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"Honey! I'm going to see if I can't find any more food and water, okay? Stay here with your sister while I'm gone. If you're good, I'll bring you back something special."
The boy looked up from where he was sitting near his sister and nodded to his mother. They lived in a small shack in Arcadia, completely covered in vines and other vegetation. If you didn't know where to look, you wouldn't have a clue where it was, and the boy liked it that way. It meant the Splicers that roamed Arcadia sometimes couldn't find them. The rare Big Daddy that came though also didn't bother them, as they left them to their business. Big Sisters were also not a problem, as they had no ADAM for the Sisters to harvest.
The boy, named Jaxton, was sixteen, tall, and lanky. He was strong, but lithe. Piercing emerald eyes studied a manual held in pale hands covered in faded leather fingerless gloves over a strong nose. Shaggy black hair swept across his head in messy swathes. He was dressed simply, wearing a pair of comfy boots, a pair of worn jeans, a faded shirt and a leather jacket. A revolver was holstered on his thigh, and he had a bullet belt looped around his waist. A large knife was strapped to his back.
Jax's sister, Seven, was lying on the ground next to him, drawing on a brochure for Ryan Amusements with crayons. She was seven years old ironically enough, with the same hair and eyes as her brother. She was wearing a pair of shorts and a tank top, barefoot and had a knife strapped to one leg. Always the optimist, she hummed or whistled softly while she drew, making senseless tunes. Neither of them used plasmids, but both had seen ADAM and were both proficient at scavenging and at sneaking around unseen.
"Jax, how will she know if we were good and to bring back something special if she isn't here to see if we are being good?" Seven asked after a long period of time while coloring in one of her coloring books, having finished covering the brochure a while ago. A small grin crossed Jaxton's face as he shrugged, setting down one of the few pieces of literature still in Rapture, a service manual for diving suits. He had memorized it front to back, but books were hard to find in Rapture.
"I don't know Sev, maybe she has telepathy so she can see what we are doing?" He wondered out loud. Seven was the only one who could get away with calling him Jax, and he was the only one that could call her Sev. Seven shook her head.
"I don't think so, remember? Mommy said that plasmids and ADAM were the cause of all of the problems down here." She responded, switching colors. Jaxton nodded.
"I remember." He replied, looking down at her drawing. It was that of a Big Sister, but with the helmet off, revealing a human face, not much older than Jaxton. He frowned slightly at the sight, for he could never see any Big Sister calm, nevertheless with its helmet off. Besides, he had thought that the suits were grafted onto the bodies of the ones wearing it.
"Do you like my picture big brother?" Seven asked, holding it up. "I talked to one of them and she took her helmet off and talked to me and was really nice and she protected me from a Splicer and…" I held up my hand to stop her as the ground near our house was trod on. Whilst our house was covered in thick foliage, why bring more attention to somewhere you don't want found than you had to? We had several warning systems, like strategically placed puddles, gravel and tripwires. I looked at her sharply.
You and I are going to talk after the person is gone, understand? I mouthed at her. She nodded sullenly. The trapdoor on the roof opened and Jax drew the revolver, loaded with anti-personnel rounds. He pointed it at the opening as the face of his mother appeared, carrying bundle of items. She dropped it down as he holstered the weapon again and caught the bundle. Food and water was neatly stacked in the cabinet, leaving behind two small vials filled with a vicious red fluid and a third vial filled with a murky green liquid.
"Mother, what are those?" Seven asked curiously, setting her picture down. Jaxton knew what they were however. He had seen them many times, in the hands of Splicers. It was ADAM, in the form of plasmids. Jax snatched the three vials up and shoved them in his pocket.
"You and me, outside." He said to his mother sternly. His mother was slightly taken aback, but she nodded and followed him out.
"What is this about Jaxton?" His mother asked, climbing onto the roof with her son.
"You know exactly what this is about." Jaxton replied, crossing his arms over his chest and turning to face her.
"The vials?" She questioned.
"The plasmids and the ADAM. Why did you bring them here?" Jaxton questioned coldly, reaching into his pocket and holding all three vials up. A Big Sister screamed in the distance, going after some unlucky Splicer. A boot tapped the roof, waiting.
"I got them from a trusted friend. He said that it will give us the ability to grow our own plants and food. Grow our own food! Do you realize how much we need that right now?" His mother countered.
"And the ADAM?" Jaxton asked.
"In case we needed to ever interact with the Splicers, God forbid." She replied. The Big Sister screamed again, closer this time. Seems like the Splicer was trying to run away from it. It would be futile, as Big Sisters are extremely fast. A second one screamed as well, a little ways away from our house. Jaxton gritted his teeth to the ear-splitting sound.
"Our conversation isn't done yet. We'll talk later, but for now, I don't want to be in the way of what the Big Sisters are after. Before they could reenter the house, however, a Big Sister dropped from the ceiling onto the roof and screamed, causing the glass in Jaxton's to crack. Jaxton drew the revolver as the Big Sister thrust its needle through his mother's chest, draining her of any ADAM she may have had. Jaxton was surprised when he caught a glimpse of the storage bottle attached to the Big Sister's extraction needle. It was completely full and the Big Sister gave something like a shriek, surprised. It turned its helmets viewport to Jaxton, glowing red.
Jaxton shoved the vials back in his pocket and quickly changed ammunition, loading armor piercing rounds into the revolver. He raised it back to point at the Big Sister, only to find her gone. He looked around in confusion, until a scream from above drew his attention. He sidestepped as he looked up, causing the Big Sister to miss and for the extraction needle to puncture his left shoulder. The Big Sister screamed in fury and Jaxton screamed back, from pain. He brought his foot up to the Big Sister's chest and kicked upward, sending her flying. The needle was pulled from his shoulder with a nasty schlick, blood and ADAM draining from the wound.
Wait, ADAM? Why would there be….oh, shit! Jaxton cut his thoughts off mid-flow, seeing the partially drained storage bottle. What the hell? Big Sisters collect ADAM, not give it out. Christ that hurts. His shoulder was on fire, the blood/ADAM mixture dripping down his jacket. He fired off a few shots, two going wide and the other harmlessly pinging off of the Big Sister's sloped helmet, leaving a gleaming line above the porthole. The Big Sister dashed at him again, swinging the needle like a blade. Jaxton dodged, the needle catching his ammunition bandolier and ripping it off. It went flying into the bushes.
Jaxton mentally checked his remaining ammunition. He had fired three shots, meaning he had a half loaded revolver and a knife against an enraged Big Sister. Of all the situations Jaxton had ever been in, this was by FAR the worst. In a situation like this, many words can be used to describe it. It can be quite complex. Jaxton went, however, with the first sentence that popped into his head.
"I am so screwed right now."