Well…..I'm back to writing…..for those….few…..who read this story, I may take a couple of breaks now and then…..my real life is seriously screwed up right now.

Good news….: I'm getting better at writing!

Chapter 7: Riverside

Pain. All he felt was a tremendous wave of pain washing over him. If he had known better, he would have said it was just the river water seeping into his bloody suit, but he could remember the fall. The fall he had taken because he had encountered something he couldn't beat, and now he was washed up on some godforsaken shore somewhere without a clue as to what he was going to do now.

John Grant managed to slide onto his back, staring at the sky through his cracked Solid Lens. More pain shot through his legs, so John stopped trying to stand. His balaclava was caked with gore. There were pieces of his gums smattered across the inside, and he could taste blood. If he hadn't used the nanomachines to help clot it, he would have bled to death. Pain erupted through his arm, but John managed to force himself to remove the goggles. He dropped them next to a small rock, almost exhausted entirely…BEEP! BEEP! His CODEC was screaming. John grunted slightly before answering.

John: C….C…Colonel…..

Roy: Falcon, just hang on, we'll get you through this. I'm going to put Naomi on…..hang in there, son.

Naomi: Falcon?

John: Naomi…..I can't…….move…..

Naomi: Hang on, I'll see what I can do……Colonel, I'm not much in the field of medicine.

Roy: You're his only chance….

Naomi: Okay….first, you'll need to find the source of the pain.

John: It's……everywhere……

Naomi: Cuts, fractures, burns, things like that.

John: Okay…..

Naomi: Okay, now try and stay calm and follow my instruction exactly and you should be okay….

KSSSHHHHHH!!

John lay back in the comforting grass and panted slightly. He was getting used to the noise the CODEC made, but still would never know when it came on. "Okay, just relax and we'll get through this nice and easy…" Naomi was on the other side instructing him. "Now…. You need to fix that gash on your face…" John used his good arm, still sliced up pretty good, but mobile, to pull the stained mask from his face. Under the mask was what was once a handsome face, but he was now beaten and bruised along the face, and his fair brown hair matted down with blood. There was a deep gash running from the top of his head to the bridge of his nose, probably from when his head cracked down upon the rocks and knocked him unconscious, and blood was seeping into his nostrils. John's once fairly tanned skin was now pale as a ghost and his mouth was filled with blood and river water. "Okay, you need to get the butterfly bandages…..yeah…..that'll need stitches." John tried to laugh, but it hurt like hell, so he withdrew. Using his good arm, John reached for the Med-Kit in his pack. There it was. He poured some disinfectant on it to fight infection, and did his best to stitch it together with butterfly bandages. He had lost the thread to his suture kit had been lost in the river, along with John's sedatives. Using a small bandage, John tried to cover the wound on his head, and then, due to a smaller wound on his forehead, only needed a mere fingernail's worth to stop the bleeding on his forehead. His nose couldn't be helped, so he used some copper wire to stitch it up, as the bandages won't stay. "Uh…Falcon, you sure 'bout that?" John smiled, and replied, "yeah….It'll be murder when I pull it out, but it's only temporary." John laid his hand to rest. His left arm was broken in three places. The wrist and elbow thanks to the guard, and his shoulder from the fall. He couldn't do much else but to try to replace them to their original position, which worked on the shoulder and wrist, but his elbow had torn quite a few ligaments, and needed to heal, which could take a day or so. Until then, John used his sling to support it.

"Okay…." John knew what he had to do now. Slowly, he moved his right arm towards his left hip…..and he wrapped his fingers around the dagger. It wasn't below John to shriek from pain, so that's what he did as he pulled it out of his hip. Pain began to shoot down his leg and up his spine, but John would recover. He used styptic and disinfectant to help it, but then a gauze wet with alcohol and a bandage sealed the deal. John put some cream and a band-aid on the larger cuts on his arms and legs, but let the bruises and small cuts remain. He placed a band-aid on a rather large cut that was bleeding mildly, but it had somewhat dried and clotted, so he was fine. "Alright," he grunted. John was ready, so he pushed himself up…..

….only to collapse on the ground again and smarting in his leg. "Ahhhh! DAMN!" he exclaimed. "Leg…" "I know!" he shouted in the CODEC. He hoped no guards were near. Not because he could be captured or killed and the mission compromised, but more because they would label him a nut-job screaming to himself. John tried to place his knee in place, and although somewhat wobbly, it went into place. He could run, but he couldn't sprint like this. "Well….I guess that's it…." "Thanks, Naomi…. I don't know what I'd do with out you.

KSSSSHHHHH!!

John: hey, Mei Ling…

Mei Ling: yes?

John: I'd like to save now…who knows what might happen after this….

Beedlybeep!

Meanwhile……

Derek vomited in the river. It was an overwhelming stench that had been his ultimatum, but the corpse by the river didn't help. There was a young man laying there, a gaping hole in his chest and his intestines spilled into the grass. Sickeningly, His foot was lying not but a few feet away, and it still stood. His bloodied boots and belt lay nearby. There was blood on the rocks as well, coming in unison from his missing hand and the chest wound. Derek had been up farther, and he had found a few guns, but nothing more.

"Dear god….." Derek was stunned, staring directly at the corpse. It was mutilated by someone. Derek, although curious, hoped he didn't have to find out.

He found some blood on a tree, but nothing more. It was when he found the capsule he wanted out. There were bodies, piled up within it. One was gutted, his organs forming a neat cover to the other soldiers. On top lay a head, a large branch jammed in the skull, and a hand with a knife in it, another removed hand still latched on the handle. Derek was horrified.

BEEP! BEEP!

Derek: Otacon, you need to see this…

Otacon: What? Wha- Oh…my…..god…..

Snake: Jesus!

Otacon: Derek, something is wrong. You need to abort now.

Derek: As much as I would like that…..I think I'll stay.

Otacon: What!?

Derek: These men aren't like the patrol, they're normal. Look. Plaid masks. Jungle issue camouflage. And besides, something had to have done this, and I intend to find out what.

Snake: Okay…but watch it.

Derek: hey Otacon?

Otacon: Yeah?

Derek: Do me a favor. Save my progress.

Otacon: Right.

Beedlybeep!

Derek could visibly see some sort of electronic device beneath the corpses. "Oh god…." He was disgusted. Gradually, he willed himself through the corpses and found it. It was nothing more than a radio, but there was a notice on it. It said, Frequency 94.3, do not change, radio chatter restricted to patrols and Headquarters. Derek decided to hold on to it, and since the weapons were disabled and stripped of ammo, all he retrieved was the radio.

If Derek hadn't wanted to be as far away from the makeshift grave as quickly as possible, he might have noticed the large words printed on the side:

Philanthropy 'MICIS' Manned Infantry Covert Infiltration Sub unit 13 model 313 Passenger unit "Cyber Shadow Division"