Hitori Nojima: Death Stranding: The Official Novelization, Volume Two

Black clouds once more obscured the heavens. Something sounded like an animal howling in the distance, but on further listening, Sam realized that it was the sound of the violently blustering wind. Gusts battered Sam, crying like countless invisible beasts, which threatened to topple him over. He braced himself against the land, but he couldn’t withstand the weight of his cargo and fell backward.

The violent, beast-like wind rushed over Sam as he became buried in snow. The flurries swirled and groaned and blocked out his vision. As he struggled back to his feet, cursing, the wind knocked him back down. Standing had become impossible.

There was nowhere to shelter from the wind on this blizzard-battered mountain peak. Sam grabbed a climbing anchor out of his backpack and thrust it into the bedrock beneath the snow. He tied the strand around his waist and secured himself to the other end.

All he could do was lie face down and wait for the winds to calm. He clung to the snowfield on his belly. If there was any space between himself and the ground, the wind would get in and blow him away. He wondered just how far his body would be carried in weather like this. Would it be just like when he was taken by the supercell before?

Sam could feel his body heat draining away as he was rendered immobile. He couldn’t stop the ringing sensation in his back teeth. The feeling of being cold had already disappeared and now the only sensation running through Sam’s body was pain. But that pain would eventually disappear, too. Then it would be the end. He tried to muster all his strength into his limbs, but his fingers and toes only continued to grow more and more numb. The snow gradually concealed the outline of his body from the waist down, making it look as if his body was gradually dissolving away into particles. Just like a BT . That thought felt like part-hallucination and part-dream. It was a bad omen. He couldn’t look inwards at a time like this, he had to look outwards. He had to bind both body and mind back to earth.

After a while, Sam realized there was a rhythm to this wind. It didn’t stop blowing, but there was a little bit of a calm after the more violent gusts. If he could predict when the calm would come, he might be able to move. If he stayed here, he was going to succumb to frostbite.

The wind weakened. Sam gripped the strand that was tied to his waist with both hands, and began to move forward as he kept his center of gravity low to the ground. Once he reached the summit it was all downhill. He concentrated his strength into his hand, which gripped the strand. The feeling in his palms and fingertips was returning. Perhaps it was because of the change in terrain, but the wind seemed to be losing strength. The snow continued to come down in droves and Sam still couldn’t see anything, but he was sure that even at this pace, he was slowly making his way down the mountain.

He kept telling himself that it was just a little farther. He didn’t think about anything else, he just put one knee in front of the other like a machine. If he could just keep doing that then he would escape this blizzard and make it back to the real world.

Something suddenly made Sam nervous. He could hear a sound. It was like the groan of a BT. It was getting closer and louder. He could hear it from overhead, from the peak of the mountain he had just ascended.

But it was no BT. It was only after something hit Sam hard, flinging him down the mountain like a rag doll, that he realized what it really was. It was a rockfall. He had barely avoided being hit head-on, but had still been grazed by the falling rocks. The earth and sky switched places over and over and Sam was plunging through the black clouds. One of his backpack straps snapped and cargo was sucked into the sky.

He was completely disorientated. All because of some stupid rockfall, Sam was tumbling all the way down the snow-covered slope. He was groping for something, anything, to grab onto to stop his fall, but there was nothing.

It felt like his ka had disappeared from his ha . Just like it did at the Seam. Even though he felt like he was falling through the sky, he could hear the sound of waves. A baby was crying.

It was calling out for Sam. A wave had rolled onto the shore and was trying to drag the naked baby into the sea. Sam broke into a run and jumped into the water. Lou was still crying out for him. The waves tossed Sam around helplessly as he stretched out his right arm and barely grasped onto the BB’s umbilical cord. He used it to reel the BB in and take it safely into his arms. As he cradled it to his chest, he realized that the baby was Målingen and Lockne’s daughter. But Sam didn’t question it. A BB was a bond, both shackle and anchor. The BB gave meaning and direction to Sam’s life, a bridge from a fixed start to its end, whenever that may be.

Once he realized that, he broke down and wept. He couldn’t see anything through the never-ending stream of tears. That’s why he didn’t notice the red suit approaching him in the distance. The baby cried out and tried to break free of Sam’s embrace. It was a joyous cry from the heart that Sam had never heard before.

Mama!

The BB—the baby—cried.

The woman in the red suit held out her slender arms and took the baby from Sam. Or rather, the baby escaped to her arms of its own volition. It was Amelie.

Amelie’s eyes were overflowing with tears, too. Tears that were black. As soon as her tears hit the baby nestled to her chest, it began to collapse in on itself, breaking down into countless minute particles. It was just like the way Sam’s blood returned the BTs to the other side. Amelie’s tears returned the BB back to the place where it was meant to be.

Wait! Stop! Give that kid back to me!

Sam’s voice didn’t reach her. ( Well, I am being held very far away in Edge Knot City, aren’t I? )

Sam kept screaming in vain until his own shrieks woke him up.

He was lying face up on the snowy slope and it took him a moment to realize that he must have been out cold and having a nightmare.

The winds had died down, the snow had stopped, and the clouds had disappeared. Sam propped himself up and wiped away his tears. But they were no longer tears of sadness. Sam’s nostrils filled with a familiar odor. He was right in the middle of BT territory.

He sensed a strong BT presence. It was so strong that the tears wouldn’t stop flowing. He felt his body break out into goosepimples and his muscles began to spasm and tremble. He broke into a fever. Then came the alternating chills and nausea. He felt like he could hear the breathing of the dead next to his ear, but without a BB, he shouldn’t have been able to hear anything. A handprint appeared right beside him. It formed only one of a trail of black handprints across the pure white snow. The stench of the dead grew overpowering. Sam covered his mouth with his hands and curled up in an attempt to conceal his presence as much as possible, but the trembling didn’t stop. Sam couldn’t tell if he was trembling from the cold or the fear.

The handprints around Sam multiplied, all different sizes and all going in different directions. Multiple BTs were searching for him. He was surrounded on this snowy mountainside. He felt like an offering being made to them in atonement for some past sin. What an ego. If Sam caused a voidout here, he would be back. But the energy from that voidout would reduce Mountain Knot City to nothingness, along with Deadman and Lockne and Lou. What kind of offering brought such destruction and calamity to the world? Offerings were supposed to be given to maintain peace.