Death be not Proud

Prologue

"…I know that I cannot raise my hand against you. But know this, you are my greatest disappointment. Does your master hear me? Atlas! You can kill me, but you will never have my city! My strength is not in steel or fire, that is what the parasites will never understand. A season for all things! A time to live and a time to die! A time to build and a time to DESTROY! Come now my child, there is one final thing to discuss."

"The assassin has overcome my final defense. And now he's come to murder me. In the end was separates a man from a slave? Money? Power? No, a man chooses…a slave obeys. You think you have memories. A farm, a family, an airplane, a crash and then this place. Was there really a family? Did that airplane crash? Or was it hijacked? Forced down, forced down by something less then a man something bred, sleepwalked trough life until they are activated by a simple phrase spoken by their kindly master. Was a man sent to kill or a slave? A man chooses…a slave obeys. Come in. Stop…would you kindly. Would you kindly…powerful phrase, familiar phrase? Sit would you kindly? Stand would you kindly? Run…stop…turn. A man chooses…a slave obeys. Kill! A…man…chooses! A slave obeys………OBEY!!!!!!!!"

"Hurry now, grab Ryan's genetic key! Now, would you kindly put it in that god damn machine?" Atlas' voice yelled out of the radio. Jack proceeded as he was commanded. After he found out that Atlas was actually Fontaine and escaped the security bots Ryan stepped from the shadows.

Chapter I

Return to the surface

For the first time Andrew Ryan thought back on what he had done. If he hadn't of killed Diane his son that had just killed his clone wouldn't be a slave to Frank Fontaine. He would be but a toddler being cradled in his mother's hands on the surface. He realized now that he had abandoned every ideal that brought him to build Rapture in the first place.

"I am not a man. I am a slave." He said looking down at the clone's body. Rapture had fell, his life's work in shambles. "No! It will not end like this." Andrew Ryan knew what must be done. I must return to the surface and rebuild my city, he thought.

He walked toward the back wall of his office. He placed his hand on what looked like a simple bit of wall. It lit up a bluish green as if scanning his hand. A secret door opened and he walked in. Ryan descended a flight of stairs to his personal bathysphere. He pulled the lever the rusty machinery jolted as it quickly ascended to the surface. He worried for his newly discovered son. But somehow…he knew he would be alright. On the way up his stomach was cut deeply with regret as he watched the skyline of his beloved city slowly vanish in the depths of the ocean. Once he could not see it anymore the bathysphere reached the top. He pressed a couple of buttons and it moved forward. "I should make landfall somewhere in Rhode Island." His stomach was cut even deeper when he realized he had to return to the country he once loved but now despised.

Two days passed while Ryan sat in the bathysphere eating crème filled cakes and bags of potato chips. When the bathysphere finally ran a ground he was in Rhode Island in what appeared to be a wooded area. There was snow on the ground and he could see a single house in the distance with smoke rising out of its chimney. He opened up the glass door and stepped out. He then pressed a button on the outside of it that made it return to its place in Rapture.

Ryan treaded through a couple of yards of water. He was cold and now his feet were freezing. He walked quickly towards the house. As he approached he could hear joyous singing…Christmas carols. Once Rapture went to hell he never really kept track of the date. Time was meaningless in a city filled with crazed splicers. He walked up the front steps and knocked three times on the door. The singing ceased once he knocked. An aged man answered the door.

"Can I help you?" He asked Ryan.

"Yes, I'm probably going to sound crazy but I am in Rhode Island right?"

"Yes."

"And where is the closest town?"

"About thirty miles that way." The old man pointed west. Andrew Ryan looked at the lone road that seemed to wind through the woods forever. An old woman walked up to the door beside the man.

"Tom, ask the man inside." She said to the man. She looked at Andrew, "You must be freezing out there honey. C'mon inside and warm up for a bit."

"Thank you." Ryan said to the old woman. He stepped inside the cozy, quaint house.

"My names Betty and that is my husband Tom."

"I am Andrew Ryan."

"Andrew Ryan?" Betty paused for a moment. "Name sounds familiar. Do I know you from somewhere?"

"No, I'm new here."

"How'd you wonder all the way out here anyway?" Tom asked.

"My boat broke down a few miles out and I had to ride my motor back to land."

"It looks like you been wearin' those clothes for a while now." Betty said.

"I've been away for a long time." Ryan said, his mind wondering.

"Were you been?"

"In my city that's very far from here."

"Oh so you're a mayor?"

"Not anymore."

"What happened?"

"It fell…I mean my term ended."

"Oh." There was a long pause.

"I need to get to the town. Is there a taxi service I could call?" Ryan asked.

"There ain't no taxis around here son." Tom replied.

"I'll take you to town after dinner." Tom said.

"Would you like to join us?" Betty asked.

"I don't want to impose." Ryan said.

"Oh you could never. C'mon and eat with us." Betty said. "Before dinner you can go upstairs and take you a bath I get ya some fresh clothes too." Betty whispered to him.

"Oh really you don't have too."

"Nonsense."

"You're too kind." Ryan said. Ryan noticed a Christmas tree in the corner of his eye.

"Is it Christmas?"

"Of course it is." Tom said. "How could ya not know that?"

"We don't really celebrate Christmas where I'm from."

"That's too bad. It's my favorite time of the year. We don't really get company out here for Christmas anymore."

"Anymore?" Ryan asked.

"Our son and his family died a few years back in an accident." Tom said. Andrew noticed Betty's eyes tearing up.

"I am so sorry."

"It's fine." Tom said.

"I too know what it's like to lose a child. It's the worst thing a person can ever experience.

"Yes it is." Betty stated. Ryan then took his leave to clean his unwashed body before he ate with the family. Weird, he thought. The people acted like they knew him. Asking him, a complete stranger to eat dinner with them Christmas dinner for that matter, offering them their shower and clothes. This old couple must really be lonely. His mind continued to ponder his situation.

After he was finished washing and put on his loaned clothes he joined Betty and Tom for dinner. Betty had set out a large turkey along his various side dishes, enough food to feed an entire army.

"Thank you for your generous amounts of food Betty." Ryan said.

"You're welcome child. We knew you'd be hungry."

"What?" Ryan stopped mannerly cutting into his turkey.

"We knew you'd be hungry, you mustn't have had a decent thing to eat for at least two years now."

"How did you know I was coming?" He asked astonished.

"Sometimes splicing up lets you see into the future." Tom interjected.

"Sad thing what happened to that place, but child, you must've never heard the saying 'the road to hell is paved with good intentions'." Betty enthused.

"We're from Rapture."