Hey! It's the second chapter of me putting of ocean of wonders!
Enjoy!
I sat down on the floor next to Eleanor's mattress. She of course was still asleep. Lamb told me that since the bond was injected directly into me I would lapse into a coma if her heart stopped beating, if she calls for me I can hear it from miles away, and she can communicate telepathically to me. I am the bond's fist link and she is the last. So the closer I stand to her the faster it can regenerate. I also need to tell her that I love her. Back in Persephone, she said some unnerving things, like 'you may not have wanted a daughter' or 'this love is just a chemical'. I just wish I could tell her I would care for her even if I wasn't bonded to her. She is my sweet daughter. I apparently have new daughters also. When they wake up I'm naming them. Only one of them has a name already, and that's Cindy. She has long blond hair that apparently was so dirty I thought it was brunette. I got up and walked out of the inside cabin and leaned against the metal railing. I saw where the sea and the sky clashed. The puffy things in the sky were gray. They covered the entire sky like a gray sheet over your eyes. I wonder how life is going to be on land. How different will it be?
"Daddy?" I heard a small voice in the door way of the cabin. "Daddy are you lonely?" I shook my head 'no'. A little girl with warm gray eyes walked up to me. I knelt and picked her up to place her in my arms. She touched my helmet and said
"Daddy, I love you." She hugged the wide neck of my helmet. Her blue and white dress fluttered in the wind as she smiled. I walked back inside and leaned against the glass. I slowly slid down as not to wake up anymore little ones.
"Daddy? Wait here for a second." She untangled her arms from my helmet and ran across the room to a couple storage crates. She opened one of them and started rummaging around looking for something. She then pulled out a box of pastel crayons. She ran back over to me and sat down next to my leg.
"Hold still, Mr.B I'm going to draw you!" She grabbed a brown crayon and started drawing. The room was filled with the sounds of Scribblings and scratches.
"Don't look I'm not done yet!" She said. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a girl with curly brown hair stretch her arms up yawning at the same time. She walked over to the one with gray eyes and whispered something in her ear. The one with gray eyes nodded. She took a yellow and green crayon and began doodling flowers on the floor next to the gray eyed one. They happily scribbled in silence as more and more girls woke up and asked me or the girl with the gray eyes to draw. The room was filled with laughter and little girls voices. A lone red crayon rolled in my direction in the ruckus. I picked it up. Still holding it I made a loud groan to get their attention. I picked up the notepad and scribbled as lightly as I could the word 'name?'
"Mr.B? I, um don't know my name…." The one with gray eyes said. I thought for a second. The girls all whispered asking if they knew their names or not. I scribbled down 'Athena' and gave it to her. I saw it one of the signs around rapture. I thought it was a pretty name. She took it and her eyes got wide. "Ath-Athe-na, Athena!" She exclaimed. "Oh daddy it's so pretty! I love it!" She ran over and kissed my visor. She then sat down next to me. The girl with the curly hair and Blue eyes stepped forward. Hmmm oh I got it. I wrote down 'Abbey' on the slip of paper. I gave it to her and she smiled, she did a little curtsy and said "Thank you sir bubbles!".
She ran over and sat with Athena. The next girl came forward. This one had dirty hair that appeared to be brown but was actually blonde. I wrote down 'Cindy' and gave it to her. She gave me a hug and whispered "thank you". This happened with the rest of the girls. I ended up with Athena,Abbey,Cindy,Laura,Edith,Ellen,Arin,Eve,Lillian,Hannah,Helen,Idony, And last but not least Isabel. 13 ex-little sisters I can work with that. The little girls were excited and happy. The talked with each other and told each other their new names. Nobody noticed Eleanor sit up. "ugg my head is throbbing…" She said as Athena, the only one realizing that she woke up yelled out to the crowd.
"Hey everyone Big Sister woke up! She's all better like daddy!" The crowd of little girls cheered and ran to Eleanor. In a similar fashion she was also glompped in the first wakening moments of freedom by a hoard of little girls.
"What the bloody-"The English girl must have remembered something. "Where's father is he okay?" she asked the happy clump of girls. Idony spoke up her cobalt eyes filled with joy "daddy is all fine now! See!" She pointed a pale finger at me. She gently shoved the writhing pile of girls to one side and stood. "father…" a tear snaked down her face. I wiped the tear away. I pulled the crying girl into a hug and gently patted her back. She buried her head into my chest. After a long time she pulled away and rubbed her eyes.
"Father, what happened?" she asked. The cockpit door slid open revealing an expressionless Sophia Lamb.
"I rebuilt the bond" she leaned against the door frame. "Now it will be like before except this time if it's broken I can't fix it. But Eleanor that's not what I wanted to talk to you about," she said unfolding her arms. "I only ask that you forgive me." She said looking down. No tears flowed from her face. This woman probably has the best poker face in mankind. I didn't realize the gathering of little girls had stopped talking and was silent.
"Mother…" Eleanor said as she turned to face Lamb. She looked up."The Rapture dream is over." She said confidently. She walked over to my side. "Father taught me that evil is just a word, and under the skin it's simple pain. For him mercy was victory he sacrificed he endured, and when given the chance he forgave always. You believed that this world was irredeemable, but you are wrong. We are utopia. He and I. And in forgiving you we leave the door open for you. The Rapture dream is over, and in waking I am reborn. This world is not ready for him and me yet here we are. It would be so easy to misjudge them. If utopia is not a place but a people then we must chose carefully for the world is about to change and in our story 'Rapture' was just the beginning. So he is my father, and I need him as I need you." She finished strongly. Wow. I never thought of it that way. I looked over to her and put a hand on her shoulder. She looked at me. She gave a small smile. I gave a nod. Lamb looked like she always did. She stood there with a poker face, a permanent frown on her face. A flash of a smile danced on her face for a split second. The she returned to her frowning poker face.
"We are almost to America I have written directions to his house." She walked back into the room and sat in the chair by the desk. "He knows about Rapture, Delta I'm sure you know about him. Father Wales thinks he is God." Oh no she can't be talking about- "The son of Andrew Ryan, Jack Ryan". I remembered the countless diaries talking about him, I remember the splicers saying that he rescued a bunch of little sisters and went topside. He was an embryo sold from a hooker that Andrew Ryan was visiting. Fontanne's scientists made him an assassin to murder Andrew Ryan. But he was a slave to a phrase titled WYK. It was only mentioned like that I never actually knew the phrase. Hey wait did she just dodge an emotional bullet? I could tell that both Eleanor and I were confused. She gave a sigh and took out a cigarette.
"Would you mind?" She said. "I lost my lighter." What? Oh yeah light at your fingertips. I walked over and summoned incinerate. The flames licked at my leather gloves. I pulled the flames into the center ring and watched as it made a wide short blue flame. She held out her cigarette and lit it with the tiny fire. She took it away and put it to her lips. I stepped back to Eleanor's side. I turned to look at Eleanor. She had a confused look on her face. I just shrugged not knowing what to do. "He will probably help you. While I in the mean time must leave." She said taking a drag of her cigarette.
"Why?" Eleanor spoke up "We don't know the surface! And I'm pretty sure there are no giant men in diving suits up there!" she turned towards me. "No offense, but you are rather tall." I shrugged again.
Lamb took another drag and stood up. "Look out the window." She said. Eleanor walked over and gasped.
"It looks like…" I walked over. A city loomed above us. Its lights as many as the stars. A tall statue of a woman with a large dress stood on a pedestal. She held up a torch burning a golden flame. The buildings were tall and build boards dotted the scenery. Tall buildings dominated the sky. Neon lights shown brightly in the night. I could see things moving below lit up by the lights of the city. They were big metal things with glass and 4 black wheels decorated the sides. They all came in different sizes and shapes. I could see people, and not ones with melted faces, walking, talking, and laughing. It looked like Rapture, but not underwater. Is this place the same? I turned to look at Eleanor. She looked at me.
"This place is not like Rapture. People don't fight; they are in a so-called peaceful state." She turned to Eleanor. "Do you still have your dress? If so put it on and hide your big sister suit." Eleanor had big eyes. She just nodded and went to another part of the craft. "and you" she said looking at me. "When we get to the docks help the sisters in the car. And then wait for further instructions."
Wow this lady is bossy. No wonder Eleanor hated her mom. I felt a hand creep into my mine. I looked down. Edith clutched my hand.
"Daddy, where are we?" She said as she rubbed her eyes. I looked over to the rest of the sisters. They seemed to all have fallen asleep. I bent down and picked up Edith. She crawled onto my back. I remembered when I found her with a rumbler at siren alley. When her Big Daddy died she was so pitiful. Crying for her daddy to wake up. It was so depressing I hurried over and as soon as she saw me she perked up.
"daddy can we go outside I'm hot" she said. I nodded and walked out the door to the deck of the submersible. Outside it was cold and wet like most of Rapture. We passed by the towering lady long ago. We were now staring docks of some sort. I realized that this craft had no lights on it and the light from my porthole illuminated everything an amber color. "Daddy? Are we back home? The air feels good! It feels like I'm in arcadia!" she replied happily. The safety raft pulled into a housed dock. The place was falling apart. Old boxes decaying, papers scattered everywhere, one of those metal things was under a pile of boxes. Rust and chipped paint decorated the skin of the beast. The raft lurched forward and stopped for the first time in days. I walked back inside the sisters were still sleeping. I set Edith on the ground. She called out "Hey! Everyone wake up!"
Only a couple stirred but none of them woke. "Daddy? Could you help me with this?" I gave a nod and went over to a metal panel I banged it twice loudly and gave a loud groan.
That certainly did the trick. They Immediately woke up.
"? Is Dream time over already?" Arin said as she yawned.
"Come on everybody wake up we're someplace new!" Edith shouted. She motioned for me to pick her up. I did so and she scrambled onto my back. "Come on everybody follow Mr.B!" With that I went through the Secures door while a hoard of sleepy girls followed. It found some rope and tied the raft to a metal thing tightly before getting of the craft. I helped each girl across. I counted each sister and said their name in my head. All 13 were accounted for. Soon after Eleanor came out in the long white dress I saw her in before. I also helped her down.
"Thank you" she said as she sat with some of the sisters on a box. Lamb finally emerged from the ship, I also helped her down.
"Delta, move the boxes off the truck." She said stiffly. What no please? I did it anyway. So this thing is called a truck? Weird. Lamb opened a door by pulling on a rusted metal handle of some sort. She motioned into the truck with her hands. I walked over and grunted. The little sister came over. They were also curious about this contraption. There appeared to be seats made of some sort of leather inside. I lifted them up into the cavern thing. They looked puzzled.
"Sit down on the seats." Lamb said. "This is a truck it is made to travel long distances. It goes very fast so you have to stay still." All the little girls piled into the back of the truck. Then I realized, where am I going to fit? Lamb opened the hood of the truck and looked inside. Her eyes darted from side to side. She slammed the hood shut and walked towards me. "Delta get on the bed of the truck, I'll have to throw a sheet over you as to not raise suspicion. This ride won't take long as long as traffic's not bad." I walked around back and climbed onto the bed of the truck. Honestly such weird names. I laid on my back. I had forgotten about my weapons till now they hung around my waist and my drill can attach to my tank. It made a clinking sound as metal hit metal. The sheet was thrown over my body. Lamb tied it down so it wouldn't blow off I guess. I heard the truck door slam. All of the sudden a rumbling came from no were it sounded like a dying animal. The truck lurched forward and I felt like I was shoved back. I held on to a Handle-like ting hoping I wouldn't break it. The Truck rumbled along I was swung side to side. I heard the air blowing around like a million fans where all spinning at once. I heard animalistic honks, and people yelling things I'd heard in Rapture. This was going to be a long ride.