Death Stranding--Death Stranding Page 11
He hadn’t. But Heartman kept on talking. Sam heard the
The codec went silent and Heartman’s three-minute death commenced.
TAR BELT SHORE
So, this is what the apocalypse looks like.
Sam was stood in a world that would usher in mankind’s end. Or perhaps it was just the world’s physical end. A sea of tar extended so far out westward that Sam had trouble believing that Edge Knot City lay beyond it all.
The shore was littered with masses of toppled jagged rocks and there wasn’t a single sign of life to be found. No creeping moss. No microbes that inhabited the sandy soil. The sun was so thickly blocked out by the chiral clouds that covered the sky that Sam had no idea where it was. But it didn’t feel like night. It wasn’t even dark. A dim light filled the world. In Sam’s mind, this was a world where nothing new began and nothing new was ever born.
A cross fit for a giant lay upon this shore of demise. It was made of a rough black iron. It was the apparatus of crucifixion.
But who was here to receive their punishment and atone for their sins? The crucifix lay forgotten on a shore where there was only sin and punishment, and no sign of sinner nor savior. It dawned on Sam that this was the abandoned Chiral Network knot. To him, it felt neither sublime nor ominous. The only distinct feeling he had toward it was the feeling that he didn’t want to get any closer to it. Before he knew it, tears were spilling down his face. Sam didn’t even need to check for Lou’s reaction. He could feel this proximity to the Beach, throughout his entire body. It felt different to when he was in BT territory. Sam had never imagined that such a barren place could exist. Did it have something to do with the abrupt increased activity of the tar? Sam asked himself, looking out over the tar belt that stretched out beyond the crucifix.
If there was a perfect place for a communications knot, this would be it. Sam knew that much. Lou was getting worked up. Unless it was Sam’s own uneasiness infecting the BB.
When Sam went to activate the Q-pid receptor, the power supply apparatus rose first, followed by the terminal itself. Sam unloaded the hefty cargo from his back and set it down according to the terminal’s instructions. The units connected to the cross one by one and were stored inside. That was when Sam finally realized that the crucifix itself was the communications equipment. He followed the instructions in the message, which prompted him to activate the knot and help up his six metal shards.
An odor filled Sam’s nostrils. His vision warped and he felt like he was floating. Tears flowed from the corners of his eyes. Now this area was covered by the Chiral Network. The problem now was what came afterward. Sam sighed in front of the tar belt. How the hell am I supposed to make it to Edge Knot City?
“Sam, I knew you could do it. Thanks to you, the relay is back online. So far there are no issues with strength or safety. Lockne’s going to keep an eye on this area too, so there shouldn’t be any need to worry.”
It was Heartman. He was using the terminal’s communications function to project his hologram.
“I just got back from the Beach. I’ve got twenty-one minutes until the next trip, so listen carefully,” he continued.
The hologram suddenly disappeared. Maybe the connection was unstable. Or maybe this is what they got for such a hastily cobbled together piece of junk. Sam called Heartman’s name out toward the terminal, but there was no reply.
Then, his cuff links activated. Heartman was calling again, requesting voice-only communications. Sam fiddled with his cuff link to pick up.
Sam detected what seemed to be a hint of nervousness in Heartman’s voice among all the noise and static. Then, Heartman began to recount his incredible findings.
Sam thought back to when he first visited Mama’s lab. Heartman was right. Sam had the same feeling as when he approached BT territory. Lou reacted in the same way, too. But Sam didn’t think it was too unusual, given the situation there.
“There was a BT in the room,” he explained.
Sam remembered how Mama’s breath never showed white in her cold lab, and how she had unfastened her cuff link on one hand so that her vitals couldn’t be detected. It was all evidence that pointed toward her being dead. It was only thanks to her connection with her BT daughter that she was able to move in the first place. Sam had surmised that much on his own, but now it looked like there was more.
In other words, Mama was in a state of being both alive and dead. Did that mean that her ha and ka were both stuck between life and death?
Mama’s daughter was like Lou. So if Sam was connected to Lou, did that make him just like Mama? Sam had so many questions, but he didn’t feel like asking them out loud. Heartman carried on talking as if he took Sam’s silence as an affirmation to continue.
“You mean that wasn’t Mama’s umbilical cord?” Sam asked.
Heartman’s hypothesis was bold, but what was more shocking was the revelation tha
t the umbilical cord was attached to Bridget. The fact that Amelie was born on the Beach must have been closely related to this umbilical cord.
So, it was true. And this time humanity was up for the chopping block? There was no doubt about it now.
Heartman had been speaking so fast that Sam had barely managed to keep up.
“So you’re saying Bridget was an Extinction Entity?”
Sam had a more pressing question on his mind, but wasn’t sure how to put it into words. Higgs had referred to Amelie as an Extinction Entity.
“So, he kidnaps her for her EE powers or whatever to cause a mass extinction?” Sam mused.
Sam knew that whatever Amelie was or was not, they still had to get her back from Higgs.
Sam heard the countdown continue.
Then the transmission cut out and Sam was left all alone again on the desolate shore. Edge Knot City lay out there somewhere way out west, but all Sam could see was the thick, black sea in front of him.
* * *
A fishy smell blew toward him from across the tar belt, the breeze it rode in on tickling Sam’s cheeks. Sam may have been successful in activating the waystation’s—that gigantic crucifix’s—telecommunications terminal, but he had been stuck on the shore for quite a while now, unable to find a way across the tar.
He had walked all along the bank searching for a point to cross on foot, but it had so far all been in vain. Didn’t Bridges know how bad it was out here?
Perhaps they had just been optimistic that if anyone could find a way across, Sam the repatriate would. But he couldn’t. He couldn’t think of a single solution. Even though he had reconnected the country this far, even though it was now just a final push until he reached Amelie, he was stuck.
—London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down.
Sam could hear the song that Amelie always sang for him on the Beach when he was a boy. He looked around but there was no one and nothing to be found. It was just Sam. The bridge had fallen and now there was nothing else he could do. He couldn’t connect back to Amelie across the tar.
—That’s not true, Sam.
It was as if he could hear her. The wind picked up. This time it brought another voice with it.
—Do you still not get it? Or do you just not want to?
The tar was swelling upwards, forming the shape of a human being. Higgs.
“Amelie is an Extinction Entity,” Higgs began. “She may take the form of a woman, but she is connected to the realm of the dead. She connects all life to death. Heartman is right. All the past extinctions were caused by Extinction Entities like her. There’s no denying it. It’s the truth of this universe. This universe was created in an explosion. When stars explode their fragments produce new ones. The explosion of extinction gives way to new life. Listen here, Sam. We’re not just going extinct, we’re creating the next phase of existence.”
It was all word play. Higgs was manipulating the language to affirm his path of extinction and affirm his desire to destroy. Sam’s body burnt hot with anger. His clenched fists were trembling.
“That’s the cross that humanity has to bear.” Higgs pointed at the waystation and laughed. “It seems like there is someone working for Bridges with a sense of irony. I’ll connect with Amelie, stick her on that thing and finally put extinction into motion.”
“Higgs!” Sam shouted, rushing toward the belt of tar.
“Oh, still got some fighting spirit left in you, Sam? Then may the best man win,” Higgs sneered, holding up a finger. Tar was sticking to both of Sam’s legs. It seemed to be attempting to pull him down like it had a mind of its own. Before Sam knew it, the tar was already waist deep.
“Good luck, Sam,” Higgs called. “I’ll be waiting on the Beach.”
Higgs disappeared. The tar surged into a wave, attacking Sam from above.
Sam couldn’t see a thing. He couldn’t hear, either. He was trapped in a sticky black torrent and being washed toward the depths of the earth. He was falling forever toward its center—
Sam was lost in a dark hallway.
* * *
All he could hear was his own breathing, the sound of sticky footsteps, and the beating of his own heart. They echoed all around him. The sounds he made shook his eardrums and reverberated inside his head. Infinitely looping, it was starting to drive Sam mad. He was walking around inside the guts of some gigantic creature. Never getting digested and never getting shat back out. He was just wandering with no idea where the exit was. Then he noticed that Lou wasn’t with him. There was no Odradek on his shoulder. In fact, he wasn’t wearing anything at all. Sam was naked and trapped in a place he didn’t know.
He sank down to the floor and hung his head. He heard the sound of a heart. It was throbbing rhythmically without interruption. That’s when he realized that he was hearing the beating from outside. The heart that should have been in his chest dropped like a stone, and elsewhere the other heart moved.
Then it clicked. This had to be the inside of his own body. He was lost and aimlessly wandering in a maze of his own guts. Unable to be at peace with himself, he had become lost inside himself. Sam wondered if destroying himself would release him from this shell. Or would he just die together with it?
“You’re in the same state as the confused masses on this planet. They all believe that the world is here to accommodate them. It doesn’t matter that it’s all coincidental. It doesn’t matter that if it’s destroyed, they’ll die too. In their heads, they’re its kings and it’ll do what they tell it to do.”
Higgs’s voice echoed around the internal maze, snapping Sam back to reality.
Sam had been brought back by Higgs. A dissonant sound echoed softly. When Sam woke up, the world looked twisted. Sam instantly felt nauseous, like his stomach was full of rocks. Unable to bear it, Sam got on all fours and vomited. He threw up an inexplicable amount of jet-black liquid that looked like mud. A stench that contained whiffs of blood and rotting flesh pierced Sam’s nostrils. It felt like his body was rotting from the inside out.
Sam had no idea where he was. When he looked over his shoulder with as-of-yet unfocused eyes, all he could make out was the tar belt. Had he made it across?
“Welcome, Sam Bridges.”
HIGGS
It was Higgs. He was hovering several inches above the tar.
“Keep your voice down. You don’t want to scare the poor girl away, do you? You came all this way to see her, didn’t you? That’s why I did you a favor and brought you over that tar belt. How about a little gratitude and respect?” Higgs said theatrically as if amused by Sam’s loss for words, and pointing behind Sam with one hand. Sam turned around to find the silhouette of a city. It was Edge Knot City. It was his final stop. The place where he would find Amelie.
Higgs snapped his fingers. An upside-down rainbow appeared high in the skies above the city, which was subsequently drowned out by thick black clouds. There were several flashes of lightning followed by roars of thunder. Some of the lightning bolts reached all the way down into the city and exploded in dazzling flashes of light. The clouds began to rain timefall. In mere moments it turned into a torrential downfall, cloaking the city in a veil of rain.
“She’s in there. I can smell her. Of course, I wouldn’t’ve known for sure if it wasn’t for you and your wonderful network.”
Sam turned toward the voice, but there was no one there. Just a floating golden mask.
“Bless your heart,” Higgs whispered in Sam’s ear. Sam jumped away. Higgs’s face had been just inches away from his own and his cockiness had snapped Sam back to his senses. Sam looked back, but Higgs was no longer there. Just his golden mask floating in midair.