NOTE: I've tried to make the dialogue from the flashbacks as close to the real thing as possible. Just realize that I'm writing it based on memory and with the help of a game script I found on GameFAQs. Oh, and if you don't like long, drawn out conversations, I'm sorry but Metal Gear Solid is a game that is infamous for its lengthy cinematic sequences. Personally, I love them since it's like watching a live-action movie where you play as the main protagonist. But some people might not care for them so much, and that's fine too.
-I: Forest of Mysteries-
For several minutes, Snake tried every frequency on his Codec that he could remember, but all he got in response was static. He tried Colonel Campbell, Mei Ling, Naomi, Nastasha, Otacon...nothing.
Frustrated, he turned off his Codec and rummaged through his remaining equipment. Nothing seemed to be missing. He still had his .45 MK23 "SOCOM" pistol, FAMAS assault rifle, three fragmentation and chaff grenades, two sticks of C4 with a detonator, five MRE rations he'd saved, his combat knife, and a few spare magazines of ammo for both guns. Even his cigarettes were still on his person, although he only had a handful left at best.
At least some things are going my way, he thought with a grim smile as he started off, not knowing what path led where. From the direction the wind was blowing and the sun's current position, he guessed that he was heading in a northwestern direction. Of course he couldn't be completely certain without a compass. He didn't even know where he was.
However, considering he spent the majority of the past forty-eight hours freezing his ass off while being shot at on Shadow Moses, being lost in the woods was a cakewalk. He'd been in far worse places than this before and knew perfectly well how to survive in the wilderness thanks to his FOXHOUND training with Master Miller (and Big Boss' own personal lessons). He felt both longing and contempt when he thought about both men, but for different reasons he didn't wish to revisit.
At least he had a dirt path to follow, which indicated that someone had once trekked though this place. His only eventual issue would be a water source, but there was bound to be a river or stream on the way where he could refill his half-spent canteen.
There was only one thing that bothered Snake. How did he end up here of all places, with no jeeps, Alaska, or Otacon in sight. And where exactly was here?
The last thing I remember was beating the crap out of Liquid and something about daylight. I rejoined Otacon, and the next thing I know we get hit in the side, darkness, and then I'm here. Damn, nothing seems to add up!
The forest itself was lush with vegetation. It was no different than the forests of Alaska, except that the climate was far warmer and, dare Snake say it, pleasant. Mostly pine and evergreen trees composed the forest, though he would spot a pine and maple here and there. The path he was on was a bit weather-worn, but overall it was intact, almost as if it was used often.
Good thing it is, too. Otherwise I'd have nothing to go on at all here.
After what felt like several hours of walking, there was still nothing around him but forest as far as his eyes could see. Tired, he decided to rest for ten minutes and break open a ration for lunch.
Minus the wind and occasional bird chirps, the forest was tranquil—a welcoming difference from a heavily guarded military installation under the control of rebellious next-generation soldiers. It was the first time in days he could actually sit down and recuperate without keeping a wary hand resting on his SOCOM.
It sure beats sleeping in ventilation shafts, that's for sure.
Sighing from both exhaustion and a full stomach, he leaned up against a tree and closed his eyes. He enjoyed the peaceful silence and the warm fire he had built for himself before he drifted off to sleep.
Gripping his SOCOM tightly, Snake cautiously made his way into the bathroom where he thought the Genome Soldier he had been trailing ran into. He knew Meryl was around here somewhere; there was a strong possibility that the soldier he followed might be her.
Checking around the corner, he stealthily sidestepped past the three sinks, focusing on the stalls.
Obviously it's the last one, he smirked.
He lined up against the last stall and readied his SOCOM while he steadied his shallow breathing. After taking a silent breath, he pushed the door open and immediately aimed for where he thought the Genome Soldier's head would be. But there was no one there, sans a green uniform on the toilet seat.
He frowned; something didn't feel right.
"Don't move!" said a feminine voice behind him, the click of a FAMAS pointed directly at his back causing him pause. He gently raised his arms, SOCOM in hand.
"That's the second time I've been able to sneak up on the legendary Solid Snake."
Taking a chance, Snake abruptly turned around. He let down his guard when he saw a girl with neck-length, military-trimmed red hair and chocolate-brown eyes staring back at him. Her FAMAS was lowered, just below her jungle green tank top. Snake eyed her up and down, never expecting this woman, whom he had only seen in real life once in disguise, to be so...beautiful. He tried to avert his gaze when he noticed she was only wearing a pair of green panties beneath her tank top. Her toned, milky white legs were exceptionally...limber.
That explains the uniform, he thought, trying in vain to push suggestive images out of his head. This was the Colonel's niece he was ogling for Christ's sake!
"You're Meryl?" he asked. "There's no way you could pass for a man for long."
She gave him a questioning look. "What do you mean?" She paused before she remembered where they were. "Hey! Men aren't allowed in here!"
Snake raised his hands up to calm her down, searching for the right words.
"I had no idea you were so...feminine," he explained, struggling to keep his eyes from wandering again.
Meryl crossed her arms, her face scrunched in obvious disapproval. "This is no time to try and hit on me, Snake. Besides, it's a waste of time. When I joined up they gave me psychotherapy to destroy my interest in men."
"Same smart mouth. You're Meryl all right," Snake said. "Are you hurt?"
She shook her head. "Not yet. After all, I was disguised as a Genome Soldier."
"So why'd you change? You'd be better off dressed like one of them."
Meryl sighed, weariness flashing behind those entrancing eyes of hers. "I got tired of disguising myself. The truth is...the uniform smelled like blood."
When she turned, Snake noticed a familiar symbol on her upper arm. He knew he'd seen it before, but he couldn't quite place it.
"What's that mark?"
"Huh?" Meryl glanced down at the caricature of a grinning fox firing a machine gun on her upper right arm. "Oh, this? It's a paint tattoo. It's not real. I was a fan of FOXHOUND way back. When guys like you and my uncle were in it. None of that gene therapy like there is today. You guys were real heroes."
Snake turned away, staring at the wall as if he were looking into the distance. The tattoo and the mention of his past dug up old memories he'd try to bury.
"There are no heroes in war. All the heroes I know are either dead or in prison. One or the other."
"But Snake, you're a hero. Aren't you?"
Snake shook his head. "I'm just a man who's good at what he does. Killing. There's no winning or losing for a mercenary. The only winners in war are the people."
Meryl nodded in agreement. "That's right. And you fight for the people!"
Snake continued looking away. "I've never fought for anyone but myself. I've got no life. No ultimate goal."
"Oh, come on."
Snake tore his eyes away from the tiled bathroom wall and looked into hers. She probably wouldn't understand, but it was worth a shot.
"It's only when I'm cheating death on the battlefield. The only time I feel truly alive."
"Seeing other people die makes you feel alive huh? You love war and don't want it to stop...is it the same with all great soldiers throughout history?" she asked somberly.
Snake quickly changed the subject. Talking about his feelings wasn't something he was good at; emotions only got in the way of the objective. Plus, he hardly even knew the girl, even though she was Campbell's niece. He suddenly remembered how her Codec was abruptly disconnected the last time she talked to him seconds after he heard gunfire and shouting on her end. It was why he was here in the first place.
"Why didn't you contact me?" he asked.
Meryl walked out of the stall, remembering how she was almost discovered after Snake rescued Otacon. "My Codec was broken."
"Is that all?"
"Shouldn't you just be happy that we met up like this? How did you recognize me in disguise?"
Snake smirked. "I never forget a lady."
Oh, so he's going to play that game. Typical male, she thought to herself. "So there's something you like about me, huh?"
"Yeah, you've got a great butt," he said with another smirk.
The nerve of that pervert! First he commented on her eyes during their first conversation via Codec, and now he was talking about her ass? So much for the "legendary" Solid Snake her uncle had always preached about. She wondered briefly what he'd think about of this. An evil plan came to mind; she'd definitely have to remember to ask innocently for her uncle's Codec frequency later.
"Oh, I see," she said. "First it's my eyes, now it's my butt. What's next?"
"On the battlefield, you never think about what's next."
They stood in silence for awhile before discussing the situation while Meryl changed into a fresh pair of pants she found earlier. They talked about how the negotiations were going; how they would have to destroy Metal Gear if they couldn't find all the detonation override keys.
"Metal Gear is in an underground maintenance base to the north," Snake said. Meryl's eyes lit up with excitement.
"Take me too! I know this place better than you do," she stated.
Snake shook his head. "You'll just slow me down. You don't have enough battle experience."
"I won't slow you down. I promise."
"And what if you do?"
Meryl thought about this a moment before answering. "Then you can shoot me."
"I don't like to waste bullets," Snake warned. She ignored the venom in his voice; whether he liked it or not, she was coming along.
"Got it, I'll be careful."
Meryl paused as she made her way over to the sink. She stared at herself in the mirror while Snake silently followed her with his eyes.
"Y'know...I don't use makeup the way other women do," Meryl started. "I hardly ever look at myself in the mirror. I've always despised that kind of woman. I always dreamed of becoming a soldier. But I was wrong. It wasn't really my dream. My father...he was killed in action when I was younger."
Snake understood. "You wanted to follow in your father's footsteps, huh?"
Meryl stared at him through the mirror. "Not really. I thought that if I became a soldier, I could understand him better."
"So, are you a solider yet?" Snake asked.
Meryl lowered her head, tightening her grip on the sink "I thought I was until today. But…now I understand."
She turned back to face Snake. "The truth is, I was just afraid of looking at myself. Afraid of having to make my own decisions in life. But I'm not going to lie to myself anymore."
She turned back to the mirror, determination in her eyes. "It's time I took a long, hard look at myself...I want to know who I am, what I'm capable of. I want to know why I've lived the way I've lived until now. I want to know."
Snake glanced down at his SOCOM as he locked another clip into it. Those were the kind of questions he asked himself when he was her age. In fact, now that he thought about it, he still didn't truly know who he was.
He'd been raised by soldiers, trained by soldiers...but was being a soldier always who he was supposed to be? Was warfare and death all he was ever meant to experience in his life? Years ago, he hoped that quitting FOXHOUND and retreating to Alaska after the Outer Heaven incident would give him the answers. But so far, they hadn't. Instead he was roped back into this life during the Zanzibar Land uprising, and once again now with Shadow Moses. It seemed like war followed him no matter where he chose to run.
"Take a good look, then. You won't get another chance for a while. You should wash your face while you're at it," he said. "This isn't a training exercise. Our lives are riding on this. There are no heroes or heroines. If you lose, you die a dog's death."
Snake hated to be so blunt with someone like her, but it was the truth. These guys were professionals, on par with some of the best he'd ever fought against in his time as a soldier and mercenary. They knew precisely how to kill and wouldn't hesitate one second to pull the trigger, no matter who fell into in their sights. Meryl picked up her head, staring back through the mirror into his hardened, piercing blue eyes.
"Yeah..." she trailed off.
As Snake put away his SOCOM, he noticed Meryl's discarded FAMAS lying on the ground.
"Is that FAMAS still functional?" he asked.
"Yeah, but it's out of ammo."
Snake noticed the bulky pistol holstered on Meryl's thigh. "Where'd ya get that Desert Eagle?"
Meryl removed the weapon from its holster and held it up in the air. "Oh, this?" she asked. "I found it in the armory. It's a .50 caliber Action Express. There was a SOCOM pistol too, but I chose this."
Snake grumbled to himself as he took out his SOCOM again and looked it over, its metallic surface reflecting the artificial lighting above them.
"Hmm...So I got a leftover, huh? Isn't that gun a little big for a girl?"he said.
"Don't worry, I can handle it," Meryl replied with determination. Snake spun his SOCOM around until the handle was upside down and facing her.
"C'mon. Use my .45," he insisted.
"Listen, I've used a gun like this since I was eight years old. I'm more comfortable with it than I am with a bra."
To emphasize her point, she took out a clip from her bra and loaded a new clip into her Desert Eagle. Snake raised an eyebrow as she cocked a new bullet into the chamber.
Obviously I've got a lot to learn about this girl... Snake thought with amusement. Yep, she was definitely the Colonel's niece all right.
"If we're going to go to the north, we'll have to go through the Commander's Room on this floor. The overland route is blocked by glaciers. C'mon!"
Snake stared at Meryl's retreating figure briefly before following her out of the woman's bathroom, SOCOM at the ready.
It was nighttime when Snake awoke from his slumber, memories of Meryl floating around in his mind. The sadness in his heart started to return, but he pushed it down when he remembered where he was. The fire had long died out (somehow not causing a forest fire or attracting unwanted attention, to his relief). It only took a moment for his eyes to adjust.
Damn…must have been more tired than I realized, he thought with discontent as he picked himself up and fumbled for an emergency flashlight stored inside his Sneaking Suit. He broke his thermal goggles back on Shadow Moses in the fight against Liquid's Hind D Russian gunship. Locating potential predators in the dark would be much more difficult.
Glancing up at the full moon's position as he finally flicked on the flashlight, he guessed it was close to midnight. It was then that he heard a chilling howl. Snake tried to identify the noise but couldn't.
Sounds like a wolf, but not quite. Almost as if it's somewhat more…sinister.
Drawing his SOCOM, he crossed the flashlight with one hand diagonally below the pistol and trained it on a nearby bush. He heard more howls as he searched, and they seemed much closer than before.
Before he could react, something enormous and black tackled him to the ground and knocked his SOCOM and flashlight out of his hands. He fought with the beast's head as it tried to bite his face off with its sharp fangs. He slid his hands around the beast's neck and snapped it to the right. Its eyes glowed brightly for a brief moment before it collapsed on him, limp. Snake pushed the loathsome creature off as he stood up. He retrieved his fallen SOCOM and flashlight before returning to the body.
It certainly didn't look like an average wolf or wolf-dog; more like a cross between a wolf and one of those zombie things the kids loved to read about in comics. Its ragged gray coat only covered the main parts of its body, while the rotting flesh on its legs and face were exposed. It also had what appeared to be armored plating on its shoulders, not to mention one of the worst stinks he had ever come across.
I must be going crazy if I'm seeing zombie dogs now. This is like a bad horror movie!
More growling surrounded him as he holstered his SOCOM and instead readied the FAMAS he had on a shoulder strap. There were two dozen; no, make that four dozen of the creatures that emerged from the trees and encircled him. There weren't only zombie-like wolf-dogs either. Skeletal dogs alit with fire in their empty eye sockets were also part of the pack.
The first wave readied to strike, their jaws open with jagged, bony teeth.
Shit…I don't have nearly enough ammo to take them all out, he thought bitterly. Explosives would be too dangerous here. Guess I'll just have to take them out the old-fashioned way. Like the Snake I am.
The first wolf leapt right as Snake met it with a spin kick, shattering its spine on impact and flinging it off to the side where it remained, immobile. Angered, the rest of the monsters lunged at the soldier all at once.
Snake fired off rounds from his FAMAS, killing a few as more came at him. They bit and tore at his Sneaking Suit even as he fired and reloaded, some managing to puncture through the Kevlar lining and spilling blood, but Snake continued fighting and shooting.
Long after he spent his ammo and switched his spent FAMAS for his SOCOM, Snake stood hunched over, panting heavily over the corpses of the zombie wolves and skeletal dogs. He grimaced as he felt the various punctures and wounds across his body. There wasn't much he could do though; unfortunately, he had used his last medkit fighting Metal Gear REX in the underground maintenance base.
It was then when he noticed that one final wolf remained.
Angered by the slaying of its comrades it prepared to strike, probably not expecting much of a fight since its prey had been weakened. This one was smart; it chose to let the others do the fighting first, allowing it to finish the job once the rest were taken care of and reap the spoils all by itself. Not a bad plan, in Snake's mind.
The mercenary squeezed the trigger, but only a faint clicking sound came out. By the time he realized that his SOCOM needed another magazine from his vest, the wolf was on top of him. He struggled with it as he dropped the SOCOM, losing his energy fast. Darkness encroached into his eyesight as he fought to stay alive, using every last bit of strength to keep its vicious fangs away from his neck and face.
Just as its teeth started to graze the flesh of his neck, the wolf went limp. Snake shook his head to clear his vision and pushed off the carcass, ignoring the repulsive smell. A wooden arrow was stuck in its throat, the head pierced clean through the other side of the body.
Who did that? he thought as he looked around. Finally he saw him, the shadowy figure kneeling and pointing its bow at him.
Snake stood up and moved towards the man, putting his hands up like a non-combatant. He felt fatigue quickly take over as he succumbed to his wounds. As he fell, a pair of arms caught him and lowered his body gently to the forest floor. A man in green clothing with a sword on his back was all he remembered before he lost consciousness.
I shouldn't have to tell you who the figure that saved Snake was unless you're a complete newbie to the world of Nintendo. Next chapter will be up soon. Expect more flashbacks as the story goes on. Not sure yet how long this story's going to eventually be, though. Leave me a review to let me know how you guys like it so far!
-Sheik
