They say the enemy of your enemy is your ally and that was all the tenuous alliance between the two men was. It was a band of mutual disgust. Both men stood watching the people fawning over Harker with a deep scowl carved in both of their weathered faces. Harker hadn't done a thing except wear a title. Still everyone seemed to think he was the hero of the day.

Snake was the first to break the silence with a disgruntled sigh. All that work and nothing to show. It reminded him of his last days in the military, the war, all the things that twisted his stomach into a knot. Harker would get his though. Plissken would make sure of it. That ungrateful bastard should have been left for crazy food in the prison.

Hauk had heard the disgust and answered with a deep labored breath. He just wanted away from this madness. His cold, blue eyes followed the secret service men huddled together around the president. They were in police barracks. What did they have to be so afraid of? Hauk was quickly losing faith in the arrogance of politics. In brief moments of clarity or insanity, he couldn't decide, Hauk wished the police would toss the government out and do something else. As malicious as that sounded it might have been for the best.

Hauk pulled out a cigarette and offered one to Plissken. That one serpentine eye gave him a look of pure hate before he took a smoke and lit it. Hauk wondered where he'd gotten the matches from inside the prison but didn't ask. It wasn't important.

"That's what we stayed up all night for?" Hauk would have rather slept and let the world go to hell.

"Some president." Snake answered as the watched more government officials arrive.

Hauk sighed as his parking lot filled up with black suits. It was like watching crazies take the streets. At least the crazies were looking for food. Hauk didn't know what all the scurrying people here were doing.

Snake had enough and started walking past Hauk to where he was told he could get food and medical attention. The pain in his head and leg were overriding his desire to endure the train wreck people called the government.

"Snake." Hauk called after him. Even if the president wasn't going to express his thanks Hauk felt mildly indebted to the man who had done the impossible. "You saved America, soldier." Hauk paused and added quietly. "Again.

Snake paused pulling the cigarette from his lips as he looked back at Hauk.

"It's for shit." He replied in a tone that could be interpreted as many things, all of which were one form of disgust or another. Hauk let him go, relenting to the only sane thing he'd heard since this mess started.