The Wasteland of Rapture

Chapter Six - Finding Out The Truth

Above us, there was a dull glow of lights as a small trickle of electricity found its way to the bulbs above, causing it to constantly flicker. We had found shelter in an old abandoned train line. It was made of high grade titanium and had a dead bolt lock, letting nothing outside in. We didn't have to take turns keeping watch like the last few nights; although it was hard figuring out what was night and what was day around here. My internal body clock was severely screwed. My Pip-Boy told us that it was four in the afternoon when we had fallen asleep the night before. I woke up around two in the morning and, while waiting for Rachel to wake, did a quick inventory check.

We had, between us; thirteen Eve-Hypos, ten Stimpaks, three Health Kits, my Combat Shot gun, Chinese Assault Rifle. Rachel had her oversized Dagger, her Hunting Rifle and her Hammer (we had almost lost it to a particularly angry mother Splicer). It seemed that these Health Kits were more than enough to heal any wound, and were a lot better than the Stimpaks, but it did take a quite a few of them to heal us if something went horribly wrong. After replacing the items into Rachel's backpack and my Pip-Boy, I laid down and thought about the things we had learned since coming here.

It had been three days since we had done our first job for the People of Rapture. It seemed that they wanted to use us to take out certain rebel figure heads. So far we had taken out two particular Splicers, one named Judith Role and another named Gordon Patel. These two had apparently been selling experimental Plasmids on the Black Market, which had been making people either spontaneously combust, or turn themselves inside out. Unfortunately we saw the effects of this Plasmid firsthand.

It seemed that more we travelled through Rapture, the more the Splicers seemed to withstand, and the faster they seemed to recover. Instead of being raging mindless idiots, some seemed to regain some mental abilities, mainly to set traps and use complex weaponry, like sentries, but also to know when to retreat. It seemed odd though, as we didn't even know what had caused these people to turn into these monsters. We had seen many of these crazed mad people scream 'OUT OF ADAM!,' and had even seen it scribbled on walls in eerie red writing, but we had no idea what this substance was. The only connection we had was that ADAM could be connected to EVE somehow.

We had also found a few more tape recorders. Mostly to do with the various missions we had been given, but some set before, it seemed, Rapture had been turned into a hell hole. The accounts were about the area we traveled in, mainly about certain places or events that happened there. But that wasn't the interesting part; it was the date and who they were that was interesting. We had heard an account from a girl from Point Lookout, for example, that had only dated five years ago. Another we had found was from a recently turned ghoul who had just gone under a procedure to turn herself back into a human. And you know the amazing thing? It worked! This one was only around dated two years ago.

This technology alone would be hugely beneficial to the Wasteland, and would help us rebuild it. This city had managed to survive underwater for over three hundred years, and still be ahead of the world in technology. They had obviously been in contact with America over a hundred years ago and people, it seemed, had been living here peacefully for that long. So, what had cause them to make them like this so quickly?

Derailing from my train of thought, a voice boomed out from a pair of speakers, one that we had heard before, but only in recordings.

"Ah, so we finally meet. How are you, by the way? Not treating to many burns?" She asked without sympathy. "Well it doesn't matter if you are. I have a bit of a reward for you. Soon you will be reunited with a certain little girl. Abigail she says her name is. She is one of the eleven girls missing from the Capital Wasteland, is she not?" You could almost hear the grin in her voice "Yes, we know who you are where were you were from. Your friends in the helicopter told us that. We have put this girl in the 'Little Sister Program,' and because you have been so good to us and done the things we have asked, you may free her from this place.

"All you have to do is go up the stairs and in a hallway to your left is a trash can. In that trash can there is a small token of our gratitude; a Plasmid which will make your little girl all better, and your next task. If you complete all of the tasks set, we shall give you the other little girls, eventually. But until then, use the Plasmid on the little sister and then let her fall 'unconscious.' After that a Rapture official will come to collect her and bring her back her, safe and sound."

"Why would we need to use this Plasmid to help her?" I asked, confused.

"We may have done some testing on her to find out a few things. She isn't in any harm, and she is in perfect health, but she will have something wrong with her. You'll see what I mean." She said, I could almost hear her smirk. My eyes widened and my nostrils flared with anger. They had experimented on them! How dare they touch a hair on any of their heads!

"You bitch! What the hell have you done to them?" I shouted at the abandoned train. There was nothing but silence from the speakers. I kicked the titanium door in rage and felt a pain explode in my foot. Rachel chose this point to wake up and began to sleepily rub her eyes.

"What's going on?" she asked, seeing the state I was in.

"Come on, we've got to go!" I said as I opened the door, and almost ran out of the train and up the stairs. Rachel followed, now wide awake, grabbing her hunting rifle and checking for ammo. We had obviously moved while we were sleeping, because we came out into a different place. The sign said Medical Pavilion. I almost threw myself up the stairs and rushed in the half open door. I looked around the hallway and pulled my Combat Shotgun out. I saw the trash can and opened it hastily; it contained a Syringe full of green and brown liquid. I fished it out and was about to jab it into my arm, but stopped as a voice called out to me.

"Don't!" It called. Both me and Rachel spun round and pointed our guns at a single Splicer. But... it wasn't a Splicer. She was a woman in her mid thirties, her face was pale, almost was most of Rapture's citizens, but it wasn't deformed. Quite the opposite in fact, it looked like a sculpture and carved it a brought it to life. She wore a leather jacket, rough jeans and a pilot's helmet, which tried to hide her pitch black hair.

"Don't. You really don't want to use that if you want to save those little girls." She said, looking into my eyes, then at the Plasmid now in my pocket.

"What?" I asked her.

"That Plasmid will kill those girls if you use it on them. That announcer that keeps talking to you, trust me, she is more evil than she makes out to be. Try to find out as much as you can about this place, and use this Plasmid instead." She spoke sincerely. I looked at her, no longer angry, but confused. She simply pulled something of her back pocket, another syringe of pure blue liquid, and walked over and handed it to me.

"Now I must go. That Plasmid will cause the ADAM slug to die inside her and cause her to change back into her old self again. Please, when she goes back to normal, tell her to come and find 'Mother Tenenbaum,' she will know what to do." She looked around wearily and began to run away from them.

"Wait, please explain!" I asked, frantically. She stopped and looked around, tilted her head, almost like she was trying to hear something. Suddenly her eyes widened.

"There is no time. I must leave now. We shall find meet again. Good bye and good luck!" She called as she began to run to the left of the hallway and around a corner.

I tried to run after her, but I was halted by a noise. It was a moaning, deep and menacingly powerful. It was coming around the right corner, and it sounded close. I stared in horror as I saw a huge black shadow form, closely followed something monstrous.

It was at least eight feet tall, covered in a bronze metal similar to Rachel's. The only thing that wasn't covered in metal was his hands, which were rough leather, and his visor, which was similar to a porthole, made of thick glass and covered with a metal grate. Under his glass visor was an ominous green light. A huge ugly bloodstained drill on one hand and a fist full of fire in the second.

But the only thing that truly interested me was the girl on his shoulder, who was only around eight and wore a dirty yellow dress, which was in contrast with her violent and demonic yellow eyes. That girl was Abigail. She was one of the eleven girls I had to rescue.

Without a second thought, I plunged the blue Plasmid into my wrist and felt the familiar pain run through my body. I grit my teeth, and pushed away the pain, the adrenaline taking it away and giving me the energy for the fight.

I threw myself at the Big Daddy with full force, knowing that it had no way of escaping an electric shock, and a few blasts from my Combat Shotgun. I delivered and watched as the beast barely flinched. I swore, and I tried again. But, as I was powering up my Plasmid, he fired himself at me with a velocity unlike I have ever seen. His head connected with my chest and I flew backwards and hit my head on the opposite wall. I felt something crack under the impact and saw that most of my fingers on my right hand were broken.

Not feeling the pain because of the adrenaline pumping inside me, I jumped to my feet and ran at the brute, which was being distracted by Rachel and her hammer. She managed to swing and hit it in the port hole, causing a big crack to form on its porthole. Again she hit it and it finally smashed, the glass shard littering the ground below it. It screamed in agony, and the little sister on its back jumped off and tried to run to a nearby trash can to hide behind. Seizing my chance I conjured up ice in my hand and threw a fist of it straight into the Big Daddy's broken porthole. It moaned as it was frozen from the inside out. I picked up my Combat Shotgun I had dropped and was about to fire it into the beasts broken and frozen body when the sound of cracking was heard. Puzzled, I took aim then...

Whack!

My body flew up into the air as it had been propelled with a giant drill. I fell back to the ground with a thump, and found a very angry Daddy staring down at me. He lifted his foot up, and I was in no way able to move, due to lack of energy. He brought his foot down, but it didn't connect. A sharp pain in my arm, and a less than re-assuring crack, alerted me to the fact that Rachel had just hit me like a hockey puck across the floor with her hammer.

I managed to look to my left with my remaining energy to see that Rachel had just lost a battle of strength against the brute, and her hammer lay a few feet away from her grasp. But not the Combat Shotgun. She saw it and dove to grab it. The Big Daddy nearly took her head off as he came whizzing past, trying to knock her over. She spun around and saw that the Big Daddy was about to take another run at her, only with a fully revved drill. She beaded herself and let the Big Daddy run at her.

But, just at the last second, she jumped up in the air, higher than he had seen anyone do, and landed on the Daddy's porthole face. He stopped and she gripped on with one hand, while putting the gun muzzle into the beasts exposed porthole. She fired, once, twice, three times before he died. She jumped off his dark form and stood over to the little girl. She began to run, but Rachel caught up to her. She trapped her arm and began to pull her over to me. That's when my body gave out and I fell unconscious.

.~.~.~.~.

AN: Hey everyone! I realise that the updates have almost been non-existent, but I've had a lot to do in-between them. I would like to thank everyone who is keeping up with this story and being patient with me, especially my wonderful beta-reader, Sarcasticrocker86. I promise to get another update as soon as possible guys!

Till next time,

Umbra-Luna :D