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 with 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.