Read Online Metal Gear Solid: Guns of the Patriot by Project Itoh - Free Book Online

going to stop me?”
    “My mission,” Meryl said, “is to inspect the PMCs. I’m not in a position to take action. All I can do is stand by and watch.”
    Whether by her own decision or orders from ARSOC, this was a tacit consent from the US Army.
    “I can’t help you,” she said. “Understand? I’m a peacekeeper, here to keep order.”
    “Understood.”
    Snake cut the transmission and gave Meryl a small wave. She hesitated, dropping her eyes for a moment, then motioned her unit to move on.
    Liquid seemed to be talking over his wireless. He was positioned where he could look down over the courtyard, where his employees, the PMC soldiers, were going about their various duties, transporting equipment and forming ranks.
    Even Snake would likely not have been able to cut through their masses, but he could at least move a little closer to where he could better observe Liquid. Snake stood and carefully advanced.
    Then the world fell apart.

    His chest felt like it was being crushed. Blinking, breathing, every act of simply staying alive brought an avalanche of pain cascading upon him. He felt like his thoughts and awareness, and everything that made up his consciousness, were completely shut off from himself. He had only made it a single step forward, and from there, he could no longer move.
    Snake’s very steps told the story. So, this is how it is. My end has come. Old age has brought an end to my tired life.
    Is this as far as I go? Is this really it?
    Snake struggled to retain his consciousness. He fought against the crumbling world with everything he had. At the edges of his awareness, the other soldiers shared in the agony. They were all around him, some convulsing on the ground, others frothing at the mouth, a few shitting themselves uncontrollably, and on and on.
    Snake looked for Meryl’s squad. Ed, Jonathan, and Meryl had collapsed with their hands clutched at their heads. Only Akiba seemed unaffected, helplessly watching his comrades suffer.
    Snake gritted his teeth. “It’s not over. I can’t fall here. Not yet,” he told himself. “I cannot leave my fate, my curse, to Meryl and Sunny’s generation. After I finish what I must, then I will happily die. But not now. I still must fight.”
    With a voiceless roar, he lifted his Operator and stumbled into the courtyard. He pushed his way through the throngs of writhing and flailing soldiers. He fought against waves of overwhelming nausea. With saliva streaming from his mouth, he closed in on Liquid.
    Suddenly, Liquid pointed straight at him.
    Snake froze as if pierced straight through.
    Liquid gazed down upon the courtyard in chaos and boomed, “Brother! It’s been too long!”
    “Liquid!”
    Liquid spread his arms in a theatrical motion. “Rejoice! We’re not copies of our father after all!”
    Snake could no longer focus his vision, and now Liquid appeared as two blurry forms. Snake’s heart pounded, the palpitations threatening to burst his hardened arteries. With each beat, pain shot through his heart and his body.
    Liquid pointed his right arm at the sun. “We are freed from the shackles of destiny!” He spoke as if he were pronouncing his victory over Big Boss, fate, and the world. “Snake! Brother! We are free!”
    Something within Snake had been defeated. His legs refused to hold up his body. His knees hit the ground. His body submitted to the pain.
    Liquid was still shouting. “I’ve surpassed my own creator!”
    Snake collapsed to the earth. Even then he tried to lift his Operator and aim at Liquid, but he could no longer distinguish which blurry shape represented the man.
    Then a pair of feminine legs walked into his vision.
    The legs moved in steady footsteps—their owner apparently not afflicted by the chaos that struck Snake and the PMC soldiers. One step at a time, the legs approached Snake.
    The world was silent, save for his own breathing. All seemed distant, dreamlike.
    A familiar voice cut through the haze.
    “Snake,” the