Death Stranding--Death Stranding Read online

  It looked like Lou was still afraid, but had calmed down a little compared to before. This was still far from over, though, and Sam began to worry about the relay equipment that he had left in place. Their attackers might choose to destroy the equipment over killing Sam if the latter proved too difficult. Sam needed to prepare for that possibility.

  Several meters away, the man with the Odradek who Sam considered their leader, along with the two other attackers, were advancing back-to-back. Sam jumped out from behind the rock, exposing himself to the danger, and without a moment’s hesitation the men broke their battle formation and launched into an attack. As the bullets flew toward Sam, he shot back with his bola gun, sending bola bindings flying through the gaps between the rocks. He didn’t manage to take any of the men down, but one did get hit by the weight on the end of the bola bindings right in the pit of the stomach.

  Now there were two men left in front of him. Bullets were whizzing past Sam as he threw another hematic grenade toward a boulder. He wasn’t throwing it for the effect of his blood but for the power of its blast. The boulder was tipped with a large, open red flower, and it was smashed into rubble by the explosion, showering the enemy with small pebbles mixed with Sam’s blood. The two men let out bestial screams as the blood rained down on them, and began shooting wildly in every direction. Sam shot his bola gun in the shadow of the rocks, sweeping one of the men off his feet as planned.

  Now there was just one left. The man with the Odradek threw away his gun and charged. He had his electric spear in hand and was screaming inhuman screams. The tip of the spear gave off a white electrical charge. It was aimed straight for Sam. Sam hurled himself directly at the man’s chest.

  Their shoulders crashed into one another and a sharp, numbing pain rushed up Sam’s neck. The attacker must have felt the same pain as he dropped his spear. But the man pulled back half a step and landed a kick right in Sam’s knee. The pain made Sam gasp. He lost his balance and began to fall. He reached his hands out to stop himself, but unable to reach anything, Sam simply fell onto his back. The air in his lungs had been completely knocked out and he couldn’t even groan in pain. The man kicked Sam in the side and sat on top of him. He squeezed down on Sam’s neck with one hand and grabbed a knife with the other. Sam couldn’t move a muscle and Lou began to shriek again.

  The other man’s BB pod was right in front of Sam’s face.

  The man was stronger than Sam had imagined. The man’s knees were like vices digging into Sam’s armpits. Sam’s ribs were making worrying noises. It felt like they were going to buckle any second. The man continued to strengthen his grip around Sam’s neck, until Sam could no longer breathe. He could feel the world becoming distant. He knew that if he couldn’t break free then he would go into cardiopulmonary arrest. Or at the very least, his tibia was going to shatter. Lou continued to scream.

  Sam snaked an arm around the man’s back and managed to free one side of his cuffs. With his left hand, he tried to grab the wrist at his neck, but the man’s arm didn’t move a single inch. In fact, incensed by Sam’s resistance, the man’s grip seemed to tighten even more. Sam could feel himself beginning to pass out. He mustered the last of his strength, and in one last-ditch effort plunged the cutter from his cuff link into the man’s back.

  The grip around Sam’s neck loosened right away. Sam continued to slash at the man’s back. The man slumped forward. The stab shouldn’t have been fatal. Sam pushed the man’s body off himself and stood up. Then he simply tapped lightly on the pod and began to walk toward the shelter where the Evo-devo Biologist was waiting for him.

  MIDWEST REGION // EVO-DEVO BIOLOGIST’S SHELTER

  The likeness of the man destined to save this world flickered onto the monitor. It was an image of an unshaven porter with his hair tied at the back of his head. It was Sam Porter Bridges. The sole member of Bridges II. In this small, dim, and gloomy room that the Evo-devo Biologist both worked and lived in, the monitor seemed to glow all the more brightly with him. She was excited because this man was about to come here and connect her lonely outpost to a vast new world.

  It had been two days since Heartman had let her know that Sam was on his way, and when she estimated the distance between Heartman’s lab and her own, she was sure that he would be arriving any time now. Her colleague had already sent her a message letting her know that Sam had dropped by. The Geologist had gone on and on about how wonderful it had been to use the Chiral Network to restore all the materials, data, and theories that had been previously lost. Every word of his message oozed excitement and hope.

  He also reported that since he had been posted out here, he had been steadily investigating the local strata, and had discovered something that seemed to link past mass extinctions with the Death Stranding. A fossil Beach.

  That alone would topple the prevailing Big Five theory. Once the Chiral Network covered the entire continent they could expect to make even greater discoveries. The Geologist ended his message with how much he hoped that Sam would reach her place soon, too.

  Now, Sam was finally about to arrive. The Evo-devo Biologist had shared her hypothesis with Heartman and her other researcher colleagues, and now she wanted to verify it. She also had something she needed to ask Sam in particular. It was about a porter who had made deliveries here a few times in the past. She accepted it was unlikely that Sam would know him, but still, she wanted to know what had happened to the man.

  * * *

  “Did you hear about all that weird stuff that’s been bubbling up out west lately?” The porter made a funny expression as he stored his cargo. “Would you happen to know anything about that, EV?”

  EV was a nickname the porter had given the Evo-devo Biologist. Her real name was of Scandinavian origin and the porter, knowing he would never remember it, had opted to call her by her profession. EV was a shortened version of “evolutionary developmental biologist.” Technically, she should have been called ED, but that was beside the point.

  When she pointed out the mistake to the porter, he simply brushed it off with a “Don’t sweat the tiny details. EV sounds like Eve.”

  This porter had been delivering cargo to EV ever since she had first come out here with Heartman and the others on Bridges I. Bridges had their own porters, but there had been a labor shortage, so they had enlisted the help of a voluntary porter organization. This man was a courier from Fragile Express.

  A lot had happened since they first met. Her friend from Bridges I, Mama, had fallen victim to a terrorist attack, and Middle Knot City had been wiped off the map in a nuclear blast. Terrorism was rife in this area, too. Ever since Bridges I had come here espousing about how they were going to rebuild America, they had met violent resistance from the separatists, who claimed that Bridges were “invaders” coming for their freedom. They were out there waiting, minds made up and guns in hand. But the porter still came regularly.

  The strange substance the porter had asked her about was the tar that was bubbling up from under the ground. Although, to be more accurate, it was more tar-like. And just as the porter had guessed, it interested EV greatly. It was one of the inexplicable phenomena that had begun to occur after the Death Stranding. No one knew its structure, its properties, or where it originally came from, but EV had heard a theory that it welled up out of places connected to the Beach. And if she could investigate that, it might bring her one step closer to understanding the origin of the Death Stranding. The only thing standing in her way was the threat of terrorism if she went out west to investigate.

  “Then I’ll bring some back for you,” the porter offered.

  EV thought he was kidding. There was a possibility that this substance was connected to the Beach. It wasn’t safe to go near without the proper expertise and equipment. Collecting something like that was the job of Bridges.

  After EV saw the porter off she forgot about the porter’s offer, brushing it off as a casual joke.

  Then, three months later, the porter returned. Together w
ith a case of the tar.

  But even through the hologram, EV could tell that the man’s vibe and appearance had dramatically changed. In the past, the porter had been a diligent young worker embarking on an apprenticeship, but now he seemed more like a shellshocked soldier. EV had never actually seen a soldier in real life, but the cylindrical device on his shoulder somehow also reminded her of them. There was a separate round container equipped to the left-hand side of his chest.

  “This is a Bridge Baby. It can access the Beach,” the man explained, caressing the pod attentively. “It was all thanks to this that I was able to get that for you.”

  The man pointed at the case of tar. His voice sounded hoarse and exhausted. The case contained five reinforced glass cylinders. Each one was filled with a black liquid.

  “A scientist like you might make fun of me for saying this, but this world isn’t what it seems to be. What we see with the naked eye is but one part. It’s really made up of layer after layer after layer. When I use this Bridge Baby, I can see one of the layers that my eyes can’t. When I went to collect this stuff, I got the shock of my life. There were holes everywhere. And I don’t mean in the ground, I mean in the empty space around everything else. There’s a hole there, too.” The porter pointed at the space above her head and EV ducked.

  “It’s okay. It’s so small that I barely even noticed it, but the holes the tar comes out from are much bigger. They’re big enough for a human to pass through. I bet they lead back to the Beach.”

  EV imagined a cartoon of Swiss cheese in her head. She wondered if those holes were traces of a dimension that mankind’s perception and thought didn’t extend to. And this equipment could visualize them?

  “I was able to get the tar using this Bridge Baby to avoid the holes,” the porter continued. A smile spasmed across the porter’s face for the first time since he’d arrived.

  EV was trying to decide how to thank the man when he stopped her.

  “I don’t need your gratitude. Just tell me what you think this stuff is,” he said.

  Of course she would. EV’s face broke into a smile, but the porter’s expression remained deadly serious. It was starting to give her the creeps.

  “This tar began to appear after the Death Stranding. You know that much, don’t you?” EV asked. “Just like the timefall, the Beach, the cryptobiotes and the BTs. Chiral matter, too. Now, none of these things are good for humans. They all make it harder for us to survive. So, think back to when life first emerged on this planet, when the atmosphere was full of methane and carbon. It was completely different to how it is now. Then, one type of life called cyanobacteria emerged. It was an algae that fed on photosynthesis, and much like the algae of modern times, produced enormous quantities of oxygen. So much so that it filled the entire atmosphere with it. Unfortunately, much of the other life on this planet had evolved to rely on the carbon and methane. Oxygen was toxic to it. So, what couldn’t adapt to this new environment went extinct.

  “Tar and timefall are the defining features of the post-Stranding ecosystem. As you just heard, sudden environmental changes such as these invariably lead to the extinction of organisms that fail to adapt. Those that do adapt do so by virtue of ‘enhancers’—the regions of DNA that grant successful organisms their advantages. These genetic factors are the key to evolution. But there are genes which have the opposite effect, those which disadvantage organisms. ‘Extinction factors,’ as they have been called. Some people say that the existence of these traits is proof that mankind is headed for extinction, but I don’t think so. Sure, extinction factors are supposedly responsible for the extinction nightmares suffered by those with DOOMS. In fact, that’s why they call it DOOMS—after ruin and the Last Judgment. But that doesn’t mean that the existence of those with DOOMS has to usher in the extinction of mankind. On the contrary, perhaps those who can perceive extinction, can help us avoid it. Extinction factors are a broad concept that present across biology, psychology, and sociology. Their presence in these areas suggests that humans may already be adapting to this change in the environment.

  “In the end, enhancers and extinction factors are the seeds of advancement and obsolescence. Such factors may lie dormant within us all, a choice waiting to be made. For every being since the advent of life itself.

  “On the other hand, there’s also a theory that hypothesizes the existence of something that blows past the millions of years that natural evolution and extinction takes—Extinction Entities. The Beach connects the worlds of the living and the dead, and the BTs came here via the Beach. Then, through contact with the living, they cause voidouts that turn everything back to nothing. In other words, BTs exist to drive humanity to extinction. Some people may disagree, but I believe that it is the BTs who are the Extinction Entities.”

  “Extinction Entities? Do those really exist?” the porter asked. After listening to EV quietly for a while, the color in the porter’s face suddenly changed. “Then I guess extinction is a fate that we can’t escape. But if it’s already set in motion, why do we still struggle? Why do we crawl shamefully all over the earth delivering cargo, just to keep us here that little bit longer?”

  The change in the porter’s tone was so drastic, it was like he had suddenly switched personalities with someone. EV couldn’t look at him any longer. It was like he was possessed.

  “The same species can’t remain dominant forever. Humanity can’t be the only ones to survive extinction. Do you think the ammonites and the dinosaurs resisted extinction like we do? Of course not! They graciously accepted their destinies. They weren’t just unintelligent enough to avoid it. Humanity goes around recording and sharing our past to help us predict our future, and because of that we just assume that we can change our destiny. That we can overcome something like the Death Stranding. But it’s all lies. This world doesn’t need us anymore. It’s trying to evict us to make room for the next species. And the harder we try and the harder we struggle against it, the more we sully it. Being holed up in here, I bet you have no idea how beautiful the outside world is, do you? How harsh it is? The world didn’t change into what it is now for mankind’s sake. It’s trying to change for the life that comes next.”

  The porter was talking so fervently he was foaming at the mouth. EV didn’t have anything she could say back to him.

  EV believed there was a way out of this situation. Wasn’t that why she came here in the first place? Wasn’t that why she continued this research all alone?

  But, contrary to the porter’s beliefs, EV knew the outside world. She had seen and experienced it through her fieldwork and when she first came here with Bridges I. That was why she couldn’t refute him. She, herself, had been struck so many times by the virgin beauty of this world. And the ugliness of the cities that had been erected in its nooks and crannies.

  “Why don’t we just let ourselves go extinct? We don’t have the right or the means to prevent it anyway. We should at least bow out gracefully. The ammonites and the dinosaurs managed it well enough. At least we’d be left with a little dignity. I heard about the Extinction Entities, too. Someone told me that an Extinction Entity is the one creating these BTs and connecting them with this world. And ever since I got this new equipment, I’ve come to believe that they really exist,” the porter went on, showing EV the equipment on his chest. “This is a bridge that connects this world and that world. Our boss gave me this. He said that we are no longer just for transporting cargo. We’re to bring ‘extinction’ over from that world and vacate our position on this one for the next generation of life.”

  EV had no answers for the man. She was afraid. The porter in front of her was no longer the porter she had once known. It was like he had been brainwashed by some cult. He was trapped in this extreme thinking that perceived extinction as being of primary importance. What if the equipment he had on his chest was what was feeding him these lies? But even if that thing attached to him wasn’t brainwashing him, could the porter really be right in claiming that it w
asn’t the BTs that were the Extinction Entities, but something that existed on an even higher plane? There were certainly others who thought so, she couldn’t refute him on that point either. Even if he had put the pieces of the puzzle together wrong, what could they do if the concepts they signified were real?

  EV came back to her senses when the porter broke down crying like a child.

  “What’s happening to me?! Every night I have the same dream. It’s always a dream of extinction. They frighten me,” he sobbed. “I’m all alone on the Beach and even if I scream, no one answers. No matter how far I walk, the view never changes. Even though I know it’s a dream, I feel like an infinite amount of time is passing and I can’t breathe. I try to kill myself. Time and time again. But no matter what I do, it never works. Something comes toward me from beyond the sea instead. I try to see what it is, but I can’t. I’m so petrified that I can’t even run away. I’m so afraid that I try to kill myself before it can get to me, but that never works either. I’m so scared. Then it kills me.”

  The porter sniffled and looked up at EV. It looked like his expression was back to normal. The real him was back. At least, that was what EV wanted to believe.

  “This thing, this equipment, it whispers to me. It tells me that I’m only afraid because I can’t see what the thing I dream about is. It tells me that it’ll show me what it looks like, that it’ll tell me what extinction really looks like. Then I won’t be afraid anymore. It tells me that I won’t be afraid of dying or extinction anymore,” the porter blabbered on.

  EV nodded. She explained that the reason why the Death Stranding was such a terrifying phenomenon was because no one understood it. No one knew why the BTs, the Beach, the timefall, or the tar appeared, and that was why they feared it and walled themselves away in their cities. That was why people like EV had to keep on digging.