~1960, Mid-Atlantic~
Jane Wynand gingerly held her smoking cigarette between her first and second fingers of her left hand. She picked up her zippered, chocolate leather wallet from the items strewn across the airplane tray. Sepia eyes scanned the monotone picture of the three people, her mother, in a light cardigan from whom Jane had gotten her eyes, and her father, his sleeves rolled up over his burly arms, from whom Jane had gotten her immense will. Her father joked about how when she was little, she would look like a boy in her crew-cut hair, and folded-up pant legs while her friends wore floral-patterned babydoll dresses and lacy ribbons. Jane chuckled, lightly brushing her curled hair with her free hand. Her mother insisted on getting her ponytail curled a few years back, when it was swinging into fashion. Now, bright colors and pant-suits decorated the fashion magazines strewn across the mahogany coffee table with the women caked in makeup.
And in the middle of the picture, herself. Jane's arms were holding her parents close, with a lopsided grin across her face. She remembered the day of the photo: her mother huffy with Jane for showing up at the studio last minute from wearing her old shorts and loose v-neck sweater. Fortunately, her mother had known something like this and prepared an outfit for her. Jane was hastily rushed into a bathroom with the threat of her livid mother hanging over head if she wasn't out in ten minutes or less, as her father complained that Jane was spending too much time with her friends. Much to her mother's satisfaction, Jane emerged from the bathroom in her fancy button-down short sleeved shirt tucked into an elegant dark felt skirt resting on her hips. Jane didn't get why she was so worried about this picture-something about her only daughter growing up too quickly. Back then she was in high school- a sweet, outspoken girl of seventeen.
Now at the tender age of nineteen, Jane was visiting her cousins in England. Her mother had told Jane to start packing only a week before, wanting it to be some sort of surprise. Her father's sister was ill, apparently, and Jane never got to know her cousins very well anyway. Jane should know her extended family, her mother reasoned, and besides, wasn't it almost her birthday?
Jane set the wallet down and looked at the other items on the tray. She noticed a blue package with a bright red bow in the left corner. Jane remembered her father giving it to her just before she had to catch her plane and telling her to follow the instructions thoroughly. Instructions? Back then Jane didn't notice because her flight was about to take off, and Mother, I will take care of myself, it's only two weeks, I took enough clothing, I know where Auntie Pamela lives, I'll tell Cheryl and Max and all the others about you and Father and Kansas, I will be fine, Mother, really! Yes, I know, England is not Overlook, I told you, I can take care of myself. Mother, my flight is about to take off, I really must go! And her father ushered her into a corner and darkly whispered the words to her as he passed the present into her hands.
"Jane, you're special. You were born to do great things. Now go catch your flight." Her father fondly patted her on the back and walked over to join his wife as Jane waved goodbye for the last time, skittering to her airplane as the lady on the intercom announced the last call for the boarding of Flight 176 to England. She hadn't had the time to ponder on her father's cryptic and obscure words. Now, as she pondered over them, Jane noticed a note attached to the box.
"Would you kindly...?"
= w =
Jane was in water.
It was the only thing she could gather at the moment. The next thing she could gather was that she was drowning.
Jane frantically regarded her surroundings: aqua-green water, a lady's floral print purse, a pearl necklace floating out. As her head swished side to side, it tilted up to see the plane's propeller swirl by with a sickening winding noise. Soon the rest of the plane followed, in flames. Jane watched the blinking lights of the body of the plane sink slowly down, as her mind panicked further and looked up once again to see the orange surface of the water anticipating her, floating closer to her.
When the young woman's head finally emerged from the water, all she could see were flames. Her plane had gone down in flames. As she coughed up the water in her lungs, treading water, Jane struggled to remember what had happened. The plane had started shaking; then, a lady's screams, and the plane's violent turbulence and-water. Had the plane been hijacked? Jane suddenly couldn't remember. She decided to just go along with the idea of the hijacking and somehow find her bearings first.
Swimming under dark clouds alongside bright orange flames, Jane looked ahead to see a tall, eerie lighthouse. A lighthouse in the middle of nowhere? Then again, at least it was some form of land; maybe she could phone someone inside. Jane reluctantly swam towards the dark concrete structure, wet and cold. Metal pieces of what was once the plane floated by her.
As the lighthouse drew nearer, Jane could see a set of stairs illuminated by rather bright lights lining the railing. One was one the verge of shorting out. The stairs came up directly from the water, allowing Jane to gratefully climb up and rest after almost drowning. She took this opportunity to somehow dry out a bit. Her leather knee boots were pretty useful at keeping the water out; little did she know her boots would be very useful later. Up above, the moon glittered as if the night were one from a romantic play. Maybe perhaps Jane was part of some romantic show, and inside a handsome, lonely young man might be conveniently waiting for her, perhaps to nurse her back to health, as if the whole affair was some cheesy love story. Maybe that was what motivated Jane to explore the lighthouse instead of resting a bit further, and waiting for other survivors, if there were any.
Inside, the lighthouse was in complete darkness, save for one solitary light. A shivering, trembling Jane stepped inside, hoping for some sort of heat. As soon as she stepped inside completely, Jane swirled around to hear a solid thud, the door closing Jane inside the dark, cold lighthouse.
Luckily, the lights inside switched on quickly, revealing a larger than life bust of an angry looking man with a red banner strung across under his face.
No gods or kings. Only man.
Jane recognized it as propaganda, and gazed in silence at it before moving on inside the lighthouse. Jane moved under the large bust on the wall, where the lights switched on over a set of stairs. She followed the stairs down to find another short flight of stairs, illuminating as Jane approached them. Another curving set of stairs revealed a concrete floor with a sphere-like submariner thing, hatch swung open. Jane recognized it as a bathysphere, a device used to go under the sea to study it. She had learned about these in a book she had read. Sweet, calming violin music was playing from somewhere as Jane stepped in cautiously to inspect the bathysphere further. It was rather luxurious, with comfortable seats and a regal atmosphere. She sat herself down and sighed. Jane turned her head to look at the lever to operate the bathysphere. She was tempted to pull the lever, and see where it could take her. It didn't look like she was going anywhere: she even doubted whether or not the thing actually worked.
Deciding to test her luck after a plane crash, Jane pulled the bathysphere lever to hear the glass hatch slam shut, followed by a very bad feeling in her stomach as bubbles outside rose up and the view became nothing but the very water Jane had struggled to get out of minutes earlier, only darker. Having nothing to do except contemplate her fate from here, Jane watched the view as a rather fancy sign with a sculpture of a man holding it up marked the distance of the descent so far. Schools of small fish swum quietly by, as if they had not a care in the world.
10 fathoms...18 fathoms...
Suddenly the view was blocked by something, and then, an old, dusty film projector came to life, showing an odd emblem Jane had never seen before. Happy music sprung up from the projector. Next the projector showed a man lighting a lady's cigarette with...her fingers? The text above and below said, Fire at your fingertips! Incinerate: Plasmids by Ryan Industries. Fire at your fingertips? What an absurd thing, Jane thought. Fire wasn't exactly a controllable thing! And Plasmids? What were those? Who were Ryan Industries? The name sounded familiar; perhaps Jane had heard it in a commercial somewhere.
A younger version of the man whose bust Jane had seen in the lighthouse appeared on screen next, with the words "From the desk of Ryan".
"I'm Andrew Ryan, and I'm here to ask you a question. Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow?" A picture of a man apparently working on a farm, wiping his sweat appeared. "No, says the man in Washington, it belongs to the poor," The man was now being chased by a bald eagle swooping down from the Capitol building. "No, says the man in the Vatican, in belongs to God," Now God's hand was coming down to grab the man in front of a Church. "No, says the man in Moscow, it belongs to everyone!" A large scythe and hammer was coming down on the man in front of a Russian palace. The man, Andrew Ryan's voice grew with intensity and anger as he said the words. The picture of Ryan from the beginning reappeared. "I rejected those answers. Instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose..." The projector promptly shut off, but the voice remained as the view was revealed once again to show a sea floor.
"Rapture."
Jane was pressed to the glass hatch now, feeling the cold surface against her palms as she gazed out onto the city under the sea. The bathysphere passed large buildings and a huge sculpture of a man like the one she had passed holding up the sign. Fish swam by the buildings, which were connected with glass tunnels. Neon signs advertising different companies like Finley's were brightly lit up; yet, there wasn't a soul in sight. At least, not in the tunnels.
Truly a magnificent city under the sea.
Ryan's voice continued on, though Jane only half-listened to his words.
"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, too."
The bathysphere soon approached three rings, each with lit-up words on top. The rings seemed to form some sort of dock for the bathysphere.
"All good things...of this earth...flow...into this city...?" Jane murmured, reading the text on the rings. What kind of city was this?
The bathysphere docked itself in a small room decorated with posters of odd flask-like things holding a red fluid, and more advertisements for plasmids. Jane was then jerked upwards as the bathysphere ascended in the water.
= w =
The bathysphere slowed its ascent until it was stopped completely.
"Ah!" A humanoid figure was visible through the thin veil of water and stood a little ways from the bathysphere. Finally, a person! He seemed scared, though...
"Just please, don't hurt me!" Wait, what? Was this man...pleading for his life?
Another person was approaching him, Jane could see that now.
The man was stabbed with a knife, and the other person cackled, an evil, inhuman cackle. Jane gasped and quickly retreated to the back wall, trying to be as silent as possible, praying the...thing didn't see her. The man was stabbed again, the final stab. The creature had inhuman speed, too, that it used. Jane covered her mouth in disgust as the thing pulled its knife out of the man, spewing blood. Her heart pounded out of its chest as silence fell upon the scene. The thing turned to look at the bathysphere, its knife now revealed in the light to be two glinting, curved, sickles.
"Is it someone new...?" As the thing spoke, Jane could feel the fear rising in her chest. She tried to stay back, as far back and away from the thing as possible.
The thing screamed and jumped out of sight. Jane's heart was in her throat. Slowly, she moved away from the wall, lest the thing try to break the bathysphere wall from behind. Jane suddenly looked up to hear groaning and creaking on top of the bathysphere, along with the thing moaning and screaming in frustration. Jane tried to scream but nothing could come out as she crouched in fear on the floor, with her eyes shut and ears covered in a futile attempt to somehow escape from the thing.
When the groaning resided, Jane flitted open her eyes, looking around to see the thing give up. It looked back before completely giving up and running off. Jane didn't want to be here. Jane wanted to go back, to Overlook, to her mother and father, to that sweet guy in the ice cream parlor, who would always give her an extra scoop, and the shy grin he would give her when she told him. A sick feeling in her stomach, she heard a voice over the service radio and some hope returned to her sickened soul. Picking the radio up, the radio showed the picture of a handsome young man named Atlas.
"I don't know how you survived that plane crash, but I'm not one to question providence. I'm Atlas: I aim to keep you alive. Now keep on movin'. We're gonna have to get you to higher ground." He spoke with a distinct accent, and seemed to know where Jane had come from. Had he seen her from a camera or something from the lighthouse. Nevertheless, Jane had to keep on moving, like Atlas said. The bathysphere hatch opened with a whoosh, yet she was still hesitant to leave the bathysphere, into the unfamiliar territory of Rapture.
"Take a deep breath, and step outta the bathysphere. I won't leave ya twisting in the wind." Jane took a shaky step out, and forced her legs to move. She walked briskly to the end of the short hall, regarding the fresh blood on the floor and the dead corpse. Turning her head to the right, Jane saw something called a Vita-chamber, and some boxes. Jane abruptly turned to the left and continued, noticing the signs saying, We are not your property! What the hell had happened to this place?
Atlas continued, "We're gonna need to draw her outta you're gonna have to trust me." Jane was willing to trust almost anyone at this point. Continuing down the hall and up a few stairs, she could hear the thing, evidently a female, snarling.
"I'll wrap you in a sheet..." Jane could now see the figure of the thing. In the dark, damp room, fear returned to her and started eating away at her will again, but hearing Atlas' voice restored more of it back.
"Just a little further..." Somehow controlling the lights, Atlas shined a spotlight on the thing, shedding light on the room, littered with protest signs. It also shed light on the thing, wearing red clothes, and horrible lumps all over its body. A rain of bullets came down upon the thing, and it snarled again, jumping up the wall to escape the torrent of lead.
"How do you like that, sister?!" The source of Atlas' bullets came into view, a small flying robot following the splicer with the spotlight following. An alarm was blaring, so Jane guessed that Atlas had hacked a security robot. Flying security robots? How did Rapture have flying robots, let alone security robots. Once the thing was chased away, the spotlight returned its original spot highlighting red carpet and a broken wall.
"Now, would you kindly find a crowbar or something? Bloody splicers sealed Johnny in before they... goddamn splicers." Apparently, the thing was a splicer, whatever the hell that was. The way Atlas talked about them, it seemed they were common around Rapture. Now Jane really wanted to go back home, to forget all about this place.
Jane approached the spotlight to "find a crowbar or something". It wouldn't hurt to have something to defend herself, if she was to get out of this hellhole. Atlas couldn't always be with her. Looking among the remains of the crumbled wall, she found a red wrench. Picking it up instantly gave Jane a boost of courage. She gave a few practice swings, then took a deep breath. She looked at the hole, covered by a few pieces of the wall that had fallen down and noticed she could easily bang a way clear through it into the next room. Mustering her strength, she swung the wrench up and hit the wall as hard as she could. Sure enough the wall broke, and a stairway was revealed. As soon as Jane started climbing, though, a desk on fire was hurtled towards her. Jane quickly dodged it. More splicers, she thought. Jane went up the stairs, and saw a splicer to her right. The splicer screamed as Jane ran towards him, yelling, her wrench aimed for her target. The splicer tried to hit her, and succeeded, but Jane hit him a few more times, and he was down. Jane suddenly freezed in place. Had she...killed him. In her defense, he had tried to kill her, too. But she couldn't let this faze her. She had to get home, and nothing was going to stop her. Searching him for something useful, Jane found a first aid kit and something called an EVE hypo. Was EVE a drug? It had a needle to be injected into the body. Jane took it just in case. Maybe she could cash it in later for more health kits.
A little alcove behind the splicer held some potato chips and a pep bar. Jane was pretty hungry at this point. She hadn't even had dinner on the plane before it crashed. Hungrily, Jane opened the bag and munched down the chips, pocketing the bar for later. Continuing on, she came out of the alcove and continued on to a set of stairs at the other end of the room. She noticed an odd recording being played.
"My daddy's smarter than Einstein, stronger than Hercules, and lights a fire with a snap of his fingers! Are you as good as my daddy, mister? Not if you don't visit the Gatherer's Garden, you aren't!" Jane arrived at the top of the stairs decorated by neon signs advertising Plasmids. She was greeted by a rather creepy-looking vending machine playing and odd recording with sculptures of little girls. The vending machine was a "Gatherer's Garden", apparently, and it sold these odd Plasmids. Curiously, Jane approached said innocent looking vending machine. In the pickup was a physical, tangible Plasmid bottle. Jane cautiously picked up the needle that was holding some of it.
Well, I'm already in hell. If these Plasmids do what they say, might as well try it, Jane thought. Putting her wrench aside in her knee high boots, she jabbed the hypodermic needle of the injection in her right wrist, underneath her tattooed wrists. Her wrists began to shake immediately as she dropped the needle in shock. Moaning in pain, she could only watch as the veins in her wrists turned blue and electricity began to flow between her hands.
Atlas' voice came back over the shortwave radio. "Steady now! Your genetic code is being rewritten- just hold on and everything will be fine!"
Jane regarded his voice with little attention. She was more focused on what was happening to her hands, and more importantly, the searing pain in them! She began to walk backwards, away from what caused all this pain. Jane turned around and saw the stairs and a railing enclosing the top of the stairs. Jane groaned from the pain again and her legs continued on, going to the railing to hold on to something, maybe to somehow drown out or transfer the pain. As she reached the railing, she could feeling more throbbing and even more pain as she ripped over the railing and tumbled down to the purple carpet.
= w =
"This little fish looks like she just had her cherry POPPED!...wonder if she's still got some ADAM on her?" A splicer's inhuman voice bent down to Jane's face. Jane opened her eyes a crack to see a rusty pipe inches from her face. The splicer reeked of fish guts, and it was all Jane could do to not throw up what bare food was left in her stomach. Jane closed her eyes a bit more. Well, it looks like you're done for, Jane. Goodbye to the world!
A large creak of metal against metal was heard, and another splicer said, "You hear that? Let's bug!" Jane opened her eyes just a bit again to see another splicer's legs running away.
"Weak! You're a weak chopper!" The first splicer taunted.
"This little fish ain't worth toeing it with no Big Daddy!" Big Daddy? What was that? Was that... what the recording in the vending machine was talking about? Stronger than Hercules, huh...
"Yellow! Always have been! You'll be no better off with the metal daddy, little fish. See you floating in the briney..." The splicer's white, half-shattered rabbit mask was visible, and his pipe even closer to Jane's face than before. He ran off and Jane was left to think about this metal "Big Daddy". Her eyes lethargically closed to rest for a few seconds.
She heard a growl and opened her eyes. A huge metal man-thing was holding a drill. Large enough to pierce through humans. The lights in his overly large helmet were glowing yellow and his large boots clunked against the tile floor. A little girl appeared in front of him and spoke with unhuman tones under her voice.
"Look, Mr. Bubbles, it's an angel! I can see light coming from her belly..." The little girl was carrying a large needle, now inches from Jane's face, even closer than the splicer's pipe was. The girl's skin was pale green, and she was wearing a tattered purple dress. Her feet were bare; odd, since Jane had seen needles and shards of glass all over the place-things that could potentially, no, definitely pierce a little girl's skin. "Wait a minute, she's still breathing. It's alright, I know she'll be an angel soon." Jane's eyes then took control of themselves and shut themselves after she saw both of the figures leave her line of sight.
When Jane finally came to again, she felt...powerful, more so than before. Atlas came in over the radio again to check on Jane.
"You alright there, girlie? First time plasmid's a real kick from a mule. But there's nothin' like a fistful o' lightning, is there?" So what Jane had used was a plasmid. Kick from a mule, all right. Felt more like a kick from an elephant.
Jane checked her hand to see the "fistful of lightning" Atlas had been talking about. Sure enough, the veins in her hands were now surging and glowing with stratosphere blue electricity. She tried it out on the sparking button to open the door. Sure enough, it worked; the large door slid open, allowing Jane to cross into one of the glass tunnels she had seen during the bathysphere ride.
Jane started the walk into the tunnel. Before she could finish it, though, a piece from the plane she had been riding crashed in through the glass, bringing some water. Unfazed, Jane continued, walking along the red cushioned seats and under the thin veil of water rolling off the outer metal shell, wetting the parts that had somewhat dried off after the ride in the bathysphere. She continued on, looking outside to see a "Fleet Hall". The glass walkway had already been leaking water and was in no fit condition to be walking on. Some unfortunate fish that had managed to swim inside were now flopping, the life draining out of them as they dried off.
Jane turned left at the end to see two hatches; one leaking, and one up some stairs. Equipped with her handy wrench, she chose the one up the stairs over the one leaking water. Looking around in the dark room, another glowing EVE hypo was found against the green and white tiled floor.
Atlas' voice jumped to life again as he warned Jane. "Splicer! Give 'em the combo-zap 'em then whack 'em. One-two punch! Remember, one-two punch!" Using the technique with her handy wrench and the Electro-Bolt plasmid, Jane was able to kill the splicer in one whack of the wrench. Pretty handy, this plasmid thing was!
A further search of the dark yielded a first-aid kit. That makes two, Jane thought. I'm going to need all I can get.
Fighting the splicer, Jane had gone down the stairs into a regal-looking office with a body in. She regarded the body and got another EVE hypo from it. Going back up the stairs to another large door to the right, which had a splicer waiting for her. Jane used the technique Atlas told her about and continued on.
Curious about the EVE hypos she had collected, Jane decided to try one out. She inserted the needle like she had done with the plasmid, and the hypo refueled the plasmid, which had apparently been using EVE, whatever it was. Continuing up the stairs with her plasmid recharged, Jane approached the door at the end of the room. She heard another splicer, and quickly finished him off, regarding the fire. Jane headed toward the open elevator shaft at the end and stepped in, menacingly tapping the wrench against her other hand.
As the elevator slowly began climbing, Atlas began speaking to her again.
"Listen- I've got a family. I need to get them out of here. But the splicers have cut me off from them-if you can reach them in Neptune's Bounty, then maybe, just maybe- I know you must feel like the unluckiest girl in the world right now, but you're the only hope I have of seeing my wife and child again. Go to Neptune's Bounty...find my family...please!" Atlas pleaded. Jane looked out the view as he spoke. Sounded like everyone who lived here was screwed one way or another. Jane decided to help the poor Atlas and find his family at...wherever Neptune's Bounty was.
When the elevator slowed to a stop, Jane could hear a female splicer singing. Hiding against the wall, she could see the figure singing to a baby carriage. The figure reached inside to pick the baby up...and pulled out a revolver. Jane ran inside the tunnel, Electro-Bolt equipped. When the splicer was stunned, she hit the splicer as hard as she could. Picking up the pistol and the rounds, Atlas radioed in to Jane again.
"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." A blinking sign saying, "Happy New Year! 1959" was half-fallen on her left. A sign said it was the Kashmir restaurant. Unnerving pictures of the masks the splicers had been wearing were hung up on the walls, and party hats and such littered the tables and chairs, like someone had left a party in the midst of it.
At the end, there were bathrooms. Naturally, Jane went in the ladies side first. The ghost of a lady was standing at a sink. At this point, Jane didn't feel too scared about anything. The whispering ghost went about her business as Jane searched the bathroom to find a first-aid kit and an audio diary.
"I'm too spliced up, too spliced up!" The ghost's eerie voice echoed through the bathroom shedding some more light on what happened to the citizens. Jane had also found champagne, and on impulse took a sip. She felt a bit healthier, but her EVE diminished a bit. She decided not to drink until she needed it.
Approaching the entrance, a splicer attacked her from the side. Jane fired her pistol a few times and the splicer was dead. She continued on and decided to search the men's side as well, to find any sort of help.
In the last stall, a hole was blown clear through to the hallway into Footlight theater. The radio burst back to life after a short static.
"Careful, now...would you kindly lower that weapon for a minute?" Jane obliged without a second thought, continuing on, balancing herself on top of the beams holding the spotlights. She dared to look down and saw a little girl like the one she saw earlier stabbing the dead body of a splicer. Was that what the girl was about to do to her when she was knocked out.
"You think that's a child down there? Don't be fooled. She's a Little Sister now. Somebody went and turned a sweet baby girl into a monster. Whatever you thought about right and wrong on the surface, well that don't count for much down here in Rapture." Jane continued down stairs and looked through glass to the girl. Pale, sickly skin around dark-rimmed, glowing yellow eyes. Jane shivered, wanting to get away from the monster girl. The Little Sister stabbed the body with her syringe-harvester, red fluid flowing into the vial.
"Those Little Sisters, they carry Adam- the genetic material that keeps the wheels of Rapture turning. Everybody wants it. Everybody needs it." A splicer walked in on the Little Sister doing her work. Looking around, he motioned for the Little Sister to be quiet as he slowly approached her. Scared, the girl balled her fists, lifted her head and delivered a bloodcurdling scream. The splicer hit the girl with the butt of his gun, but he was inevitably doomed, as Jane would learn. The metal man jumped down from a balcony, the once soft yellow light now blaring red. The splicer attempted to shoot the metal hunk down, but he knew he was no match. The metal man threw a chair and the splicer deftly dodged it, looking back at the entrance to find it shut tightly. Frantically, the splicer looked behind him to find the metal man right behind him, drill coming right at him, knocking him against the wall, the drill spinning and-
-piercing straight through the man, spewing blood against the wall, the splicer shaking violently, before having his head slammed repeatedly against the glass wall Jane was watching through, creating a hole to the right of Jane. The late splicer's bloodied body was carelessly tossed like a broken doll through the gaping hole.
Jane covered her mouth in fear and disgust, her legs frozen stiff. She tried to move back, but she was helplessly left to watch the now satisfied metal man trod away with the Little Sister.
"That's the Big Daddy. She gathers Adam, he keeps her safe."
The Big Daddy. Was Jane going to have to fight one of those? She hoped that she didn't have to. The brute way he reacted when the splicer was threatening the Little Sister...not to mention his sheer size and that drill. As the Big Daddy continued on, Jane quickly searched the splicer for anything useful, before continuing on her own way, trembling from the...pleasant introduction of the Big Daddy.