Chapter 31

Otacon looked outside of the Kamov window and saw what seemed like men nosing around the abandoned factory. He couldn't make out what kind of equipment they had because of the rain and wind.

Who are these men?

Otacon then had a bold idea.

"I'm going to investigate." Otacon turned to Rose. The child was sleeping on the ground, wrapped in anti fire blankets. "You'll be fine here, don't worry."

"Isn't going outside dangerous?"

"I'll be fine." Otacon was lying, he didn't know what the hell he was doing but he suspected that these men were somehow connected to the Patriots facility. He took the stealth control and gave it to Rose. "Push this button to deactivate the stealth device, so I can leave and press it again to activate." Otacon pointed to the device buttons as he gave the instructions. "After that you just have to wait for me to come back, ok?"

"Alright." Rose responded reluctant.

Otacon surveyed the outside and realized there was no one near. "Alright here I go."

Rose pressed the deactivation button on the stealth device and Otacon opened the Kamov's side door and left into the raging storm.

Rose then quickly shut the door and pressed the activation button.

Otacon immediately thought this was a bad idea. The rain and the wind were very strong, he couldn't see much in front of him but he could hear. He heard men screaming and went in their direction. Behind some of the abandoned factory building stood a massive open area. Otacon could see two small structures at both ends of the open area. A man was standing right in the middle shouting.

"Are you ready?"

Otacon heard shouts coming from both small structures.

"Yes."

"Yes sir."

The man in the middle of the open area shouted again.

"Very good, we'll stay here until further orders."

Otacon had no idea of what these men were doing here.

As the man in the middle moved he could see he was wearing the same equipment as the soldiers inside the Patriots facility, but this one had no balaclava.

All of a sudden Otacon almost had a heart attack. A ringing on his ear startled him, but it was only the CODEC.

He answered in the hope of hearing good news, and to hear that Vamp was finally taken care of.

"Yes?"

"Otacon it's me, I can't seem to reach Snake, are the communications working properly?"

"Yeah I think so." Otacon sensed that Raiden had more things to worry about that to tell him news about Vamp.

"Then there's something wrong with Snake…what the…"

Otacon could hear Raiden making a pause in his speech.

"What is it?"

"I'm near the Laboratories and there's water coming from under the door."

Otacon knew that Snake's last contact was from there.

"He called me from that place." Otacon decided to go back to the Kamov, something more important was going on.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Raiden was worried. "I can't open the door Otacon. Can you do it from there?"

"Yeah maybe if I..."

"Hold it right there!" A soldier appeared out of nowhere in front of Otacon pointing his gun at his face.

"Otacon, you there? Otacon?"

Meryl kept hidden as she saw the soldiers looking for her. The hangar door was completely open. Behind it stood some sort of road that went up, and two parked jeeps.

She tried to contact Snake and Raiden, but no one answered. She didn't know but Snake was unconscious and Raiden's radio was broken.

Damn.

She couldn't even use the CODEC to try and reach her uncle, because the CODEC didn't work beneath Floor 1. Of course she didn't know that thanks to Otacon now it did.

After a few seconds she noticed an opening in the soldiers' activity. She started running towards the stairs that led to the big door on Floor 0. There she could take the elevator and maybe reach her uncle.

Ocelot stood in the control tower, Meryl wasn't his main concern. He was more concentrated on Naomi and Big Boss.

What's taking him so long?

Was Shadow to strong for Snake? If he was his plan had been seriously compromised. He didn't have a camera in the other laboratory so he couldn't check Snake's progress. He felt frustrated.

Damn you Snake.

Raiden ran for a few seconds, he put what was left of his HF blade on his back and tried to reach Snake on the CODEC, but only got a "NO REPONSE" signal. He contacted Otacon.

"Yes?" Otacon asked.

"Otacon it's me, I can't seem to reach Snake, are the communications working properly?"

"Yeah I think so."

After running a few feet Raiden reached a door that said "Laboratories". "Then there's something wrong with Snake…" Raiden looked at the door and water was coming from under it. "What the…"

"What is it?" Otacon asked.

"I'm near the Laboratories and there's water coming from under the door."

"He called me from that place."

Raiden didn't like the situation. He tried to open the door but couldn't.

"I have a bad feeling about this. I can't open the door Otacon. Can you do it from there?"

"Yeah maybe if I..."

"Hold it right there!" Raiden heard another voice coming from the CODEC.

"Otacon, you there? Otacon?"

Raiden suspected a soldier had found him, that meant one of two things, or they found the Kamov or Otacon wasn't on the Kamov.

"Otacon are you outside the Kamov?" Raiden knew that Otacon could still hear him and the thought of having to rescue Rose, Olga's child and Otacon was something he didn't want to think of.

"Yeah…" Otacon responded.

Raiden didn't know why Otacon had gone outside of the Kamov but it must have been a good reason. "Try to find an opening and then attack or run away." It was the only advice he had for him. He knew it was Otacon's only chance.

Otacon put his hands up and replied.

"Yeah…"

The soldier looked at him in a funny way.

"Who are you?"

Otacon was a bit scared and his answer didn't help.

"I'm…huh…well…huh…a tourist."

The soldier frowned.

"I don't think so." The soldier replied as he surveyed Otacon from top to bottom. The soldier made a movement with his head ordering Otacon to move in the direction of the open area, Otacon couldn't be discovered there was too much at stake. Snake was out of reach and Raiden stood in the last place where he had been and water was coming from under the door. He conjured up a plan alone.

Please let this work.

Otacon nodded and dropped his hands, but made sure he touched his glasses so that they would fall.

"Oh sorry." The glasses fell to dirty muddy ground.

"Pick them up quickly."

Raiden could still hear everything.

Otacon bowed to pick up his glasses and as he grabbed them with one hand he grabbed mud with the other. As he got up, he quickly put his glasses on and threw the mud to the soldiers' eyes.

"What the…" the soldier went with his hands to his face.

Raiden could still hear everything. "Otacon take him out."

Otacon reacted on instinct as he grabbed a rock and smashed it into the soldier's head before he even got all of the dirt out of his eyes. The soldier fell to the ground knocked out.

Otacon had never done anything like this. He felt powerful.

"Is he down?" Raiden asked

"…Yes" Otacon responded after a slight pause. He dropped the rock and made his way back to the Kamov.

"Did you find anything Raiden?"

"No like I said the door is closed and the water is still coming from under it."

Otacon rushed and got to the place where the Kamov was.

"Rose open up it's me." Otacon yelled out.

The Kamov appeared in front of Otacon's eyes and the side door opened up.

"Thanks" Otacon said as he jumped in. He then rushed to the cockpit.

"Is something wrong?" Rose asked as she close the side door and activated the stealth device.

"It's Snake. We can't make contact with him."

Snake woke up as his head banged on the ceiling. He looked at the room and saw that it was almost filled water and it was still pouring in.

I have to do something.

He reached for the CODEC and contacted Otacon.

"Otacon are you there?"

"Snake is that you?" Otacon asked startled as if knowing Snake was in danger.

"Yes it's me." Snake replied. He didn't have much time judging from the rate at which the water was pouring in from the sprinklers.

"There's water in the room. I don't have much time…you have to do something to get me out of here." Snake's head was almost covered in water.

"Snake I'm right outside the door." Raiden too was on the CODEC. "Is there something I can do?"

Snake didn't have time to respond. "Hurry up…Otacon!" The water was almost covering him.

Otacon responded "This isn't easy. The fire system in that room has been overridden …"

"Cut to the chase Otacon!" Raiden was worried about Snake.

Snake gave one last gasp and then his head was completely submerged under water, in a few minutes he would drown. He could still hear Raiden and Otacon arguing on the CODEC.

"I'm doing the best I can Raiden!"

"Do better!"

An idea came to Snake's mind. He went down and tried to find his machine gun. The lights were still on under the water and although his vision was blurred he could still make out the shape of things. He saw Shadow's body. His eyes and mouth were wide open.

After a few seconds Snake saw the machine gun and went for it.

"Damn I can't do it, it's impossible to reverse it!" Otacon sounded fearful

"I'll try doing something from the outside." Raiden's voice was desperate.

Snake grabbed the machine gun and remembered he had to reload it. He had never reloaded a gun under water and wasn't even sure it would work under water. He could hear noises coming from the outside of the door.

Raiden.

Once he got the gun ready he went near the door and started banging on it, after a few seconds Raiden responded on the CODEC.

"I'm here Snake…"

Snake didn't have much more time left. He shot the machine gun, bullet after bullet they hit the lock on the door and once the magazine was empty Snake dropped the gun and tried opening it. The door didn't budge. Snake had no more air, he was choking. He opened his mouth and tried to inhale but it was of no use only water entered in his mouth. He was going to die.

"Snake? Snake?" Snake could still hear Raiden yelling out on the CODEC.

"Snake? Snaaaaaaaaake?" Otacon too was yelling.

He started closing his eyes and feeling woozy.

"AHHHHHHH" After a few seconds he could hear someone screaming in the distance.

I thought it would hurt more.

Snake was about to fall asleep forever. Then out of nowhere he could see a very big bright white light.