Chapter 2: Isolation

Obviously, this scene was not in the actual game. But I thought it was important to show how Snake had been living in the years between Zanzibar Land and Shadow Moses. Let the fun begin!

Upon first seeing the small log cabin, one could quickly deduce a few things about its inhabitant. First of all, judging from its location, you could assume that the owner did not want to be disturbed. The cabin was located in the middle of the woods on a small peninsula in Twin Lakes, Alaska. The house was surrounded by water on three sides, and dense forest on the fourth. Secondly, seeing the lack of a garage and a snowmobile sitting outside the front door (the only door, by the way), it was a safe bet to say that the man did not leave often. Finally, once you saw the large shed outside surrounded by dog harnesses and a sled, you could safely say that the person who lived here was a dog sledder.

However, on second glance, you would probably notice a couple more things that might seem a bit out of place. The windows of the cabin were the break-proof, mesh wire alarm glass that was common in museums. A mere scratch on the window would set off numerous alarms around the house. And on a short walk around the shoreline, if you focused your eyes enough, you could see the tops of the motion sensors surrounding the house sticking out of the water about 100 yards out from land.

A brave onlooker who ventured a peek inside would have been able to see that in the center of the house lay the main room, complete with fireplace and easy chair. A small kitchen was attached to the room, and around the corner was the staircase leading to the second floor.

An uninformed observer would have simply thought the owner to be eccentric, and would leave quickly to avoid confrontation. However, only a small handful of people knew the truth behind why the house had such security measures, and what the man inside had done for his country. The general American public would be shocked to learn that this man had saved the country, even the world, from all-out war, not once, but twice. He sat in the middle of the main room of the cabin in the easy chair, smoking a cigarette by the fire. His favorite sled dog, a husky named Hideo, lay on the floor next to the chair finishing that nights dinner, a rabbit caught earlier that day. The man's name was Solid Snake. It was not that he didn't remember his true name - he had just grown used to the code name.

Snake was in his mid-30s, with brown hair and short stubble where he hadn't shaved for a while. He did not have the physique of a bodybuilder, but he could probably hold his own lifting weights at the gym, if he went there. He wore work jeans and a muscle shirt, since he had just finished repairing a leak in his heater. He was currently watching CNN and laughing at the headline news. Bombings in Iraq, the price of oil skyrocketing, the assassination of some South American dictator - sometimes he wondered how big a news headline his story would be, if it was ever discovered. "I'll die before that ever happens...", he thought with a short laugh.

He had always been satisfied with the small house, a "retirement package" from Roy. Barely anyone ever found the place, and if they did, they were quickly chased away by the dogs. He had begun dog-sledding about 4 years ago, right after the nightmares had stopped. He owned 9 dogs in all, and he expected he'd have to retire Hideo from the lead dog position soon. According to the reclusive veterinarian he saw once every month, the dog was in the middle stages of blindness, and he had a mild case of pneumonia at the moment.

At the same time he had started sledding, he had picked up spear fishing. The fishing trips had been a large part of his recovery from PTSD (post-traumatic stress cisorder) after Zanzibar Land. Before, the mere mention of the place could send him spiraling into depression. After he had recovered, he had done some investigative work into Big Boss, intending to find out if the deranged man had told the truth about him being Snake's father. A quick search, however, showed that the government no longer had any records of the man ever existing. He finally gave up, writing the claim off as the ramblings of a deluded man.

Snake often thought about what Big Boss had referred to when he had told him he would reveal "everything that the government had kept a secret from him". But he had decided early on that he did not want to relive the horrors of his past. He intended to never return to the battlefield, even if he died resisting it...

As he sat in the chair thinking, the short-wave military radio on his shelf crackled to life. Snake had rigged it to intercept all nearby signals, as an early warning system. As he got up to investigate it, he could swear he heard a chopper, a Huey transport maybe. But he decided it had to be his imagination.

Fine tuning the frequency, he listened for the telltale radio chatter indicative of a military operation, and quickly realized that something was very wrong. The voices on the frequency were talking about a snatch-and-grab op that was to occur somewhere around the area. But his house was the only civilization around for miles. And the soldiers were using the call sign S-double-T. That was the code for Seal Team 2, the elite special forces unit. But why would they be flying from Virginia all the way to Alaska?

Suddenly, Hideo began barking wildly, and Snake was sure he heard a helicopter this time. He realized that this was the day he had known would come eventually. They needed him again. And he didn't intend to go quietly.

Judging from the helicopter's location, Snake assumed the SEALs would be coming through the windows on the back side of the house. He was right. He hid behind the small dividing wall between the kitchen and the main room as the soldiers swung through his windows on ropes. They were all in dress uniform, which caught Snake totally by surprise. He was sure they had several layers of bulletproof vests underneath, but it was almost as if they were honoring Snake while capturing him. Almost like they didn't totally agree with their orders...

Using the small radio clipped to his belt, the head SEAL contacted the helicopter. "Yeah, sir. He's not in the main room. He must have been alerted. Yes, sir. We know how dangerous he is. We'll use extreme caution." He clipped it back onto his belt and gave the team the signal to begin their search.

One of the SEALs made his way over toward the kitchen, and Snake tensed, ready to strike. As the man rounded the wall, Snake shot out his foot, catching him by surprise. As the man fell, Snake grabbed him by the neck and held him at knifepoint with the small combat blade he had concealed in his pocket.

This action caught the other's attention, and they turned to see Snake holding their comrade as a human shield. Seeing that they were unsure of what to do, Snake edged toward them slowly. "Who the hell sent you?" Snake asked angrily as he stared down the SEAL leader.

The man seemed to hesitate for a moment, then said, "Sir, please stay calm. We are here on behalf of the government of the United States of America. We have been ordered to bring you back to active duty. Please come with us."

"I didn't ask you what damn country sent you, I asked who!"

"Sir, please, we don't want to harm you. We know what you did, Snake. You don't deserve this, but we have to follow orders..."

"Yeah, well I got orders for you: get out of my house!" Snake quickly knocked out the man in his arms and in one fluid motion he took down the nearest SEAL. Within the next five seconds two more soldiers were on their backs, and Snake was staring down the leader.

"I'm gonna ask again, who the hell sent you!". The soldier had a moment of indecision, then said,"I don't actually know who the order came from. But they told me if you asked to tell you it was an old friend, a colonel. I'm sorry about this, sir..."

As the SEAL talked, Snake felt an impact on the back of his head. One of the other soldiers had gotten up and pistol whipped him. As Snake went down, all he thought was, "Damn you, Campbell..."

Somewhere in a high-tech sub in the Bering Sea, Colonel Roy Campbell watched a live video feed from one of the SEAL helmet cams. As the team had carried out an unconcious Snake to the helicopter, the dog had attacked them. Two men were injured before they were forced to tranquilize it. They dared not shoot it, for fear of the Colonel's wrath.

Next to the colonel stood a young woman doctor, a new recruit specifically for this mission. She watched the video feed with what amounted to pity. She turned to him. "Colonel, are we really going to put him through this? We're not even going to tell him about the "insurance policy" we're going to give to him?"

Campbell, looking sad, said," No, Dr. Hunter. We're going to follow our orders exactly, as much as I dislike them. Damn it, I bought him that house to get away from all this. But I guess every soldier must return to the battlefield eventually...".