Chapter 9

Arlow was the last to come to. He awoke to find that Blair was sitting comfortably on the lobby desk speaking candidly with the female soldier while James and Jordan were speaking to the twins. The two other soldiers were keeping an eye on the stairway that goes back to the street. "Wha… What's going on?" Arlow asked the room. James was the one to come help Arlow up as he said, "I think we may have found some good people in this city after all." Arlow raised his eyebrows and smiled just slightly as James helped him to his feet. Arlow tried to stand on his own but found his legs to be quite rubbery. James helped him walk over to Jordan and the twins. The twins made a humorous impression of Arlow getting electrocuted when he came over.

"I can't believe you folks survived a run in with a Big Daddy." The female soldier was speaking to Blair who replied, "Well it didn't really seem interested in us, just in not letting us by." The soldier replied under her breath, "Yeah… they do that sometimes." James approached the two ladies when Blair informed James, "This is Becky." James shook hands with Becky before asking, "So what are you people doing here anyway? Why aren't you crazy like everyone else?" Becky took a moment to think about his questions, "Well, that's a lot to explain…"

Arlow and Jordan came forward to hear what Becky was telling the others, "Rapture was a simple enough idea. The greatest minds in the world gathered here; the brightest scientists and the most creative artists. Basically if you were the top in your field you ended up in Rapture. Andrew Ryan had this idea that things would advance a lot more quickly if there weren't any limitations. No laws or morals to stop scientific progress. It worked out fine until someone came up with ADAM. It's a super drug that comes from sea slugs," Blair interrupted, "I think I know which ones you're talking about, the ones with the red bioluminescent." Becky replied by putting her finger on her nose, "They started putting ADAM into everything, most notably, the first aid kits." Arlow gave Blair a sorrowful look when he realized what that meant.

Becky continued, "ADAM made a lot of things, that no one thought could be possible, possible. People found the means to alter their own DNA. Soon later Plasmids were designed that allowed people to do things like my friends over there," she pointed to the twins that shot lightning from their hands earlier. "But there is a catch to that kind of power. Those crazy people you guys mentioned; we call them Splicers. Thing is, people become addicted to the raw power of altering themselves. If you start splicing yourself too much with too many plasmids or gene tonics that just aren't stable you start to go mad, and quite possibly deformed. My people and I come from a part of Rapture that saw these problems starting to show. We cut ourselves off from the rest of the city when a civil war broke out. It wasn't until about forty years ago that we had to start venturing back out into the rest of the city."

"The first run out was a massacre. We soon found that if we were going to come out here we needed to splice ourselves as well. It was the only way to fight back the Splicers." Arlow interrupted Becky, "Wait, so why did you need to come back out here?" Becky explained, "At first it was just for extra supplies, but then when it got to the point where our supplies were running to low to fast we needed something more sustainable. So taking back Arcadia was the priority. Arcadia is where the trees grow that gives Rapture its supply of oxygen. We had to take it back to protect the air, and start farming. We weren't successful until we started splicing… It was dangerous to do so but we set out guidelines to protect ourselves from ending up like the Splicers."

James was absorbing every word and was left to ask, "What kind of guidelines?" "Things like not to use any unknown or untested plasmids, so basically only using the ones at the Gather's Gardens." Becky paused because she saw everyone's confusion, "The Gather's Gardens are vending machines that distribute gene tonics. Another guideline is to not mix conflicting plasmids. Like if you have electrical plasmids stick with other electrical plasmids, don't go dipping into the fire ones or telekinesis…" Jordan interrupted, "Whoa, some of you can move things with your minds?" Becky just smiled at him as a couple of envelopes, from the mailboxes behind the desk, flew at his face. "Holy shit!" he managed to gasp as he was otherwise completely stunned.

Blair just had to ask, "What about the first aid kits? Are they safe to be using?" Becky looked a little confused, "Of course. They contain so little ADAM in them. They consist of pretty much just puree sea slug." Blair breathed a sigh of relief but that ignited another question, "Wait, I thought the sea slugs are what the ADAM is made from why would they contain so little?" Becky had a dark look on her face before answering, "Little Sisters. When they first discovered the ADAM in the sea slugs it was quickly learned that they couldn't produce ADAM fast enough for the demand. Little girls were used to solve the problem. They found that by implanting the slugs into a little girl's stomach and feeding them blood the slug's ability to produce ADAM sky rocketed. But the whole procedure warped and twisted the girl's bodies and minds. It made them impossible to hurt but made them mad as a hatter." Blair looked to Jordan recalling what he told her about the little girl in Neptune's Bounty. His eyes were welling up.

James pressed one more question, "So what's your part in all this?" "Ah," Becky started, "Well Rapture wasn't always so full of madness and death. There was a time when great minds operated here. My boys and I gather research and information in hopes to preserve it. Our favorite finds are the audio diaries." Arlow stepped up, "Wait so your glorified historians?" Becky looked a little insulted, "I suppose you could call us that. Besides, we have another priority as well. We retrieve any Little Sisters we might find." Jordan's head popped up, "Any?" Becky gave Jordan a hard look, "You know where one is."

Becky pressed Jordan for information about the Little Sister but he was hesitant to share anything. "Look," Becky spoke with a stern tone, "I understand that you want to protect the girl but trust me. She'll be better in Arcadia with the rest of us. We have ways of treating them." Jordan shook his head, "It's not that. We need to press on. We've got to get Keira back. That little girl is too far back." Becky was confused for a second before stating, "I never said we were going to help." James interjected, "Well perhaps now you would like to?" He nudged Jordan who got where James was going, "You help us get Keira back and we'll tell you where the girl is."

"I can't believe you're trying to barter with us!?" Becky was becoming furious. "Do you have any idea how easily we can kill you right here and now?" She stared down Jordan who appeared to be unwavering. "You'll never do it." He said, "You're not a lunatic like the rest of them out there." Becky looked him in the eye when she said, "Aren't I?" For a moment Jordan thought he saw her iris turn yellow but he dismissed it as an act of his imagination. Becky broke eye contact with him and gave her head a shake. "AH! This is crazy. You people are daft. Fine, you have a deal, but we do things on my terms, and we get the Little Sister first." Jordan shook his head, "No way. You could back out the second you have her." Becky's head dropped in frustration, "Fine! Here's what we'll do. You," she pointed to Jordan, "and I will go for the Little Sister." She looked to the rest of her men before continuing, "The rest of you go track down this Keira." So with that the two groups split up.