“There’s your boss man, that woman… And… oh, let’s not forget little ol’ you.” Before he had even finished speaking, Higgs was pressing the mask onto Sam’s face. The mask immediately hugged Sam’s facial contours as if it had been made for him. It was like he was wearing another layer of skin. One that had melted the real skin on Sam’s face and fused with it. It covered his eyes, nose, and mouth. He couldn’t breathe. His head felt like it would explode out of pain and anger. The inside of the mask that was stuck to Sam’s skin was cold and clammy. Just like Higgs’s tongue. Sam finally managed to free his hands, which had been stuck to the ground by the tar. He dug his nails into the mask in an attempt to tear it off, but its surface was hard as crystal. No matter how much he struggled, the mask wouldn’t budge. In fact, it was Sam’s nails that got ripped off instead, covering his hands in blood.
“It’s okay. It’s okay. I know it ain’t easy wearing a mask all the time.”
Maybe it was because the mask was covering Sam’s eyes that it felt like Higgs was speaking right inside his head.
His body craved oxygen. It began to convulse.
“But now the mask can come off, right? Both yours and mine,” Higgs sneered.
A burning pain blazed across Sam’s face as if the mask had ripped the skin away with it. As it came off, Sam fell forward onto the ground. Higgs mercilessly grabbed Sam by the hair and held his face up. He thrust his free hand in front of it. In his fist was Amelie’s quipu.
“I got this from Amelie,” Higgs stated.
No. Sam shook his head. He had been the one who gave it to Amelie. Amelie would never give it to someone like Higgs.
“Mmm… poor sweet Amelie. She’s holed up on a Beach nearby. Tell you what. What say we make it a race, hm? Whoever wins gets to usher in the end of days. Nothing like the eve of extinction to bring focus to the mind. Makes folks honest. There’ll be no need for masks soon,” Higgs said, replacing his own. “But, I wonder—when you look death in her eye, will you blink? If you want to chicken out, now’s the time to do it.”
Higgs disappeared. A large clap of thunder boomed from the direction of Edge Knot City. Sam could see the timefall continue to pour down on the city, speeding up its demise.
Higgs may have gone, but black clouds still hung over Edge Knot City. The closer Sam got to it, the harder it rained. Sam had heard that this whole area was desert before the Death Stranding. The original coastline of the North American continent had been farther west than Edge Knot City was now, but that coastline had been significantly cut back because of the bigger explosions during the initial phase of the disaster. As a result, one of the manmade cities from the era of the United States of America, which used to be in the middle of the desert, found itself located right on the West Coast. It became the prototype for Edge Knot City. Its original name was Santa Maria.
The sandy soil was already saturated and, without anywhere to go, the water had begun to form into rivers. Sam had his hood all the way down over his face to protect himself from the timefall, but that solution only offered a temporary peace of mind. All he could do was cover Lou’s pod with both hands and continue to walk. His soaked porter suit degraded more and more with every sheet of rain.
He was almost at the outer rim of the city. Edge Knot wasn’t like the other knot cities. It had quite a complex structure.
—It’s the result of conflicting ideologies.
Sam thought back to something Die-Hardman had said in a briefing. He wasn’t even sure when it had taken place. Sam hadn’t spoken to the director for a while now, and now that Deadman and Hardman had aired their suspicions about the man, he felt like talking to him even less.
Normal Knot Cities are surrounded by walls. Not only were these walls for protection, but they also formed a feature that clearly separated inside from outside. It was a way of visibly assuring the people who lived there of their autonomy, their independence, and their safety. That’s why the Bridges distribution centers were always built alongside the outer walls of the cities and not inside the cities themselves.
But Edge Knot was different.
The people who lived here had inherited the West Coast spirit that had historically prized freedom and independence above all else, and that spirit had once again been demonstrated in how they coped with the aftermath of the Death Stranding.
It was the cities on the West Coast that were the source of the secessionists. They had developed their own city revival plans, secured their own food and energy provisions, and had built their own distribution system. Edge Knot had its own delivery system and equipment. They didn’t have a problem with Bridges borrowing from it. Had no problems with bringing in goods. It was the same as how trade worked in the old world, anyway. They wouldn’t permit the building of a new Bridges center within the city. It was seen as equivalent to being occupied and colonized by America again.
Because of this there was no Bridges-owned equipment in the area. However, that didn’t mean that Edge Knot City was made up entirely of secessionists. There were a fair number of people who supported the plan to rebuild America. There was also a fixed number of centrists who sat somewhere between the two extremes. In other words, the city was just like a miniature America of old. Its outer wall was made up of many twists, and in some places even two separate walls. It was like a manifestation of the immediate chaotic aftermath of the collapse of the United States.
Bridges had only been permitted to build a small facility on the eastern edge of the city, back when support for American reconstructionism had been stronger. Even the name Edge Knot City was one that only Bridges really used. Most people still called it Santa Maria.
This was the city that Amelie had left for all those years ago.
Originally, Amelie was a special envoy and was supposed to negotiate with the cities diplomatically, joining them to the UCA if both parties agreed. That was the procedure Bridges was supposed to follow. But Santa Maria had imprisoned her instead. And now Sam was going to have to force them onto the Chiral Network under the pretext of saving her. That was Bridges’ plan now, but it didn’t seem much different from an invasion to Sam.
Even if Santa Maria had already fallen, forcing it onto the Chiral Network would still be an act of aggression.
If Amelie’s message was to be believed, the area should have been crawling with BTs. But even if that did turn out to be the case, Sam still wasn’t comfortable with the task he had been given. Even if Higgs was after Amelie—Amelie the EE—and Sam had to confront the danger that he posed in his attempts to not only wipe out America, but all of mankind, that didn’t mean he could accept what Bridges was up to either. But unless Sam kept on going, nothing would happen. Nothing would change.
They’d never be able to escape from here. Not from this continent. They’d never exist anywhere but here. There were no more promised lands for them like the ones their ancestors sought and fled to. Edge Knot City was as far as their ancestors from the east could take them. And now Sam was going all the way to that dead-end for Bridges. A different type of anger than when he faced Higgs began to bubble up in Sam’s chest.
“This is bullshit,” Sam found himself muttering out loud. It was a comment aimed at what man called destiny.
Sam had arrived near the entrance to the city, but the Bridges facility that he was looking for was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps it was because of the chiral clouds blocking out the sky, or the influence of the strange magnetic field of this area, but his compass wasn’t working. Lou wasn’t crying or anything, so he couldn’t have been near BT territory.