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

—In that state, there’d be nothing to stop you from removing them. If you did, the UCA wouldn’t know where you were or how to find you. You’d be invisible.

Sam decided to trust in the help that Deadman had given them.

He put his cuff links on the altar. He was going to erase the Sam that belonged to Bridges.

He put the pod on there, too. To free Lou.

Sam could hear thunder. The sky suddenly darkened and the smell of rain filled Sam’s nostrils. If Sam dealt with Lou here, then at least Lou wouldn’t be cursed to wander around with the rest of the dead. If the kid couldn’t live in this world, then the least he could do was send Lou on to the next.

—Want to go home?

The one who was asked and replied with a no was a young Sam.

Then this kid—

The altar groaned as it began to sink back into the floor.

“I screwed it up. I’ve ruined everything.”

Sam was looking down on Cliff. He was squatting down on one knee with his back to him. The blood pouring out of his left shoulder was staining the back of the jacket a dark red. Cliff stood up with a groan.

“I’m sorry, Lisa…”

Muttering Lisa’s name in what sounded like delirium, Cliff turned back toward the door, leaving bloody footprints as he stepped forward. With a firm grip on the pod, he closed the door behind him and shot at the security panel twice to break it. Then he turned toward Sam. Cliff’s face was flushed as though he was suffering from a high fever and his eyes were welling up, but he didn’t see Sam. The only other person there was Lisa, under a blood-soaked cushion. Cliff passed straight through Sam and clung to the bed. Sam realized that the only part of him there was his ka . He was the only one aware he was stood there. No one else seemed to notice.

Sam could hear a noise outside the door.

“In here!”

Someone banged on the door violently. The dull thuds echoed around the room. They pounded again and again and again. Eventually, the thuds turned into the sound of metal on metal. Together with the metallic grinding sound of the engine cutter, the door began to groan.

Cliff seemed unaware as he sat slumped in front of the bed.

Are you going to give up here? But Sam’s thoughts didn’t translate into words. They never reached Cliff.

“BB. Don’t worry. It’s okay. I’ll always be with you,” Cliff reassured the BB, trying as hard as he could to make sure that he was hearing his message.

“This room is off-limits. No one goes in.”

Sam could hear a voice behind the door clearly trying to get the situation under control. He knew that voice. It belonged to John. The sound of the cutter stopped.

“But he’s in there, sir. I saw him!” a man protested.

“You saw wrong. Now, check the other way. Go!”

John dismissed any resistance from the young soldier and sent him on his way. The commotion withdrew like the tide. Sam heard John breathe a sigh of relief on the other side of the door. Now’s your chance. Run. But Sam’s wish and John’s actions didn’t help Cliff.

“No. Open it up. He’s inside.”

The command came from the President of the United States of America, Bridget Strand. John and the guards scattered. Special forces followed Bridget’s commands and broke down the door, surging into the room.

Bullets flew through Sam as he opened his arms wide in a bid to cover Cliff. They simply ignored that he was even there and flew straight into their target. Cliff’s body was thrown to the ground, where blood began to pool beneath him. Yet he still continued to talk to his BB.

“When I found out I was gonna be a father… I was so scared. Scared of what it would mean… I had to be there for you and your mom… no matter what. I couldn’t just go off and get myself killed anymore…”

Images flashed in the back of Sam’s mind. A smiling Lisa rubbing her large belly. Cliff’s back as he walked away. And Lisa tying a piece of rope around her neck with trembling hands.

“I couldn’t leave you all alone. I couldn’t,” Cliff murmured.

The soldiers stood still, guns still pointed in Cliff’s direction.

“Get offof him! Now!” John commanded as he broke into the ring of soldiers that had surrounded Cliff. In his hand was the gun that Cliff had dropped under the soldiers’ fire.

“I had it all wrong… all wrong.” Cliff was exerting so much effort to take each and every breath. Yet he still talked to his BB. “Being a father… didn’t make me scared. It made me brave. I’m sorry… sorry it took me so long…”

“Captain, look at you.”

Cliff noticed John and lifted his head. His bangs were dripping with blood and sticking to his forehead. He pushed them out of his face and cast his gaze downward once more.

“Don’t make the same mistake. Be yourself… Be free,” Cliff finished.

As though his last ounce of strength had finally left his body, Cliff’s beloved pod rolled to the floor.

Before John even had time to reach out for it himself, a special forces member rushed over and scooped it into his arms. This was the end. All Sam could do was stand and watch, dumbfounded.

John was crouching down in front of Cliff. It was like he was protecting Cliff, despite the fact that he no longer had any value to them now that the BB had been retrieved. That’s when Bridget shouted.

She was cradling the pod the soldier had passed her when her face turned pale and she stared at Cliff. John gasped and the soldiers became nervous. There was nothing in the pod.

“Captain—I need you to hand it over,” John pleaded, his voice trembling. The naked BB was cradled in Cliff’s arms. A puddle of amniotic fluid was dripping down from the pod and spreading across the floor.

“Let it go—please,” John repeated, pointing his gun at Cliff’s head. Cliff looked between John and the gun and grimaced. Or maybe it was a smile. Sam couldn’t tell.

“Shoot him, John,” Bridget commanded coldly. But Sam could sense some quivering in her voice, too. Sam tried to protect Cliff. He crouched in front of him, opened his arms wide, and covered the end of John’s gun with his hands.

“Shoot him!” Bridget commanded again.

John’s arms were shaking. Sam was glaring at John, but all that was reflected back in John’s eyes was the face of a blood-soaked Cliff.

He couldn’t do anything here. He couldn’t control anything. He was so powerless. It must have been the same as how Amelie felt, only having a soul. He was overwhelmed with frustration at only being able to stand there and watch.

“I gave you an order! Shoot him!”

John’s trembling finger squeezed the trigger.

“They told me your name was Sam Porter…” Sam heard Cliff’s voice behind him. He turned and Cliff nodded. He saw Sam. “But you’re Sam Bridges.”

All Sam could hear was Cliff’s voice. Everything had stopped. John’s finger was still on the trigger. Neither Bridget nor the special forces operatives moved. The only ones moving in the midst of this frozen scene were Cliff and Sam.

“My son. My bridge to the future.” Cliff cradled the baby and stood up. He staggered a little, but he seemed to be full of energy now. He was looking Sam straight in the eye. “Without you, I was just like any other cliff. A dead end. No way forward. Nothing but an obstacle—looking on at the world that people like you were trying to build. Dividing people was the only thing I was ever good at.”