Rapture: Sanctuary

by Dustin Brubaker

  The plasmid wielding splicer didn't pay Austin any mind. He was too fixated on his fix. Austin used that distraction to his advantage. After managing to stand up he aimed his shotgun at the freak.

  A sudden blow to Austin's shotgun knocked the firearm out of his hands. One of the other splicers weren't as dead as they appeared. Still smoking from its electrocution, the mutant appeared to be in a frenzy. It swung the butt of a machine gun wildly at the former engineer/soldier.

  Austin did his best to avoid being struck by the machine gun butt. But he took a hit to his head that may have caused a concussion. Satisfied that he was knocked down and out, the splicer shifted its attention to the Little Sister.

  “She's mine!” yelled the plasmid wielding splicer before shocking his fellow freak with another arc of electricity. It was enough to kill him.

  On the floor, Austin picked up his shotgun. From his back he aimed it at the plasmid wielding splicer. Before he took one of the shocks, Austin fired two slugs. Both hit their mark killing the freak instantly.

  “We aren't going to stop the party just because of a little rain.” Austin briefly considered giving up. He'd just lay there and wait for death to come to him. It would certainly be easier. What would Emily think of him if he gave up?

  Getting up again was an unenviable task. Every part of Austin's body ached. Certain areas, such as his back, head, leg and especially his chest were exceptionally painful. How he was going to make it to the weak spot on the wall without completely collapsing was beyond him. How he was going to make it to the bathysphere was even more of a mystery. They were both conundrums he intended to solve.

  Austin looked and saw a wide pair of glowing eyes staring at him. They belonged to the Little Sister he saved. She stared at him for a few minutes before disappearing into the vents.

  Why did I go through that to save her? She's just going to die anyway when I blow this place back to hell. Even though he knew that the Little Sister was going to die soon, there was something about watching it happen that he couldn't accept. Of all the freaks and mutants of Rapture, the Little Sisters didn't have a choice in what they were.

  Austin couldn't walk in a straight line. He was dizzy. Every labored breath was laced with the sharp pain of his broken rib stabbing at his lungs. Carrying his bag with the last two homemade bombs in it strained his injured back. To make matters worse, the bottom of his shoes were covered in splicer and Big Daddy blood.

  The weakest portion of the wall in the Fontaine's Fishery was located in the man's office, high above the fishery floor. From the state of the small room it was clear it was rarely used. There was nothing but a few papers, a rolling chair and an ancient cup of coffee.

  Austin plopped down on the rolling chair. Though it allowed him to rest it also agitated his ribs which made him yell some profanities. Once the pain was bearable he reached into his bomb bag and took out one of the explosives and the roll of duct tape.

  One more to go. Austin planted his second to last bomb. That left only one final destination. He needed to make it to the Bathysphere Station. Getting there on foot was a near impossibility. If he ran into any hostiles he wouldn't be able to defend himself or run away. But there was another way.

  Austin returned to the Metro. Whether it was his concussion or just a lapse in memory, he couldn't find the entrance to the bathysphere tracks. It took about fifteen minutes of looking before he found the circular sealed doors. On the floor next to it laid a dead man. He was dressed in a diving suit.

  CHAPTER 7

  “Is this Mr. Andrew Richards?” asked the coroner. Appropriately grim, the man looked at Austin and waited for a response.

  Austin looked down at the corpse of his best friend. As sad as he was he couldn't cry. Shock was the ruling emotion of the moment.

  “I think so,” Austin answered in a hushed voice.

  “I'm sorry?”

  “That's him.” Emily's face was buried in her husband's chest as she sobbed uncontrollably. Austin stroked the top of her head as he confirmed for the coroner that the dead body was indeed Andy.

  The coroner nodded at his assist on the other side of the viewing glass. The younger man pulled the white sheet back up over Andy's chest and face.

  “I know this isn't the best time. But there are arrangements that need to be made Mr. Lowe. We can have the body transported to the Twilight Fields funeral home is you wish. Or if there are other arrangements you want to make. Perhaps you want the boy shipped out of Rapture to family?”

  “Yeah, okay, sure,” Austin didn't really hear a word that the coroner said.

  “Very well. I'll give you some time to think it over. Please just call within twenty four hours and let us know. Sorry for your loss,” said the coroner before excusing himself from the room.

  “Emily, Emily,” Austin tried to get his wife's attention. “We need to leave. It's not safe being out this late.”

  Emily pried herself from her husband. “I can't just leave him here.” She walked up and placed her hand on the viewing glass. “All my life, he raised me, protected me. I can't just abandon him.”

  I know honey. I know. Austin lovingly put his hands on her shoulders and guided her away from the glass. “You're not abandoning him. He's dead. I'm sorry but its reality. The last thing I think he would want for you is to risk your safety staying here any longer then you have to.”

  The Medical Pavilion was one of the only places in the city that was fully staffed and very much in business. It had to be. Fontaine, Ryan and Atlas's civil war was tearing Rapture apart. All that fighting made for a steady stream of patients with stab, slice, gunshot and blunt force trauma wounds.

  There were victims of the fighting everywhere. Austin held Emily tighter as the hallways got more and more congested. He tried to ignore the crying, moaning and screams of pain as people waited to see a doctor. Nurses ran frantically ran back and forth. One almost barreled through the married couple.

  Austin had to stay strong. He had to ignore the horrendous memories of his time in the Pacific that all the blood sent rushing back into his thoughts. Back before Rapture seeing the scene in the Medical Pavilion would have sent him straight to the bar. If he was honest, a stiff drink was all he wanted for months.

  By the time Austin and Emily reached the Medical Pavilion entrance, their shoes were covered in blood. They were both drained of emotion and ready to go to bed. All they needed to do was get home in one piece. Which was much easier said than done.

  There were some more people outside the Medical Pavilion. Most were bringing people inside. Andrew Ryan hired some men to guard the complex. They stood sentinel with Thompson sub machine guns in hand. Their protection only extended to the immediate area. Once Emily and Austin got about fifty yards away, they were all alone.

  This is getting creepy. Austin, with his arm still around his wife, exited the Medical Pavilion to an empty Rapture. It was quiet enough for the two of them to hear the ocean beyond the walls. Occasionally they heard gunshots. Each one made their hearts skip a beat.

  That quiet was a trick. Austin knew that he could turn a corner and find trouble. So getting back to their apartments as quickly as possible was of the utmost importance. They could grieve once they were in the relative safety of their apartment.

  There were multiple dangers lurking around Rapture in those days. Fontaine, Atlas and Andrew Ryan's men regularly engaged in skirmishes that too often took civilian lives. ADAM addicts turned to earlier version of the splicers that would later rule the underwater city. The rich even resorted to splicing and plasmids as Atlas's men raided their homes. A chaotic future was not only well within sight, but inevitable.

  With most of the bathysphere's shut down, leaving Rapture was nearly impossible. Only the richest and most connected managed to get out. Everyone else had to endure the civil war and hope for the best.

  Austin did his best to move fast. Emily was still too devastated to think clearly let alone care about who or what they might run into. H
er husband knew that they could encounter erratic mentally disturbed splicers, Ryan's men or even the Big Daddy’s who were once seen as a sign of Rapture's strength.

  “What is that?” Emily stopped crying and wiped her nose. She heard men's voices. It was hard not to. Amplified by a bullhorn and cavernous corridors, anyone within a mile in either direction could of heard them.

  Great. Just what we needed. Austin hadn't yet become accustom to traveling in the shadows and silence. And he laid eyes on hat stood between them and their apartment. There was a whole crowd of weapon wielding men. Standing above them, on some crates, with bullhorn in hand was Atlas, the so called leader of the common man.

  “Ryan speaks of social parasites and how they destroy societies. Then he goes and invites them into his utopia, his Rapture,” Atlas pointed at Austin and Emily's apartment building. All around him there was crowd of angry men and women. Most were from the lowest tier of the underwater society.

  “These are the real parasites! These are the one's profiting off your hard work! Your sweat! Your tears! Your suffering! Join me in showing them that no longer will their crimes go unpunished. No longer will they step over us on their way back to their luxury apartments! No longer will we be quiet as they take our children, brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers and turn them into those crazed junkies! It ends now! Are you with me!?” yelled Atlas. The mob, worked into a frenzy, yelled back in agreement. Together they stormed towards the apartments.

  Austin saw the wide eyes of his scared neighbors stare out their windows at the extremely angry mob trying to break into the building. They were helpless. If he and Emily hadn't been called down to the morgue two hours earlier, they'd be stuck in there with them.

  It's time to leave. Austin knew there was no way to get around the mob. And even if he and Emily did, they'd just force their way inside the apartment. The only choice was to run and hide until things died down. He couldn't fathom the idea that things wouldn't get better.

  “Where are we going to go?” asked Emily as Austin almost dragged her away before someone spotted them.

  “I don't know.” I really don't.

  As their homes were raided and neighbors beaten and/or killed, Emily and Austin fled. The former's grief was replaced with alertness. The latter desperately tried to rack his brain for someplace safe that they could hide out in.

  Where can we go that will be safe? We need someplace with automate security and plenty of places to hide. “The theater,” said Austin.

  “What? This isn't the time for-”

  “No, we can hide there. I can rig the turrets in the Welcome Center and we can hide in the Footlight Theater. Most of the splicers and the fighting are deeper in Rapture. That may be the only safe place.”

  Emily didn't say anything she just went along with her husband. What he proposed made sense and she wasn't in the right mind to make rational decisions. Within the previous couple of hours she learned her brother was dead and her home was taken from her.

  “It's going to be okay honey.” Austin and Emily walked for ten minutes before he spoke up.

  “No it's not,” said Emily in a beaten emotionless voice. It was one that Austin never heard before. Gone was the energy and rambunctiousness that made him fall so hard for her.

  I guess everyone had their limit. Austin rubbed her upper arm. “It will be. Trust me. We'll get through this and go back to the life we built for ourselves.”

  “Don't. Please just don't.”

  “What?”

  “Don't act like this isn't the end. Rapture's over. You need to accept it so we can get out of this fucking place.” That was the first time in three years that Austin heard Emily curse.

  “It'll get better.” That's it. Just keep repeating the same thing. Stay in denial.

  “How about your family?” asked Emily. “I know how you feel about them but can't they help? Miranda and George managed to get out of the city a couple of days ago because of their connections. Can yours help us leave?”

  And go where? Do what? I'll be damned if I go groveling back to Omaha looking for help. I worked too hard to avoid such embarrassment.

  “I told you, I already tried. But there's no way to get in contact with the outside. We're going to have to wait until-” Austin stopped walking. He stopped his wife as well.

  Down at the end of the corridor, Austin spotted two splicers. They were trying to break into a Gene Bank machine on the wall. There weren't any outlets for he and Emily to hide or go around them. But there was an El Bandito Ammunition machine a couple steps away.

  Austin always thought having machines all around Rapture where a citizen could simply buy a gun as long as they had the money. It seemed extremely dangerous. But Ryan insisted on every person in Rapture being able to defend themselves and their property.

  “Do you have any money on you?” asked Austin as he searched his pockets and found nothing.

  “Why would I have any money?”

  “That's okay. I think I can hack it. This way,” Austin motioned for Emily to follow him over to the El Bandito Ammunition machine. It greeted them with some gunshots and an obnoxious stereotypical Mexican voice that said something he couldn't understand.

  The two splicers at the end of the corridor heard the El Bandito machine. Both of them stopped trying to get into the Gene Bank and turned their attention to Austin and Emily. One of them laughed before both sprinted as fast they could towards the married couple.

  “Austin, baby,” Emily watched as the splicers got closer.

  “I know.” Austin tried to concentrate and line up the tubes.

  “Baby.”

  “I know, one second.” Austin finally completed the hack. Then he chose a revolver. The firearm was produced along with a box of ammo.

  One of the splicer took out a stick of dynamite. In his insanity he lit it with intentions of blowing himself and the couple up. ADAM warped his mind to the extent that a kamikaze attack for no real reason seemed reasonable.

  Austin loaded the revolver. And did so just in time. If the dynamite waving splicer got any closer the explosion would have killed them. Instead the former soldier tapped into skills he hadn't called upon in over a decade and hit the stick dead on.

  With one shot, Austin managed to take out two splicers. Both were obliterated by the exploding dynamite. The engineer noticed there was damage to corridor as well. The force from the explosion managed to put a crack in one of the walls. Water started to leak through.

  We're lucky that explosion was small. Anything bigger and this whole place could've flooded. Austin made a mental note of the damage. Then he and Emily made for the Welcome Station.

  CHAPTER 8

  The diving suit was heavy and cumbersome in the best of circumstances. All that bulk was necessary. Not only did it keep out the cold but it helped alleviate the intense pressures of the deep ocean. In his injured state, Austin almost wouldn't have minded the frigid temperatures or the pressure. At least it would've been easier to move. As clumsy and uncomfortable as it was, Austin dealt with it. He was so close.

  Concerned that the last bomb would get wet and be rendered unusable, Austin decided to bring it into the diving suit with him. He wrapped it around his waist with the last of his duct tape. It may have been uncomfortable but at least it would be safe.

  With everything sealed, Austin waddled over to the manual control console next to the circular air tight door. Getting through that door would be easy. The difficulty was the second one that needed to be hot-wired.

  A brief wave of stale air washed over Austin's diving suit as he opened the air tight door. On the other side was a small room that served as a dry dock and as a place for bathysphere riders to disembark. He'd been in one before when the transportation system was still up and operational.

  Austin got into the dry dock. The air tight door closed behind him. In front of him was another, more secure and harder to open version. He had to move as fast as he could. There was little strength left in him. At
any moment he feared that his body would fail on him.

  Stripping and tying together the proper wires inside the dry dock controls was very hard to do with the diving suit's gloves. They were thick and lacked dexterity. Like everything else in his life for the previous few years, he made do with he had.

  Okay. Here we go. Austin saw sparks fly as he tied together the two necessary stripped wires. A deep alarm sounded right before water jets on the floor, wall and ceiling started filling the dry dock with sea water. The former engineer had to wait until it was completely full before the inside air tight door opened.

  Austin stood in the doorway that led out to the bathysphere tracks and tunnels. Once used for the Atlantic Express, the tracks were in a state of disrepair. No one had used them in years and maintenance had been ignored even longer. Cracks in the glass and whole pieces missing gave the engineer some pause. He knew that they threatened to buckle under his weight. But he had to try.

  Above him Austin could still see the Atlantic Express tracks. The trains used to hang from rails giving riders the feeling that they were flying. He remembered first riding in one of them. It was just as magical as Ryan intended them to be. Time passed and the bathyspheres became more popular modes of transportation in Rapture.

  Over and around the old Atlantic Express tracks were the half circle structures of the bathysphere tracks. They too suffered from neglect. It looked like the salt water eroded some so much that pieces fell off and broke through the glass floor. Austin tried his best to keep looking up just in case. The last thing he wanted was to be crushed or impaled so close to the finish line.

  One foot in front of the other. You can do this ya jerk. Stay awake. Keep moving. You're almost there. Luckily Austin didn't have to travel far. He just kept up a steady pace.

  Not that he was in any state you appreciate it, but Austin was surrounded by beauty. Through the glass beneath him was he ocean floor. Crabs and isopods crawled along with no clue the horrors that were in the nearby Rapture. All they cared about was scavenging for scraps of food on the ocean floor. Long strands of seaweed moved with the current. Sea anemones, sponges and giant tube worms went about their nearly inanimate lives. Jelly fish casually floated by.