Chapter 13 Morpho Dream Chase
I wake up, but my eye is still closed. Letting out a slight gasp and smacking my lips. I hear a strange noise, something that comes and goes. Something that sounds akin to a vehicle passing by at a rather fast pace. The noise gets louder, and in the dark within; I see a very faint light, passing and vanishing and returning, side to side. As the light passes so does the noise. When the noise gets louder enough, I open my eye the cabin is more dark than usual. The only illumination is a ball of light that circles the front door.
As I get up, feeling odd, I cannot see Quiet. Where she could be? I head towards the door, opening it and…
"I have extracted both targets, we are going home." I open my eye and look at my hands, wearing medic gloves; I raise my head and see Big Boss, looking over the pilot as we approach Mother Base. Both Paz and Chico lay asleep. I continue to watch them; eye start to get heavy… my mind goes blank. As the chopper hovers over the ocean, in the dark night, heading back to mother base. Mother base…
Snake… Snake… Snake!"
Miller wakes me up…
"Snake! Let's get on board the chopper!" he yells as he picks me up and runs ahead, signaling me to pick up the assault rifle to my right.
As I look to my surrounding, I find myself in msf mother base, during its destruction by xof, helmed by Skull Face. I see bullets flying all over the place, soldiers falling. The concrete floor is being splashed with blood and broken limbs. The tower structures are exploding; I pick up the gun and begin to shoot at incoming xof soldiers while following Miller who's also taking down soldiers left and right with a handgun.
As I pick up the pace, I can see the chopper, waiting for us. The main tower collapses, creating a crack on the floor, as if being caved in by an earthquake, a strong gust of wind emerges, almost pushing us to the water. Miller stumbles down, I rush to him and pick him up. We keep shooting incoming soldiers, Miller falls again, I take his hand and support him with my shoulder.
"Snake… we are almost there…" as we approach the chopper I see the real Big Boss waiting for us, the real Snake waving at us to hop in.
He extends his hand. Miller goes ahead, I look back and shoot more soldiers till my gun is emptied. After I throw the gun to the floor, I look ahead and see Miller now extending his hand this time, calling to me.
"But I'm not Big Boss." He ignores my remark and pulls me towards the chopper. "Medic!" he yells, and before I realize it, I got shot at my abdomen, as the medic approaches, a dark silhouette, donning the Diamond Dogs uniform. The face approaches me, it's Quiet, she puts her hand on my shoulder, looking straight into my eyes, then at Miller.
"No time for anesthetic, we must operate now!"
"Wait!" I yell but somehow my voice doesn't reach any of them.
"You hold tight!" Quiet signals at Miller and as he holds down my shoulders, she proceeds to cut me open at the abdomen. After that she dips down her hands in my stomach, the pain is excruciating, gritting my teeth, all my body convulsing. As she presses harder, she keeps staring at me, I start to see blurry, I'm almost at my limit, I'm about to pass out. "Slosh!" then I snap out of it at the squishy sound, she shows me a bomb that was inside me.
I close my eye and as I open them, I find myself on the way back to Mother Base from Afghanistan. Quiet is looking at the landscape outside, as she notices I'm awake she looks to my feet, looking down I notice I'm in handcuffs. Turning my attention to her, she's already in front of me, crouching down, the first thing I see is her bosom. They graze my chin as she removes my handcuffs. Now removed I extend my hand but she gets up and mounts the minigun.
Shooting incoming jet planes towards us. She signals me to use the other one. We keep shooting incoming jet planes. My mind is somewhat hazy. Is this real? What's happening here? "Quiet what are we doing?" my voice doesn't come out, she keeps shooting, endless corpses fill the sea, turning it red.
Shocked at the sight, I close my eye, and when I open them, I find myself now in Africa. Surrounded by rain, a dark sky complemented with roaring thunders. The African children look at me, peeking to the front I see Quiet shooting incoming soldiers, I raise my arm to signal the children to help me up. One of them gives me a handgun. I stand beside her, giving her a tap on the shoulder, she doesn't even flinch at my gesture. Then I begin to shoot, making headshots like crazy.
"Board the chopper, now!" She orders, as if she were Big Boss. Somehow my body moves on its own and I turn back and get in the chopper. As it lift off, Quiet keeps shooting. The children sit me down. Then when I least expect it, I hear a loud thud on the floor. She appears again, calming the children, settling them down. I throw my head back and drift off, when will I wake up from this?
"Incoming! Brace yourselves!" Crash!
The helicopter crashed down, before opening my eyes I feel someone dragging me. As I open them, I see Quiet telling me to hurry, that they are here, we are at the nova Braga airport, its foggy everywhere. Who are here is what I am about to ask, but I know now it's pointless, my voice can't reach her. She takes out her Brennan, she gives me a sawed-off shotgun, while I try to stand up after falling. I didn't realize I had lost my right leg, again.
"Shoot the incoming Skull Soldiers while Pequod works on the chopper."
I nod, but she doesn't seem to notice. A soon as I hear the uneven footsteps and their gasping voice, I quickly aim and begin to shoot.
"Almost there Boss! Give me a few more minutes!
Pequod picks up the pace, and now more soldiers begin to approach. I'm out of bullets now, throwing it aside I take out my handgun and keep shooting them. After a few minutes of endless shooting, before I realize it I'm back at the chopper, now going at full speed. I peek through the windows and it is pitch dark.
Quiet then mutters my name and takes a few steps back, holding on to the bomb; she presses the exit door button. I extend my hand trying to reach her, call out to her. She lets out a few tears and throws herself back into the open ocean. Somehow I gather my strength to stand up and try to save her, but as I peek through the open door, Quiet has landed on an xof chopper, holding on to the bomb, I see a shadowy figure standing beside her.
"Skull Face!" I yell, and this time my voice has reached, I can hear myself, then I yell again. He looks to me and says "Snake! If you want her back, come and get me! Tick tock Snake, tick tock tick tock…"
The xof chopper departs as Skull Face stands on the side supporting himself with the hand belt, he waves at me to come and get him. I yell at Pequod to go at full speed. I pick up an assault rifle and begin to shoot at him as his chopper delves farther away from me. When I look to my surroundings, I see we are now at Mother Base again, but this time its diamond dogs… and it's in flames.
Xof soldiers fighting our diamond dogs grunts. Flames blazing into the sky, the heat reaching from all sides. I keep shooting at Skull Face, yelling at him to return my Quiet. Both choppers keep maneuvering over the falling structures of mother base and the blazing inferno burning beneath us, Skull Face gets further away.
"Return Quiet to me!" I scream my lungs out, then as I settle down for a split second, as if time froze at that moment… I notice my chest feels heavy, my mouth trembles as I squeeze my fist and slam it at the metal wall. "GIVE QUIET BACK TO ME! QUIET! I WANT TO SEE HER AGAIN! I feel a release coming inside of me I had never felt before. Then everything went silent, Skull Face disappears, the chopper disappears, everything goes dark except the light from my chopper. As I come to my senses and realize I was still gripping my fist, I open it and I see a white petal. "The star of…" "Bethlehem… yes…" Two hands enclose mine, when I look up I see her again…
"Quiet…"
"Snake… thank you…"
"NO!" I yell again as she walks away from me, and a blue butterfly emerges out of nowhere standing on top of my hand.
"Come find me…"