Left Behind by Rapture

by The Composing Gosling

Story of little brothers. Their story of how they cope with the dangerous city after years of only having the company of each other. Left to explore what feels like a larger prison but not defenseless. Indoctrinated with Adam slugs they can adapt to this new environment, but what will they become? They hope to their city filled with the good, though it has vanished...almost.

I don't remember my parents too well. None of us do. We can only remember small things. That they let us have a puppy, our fathers stories of a war we had no perspective of, how our parents shouted. Those that don't remember are lucky. They don't try to think about what it might have been. To have a normal life. They don't think much at all. But we all share something in common. We were all taken. Stolen in the night "to save a city." Who needs children to save a city? Especially a group of boys; barely 5 at the time. But that didn't matter. 16 unruly boys were going to be experimented on to ensure a future, or at least optimize one, for the rest Rapture. All of us gained an Adam slug in our stomachs and lost a future of normalcy.

We were going to be "little brothers." A bunch of little boys who would obey every command and collect adam throughout the city. Based on a previous subject, Suchong devised that we would be easy to control and direct. He never thought that genetic training would be undone by the Y chromosome and Adam slugs, a constant source of genetic variation pumping out fresh genetic code faster than the water pumps of Rapture.

As failed experiments we were set for termination. Sucks, right? We did nothing wrong besides not listen. But Suchong saw a little potential in us. We could adapt rapidly to almost any environment besides a molten one. He kept us for the productions of new plasmids and gene tonics. One of the main ways was that we would be subjected to the same thing. Sometimes gunfire, other times actual fire, and take samples of our blood. We would always heal and it only hurt for a little while. Nothing too scarring. We asked what he was searching for and he replied with a term: "Convergent Evolution." He would look for the similarities in our amplified genetic code to see what made our bodies become bullet/fire proof or how our bodies matched the stimulus. Same experiment: myself and Jacob. We were going to be lit on fire. He went first and took in the fire. Watched his hand smolder, heal and re-ignite. I watched the burn heal on my hand and then freeze over.

This carried on for years. We were kept in a very cramped place between each day. Had to be the foundations of Rapture. It looked like the inside of a U-boat. Our doors were locked every night. We were only given access to books and workout supplies to play with. Growing up with each other with nothing to really play with we came to know each other. That and an early bedtime for children who didn't want to sleep (or need to) gave us the same stimulus for telepathy. So we all grew as a very close family. At least for the first 9 years or so. We were forced to change again. Not by scientist but by our bodies….