I long delay in getting this posted. I was preoccupied with other events and I only now got back to finishing this story. With the long weekend ahead, I plan to finish this story very soon. So enjoy this chapter and as always, thanks for reading and feel free to comment.
-Soul
X: I'd rather have Adam.
Desmond and Greg, still cuffed and gagged, sat in a neglected in a corner of the large room. For the past six hours they had been interrogated for information about what more they had found in Rapture. Beyond the death of Chris, and the Key that Bailey took, there wasn't anything worth sharing that Bailey had not already told them. With no information to share, they were discarded, and were not even offered the luxury of a holding cell.
With a little work Desmond managed to work his arms to the front and take off his gag. He wormed his tongue around his mouth several times in order to create some moisture. "You alright?" Desmond asked, looking over to the traumatized Greg.
Greg nodded a weakened response. The expert cave diver had met his wits end. Not only did he watch his friend Chris get murdered by a lunatic, he had been held prisoner by the United States military on charges of aiding a foreign power against America. His credentials stripped and his travel visa all but destroyed.
Desmond crawled over and removed the gag from Greg's mouth.
Greg coughed and said, "I really want to go home."
"Don't worry too much. They're only holding us for as long as it's truly possible."
"They tore up my visa, all my diving permits… my life. This shit isn't worth it."
The ex-SAS operative could see the panic building in Greg's eyes. "Keep it together now, we'll be through this soon. I know how they work, you'll be fine. They may even give your pocket a fill in order to keep you silent." Greg's words were reassuring, but he knew that it was wishful thinking at most. In honesty, he wasn't sure what to expect because of the uniqueness of the situation. But a comforting lie was far better than watching a grown man lose his calm.
The door opened and they both shied away from the bright lights of the hallway. The door closed with a metallic squeak as the room lights turned on.
"What more do you want, Bailey?" Desmond asked as the middle aged black man pulled up a chair.
"A little more of your gracious cooperation." He smiled. "I can only imagine what is going on back at Rapture. I'm sure Melissa, Kate, and Karen are all up in arms about building an army of Big Daddies to defend their home."
"If they did, they'd be stupid." Desmond sighed. "They can't hope to fight the US."
"Agreed. So I need you to do me a little favor." Bailey pulled out a key and leaned forward to Greg, unlocking his cuffs. "You are going back, alone, with a message."
"Why me? I don't want to go back! I just want to go home."
"In due time." Bailey smiled.
"Let me go down." Desmond objected. "Greg's been through enough."
"You? A trained British SAS in the hands of those little sisters and Big Daddies? I want this to be easy, not harder. Sending you down there would almost guarantee they'll fight back, with you giving them helpful pointers." Bailey helped Greg to his feet. "He goes, you stay. While your there, convince your friend Melissa and all her little groupies that fighting would be a big mistake."
"Eh, Bailey, exactly what does the US want with an old relic of a city underwater?" Desmond asked, stalling for more time and to give Greg more useful info to take with him.
"We want Bridget Tenenbaum's research, and to remove the threat of anyone gaining access to it." Bailey said calmly. "The higher ups want to see that threat removed, even if it means obliterating everything down there. What if Saddam, or some Terrorist group get there hand on Adam and Plasmids? The world isn't ready for that scenario."
"Pretty noble answer, mate, but how about you tell me what YOU are after."
Bailey smiled. "One vile of Adam goes for a cool five hundred grand on the market. We can't track everything that comes out of Rapture."
"So, you're trying to capitalize on your country's noble deeds?" Desmond chuckled.
"Why else would I hire Jason? His job was to get the Adam out…" Bailey laughed. "Why the hell am I explaining this to you?" He grabbed Greg and dragged him out of the room. "Unless you want to die down there, I advise you to tell Melissa and the others surrender."
- - - - - - - -
The helicopter hovered several feet above the dock and Greg jumped down. He stood up and watched as the military helicopter flew off, leaving him. He turned and sulked as he stared at the setting sun in the distance.
He had two days to warn Melissa, and hopefully save his own life. He ran up the ramp and climbed into the Bathysphere toward the main station. Once below, he climbed out and froze in shock.
"What in the name of god…" The sign that said welcome to Rapture, had been drastically damaged. Fire burns marked the once pristine walls and sparks spat from torn wires. No more than six hours ago, the room was like new.
"Hello." A young woman stated as she climbed over a few broken boxes. Her clothes looked new, but were stained in blood. Greg couldn't tell if it was her blood, or someone else's. "Do you want to talk to me?" She asked.
"What… happened here?"
"What happened where?" She countered. "Nothing. Spring cleaning. Do you want to talk to me, cause I want to talk to you. Yeah, love. There is so much I want to talk to you about." She pulled a knife from her pocket. "Let's talk about that Adam you have. I know you have it. I saw it. Yeah, I saw it."
"Splicer…" Greg's heart quickened. There was no way to negotiate with the woman. Greg remembered everything Melissa had told him about their insanity.
"What did you say? Splicer? I'm not a splicer, love?" She crawled down from the box, her knife tightly clinched in her fist as she stalked closer to Greg. "My parents were Splicers, they were crazy, but not me, I just want the Adam, love. They gave you some, I know they did. Hand it over!" She lurched forward, pouncing like a wild cat, and brought her knife down on Greg's shoulder. They tumbled back and onto the floor. Greg shouted as the blade pierced his shoulder and he grabbed the girl's hand.
She straddled on top of him, laughing hysterically as she searched him with her free hand. Greg punched her, but she simply laughed it off and continued to rub her hands all over him.
"Where is it, love? Where's the, Adam?"
"I don't have any!" Greg screamed as he finally overpowered her knife hand and pulled the blade free. He tossed her to the side and staggered to his feet, but the young girl was already up and charging at him.
"You lie, you lie, you lie! I saw it!" She tried to tackle Greg from behind, but he managed to get clear and made a run for the door beyond the station. "Don't run! I just want to talk!" She cackled as she gave chase.
Greg ran passed an opened canister and inside were several fire extinguishers. He grabbed one and swung around wildly. The sound of metal crashing into flesh was nauseating. The girl fell to the ground in a heap of twitching muscles as blood rolled from the side of her head. Greg nearly vomited at the sight. He dropped the extinguisher and pulled out the radio that Bailey gave him.
"Melissa, its Greg… where are you?"
- - - - - - - -
Melissa rolled to her side as another axe flew passed her. She raised her arms and engulfed an entire crowd of splicers into a rolling ball of flames. Their screams echoed random words of terror and pain, while some still begged for more Adam even as they burned to death. But Melissa couldn't stop, more and more were gathering at the door to the Farmer's Market. She mentally focused to change her biology, and the flames that once leapt from her arms extinguished and were replaced by the cold of ice. She waved near the door and a thick sheet of ice blocked all from passing by. It wouldn't be long before they broke through, but at least now she could gather herself and regroup her forces.
At her side stood ten Big Daddies.
The massive bouncers charged into packs of splicers that were already in the room. Their eyes glowing blood read as their drills spun into the flesh of the crazed inhabitants of Rapture. Another Big Daddy stood near the only exit from the room, firing its massive rivet gun into the crowds, and tossed mines and bombs about the room.
Melissa turned and watched as five splicers united and piled upon a Rosie Big Daddy. With crowbars, axes, and knives they clawed at the Big Daddy until they finally wore out its suit of armor. The pressurized life fluids within the Rosie's suit gushed outward as it screamed. It fought all the way to the end, when one of the splicers rammed its crowbar through the front of its mask. The lights within the helmet faded as its life ceased.
Melissa screamed, "Mr. B!" She clinched her fists together and brought them overhead. Her left arm was instantly engulfed in a circular gulf of wind, while her right arm changed to flames. As she brought down her arms in a hammering move, a maelstrom of wind gathered above the fallen Rosie and its killers. The wind swirled in a ball of flame and thundered down upon them with the motion of Melissa's arms. The impact, a combination of Incinerate and Sonic Boom, destroyed everything within ten feet of the fallen big daddy; including its lifeless corpse. The splicers had no chance of living.
Tears flowed freely from Melissa's eyes as she wept for her fallen comrade. She had been fighting at the Rosie's side for more than five hours. As she lay in emotional shambles, a large arm reached under her and picked her up from the ground; it was the Angel Big Daddy. The Angel roared orders to the remaining eight daddies and they began to retreat out of the Farmers Market, as the sheet of ice that Melissa had made finally broke. Dozens of splicers frantically poured into the room.
The big daddies, with Melissa in tow, sealed the pressure door to the Farmers Market and another Rosie model began to weld it shut. They had lost another territory.
The Angel sat Melissa against the wall as the other daddies watched; their eyes slowly returning to yellow. The Angel grunted.
Melissa fought back her tears. "I know. I know. I can't give up. "Another Big Daddy grunted in a higher pitch.
"No! I don't want to see any more of you hurt. But I know that it can't be avoided." Her childhood conditioning, the forced bond to the Big Daddies, instinctively returned. She cared more for the Big Daddies than any of the others around her.
A burst of static sounded, "Melissa, its Greg… where are you?"
Melissa fumbled into her backpack and pulled out the radio. "Greg!"
"Thank God…"
"What are you doing here?"
"They let me go, they wanted me to ask you not to fight. But before that, I just killed a splicer. God, she couldn't have been more than fifteen."
"Where are you?"
"That Bathysphere station."
Melissa thought for a moment. "You aren't safe! A few random splicers slipped passed us before we could lock them in. Get to Arcadia as fast as you can! Switch to channel 49 and talk to Mike. He is there with Karen. I'll meet you when I can."
Greg's voice was faint on the other end. "I don't know if I can… I'm losing a lot of blood. My shoulder…"
"Damn it, Greg. What's worse, dying while you run or dying in one spot? Try!" Melissa closed the channel and pocketed the radio. The Angel grunted a question. "No, he's on his own. We have enough to worry about."
- - - - - - -
Greg stood from his resting spot near the door. His shoulder was starting to burn even more as nerves died around the wound. He put pressure on it after he tied off his home made bandage. Arcadia wasn't too far away, but Melissa's warning about not being safe lingered in his head. He knelt down and picked up the knife the girl had. He looked around, examining the room for anything he could use for a weapon. A broken pipe lay in a pool of excess water. He scooped it up and pushed on.
Once he opened the door to the Kashmir elevators, the extent of the damage presented itself. He saw someone clawing a gate, wailing on it in frustration. Glass shattered as the man wildly hit anything nearby. Greg made sure to stay silent and out of view. But he had to get to the transit center. From there he could easily navigate to Arcadia. The man was on the second level, far away, and clearly had no idea that Greg was sneaking by. Greg focused on the man and then saw as another splicer walked up behind the enraged man.
"Did you get it open!" The new man shouted.
"No no no no no no… I can't! I can't! You promised me more!" The enraged man cried out.
"If you get it open, you twit!"
"I need it… more, more I need it." The enraged man hunkered over in a fit, clawing at his own hair. "I'll be skinny and the girls will love me! They'll love me!" He dived onto the cage and tugged, clawed, kicked and pulled. A metal rivet tore from the hinge and the man gripped the loosened frame. "Yes yes yes yes! I'll be skinny! They'll want me. ME!" With a little more effort the gate tore free and the two men ran inside.
Greg, in the silence, then realized that his heart was racing a mile a second. He breathed deep and slow, to help calm his shattered nerves. With the two splicers gone he made a run for it.
His boots thumped hard and loud, but he didn't care. For four days he had been exploring the streets of Rapture, and he knew this section fairly well. The transit hub was only a few hundred yards away. He put caution to the wind, and ran hard.
"I hear you, baby!" A female scream cackled in the distance. Greg spun, looking in all directions. "You running from me, again? You two-timing bastard! I'll kill you and that slut you've been sleeping with!" The woman was older, full figured and carrying a sword. She ran around a corner, to Greg's left, at full speed with the sword held high. Greg turned another corner and made a direct line for the hub.
The woman screamed a heartfelt cry, "You won't go back to that bitch anymore! You won't cheat on me ever again!" The Adam had twisted her mind, thinking that any man nearby was her cheating lover.
Greg ran hard, knowing that he had excellent foot speed in the open. Even with his injured shoulder, he felt he could easily out run the woman. A quick glimpse over his shoulder proved him wrong. She was gaining faster and faster with each step. Her speed perhaps aided by the magical Adam swelling in her system. Greg also noticed in his quick glimpse, that blood covered her from head to toe, as well as her sword. She had most likely already laid waste to a few unsuspecting males.
Greg's lungs burned from the run, his shoulder wound bled even more freely with the constant movement, and panic was quickly settling in. He rounded the last turn toward the hub and he felt the wind of the sword cut near the back of his neck. He didn't slow down to check if he was bleeding.
"I'll get you, I'll get you cheater…" A gush of flame swelled all around as the woman screamed in agony.
Greg stumbled forward on the concourse. He looked back to see that the woman was on fire and screaming. She dropped her sword and began to fan at the flames and eventually fell to the ground. A younger man jumped down from the nearby rafters and examined the corpse.
Had he been saved? Greg thought. Had an alley come to his rescue? The young man dug into the woman's burned clothes, tearing them off her as he examined every inch of her body.
"Adam, bitch! Give me the Adam! Where are you hiding it?" He tore off her burnt blouse, pants, and underwear. His hands worked all over her unrecognizable flesh. He then screamed in anger. He grabbed the last of the woman's hair and began to pull it out even more. Curses escaped his mouth as he jumped on top of her and began to stomp on her lifeless form.
He then stopped and glared at Greg.
"What are you looking at?" The young man smiled. "Did you take her Adam before me? You have it, don't ya?"
Greg rolled over, and crawled into the Bathysphere. He quickly pulled the lever for the Arcadia. The door closed, but not before the young man jumped inside with him.
"It's okay, buddy." The young man smiled as he looked down at Greg. "I only want to talk." The heat of his flames began to swell. "Did ya take my Adam?"
To be continued…