Chapter 26

"SNAKE!!!" Raiden shouted while he saw the incredible scene unfolding in front of him. The derail lasted mere seconds. The flat train car, the transport and the box car, all swerved to the side of the rail road and got on top of one another. Snake had been caught in the middle of it. Could he have survived? Raiden quickly reached for the CODEC to try and reach Snake as the wreckage got further away from the rest of the train. "Snake can you hear me?" The Comanche flew by overhead. Damnit!!! Raiden pointed his M4 to the Comanche and started firing. His anger was on each bullet that he fired, but that didn't help his aim.

Marsh was smiling because of what he had just accomplished. One down , one to go. He thought while he saw Raiden's gun muzzle flash. He smiled and then pushed a button to open a communication channel. "This is Black Ronin, train conductor can you hear me?"

It took a few seconds to obtain a response. "I'm here sir" A voice replied.

"I need you to do something"

Raiden was now reloading his gun, he missed the Comanche completely but he wasn't about to give up. He cocked the M4 and got ready to fire again.

"Hey!" A voice came from behind him.

Raiden turned around and before he collapsed he thought he saw a light and a large building in the distance where the train was headed. The next thing he felt was the butt of a gun hitting his face.

The bullets hit the flat train car, where Snake was standing, and soon he felt that something was wrong. The Comanche's pilot was trying to derail the flat car and without much effort he succeeded. The entire flat car shifted to the right and if flew of the tracks. The railroad was higher than the rest of the terrain and for a fraction of a second Snake was airborne. After that he felt the sand on his face and the rest of the train going over him. Metal clashing into metal right above him made a deafening noise. After a few seconds everything around him was dark and silent. He could feel his head was wet and as he passed his hand by his forehead he felt a liquid. I'm bleeding…Snake was breathing heavily, in fact he wanted to close his eyes and rest. He felt that his entire body was weak, something he hadn't felt before. I can rest for a while…I'm not going anywhere. Yeah I can rest. Snake rested his head on the sand and sighed of relief. Just for a minute. The thought of taking a break was almost too good to be true. His entire life he had never rest, not like normal people anyway. Something inside him made him always alert, even in his sleep he was wide awake. But now the fatigue, it seemed, was forcing him to rest and he liked it. As he closed his eyes he hoped to rest silently, unfortunately for someone like Snake he was never alone in his sleep. The ones that he had killed, the ones he had helped appeared in his mind and as soon as his closest friend appeared the thought of resting disappeared from his mind in a flash. Otacon!! He quickly opened his eyes and raised his hands to feel the surroundings. The rubble over him couldn't be moved. He looked left and right and saw no light. My goggle?Snake took his hand to his eye and noticed that his Night vision goggle was missing. He also tried to contact Raiden through the CODEC but he couldn't, something was wrong with his CODEC. Alright then! Snake forgot about everything else and decided to crawl until he found a way out.

The walls were large rocks of polished white marble. A large and very wide corridor, with a small bench on the side was the sleeping place of Tiger. He had been resting his head for minutes now. Marsh's last communication had been very troubling and he was now wondering if his plan was crumbling beneath him. The sleep and the subsequent dream could probably shed some light on the manner, but the only dream he had these days didn't bring him any tranquility. Tiger suddenly woke up. Why? He sighed and got on his feet. He looked left and right to the corridor. He was always amazed that 'he' had had the vision to build this fortress. He smiled for a second and became serious the next. No more smiles…I have a job to do. Tiger thought.

Tiger's VOXER suddenly came alive. "Tiger this is Marsh. I have one of them in custody, not Solid Snake. I tired but I'm not sure if he's alive, out in the desert. Should I…"

"No, let it be, how much longer till you arrive?" Tiger answered.

"We should be there in two minutes" Marsh voice was a bit muffled.

"Are you on the Comanche?" Tiger asked.

"Yes, I'll tell you about it later. But don't worry the essential part is safe" Marsh replied. "What about Solid Snake?"

"Don't worry about it. I'll meet you when the train arrives. Good work Marsh" Tiger signed off. Are you still alive, Solid Snake?

A small piece of cloth was now the cause of Meryl's discomfort. She was not only shivering because of the cold but also because of the anxiety that all three could be found.

"Meryl did heard hearing Mei Ling? What's going on?" Rose placed herself in front of Meryl.

"Just…wait a second! I need to think?" Meryl replied.

"We need to move, get to someplace else" Mei ling advised.

"No!" Meryl was quick to dismiss the idea. "We don't know how many are there or where they are, we have to wait until we hear about their movements on the radio" Unfortunately for Meryl the radio came back on and her plan was shot down instantly.

"To all teams this is the Major change all communications to the secure frequency!" As the radio went silent Mei Ling and Rose looked at Meryl waiting for a response.

"Alright this just got worse" Meryl replied as she placed the radio on one of the small tables and sat down. What now!? Oh! Mei Ling and Rose watched as they saw Meryl reaching for the transceiver and connecting through the Colonel's frequency, the transceiver obtained no response.

Damn! Where is he? Meryl sighed wondering what had become of her uncle. "Listen I have no idea of what to do next." Meryl said while placing the HK G36K on top of the table.

"Are we just going to stay here?" Rose asked. She got close to Meryl. "It's getting colder by the second" While she spoke, a small cloud of smoke appeared before her mouth.

"I think we have no other way" Mei Ling answered. "We need to wait for the Colonel to activate the scaffolds."

"What if that never happens? Are we just going to wait here, freezing our butts" Rose replied throwing her hands to the side. "Maybe we can get to the elevator, you know, if the Colonel was captured perhaps we can pass by unnoticed"

"Hum, I'm not sure…" Mei Ling was quickly interrupted by Meryl.

"Ok. We'll do it." She responded.

"What?" Said both Rose and Mei Ling.

"We've got no other chance. We need to get out of this place and the elevator is our only option. Rose that's a good idea"

"It is?" She replied.

Meryl picked up the HK G36K and reached for her Colt M1991A1. "Take this" She stretched out her hand to Rose.

"A gun!!" Rose whispered. "For me?"

"It's a good pistol, just point and shoot." Meryl kept her hand stretched until Rose took the Colt. "Just be careful to unlock the safety. And remember, aim small, miss small"

Rose kept looking at the gun as she heard Meryl's words. A gun…what am I going to do with this…kill?

"C'mon let's get moving" Meryl said with a resolute tone, held her HK G36K tight and headed for the exit. "I'll take point you'll follow me."

"Wow, I never thought Meryl could look so…butch!" Mei Ling commented as she started to follow Meryl.

The walk unfortunately was cut short because as Meryl opened the door she heard footsteps. Crap!!

"Someone's coming!!" She said lowering her voice. "Hurry, hide!!"