"Christina"

Part 1 of 3

A thump echoed around little Christina and she awoke to the sound. Barely conscious she raised her head and rubbed her eyes. At six years old, Christina was a small and skinny redhead. She felt as though she hadn't slept for ages, but what little sleep she did get was well earned. Her tiny sleeping space was cold and damp, but it provided her with the safety she needed from the harsh world beyond it.

Another thumb sounded and Christina jolted to her knees. She tied her hair back with a small dirty rubber band. She then grabbed a small corner of her dress and wiped the sleep from her eyes. Her stomach growled loudly and she playfully poked it as another rapid succession of thumbs echoed in her tiny sleeping hole.

Christina felt around her dark surroundings and grabbed a long metal pole. Attached to the pole was a handle, and she quickly began to crawl toward the exit of her tight sleeping space. The light ahead clearly showed her exit and a deep groan filled her ears. It was a peaceful sound that Christina loved to hear. She giggled as she neared the edge of the circular exit and she leaned her head out into the lights.

"I'm coming, Mr. Bubbles. Don't be such a pushy-poo." Christina smiled as she looked down at the hulking metal of an ocean deep pressure suit.

The suit was merely a container for a figure that was once a man. No longer capable of speaking or forming regular words, the suit could only verbalize by using deep groans that vibrated the helmet it that it wore. The massive helmet was covered in view ports, but only light escaped them, making it nearly impossible to see the grafted human form inside. Strapped to his back was the equipment and pressurized fluids that kept the man alive and fueled his subservient life. The man was no longer simply a man as his body was no longer a body. He was a Big Daddy.

The Big Daddy reached up with his gloved and gritty left hand and took Christina's tiny hand into his own. He assisted her as she climbed down from the hidey hole which snaked around Rapture like a maze of crisscrossing pipes.

Rapture, even the name was ominous. At one time it was a heaven for the artist and the poor and those who needed to be free of the oppression of the world governments. But now, after an underwater war, Rapture was simply a pile of ruin on the bottom of the ocean floor. Water dripped all over, sections of the 'city beneath the sea' had to be closed because of flooding, and the city's founder was insane psychopath. Yet many called him a revolutionary dreamer. Andrew Ryan had many titles, but one thing was for sure… he was dead.

Christina happily landed at the Big Daddy's side and looked around. Her eyes glowed from the energy of the ADAM within her, fueled by the parasitic sea slug that rested against her belly. The slug was now a complete part of Christina, and for the most part she ignored the slimy creature inside of her as it turned anything she ate into ADAM, the most precious substance in Rapture. Christina was a Gatherer, or commonly known as a Little Sister. And her tool of the trade was the long metal probe that she clutched in her hands. At then of the probe was a bottle used to collect the used ADAM from hosts.

Christina looked to her large protector and cheerfully shouted. "Hipiddy-Hop Mr. B. We need to find the ADAM." With a rumbled echo the giant Big Daddy began to walk ahead of Christina as she looked around the dreary hallways of the building. With the help of the Big Daddy, Christina could now go about her programmed routine.

Though she was a normal little girl, she was driven to gather ADAM by months of programming, and now it was more of a routine then a task. She swept her glowing eyes from side to side, turning and looking behind her as well as in front for the precious nectar that turned Rapture upside down. She skipped closer to the Big Daddy and playfully looped around his legs. The Big Daddy was nearly twice as tall as she was, and if even one of its iron weighted boots stepped on her it would instantly shatter any bones it happened to hit. But the Big Daddy, like a protective father, was ever cautious of the little one in his care.

Christina cheerfully stated, "we need to find the ADAM, Mr. B. The angels are waiting for our kisses." Her childish words swayed in a rhythmic tone. She skipped passed her bodyguard as his massive weight slowly stalked behind her. Childishly, Christina began to hum a soft tone and skipped even further away from the Big Daddy.

Still in eye sight, the Big Daddy groaned his displeasure at how far away Christina had gone.

Christina paused and looked over her shoulder at the Big Daddy. "It's cause you are so slow, Mr. Bubbles. Angels don't wait for slow pokes." She stated with a child like huff. Every step the Big Daddy made was thunderous. The ground all around rattled with each slow step.

Christina pouted. She hated waiting. She danced in place as the Big Daddy slowly caught up to her, but he was still several feet away. Playfully, and bored, Christina hunched her head and back and let her arm slouch to the ground. She then began to mock the Big Daddy's slow impeding walk. "Grawl!" she playfully roared through her tiny lips. She slapped her bare feet onto the wet floor and began to walk further ahead. She began to giggle at her antics as the Big Daddy showed his disapproval of her mocking him. She stopped and turned and laughed, and pointed at the large Big Daddy's displeasure. "I was only playing, Mr. B. Maybe we can to the land of the lily poppies! And we get there we can find the Lily Pop." She spun on her heel, swinging her gatherers probe like a baton. "I'll go there with, Mr. Bubbles!" She stopped spinning and pointed her finger back at the stalking Big Daddy. She smiled happily at her protector. She loved the Big Daddy more then anything she could remember.

Mother, the old woman that used to hold her at night, was no longer a factor. Mothers caused pain. Christina remembered the sharp vaults of electricity, the memories of pain that Mothers always came with. But the Big Daddy never caused pain. He was always there and always protecting.

As the Big Daddy staggered closer and closer to Christina, she turned and looked around the corner of larger room. In the center was a fallen … person. But she didn't care if it was a person or a toy. She could smell the sweet aroma of her prize.

"Look, Mr. B! ADAM!" She jolted forward into the room, leaving the Big Daddy behind to slowly catch up with her. "I smell it! I smell it! I'm a good girl. I'll collect the Adam."

A movement rattled in the shadow of the room and a masked female figure darted into the light, running right toward Christina. Christina froze and shrieked as the woman wearing tattered a green dress and a twisted red eye mask grabbed her. "Come here, darling!"

The scream from Christina carried back into the hallway, and echoed inside the Big Daddy's armored husked. A mighty roar bellowed from within him and pulled down a massive rivet gun from his back. With two quick steps the Big Daddy slow pace turned into an athletic sprint. His feet thundered into the room as he stared into the woman that was holding the little sister, HIS little sister. The glowing light within his helmet quickly changed from a soft yellow hue, into a blood curling red. He roared once again and leveled the barrel of his rivet gun, taking aim at the woman holding Christina.

"Stay back, you monster." The woman screamed at the Big Daddy. "She's mine! Mine! I made her! I created her! She is my darling!" The woman ran, knowing full well that her trap had worked, but in her foolish determination she was completely oblivious that the Big Daddy's anger made him twice as fast as she was. None the less, she clung to Christina, held her tightly to her chest and ran through the corridors Rapture. She knew now that it was pointless to run. The Big Daddy would not stop until she was dead.

The thundering footsteps behind her grew louder and louder as the massive monster pursued. The Big daddy wouldn't shoot until he was sure that Christina was clear. That was the only thing keeping the woman alive.

The woman's mouth was twisted, horribly misshapen by months of feeding on ADAM and countless beatings and numerous plastic surgeries. She looked like a monster, but her body was still that of a human. Yet if her looks were twisted, and her body still human, then her mind was something completely unique.

Christina screamed as she reached back for the Big Daddy. "Bubbles! Help me! It hurts! She makes it hurt!" Christina's mind raced back to her disciplining; the days when she was trained to hate humans and love Big Daddies. The memories of pain swelling into her arms, her body and her stomach, filled her to tears as she begged and pleaded for the Big Daddy to save her.

The woman, breathing heavy as she ran, tried to calm her. "No child! No! I will not hurt you. Oh, my baby. My Christina! Love me still? Please love me still! Oh God, why will you not love me still?" But even in her hopes to make her child remember, she could not resist the growing need for something more. "Do you have it? The ADAM? Won't you share it with Mama? Please? Won't you?"

"No!" Christina protested as pushed her mother's grasp away from her.

The woman grew enraged. "You bitch! Give me the ADAM! Give it to me!" She tossed Christina to the floor in a blind rage, forgetting that a massive Big Daddy was thundering on her heels. She was completely lost in her driven rage that she no longer cared that the child was her daughter. She pulled a knife from her pocket as she hovered over Christina's terrified form. "Come now, Christina. Mama needs the ADAM. Let me cut it out of you. It won't hurt."

She reached down to grab Christina but never had the chance to. The Big Daddy lowered his shoulder into the woman propelled her into a wall several feet away. The woman smashed threw, cursing and spitting obscenities. She gathered herself and stood. Blood dripped from her face, as that was the first thing to hit the wall. She stared blankly at the massive form of metal and cloth that science had made to protect the Little Sisters from the insane inhabitants that now thrived in Rapture. A simple tear rolled from her eyes as she watched Christina cheerfully cling to the Big Daddy's leg. Was she crying for he separation and loss of her daughter, or because she missed her chance to get the precious ADAM? No one would ever find out.

"Bubbles!" Christina cheered as the Big Daddy lifted her and placed her on his back, where she clung to his suit and cheered for him to act. "Get her! Kill her!"

The Big Daddy roared and charged into the wall, smashing through it and the woman. He kicked sending the woman's pulverized form sliding across the floor. He then fired his rivet gun into her head, verifying that she was indeed dead. Sensing that there was no longer a threat, the Big Daddy lowered Christina back to the floor and reattached his rivet gun.

"Thank you Bubbles." Christina exhaled as she walked toward the woman's broken form. Christina looked down at her for a moment and then smiled. "No more pain. No more. All is good, and now…" She held up her probe and jammed the needle into corpse of her freshly deceased mother. "… all the ADAM. I'm a good girl! I gather! I gather the ADAM!" She stabbed the body repeatedly until she finally hit an artery. Blood flowed into the red bottle at the end of the probe, filling it. Christina then pulled the probe free, her glowing eyes focusing only on the jar of blood, and then she removed it from the probe. "I'm a good girl." The Big Daddy stood watch, making sure that no one came close to his Little Sister while she did her duty. Christina then placed the jar to her lips and began to drink the blood infused with ADAM. Gulping loudly as the slug within her stomach began to separate the ADAM from the blood.

Christina wiped her mouth as she finished and then reattached the jar to the probe. She then turned and grabbed the Big Daddy's hand. "Come, Bubbles. We need more ADAM." With a groan the Big Daddy held Christina's tiny hand within his massive glove and slowly stalked behind her as she pulled. Christina's mother lay lifeless, and bloodless, on the floor as they uncaringly walked away.

To Be Continued...