A Different Lighthouse

Chapter 5

"You wanna sit around here ticklin' our arseholes until one of Ryan's goons finds us?" Armitage asked him sharply, still tense as that feeling that he had eyes on him still lingered.

Ben crossed his arms stubbornly, and Armitage opened his mouth to continue arguing. He got a look at Blue's creepy eyes, though, welling up and shining with frightened tears at all the shouting and seeming to pierce him straight through the chest. Fuck's sake, what was happening to him? He took a deep breath through his nose, getting his temper somewhat under control.

"We need that Bathysphere workin', so we can both get outta here," he said, slowly and calmly. "So just...get up there, quick, and flip the switch."

Ben stared at him for a moment longer (Armitage could have sworn he was doing it to make him sweat), before nodding curtly, his lips pursed as he held out his hand for Blue again. She sniffled once and stepped into it, wiping her eyes with her free hand as she used the other for balance. Once she'd clamored onto his shoulders, Ben set off.

Neptune's Bounty was one of the more decrepit parts of Rapture, it's infrastructure weakened from multiple bombings that occurred in the area on the New Year's uprising. Hadn't been their guys, though, Snoke had assured him of that. The goal had always been uprising, not mass murder. Trapping people in the city was more Ryan's deal, not Snoke's.

Armitage hadn't realized he was chewing the inside of his lip, hard, until it started to bleed a bit.

"It's really falling apart back here," came Ben's voice over his radio. Still clipped, but that was to be expected. "We're moving quick, but it's a lot of climbing over shit."

"Story of Rapture," Armitage snorted. He caught sight of a security camera, pointed straight at him just like the one before. He stood up a bit straighter, eying it warily as he lifted his chin. "Just keep movin', Ben."

There were several minutes of silence, Armitage bouncing on the balls of his feet and tapping his fingernails on the bathysphere release console. They needed cutting, he realized inanely. He swallowed thickly as he swore he could hear the whir of the camera lens slowly zooming in on him, a bit of sweat prickling his hairline.

All at once, the lights went black. Armitage tensed, his head whipping up toward the control booth. This was it - Ryan was retaliating. He held his radio close to his mouth as red emergency lights began to flicker to life around the station, casting his surroundings in a dim glow. All part of the plan, but he grimaced as the alarms sounded as well, that was bound to attract some trouble.

"You blow a fuse up there?!" he called into the speaker, keeping an eye on the dark corners of the station. "I can't see a damn thing in that booth!"

"I don't know! I hit the switch and everything just-!" Ben's line went dead.

Armitage frowned, a niggle of unwanted worry at the back of his mind as he wondered if the guy had been set upon by Splicers. He only had a moment with it, though, as he found what he'd been anticipating - forms crawling over the walls, Splicers skittering into the station like insects as they were drawn by the blaring alarms. Armitage pulled his shotgun, setting his teeth as he prepared for a fight. Before he could loose the first shot, though, a worrying hum began to prickle his ears, causing him to flinch a bit. After a moment of looking around frantically for the source he realized it was the bathysphere, the whole damn machine groaning and beginning to vibrate so violently it sent the water it rested in slapping up against the dock.