run.”
“What?”
Snake grabbed Otacon by his coat and tugged him fiercely away from the elevator controls as the wall beside them burst alight with flames. Rock propelled across the room, embedding itself in the metallic support cage of the lift. Otacon swore.
While chunks of metal began falling from above, a turret gun already threw bullets into the open-aired tower, which ricochet off the surrounding crumpled metal banisters. Two entire walls fell vertically downwards amongst the smoke and fire, piling up on the cold winter ground, floors below outside. Both Snake and Otacon threw themselves to the ground.
The floor they were on bounced about beneath them as it began to give way due to the strain given by the framework of the building. The floors below de-connected from their wall mounts and fell downwards, piling on top of each other amongst the rubble of cement. One connecting mount was forced out of its place, causing the entire floor that Snake and Otacon lay on to tilt at a forty-five degree angle towards the Hind. The two grabbed onto the metal railings as their bodies began to slide downwards. The surrounding fire caused the metal to steam Otacon’s fingers. He wrapped his arm around the newly-formed handle instead, while Snake held on with his right hand, his left tied up and useless.
A new round of bullets left the chopper and placed holes in the flooring around them. Hal covered his face with his left arm, knowing that the they would need to find a way to escape. Liquid wouldn’t stop until they were dead.
“Otacon! Just stay where you are!”
Hal fidgeted with fear. There were bullets barely missing his feet.
Snake’s codec rang.
“For God’s sake not now!” he shouted out into the deafening rotating blades.
…
“Pick up! Please Snake! For the love of everything, pick it up!”
Her hands trembled over the headset as she hammered her index finger repeatedly on the call button, her breathing heavy.
“Snake!”
…
“What the hell?”
Liquid’s voice on loudspeaker alerted Snake to the problems with the Hind. One blade jammed, causing the vehicle to spin on its axis mid-air, and tilt towards the tower. Otacon screamed as the chopper’s blades rotated towards him, grinding up the remaining concrete and metal between him and the open air. The Hind door opened, and Liquid leapt into the sky, pulling on a tab embedded in his jacket to open up a white parachute. The Hind fell with him, barely missing flaming contact with Otacon before it moved towards Liquid, both falling towards the icy ground floor.
A mild rumble symbolised the chopper’s contact with the ground.
Otacon reluctantly climbed down the building through its metallic framework, forced downwards by Snake’s feet, which would occasionally step on his hands. For Snake, climbing down such a structure with only one arm available was incredibly difficult, and he felt encouraged to join Otacon with his painful moans. Hal made his thoughts known about health and safety during the fifteen minute downward climb. Snake ignored him.
His ear was still ringing. Given the fact that he knew what would be said, he didn’t pick up. As they’d reached ground floor, the two sat on the piles of rubble to catch their breath.
“Answer it Snake.”
Snake looked up at Hal.
“How do you know it’s…”
“Your ear is dripping blood” the scientist interrupted. “Pick it up.”
Snake sighed and clicked a concealed button on his suit.
“Yup?”
“Snake! Oh my God, Snake!”
“Mei Ling?”
“Snake, a butterfly cannot fly without wings. A butterfly suffers to live without wings. It is not lack of beauty that kills the fly, but the ability to move.”
Mei Ling’s voice was rushed and panicked. The proverb had to be said, although it sounded improvised. Her Chinese accent was breaking through the static with fear.
“Mei Ling. What is it?”
“Snake. Nastasha’s dead.”
“What?!”
“I just walked into her cabin to speak to her. My God, Snake! Nastasha’s dead!”
“Are you sure? Was she even on the sub with you?”
“Her throat has been slit.” Her voice was tearful. The fear was getting to her.
“There was blood, and… parts… just… thrown…”
“Ok, Mei Ling. Calm down.”
“Calm down?! Snake! I’ve just seen a woman’s… a friend’s… body slaughtered in a few rooms away from me.”
“Listen, I…”
“Snake. Whoever it is, I might be next.” There was silence. Mei Ling was rubbing her running nose with a handkerchief.
“Mei Ling…”
“Just hear me out! … Snake, the Colonel … is not the Colonel.”
“What? …”
“The Colonel is not the Co…”
Static.
