Chapter 16
The journey out of Stienmans hovel was less eventful than the journey going in.
Nethier Jack nor Tristina said much, simply focused on picking up anything they might have missed on the way there. Tristina kept picking up ammo, but Jacks constant usage kept her bag realitively light. Jack picked up another plasmid called 'incinerate', which lit things on fire the instant Jack snapped his fingers.
As the two reached the 'Securis' door leading back towards the main hall (and Emergency Access' a sudden rumble shook the concrete foundation beneath their feet. small plumes of dust and rubble cascaded down around them as Tristina fell to her knees.
"I'm fine, Jack." said Tristina, getting back to her feet. "Sounds like another tunnel collapse." said a familiar voice from Jack's pocket. Jack pulled the walkie from his pocket as the picture flipped over to Atlas'. "Welcome to Rapture, the fastest growing pile of junk." Atlas added dryly.
"Come on." said Jack, racing towards the door. "Lets get moving before our tunnel collapses next." "good idea." agreed Tristina, hot on Jacks heels as the two bolted down the glass enclosure.
As they passed a leaking steam pipe, Jack let out a cry and fell to his hands and knees while clutching his head. "Jack!" Tristina cried, running back to him as Jacks fingers laced and clutched his dirty blonde hair. "Jack, what's wrong?"
"Suh-Cigarette..." Jack bleated weakly, trembling as his hands whitened from his grip. "On the plane...before it crashed...I was holding a cigarette...I'd forgotten..." Tristina frowned at this, the fur around her eyes wrinkling.
"You dont remember?" Tristina asked, her eyebrows knitting together.
"I...I didn't. Until now." Tristina was about to say more when the tunnel they were in trembled, and a neighboring tunnel imploded in a rush of bubbles.
"We need to get out of here." Tristina stated, pulling Jack to his feet by his arm. "There!" Jack said, pointing to a small alcove.
Without even sparing a glance to one another, the two raced into the room, only to be stopped short by a high pitched scream. shortly after, a large burly figure exploded through the wall in a mass of rubble, glass and fire. Tristina looked over to the window as something raced by, and Atlas spoke once again through the walkie.
"Its a Little One." He declared. "here's your chance to get some Adam!" The 'Securis' door rattled open as Tristina and Jack neared it, a splicer in white scrubs with black gloves stalked menacingly towards a little girl in a filthy dress.
"Now its just you...and me..." he purred, lightly jabbing the girl in her tiny chest "and all the tasty Adam I can drink."
Tristina's ears flattened themselves against her head and Ki surged to her hands. a deep, burning rage licked at the walls of her heart as her lips peeled back in a primal, sickening hiss.
As she was about to surge forward and attack the splicer, a sudden gunshot and spurt of blood snapped her out of her fury induced daze.
The splicer looked around as blood oozed from his shoulder, then looked up only to receive another bullet to the forehead. Tristina straightened, looking up with Jack to see a formidable...and oddly sane...woman standing atop a alcove.
Her bubble gum pink petticoat and skirt shifted almost silently as her arm leveled the pistol in front of her.
"Stay away from her or it is you who will be shot next!" she called, Tristina noting a thick Russian accent permeating the woman's voice. "Easy now, Doctor." Atlas called out from the walkie. "He's just looking for a wee bit of Adam...Just enough to get by. Its just for the lad, the lass dont need it. She has...er..."
"Ki!" Tristina called as loudly as she dared, producing a small ball in her hand to prove her point. "Spiritual..." "I know what Ki is!" the woman shouted, shifting her aim to Jack.
"Even so, I'll not have him harm my little ones! You!" Once again the pistol was pointed at Tristina. "set the Ki ball on the floor, gently! I dont want my little one harmed in the blast!"
"Okay! Okay!" Tristina called, raising her free hand to show she was unarmed as she slowly buckled her knees to lower the ball to the ground. "Its okay, Lad. That's not a child, not anymore it ain't. Dr. Tenenbaum saw to that."
Tristina frowned at the malice in Atlas' voice at the womans name. Hearing movement, Tristina looked back down towards the Little Sister to see her scurrying behind a trunk and some rubble.
"Bitte, do not hurt her!" Dr. Tenenbaum called from the alcove, and Jack looked up from the Little sister to her once again. "Have you no heart?" she asked, and Tristina felt a pang of pity for the slight plea in her voice.
"Aye, that's a pretty sermon coming from the ghoul who cooked up them monsters in the first place. Took fine little girls and turned them into that, didn't you?" At Atlas's words, Jack turned back to the Little sister and Tristina turned back to Jack.
Meanwhile, Atlas continued to speak. "Listen to me, boyo; you wont survive without the Adam those...things...are carryin'. Even if the Lass is doing all the shootin'" said Atlas
"Are you prepared to trade your life, the lives of my wife and child for Tenenbaum's little Frakensteins?" Tristina noticed her own absence in that sentence, and frowned suspiciously at the walkie clutched in Jack's hand.
"Here!" Jack and Tristina looked upwards again to see the figure of Tenenbaum holding a bulb like vial high above her head. "There is another way. Use this." Tenenbaum called, throwing the vial to Jack (who caught it with one hand.)
"Free them from their torment. I will make it to be worth your while...somehow."
Jack stared at the bright red liquid in the vial for a moment, then approached the Little sister (who was cowering against a trunk.) ]
"Jack?" Tristina asked, approaching Jack as he stared at the child. "What are you going to do?" Instead of answering, Jack took out a empty syringe and the vial and extracted the contents of the vial into the syringe.
Once the vial was empty, Jack dropped it and injected the contents into his arm. He grimaced as the plasmid emptied into his bloodstream.
"Trish..." said Jack, flexing his arm. "You might want to look away." Tristina turned, her tears spilling over onto her cheeks as she heard the Little Sister cry out and struggle.
a bright flash of light engulfed the area for a moment, and Tristina buried her face into her hands.