Bioshock: The Story of Henry Walker

Chapter 12: Welcome to Rapture

Days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months as the people of the Odyssey worked day and night creating the city of Paradise. Peach's crew and Jacob's divers worked around the clock, non-stop labouring as they lifted materials onto platforms and welded girders and plates and windows and steel and iron and concrete together to create the buildings of Rapture. Henry and Gil worked day and night creating faster and efficient ways to help the divers get to the bottom. In fact, most of the divers didn't even resurface after a long night of work, they would stay down in diving chambers for the night. Thanks to Henry and Gil's superior scientific engineering, they had made small metal spheres with seats and windows that would travel long distances using a remote controlled system under the water. The sphere had a lever and when that lever was pulled, the sphere would submerge into the water and travel to the next designated area all on it's own! Henry had personally created most of the control system all around Rapture so these spheres could travel in between most buildings. It revolutionized the way people would move around Rapture since underwater cars were impossible to create. Henry had decided to name the new invention the Bathysphere. Naledi had also helped Henry and Gil in the creation of the Bathysphere. She had volunteered to pilot the first prototype. Reluctantly, Henry and Gil had given her full control of the Bathysphere's systems. She submersed all the way to Rapture at an impressive speed and continued to travel throughout the city in the small metal sphere. Henry wasn't too surprised that she had gone a complete circuit through the underwater city, if there was ever a person who could have done that feat it would be Naledi Atkins. As a reward for giving them feed back and helping them as a guinea pig, Naledi asked if she could keep the prototype and work on it to her specifications. Henry and Gil gave the prototype to her without hesitation, she deserved it after all. Over the months, Elizabeth started coming out of her cabin more and more. She talked to people briefly and ate her meals with Helga. Henry hadn't come to see her. However, one night, Helga was rushed to the infirmary. She had been diagnosed with having a massive heart-attack and stroke. Doctor Suchong had pronounced her dead that night. Surprisingly, Elizabeth did not cry for her nanny. She had been at the funeral and continued her daily routines after that. Many people wondered if there was something wrong with the girl, but Henry knew that she had grown stronger, like her parents would have wanted her to be. Henry had gone to see Ryan again and to talk about what was to become of her now. Ryan had said that she was too young to be on her own and so she would be put into a orphanage for the time being, once they moved to Rapture. Henry was shocked by the notion of Elizabeth being in an orphanage. Henry had pleaded to Ryan multiples times to allow him to become Elizabeth's guardian but Ryan would hear none of it. He said the paper work would be tremendous and the cost for the transactions and adoption papers would cost Henry well over five thousand dollars. Ryan assured him that she would be fine. Over the course of Rapture's creation many people had succumbed to exhaustion and some divers became careless. There were several other deaths during the creation of Rapture, which left several children without parents. While the thought made him feel terrible, Henry was glad Elizabeth wouldn't be alone.

It had been almost a year since the people of the Odyssey had taken their first steps towards Paradise, and now they were going to live out their greatest triumph. Rapture had finally been finished, the city stood tall and solid twenty thousand feet under the ocean. However, the workers were not finished yet. They needed a way to get the people down to Rapture without them having to wear diving suits. A way to get to the bathysphere's without an ocean liner. Ryan decided to have them build a lighthouse. They spent another month creating it. It stretched from the bottom of a rocky mountain formation, located right next to the city, to about forty feet out of the water. The lighthouse was built with a hole in it so the bathyspheres could resurface, passengers would board and then submerge to Rapture. 

Andrew Ryan sat at his desk in the dim light of the single lit lamp bent over his desk. Suddenly, a man walked into the room. He was still suited up in his welding attire, grime and sweat covered his face and he had a lit cigarette wedged into the side of his mouth. Ryan frowned. "Mr. Norris, I had really hoped that you would come dressed in something more....presentable, or have had at least the courtesy of showering." Jacob Norris chuckled. He enjoyed annoying Ryan. "Sorry Andrew, got no time fer showers!" he said laughing loudly. Ryan nodded. "So it would seem. What's the news?" Jacob rubbed his hands together smiling so wide that his cigarette almost fell from his mouth. "Lighthouse is finished, city is finished, we're all done!" Ryan paused for what seemed like a lifetime. He slowly rose from his desk and stared at Jacob. "Mr. Norris, I've been waiting for this day for all my life, finally my great vision has become reality!" Ryan smiled widely. "It's time, I will make an announcement tonight, tomorrow we rid ourselves of this parasite ridden world, tomorrow we make our own destinies, tomorrow we leave the old world and enter a new world, a world free from Government eyes, free from the small, free from those who would hold us back with petty morality......free from the parasite. Rest well tonight Mr. Norris, you've earned it." Jacob nodded and chuckled as he shut the metal door, leaving Ryan alone once again.