"So, if it's written into my genes, you're the same way," Snake said, decisively. His over-relaxed muscles craved sitting down, but he wasn't going to share the bench - instead, he squatted down with his legs at right angles and rested his forearms on his thighs. "And that means it's in your best interests to listen to what I'm about to tell you."
He could feel his mind fizzing in that slightly unreal way that he knew led to those strange feelings and visions halfway between memories of Outer Heaven and some of his quieter nightmares, and so he decided not to think too hard about who he was speaking to. He began:
"This place is called Landel's Institute. It likes to claim to its patients that it's a mental hospital, and that we used to have different lives, and are only here because we're delusional. They told me that I used to be Justin Halley," he looked over at Big Boss, "and you are Evan... Halley," he guessed. "It used to be run by some doctor named Martin Landel, who had a feud with another doctor named Alec Doyle. But he died... they both died, Doyle first, and Landel the night before you arrived. It was Doyle who killed Landel."
He licked his lips. "And that's when this gets really insane. At night, this whole building shifts. Like a nightmare. It changes to look like no-one's been in this building for tens of years, peeling paint and rust all over the place. It's very homely, you'd like it. The real danger at night is that the nurses and doctors shift too. They become monsters, and many more monsters of different kinds appear. I've only seen one, and I didn't get to kill it. But the night before you arrived, we were stranded in the neighbouring town. The villagers rose up, like... the dead. And one of the dead things brought back to life was Alec Doyle. He killed Landel and went back to rest when the sun came up. That's we've got this I.R.I.S. thing, and you can make your own conclusions about what that robot's for."
He swallowed.
"The other dead things that come back to life are - the patients," he explained. "Like me. This place - for whatever reason, it takes people out of their timelines. I was here before, as someone else - as the man I'd be in the future. I ended my own life... with Fox. Fox helped me. He was the one who told me. Gray Fox is here, too."
no subject
He could feel his mind fizzing in that slightly unreal way that he knew led to those strange feelings and visions halfway between memories of Outer Heaven and some of his quieter nightmares, and so he decided not to think too hard about who he was speaking to. He began:
"This place is called Landel's Institute. It likes to claim to its patients that it's a mental hospital, and that we used to have different lives, and are only here because we're delusional. They told me that I used to be Justin Halley," he looked over at Big Boss, "and you are Evan... Halley," he guessed. "It used to be run by some doctor named Martin Landel, who had a feud with another doctor named Alec Doyle. But he died... they both died, Doyle first, and Landel the night before you arrived. It was Doyle who killed Landel."
He licked his lips. "And that's when this gets really insane. At night, this whole building shifts. Like a nightmare. It changes to look like no-one's been in this building for tens of years, peeling paint and rust all over the place. It's very homely, you'd like it. The real danger at night is that the nurses and doctors shift too. They become monsters, and many more monsters of different kinds appear. I've only seen one, and I didn't get to kill it. But the night before you arrived, we were stranded in the neighbouring town. The villagers rose up, like... the dead. And one of the dead things brought back to life was Alec Doyle. He killed Landel and went back to rest when the sun came up. That's we've got this I.R.I.S. thing, and you can make your own conclusions about what that robot's for."
He swallowed.
"The other dead things that come back to life are - the patients," he explained. "Like me. This place - for whatever reason, it takes people out of their timelines. I was here before, as someone else - as the man I'd be in the future. I ended my own life... with Fox. Fox helped me. He was the one who told me. Gray Fox is here, too."