I know this isn't quite as long as you might want it to be, but I'm trying. I've also got other ideas in my head that have been bothering me. But I will try to get another chapter done.

"Hey, where's that food!" the Splicer complained.

"If I knew that, I would have told that jerk where to look!" The one who replied was tired of the other's whining. They were all hungry, there was no changing that.

While the two Splicers argued, a third was watching for any trouble. Ever since coming to the surface, they had to live off of whatever they could find. Back in Rapture, they could find the occasional Pepbar or can of fruit. Unfortunately, their unnatural scent drove off the local animals. This made it difficult to be able to feed their numbers, which had been cut down after locating the one they knew as Big Brother.

The sentry was surprised by how quickly and easily he took them down. Many didn't even get a chance to land a hit before they were squashed or shot. And where in the deepest pits of all the hells did he get a gun like that? It was like he was carrying a small cannon in his hands. And the sound it made could have Andrew Ryan himself turning in his grave.

"I'm hungry!"

"Then eat Bill already!" the sentry replied.

The dozing Leadhead Splicer shot up to his feet and looked around, "Huh, what?"

"Put your gun down already you bloody git! Before you shoot someone, preferably anyone but me. You can shoot the others for all I care."

"Oh shut it!" another replied.

"No, you shut it, or I'll feed you a knuckle sandwich!"

"It would be better than listening to all the whining."

Bill looked about, still agitated and feeling unsure about something, "You guys hear something?"

"No, what?"

"Bill, go check it out with Lars."

"Why do I have to go with Bill?" Lars asked.

"Because you would only doze off like Bill if you stayed! Get moving!"

The Leadhead and Houndini Splicer left the comfort of the campfire and wandered off to check on what made the sound. Bill didn't know if he even wanted to look, so he pulled up his machine gun to ease his nerves. As for Lars, he wasn't sure why he was going with Bill, or even if there was a sound to look for to begin with. But he was told to come out, he wasn't going to get in trouble for not listening.

"So, see anything?" Lars asked.

Bill shook his head and said, "No, do you?"

"You're asking me?"

"What was that?" Bill turned around, but couldn't see anything but trees and dark sky peeking through the branches. "Hey, where did the fire go?"

"It's probably hidden by the trees."

"We're not far enough for that you idiot! Hurry!" Bill started running, Lars barely able to keep up with him.

Once they got back to the camp, the two were shocked by the carnage. It was as if something had trampled through the area, smashing everyone to bloody pieces. Those who's faces were still intact had looks of pure terror. But the lack of sound, what could have done such a thing?

"I'm getting out of here!" Lars cried and vanished in a crimson mist.

Bill knew something was wrong when he felt something splatter on his face when that happened. He looked down to see a large boot standing on what used to be the Houndini Splicer. Then he looked up and saw someone looking back. He saw a familiar yellow glow looking back at him.

When the glow turned red, Bill turned and ran. He didn't care if he had a gun in his hands. He knew what happened when one shot at a Big Daddy, and this was no Big Daddy! Hell, this...thing...was even bigger by at least a foot or two!

A tree came down and would have flattened the Leadhead Splicer if he hadn't jumped. As he was getting up, he saw the giant again and screamed in terror. How did it catch up to him so easily?

Something flew past his head, splitting a dead tree. Bill turned and was stopped when another one went by, just inches from his head. He ducked and kept running as another flew over him.

His legs began to ache and his lungs burned, but he wasn't going to let that stop him as he ran for his life. After a mile, he stopped and hid by a large tree to catch his breath. He looked around, but it was too dark to see anything. But all he had to do was keep an eye out for their glowing eyes.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Bill shrieked when a Houndini Splicer appeared before him.

"Don't do that, and get down! Something's out there!"

The woman didn't quite believe him and looked out from behind the tree, "I don't see anything."

"That's the problem, you don't want to! Now get down you idiot!"

"Suck an egg, I'm not scared. Hey, what was that sound?"

Bill thought about simply leaving the other Splicer to her fate, but found that he couldn't get up. It was then that he noticed the pain in his back and chest. Something was pouring down his body, something wet. He reached into his coat and felt something sticking out of him. Because his body was so degraded from ADAM use, he didn't feel it hit him.

"Hey, I'm going ahead, I'll see you in hell." Bill stuck the barrel of his gun in his mouth. He pulled the trigger with a smile.

"What did you-OH HELL!" she screamed when the Leadhead blew his brains out. "What the blood hell was wrong with you?" She kicked the Leadhead's warm corpse, but he didn't move.

"Huh?" She kicked him again, but he appeared to be stuck.

Looking around the tree, she was shocked to find a small tree had been used like a spear. It had pierced through the larger tree and went through the Splicer before she what had happened. Now she was on her own and facing an unknown threat. She wasn't going to hang around to find out who they were and dissapeared in a red haze.

She reappeared and vanished several times before she was back at her camp, badly needing to catch her breath. The other Splicers were wondering just what the Houndini was so paniced about and chose to ignore her. All they wanted was more ADAM, not the ramblings of a Splicer who was scared of her own shadow.

"We...we...have to go, now!" she screamed. The other Splicers didn't seem to care.

"Bill and the others are dead!"

"You sure you didn't kill him for his ADAM?"

"You think I could have put that tree in him?"

The Splicers chuckled amongst themselves, for even for them, this was crazy. It was only when one of the two Nitro Splicers among them was hit. He was pinned to a tree, pierced through the side.

"I-I c-c-can't feel my legs!" he wailed, for his spine had been severed. The other Splicers scattered when he took out a grenade and lit it. "I always wanted to go out with a b-"

The explosion scattered bits of meat and gore across the area. The Splicer who had laughed first looked to the Houndini, who was trembling with fear.

"O-ok, e-everybody...RUN!" he cried as another small tree whizzed through the air.

But the Houndini didn't dissapear, for the other Nitro Splicer, a woman, was crying for the loss of the only other one of her kind in their group. There weren't many Nitros left in Rapture anymore, their hands having degenerated to the point that they had difficulty making their bombs.

Showing a surprising amount of bravery, the Houndini slapped the Nitro Splicer's face and almost had to drag her from the area. More trees and even rocks flew all around them.

The two didn't know where to run, for the other Splicers had scattered to the winds. There were screams all about as they were hit. Unable to handle her fear anymore, the Nitro dropped a smoke bomb. Unfortunately, this only confused the Houndini, who didn't know what was going on until a rock clipped her shoudler.

She was fortunate that she was still alive, but her arm was broken. As the smoke cleared, she saw them: glowing eyes in the distance. Like the eyes of demons, they glowed red, as if filled with bloodlust. She hurled a fireball, scoring a direct hit, only for the beast to brush off the flames like they were nothing but specks of dust.

It picked up a rock, tearing it from it's bed in the ground. As it was about to throw it, the Houndini Splicer dissapeared. But she didn't run away, instead, she reappeared amongst the branches of a tree that stood over it.

From her vantage point, she hurled fireball after fireball, scoring a hit each time. The beast wasn't even trying to dodge. It's lumbering mass was too difficult for it to move so quickly, making it a great target. A weak smile spread across her lips as she watched it burn.

But that smile quickly vanished when a burning arm reached out from the flames and slammed the tree. Even as thick as it was, the tree cracked and broke apart. It was too late for her to escape as she fell into the flames.

It's target done for, the Landkruezer lumbered away, looking for it's next target. This happened to be a Thuggish Splicer, who didn't stand a chance with his puny wrench. The man's screams soon joined the orchastra of pain and death.

x

Somehow, the Nitro Splicer had managed to get away from all the carnage that took the others. She had run for so long that she wasn't sure she was around any of their camps anymore. She was tired and needed to sleep. She quickly found herself several bushes that she could pull up and sat herself amonst a tree's roots. She used the bushes to conceal herself while she slept. Fatigue quickly overtook her and everything went dark.

Her mind showed her nightmares of demons with red eyes and the pieces of the other Nitro Splicer's head laughing. They laughed because there was no escape. There was no ADAM to be had here, not enough in Rapture, and none anywhere else. She had only survived by cannibalizing her fellow Splicers and fallen Big Daddies and Big Sisters. Now there weren't even any of them around on the surface. Soon, the ADAM in her body would cannibalize her.

When she woke, she froze when a foot stepped into view, just feet from her cover. From what she could see, these were soldiers. Then she sensed it, no, she smelled it: ADAM. She wasn't sure if it was ADAM or not, but these men had the scent of it. It was different, but her body yearned for it.

She slowly pulled out a grenade and tossed it from her cover. The man's eyes followed it, unsure at first by it's shape. When he saw the burning fuse, he knew what it was. But it was too late for him to get to cover as it exploded, the shockwave blasting him off his feet.

As a Nitro Splicer, and from where she lay, her body could handle the explosion that blew him away. Her skin held the scars made by the many fragments created by her bombs, but they never went deeper than that. These men lacked that strength, that resilience. This was perfect for her. She tossed out another grenade while the others looked for their attacker.

Three more were blown away by the blast. She dropped a smoke bomb beside her and used the cover to locate the fifth. She punched him between the legs and planted a grenade near him. She relished the sound of the explosion and the dirt falling back to earth. Then her instincts kicked in.

It didn't matter to her that these were once people, possibly fellow Splicers. These men were different, and their ADAM tasted so sweet. For the next two days, she took in their strange ADAM, let it become a part of her. More came, looking for their comrads, but she had set up traps around the area. Their attempts to survive only led to their messy deaths.

During that fight, the Nitro Splicer was happy to learn that the strange sticks these men carried were grenades as well. Much better than her own. And they didn't scatter any shrapnel either. This meant she could be closer to the blast without fear of metal fragments cutting into her thick skin.

She felt so much stronger than she ever did before. Their strange ADAM made these men so succulent. She had to find more while this feeling of invincibility lasted. The Nitro Splicer took off into the forest, watchful for signs of movement. She kept low, always peering through bushes or from behind trees to prevent someone noticing her too soon.

"Hey, see anything?"

The Nitro Splicer grinned as she readied a stick grenade.

"Nope, nothing yet," came the responce. "You sure they went this way?"

"Positive, so keep looking."

She popped the cap on the bottom of the grenade and gave it a toss.

"Grenade!"

"I got it!"

Good, a sacrificial lamb, that meant at least one went down. She readied another grenade and was about to throw it when she realized that there was a Panzer Faust. The two men he was with were standing safely behind his large form. Their ears would have been ringing, but they were uninjured.

The Nitro Splicer threw her grenade when she realize she had been cooking it for too long. It exploded halfway between her and them, not enough to cause any injuries. She would have prepaired another but the Faust was quickly closing the gap between them. She dropped a smoke bomb and ran for cover, hurling one of her own grenade over her shoulder as she did.

A burst of Incinerate and an Electro Bolt exploded around her, bu their aim was off. They weren't used to fighting an original Splicer. She was stronger, faster, and a lot more unstable than they were.

She dropped another smoke bomb by their position and ran right at them, ignoring their attacks. The Faust was nowhere near them, leaving them vurlnerable. She slammed into one and put a live grenade under his body before he knew what she had done. The explosion scattered pieces of him everywhere, blinding the other. She stole two of his grenades and pulled the cap on the third.

"I can't see! I'm-" he couldn't finish when the explosion blew him apart.

"Dead? I'd tell you you'd be ok, but I saw your ear go that way."

"You little bitch!" the Faust growled as he took a swing at her. But she was ready with a third smoke bomb. "What, running away again?"

"Hardly, you big oaf!" she jumped onto his back and forced something into his face. He didn't know what it was as he thrashed about and clamped down with his teeth. She yelped as she was thrown off and and hit the dirt. The Faust took the object out his mouth and his eyes went wide when he realized it was a live stick grenade.

The Nitro Splicer enjoyed this one even more than the others, for his ADAM made her much more powerful than ever before. Her muscles were slowly building up and hardening, becoming more and more like living armor. She couldn't help but laugh to the sky as she got even stronger. There wasn't anything that could stop her now.

More, she had to have more. She wasn't about to let this feeling fade any time soon. She wanted to get stronger. If she had more ADAM, she could rule this area.

Another figure came into view, this one even bigger than the Faust. She hurled a smoke bomb with her new-found might. It struck the man's arm and exploded, covering the area in a thick cover of smoke. Three stick grenades followed, throwing a lot of dirt into the air.

Once the smoke settled, there was a strange metal ball where he had been standing. Even with her enhanced physique, the Nitro Splicer was horrified to realize just who she was facing. The ball rolled back, revealing a missing plate where a red glow was eminating. The Splicer took what remained of her supply of grenades and hurled the whole thing, only for it to stop mid-flight.

As the ball opened up, a woman was revealed, her eyes glowing red like the man's. The bag exploded with great force, but it was too far to deal any real damage to anyone. The man rolled back into a ball and shot through the air, aimed directly at the Splicer. She ducked for cover as he flew by, only to bounce off a tree and clip her on the side of her head. It wasn't enough to kill her, but the blow cracked her skull.

The man walked up to her and finished the job with his boot.

x

As soon as Big Brother dealt with the Nitro Splicer, he could quickly tell that there was something different about her ADAM. Susan could too and was disgusted by the scent ot it. Her ADAM was severely degraded and had been mixed with that of the army Splicers. The mutations it had done to her body left her larger than most Splicers, but she would have burned out much quicker for it.

Her body simply wasn't going to handle this strange mixture. While it did make her stronger, it was going to kill her in only a few days. This became evident when her body began to melt, her ADAM rapidly breaking down the cells in her body. Not even the bones were left.

While Susan wanted to move on, Big Brother planted a boulder over the remains of the Nitro Splicer. He didn't know why he did it, only that seeing the remains of her clothes reminded him of a Big Daddy who passed away before him. In any other world, this woman might have lived out her life as a normal person, doing normal things. Big Brother would have been the same, but in this world, he was no longer human. He had given up that status a long time ago.

Susan patted his cheek and he let out a deep sigh. There were going to be more deaths like this one in the future, that much was for sure. But unlike the Splicers of Rapture, the Templar had a purpose that needed to be stopped. Big Brother was not going to let the poison of Rapture infect the surface and destroy the beauty he had come to see.

As he slipped his plates back under the coat, Susan slipped inside and held herself against his large chest. It was a bit awkward for her, but it kept her from being noticed. The two had already snuck by three patrols today. Nobody wanted to mess with one who looked like an injured Faust. Those who did mess with him were soon dealt with.

Neither of the two knew where they were going, but Big Brother kept moving anyways. They ate whatever they could find in the wild and rations found on any army Splicers and Faust they came across. It was enough to keep Big Brother's strength up, something that he was going to need if he was to rescue Sara.

x

The scientist was facinated by the blood samples he took from the woman and her child. While the ADAM in their bodies was weak, especialy with the girl, it had some interesting reactions to his proding.

A man came through the doorway, obviously bothered by something.

"We have been getting reports of men going missing. Is there any reason I should be concerned by this development?"

"You knew that my research required a constant supply of subjects for my experiments."

"Yes, but you shouldn't be using your own men!"

The scientist didn't like the tone in the man's voice, "They are merely pawns in a grand scheme. Their sacrifices have allowed me to expand my research tremendously. Here, let me show you." He snapped his fingers.

A pair of large hands reached out and snapped the soldier in two.

It was unfortunate that his work would have to be postponed for now, but these Templar were asking too many questions now. And this latest death would only draw the attention of those further up the chain of command. It didn't matter, though, for he had the Landkruezers.

From the deaths of nearly a hundred soldiers, fifteen Landkruezers have come into existance. Each one of them were eternally loyal to him and him alone. They would fight and die at his command.

And that thought alone pleased him to no end.