AN: Just when I think I'm ready for a break, the song plays once more. This story isn't ready to rest yet, and so, I shall continue to tell you the tale. This Arc will follow more closely to the DT series than Arc Four, and the DT book it will follow is called Wolves of the Calla by (you guessed it) Stephen King. I hope you enjoy what I have in store for you.

Old Man – Calla Bryn Sturgis

The old man's lips turned down into a frown. He removed the cigarette from his mouth, blew smoke into the late afternoon air, and sighed deeply.

"The world…has changed," he said. No one was around to listen, the townsfolk were about their dinners and their end-of-the-day chores and no one had time to visit with the one they called "Old Traveler" at the moment.

So he sat alone on the porch of the small house the townsfolk had lent him, smoking a cigarette and reflecting on things. "The world has changed. It's no longer the place I once knew. No longer the future I had fought to protect. It's an ever-mutating land of rifts, brought about by some guy with a very dark chip on his shoulder."

He took another drag and blew the smoke out of his mouth – never out of his nose. "The world, and all of its people, have been lost to small black creatures more terrifying than anything I had ever faced."

The old man dropped the remainder of his cigarette onto the porch and snuffed it out with a single step and twist of his foot.

"The world has changed."

He rose from his seat in the old rocker and scanned the terrain. Rice fields all around, potato patches here and there, and corn way off to the west. But mostly rice. He dragged a hand over his mouth, straightening the hairs of his grey moustache. Grey was the word to describe him entirely. His eyes, his hair, the bandana wrapped around his head, and his morals – grey. The fight for good versus evil had ended, and when it did, the world was filled with light. The shadows, like himself, were to be erased. He was okay with that, he just wanted to see out the old and catch a glimpse of the new.

But the real shadows showed up and changed that plan. He had no choice but to watch from the safety of an airplane called the Nomad. Then the shadows swallowed that too. For an unknown amount of time, all he could remember was darkness. Nothing but empty space. He heard screams of things that dwelled only in nightmares, but saw nothing. He felt cold fingers slide across him, fingers trying to pull him under, but he had resisted. His strong will was the only thing that kept the darkness at bay, and his will was what brought him through the door into the Cave of Voices.

He was thrown through the door onto the dust and dirt of the cave, hearing voices call from the depths beyond the door. "The blood of the east flows within your veins."

The old man rose to his feet quickly. The cords of his musclesuit reacted to his panic and they tightened. Another voice rose from the depths, "We're not men…we're shadows in the shape of men!" The old man knew these voices, they were from foes in a past he couldn't escape. A past that repeated itself time and time over until the end of the world. And now they were coming back to haunt him again.

"Hello dearest brother! You see, Snake? You can't protect anyone, not even yourself!"

Solid Snake – that was the name he had once held. In his declining years, they had called him Old Snake. In truth, he was only 42 years old, but one look at him would make you guess somewhere in the sixties or even seventies. His face was riddled with wrinkles, his skin covered in liver spots, and the gravelly voice he carried in youth had become harsh and almost whispery at times.

Snake left the cave, wishing to hear no more of his past. When he came into the sunlight, he collapsed. The ordeal would be hard on anyone, let alone a man dying of rapid aging brought upon by his manipulated genetics. The strain was too much and down he went, another snake still in the dust.

Now he stood, not in his musclesuit but in a cotton tee shirt and blue jeans, looking out across the land he was forced to call "home." Accepting life on another world was hard, accepting it alone was the kicker. Whatever darkness he had been through to get to that door had apparently been too much for the few he called family. That was four months ago.

One of the townspeople approached him. A solemn-looking farmer, no older than thirty five. What was his name? Damn memory's fading, that's just great.

He held out a feather to Snake. "Meeting in two hours. Will you attend, old traveler?"

Snake grunted and patted the dust from his jeans. "Yeah, sure. I'll be there." The man turned and left without another word.

The meeting hall was packed with people. Even the big farmers that only came into town to sell their crop showed up, Wayne Overholser among them. Overholser was the big farmer in Calla Bryn Sturgis, and if this meeting was important enough for him to show up, the rest of the town had no choice but to listen.

The man who had come around with the feather took the stage at the front of the hall. The feather was still clasped in his hands and he waited a moment before speaking, making sure the majority of the room had eyes on him.

"Hear me, and hear me well! My name is Tian Jaffords and we have ourselves a problem. I know many of you would rather pretend that it doesn't exist, but we need to stop running."

The people in the crowd whispered to each other. Some rolled their eyes, others sighed and grabbed their foreheads in frustration. Tian continued, "The Wolves have been coming to the Callas for longer than any of us can remember now, my own da even saw them when he was young. If we don't do something, they'll keep doing what they've always done. Are we going to let them ride into town with their fire sticks and exploding sneetches, killing anyone who refuses to give up their children?"

One of the farmers in the back stood up. "And if we resist, they'll burn the town and still take our children. Only the twins, so you're still in the green with one of yours, aren't you Tian?"

It was true, the monsters they called Wolves only abducted twins. Unfortunately, the town was full of them. Twins were the norm, singletons were the exception. Tian himself had two sets of twins and a newborn singleton. How terrible it must be for the children that get taken by the metal riders on grey horses, taken off to a train that sends them straight into Hell's ugly cousin – Thunderclap. A place filled with radiation where they did something to the children, something terrible. After a few months, the children would return mutated and hideous. They grew three times the size of a normal human, their brains reverting back to the state of a small child. None of them lived over thirty, they grew right out of their own skin and died from the pain.

"You're going to let them take more children and return them huge and roont? I won't stand for it anymore!" Tian shouted. Some of the room met this with boot-stamping on the floor and applause. The thunderous tapping of the boots drowned out the few farmers that spoke against Tian. Sensing the roll he was on, Tian continued to shout.

"We'll make a stand! I'd rather die than stand by and watch my children get roont like my dear sister!"

Wayne Overholser hauled his considerable belly up and the room became silent. "So what do you suppose we do, then? How will we fight the Wolves when no one has ever managed to kill one?"

Tian looked down at the ground for a second, gathering his thoughts. He could hear more whispering in the crowd. Overholser had taken blind courage and replaced it with the most powerful emotion. Fear. Fear was hard to fight in a crowd of unsure people.

"Andy says we've got about a month before the Wolves come. He's never been wrong about this before, so we at least have that to work with."

One of the townspeople snorted. "To hell with that damn robot! Nothing but trouble!"

Tian glared at him. "Andy has served this town for generations. He's babysat our children and helped in times of need. You can't say he hasn't been a help, even if he is annoying with his horoscopes."

Snake entered the meeting hall and leaned against the back wall. The fate of this town was sad, sure enough, but he was too damn old to fight someone else's battle anymore. Besides, whatever these "Wolves" were, they sounded tough. The only things he still had was his musclesuit and his Springfield Operator. Hardly enough equipment to battle monsters.

Snake heard a clicking noise and turned his head. A grimy metal robot had entered the meeting hall and began to approach the front stage. He was tall, standing at about six feet, with bright blue LED lights for eyes. The name plate on his chest read "Andy – Messenger Robot and Many other Functions." Underneath the words "ShinRa Corporation" could be found. Andy stood in front of the stage and faced the crowd.

"I'm terribly afraid to interrupt, but I've got some good news and some bad news that I thought might be interesting," he said. His voice sounded false and pompous, like a prissy English butler. "It's about the Wolves."

Tian made a circle with his hand. "Well come on, tell us Andy. The good news first."

Andy's eyes flashed a few times. "The Wolves will not be coming to Thunderclap."

The room was silent. No one could believe the robot's words. Tian almost choked asking the other question, "What's the bad news then?"

"The Wolves have been replaced with something else. They're four times taller than a man with big black legs and metal bodies attached to a central metal spine. They are called 'Gekko'."

Snake felt his guts drop down into his feet. "Metal Gear…?" he mumbled under his breath.

"What are we supposed to do now Tian? How can we fight these Gekko things? We've never even seen one!"

Tian looked down at Andy. "Andy, how do you know all of this?"

The false politeness left the robot. "Information is classified. Password required."

Tian rolled his eyes. There were some things Andy flat out refused to tell people, he always did this password thing when those kind of questions were asked. Nobody had ever guessed the password correctly and so the information remained sealed off. Still, he was a robot. There was nothing to gain from lying, right?

Andy's voice returned back to its normal tone. "There is another piece of information that I thought I should share. Outsiders from the West are approaching town along the path of the beam. At their current speed, they will arrive in town within the week. One more thing: they appear to be gunslingers."

More whispers throughout the room. Some of the farmers scoffed and left the meeting, unamused with the robot's joke. Everyone knows that Gilead had fallen over a hundred years ago. There were no more gunslingers, just a fact.

Tian grabbed the robot's arm. "You're sure they're gunslingers?" The robot's eyes flashed a dozen times and he nodded.

Tian climbed back onto the stage. "I'm going to ride out of town to meet these people. If Andy's right and they are indeed gunslingers, they might be able to help us. Who will take a chance and join me? If you let this chance slide, we might be faced with something even worse than the Wolves."

Snake waved a hand. "I'll go, beats sitting around. Might as well make myself useful." Tian gave him a small grin, he liked the old traveler. He had that presence of an old fighter, someone used to getting things done that other people didn't want to deal with. Tian felt safe with the old man's company. Surprisingly enough, one of the few remaining farmers held his hand up.

"I'll go, but I want you to know that I still think we're making a mistake here," said Wayne Overholser.