Bioshock Infinite: Union
Chapter 26
-Booker-
He carried the case of canned beef part way up the tunnel then put it down to scout ahead. Be bad if someone stumbled on him carrying it. The path ahead was clear though.
"So any ideas on where to hid this?" he asked as they walked back.
*I would think the best place would be in all that junk. Who would bother to look?*
"Just what I was thinking."
Several minutes late the crate was hidden inside the remains of the small submarine under a large piece of rusty metal. Next was the other water tight door.
Like the one across from it, the door opened easily. Beyond it was a corridor that went about thirty feet straight ahead and made a turn to the right. About half way down were three steps leading up and a doorway. Most of the lights in this area still worked, so he wouldn't need to use the Devil's Kiss.
They tried the door and found it opened up on room filled with shelves. The shelves were mostly empty, but they did find a pair of working batteries. In one corner of the room they found several empty cans of food, some distilled water and an Audio Diary.
Peter Tarbox: Why I am here
Date November 22, 1958
I was not a good man on the surface. Lived beyond my means and embezzled money from my bank to pay for it. I cheated on my wife for years and abandoned her to come down here to hide. In the end though, hiding did not help. This city has no soul, but I do. A torn and battered thing, but it is mine still. I tried to bring Him here. To try and save a few, do some good in the time I have left. But my feeble attempt to do so has undone me.
This city and those that dwell here are damned.
*I guess we both know how he feels.*
"Yeah. Any idea who he was trying to bring down here?"
*Your guess would be as good as mine.*
The left the former stockroom and headed down the corridor. A short distance after the turn there was a stairway heading down a passageway that led to the left and a room ahead of them. His face was itching again, but he resisted the temptation to scratch.
"Any preference?"
*Let's try the room ahead, then the corridor.*
This room looked like equipment storage for underwater construction. Handheld welding equipment, power saws, drilling equipment, oversized rivet guns and the like. Nothing useful to them though.
Next was the corridor. It led to a large room with several oversized lockers and pieces of armored diving suits suspended from the ceiling. Unlike the other suits they found, these had a strong resemblance to the Big Daddies they had seen.
*The suits they used were evolving.* She sounded more than a little intrigued.
"Evolving?"
*Yes, the diving suits we saw earlier are like those you would find anywhere in the world. These are more advanced. Built to withstand greater depths and protect the man inside from injury. Can you take a closer look at the one on the right?*
He took a closer look with Elizabeth looking over his shoulder. *As I expected. These suits aren't as old as the other ones we found. These may have been down here only a few years.*
"Think they still might work?"
*I suppose they might be safe to use. You have an idea?*
"If I can't find a way out of there..."
*Let's hope it never comes to that.*
He looked at the other end of the room . There was a large heavy door at least eight feet wide with "Bay 33" stenciled above it. This door looked a little more like the other doors in Rapture. Probably newer construction. Red and Green lights were just below the Bay number and the green one was lit.
*Booker, remember that Audio Diary we found earlier that talked about a smuggled shipment?*
"Good catch."
*You would have remembered, eventually.* He didn't have to look at her to tell that she had an amused smirk on her face.
He humphed good naturedly and went over the six oversized lockers. They all had combination locks on them, but only one was locked.
As he entered the combination in Elizabeth asked *Any guesses on what's in here?*
"Not a one." he told her and opened up the locker and opened up the crate inside. Both of them were surprised.
Bibles.
"So that's what Tarbox meant when he said he was going to bring "Him" down here. Talking about God."
*He was going to try and preach religion in Rapture. I don't think it would have ended well for him.*
"Probably not. Let's see what's on the other side of that." he motioned towards the large door. Next to the door as a large heavy handle and with labels on it. "Fill" "and "Drain" with it being set to "Drain" at the moment. Beside it was a pair of oversized buttons marked "Open" and "Close". He hit the "Open" button and the heavy door slid into the floor.
Two feeble lights flickered on to reveal a dead body. He was older and had been dead about for a while, shot several times at close range. Around him looked to be his personal possessions, a blanket, pillow some cans of food and a few books.
"Think we found Tarbox."
*I guess he wasn't carful enough.*
He went back to the locker, got a bible from the crate and put it with Tarbox's remains. "Deserves that much."
*Nothing more for us here.*
He closed the door and headed to the stairway leading down. As he got to the bottom the floor was covered with nearly a foot of water. The lighting was dim, but he could see fairly well. The room was empty, but a doorway led to another room. Booker sloshed to the other room to find it contained two large pumps, a rotting wood desk and another stairway going up. On the desk was an Audio Diary.
Pablo Navarro: Closing Down
Date: June 13, 1954
McDonagh told us to close this old section down and I don't blame him. This place has been filling up with junk for years. But if you look in the right place, you can find something you can sell to the right people. Nobody will ever be the wiser. Pull on the Great Chain the right way and you can make out pretty good.
"Guess that explains why we can't find much useful down here. What's this "Great Chain"?"
*It's Ryan's economic belief system. He sees people as links in a "Great Chain of Industry" that is both pulled by the people and pulls them. But you can only move the chain in the "right" direction if you pull in your own self interest.*
"How did this Great Chain get from self-interest to kidnaping children?"
*Because it's based ONLY on self-interest. They think empathy is a weakness and winning is the only thing.*
"I get it. I'm only to care about me and nobody else. Ryan thinks I shouldn't care about Anna." he said angrily. In this city, the crimes he committed against Anna, Elizabeth, would have been nothing. Maybe even encouraged.
Damn this city.
He didn't say anything more as they started walking up the stairs. The shameful memories of the man he had been rolling around in his head with his hatred of this place. At the top of the stairs was a corridor that went to the left. There was a single large room here filled with old tables and chairs. Not worth exploring.
At the end of the corridor there was another flight of stairs that led up. He did a quick figuring of their position.
"Those stairs should go to the Securis door we ran past."
*You mean the broken one?*
"Let's hope it's not broken on this side."
*Not bad Booker. Figuring out our location I mean.*
"Oh, you would have realized it." "Eventually."
*Touché.* she said with a wry smile.
A minute later they stood in front of the Securis Door that would allow them to get back to Fortune Avenue. Sparks shot from the lever that controlled the door.
"Don't suppose you know a way to fix one of these."
*See if you can pry the cover off. That exposes the gear system and you can use to Air Grabber to activate the door.*
"That works?"
*I did it several times in Fontaines.*
'Nothing else to try.' He examined the cover for a short time and didn't see any way to cleanly pry it off. "Have to do it the hard way." he muttered.
He hit the cover once with the Grabber, but it didn't dent it nearly enough. He hit it a second time and the Electric Touch activated send sparks flying. With a familiar rumble the door opened. Booker bolted through it before it had a chance to close again.
"Did Not expect that to happen." He said in a slightly bewildered tone.
*Me either. Guess we don't have to worry about getting through broken doors anymore.*
He smelled something. Smoke. He drew the autopistol on reflex. There was the also another smell. One he knew much too well. The smell of burnt flesh.
*Booker? What's happening?*
"Something bad." was all he could tell her.
-Elizabeth-
'Something bad?'
That was all that he must know. He faced down the tunnel towards the plaza with his autopistol out. There was something lying in the plaza and she was positive it had not been there before. Booker's eyes focused on it for a moment and she expected it was a dead body.
Booker stayed along the right wall as they carefully moved down the corridor. The farther they went the more they could see of the plaza. Sea's Best Foods was on fire. The smell was what must have warned Booker something was wrong.
'What happened here? Did Ryan's forces attack?'
Someone walked across the mouth of the corridor, but didn't bother looking down it. He had ADAM scars and carried a shotgun. But he was dressed in civilian clothes, not the uniform of Rapture Security. What interested her was the green cloth he had tied on his left arm. It must be something to identify a friend from the enemy. He stood near tunnel entrance and giggled as he watching the grocery store burn.
*Booker, you didn't buy anything green did you?*
*No, but I think be a good idea to "borrow" from something green from that guy.*
He snuck up to the passage entrance and quickly looked around the corner. There were two more men facing away from them with green cloths tied on their arms. They were kneeling on the ground searching a pair of dead bodies. No one else was in sight.
Booker quietly snuck up behind the giggling splicer as he watched the fire burn and hit in the back of the head. The stunned man staggered, but didn't fall. Booker hit him again, but harder and she heard a sickening crunch. As the man fell, he grabbed him and quickly dragged him back down the tunnel. The Securis door was still open and the unconscious man was unceremoniously dumped at the top of the stairs after Booker removed the green cloth and took his wallet.
After tying the cloth around his left arm, Booker walked out into the plaza like he belonged there. One of the men searching the bodies glanced up, but returned to what he was doing. They could see most of the plaza now. Sinclair's Spirit had three people standing near the door drinking and smashing bottles on the floor. There was heavy smoke coming down the tunnel from where the apartments were. She counted twenty one bodies in the plaza. Many of them didn't have any kind of weapon.
The passageway that had been boarded up the first time they had been here had been blown open. Whoever had done it had used too much explosives and the archway had been damaged. Before too long it would likely collapse. Two people, a man and a woman were over by the soon to occur structural failure talking in a rather animated fashion.
They seemed to be happy with slaughter about them.
A glance to the left showed there were people looting the used goods store. These people were heavily armed compared to the former locals. Many of them had shotguns or tommy guns. The few not so armed certainly had Plasmids for weapons. In a fight Booker would be overwhelmed by sheer numbers.
"Damn" Booker cursed under his breath. Several men stood at the entrance they needed to take to get back to Prosperity Way. He altered course slightly, heading for the back of Sinclair's and the Doctor's Office.
*Going to the Doctor's Office to see if it has a window to get us around the people at the entrance?*
*Yeah, don't want to get to close. Would probably realize they don't know me.*
*I'm not quite sure what's going on here. These seem to be Ryan supporters, but I don't see anyone from Rapture Security. Shouldn't they have command of something like this?*
*Would guess these people are some kind of self-proclaimed militia and decided to attack by themselves. Heard about things like this during the Civil War, American Civil War, not Columbia's.*
*People killing each other for the likes of Ryan and Atlas.* She didn't try and hid her disgust at it all.
*Wouldn't surprise me if some of these people don't care about Ryan or Atlas. Just an excuse to settle old scores, get some loot or just kill someone.*
They were walking around the back of Sinclair's now. The body of a woman lay in the middle of the alley, shot in back at least five times. The door to the Doctor's office was open, but Booker stopped a moment to listen for activity inside, but heard nothing. They looked inside and found two more bodies. They looked as if they had tried to run away from the door. She noted that none of the six chairs matching each other.
Booker bent down and put his hand on the face of the dead woman to close her eyes. "Happened quick." Turned out pockets on the man indicated that someone had already searched the bodies for any valuables they might have been carrying.
*While we were down in Rust Alley, they managed to kill all these people.* Some of these people had tried to attack Booker, but she hadn't wanted them dead. They hadn't deserved this.
They went through the door to the back and stepped into a short corridor. To the left was an empty examination room. This doctor had not been well off. Everything was second hand and worn. To the right what looked to be an office with a small desk, two chairs and four battered filing cabinets. The contents of the cabinets had been thrown around the room.
The other examination room was next and it was occupied by the remains of a man and a woman. The man had a white doctor's coat on and the woman, a nurse's uniform. The man's body was on his back his hands over his head. Behind him huddled in a corner, was the woman.
"Usually don't kill doctors, even in war." he told her grimly.
*Ryan or Atlas aren't the type of people to follow rules.*
"Seems to hold for a lot of people down here."
The door to the next room had been broken down and looked to have been where they stored medicine. All the bottles, jars and containers had been knocked to the floor and broken. Lying atop the broken glass was the corpse of a splicer wearing a green armband. The body was on its back and there was a large amount of blood around his nose and ears.
*Wonder what killed him?*
"This maybe?" Booker said as he shifted the broken glass with the Air Grabber to reveal part of a broken Infusion bottle.
*Huh. We knew that Infusion could kill, but no one ever said how. It looks like he died from Tear Sickness. That actually makes sense. The Luteces invented Infusions, so it's logical they would have something to do with alternate realities or at least altering probability.*
"So Infusions don't use ADAM?"
*Be very surprised if there did. The Luteces were physicists, not biologists. Suchong probably just copied their work without understanding it.* 'No surprise there.'
"Probably why I can use 'em. Had a lot of practice with Tear Sickness."
*That you do.*
He stood up and looked around a moment. "Wonder if there's another one around."
On the other side of the room was small wall mounted cabinet. A hand written sign on it read "Danger". There had been a lock on it at one point, but it had been broken off. Booker opened the door to reveal an Infusion. He checked it over to make sure the container was undamaged and quickly drank it.
"Feel better already."
*Why Do you say that?*
"Always feel better after drinking one of them, even if I just boost my Shield."
*I guess. Rather odd they would have Infusions in a Doctor's office.*
"If you got a case of Tear Sickness, where would you want to be?"
*In a Hospital or a Doctor's Office. This place doesn't seem to be the most well equipped though.*
"Desperate people take desperate chances." Booker told her as he bent down to check the corpse for anything of value. Twenty Eight dollars, a Pep Bar and another Rapture ID.
They left the room, Booker's footsteps muffled by the Gear. The only door left was one at the end of the hall. This door must have been locked when that attack occurred as the lock had been shot out. On the other side was a stairway going up.
*The Doctor's family must have lived up there.*
"Hope they didn't have any children home."
The stairs led to a small living room, but it had been torn apart. Booker reached down and picked up a framed picture with cracked glass. It showed the murdered doctor in a tuxedo and the nurse in a wedding gown. The background showed trees, it must have been on the surface.
Booker respectfully put the picture down on a nearby table and proceeded to look through the apartment. There was a kitchen, bathroom, two bedrooms and all had been ransacked just as the living room had been. Fortunately, they didn't find another body. In the larger of the two bedrooms they found the window they had been looking for. On the floor in front of it was an Audio Diary.
James Alfred: Change of Plans
March 2, 1957
Jenny and I came to Rapture it was to get away from the corrupt phony world. It took us years to figure out that it wasn't the world that was phony, it was us. Now we are down here in Rapture's underbelly giving medical care to the people here. We may not have a lot of money, but we are rich beyond our wildest dreams.
I hope that our son will be able to understand it someday.
*This city seems to destroy or corrupt everything decent it touches.*
Booker seemed like he was about to say something, but stopped. Instead he looked around on the floor for a few moments and picked up another picture. It was of a young man and at the bottom was written "Thomas, Feb, 3 1957." Booker studied the face a moment clearly intent on memorizing it.
*Thinking of going and looking for him?*
"Probably not a good idea, but if I happen to see him... Let's get going."
He carefully opened the window doing his best to keep it from making noise.
There was another "Rapture Reminder" playing over the loudspeakers, but she couldn't make out what it was saying, not that she tried very hard. Booker looked out the window back towards the plaza and could see the two men still standing there. Fortunately they both faced the other direction.
Booker climbed out the window, careful to make as little noise as possible. He was almost out when the duffle bag on his shoulder chose that moment to slide off his shoulder. He barely managed to catch it before it fell to the ground and alerted to the two men.
They dropped to the ground without making a sound and quickly went down the alley to the Securis Door that would take them back to Prosperity Way.
The door slow rumbled open in its usual fashion and Booker looked back down the alley. Worried about the noise attracting someone's attention. After it opened he quickly went through and hurried down the corridor.
It was getting hard to concentrate. *Booker, what time is it?* He got his watch out of his pocket. 'Going to have to get him to start wearing one on his wrist.' As she expected, it was about time for Anna to have her afternoon nap.
*Get some sleep.* Booker said gently as things faded away.
…
Things faded in slowly. It was hard to focus, groggy. Her mind felt strange. What? Did something happen to her? She was looking at a table? A typewriter, pens. Cards with pictures. A hand that was writing. It took a few moments to realize they were Rapture Identification cards and it was Booker's hand. Now she remembered. These were the cards they found in the smuggler's shed and taken from the attackers on Fortune Avenue. Booker was very carefully copying an "official signature" onto a new card. Booker worked fast, it looked almost done. It even had Booker's picture on it already.
The feeling that something had happened to her, to Anna, didn't go away. The worst part was it somehow felt familiar. Booker was working on the cards and it looked like delicate work so she didn't want to disturb him. She needed to think. This would be easier if she didn't feel so, fuzzy.
Fuzzy, groggy. Back in her tower she would feel like this sometimes. She had never known why and hadn't thought about it since Booker broke her out. She rebuilt her bedroom in her mind, things were blurry in places. Her left arm hurt and...
Her arm hurt?
The inside of her left arm, the median cubital vein. Why would…?
Blood. They had taken blood from her.
There was no way she would have slept through something like that. The watchers in the Tower must have drugged her to take a blood sample. Her hair as well. Well, she knew what became of one of those hair samples. Her mouth had hurt a few times as well. Dental work? Not important now.
Anna had been drugged just as she had been, but why? Why did she feel that something had been taken from her? Maybe Booker could see something she was missing.
Booker finished up his work. It didn't look like he had tried to do anything fancy. Just a basic Identification Card that an average citizen would have.
*You do nice work Booker.*
"Elizabeth! Your..." he blurted *Are you all right?* he sounded more than a little worried.
*I… think so. Why?*
*You've been asleep four, almost five hours.*
'What?' *That long?*
*Yes, I've been worried. I thought I heard you say something a couple of times, but I couldn't make it out.*
*Booker, I think they did something to Anna. Made her go to sleep with drugs.*
"Why would they do that?"
*I don't know. It somehow feels the same way I did when they took samples from me back in Columbia.*
"Saw some of them. Hair, blood, fingernails, things taken from you rooms. They kept it all to try and figure out where your powers came from."
*But Anna doesn't have any powers. She's normal, right?* She couldn't have Tear Abilities, could she? No, Booker would have told and she knew she feel it somehow.
*She has all her fingers and doesn't open tears. She's normal… no, *was* normal.*
That was it. *She's a Little Sister now.* Should have thought of that. Still wasn't thinking clearly.
*ADAM. That's what they wanted. Anna probably doesn't cooperate all that much.*
*So they put her to sleep to make her more manageable.*
"Likely." Booker seemed calm, but she knew that anger was boiling inside him. She didn't feel angry, just sick that it was all happening again.
*It's not anything she can't handle.* Wait, what did that letter from Tenenbaum say?
*Anna may not remember much of this at all.*
"What makes you say that?" there was some hope in his voice, but also worry.
*I found a letter from Tenenbaum to Suchong asking to mend his ways.* Booker snorted. *Yeah, a lot of good it did. But in it she said that the Little Sisters would forget. I wouldn't have gone and set everything in motion unless I was sure the Little Sister's would have a real chance to have normal lives.*
"Guess I'll have to trust your judgment then." He sounded better now.
'Never thought when I was saving the Little Sisters that I would be saving Anna as well.'
*So what's all this on the table? Where did you get a typewriter?*
"Pawn Shop. Have a lot of stuff in there, think more than a little of it stolen."
*I am *shocked* a pawn shop would accept stolen goods.*
"Actually most pawn shops try very hard not to buy anything stolen. If the real owner comes around, they can lose money or get charged with receiving stolen goods."
*And what's different about the King's Pawn?*
"Cop don't care right now, makes it easy."
*Well, they do have to worry about Atlas. Can I look at the ID cards?*
Booker spread all the ID's out on the table and picked up a magnifying glass. "Anything you want me to look at?"
*The one we took off the dead splicer in the doctors' office and the one you made please.*
She spent several minutes looking them over. *I really can't tell the difference in quality. How did you find a typewriter with the same font as Rapture Security uses?"
He gave a short laugh and turned the typewriter over. A small plaque on the bottom proclaimed it "Property of The Rapture Security".
"Said they had stolen goods in there."
*One question though. I noticed the signature was a little different on the one you made. Shouldn't you get them as close as possible?*
"One of the first things I learned. People never sign their names the same every time. Always a little different."
*Flaws can make things more realistic?*
"Sometimes. Very few things are perfect. If seems too good...
*It probably is. So what else did they have?*
"Two Gear, cameras, jewelry, tools, office equipment. Didn't really look at it all."
*Gear, in a pawn shop?* That didn't seem right.
"Yeah, apparently they aren't all that popular. Gene Tonics can do the same thing and do it better most of the time. Gear tends to be inconsistent. Or as the guy at the pawn shop said, "unreliable"."
*But Gear won't give you ADAM sickness.*
"People don't seem to care about that much."
*So what should we do next?*
"Need to get rid of these other ID cards. Be bad to be caught with them. Not sure what to do with the typewriter. Don't want to give the Constables an excuse to do something."
*An excuse?*
"Yeah, if the cops want to put someone in jail for a big crime and they don't have any proof, they'll arrest a suspect for something small and use it to as an excuse to investigate more."
*I don't think you could sell it back.*
"No, might have a need for it later. Too big for cache."
*That abandoned office between here and the cache. We could lock it in the other room.*
"That would work. Just put it out of sight and lock the door. Even if someone gets in, shouldn't pay attention to it."
*So got the rest of this at the pawn shop?*
"Yeah, as I said they had a lot in there."
*So, where's the camera?*
"Camera? Oh, the picture. Got that at an automatic camera booth at the drugstore. Thought the owner was going toss me out when I didn't buy anything else."
*People are on edge. Do you think you could go back to the pawn shop?*
"Want to see what's there?" she knew he was smiling.
*Best to see what's there for myself. And we need to get you a new watch.*
"What's wrong with the one I have?"
*Almost no one in Rapture uses a pocket watch. They have wrist watches.*
"Humph. Guess they don't. Must have gotten popular since 1912."
*I didn't expect you to agree that quickly.*
"Saw a couple of officers in the Army that had them. Easier to look at your wrist then to get the watch out riding a horse. Be about time for supper when we get done."
*Going to cook anything?*
"Not now. Had lunch at the diner, thought I would get supper there. After that, pick up some food at Cho's Grocers."
*Going to be different to see you grocery shopping. That's very domestic of you.*
Booker rolled his eyes. "Let's see what else is in King's Pawn first."
End Chapter 26