BioShock: Undersea Eden
Chapter 3: Fallen Paradise
"Just one more minute" the same squeaky voice noted. "'Sphere, sphere's comin' up now!" "Johnny, security's bangin' off all over! Get a move on!" the harsh ending reverberated through the halls. I looked out through the window as I approached the surface. I could barely make out what was going on. There were two people outside; one of them the squeaky voiced "Johnny" and the other a woman with meat hooks. My blood ran cold.
"Please lady, I didn't mean no trespass. Just don't hurt me! Just let me go! You can keep my gun!" he whimpered out. Unhinged, the woman bolted towards him; stabbing him in the chest! He gurgled on his blood as she proceeded to carve into him! I began to hyperventilate, I was trapped in here; what if she found me and gutted me like a fish?!
Finally done with her butchering; she tossed him into the water like a dead fish. Then she fixed her eyes on me. The woman sighed with a crazed sense of rejoicing. "Is it someone new?" The lights flickered; and I finally saw her. She looked like a horrendous mix between several cancer patients and burn victims rolled into one; burnt flesh, distorted tissue, and monstrous tumors. There was no hope for me; I was a sitting duck.
She leaped onto the bathysphere with superhuman agility! I scurried around desperately for a weapon. Nothing, not a damn thing. There's only a service radio in here, and it definitely doesn't have the stopping power to take her down. What I wouldn't give for a six-shooter right about now! Sparks flew as she began to tear open the hull! I shielded my eyes, just wanting to get it over with and then....
I saw her jump off and scurry away. Why would she do such a thing? "Would you kindly pick up that short wave radio?" someone called through the radio. Goddamn, I've never been happier to hear someone right about now! I hoisted the radio out of the socket and the voice went on in a thick Irish accent "I don't know how you survived that plane crash; but I've never been the one to question providence. I'm Atlas, and I aim to keep you alive. Now keep on moving, we're gonna need to get you to higher ground."
An Irishman named Atlas? That's a new one. Fine, I'll roll with it. "Take a deep breath and step out of the bathysphere, I won't leave you twistin' in the wind." The bathysphere door creaked open, and the shutters covering the windows lowered. It didn't take long to realize a grim fact: This place died some time ago.
The floors were riddled with protestor's signs. Baggage was stacked up beyond all measure. The traveling schedule was marked with only "canceled" on every departure time. People wanted to get out, and here I was going in. What the hell happened here?
The woman's voice echoed throughout the hallway. Singing "If I didn't care..." in a broken and creepy tone. She breathed heavily "I'll wrap you in a sheet!" There was no sanity left in this woman. Atlas knew that from the start; but what was I gonna do? I trembled in my Christmas sweater; knowing it could only protect me from the cold but not from death.
The radio went off again "We're gonna need to draw her outta hidin', but you're gonna have to trust me".With little choice, I pressed on ahead. The TV monitors ahead fizzled out; leaving me in near darkness. So much for paradise.
There was still a spotlight ahead, shown on the rubble ahead of me. I had to scale over a pillar that had fallen on its side. However, when I approached the pillar; the woman leaped down in front of me! "Just a bit further" the radio chattered. Suddenly; mechanical drones with propellers stormed from the ceiling; armed with machine guns. An alarm began to blare. They proceeded to fire directly at her! "How do you like that, sister?!" She quickly scaled the walls to run, screaming the entire way!
I jumped over the pillar and cautiously approached the rubble. "Now, would you kindly find a crowbar or something?" again in a thick Irish accent. There was a toolbox there, and a pipe wrench; good enough. I grabbed the pipe wrench "Forged in Rapture" it had written on the handle. "Bloody splicers sealed Johnny in before they... Goddamn splicers!" Why do I get the feeling that I'm going to be using this for something other than fixing pipes?
It looked like the rubble could be smashed with a quick swing. Naturally; I swung the wrench at it! Got some of it; but I had to duck under the rest. After I got up; I was in front of a large staircase. The first thing I noticed, aside from the beautiful art deco style, was the burning couch at the top. A man screamed at me as he kicked the couch down!
I leaped out of the way as the man ran off! With my wrench; I walked up the stairs, cautiously. "I didn't touch her!" he shrieked in insanity, attempting to beat me with his flashlight! But, I had the advantage and smacked him in the head with the wrench! He slumped to the ground and moaned a bit. He was disfigured like that woman at the station. This must be what Atlas calls "Splicers".
I checked around for a bit. Trash cans full of potato chips and crème cakes. A scale model of the city with a plaque saying "One man's vision. Mankind's salvation". I looked at the airlock to the glass tunnel hallway. The switch was on the fritz. There were no other tools back there, I was screwed.
Then a mechanical clank. "My Daddy's smarter than Einstein, stronger than Hercules, and lights a fire with a snap of his fingers! Are you as good as my Daddy, mister? Not if you don't visit at the Gatherer's Garden you aren't! Smart Daddies get spliced at the garden!" Strange, but it got my attention. I looked up and saw a massive sign. Looked like an ad, featuring people zapping light bulbs with their fingers to turn them on; sort of like the ads in the station. I walked upstairs near the second floor balcony and saw what they meant by the Gatherer's Garden.
It was a vending machine that dispensed what looked like a transparent jar of sorts; with some sort of red goo inside it, along with a hypodermic needle. There was a marquee on the vending machine that said "Electro Bolt". Curiously enough, I jammed the needle into the jar. The luminescent red goo wasn't exactly the most comforting. I held up my arm; right at the wrist in front of those freaky chains.
I was always afraid of needles, and they said anticipation is the worst part. So, I thrust the needle into my wrist as my hands began to pulse with electrical bolts. "Steady now, your genetic code is being rewritten. Just hold on and everything will be all right!" I panicked, hobbling back a few paces. My body was crushing itself; and I couldn't take it anymore. I lost control and fell off the balcony, making a small thud in the carpet; blacking out.
My eyesight was fuzzy at first; but then I saw them. The splicers. Two of them, wearing ballroom masks. One of them prodded me with a piece of piping"This little fish looks like he just got his cherry popped! Wonder if he's still got some ADAM on him." Suddenly, a low, rumbling moan caught the two off guard! "You hear that! Let's bug!" One of the Splicers said and trotted off. "Weak, you're a weak chopper!" The other one taunted back. "This little fish ain't worth toeing it with no Big Daddy." the first one yelled back. "Yellow, always have been!" the second one shouted. Finally, he stared into my eyes, disgusting as all hell would be. "You'll be no better off with Metal Daddy, little fish. See you floating in the briny!" and he scurried off.
I still couldn't move. Another moan, sounds like a whale if you ask me. A massive, metal juggernaut was hobbling towards me. A Frankenstein's monster of underwater exploration and pure muscle; an underwater tank with a blood-soaked drill. It stepped back a bit though, it was escorting someone; it seemed.
A tiny girl with a needle scampered in front of it. Here eyes had a deathly glow. "Look Mr. Bubbles, it's an angel!" She began to point with the needle "I can see light coming from his belly". Still can't move, but I wriggled a bit. "Wait a minute, he's still breathing." she stepped back again then calmed the metal monster down. "It's all right, I know he'll be an angel soon". A slight chill went through my body, knowing that all this was just part of routine down here.
