Chapter 11: A Devastating Liberation

Jamie shouted out to Murphy until he heard an annoyed, raspy voice mutter 'shut up', and a dull thud resounded through his head. He couldn't remember much more than purple lights and darkness after that, until his consciousness bubbled back up from the recesses of his brain. A throbbing headache was rooted into the back of his head, and his vision was blurred despite his efforts to blink away the dazedness. He was cold and his heart was racing, the two feelings combining to make his teeth chatter uncontrollably. Slowly, he was able to take in the room around him. He noticed that he was kneeling on a tough fabric mat, and it was dark – was it night-time already? His gaze explored upwards lazily, and he saw that the whole floor was one large mat. A heavy desk made a depression on the floor, and to his right was a chaise longue. Without shifting his weight, he looked over his shoulder. A timer was counting down on a large holoscreen, now at the thirty-five-second mark. Behind, tinted ceiling-to-floor windows occluded the shining mountains and the Heart Lake – it was still daytime. He turned back around, shaking, and noticed a white light. As his eyes focused, he gasped, and his eyes filled with tears.

A cross, made of fluorescent tubing radiated a white light. With his arms hanging on each side, Sam was there. Tied to it. His head hung. Tubes were connected to his forearms and wrists, taking blood and giving intra-venous fluids. At his feet, a man was slumped over, head resting on the far wall. He was dressed in a blue suit, with a yellow belt slung over his back. A high pitched whirring started in the far corner of the room, then a robotic voice,

Administering shock. Stand clear.

The man's legs spasmed, toppling him over backwards to the soft floor. A moment passed, and with a tired grunt, he stood up. Jamie recognised his face from the hologram he'd seen on the Cuff-Link: Heartman.

The Beach Scientist sighed, "I told you to stay at the roboticist's shelter."

Jamie kept his mouth shut, his teeth still chattering as he put the pieces together in his brain. Heartman let them kill Murphy.

He continued, "I told you not to come. This could've all been avoided. I've got five corpses outside, another inside and one of my guys is tending a broken arm because of your porter friend. Now I've gotta get the mess outside cleaned up before the reversal so I can send pictures to McClane."

"Th-th-the UCA will f-f-f-find out."

"How? They know that you went headfirst into terrorist forces. It only makes sense that they made short work of you. 10 terrorists against a cop and a porter- you took all eyes off me. Now I can continue my work, fix what's been broken."

"You're the one destroying everything," Jamie spat. "K-keeping Sam here, using him to cause the Reversal-"

"Cause the Reversal?" Heartman scoffed. He took a step towards Jamie, pointing a thumb to his chest, "I'm stopping it, Coelho."

Jamie frowned, not knowing if he was being mocked. Heartman raised his eyebrows, nodding slowly, and thrusting a thumb towards the bright yellow device on his chest, "Do you know why I have this defibrillator? I lost my family in the First Stranding, as I was getting heart surgery. While the doctors were reviving me, I spent a few moments at the Beach, and I realised that my wife and my daughter were somewhere up there too. They just needed to be found, and after years of research… I did."

A goosebump ran through Jamie's spine, and he suddenly realised why he was so cold. There was something else in the room with them. The higher corners of the room furthest from him seemed eerily warped in the darkness.

Heartman turned around with his head held high, his gaze wandering around the room's ceiling, "I found the souls of my family, and on the night of the first Reversal, I was able to bring them back. I don't know why it actually started, maybe something happened when Sam stopped the Last Stranding… maybe the Extinction Entity's surrender made tears in that dying dimension that broke through to our world. No matter. I made the best of it and reached through. I pulled my family to this world. All that was left was to bring back their bodies, and that's where he came in. I needed his body," he said as he pointed at Sam.

"Higgs left behind an enormous following without leadership. It was a matter of hours before I was able to assemble a small team. I reached through to the Beach gain and brought with me its upwards pull. I made chiral boots that were linked to the Beach that could help the Homo Finale to extract Sam. Now, I'm working to use the body of the only repatriate we know, to repatriate those who are gone."

"By u-s-sing his blood? Why are you giving it to the terrorists?"

Heartman chuckled, "I'll let you in on a secret: to humans, Sam's blood acts like regular blood. The effect that it has on BTs is still impossible to measure and understand; but for us, different blood types don't mix… and mismatches are generally lethal. So the Homo Finale use it as a misled, deadly rite of passage. Luckily, Sam's blood type is fairly common, so there aren't too many Homo Demens dying from blood clots in the Western Valley. I guess they wouldn't see it as a rite of passage if it didn't kill a few… The good thing is that I have a group of fanatics who – in their zealotry, protect me from the prying eyes of the UCA."

The Beach Scientist smiled down eerily at Jamie, his arms dangling at his sides. He turned back around to look at the room's ceiling. Jamie didn't know what to say. The cold had seeped into his bones and he found it hard to think. He almost felt like he could see the twisted faces of BTs appear in the darkest corners of the room, despite knowing he wasn't able to do that without the BB connected to his spinal cord. Heartman spoke up again, "It's only a matter of time before I figure out how to replicate Sam's ability to repatriate in other souls, then death will be a thing of the past." He looked at his watch and sighed, "I think I want to see my family for a spell. Forgive me, I'll be gone for a couple of minutes."

He gave Jamie a smile that lasted for only a moment before his face faded back into an apathetic blank slate. As if everything else in the room had vanished, Heartman walked over to the chaise longue. It was covered in the same dark blue padding that the rest of the room's floor had, and it puffed up before he touched it, letting him come to rest on its surface slowly and comfortably. As he laid his head down on the pillow, the defibrillator on his chest lit up and beeped at the rhythm of his heart.

A synthesized voice echoed through the room. Inducing cardiac arrest in ten seconds. Find a stable and comfortable position… five… four… three… two…

A high-pitched whirr emanated from the defibrillator, and Heartman let out a long sigh, deflating on the bed. He was dead. Jamie felt a second wave of chills rush over him, and he started hearing disembodied whispers come from the room's ceiling. He turned around to face the large display and his heart skipped a beat; there was a 3-minute timer filling the holo-display overlooking the Heart Lake, counting down steadily. It might be his only chance to make a run for it.

With all the gear he had on, it would be impossible to worm his arms under his legs and in front of him, so he clumsily stood up and walked around the room, looking for a key to open the cuffs, or something sturdy in the shape of a rod that he could use to force his hand through one of the openings – if it cost him a few broken bones, it would be much less than what might happen if he stayed cuffed. As he went, he heard a weak coughing and looked up at a waking Sam. Jamie walked over, reminding himself of the file he had read about the Porter before attempting to touch him. Aphenphosmphobia.

"Sam Porter, I'm here to get you out of here," Jamie said, his tone unsure.

Sam sputtered and gave Jamie a rue smile. His lips were parched, and they cracked as they stretched, "You and what army?" he croaked.

"I just need to get free. We can send a message to the UCA through any of the electronics here."

Sam's gaze wandered around the room. His exhaustion was palpable, "You won't have enough time to get us out of here before he wakes, and if he's gone for more than three minutes, the Homo Finale will come to investigate. We have to get him to keep you alive for another period and move on from there. I saw the terrorists give him a key when they handed you over. It should be on his desk… but don't get it now! If he catches wind of our plan, we're screwed."

"What should I do, then?"

"Keep him talking. He's gonna go through another cycle in twenty minutes. Now, go to where you were before."

Administering shock. Stand clear.

Jamie was kneeling when the electric thud resounded through the room. Peering at Sam, he saw the Porter had hung his head, perhaps acting, perhaps truly unconscious. Heartman took a deep breath as he sat up on the chaise longue.

"Well," he sighed as he got up and walked back over to Jamie, "I can't halt my research for much longer. Every day that we have to go through the Reversal puts more strain on the UCA's infrastructure. The president will smell something rotten if he doesn't hear from you for too long, and it won't be enough to show him only Murphy, so I'll just have to give you over to the Finales… unless… you could actually get suspicions off of the Heart Lake for good. You'd just have to go back to the roboticist, say that Murphy was killed in action, and that the terrorists are coming from the mountains further South."

Jamie made a face, "why would I want to help you after what you've done?"

Heartman sputtered out a short laugh. He walked non-chalantly to the computer on his desk. The key that Sam had mentioned glistened as Heartman moved it across the desk's surface, "Because you'd get to live, and I would be able to finish my research. Think, Jamie."

Jamie eyed the files that Heartman brought up, unable to understand the datasets that flowed through the screen. Keep him talking. "You've done enough damage as it is. You have a choice right now. You can stop all of this yourself."

"A choice?" Heartman said, incredulous. He turned to look at Coelho again. "I'm on the verge of bringing the people I love most in this world back from the dead, and you're saying I have a choice?"

Jamie glared at the Beach Scientist. His hatred for the man seeped into his words as he sneered, "It's selfish. You're taking away your family's rest for your own benefit. You're destroying the world over your delusion."

"There's nothing selfish about this," Heartman gestured decisively. "Everything I've done since the first Stranding, I did more than just for me – for everyone else. If I chose to be a hawk, it was only out of love for the worms. I can see further than anyone else ever has in the Beach. I know the great things that can be done! Did you know that Sam ended the Stranding? All Timefall stopped on that night the Reversal started. What makes you think the Reversal itself can't be stopped?"

He inched closer. He was so close that Jamie could smell Heartman's minty breath, "Come to think about it, if I can bring back my family, I can bring back yours," Heartman tilted his head to the side inquisitively, "Do you miss someone? Your grandparents, your friends back at Citadel Security?" He bent lower, so their eyes were level, "Do you miss Murphy? She was a good person. It's a shame that the Finales went and killed her, for sure, but if you stick with me – if you trust me to find a solution to all of this, I can bring her back."

Something clicked in Jamie's mind and he started to chuckle, shaking his head, "Now I know what rubbed me the wrong way with what you've been saying… the Reversal has nothing to do with Sam."

"That isn't possible. He's the only living being that is directly tied to the Extinction Entity, the only repatriate."

"But it's not about him!" Jamie smiled mockingly. The adrenaline in his veins started to stave off the cold in the room. "I have DOOMs, I've seen the Beach myself, and I've talked with the woman there. She said that the Beach is missing two souls, and that it wants them back. Now I know what two souls she was talking about… she meant the ones you brought back and have floating around in this room. You caused the Reversal."

"No," Heartman stood up, pointing a menacing finger at Jamie, "No, I'm working to stop all of this, to bring back my family… to beat death."

"Look at yourself," Jamie grinned from ear to ear, "You're a half dead, failed scientist bleeding a hero to death to do something that can't be done. The Reversal is the Beach reaching back to claim what belongs to it, and you hope to stop it by trying to, what? Materialize two bodies out of someone else's blood?"

"Shut up," Heartman murmured as he stepped closer.

"Your family is dead, Heartman. Murphy is dead. There is no way that they can be brought back, and no amount of research will change-"

Jamie was interrupted by a fist making contact with his cheekbone. The punch followed through, making him fall over on to puffed up padding. He was about to start talking again when another blow landed on his face, the another, then another.

After what felt like minutes, Heartman let up, panting. He wiped his hands on his blue jacket and walked back to his desk. Deep in anxious thought, he put a bloody hand on his chin. The lab was silent apart from the beeping of various electronics and Jamie's laboured breathing.

The minutes went by painfully slowly until Jamie spoke up once more, "You'll never see your wife or your daughter again."

At that, Heartman dashed over to Jamie and the beating continued. The sounds of fists meeting flesh resounded through the room, almost drowning out the synthesized voice that came from the room's speakers. Five… four… three… two…

Heartman fell limp on top of Jamie. He started to laugh as he pushed the dead scientist away and got up. A long string of blood dangled from his lower lip, and his face was purple and swollen, and the laughter slowly turned into sobbing. He walked over to the desk and looked over its surface with the one eye he could keep open. He turned around to sit on the desk and grabbed the keys with his cuffed hands. Deftly, he was able to release them, and he activated his Cuff-Link. President McClane's face appeared on the holographic display.

"Coelho… my God, what happened to you?"

"There's no time to explain. We need to extract Sam. I am in Heartman's laboratory."

Before the president could answer, an ethereal ringing, followed by a dull thud filled the room. Fragile stood in front of Sam, removing the needles in his veins. She turned for a moment to give Jamie a nod before she spoke something he couldn't hear to Sam, and they both disappeared.

McClane spoke up again, "Coelho, stay put. Fragile will be there with you shortly."

The ringing came again, and Fragile appeared right where she had been a few seconds ago. She walked over to Jamie, tears streaming down her cheeks.

"I'm going to take you back to Capital City's hospital. We're going to go through my beach, so this will be uncomfortable. Close your eyes, and picture the hospital lobby, Jamie."

Chiral allergies assaulted Jamie's eyes, and he felt an inverted pressure pulling at his skin and stealing the air out of his lungs. All the while, a loud ringing filled his ears, and before he knew it, it all stopped. He was standing in the middle of Capital City's hospital. Some people were startled by their appearance, but most didn't notice and kept going on about their day. It was strange, almost deafening to be in such a densely populated place. He could now barely see through his less swollen eye and having teleported from Heartman's lab had left him completely disoriented. He hadn't noticed that Fragile had taken his hand and was leading him down a corridor. They entered a room to find Sam in a hospital bed, with Deadman and President McClane looming over him. Fragile walked out of the room.

The President walked towards Jamie and gave him a worried look, "Thank you for your service, Coelho. I think you've earned some much-needed resting time."

"No, sir. Heartman can still come back. God knows how much damage he can do now that he's been found out."

The thud of Fragile teleporting reached Jamie's ears. McClane sighed and looked somewhere behind Jamie before nodding, "Fragile already disconnected his defibrillator. He won't be coming back."

"Then we need to return the souls he's taken from the Beach, or the Reversal will never stop."

McClane frowned, "What are you talking about, son? Sam is back."

Jamie shook his head and started to back away, "We still have a few hours of daylight left. Check the logs on my Cuff-Link. Everything is there." He turned and saw Fragile, "I need you to help me find somebody who can drain these bruises, then I'll need you to take me to the Roboticist's shelter. This isn't over yet."