Rapture: Sanctuary
Page 5
The glass around Austin revealed the rest of Rapture and the endless dark blue beyond it. It was a sobering sight. In every direction there was nothing. He was reminded of just how isolated the underwater city was.
Austin and Emily reached the Rapture Welcome Center. It was in bad shape. Once immaculate and used as an introduction to the underwater city, pieces of the whole place were falling apart. Even the huge statue of Atlas (the myth not the man) bearing the weight of the world was in rough shape.
“Huh,” Emily, still in a weird state of mind wandered over to a neon sign next to the huge statue that filled most of the room. On it read: “Happy New Years 1959”. “Look, it's still intact.”
“That's great. Let's go. The entrance to the Footlight is right over here,” Austin motioned for Emily to come over to him.
Emily turned away from the neon sign and went over to join her husband when she heard a gunshot. Her dress, around the bottom of her right rib cage was wet. She looked up at her husband and saw him screaming while firing in the direction just above her head.
I didn't hear an alarm. Austin emptied his revolver's cylinder into the security bot that hovered just above and behind Emily. He aimed for its helicopter like rotors. Six bullets were just enough to take the flying gun out of the air. Smoke from short circuited wires and out of control rotors made the lethal little machine fly into a wall.
“Stay with me Emily,” pleaded Austin as he caught his wife just before she collapsed on the floor. He looked at her wound. It wasn't good. He'd seen one or two like it before during the war. Her blood was very dark. Most likely she was shot in the liver. Without immediate medical attention, she was as good as dead.
“The demons are afraid of us brothers! Let's kill it!” Austin heard splicers. But he couldn't see them. That meant he still had some time. First he needed to get Emily to safety.
“Run! Run, run as fast as you can. We can run as fast as the gingerbread man!” laughed another female splicer's voice. A dozen or so set of footsteps came along with her crazed speech.
“I can't,” said Emily. Blood loss was starting to take its toll. Her arms and legs felt weak. Her mind was foggy. That's when she saw what she thought was a hallucination.
“Shit! Okay, hide over here. Maybe we can hide. If not,” Austin pointed behind himself. There were some turned over benches that he and Emily could have possibly hid behind. Then he checked the bullets in his gun.
“It's a little girl,” said Emily. She started slowly walking in the direction of the oncoming splicers with one hand extended out.
What'd she say? “What?” Austin looked up and realized that his wife wasn't behind him getting into cover but instead she headed straight towards the danger. “Emily!”
Before Austin could bring his wife back, something came running out of the Footlight Theater entrance. It was a Big Daddy. The lights on its helmet were red indicating that it was there to do harm.
Austin tried shooting the Big Daddy but it was angry and determined. The engineer was pushed violently out of the way. His head collided with the wall, the collision almost made him loose consciousness. There on the floor with blood running down the back of his head he saw that Emily was directly in the path of the rampaging beast.
“It's okay. You'll be safe,” Emily kept her hand out. “What's your-” She felt the oddest sensation in her gut. After looking down she saw the source. The pointy end of spinning drill longer than a baseball bat stuck out her stomach. Thankfully she felt next to nothing before dying.
“Nooo! Emily!” Austin tried to crawl over to his dead wife. After she fell he saw what she held her hand out to. A scared looking little girl ran over and hugged the Big Daddy's leg.
The last thing Austin saw before passing out was the mob of splicers running from something. A Big Sister was close behind them taking bullets and swinging its jack hammer arm. One of the splicers was under the effects of plasmids. It set the monster ablaze.
The Big Daddy who killed Emily joined the fight. An all-out skirmish broke out in the Rapture Welcome center. Austin didn't care. He just kept crawling towards his dead wife whose lifeless eyes stared at him in disbelief and confusion.
“I'm sorry.” When Austin reached Emily he picked her up and held her while still on the floor. “I'm so sorry,” he cried as his wife's insides oozed onto his lap and the floor. “We should've left earlier. This is all my fault. All of it.” The engineer didn't care about splicers. He didn't care about Big Daddies or Sisters. The only thing he cared about was dead in his arms. In that moment he cursed Rapture. He cursed Andrew Ryan. And he swore that he'd destroy the underwater hell that took so much from him.
A female splicer wearing a domino mask with smeared lip stick and eye liner underneath spotted Austin and Emily. She disengaged with the Big Daddy and Sister to investigate further.
“Peek-a-boo, I see you!” laughed the female splicer just before kicking Austin in his face, knocking him out.
Austin had to catch his breath after removing the diving suit. Everything ached and his energy reserves were near depleted. He needed to hurry and get the last bomb planted before he had no gas left.
The Rapture Welcome Center wasn't one of his favorite places for obvious reasons. He couldn't even bring himself to look at the spot where Emily died, let alone take one step. Even in his weakened state he hurried through the room.
It's almost like nothing happened. Austin passed the neon New Years sign that hadn't changed since the fall of Rapture. He also stepped over the remains of a Big Sister. Under its diving suit he could smell the rot of human decay.
Austin was careful to avoid any security cameras or turrets. The last thing he wanted was to be gunned done while so close to finishing his mission. Finally he reached the entrance doors.
Before Austin was the Bathysphere Station. It was a large room, not unlike the inside of a train station. Above it was a ceiling of glass. That's where he'd have to plant the last bomb.
Climbing up to the ceiling was difficult in the best of conditions. As weak as he was, Austin almost fell trying to clamber over the stacked benches, trash cans and discarded luggage he used to get that high. Somehow he managed to tape the bomb to the glass and get back down safely.
It may be way too late honey. But I'm gonna make it Emily. I'm leaving. Austin limped up stairs, through hallways until he got to one of the bathysphere docks. From the blueprints he memorized he knew that that particular one led to the lighthouse he originally arrived in. He laughed and leaned up against the wall and stared at it.
“Now to get you working,” said Austin out loud as he limped over to a control panel. It was very dark in the bathysphere dock. Only a single flickering light above provided any illumination. But it was enough.
Austin did it. He managed to reactivate the bathysphere. All he had to do was call it down from the surface. Then once he got above the waves he'd trigger the bombs he toiled so hard to plant. Unfortunately there was one last obstacle.
You've got to be kidding me. “Wherrrrrrre do you think you're going handsome?” Austin was discovered by a female splicer. He couldn't tell due to the bag and bandages around her head and face, but she sounded just like the one that kicked him in the face a little over a year earlier. Further plasmid use must've taken its toll on her, as it did all splicers.
The female splicer had a wrench in her hand. Even in the dark, Austin could see the dry blood on it. They both looked at each other before the mutated freak pounced.
Austin ducked the first blow. But with a concussion and so severely injured, that was the highlight of the fight for him. He proceeded to take several hits to his body, breaking his arm and some more ribs.
“We aren't going to stop the party just because of a little rain,” said Austin with a smile as he took out his detonator. His finger reached for the trigger. Then he took a direct blow to his head.
Austin stumbled backwards, until his back hit a wall draped in shadow. He tried using the detonator but his han
ds weren't listening to him. Blood streamed down his face. Everything started to go black.
As Austin slowly slipped into the cold embrace of death he saw another splicer, one with meat hooks crawl across the ceiling towards his killer. Then he heard the sound of an arriving bathysphere. The meat hook wielding splicer sliced up the female one with the utmost ease. Curiously it then left. Perhaps murder was the only reason it was there.
The last thing Austin saw before dying was the bathysphere dock door opening. Out walked a strong looking young man who was absolutely soaked. The detonator fell out of Austin's hand.
“It's okay baby. Just let go,” Austin heard Emily's voice in his head as the world was replaced with black. “Let go.”