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

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.