Chapter 5-Lonely Sinking Feeling

~Snake's Narration~

I was correct. I don't sleep well; in fact, worse than if I had never slept at all. My sleep was halfhearted and active due to my dreams. My dreams had me running, running, running. And I had no idea from what.

Okay, I guess that's a lie, I do know what, but that's the last thing I want to dwell on. I just wish by now it would just dissipate, but it never will.

After I wake up I put my sleeping bag away and see that everyone else has awakened as well. I grab my bag, Luigi does the same, and Meta Knight picks up his sword, and without a word, we march on.

For hours and hours nothing happens, and the silence is deafening. I don't know why everything was silent-not only ourselves, but there was no wind, no life, nothing. Even our footsteps were muted by sand.

After awhile I start to get a little nervous. After a bit of deliberation, I simply state the word "Testing."

Luigi looks at me. "What prompted you to say that?"

I simply say "I wanted to make sure I could still hear."

Luigi simply nods. And then we're back to silence.

About an hour later we go into rougher territory. The sand has gotten soppy like mud. It takes larger steps to get further through it. When I'm knee deep into this mud-sand, it hits me.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we are in quicksand."

Meta Knight was flying above us at the time, and instantly he growls in determination as he flies down and extends his hand out to us. Unfortunately he has really short arms and can't reach us without getting his cape stuck into the quicksand, as it tries to drag him down. We were pretty far into the sand so solider ground was a ways away. We start to sink faster so that was time we don't have to fly over, remove his cape and then come back for us. "Hell damn it!" curses Meta Knight as his eyes glow a narrow red. He takes a split second to think and says "Luigi! Grab onto Galaxia!" as he lowers the sword to him. It makes sense to me; Luigi was shorter and therefore is farther into the sand. Luigi struggles for a second but he gets his arms up and onto the sword. Meta Knight starts pulling as hard as he can but it's not helping much.

Panicked, Luigi asks "Can't you pull any harder?"

Meta's tone is a bit pained. "For God's sake, Luigi, I'm not exactly the most muscular of species! I'm doing the best I can! Try pushing on the sand a bit!"

"Pushing on the sand?"

"Yes! It's loose sand but it's somewhat solid, right?"

Luigi takes a second to feel his footing and says "A little bit!"

Meta Knight replies with a bit of strain. "Then... push!"

Luigi complies. Slowly he starts to rise out of the sand, with his bag in tow. Then, he pops out suddenly, flying a bit in the air over Meta Knight's head.

"Whoa!" Meta cries out, trying to re-stabilize. Slowly, he starts flying to solid ground, calling behind him "I'll be back as soon as I can, Snake! Just hold on!"

"Will do, Meta!" I call back, as I try the method of pushing myself out. My boots were a bit of a help but I didn't get very far. My bag was way down there so I put a bit of focus on pulling it up considering half my stuff was in there. It takes a lot of energy to bring it above the surface- I end up focusing on that so hard that I started to sink myself again, and I had to try and push up a bit. When my bag hit the surface I knew that I was gonna have to get rid of some stuff, much to my chagrin. I tossed out a third of my gun ammo, a couple of grenades, and then prepare to reluctantly throw out my Cypher camera-

That's it! My Cypher! My God, why in the endless, untamed bounties of stupidity didn't I think of that before? I put my bag over my shoulder, get the Cypher out and turn it on, holding on tight. The fan blade starts to whirr and I wait for it to start pulling me out.

Easier said than done. Using a small flying camera to pull me, a 200 pound man, out of quicksand, is like using a go-kart to pull a F-150 out of a ditch. But slowly, inch by inch, I started to pull out of the goop, bag in tow, until I was completely out. "Yes!" I cheer quietly; glad to be rising above the mess of doom.

Unfortunately, the Cypher decides to be a bastard and start to float down with a nasty-sounding clink in the fan. "No, no, no, no, no!" I shout, and instinctively, I start pumping my legs as if I was on a swing set to keep me afloat. It then starts to behave again and floats back up, and I swear to god the fan whirring sounded like it was laughing at me. Damned possessed robot camera.

About five minutes in, I rendezvous with Meta in midair. He nods and starts to fly in a similar direction as I am, and I take it as a cue to follow him back to Luigi. I steer across the rest of the pit and back onto solid ground when I see Luigi chilling out, leaning against his suitcase and reading his book. As if he wasn't about to die. I have to honestly say, this guy's a pretty good leader.

He grins slightly upon seeing me and says "Good improvisation, Snake."

Meta Knight nods and adds "To be honest, I don't know why I didn't think of that. If I had more of a backbone, it'd be aching like a hellion." After a brief pause, he adds with an awkward chuckle, "In literal terms, of course."

I laugh at that, because we all know that out of the three of us, the badass plushy has the most backbone out of us.

"Anyway, gentlemen, I think I shall take a short flight. Partially because I want to work out the aches in my muscles, but mostly because I think a bit of reconnaissance may provide us with a game plan to get out of here." Meta Knight is, as usual, fifteen steps ahead of us in planning.

Eager to not be made to look like an idiot, I respond with "Good thinking. Have at it."

Meta nods and informs us "I shall be gone for twenty minutes. I'll see you upon my return."

Nodding, I watch as he shoots off into the sky at light speed. I sit back against my bag and take a bit of consideration before I approach the next subject. Before I do, though, Luigi mutters "Bleh, this book is getting seriously twisted."

"Dare I ask?"

"No, you don't."

"Actually-"

"Okay, let's just say…"

To keep it PC, I'll leave that line out but believe me, I won't be reading Girl With The Dragon Tattoo anytime soon. Being from Earth, I've been a big pioneer in bringing Earth pop culture to this world, but this one I'd have been fine with staying there.

"Yeah, good call. I should have kept my mouth shut."

"It's actually a decent book otherwise."

"Yeah, have fun with that." I mutter. "Anyway, I was going to mention what I thought about the Halberd incident."

"Oh joy." Luigi says, sighing forlornly.

"It's actually kind of important," I insist. "I've come to a conclusion that the Halberd was a thousand ton battleship that was brilliance to engineering. There's no way in hell that it simply got screwed over in a sandstorm."

"Then what do you propose, Snake?"

"I call it the Eggplant Witch theory. And that theory is a somewhat complicated metaphor. The Halberd doesn't just drop like a vegetable on its own. There's some sort of black magic, some twisted deity behind this. And I'm willing to bet that this person's the guy out for our heads." I explain.

"You have a point," he replies. "That's actually a pretty good theory that I'm sure took you fifteen minutes to find a witty title."

I laugh at that, mostly because it's true.

"Damn," Luigi sighs. "I need to step up my game, because I'm being one hell of a leader, what with my contribution of next to nothing."

I get up and say "Hey, don't be so hard on yourself. You're doing a good job."

Luigi chuckles, standing up. "Really?"

"Dude, trust me." I continue. "Just because someone can take a whole species out with a grenade or fly at the speed of light or scare the shit out of you behind a mask doesn't make them bona fide leaders. You're a good planner; you're chill and keep us balanced. You know what you're doing and hell, you took the initiative to go out here besides the fact that you're a self-proclaimed scaredy-cat. That says a lot. You're doing a good job bro."

Luigi chuckles. "Thanks. Heh, I must look like Bella Swan fishing for compliments like that."

"Naw, dude." I say, instinctively pulling him in for one of those manly chest bump things somewhat similar to a hug, but is not a hug. "You could totally use that, I could tell."

"Gentlemen," I hear the deep voice jolting our moment into fine metaphorical dust. Hesitating a bit, almost apologetically (considering this is Meta though I doubt this) he continues with "I believe I have found our ticket out of here, by the end of the night."

Jaw drop to the floor. Everybody walk the dinosaur.

"…elaborate."

A/N- This is, for all who read this, the first of two new chapters again. God's sake I write every chapter 8,000 words long and have to break them up into segments. But yeah, I explained the occasional pop culture reference that will not be abused as those are cheapening- I try to use them somewhat intelligently.

Also, I want to take some time out and say a resounding THANK YOU for all the amazing feedback I got for Voice of the Mute. What I composed on a whim has become a flagship for my fanfiction career. Truly, I was stunned and humbled to see that I could do this- it's humbling because it lets you know that these are your roots and no matter how big you get they'll always be there even if you topple over and die and even if you get cut down.

Also, there's a bit more language than I expected- I only swear if I think it fits the scene or moment and never otherwise. Not just throwing out F bombs for the lulz. Doger.

But yeah, there's another chapter that's twice the size of this one's length- if you could take the time to read it that'd be great.

Thanks!

MoD

P.S.- EggplantWitch- Hi!