All Good Things OF This Earth Flow Into The City

"Would You Kindly…"

-Atlas-

Andrew Ryan. The man who created "paradise". Born, Andrei Rianofski, a in the town near Minsk in Russia. Died, Andrew Ryan, in his home, his invention, his grave. He was said to be one of the most accomplished men on Earth. He did what many thought was impossible. He built Rapture, an underwater city where "the artist would not fear the censor, where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality, where the great would not be constrained by the small,". From 1946-1958, Rapture soared with progress. It had solid political stability, a culture of entrepreneurship, and unprecedented scientific advancement.

Then, Rapture had an economic collapse. Citizens were unhappy with the top-heavy class system, and thought that jobs like food processing, cleaning, and simple maintenance were beneath them. The citizens rose up in protest. Protesters using signs demanded to be allowed to return to the surface, and proclaimed that "Ryan doesn't own us!" Ryan, also the head of Ryan industries, put forth a product that would hopefully stop the riots and help stock prices go up again. He bestowed plasmids. An interesting drug (Invented by Brigid Tenenbaum) that introduce modified stem cells into the body, allowing for genetic modification and mutation, giving the user what some might call "super powers". Plasmids, however, require replenishing, and can only be replenished with ADAM. ADAM is the raw form of the unstable stem cells harvested and processed from a type of Sea Slug parasite. Ryan used all of his money to build what to him was a safe haven. A place where one could be "Entitled to the sweat of his brow."

While Rapture was still in its "Golden Age" however, a "parasite" named Frank Fontaine came down to Rapture and took over Fontaine Fisheries. Eventually, he began to smuggle contraband items into the city by creating a secret smuggling ring. At one point, Fontaine's men discovered the sea slugs in which hold ADAM. Brigid Tenenbaum discovered the slugs soon after and came to Fontaine, asking if he could fund her genetic research. After agreeing to do so, he set up his business monopoly "Fontaine Futuristics" and employed both Tenenbaum and another scientist, Yi Suchong. Andrew Ryan began to see him as a threat to his company when he noticed the criminal acts he composed. Ryan then sent Security Chief Sullivan to crack down on his smuggling ring. Frank Fontaine was declared dead in a shootout with Ryan's men on September 12, secretly came back into society as a hero, family man, and freedom fighter named Atlas. Atlas charmed the mob of angry protesters, while setting the stage for the Civil war. This was the civil war that tore families apart, turned friend on friend, and brother on brother. As Atlas described, "Plasmids changed everything. They destroyed our bodies, our minds. We couldn't handle it. Best friends butchering one another; babies strangled in cribs...the whole city went to hell."

Aaron D. Murphy viewed himself in the mirror. It was what he would do every day he woke up, but he didn't know exactly why. He personally thought that it was because he wanted to get a good look at what he had become, and what he predicted he will be. His scruffy blond hair was tossed about, lacking any appearance of it being tended to recently. His slender frame almost made him look like a vagabond, but he was far from such a title. Aaron's father, Daniel B. Murphy, was the managing director of a very popular drug store known as Gorland's. He worked for a man named Frank Gorland, but rarely even saw him. Then, one day, Gorland disappeared. Nobody knew where he went, and Daniel was promoted to managing director.

Aaron sighed after realizing he had been staring at himself through the mirror for almost five minutes. He often daydreamed, about a life besides taking over Gorland's after his father passed on. He wanted to be free, and he wanted to get out of their apartment in New York City. Aaron hated the noise all day and all night, denying him any chance of falling asleep. Because of this, had bags under his eyes, and often fell asleep at his small job in Gorland's, angering his father. Daniel was not a very patient person, like his wife Catherine. Catherine J. Murphy had long, flowing blond hair, and always tried not to spoil Aaron. Against her best efforts, she had spoiled him, but Aaron turned out to be an ordinary man. Aaron loved his mother greatly, and was shattered when he heard that she had disappeared along Harris Beach.

After getting dressed in some jeans, a short-sleeved shirt, and some sneakers, Aaron looked around his room one last time to make sure that he wouldn't be needing anything else before he went out. With a quick pan of his room, he was positive that he had everything he needed. He felt his right pocket before exiting his room. Inside, it held his wallet. It was the last thing his mother had given to him before she disappeared. It was a very old present, most definitely, but since his father was always at work, Aaron never had the time or his parent's company for his birthday. Finally, Aaron walked down the stairs and went into the kitchen. There, his father had left him some leftover's to eat for breakfast. Feeling not very hungry, he dismissed the idea of sitting down to eat, walked over to the front door, and opened it, entering the long stretch of the hallway that was outside his apartment.

Cynthia was Aaron's closest friend. She was a tomboy, and always wanted to join in on whatever Aaron was doing. They had been friends ever since she moved across from him. Cynthia was a blue-eyed brunette, who was about the same height as Aaron himself. When Aaron entered the hallway, he stood face to face with her door. He promptly walked over to her door, and knocked. From what Aaron could hear from his side of the door, someone was quickly running over to get the door, and saying "Coming!" Following those words, the door swung open to see Cynthia standing in the doorway, wearing jeans, red sneakers, and a short sleeved shirt. She smiled at him as he met her eyes.

"Hey Cynthia, Darryl called and he wanted to know if we wanted to go out somewhere today. I told him that I wanted to get out of the house, and I wanted to know if you wanted to come." Aaron asked. Cynthia didn't even answer his question before she closed the door behind her and said,

"Yeah!" They walked down the long hallway, and reached the stairs. After descending 3 floors, they reached the lobby, where they saw Darryl, Beth, and Curtis standing outside, waiting for them. Darryl was a tall, had dark brown hair, and was a police officer. He had decided to call up his friends today because his boss had decided to give him the day off since he was a rookie, and had been working hard for the office all month. Beth was an eccentric young woman just entering her 30's, with long brunette hair that was tied into a ponytail. Curtis was Aaron's second closest friend. They had been in grade school together since 3rd grade, and both met each other on the train for work every day. Curtis had short red hair, and glasses, but was far from what some would think nerdy. He played football at college, and made a very good quarterback. As Aaron and Cynthia passed through the glass doors, Curtis flashed a grin.

"So, Aaron you decided to come. Thought you might not make it." He said taking Aaron's shoulder and giving it a good shake. Aaron gave a small laugh and responded,

"Yeah, well I decided that it would be good for me to get some air, instead of getting cooped up in my room all day." After greeting each other,
and making some small talk, Darryl took a look at his watch. The small metal hands showed that it was 4:31 pm.

"Well it's already 4:31! What do you guys want to do?" Everyone thought to themselves for a moment while they walked slowly along the sidewalk. People coming and going moved past them, and a small car accident had blocked traffic on the road. Trash bags that had piled up along the sidewalk sent a rotten stench into Aaron's nostrils. Instinctively, he turned his head in the opposite direction, and spoke up,

"I'm kinda hungry, maybe we should go to a restaurant?" Everyone nodded in agreement to Aaron's suggestion.

"Yeah not a bad idea, I heard that this new bar opened up along Harris beach called Fontaine's just opened up! Wanna go check it out?" Aaron nodded furiously. 'Anything to get away from this noise and awful stench' he thought.

Harris Beach wasn't exactly a resort area where people could relax and play in the sand. There were no people playing in the water. There were no refreshment stands or Beach towels. There wasn't even any sand. All there was, was a brick wall that rose out of the water, and a road that ran alongside it. As Aaron and his friends strolled along the sidewalk, Curtis was leading them, while reading a map, which he was very good at.

"This map says it's just around the corner c'mon lets go." Darryl looked at his watch again, and saw that it read 5:13 pm. Eventually, the sign: Fontaine's, appeared. The restaurant was a small building built on wooden and concrete supports. It had two floors but the second floor was probably used for residential purposes. It seemed to be one of the few restaurants that lined up along the side of Harris beach. Throughout the walk to Fontaine's, Aaron refused to remember that this was indeed the place that his mother had disappeared. He hid his glum expression behind a curious and happy one. His friends couldn't tell that he was hiding anything.

By the time they had reached the entrance to Fontaine's, they were all quite hungry. When they entered through the wooden double doors, they were met by a waiter.

"Hello. Do you have a reservation today?"

"No, we'd just like a booth though." Darryl responded. The waiter nodded and looked back to his clip board behind the podium he was standing behind. After a few seconds of him running his pen along the clipboard, the waiter looked back towards them and said,

"Well, we still have three booths left. Would booth 3 do just fine?" He asked them.

"Yes please." Darryl said. The waiter nodded and led them to their booth. As they all got seated, another waiter appeared. He handed out menus and napkins. The menu consisted of mainly seafood, which Aaron hoped didn't come out of the waters within Harris beach. Subsequently, Darryl put down the menu and asked Aaron,

"So, how are you and your father getting along? Everything ok?" Even though Aaron felt that he was protruding on his personal life, he did want to answer how he felt. Maybe even answering this would help himself realize how he really felt.

"It's not like we hate each other Darryl, it's just I don't want to become some managing director some drug store. I mean, yeah it's pretty popular and will give me some money to spend, but I don't want to be stuck at a counter all day filling out prescriptions or telling people how much something costs. I want to do something special."

"I guess, it's just you never talk about him, and it's as if you hate him. Pardon me if I'm intruding on your personal space here." He confessed. Aaron didn't want to talk about his father at the moment and tried to change the subject.

"Yeah, hey Cynthia what've you got there?" Cynthia was looking over a piece of paper that looked like a boarding ticket, but to where Aaron didn't know. Cynthia looked up at them.

"Oh nothing, just something I found." She quickly tried to dismiss the conversation. But just like Cynthia, Aaron didn't want to talk to Darryl about his father, so he tried to keep it going.

"C'mon let me see." At first, Cynthia didn't move a budge. Then, after a few moments of everyone staring at her, she reluctantly pulled out the piece of paper. As Aaron looked it over, he could tell it was a ticket for sure. But as he continued to survey it, he found that the place that the ticket brought you to was named Rapture.

"What's Rapture?" Beth spoke up. All eyes went back to Cynthia. She looked back at them with curiosity.

"What? It's not like I know..."

"Well, you were the one holding it; I would assume that you would know something about it." Darryl said. She shrugged.

"I found it on the floor on our way in. I just looked at it now, and I have no idea where it came from." Darryl plucked it out or Beth's hands, and looked it over carefully.

"I haven't ever heard of a place called Rapture...it could be a city, because it's definitely not a country, or a town. It couldn't be a town because nobody would take a ticket to a town...and what's this...traveling by...bathysphere?" Nobody said anything. They all had the same thought going through their minds. Finally, Curtis spoke up.

"If the person used this ticket to get to 'Rapture'...and they traveled by bathysphere...than that means that the city is...underwater..." He finished. Silence enveloped their booth, as the waiter reached their table. They each ordered their meals, and went back to the ticket. Suddenly, Aaron laughed. He received strange looks from the rest of the table.

"Oh come on guys! You can't build a city in the middle of the ocean, and since we found the ticket here, this person, whoever they might be, would have to have built their city in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean! It's freezing cold, and need I mention the lack of air underwater?"

"You make a good point Aaron," Darryl replied, "But what if this person, say, was very, VERY rich? Then the possibility of this person building a city under the ocean would seem more possible. That's also probably what the city's name is too...Rapture." Aaron sighed.

The waiter came back again, and asked if everything was to their liking. Beth answered for the group, and told them it was delicious.

"All right I guess we're done here. Let's go." Curtis concluded. Cynthia put the ticket into her pocket, and the rest of them stood up to leave. Just as they reached the door, they heard a commotion behind them.

"You MUST listen to me! I have a ticket! It's a very important ticket and I MUST have it! I was right there! See? Right there in booth 3!" The waiter tried to calm him down, and said,

"I'm sorry sir, but this restaurant isn't responsible for lost items. If you want you may check there again before our next customers take the booth?"

"NO! I already checked that booth! Booth number 3! Somebody's stolen it!" The man was dressed as a fisherman, and was looking around frantically for anybody who might have his ticket. Cynthia then became nervous.

"Sir please calm down. I am sure nobody has stolen your-"

"You! Give me my ticket!" The fisherman quickly turned towards Cynthia, who had just realized that the ticket was slightly peeking out of her jeans pocket. He advanced on her with a wild look in his eyes. "Give. Me. My. Ticket!" He said again. Darryl stepped between the scared Cynthia and the crazed fisherman.

"Hold on, she'll give it to you. There's no need for a fight." The fisherman acted as though he didn't even exist, and kept his eyes fixed on Cynthia. "Cynthia, give him the ticket." Cynthia quickly fished the ticket out of her pocket, and presented it to the fisherman. Just as quickly as she showed it to him, he snatched it from her grasp.

"It's about damn time. Lamb would have me killed if I didn't come back in time..." his words became quieter and quieter as he walked out the door. Darryl and the rest of the people in the restaurant watched him go.

"I'm going to follow him. There's something that's not right about him, and I want to know who that Lamb person is..." The waiter spoke up from behind the counter,

"Should I call the police?" Darryl turned back towards him and flashed his badge.

"I am the police." His final words sank into the room as he exited through the door. As Darryl exited the door, Aaron and the rest followed. The long streets of Harris beach were still busy with activity as cars and people passed by. Through all of the noise, however, a small voice could be heard,

"Yes...yes, yes, yes...Lamb would be very upset...yes she would...I better get going before she gets upset...yes better get going..."At first, Darryl could not locate the voice. It couldn't be along the beach, then he would have to be...under the docks. Darryl quickly ran over to the nearby railing separating the restaurant from the water. Slowly, he peeked his head under the floorboards. There, he could see, just under him, a large, golden sphere. It was neatly settled along a small clump of rocks and garbage that had settled alongside the restaurant. He didn't want any conflict with the fisherman, and decided to do the confrontation democratically. He stepped out from his hiding place and crouched near the edge of the pier, with his friends still next to the restaurant.

"Hey! Hey excuse me! Sir?" Darryl called down to the fisherman. At these words, the fisherman jumped and shakily turned around.

"Y-y-yes?" He replied. Darryl could tell from his voice that he was indeed hiding something.

"I'm Darryl C. Floyd from the New York Police. I'd like to ask you a few questions?" After a few moments, the fisherman said nothing. Then, without warning, the fisherman shot his hand forward and the most un-expectant thing happened. Electricity hit the stone pier, sending rocks and debris all over the place. The explosion had knocked him over into the street, where cars stopped to view the scene. The people in the restaurant had come out to see as well.

After shaking off dust and dirt from his face, Darryl realized that he couldn't let this man get away with assaulting a police officer. With that, he jumped off the pier into the golden sphere where the fisherman was hastily trying to stash himself. Beth, Aaron, and Cynthia came out onto the pier to view the scene.

Darryl struggled with the fisherman, but after a few violent moments, Darryl succeeded in slamming the fisherman's head onto the wall rendering him unconscious. A small line of blood trickled down his face. When Darryl took a closer look at his face, he was shocked. He had small deformities along the side of his face. Tumors the size of gumballs and disgusting twists in his face almost made him gag.

"Hey! You okay down there?" A voice from above said. Darryl grabbed onto the nearby ledge, and hoisted himself upwards. There, he saw his friends and the waiter bending down on the partially destroyed pier. "Hey, should I call the police about this?" the waiter said. Standing atop the sphere, Darryl rummaged through one of his pockets until he found a card.

"Here, contact my headquarters and tell them Darryl C. Floyd sent you to file a report." Darryl handed the waiter a card containing the phone number for his headquarters. He then turned back towards the sphere. All in all, it was quite obvious that it had seen better days. Rust had covered it almost entirely, but he hadn't checked the inside yet. Darryl looked back towards his watch, and was surprised to see that it was 7:56 pm already.

Cynthia, Aaron, Curtis, and Beth climbed down the pier wall and stood upon the small pile of rocks and garbage next to the sphere.

"That must be the bathysphere that the ticket was for...but if nobody's operating it besides him then why would he need a ticket?" Beth pointed out. Darryl shrugged.

"Probably insane. I got a good look at his face, and I think he's been using drugs or something, because it's all screwed up." Darryl then turned towards the wide glass window that covered almost a half of the side pointed towards his friends. For a closer look, he climbed down from above the bathysphere, and joined his friends on the rocks.

"Should we go inside?" Curtis asked. Darryl approached the entrance cautiously, and put his hand up to tell his friends to stay where they were.

"I'll take a look first." he said. He gripped the golden handle and pulled. The door swung further open, since the fisherman had tried to hide himself inside. His unconscious body fell to the floor, into the water. Darryl ceased his investigation, and turned towards the body.

"I'll take care of him just keep going." Said Aaron as he approached the body and pulled it out of the water. In the distance, Aaron could hear the sirens of police cars echoing throughout the city as they approached. Finally, Darryl succeeded in fully opening the door. As soon as he stepped in, the smell of alcohol and smoke entered his nostrils. He coughed a little, and took a quick survey of his surroundings.

A soft red couch lined roughly one third of the bathysphere's interior. In the middle of the couch, was a handle, which looked vaguely similar to the one's used on ships. After confirming that it was safe, he motioned for his friends to follow. One by one, they each entered the small sphere. Each one of Aaron's friends was fascinated at what they saw. Suddenly, the bathysphere started to shake. The garbage and rocks beneath it apparently could not sustain the weight that the sphere was providing it with. The whole group was thrown about in the small room, frantically trying to reach their way out.

"Oh my god what's happening?!" Beth screamed as she slid into the couch. Aaron, on the other hand, was not taking the time to question what was happening. He had reached the door, and was about to reach his freedom, when the loose door flew into his face, knocking him unconscious. Before long, the door had shut, and the bathysphere was descending into the water.

Frantically, Curtis searched the small room to see what might help them escape their certain doom. He then laid his eyes upon the switch.

"Dammit get-us-back-to-the-surface!" He said as he pulled the lever back as hard as he could. Much to his dismay, it only seemed to speed up the sphere's speed into the cold Atlantic Ocean. After a few terrifying moments, a whirring sound started up, and a small white screen appeared in front of the glass window.

"Look." Beth pointed to the screen as a projector started to portray images. Then, a man's voice was heard,

"I am Andrew Ryan, and I'm here to ask you a question."

"Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow?

'No!' says the man in Washington, 'It belongs to the poor.'

'No!' says the man in the Vatican, 'It belongs to God.'

'No!' says the man in Moscow, 'It belongs to everyone.'"

"I rejected those answers; instead, I chose something different.

I chose the impossible. I chose... Rapture."

Then, the screen pulled up. Aaron's eyes bugged out and Beth gasped. There, behind the glass wall separating them from the ocean was a city. An underwater city. Lights shown everywhere and small tunnels with glass walls stretched from building to building. As they passed one, what looked like a man in a diver suit was using a rivet gun to patch a leak into one of the tunnels. Aaron watched him until he disappeared from view. The group watched in amazement as the projector continued.

"A city where the artist would not fear the censor.

Where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality.

Where the great would not be constrained by the small!"

"And with the sweat of your brow, Rapture can become your city as well."

As the projector came to an end, the sphere reached a metal port; that looked like a rollercoaster; that led to a building. On the bars read:

"All good things,"

"Of this earth,"

"Flow,"

"Into the city,"

Finally, the sphere reached the building's port, and started to ascend. Bright lights lined the wall in front of them, and thousands of bubbles of oxygen flew about around the sphere.

"Oh my god. What are we going to do...?" Aaron exclaimed. The rest of the group decided not to share their thoughts. So much had happened in the last three and a half hours that their minds just couldn't comprehend what had just happened.