"Finally!" exclaimed Medic. There was a huge array of maps on the wall of this walkway. It looked to be of the various floors of the complex. "Any idea where we should go?"

"Some sort of apartment building," said Spy. He scanned the maps. "The second floor has an entrance to a location called Artemis Apartments. I believe that was the name Scout used."

"We need stairs!" declared Soldier.

Engineer frowned. "They don't have many stairwells. Not very safe. If there was an accident, most of the workers wouldn't make it out." It was irresponsible and showed a lack of respect towards the men (and maybe women) that made this work possible. "There's only two on each floor! What were they thinking?!"

And then the lights abruptly went out. A red light came on a second later, but Engineer and the others had already drawn their weapons, ready for whatever was coming next. The light dimmed for a moment before coming back. Dimmed and came back. Engineer groaned. "It's emergency power! Something's happened!"

The radio crackled. "Do you know what has happened to your companion?"

Lamb.

"Time to go," said Spy.

Engineer could now hear running and realized they were about to be attacked. Not for the first time, he found himself wishing for a turret, or at least some building materials. He had to settle for aiming his shotgun while sticking close to Pyro, who was watching the back as they started moving.

"The most probable scenario is that he feels more likely to survive if he does not need to help you survive as well. Would it really be surprising when you care only for the comfort of your own lives?"

Pyro spurted out some flame when the lights faded. Some splicers started running towards them. They were keeping a distance to avoid the flamethrower, but Engineer could shoot until he had to reload and hit them pretty accurately. It wasn't doing as much damage as Engineer would have liked, but it would do.

A grenade bounced past Pyro and blew up the splicers that had been gathering behind them. "Be careful!" Engineer shouted.

"I know how to not blow up a building!" countered Demo.

"Are we heading in the right direction?" asked Spy, sounding far too calm.

"Yes!" answered Soldier.

"Heavy?" pressed Spy.

"I think so! Is hard to tell!"

"It would not be surprising if he was killed. All of the Rapture Family counts him as their enemy and with good reason. It would be a justified death."

Engineer growled a bit at that.

"As will yours."

A splicer threw something at them. Pyro did an airblast that sent it flying back. The item exploded on a splicer.

"They got molotov cocktails!" shouted Demo.

"Fuck!"

"You are the exact type of people Andrew Ryan would have approved of and allowed to enter Rapture, never realizing that he welcomed those who would seek to destroy him."

Pyro's flamethrower ran out of fuel. They reached for the release cache and dropped the tank.

"I got your back!" Engineer fired as the splicers swarmed forward to take advantage of the moment of weakness. Demo let loose grenades and sticky bombs one at a time to blow up multiple splicers.

"Up!" shouted Sniper.

Up? What did he mean by up?

The red lights lit up, revealing a splicer had gotten past Pyro just to Engineer's right. It wasn't like the other splicers. Its lips were pulled up and down, making it impossible for it to close its mouth. Its eyes were misshapen holes with no lids, if there were even eyes present. Its head was elongated, like an alien in a monster movie. Except this was real, and he was right in front of Engineer.

Engineer was so surprised by its appearance that he didn't take advantage of the light to shoot. He backpedaled and pointed his gun in the direction the splicer had been.

His hand erupted into pain. "Gah!"

"Engie!"

"Hnga!"

"Damn it!"

"Heads!"

Someone grabbed Engie and dragged him back. "Keep reloading!" shouted Sniper.

"Medic!" shouted Demo right next to Engineer's head. Demo's eye was glowing, and that meant…Engineer couldn't remember what that meant.

"What-Verdammit! What happened?!"

"Splicer got me," grit out Engineer. He was starting to get lightheaded. Well, that was embarrassing. He'd received all sorts of injuries, and a little stab to the hand got him woozy.

"It was on the ceiling!" shouted Sniper.

So that's what 'Up' had meant…

"Merde! We completely-" Spy stopped to fire at the ceiling.

"Where is it?" asked Medic

"I don't know!" shouted Demo

"What do you mean you don't know?!"

"We couldn't stop to look for it!"

"My medigun cannot regrow limbs!"

What? Why would Medic bring that up? Engineer's head lolled forward.

Blood was pumping out of his wrist, his hand nowhere to be found. Engineer inhaled sharply.

"He needs a tourniquet or he will bleed to death!"

"Can't you medibeam him?!"

"Heavy is taking too much damage, and the injury will heal in a bad way if it is not properly closed first!"

"What about fire?"

"That would work!"

Demo suddenly pulled Engineer back away from Medic. Wait. No. That doesn't make sense. He needed treatment. Something was wrong with his hand. He…couldn't think. Couldn't focus. What was going on? Where-

His hand erupted into pain. It was on fire, worse than anything he had ever felt before.

He screamed.

Then darkness took his vision, and he knew no more.