The sun rose behind the lighthouse in the North Atlantic. Delta sat on the edge of the lifeboat with Eleanor, the Little Sisters, the Meltzers, and Sinclair. Grace waited inside the glass-enclosed pilot house, keeping an eye on Dr. Lamb and Stanley. Off in the distance, a shape somewhere between a giant baby and a giant jumbo shrimp swam away.
As Eleanor dropped her Delta doll into the water, letting go of Rapture, a bathysphere rose next to the lifeboat. Dr. Tenenbaum and Charles Porter, a few more Little Sisters in tow, carefully stepped out and joined the crew looking out to sea.
It was a new day a couple weeks before Christmas. And it was the start of a long road.