Torn Skies Chapter 10: Why You're Here
The Machine Crackled and let of electricity. Much like the device we encountered earlier at the Soldier's Field it malfunctioned as well. Once the crackling of the device stopped another began. The PA was coming alive with announcement. Bloody 'ell. "Well, they've noticed us."
"You think, Smarmy?"
"Just an observation!" I brought my carbine up and racked the handle.
Will you let your wives and your children fall prey to his machi— The burned the PA Machine out with bit of Devil's Kiss. I had done it almost entirely out of spite and was beginning to feel convinced that I wasted a lot of eve for nothing, when I began to hear yelling and running in the distance. If the PA had still been on, I would not have been able to hear it.
I had fired the machine gun and the shotgun, but so far I have yet to find a weapon as comfortable to use as my Hand Cannon and Carbine combo. The first man emerged at the top of a staircase to my right, he turned my direction, and pointed his machine gun. I spun, bringing the weapon's sights up to my eyes, the maneuver took time which began to worry me. Quickly, I stabilized the iron sights over the man's head—then pulled the trigger. I wasn't disappointed. The weapon's kick was between that of the intense shotgun and the low caliber machine gun, but without the climb they either had. I didn't know how powerful it really was, but if you could aim for the head it's game over for them anyways. Next man, move the rifle slightly to the left, then pull the trigger. Clack! The rifle round caught the man in the neck, he landed rather awkwardly on the ground, one hand trying to support his weight while the other clutched his throat.
"Right! It seems that trouble has finally found us, back to normal."
"Hey Kid, cut back on the jokes, we're stuck till we get this damn tram working again! We need this… this Shock Jockey. Where the hell do we find that Vigor."
"In the Hall of Heroes!" Two men rounded the corner, DeWitt and I shot them both at the same time.
"How the hell do you know that?"
"Let me guess smarmy, you just know thing?" she raised an eyebrow at me.
I rolled my eyes, "No." She raised both eyebrows, "READ THE BLOODY SIGN!" I pointed to the rather large poster next to the Tram controls and turned just in time to see a man with a shotgun jump down from the level above, shouting at the top of his lung.
" DIE, FALSE SHEP—" Two carbine rounds tore into the bloke's chest and he slumped back unto the wall behind him, leaving large trails of blood.
"You know there are more practical ways of fighting somebody other than going, "Look at me I'm target!" I felt a wave of heat passing by head. Two inches more than would have been dead. I turned to the direction of the shot and saw a man climbing down the stairs. He lifted his weapon to aim—Clack! Clack! His body snapped back and landed awkwardly on the stairs.
"We need to get to higher ground, we're sitting ducks here." DeWitt told us. I shouted back an agreement. "Which way to Soldier's Field?"
"That way!" Elizabeth shouted, pointing at a location roughly to our left. I picked up pace, still holding the carbine's sights close to my eyes. This wasn't the end of this fight. And, I was right. Three men appeared at the top of the stair case, I lifted my carbine and fired away, taking down two before my magazine was depleted. At which point I hit the final man with the butt of my rifle. Then, withdrawing my knife, I grabbed him by the shirt and stuck the blade up under his left arm. I bolted up the staircase first, leaving DeWitt and Elizabeth behind. There was seven men waiting for me when I reached the top of the staircase. I knew I was on my own, but I shouted for help nonetheless, "Booker, a hand?". There was no reply save for sounds of another fight going down there. I reached into the warm reserve of salts in my stomach and dispatched nearly all of my salt's worth in a cloud of crows. Then dove into the chaos of seven screaming men and scores of screeching crows, pulling out the Hand Cannon in my right hand and the pistol in the other. I didn't wait for the crows for finish, I doubted they would last long enough to kill all seven.
Booker and Ellie didn't reach the top of the stairs soon enough, I was done by time they arrived. They had been held up as another group of nearly a dozen 'Founder' soldiers snuck up on them an attacked them from behind. Luckily for Booker he had a shield, and they had specific orders not to harm Elizabeth. I was beginning to feel thankful I had gone first. The way I was fighting, I was surprised surrounding building were still intact. A gratitude that diminished as I reflected upon the looks on their faces. When the two reached the top of the stairs Ellie looked frightened and even Booker hesitated a bit. I must have looked worse than I felt. I looked down at myself reluctantly. I was right.
I replaced the Skyhook unto my belt, and proceeded to break open the Hand Cannon's reloading mechanism and began inserting bullets. Clicking the cylinder shut, I bent down to pick up the knife I had at one point embedded into the chest of one of the Founder Soldiers. My pistol was somewhere in this mess, I dropped it in my fury and had switched to my knife, then I switched to my Skyhook. The Skyhook which now hung bloody at my side. I would have to take care not to let the blood jam the moving parts. The arms of my shirt had been torn to shreds as I dove into the cloud of crows. Both my white shirt and grey waistcoat was now dark with splattered blood, as well as torn randomly by the crows. They didn't attack you in the sense that they tore your flesh to pieces, as was evident. They did however, tend to fly too close. I did look worse than I felt—which made me question whether or not I should feel worse. "The Elevator, is that way." I stopped, still heaving from the fight, "We should try to collect ammunition first, there's more fighting up ahead." DeWitt nodded curtly.
The pistol I dropped had been slick with blood when I found it again. So I opted for another, cleaner one. I was stuffing my pockets with some Silver Eagles when Ellie stopped me with a hand on my shoulder. "Wait a second, stay still." I did, she took out more iodine and cloth and clean the cuts on my arms. "I count seven bodies up here. Back there Booker faced ten, with a lot of effort. But you look like you finished earlier, then must have stood there a long time." She reached down and, against my refusals, tore a bit of her skirt and dabbed my face. A lot of Blood must have splattered on my face in the fight, no wonder they had looked so shaken. "We're you a soldier before this? Or some kind of policeman, or maybe even a… Criminal?"
I laughed half heartedly, "I have must appeared pretty impressive. For you to think that."
"You give yourself too much credit, though you did look impressive. In a savage, murderous, and frightening sort of way." she winked and smiled as she wiped the blood from my cheeks, and attended to the few cut made on my face and arms by stray crows.
"No, I was never a soldier or did I ever fight in a battle or was a copper," I flexed my hurt shoulder, "I took some martial arts for a time, kick-boxing, Krav Maga, for a time. I never really took much interest. If there ever was, it was just skin deep. Not that I didn't learn anything. I quite for grateful for it now that I can handle myself well in a fight because of it."
"Krav Maga?"
Still three decades away, "It's an Israeli Martial Art."
"Like boxing, then?"
"It's much more complex."
"Of course you can, it told you, I look impressive." Ellie rolled her eyes, and the three of us made out way into the elevator. Mid-way the elevator shut-down of course. "Allow me."
"You're good with this?" Booker asked me as I began to fiddle with the mechanism.
"A friend of mine taught me bits of it. At that time we were pranking the whole school. Rewiring the PA and messed around with the headmaster's voice before we took over entirely. And then played music on it." I laughed at the memory, "Best April's fool prank ever."
"You got in trouble?"
"Ha! That's an understatement if there ever was one."
"Oh! A bee!" Ellie whined.
"If you leave it alone, it'll leave you alone."
"It's annoying!"
"Just Kill it." Booker suggested.
"I don't want to, you know what I have a better idea." She began to grunt and moan for a bit. Instantly stopped what it was doing and snapped to attention.
"I'll kill it for you," I stepped away from the panel and went burned the bee out with a pinch Devil's Kiss.
"Oh! That was uncalled for! I had other… ideas."
"Elizabeth it's just an animal," Booker added and then added the finishing touches to the fuse box and the elevator was running again. The elevator doors opened with a ding and revealed the empty hallway to us. They exited first, leaving me to contemplate theEerie Songbird poster, on the elevator walls.
"Hmm Bucking Bronco, another one." Booker exclaimed. The crate of Vigors sat at the end of the hall way, the liquid glowed with an eerie gold light. I picked up a bottle, and chucked the liquid down. It tasted like butterscotch. My finger tips grew hot with energy. My blood boiled and my skin cracked and split. That took the satisfaction out of finally finding my favorite Vigor. "Hmm, talk about an aftertaste," I said my humor faltered, but I managed to get a laugh out of Booker. I guessed that's because he went through it himself.
Outside, a commander of some founder soldiers were rallying his troops together. With a loud voice he was defacing Cornelius Slate. I crept up behind a pillar and stayed my weapon until I could stand no more. I shot a look at Booker and was met with an equally, if not angrier, look. He drew out his machine gun and cracked the handle. I lifted three fingers to signal him. Three. Two. One.
x
The three men screaming in anger, pain and despair as they floated in the air. One by one they were silenced and their corpses hit the floor. I inserted a fresh magazine into my carbine and cocked it. I continued into the buildings on the right as DeWitt proceeded to clear out the buildings on the left. The three men standing by the entrance was burnt to a crisp. The large cannon on display proved to be a futile hiding spot as I sent the other two soldiers behind them soaring through the air and then put bullet into each of them. Slinging my rifle on my back, I quickly ran up the steps and out unto the balcony. I dispatched of the two gunmen standing there with my revolver.
Upon seeing Booker battle the two firemen below I quickly shouldered my rifle and brought up the sights. However, I had my own set of complications. A shrill screech of crows made my skin crawl. The dark cloud spun and flowed until they materialized into a dark figure. I swung my rifle around and riddled the creature with bullets. But it seemed bullets didn't quite bring it down. It charged at me and hit me with its full force. Futilely, I tried to leap to the side but it only resulted in my left forearm being cut by one of his hooks. Swearing and grunting, I scrambled back to my feet. I leveled my rifle again and aimed and pulled the trigger. The barrel went wildly up and my entire left arm was seized in a bout of pain. I dropped the rifle and stared the creature down—taunting it to come at me. And it did, I side stepped to my left and planted my knife on it's neck. The creature trashed about before exploding into a swarm of crows and regrouping again. The moment it did I launched a wave of Bucking Bronco. It trashed and flailed in the air but to no avail. I walked till I was right underneath him. My right hand found my revolver and I aimed the barrel right at his head. He wildly fought but it did nothing to stop the flight of a bullet. The corpse dropped to the ground lifeless and nearly did I. I made the best makeshift tourniquet out of my bowtie, but I was failing when Elizabeth found me slumped against a wall.
"Hey, Smarmy I found this codebook and—Oh my God! Simon!" She dropped the book and instantly went to work on my terrible, terrible waste of a good bowtie. "Oh, Simon—" She always called me Simon she was worried,
"I know, I know, I'm sorry. It was waste of a perfectly good bowtie."
"Oh you, Smarmy." She ran off and when she came back her face wasn't too good. "I can't find any of those syringes anywhere. There should be one close but I can't find it. Not even with tears."
"I have this medkit." Booker said hopefully, "I took it off a dead soldier."
"No this won't do he's losing too much blood."
"Ellie, the codebook, where did you find it?"
"The codebook?"
"The you nicked it out of the cannon."
She hesitated, "Yes, how did you know?"
Ops …"Long story… Booker help me up. Get me to the building across the street. When you were there did you happen to see a large group of glyphs on the wall, like a cipher?"
"I think I might have." I walked as quickly as I could without hurting my arm further. "There the cipher!"
"That's right," Elizabeth chimed it excitedly, while I walked on to the next room. "With the codebook I could—"
"Decipher it!" I cut in. "I already have!" I "tipped my hat to the Vox" then opened up the secret passage. I hobbled down the steps, and began rummaging through the medkits. Nothing. "Ellie I need tear!"
"A what?" Booker cut in.
"You'll see." I assured him
There was a whoosh of cold air as Elizabeth cut through the universes and rummaging through the Vox's supply crates found the ruby red syringe. "Alright." Simon lie down. Booker, help him take off his coat. And peel up his shirt." Once I was on the ground. Ellie started to examine my wounds. "I have to be careful, lest the muscle knits back together the wrong way." I kept the pain and tears at bay as she stuck the needle back inside and torn flesh became one again.
"How did you do that?" Booker ask.
"I read up on a lot of medical books in my Tower. And this Syringe could also work miracles."
"No I meant the…tear." The word must have sounded foreign on his tongue
"Oh that. It's something I can do. It's a some form of wish fulfillment I guess. It like a window to another worlds. Same but different. Most of the time it really is boring, like tea instead of coffee and different patterns of china. But sometimes, I find really helpful things. Beautiful things, useful things, and some things… simply wonderful." Her eyes stopped on me. and I could not help but feel a flush of embarrassment.
"Well I don't like the sound of it." DeWitt said flatly. I rolled my eyes and got back up to my feet.
"You wouldn't be here if not for them," I muttered under my breath. DeWitt was too busy picking between boxes of shotgun rounds to hear me. But Ellie did.
"You're not saying that…" She lowered her voice and pointed at him. "Is that why he's here."
"I'm not sure if that's why he's here," I lied. "But I'm pretty sure that's how he got here."
She had a certain look in her eyes. I could not tell for sure, but she knew is was lying. "How bout you? Do you know why you're here? I mean besides to sweep me off my feet and carry me away to the land of my dreams."
"No," I said a bit too quickly to be natural. "I don't know why I'm here but I doubt it's that." I didn't know what to say. I could not help but let my mind wander back to the memories of first playing this game. In the end… hmm funny word in the end. It implies there is be a beginning—which in Elizabeth's case she would never have been born once DeWitt dies in that Baptism. But even before then she would be experimented on, used, left to wait for a salvation that arrived all too late. And then she would be hollow enough inside for Comstock to fill her with his twisted will.
I shook out of my trance. When I looked back at Elizabeth I know something was wrong. Whether it was my words or the silence that followed them, she had been hurt somehow. "Ellie—"
"If you don't trust me it's fine." There was ice in those words.
"What?!"
"It's fine." It clearly was not. But she had her arms crossed in a way that made me hesitate to speak. "But don't think I can see when your hiding something." She stalked away angry and disappointed. I shook my head and began collecting more supplies.
Once we replenished our supplies we headed up to the Skylines. Elizabeth picked up a Skyhook and slightly smiling she said, "This should be interesting." Both DeWitt and I smiled, before me ran off, jumped, and connected to a Skyline. Elizabeth took one look at me before she fixing me cold stare.
"Ellie—"
"No. Tell me why you're here!"
"I don't know."
"Oh really, because I have a hard time trying to believe those words. What are your motives Simon. Am I supposed think that you, some tall devilishly handsome young man that drops in to my tower and charms his to me doesn't have ulterior motives. You, that come here knowing all those things, claiming to know my past and my future, then fighting that," She pointed to the carnage on the pavilion, "fiercely, for me… It's just too good to be true." he chuckled rather fatalistically, "huh, funny. I trusted you more than I did Booker. And look at me now."
"I can't tell you, Ellie! It's too dangerous. I wish I could, but I don't want to lose you."
"Well I'm slipping away now." She wasn't so angry anymore but there was distrust in her voice. "I don't want another cage. I don't want another tower, to keep me in because people don't think I'm ready."
She began to walk away, and right then I felt the unrelenting urge to say anything to make her stay. However I stayed silent and watched as she whisked away. I trusted you more than I did Booker. Trusted—past tense—the word hurt me more than the crowman's cut on my arm. I smiled sadly, trying to shrug it off, before jumping unto Skyline.
Author's Note: Thanks everyone for reading thus far. I wouldn't last without your support. I'll try to post more frequently, although I do have a lot of school work that needs doing. I hope the delay won't be as bad at the past couple of months. I'm also looking to add some more vigors. If you've got some good ideas post them in the review section!
-T.S.