Chapter 2

Slow and painful

Snake bent down, and checked the body. The death must have been slow and painful. Looked like he'd been eaten alive, the head was disconnected from the body. All the teeth marks though, they looked.. human. Snake covered his mouth with his hand, and with the other, clicked the switch that let him talked to Otacon.

"Snake, what is it?" He heard Otacon say, the sound reverberating in his ears. Snake slowly drew a shallow breath, and answered,

"Are you sure Philanthropy said there was a Metal Gear here? I've found a body in the first floor corridor, near the vent I came out of. And he looks.. eaten.." Snake took a few steps away, his boots hitting the floor with heavy thuds. He'd been briefed on the new structure of Shadow Moses. He'd entered through a vent in the east side of the building. Since this was re-designed by Umbrella, there were more narrow hallways involved. From what he could tell, the east hallway lead either to the living quarters on the north end, or the new tank hold. He remembered on this very spot is where he'd found the SG-1 silencer. Again only armed with a SG-1 pistol, he was expecting a very sneaky mission. Didn't think it would turn out that way,

"Yeah. Philanthropy said that Apathy, an underground survivor of Fox-Hound has started working with a company called Umbrella." Otacon reported.

"Umbrella?" Snake muttered, he'd heard the name before. In fact, he thought his pain medication he had with him was Umbrella manufactured. He grabbed the small capsule, in his old age he needed something to keep the arthritis at bay. Sure enough, it was. Umbrella Inc, written in bold letters near the side. Snake sighed,

"Wait... did you say: eaten?" Otacon asked,

"Yeah, eaten. Look, I'll report more when I have more information to work on." Otacon muttered something about that he should be there. Snake stopped listening, straightened himself and started walking down the long hallway. In a half crouch position, his back to the west wall, he made his way toward the living quarters. Maybe someone there knew something. Snake looked down, his boots where making a squeaky noise on the floor. He didn't have time to really dress for this, he was picking up some things in his house when he got a call from Otacon.

"Snake, you have to come here." Snake was in street cloths at the time, and only got to put on his weapon holsters and his side arm pack, now full with ammo, and a silencer. Being in blue jeans and a white T-shirt, (he'd ditched his heavy coat near the dead body) he wasn't actually ready for combat. The call was urgent, Apathy had called in and requested Solid Snake to be there right now. Philanthropy gave him the information, and told him to get going. He figured that it wouldn't end like his last two adventures, but.. now he was having second thoughts. Slowly inching towards the door way, Snake took a deep breath and opened the door swiftly, to scare anyone inside.

Holy shit.

The smell of rotting flesh had overwhelmed him. He'd smelled it before, but this was like four people had died and thrown up on themselves before hand. The room was barren, gray, with a tiled floor. The tiles were still wet with blood. It was a military barrack alright. It was a long room, two rows of bunk beds on each side. Green covers, with a big green box in front of them. Standard military. Somewhere, in the darkness, a shadow moved. In fact, it was right in front of him. Snake turned to his left and clicked on the switch, horrified at what he saw.

A man, around six feet tall. His huge bulking arms stretched out at Snake, eyes rolled back in its head, his mouth gaping. His skin was a pale greenish color, the mouth had dried blood all around it. He wore a white lab coat, but was completely naked underneath it. His organ had rotted off it seemed, nothing but a strange muscle formation to keep his legs connected to his body. He had a huge bite mark on his stomach, some of his intestines hanging out, they looked like they had been chewed on.

Snake took a step back, looking at the dead mans eyes. He raised his gun, trying to figure out what to do.

Not possible! Not possible! This person should be walking. It's not possible, I won't accept the fact that a .. zombie is walking towards me.

A long hungry moan that sounded more like a howl escaped the things lips, and Snake fired. One clean shot, right in the middle of the head. The zombie fell backwards, its head hitting the floor with a large wet thud. Snake cringed, half of him wanted to go and help it fall. The other half didn't want to get near it. After breathing heavily, Otacon chimed in,

"Hey Snake--I .. there is.." Snake was confused, then suddenly another voice chimed in,

"Solid Snake. I wasn't expecting anyone less. If you haven't figured it out already this is Apathy. I've cut out that annoying little pest. I don't like him." Snake cringed, only five minutes in this place, and he already was knee deep in shit.

"What the hell is the thing I just killed. It was a zombie for chrissake." Apathy laughed, her cold deep voice in his ear made him want to rip it off. He hated her already, and he'd only heard her speak a few sentences.

"Oh Snake, what you don't realize is that your not the only intruder in my fortress." Snake looked around, nope, just him and some dead guys,

"You still haven't answered my question Apathy." Snake said.

"You'll find out soon enough." Snake felt like pelting the dead zombie a few more times with his gun, be he suppressed his rage.

"Apathy, where are you?" Nothing but static answered him. She'd cut him off, and left him here, with no where to go.