Death Stranding: The Official Novelization, Volume One

PROLOGUE

This child’s special.

Countless faces were staring at him. They edged closer until they filled his entire view, before disappearing. Faces he had seen before, faces he might see in the future, faces he would never encounter and faces that died long ago; they all appeared before him and vanished. Pinned down like an insect under a microscope, he was unable to move. All he could do was let them examine him.

Which are you? A face he didn’t know swam into view. Am I connecting to you? Or are you connecting to me? Where are you? Are you in the past? Are you still alive? Are you in the land of the living? Or the land of the dead?

Somewhere in the distance, a whale was singing. The sound of a mating call. But is it? Couldn’t it be crying out in sadness?

One of the many staring faces, a woman, split from ear to ear, becoming one giant mouth. Small canine teeth crowded the mouth right to the back of its throat. It made a disturbing tearing sound as it gnawed through the invisible wall that protected him. The stench of rotting organs surrounded him. He watched a star explode, followed by a vision of a world full of the microscopic life that was first born to these lands. He slid down its throat, mingled with its gastric juices, before being pushed through its contracting and relaxing intestines. Finally, he was expelled from its anus.

A wave washed over the naked body, the ha, that was soiled with blood and excrement. A simple lump of flesh, it had neither hands nor feet. An enormous wave broke overhead, before bursting into a million water droplets and showering down upon him. His ha began to develop exponentially, its ageing and growth accelerated almost as if being struck by the timefall. Eyes, a mouth, ears and a nose burst forth as it took human form and sprouted both arms and legs.

This child’s special.

The feeling of being held and protected by someone else reassured him, yet… When he looked back up, he was once again surrounded by countless faces.

“Where are you?” he was asked as he began to feel his own body fade away. A bottomless fear crashed over him like a surge of water.

And so, his dream ended.

Now it was time to wake up.