Chapter 10: The city

Visions of the past year flashed through my mind. I couldn't tell if I was dreaming or hallucinating. I felt ground below my body, but I was hearing noises that couldn't possibly be from anything earthly. Colors brightened then faded away everywhere. My head was throbbing. I could not move my legs or my arms yet, but my eyes could move. Scanning around me, I noticed the size of the room. It was very dark. The only source of illumination was a dim orange light coming from another room in the distance. Finally the feeling came back to my legs.

I slowly stood up, and immediately the horrors around the room revealed themselves. The smell was the first thing to hit me. It was a scent unlike any I had never known. I was still dizzy and stumbled a bit when I tried to walk forward. For the most part everything was absolutely quiet, besides a very strange humming noise that seemed to come from everywhere.

I started to walk forward with steadiness and my feet were incredibly loud against the floor. The room I was in must of been very large as my footfalls echoed with force and carried on for a long while. The smell got stronger as I continued towards the light. Something caught my leg and I almost tripped.

As I attempted to regain my footing, I slipped in something wet and fell. The smell was right In my face now. I reached forward to try and find dry ground to lift myself up on. My hand went right into something cold and warm. Awww gross. What the fuck is this? A bundle of ropes? Quickly pulling my hand out, my elbow brushed across something sticking straight up. I reached back over to feel whatever it might of been. It felt like Someone's face! There was a person laying next to me! Is he alive? Wait a second... I thought for a moment. My eyes finished adjusting to darkness after the blinding light from earlier. That's when I saw it. It was a man, a soldier. One of the black berets from the base. I didn't recognize him. He was torn clean in half, and the "bundle of ropes" were his guts. His lower half was nowhere in sight...

"Jesus!" I jumped up to my feet, almost slipping a second time. The room was now less dark in my eyes. The distant orange light brightened it even more. I could make everything out. The room was roughly 100 feet long and 50 feet wide. Windows were on each side. Huge columns were around me. I remembered this from when I first woke up. I guessed that the balcony from where the girl jumped away from was on the other darker side of the room, because I could not see where it was. Behind where I was standing was a doorway about 8 feet high and 6 feet wide. Through the doorway I could see a light hanging from the ceiling of another room that seemed to be significantly smaller. I could not see through the windows. All that was visible was a deep blue color behind them, along with some small lights that were far away. The smell was now obvious. Dead black berets were strewn around the room, all disfigured and mangled. Out of the 25 that were at the base with me, about half of them were dead in this very room. I was in shock. Back in the hotel I was not sure if the man I had hit was dead or not, but now I knew for sure these were dead bodies. Real dead bodies.

A floodlight with a generator was sitting off to the side of the room. Crates were stacked next to the light. I made my way around the many corpses to reach the crates. The tops would not open but I could feel they were empty anyways. A piece of paper was stapled to the side of one. The words "Lorentzian Transversal wormhole" and "decontaminate from thermal radiation" were visible in the dim light. That was enough warning for me to take a few steps back. The generator wired to the floodlight seemed like a good idea to get working. With minimal electrical experience, it might be a difficult task.

It didn't take long for me to give up. I noticed two large puncture marks on the top of unit. Odd. Did someone break this deliberately? Staring at the marks made me uneasy. I quickly turned and left the room, exiting through the doorway behind me. For some strange reason, the smell got worse but wasn't the same as I walked around the small room. A metal door was closed next to a bunch of tables. It rose up to the ceiling as I approached. "Huh." A large hallway loomed in front of me.

...

I walked around for a good hour. The rooms got increasingly more creepy and decrepit. Some of the areas were very dark. I came to a massive half circle room with a window covering one entire side. It was still dark blue outside. I found a red cushioned chair, and although it was weathered, it was comfortable. This was it. I'm all alone. Nobody's here, everyone's dead. How can I go on? Where do I go? A giant silhouette moved past the window. I heard a deep groan. Wha... what is that? It sounded like an old building settling or something. "Your local directory-" A voice came out of nowhere, making me jump. The voice continued: "is where you can find dates regarding when the Metro will be back up and running in your area. Be patient while we repair the city. New little sisters and Protectors have been manufactured as of last week, and we will be deploying them to the parts of the city that are still in states of disrepair, so make sure not to wander off. Rebuilding of Apollo square will begin next month. Report any suspicious activity to law enforcement. Any harboring of criminals will result in immediate incarceration and execution in Persephone. Thank you." The voice seemed to be coming from above me, like some sort of a PA system. I still had no idea where I was. The only hint I had was "Apollo square", the place the arc had set as its destination. "Well, everything around me is definitely in a state of disrepair" I said to myself. It was quiet again besides the low humming sound coming from behind the window. My only option is to continue walking around until I find someone who can tell me what's going on or get killed by whatever got those soldiers. Suddenly, I heard a faint crackle. It sounded like static. A voice accompanied it "Find- going to try and- HQ-" It was too far away to understand. It got louder as I jogged down the stairs in the center of the room. I turned a corner into a bigger room. A large stage was erected in the center with gallows sitting on top of it. From it hung the corpse of a black beret, slowly twirling in place, completely cut open with his eyes missing. I gagged. The static was coming from directly below him. I covered my nose, and walked up onto the stage. There, laying in a pool of blood, was a walkie talkie. I picked it up and held the button down. "He- Hello?" a moment passed

"Hello?! Sergeant?! Is that you? I thought you got taken down on the way out of the square!" I recognized the voice. Adrian.

"No, it's me."

"Me. You're gonna have to elaborate a bit more on that one. Look if this is just a splicer fucking with me-"

"No it's Billy."

A long pause followed.

"What? We left you for dead! You wouldn't wake up so we just ran! How are you still alive? I thought for sure the big sisters would of taken you back to Persephone, unless they thought you were dead. Probably still woulda taken you..."

"I feel like shit Adrian"

"Well man, ha, I would too. When did you wake up?"

I had no idea, so I estimated. "Uh about an hour or two ago."

"Jesus man we got here two fucking days ago. Those drugs really put you out."

I could feel the itch of stubble on my face. I didn't want to reach up and check for the fear of getting the still wet blood all over me. For once I wished I was back at the base so I could groom and shower again.

"God I'm hungry man." my stomach was growling.

"Yeah yeah, me too. Look, if you can, get to me. Davidson, miller, and Benedetti are away right now looking for food. Peters and Samson are looking for a way we can get into the populated section of the city. We're all that's left that we know of. The other guards and mercenaries that got sucked into the arc with us on accident ran in the opposite direction right when we got here."

All those men dead...

"Well, where are you?"

"You tell me first. I can probably tell you how to get to me" he said.

"Apollo square I'm guessing" I responded.

"Shit... I had a feeling since you have sarges radio..."

"what's the matter"

He paused for a moment again

"You're uh... kinda far. We hooved it after Lamb and her group of sister's ripped us to pieces. If you are around where the sergeant got killed, then start walking directly left of the gallows. They should be around there."

"yeah I'm there. I'll start walking."

"Just follow the bullet holes and knocked over furniture through the hallways and glass corridors. It might take a few hours before we can reach each other. Good thing these devices are long range. I'll bring you up to speed if you're interested. I know you are."

Bring me up to speed? There's nothing to know besides how to go home. But the company of having a voice around was good, so I agreed.

"Sure."

"Well, our numbers are obviously thinned out, so fighting is not a choice. Our choices are die or escape. No room for fucking up. We're going to escape. What we need to do is access this places central mainframe, the thinker it's called. We know by now Lamb has built a wormhole of her own or is in the process of making one. They've got the top scientists down here an-" My brain felt like it was going to turn into strawberry jelly. "Slow down a second. What is this place, and who is Lamb?" Adrian sighed on the other end of the radio. "Suchong didn't tell you we'd be going to a city at the bottom of the Ocean? We're in Rapture. Built in '46, fell in '59, came back in '67 under sofia lamb, fell again. Now it's really back thanks to sofia's daughter. Let's not stick around on the details."

I shrugged. "Fair enough."

"Well, Eleanor Lamb is one horrible girl. She's and her band of freaks she wanders around with... They just kill and rape like savages. All the people in the city are afraid of her. She controls the splicers. I'll explain to you what splicers and everything around here when you find me. You know how to fire a gun?"

I was running at a brisk pace around corners and though abandoned apartments. "Ahh not really. I've played Doom before if that counts. I'm going off to basic next year as well but that is no use to me now. So where are you exactly?"

Adrian chuckled. "Like I said, far from you. A place called fort frolic. Lamb has the metro down right now while the big daddies do repairs so you're getting here on foot. Me and the others got here on foot, but we moved quietly and slowly because we were being chased. You'll get here faster. You're all alone out there Billy. Eleanor and her clique are back at Point Prometheus by now. Either that or they're out looking for us in the populated section of the city." He stopped for a moment.

"HA We're not that stupid. No way I'm marching into Neptune's bounty or some shit dressed like this with an MP5. Dead give away. Billy you are lucky man."

"And why's that?" I said chuckling.

"Because she's looking for soldiers. Not some tall goofy looking dude dressed in jeans and a dirty t shirt, no offense. She probably didn't even see you judging by the fact that you are breathing right now. I know for sure it's been publicized that enemies are loose somewhere in the city. People are keeping an eye out for us, especially splicers who think they're gonna get some Adam for turning us in. Ah, shit... Adam... you don't know what that is either, do you? I'll tell you later."

"Sure." I said indifferently.

I came to a big window, and everything was much more clear on the other side. My jaw dropped. Buildings towered over in all directions. A school of fish floated by. Out in the distance, what looked like an umbrella slowly descended onto a spotlight extruding from the sea floor. I squinted to see it better. It was a Huge squid. It's tentacles covered parts of the spotlight, making a shadowy design on the adjacent building that looked like bars on a jail cell.

I guess Adrian knew why it got so quiet, because he spoke up all of a sudden.

"Amazing ain't it? Welcome to Rapture."