Revolt

10

Pods....generators....splicers....daughters....pods, generators, splicers, daughters.

I divide us all into four teams of ten, except for Sam, Rosie, and I- we don't fit, but I have a different objective for us. We're going to retrieve the stash of Adam that Clara and Jessica harvested to sate all the little sisters in transport and when they get to the surface. We know they're dependent on it, addicted to it, but without at least a sample their bodies will shut down. Just like ours will shit down after they're gone....but we don't need to be saved. We were built for one purpose- what would be nicer than to fulfill that one, singular purpose?

....

When we reach the stash, it's being hoarded by a big sister. For the three of us, she's no big deal. But she's been holding off a few others....she's likely one of the oldest big sisters I've seen. She's not a girl anymore- she's much stronger and much faster, and much more clever. And these others- they've been following her. Learning from her. Obeying her- but waiting for a moment she shows weakness.

She screams at us, jumping to a higher vantage point, the others moving around her like sardines, formulating and predicting.

We'll have to fight them all until we remove her, then they'll fight each other.

"AAAAAARRRRWAAAAARRRR!!"
"WWRRAAAAAAAAAWRRRRR!!"
Rosie and Sam roar from each side of me.
"YOU'RE GROUNDED!!" I add, though it sounds like a roar anyway- I don't know what my sense of humor is, but this one just cracks me up!

Sam appears to laugh, bouncing in his way as he charges the enemies, but Rosie just groans in bemusement as he sights in his ion gun.

I shrug and start punching.

The biggest sister, the one in charge, shows her sisters how to take us on. She's agile- and goes right for our windows. She attaches herself to my helmet and pulls back her weaponized arm to stab me, the others latching onto my limbs, but I opt to run into Rosie's back and she misses, as well as crushing the other sister that Rosie had been trying to throw off. He consequently turns around and takes both fists, slamming them down on the big sisters that are attached to my arms. Sam wails from beside us and I punch one off of his face, and Rosie peels one off of his back before running backwards into a wall to get rid of another one. I punch another and grab Sam, putting his back to mine, and we keep fighting. The biggest sister is dealing with Rosie, and he shoots her finally- throwing her to the side. Some of the sisters take a chance at reaching the Adam now- and they fight among themselves. Sam finishes them off with his rivet gun, and the last few back away, recalculating.

They don't normally back down. But they don't normally work together, either.

I hold my hopes- that I won't have to destroy any more of our estranged daughters.

They stare at us, screech at us, pretend to charge, disorderly and unsure, but we hold our ground.

~Please....back down....take....off....suits....become....
our daughters....again....we....
can save.... you....~

They screech more and slink away into the abyss. They're too far gone....we never could save them if we tried.

I look down at the ones we've defeated, motionless, lifeless....they were the ones we protected once....

Sam grabs my arm, gesturing towards the Adam supply. I nod. The three of us grab as much as we can hold and trot back to the pods- there's five working ones left, and it'll be enough. We split the Adam stash between all the pods just as team 4 returns with as many little sisters as they can wrangle. Team three are all spliced up with electric plasmids from The Circus Of Values and other vendors, as well as from hunting splicers. They brought extra canisters of the stuff, and start dishing them out to team 2, who had started the generators. Team 1 and team 4 go back for more sisters, and Rosie, Sam, and I join them.

Splicers have started to gather. In our teams, we're more formidable, and we keep them at bay. We don't have time to wait for the girls to come to us- we tear the vents apart and drag them out, corner them between us all, herd them back towards the pods. We make three trips altogether, and we're nearly sure that all of them have been retrieved. I scan among them for Clara and Jessica, and see that they've stuck together. I point them out to Rosie and Sam, and they take a moment, staring at them, saying goodbye in their minds.

I know it's going to hurt, but we can't go with them. We couldn't.

There's only enough room for them, inside these pods, and they'll be crammed inside with standing room only. The pressure in the pods can adjust at a survivable rate, and they'll be spared from suffering the bends.

We finish getting all of them into the pods and seal-lock the doors.

The splicers catch onto us fast, showing up now in immense hoards, screaming at us for dooming them, for taking away their lifeblood, the future of Rapture.

Pathetic....they think their chaos and greed is still a community.

I get a signal from team 2 that the pods are ready to launch.

I look down the line of us, all forty-three of us....

Forty-three fathers, forced into this. Forty-three men. Men I once knew. People I once knew. People with dreams....people with hopes....

Stripped of ourselves, bound to protect until we die, drowning in this sunken city.

Drowning in these suits.

Just like that old nightmare.

....

That's it. I can't let this happen. If there's hope up there for our daughters, then they're going to need us to protect them. At least, most of us....I had my Amelia. I'm dying anyway. But I can't kill them! I can't kill Sam, or Rosie, or any of these men!

"PROTECT THEM. HOLD. ON." I order, and they look at me, confused, until I point to the railings on the exterior of the pods. "HOLD ON!! LAUNCH THEM!! NOW!!"

It takes some less time than others, and those staying behind shove the others towards the dive pools. The remaining four of us- the Alpha Series- launch the pods as soon as we see them hanging on.

Sam looks at me one last time as I hit the switch. A jolt gives and cracks the glass around me as the pod shoots upwards.

I hope they can make it....that the suits will keep their bodies intact as they rocket to the surface.

Now it's just us and these splicers.

But they can't follow us outside....

Maybe I can save us all.