BioShock Rapture

They reached Central Control, and he found himself in the shadow of the dead. He looked up to see the decayed corpse of Frank Fontaine, stuck on a stake, like a Jesus who missed the resurrection boat. Ryan had the body crudely sewn up, brought here, and posted. A message to his enemies. Which is what Bill was about to be. Karlosky handed Redgrave his machine gun, then drew a pistol from under his coat, and stepped behind Bill.

Bill heard the sound of Karlosky cocking the gun. “Supposed to crucify you, before killing,” Karlosky remarked. “But—I always liked you. So. Quick death.”

“I guess I should’ve killed Ryan,” Bill said. His voice sounded thick and unnatural in his own ears. “He must be gloating…”

“Nyet—he understands better than you think,” Karlosky said. “A lot of these others out here, he watched them die. But … he can’t be here for this. He told me. He couldn’t stand to watch you die, Bill. Not good friend like you…”

Bill smiled. He never heard the gunshot that killed him.

Park Avenue, New York City

1959

A warm day in July …

“I’m too scared to go out there, Mama,” Sophie said, for the tenth time in ten minutes.

Elaine sighed. “I know. But you have to.”

“You have something we call agoraphobia, Sophie,” the doctor said gently. He was an expensive Park Avenue psychiatrist. A kindly middle-aged man in a sweater and bowtie. He had a trim beard, a large nose, a sad smile, inquisitive eyes. But it happened he wasn’t charging Elaine much. He seemed interested in Sophie’s case. Perhaps even interested in Elaine herself, in another way.

“You have to do this, sweetheart,” Elaine said.

“Well, no,” said the doctor. “She doesn’t have to. But—she wants to, really. She just has mixed feelings about it.”

“The sky scares me,” Sophie insisted.

“I know it does.” The doctor smiled.

“In Rapture we don’t have sky,” she said. Then she told him some more about Rapture.

He listened patiently, then sent her out to wait with his receptionist, so he could talk to Elaine privately. “She has a remarkable imagination,” he said, chuckling. “‘Rapture’!”

Elaine didn’t try to explain. She couldn’t tell people about Rapture; they would never believe her. And if they did—it could lead to Ryan finding her.

So she just nodded. “Yes, Doctor…”

“She’s been through something traumatic—perhaps in war?” he said. “Somewhere overseas?”

Elaine nodded. “Yes. In war.” That was true, anyhow.

“I thought so. Well, she will heal. But we must start by dealing with her fears. I think, despite appearances, she will go outside today, for a walk in the park…”

To her surprise, the doctor offered to go with them. After a while, Sophie reluctantly agreed to try the park. They went down the elevator and walked slowly across the marble-floored lobby. Sophie became more frightened as they got closer to the street. Ever since they’d left the fishing boat that had picked them up off Iceland, she’d darted under cover as quickly as she could, hiding her eyes from the sky.

Then the doctor turned to Sophie and said, in a kindly voice, “May I carry you?”

Sophie looked up at him gravely. “Yes.”

He nodded, equally grave, and knelt by her. She put her arms around his neck, and he lifted her up, carried her piggyback out the door, Elaine walking at his side. Elaine couldn’t help making a grotesque comparison to the way Big Daddies sometimes carried Little Sisters. But she thrust it out of her mind.

“Oh!” Sophie said as they stepped out into the hot sun. But she only clung harder.

They walked over to Central Park. Sophie cried on the way, but didn’t ask to hide from the sky.

They got to the park and found an open green field, with butter-colored flowers. On the edge of the field birds sang in the trees. The doctor let Sophie down, and she walked slowly out into the sunlight.

“Mama,” she said, shading her eyes to look up at the blue sky. “It’s nice out here. It just goes on and on. You know what?”

“What?”

“I think Daddy would have liked seeing this.”

“Yes, Sophie,” Elaine said, just managing not to cry. “Yes, love. Yes, he would have.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

John Shirley won the Bram Stoker Award for his story collection Black Butterflies and is the author of numerous novels, including the bestseller Demons, the cyberpunk classics City Come A-Walkin’, Eclipse, and Black Glass, and his latest, the urban fantasy novel Bleak History. He has written for television and movies and was coscreenwriter of The Crow.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

BIOSHOCK: RAPTURE

Copyright © 2011 by Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.

BioShock and the BioShock logo are trademarks of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.

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