In the prologue to MGS V, you're attacked while recovering in a Cypriot hospital, and narrowly led to escape by a fellow bandaged patient. This escape culminates in an car crash that leaves you briefly unconscious after a helicopter strafes your vehicle with bullets, seemingly killing your benefactor. Upon recovery, the driver's seat of the vehicle is completely empty, with no blood or other trace of injury apparent, suggesting there was nobody present at all.
So who exactly is this bandaged person? Are they just a figment of Snake's imagination to keep him going in dire straits? If that is the case, what's the explanation for other segments in the prologue where said person interacts with other characters? For example, when he throws bottles at the would-be assassin right at the level's start, or drives the ambulance into the Burning Man.
Is there any explanation for this? Or are we simply left to decide on our own whether there was someone there besides Snake?
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