Death Stranding--Death Stranding Read online

 

  Without even commenting, Sam launched into a new line of questioning.

  “Are there any landmarks nearby? I’m coming to get you and Lou. And then I’m going to kick that guy’s ass. Then we should be able to go home.”

  But Sam wasn’t certain of that. That just happened to be how events transpired last time, but he had to do something or they would never get out of here.

 

  Sam only understood about half of what Deadman said. “Is he some kind of architecture nerd now, too?” Sam muttered, heading outside.

  Sam picked up an abandoned rifle that lay in the ruins of the building. It was lighter than the one he had picked up in the last battle and looked easier to use. It had been over a hundred years since World War Two, but Sam couldn’t believe how refined guns had already become. Come to think of it, it was around this time when nuclear weapons had first been developed as well. Humans had been creating tools to destroy each other for a long time, it seemed.

  Sam soon found the building that Deadman had described. The one that had the silhouette of a forest. If Sam had understood correctly, then this was it.

  It was indeed half rubble, just as Deadman had said, but the entrance wasn’t blocked.

  Sam passed through the hallway and headed down the stairs into the basement. As Sam looked at the bulletins posted along the wall, he realized this must have been some kind of public building, but none of the postings were in English, they were all in German, so he couldn’t be sure.

  All of a sudden, Sam was almost knocked to his feet by a powerful crash and violent tremors. He was left barely standing with a hand on the wall for support. Just as he thought it had calmed back down, he began to hear the intermittent explosions of shells followed by screams. It seemed like the location of the battleground had shifted.

  He pushed on an iron door in the corner of the basement that was partially covered in green rust, and entered a tunnel. The space was filled with the stench of stagnant water and the tepid air seemed to coil around his body. In the background he could also faintly smell the scent of blood and gunfire. Sam heard another explosion and the tunnel shook once more.

  “Deadman! Where are you?!” Sam’s voice echoed loudly. It was like he was surrounded by a thousand invisible Sams, shouting in unison.

  “Sam! Over here!” Deadman shouted.

  Sam continued down the tunnels, following the sound of Deadman’s voice, and eventually found him clinging tightly to an iron grille, calling out Sam’s name. Under one of his arms was the pod.

  “Sam! Over here! Quick!” Deadman urgently beckoned. Sam calmed the agitated Deadman and shifted his gaze to the pod. Regaining some composure, Deadman held the pod out to him through the iron bars.

  Sam couldn’t help but murmur Lou’s name as he took the pod back, but there was no response from Lou, who seemed to be asleep. Sam said Lou’s name once again, but the BB only cried out in displeasure after having its sleep interrupted.

  “The little one should be working again. Let me see.” Deadman grabbed the pod back. Sam thought he was going to make some adjustments to the pod or something, but Deadman simply cradled it in his arms and gently swayed. He was rocking the BB. The BB stopped crying and Deadman looked at Sam triumphantly, but Sam didn’t say anything. Luckily, the awkwardness of Sam’s displeasure at how Lou had forgotten him and become attached to Deadman was dispelled by the sound of an explosion. It sounded like a bomb had been dropped. The whole tunnel shook, and fragments of brick fell from the ceiling. Nearby, Sam heard soldiers asking someone to identify themself. Deadman held the pod close as if to protect it.

  “Maybe this is a special Beach for soldiers who died in battle. A maelstrom of their bitterness and regret,” Deadman muttered, handing the pod to Sam. “If this is the same place as last time, then maybe the key to getting home lies with the same man you met last time.”

  Sam mounted the pod on his chest. A nostalgic weight returned.

  “You should wait here,” he told Deadman.

  Sam connected the cord to the pod.

  “So? Do you still share memories?” Deadman inquired.

  Sam silently shook his head at Deadman’s question. The BB inside the pod had an innocent expression on its face, like it had just been born. It seemed this kid had forgotten everything after all.

  The Odradek booted into life with a groan. The sensor was spinning rapidly and soon formed into a cross shape.

  That man’s face flashed across Sam’s mind.

  The kid may have forgotten Sam, but it still reacted to the man. The Odradek was pointing in his direction.

  “You know, Sam, I’m starting to understand why BB is so important to you,” Deadman said, looking at the pod. “It’s just a tool. Life and death are supposed to be irrelevant. But we’ve got attached to each other all the same… Haven’t we?”

  “Kid’s not just a tool. Name’s Lou,” Sam replied curtly.

  Even if the BB had forgotten all about Sam, its name was still Lou. Sam stroked the pod and began to walk in the direction of the sewer exit.

  * * *

  Bells were ringing. They sounded like church bells.

  But as they rang out across the battlefield, their purpose wasn’t to return the souls of the dead back to heaven, but to inspire them to fight and bring them back to life.

  The bombers that controlled the skies dropped bomb after bomb after bomb, but the church spire remained unscathed. Like devoted followers fearing the wrath of God, each time the bombs fell anywhere near the spire, the bombers changed course. All the missiles and shells being thrown through the skies completely missed it. It was like someone had commanded that the bells weren’t to be silenced until all the dead, with their lingering attachment to this world, had been resurrected.

  All those people had died before they even had a chance to realize it, at the hands of weapons designed to kill en masse. If life was a sentence, theirs had been interrupted partway through and left without a period to wrap everything up neatly at the end. And they were coming back to look for it.

  Numerous filthy dolls in the shape of babies hung from a giant spider’s web that spanned the spire below the swaying bells. Some had their heads caved in, others were missing limbs, and some had bellies that had burst open. One of the dolls began to shake as if it was having a fit. With each spasm, a single eyelid jerked open and closed. It was like the doll was frantically pleading for something but unable to cry.

  In response to its silent wailing, the man who lay across the center of the web awakened.

  He had found the period at the end of his sentence.

  The thread coiled around him unraveled, and the man gracefully descended out of the web.

  And now it begins again. Someone was speaking. It’s finally time to put an end to this story of yours that was so cruelly interrupted. Flames erupted overhead as if to celebrate the man’s awakening, and the spider’s web began to go up in an inferno. Embers poured down like rain. The man placed a cigarette between his lips and let the rain light it. He breathed the smoke in deeply before letting it all back out and smirking.

  Cliff had found him.

  As the tobacco smoke diffused and disappeared, four soldiers took their place around the man. All were fleshless. Only bone. The man flicked the cigarette away and raised his arm up high.

  Then he brought it back down, silently commanding his soldiers. Go forth. Take back the period that was snatched away from you. The man watched the soldiers move out. Capture the child and bring the man who won’t let go of it back here.

  * * *

  Once Sam had escaped the sewer, he was immediately greeted by bombs
. They were showering down from the bombers above. They were still a distance away from the spot were Sam was standing, but the thundering sound of explosions still pierced his eardrums and the tremors shook his insides. He had to find that man. When he checked the direction that the Odradek was pointing in, he could see a church-like structure.

  It had a strange appearance. Despite the fact that its foundations had been mercilessly decimated, the spire thrusting up into the sky wasn’t damaged in the slightest and stood firm. Sam didn’t know a lot about the structure of buildings, but even he knew that was unusual. The foundations were dust, yet the spire alone was still standing there. He wasn’t close enough to get a good look, but he couldn’t make out a single chip or crack. There wasn’t even any soot from the flames all around. In this place where anything and everything was an offensive target, destroyed and defiled, this tower alone was sanctified and protected.

  And the Odradek was pointing right at it. That was where the man was.

  But Sam had no idea how to get there. Bullets were flying all around him and there was no end to the bombing in sight. Flames scorched the sky and the shrieks of soldiers were constant. This was just like the time before. Sam was on a battlefield where the dead killed their fellow dead. Where the means of the massacre was on an even grander scale than the original battleground.

  When Sam gazed up at the silhouettes of the bombers and checked the weight of his rifle, reality hit him.

  Sam flitted from shadow to shadow, between broken barricades, disorganized sandbags, toppled-over tanks, and ruined buildings that dotted the cobbled streets, paying careful attention so as not to get caught up in the battle. Even though he could hear the final wails of agony from soldiers on all sides, he hardly actually saw any of them.

  The thought of nuclear weapons suddenly crossed his mind. How just one bomb could kill countless people en masse and wreak destruction over an absurdly large area. Maybe this battlefield was far away from other people. Maybe it was a battlefield that didn’t involve humans, it was just one they died on. Where people killed one another at a distance, rather than staring their opponents in the face as they fought toe-to-toe with fist or gun. Where they died without the opportunity to understand their own deaths. It was a battlefield where all that remained was the never-ending absurdity of it all, stagnating like sediment.

  The battlefield was an endless, absurd cycle.

  The only way to put a stop to that cycle would be to make the dead aware of the fact that they were dead. Just as people in the world of the living incinerated the bodies of the recently departed, to deprive their soul of a place to wander back to and give them their period at the end of their sentence.

  If this war and this battlefield really had existed in the past, then humans had been mass-producing BTs for a long time. Maybe voidouts and the Death Stranding were disasters of mankind’s own making.

  Sam’s footing slipped as the thought distracted him. He placed a hand on the wall of the building and steadied himself. When he looked down at his feet, he found that puddles had formed in the empty spaces left by missing cobbles. Sam tutted at his own clumsiness and carried on forward. That’s when he realized that what had pooled at his feet wasn’t water, but blood. Sam wondered how many people’s blood it took to form a puddle this deep. He was submerged up to his ankles.

  Sam tried to pull his foot back out, but someone’s hand was clamped around his ankle. It was trying to drag him back into the puddle.

  Sam slapped at the hand that was now pawing at the barrel of his rifle, and used all of his might to yank his foot free.

  —BB.

  A voice calling out for the BB resounded within his head.

  The puddle of blood began to swell and something appeared. Its helmet was slick with blood, its hands stained red, and blood was gushing from the end of its rifle. A skeletal soldier had shown itself. Without a moment’s hesitation, Sam sprayed bullets at it with his rifle. As it shattered to dust it was engulfed in flames and disappeared.

  —BB.

  Instead of wails of agony, Sam heard the voice of the man.

  Then he felt a sharp pain shoot through his right leg. He had been shot. When he turned around, three skeletal soldiers were lying in wait. All three of them were pointing their rifles at him. The next one to fire was Sam. He may not have hit any of them, but at least they flinched, and while they did, he was able to make his escape into the shadow of a truck. There was a burning pain in Sam’s leg where he had been shot, and it felt like it had swelled to several times its normal size.

  The moment that Sam peeked out to see if the coast was clear, he was met with gunfire. It was the same soldiers as the time before. The Odradek’s sensor backed up his theory as it flashed from white to orange. He could tell from Lou’s uneasy jerks, as well. It might not have been the time or place, but Sam felt relieved. This kid might not remember him anymore, but they were still able to connect like always.

  —BB.

  The top of the truck began to burn alongside the sound of the explosions. Hand grenades were being thrown inside. Dragging his wounded leg behind him, Sam mustered all his strength to escape. Trucks exploded one after another. He could feel hot winds and impact tremors on his tail. Lou was terrified and crying out. Choked by the black smoke, Sam searched for a place they could hide. The buildings lining the road were all piles of rubble, and didn’t look like they would be able to conceal them at all.

  Driven forward by the bullets, Sam finally found a building with a red-brick facade. The glass was shattered and only the frame remained, but the original entrance still stood. Sam entered its dim interior. Part of the wall had collapsed, shelves had fallen down and several pieces of furniture were toppled over. There was no sign of anybody. A coffee cup and a cracked plate sat on the table. The open newspaper featured a black-and-white picture of a town ablaze and a headline in large German letters.

  Sam sensed a presence outside the window and hid in the shadow of the table. It was one of the skeletal soldiers. Luckily, the soldier didn’t seem to have realized that Sam was in there. As Sam decided to just let the soldier pass, an explosion shook the building.

  Fine rubble fell from the ceiling, making a clattering sound as it collided with the cup on the table below.

  The radio in the bay window suddenly switched on.

  Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high—

  It was an English song. An old song that Sam had a feeling he had heard somewhere before.

  There’s a land that I heard of once in a lullaby. Oh, somewhere over the rainbow—

  As if it heard the song, the skeletal soldier turned back and looked in Sam’s direction. It didn’t have any eyeballs, but those empty sockets saw Sam. From where Sam was hidden under the table it should have been impossible for their eyes to meet, but still, they saw each other. Sam immediately shot at it.

  Then he turned on his heel and ran out of the exit at the back, finding himself in a narrow alleyway just wide enough for one person.

  He could see the church spire in the sky, which was punctuated by tall buildings on both sides of him. The Odradek was still pointing in that direction. There was no way Sam could get lost now, so he began to run. It sounded like the aerial bombing campaign was still in full swing as several bombers darted by, streaming bombs out of their bellies, and vanished. Explosions sounded all across the town as it crumbled into rubble and went up in flames. This confusion was a good opportunity for Sam. It could have hindered the movements of the skeletal soldiers somewhat. The church spire was almost upon him. It was just a little farther until a gap in the path. A soldier flew out from the buildings, and when Sam turned around he could see one standing behind him, too.

  He was cornered. He dropped low and tackled their legs as he dodged their fire. Even though they were only made of bones, each one of them felt like they weighed just as much as an adult human. Sam snatched up a handgun from one of the fallen soldiers and shot it in the chest. Several ribs shattered into d
ust and a small flame blew out from where the heart should have been. As Sam looked on, the flames spread, engulfing the rest of the skeleton.

  Next, he shot at the soldier approaching from the rear as it charged forward, firing without pause. Every bullet went wide as the gap between them shrank. Sam’s opponent seemed to have run out of ammunition as he tossed away his rifle and brandished an army knife. Sam aimed at his undefended chest but missed. That was his last bullet. All he could do was dodge the flailing knife and lunge at the soldier’s chest. Their bodies entangled, but the moment they hit the floor, the soldier’s helmet slipped off with a clunk onto the cobbles below. More than half the soldier’s skull had been blown off. It was strange enough that these skeletal soldiers were able to move in the first place, but for them to be so animated in such a broken state felt even more ominous to Sam. The very bone that should have held their brain in place was missing, yet they fought as if still alive. As he held the soldier down, Sam saw his chance.

  Skeletal arms pounded Sam’s back. It felt like he was being hit with steel. In fact, the pain was so bad that it knocked the wind out of him. His grip slackened for a moment, and before he knew it, their positions were reversed. The soldier was straddling Sam with one hand around his neck and the other balled into a fist, attempting to rain punches down on him. Sam dodged the fist as he rammed the ammunition clip clutched tightly in his hand into the soldier’s chest. Another rib broke.

  The soldier stopped moving. Sam thrust the clip at it once more with all the strength he could muster. The bones crumbled and disintegrated into fine particles. The particles gave off the red light like embers, eventually setting fire to the soldier’s chest.

  It let out an inhuman scream of agony as the flames engulfed it and it disappeared.

  Sam brushed away the fallen sparks and stood back up, before leaving the alleyway and continuing toward the church.

  The church bells were ringing to an insane rhythm.

  Unlike the exterior of the church, its interior was in a sorry state. The arched roof was riddled with holes and the heaven depicted there broken. The stained glass had melted muddily and the pews that had once seated the churchgoers were charred black from all the fires. The air was filled with the stench of decay, which quickly enveloped Sam. On the altar right in front of him lay an offering of a small whale on its back. That was where the smell was coming from.