Austin and his escort emerged from the dark depths of the ship to be greeted by the early morning sun. It was refreshing. Standing a dozen feet away, among the containers and cargo was the man who had the dream of a utopia far from the shores of any continent. Andrew Ryan turned and smiled when he saw his newest engineer.
“Mr. Lowe!” Ryan walked over and shook Austin's hand. From the look on his face he was thrilled to not only greet his engineer but be back at the site where his dream would come to pass.
“Good morning Mr. Ryan. May I ask, where the hell are we?” asked Austin.
“Rapture my friend, or to be more accurate above it.” Ryan walked towards the edge of the ship knowing that Austin would follow. He was right.
Austin pointed down at the deck. “Below us? You mean it's done?”
“Done? Don't worry. There's still plenty of work to do. After all, why do you think I brought you out here?” Andrew Ryan stopped at the railing at the edge of the ship. Austin could see he was looking, no marveling, at something. He wanted to see what could elicit such a reaction.
This is…Austin stood next to Ryan and beheld the spectacle that was the building of Rapture. After twelve he stopped counting ships. On their decks and cargo hold they hauled everything from steel I beams to porcelain toilets. And those were just the big freighters. Two or three times as many smaller boats sent divers down to work on the underwater city. Then there was a huge boulder looking island in the middle of all of it.
“It's a lighthouse.”
“What?” asked Austin. He was so wrapped up in the all the commotion that he wasn't really paying attention to his boss.
“You're probably wondering what they're building on that little island.” Andrew Ryan pointed at the island and the quarter built structure on top of it. Men on scaffolding worked feverishly to try and complete it.
“We're kind of far from shore for a lighthouse. Is it safe?”
Andrew Ryan turned his head and made eye contact with “What are lighthouses for? What's their purpose?”
“Well they warn ships right. They let them know where the shore is so they don't crash into it.”
Ryan had an almost crazed look in his eyes. “Exactly! We want to warn any wandering boats to keep away.”
“Keep people away? But I thought you were building a utopia?”
“I am. But utopia only works without the undesirables. If I, if we just let anyone in who happened to stumble upon Rapture then it'll run into the same problems we're trying to get away from. The parasites and the leeches will come and drain this great dream of what will make it so wonderful. Do you want that?” Ryan's intense stare trapped Austin.
That seems kind of wrong. Doesn't it? “I guess not.”
“There's no need for guessing. You definitely don't want that. Trust me. Anyway, you want to get a closer look? See where you'll be working for the foreseeable future.” Ryan put his hand on Austin's shoulder and squeezed. Another one of his employees got his attention and he left the engineer alone to get more of his first look at Rapture. It made quite an impression.
Austin stayed on the ship for another hour or so before Ryan took him out on a skiff to the island/lighthouse. He didn't know why but he was a bit nervous. The fact that he was about to enter an unfinished underwater city probably had something to do with it.
“Watch your step sir,” said one of the Rapture construction workers as he stood on the island's dock and held out his hand.
“After you,” urged Ryan.
What a gentleman. Austin took the worker's hand and was pulled up out of the skiff onto the dock. It was nice getting off of the water and onto something a little more solid. Being a native of Nebraska, he never felt comfortable on the water.
Andrew Ryan and Austin walked up the steps that led to the front doors of the lighthouse. The tall gold plated entrance was something else. Engraved in the metal was a picture of Atlas, holding up the world with two hands. Austin hadn't seen opulence like that since he left his family's mansion so many years prior.
“Italy.” Ryan noticed Austin's admiring of the doors.
“Hmmm?”
“A fried on mine from Florence designed them and had them built. Beautiful are they not?”
“Yeah.”
“You haven't seen anything yet. C'mon. It's time to go in.” Like the gatekeeper to some magical world, Ryan led Austin inside the partially completed lighthouse.
That seems a little arrogant. But I guess you'd have to be to take on a project like this. The first thing that Austin noticed was a bronze statue of Andrew Ryan himself. Hanging from the bust was a red banner that read: “No Gods or Kings. Only Man.”
After turning his attention away from the Andrew Ryan statue, Ryan led him towards the only staircase. He went on about his philosophy on what Rapture was meant to be. But ever since he decided to call the mad genius, Austin heard the sales pitch over-and-over again. Frankly he was sick of it. So he tuned his host out.
We're not taking the stairs down to Rapture are we? Austin followed Ryan down the granite and marble stairwell which ended in an open room. Two sets of stairwells went down either way. At their bottom was a metal sphere. He couldn't tell if it was made of bronze or copper but it had an impressive shine to it. A glass door on the front of the sphere was open.
“Ever seen one of these before Mr. Lowe?” asked Ryan as he presented the sphere.
“It's a bathysphere right? They use them for diving.”
Andrew Ryan smiled. “Exactly, but a bigger version. This is how residents will arrive. I want them to feel some wonder and mystery before arriving in paradise.”
“This should certainly do it,” said Austin as he pointed at the bathysphere.
“This? No, the wonder comes next.” Ryan got inside the bathysphere. “Coming?”
Austin was a little wary at first. Faith in Ryan helped him overcome his safety concerns and get in. If he died at least he did so in a somewhat interesting manner.
The glass door slowly closed. There was a whooshing noise as the bathysphere pressurized. Austin sat down on the bench across from Ryan's. A single lever near the back wall was the only instrument. Ryan pulled it down.
There was some brief rumbling, and then the bathysphere started to descend. Once it got past the rock of the island, Austin could see the waters of the Mid-Atlantic through the glass door. He and Ryan kept going down. A school of fish swam past reminding him of where he was.
After a half a minute or so the lights inside the bathysphere faded. The bathysphere got deep enough that barely any sunlight managed to penetrate. It should have been dark. But the depths were lit up by work lights and underwater construction crews. Through their beams Austin could see divers in suits far beyond anything he'd ever seen before.
“When everything is done and ready, a panel will go over the door. I'm having a projector installed against the back wall so that we can play an introduction to Rapture for new residents.” What Ryan left out was the fact that the film would mostly be about him, his genius and his greatest work would be more of an afterthought or excuse to praise himself.
“Here we are. Go ahead, get a closer look,” there was a confidence in Ryan's face as he pointed at the glass door.
Let see what I got myself into. Austin got up from his bench and took a look out the glass. What he saw went beyond his highest most hopeful expectations. When Ryan told him he was building an underwater city, he had no idea that he meant it so literally.
The bathysphere's track winded in and out of skyscrapers that would have been right at home in any major city across the world. Though most were still under construction, they were impressive. There must've been at least a hundred men in those unique diving suits working to finish the goliath structures. Everywhere he looked there were neon signs advertising the businesses and buildings that would make up Rapture.
“Do you see it?” asked Ryan. Austin didn't notice but the mustachioed man crept up right behind him. He couldn't help bu
t admire his own work.
“Yeah, it's… I've seen some things in my day Mr. Ryan but this is something else.”
“I know it's very impressive but that's not what I'm talking about.” Ryan pointed at what looked like another building being built.
“What is it?”
“The reason you're here. It was a library. That was before it imploded from the-”
“From the pressure, I wondered how you could keep structural integrity under such extreme conditions.”
“We were able to figure it out for the smaller structures. But the big buildings are giving my architects and engineers fits. It's too expensive to properly support them. That's the first thing I need you to work on. Find me an affordable way to build as big as I want while resisting the immense pressures down here. When that's done-”
That's a hell of a task. “If.”
“When it's done, I'll need your help inside the city. My guys, they're good but I need an outside perspective. I need someone to tell me when I'm wrong and why. Can you do that?”
Before Austin could answer the bathysphere reached its destination. Above the entrance the Rapture were the words: “All good things of this Earth flow into the city.” He wasn't sure what that meant. It wasn't until years later he realized the exact opposite was true.
CHAPTER 4
Keep moving. You got to keep moving or eventually those bastards will find you. Though I need to eat something. How long has it been since my last “meal”? Austin needed to leave the cafeteria. First he raided Saul's Hotdogs to see if he could find any edible food. It was a long shot. But one that paid off. A can of beans, undoubtedly used for Saul's famous chili dogs, would provide him with what was hopefully his last meal in Rapture.
After forcing himself to down a lukewarm can of beans, Austin left the cafeteria. He needed to get to Neptune's Bounty. Once a front for Fontaine's criminal empire, they would be crucial in the destruction of the accursed city. From there most of Rapture would be flooded. The mutants and monsters that roamed its halls would drown in the cold salty waters of the Atlantic.
After Neptune's Bounty Austin then needed to cross over some dangerous areas/districts. He had to cross the medical pavilion which many would've considered suicide. From there he had a fairly clear path to the lounge, welcome station and bathysphere. It was far from a straight line. Going out of the way was worth it. He was determine to meet his end on dry land.
Austin quietly navigated the halls of Rapture. When possible he walked on carpet. He stuck to the shadows. Whenever possible it was wise to avoid confrontation, especially considering he was unarmed. He needed to find an El Ammo Bandito machine. That became a priority.
Austin was making good progress when he turned a corner and saw a red light. As quickly as he could he jumped back the way he came. If he didn't he would've been riddled with bullets from a gun turret.
Trapped by my own creation. Appropriate. A couple of years after arriving in Rapture, Ryan approached Austin. There had been problems with an organized criminal organization that formed under the leadership of a man named Fontaine. He needed the engineer's help designing a city wide security system. Despite not being a field he had any experience in, Austin managed to design what his boss needed. His crowning achievement? Motion activated machine gun turrets. If he'd known what they were later used for he'd never of even considered even taking the idea to the drawing board.
There wasn't much that Austin could do. He knew how to hack his gun turrets but doing so would require him to get uncomfortably close. Seeing that he wasn't bullet proof he was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Either he risked getting gunned down right there in the hallway. Or he could go hours out of his way and risk being eviscerated or worse by the monsters of Rapture. It was a hard decision that was suddenly taken out of his hands.
Austin felt a sharp warm pain in his back, around his left shoulder. When he reached back to rub what he thought was just a pulled muscle or bruise from his incident with the giant splicer, his fingers touched something hot enough to singe.
“Son of a bitch! What the hell!?” Austin's didn't care about keeping his voice down. Not anymore.
Though it burned, Austin needed to try and get whatever was in his back, out. So he pulled down his sleeve over his hand and reached back again. His hand rapped around something solid. Before he knew it the extremely thin buffer between him and the source of the searing heat burned away. The former engineer yelled out in pain as he pulled out whatever was in his back.
Right after extracting what was stuck in his back; Austin dropped it onto the carpet. Much to his surprise it was a red hot meat hook. He'd seen one of them before. And he knew who wielded them.
Sure enough when Austin turned around he saw a splicer hanging from the ceiling. The freak had on a white rabbit mask stained yellow with plashed of dried blood on it. The demented bunny cocked his head to the side then rushed across the ceiling towards the former engineer. He used meat hooks, to grip the plaster and move at an alarming speed.
On instinct Austin reached for his pistol. It wasn't there. During his water driven tumble earlier that night he lost it. So he was left defenseless. Being trapped in a corner with no way to defend himself had become a habit.
Wait till he gets close. Don't lose your nerve. Just wait. Austin stood and watched as the rabbit masked splicer continued across the roof towards him. His plan was simple but incredibly dangerous.
The rabbit masked splicer hopped off the roof when he was mere feet away from Austin. That's when the former soldier turned the corner towards the gun turrets. If the splicer didn't follow then that was the end for Austin Lowe.
Austin saw the lights from the machine gun turrets. Both guns trained on him. He closed his eyes in mid stride expecting to be lit up. But a second later they changed their target and focused on the rabbit masked splicer who followed very close behind.
While the rabbit masked splicer took dozens of bullets to its torso, Austin scrambled past the guns and fell once he was clear from their field of fire and motion sensors. Not convinced he was safe, he flipped over to his back and watched as his pursuer fell face first in a growing puddle of his own ADAM tainted blood.
Satisfied he was in the clear but not willing to wait around, Austin got up. The pain in his shoulder made it hard for him to pry himself off the carpeted floor. Much like all the trials he face in his years under the sea, he overcame it.
With the gun turrets circumvented, Austin was ready to move on and make his way to Neptune's Bounty. Then he heard wet coughs. When he looked to see where they came from, he saw that the rabbit masked splicer not only wasn't dead but he was crawling towards him.
Persistent little bastard aren't you? Austin watched as the splicer in the rabbit mask used one of its meat hooks like an ice axe as he crawled towards the former engineer. Not willing to take any chances, he decided to finish the freak off.
First Austin stepped on the splicer's wrist, disarming him. Then he picked up the rabbit masked freak's meat hook. With one swing he lodged the pointy end into the splicer's skull, killing him instantly.
No more surprises. Austin was sick of being snuck up on. He wanted to cover his back. So he went to work hacking into the turret guns he helped create. Armed with his intimate knowledge of all of Rapture's security systems, he had no problems rigging them so they'd shoot any splicers that wandered in front of their sensors. Their red lights turned green giving him visual confirmation that he succeeded.
This place...I need to get out of here. Austin stood in the Rapture Metro Station that led to Neptune's Bounty. Against a concrete pillar, there was a man strung up by his wrists that stood as a warning to the citizens of rapture. The display had a striking resemblance to a crucifixion. Except the dead man was covered in so much blood that it was hard to tell whether or not he had been skinned. Behind him, written in his own blood was the word: “Smuggler”.
The dead smuggler was a relic from the days of Fontaine and Ryan. The for
mer was the head of an organized criminal organization that used Neptune' Bounty and the docks to smuggle all manner of illegal and illicit goods into Rapture. That included people. The later, Andrew Ryan, did everything he could to stop the criminals and smugglers. Eventually it got ugly. Really ugly.
Next to the wooden bench under the crucified smuggler there was a shotgun. Austin didn't know why it was there or where it came from but he didn't care. He needed a weapon and couldn't pass up taking it. To his surprise there was an open suitcase next to it. Articles of clothing and some papers spilled out. None of that interested him. But the money did.
Austin checked the breach and saw that the shotgun was loaded. On the other side of the pillar there was a Circus of Values vending machine. Now that he had money he could buy some ammo. Standing beside the vending machine was a Gene Bank dispenser. He never trusted them or the DNA altering chemicals they dispensed. So he elected not to use it.
Damn. Austin heard a little girl's voice. The normally cute sound was made sinister by what it represented. There was a little sister in a nearby vent that stood between him and the flooded hallway that gave access to Neptune's Bounty.
Unable and unwilling to engage the little sister's protector, Austin hid behind some discarded luggage left near the entrance of Neptune's Bounty. From there he watched as a little girl in a Sunday dress clumsily climb out of the vent. If it weren't for her abnormally pale skin, glowing yellow eyes and large syringe, you wouldn't of been able to tell she was just another ADAM ravaged freak.
C'mon where is he? Austin waited and watched for the real threat that came hand-in-hand with Little Sisters. Sure enough he heard the thunderous footsteps of a Big Daddy. They were too close for comfort causing him to keep completely still and try and blend into the luggage.
Rapture: Sanctuary Page 2
