Snake was sick from all the booze the night before. He was even more ill from the scene that had caused the drinking in the first place. Plissken's mind couldn't wrap around the thought of his parents being gone, of Taylor's family being gone. Every time he tried his mind would breakdown and he'd feel it. There was hate inside of him like he had never felt before. It burned like the pain in his damaged eye.

In silence he sat unmoving, forehead in the palm of his hand, arm propped up on the arm of the chair. Snake was staring out the window but saw nothing. He heard nothing. He wanted to be nothing. He had nothing. The repertoire repeated in his head on an infinitely loop. Snake wished he felt nothing but that was not who he was. He felt too much.

Taylor had watched over Snake most of the morning but he hadn't moved. He might have thought Plissken dead if he didn't see his chest moving as he breathed. For Taylor this was torture worse than his bum leg. His friend, his brother was falling apart at the seams and through the haze of the last few days Bill couldn't find the words to bring him back to reality. The only reality that existed for the Lieutenant was the one his mind was creating. Taylor already knew from his expression that it was a nightmare filling his blank stare.

"Snake?" Taylor's voice was barely a whisper. Something about Plissken's demeanor was off. He had the appearance of a twig bent to the point where the bark was beginning to split before the inevitable snap. Plissken didn't move.

Taylor tried again. "Steven?"

Plissken looked up at the man on crutches. His mind was too caught up in its own world to immediately recognize the man. His brow furrowed as he fought with the memories. All that was there in his thoughts was the need to disappear. He wanted to fade away but this person took away that comfort of pretending he didn't exist.

"You alright, man?" Taylor coward from the emotion seeping into Snake's rather confused expression.

"Do I look like it?" Snake's voice dropped to cold venom. The cheek below his bad eye spasmed like a bad nervous tick. Taylor had never seen that before and backed away as quietly as he could on the metal crutches. Plissken was going to snap. Taylor could feel it.

"Do I look like it?" Plissken asked it a second time. This time his eye came up glaring cold like his voice. Taylor bumped into the wall. He had never been afraid of Snake before, not in the 15 or more years he'd known him. In this moment Taylor feared for his life.

"Just relax." Taylor didn't know what else to say. Was there anything more to say? Taylor had lost a lot but he hadn't seen as much as Plissken had. Taylor didn't think he would be as held together as Snake given the circumstances.

Snake stood abruptly and growled. "You fucking relax."

Taylor watched the way Snake moved. It was so much different than the man who had climbed in the glider for Leningrad months earlier. He seemed like an animal on the verge of some emotion Taylor couldn't quite place. Taylor took a deep breath and took a hobbled step toward Snake. The man across from him bristled, visibly tensing.

"Man, you got to snap out of it." Taylor was trying to be gentle.

"Snap?" Snake's hand grabbed the back of the chair with enough tension to whiten the knuckles. "Fuck you. You don't know fucking shit."

Taylor braced himself. "No, I don't."

He was trying to play into Plissken's need for control. He didn't know if it would work.

"They fucking killed her. Killed her and all of them because of me. Fucking bullshit." Snake's voice had lost the anger and the cold. It was barren and devoid of emotion.

Taylor had sympathy for Snake, maybe even pity. Plissken had never said it, never needed to say it but Taylor knew what his friend felt for the woman that died. He knew his parents were an even harder blow. To endure both would crush anyone with half a heart. Bill couldn't even meet his friend's gaze. The pain had been there all day.

"I wish it was me. I fucking wish I'd died with them." Snake sunk back down on the chair.

Taylor hesitated and then looked up. Plissken was staring at him. It wasn't the pain in his expression that cut into Taylor's soul but the tears. He'd never seen him cry. Not as a boy when he broke his arm, not when he'd been shot or seen others injured. It wasn't a sob but silent. The watery tears from his right eye were paired with pinkish; blood tainted ones seeping from under the patch.

The tears made the words worse. Snake had never given up on life. He'd never faltered in his desire to survive. When Taylor looked on him now he could see Snake meant those words. Taylor could only imagine. He'd seen his family butchered but so had Snake. They were Snake's family just as much as his. There was more to Plissken's pain than that. He was the command of the squadron. In his mind, his orders were what caused him to lose the only woman Taylor ever saw get into his soul. No matter what reality was. He knew Plissken would carry that scar, that blame and guilt inside from here to his grave.

Taylor crossed the room and sat on the chair across from Plissken. His friend was back to the silence but his posture had sank to defeat. Bill was searching for anything to say but what could remedy this? Nothing. Nothing would bring back the people they had lost. Nothing could repair his eye or Taylor's leg. Bill watched him for a while longer and then sighed. Plissken's mood was creeping into his.

A longer silence passed before a whispered sentence caused Taylor to snap out of the depression.

"Wish I was fucking crazy like they say. Then I wouldn't give a shit about anything. Be easier if it was insanity."

Taylor nodded "They're out to make everyone insane."

Snake sighed and shook his head. "Fuck them."

Plissken got up and left the room. Taylor didn't need to follow. He knew that tone. Snake was pissed off and someone was going to pay.