Christina

Part 3 of 3

“One more time.” A little girl asked as Christina pointed to the map of Point Prometheus’ maze of hidey hole tubes. She had described the path to reach the top of the test hall several times and the other girls were quickly learning the paths, but some were figuring it out faster than others.

“Okay.” Christina sighed. She started back at the main doorway and pointed to the maze of tubes on the map that Tenenbaum had given her. A few minutes later she looked up at the other girls as they all mentally visualized that path through the hidey holes. “Got it?” Each one nodded in agreement. Christina smiled happily as she looked up at the middle aged woman.

Tenenbaum exhaled a thick course of white smoke from her cigarette. “Thank you. Are you ready?”

“Yes!” Christina happily cheered as she picked up her ADAM probe.

“Good.” Tenenbaum turned back to her radio and added. “Go to the hidey hole and wait for your big daddy to call you. The others will meet your big daddy when he arrives at Fontaine’s hideout.”

Christina jumped up and raced to the door. One of the little sisters that stood guard watched as Christina happily crawled through the doors small passage. On the other side, Christina stood and looked back at the small door as it closed. Beyond the safe haven of Tenenbaum’s safe house, she could once again the screams of Rapture’s Splicers and crazed citizens. Fires burned, water dripped and rubble was everywhere. This was the world she remembered. It wasn’t clean and happy music didn’t play in the background on working radios. This world was gritty and filthy and scary.

Christina ran to the nearest hidey hole; her bare feet patting the concrete floor and water puddles as she ran. She was used to the sensation and it didn’t bother her when she stepped on a jagged rock. Her bare feet had formed a thick callus layer and the rock did little harm. Christina jumped up and grabbed the edge of the hidey hole. Without her big daddy around she struggled to climb inside, but managed to eventually pull herself up. In the twisting darkness of the tunnels Christina crawled. Eventually her eyes adjusted to the thin illumination of the small tunnel lights that marked every branch. She quickly crawled on her hands and knees for nearly an hour but then found the path to Point Prometheus.

Ahead of her were two little girls who were watching the hallways leading into the testing grounds. “Hello.” She said softly.

“Hello!” One girl happily said as she looked back at Christina. “Did Lady Tenenbaum send you too?”

“Yeah. I’m here to help bubbles get through the test hall.”

The girl that spoke then turned to the other girl at her side. “She’s here to help the Angel!”

“Yes she is!” The second girl turned to Christina. “Bubbles will save us!”

Christina smiled at the girls and crawled past them as they resumed their watch duty; peering out of a hidey hole near Point Prometheus’s main entrance. Christina crawled to the location that Lady Tenenbaum told her and she sat silently in the hidey hole until the familiar thump echoed around her. Filled with joy she crawled forward and out of the hidey hole. She dropped to the ground and looked into the face of a Big Daddy.

But it wasn’t her friend.

This big daddy carried a large assortment of weapons. She had never seen one like it. It wore the clothes of a big daddy, it smelled like a big daddy, and it even sounded like a big daddy, but Christina could tell that something wasn’t right.

Was this the Mr. Bubbles she was to lead? She looked back to the hidey hole, and one of the other girls had arrived and waved Christina forward. It must be the one. The other girl quickly vanished into the hidey hole.

“Coming along, Bubbles.” Christina nodded. “Time’s a wasten’.” She quickly ran into the pressure door chamber that would take them into the maze of the Test Hall. The odd Big Daddy and his massive armament of weapons ran behind her.

- - - - - - -

Christina’s big daddy could hear the alarms sounding throughout the testing grounds, but he didn’t care. He was drilling into the bedrock of the building in order to make a water pump drainage route. Sparks spat upward from his drill as splicers ran past. The intercom throughout the testing ground was blaringly loud, but he still didn’t care. The Big Daddy was determined to do his job until he found Christina.

After a few moments of drilling he stood and began to walk toward the museum. He had finished making the drain and now he needed a pump. He slowly made his way through the halls until he arrived on the top level of Point Prometheus’s museum. Wale bones hung from a rafter over the lower level, and as the big daddy walked closer to the railing he heard the unmistakable sound of a big daddy and a splicer fighting. He looked over the railing and down to the lower level where a big daddy roared and charged into a splicer. The woman was tossed several feet across the room and her gun discharged as she hit the wall. The bullet split the cable holding the bones of the Wale and the tonnage of steel cables and fossils fell upon the big daddy below. The big daddy screamed in pain as it died and its roar echoed around the museum.

Christina’s big daddy began to walk on, but as the dust settled he glared to the other side of the museum as a little girl enter the museum. It was Christina, and behind her was another big daddy.

Bubbles couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He was hurt, enraged and confused. The glowing ports on his helmet turned from yellow-white to blood red as he slammed his drill upon railing. Christina had returned and she was being guarded by another big daddy.

No.

Bubbles glared closer. Something was different, something he may not have noticed if was not for his enraged status. The bid daddy with Christina was different. He didn’t know how, or why he could tell, but his emotions flared even more. He watched as Christina led the big daddy into another room and Bubbles quickly sprinted to intercept them. He knew where they were headed. Many months ago, he was one of the few selected to protect a special little sister as she navigated the test hall. He knew the test halls well and he was going to get Christina back.

Bubbles roared as he ran, twisting through the tunnels of Point Prometheus. He ran over a splicer that got in his way and smashed its form under his massive boot. Blood painted the wall as the muffled scream was washed away by the sound of crushing bone. Bubbles didn’t care. Christina was here and he was not about to let her be taken by something that was not her real protector.

- - - - - - -

Christina happily pushed her way down the test hall. The big daddy at her side stayed close and was constantly reloading and checking its weapons. The test hall was in fact more of Point Prometheus’ museum. Along the walls were stuffed animals, and pictures from the above world that Christina had never seen, but she remembered the stories told to her about the above water world. When the war in Rapture began, Dr Suchong and Fontaine had turned the museum into a test area for the little girls and their body guards.

Christina walked around a corner and saw a dead splicer sitting on a display. The body lay on its back with its arms tucked neatly at its side. The sight of the body instantly made Christina recall her testing days, and how she was really good at it. She found the body to be irresistible and ran toward it.

“Look Bubbles! ADAM!” She knelt beside the body and jabbed her ADAM probe into the corpse. She didn’t know why she was doing it, but she only knew that it was what she needed to do. It was because of the results of her mental conditioning which forced her to continue searching for ADAM, even though she no longer had the desire to ingest the blood of the dead. “I’m a good girl, Mr. Bubbles. You see. I have to find the ADAM. It’s the ADAM that makes me special. I must gather and be a good girl.” The big daddy turned and stood watch as splicers suddenly appeared. They didn’t care about the big daddy bodyguard, only the little sister. Their trap had successfully bated a prize.

The ADAM Christina had was precious and the splicers wanted it; yet they were unaware that Christina no longer carried the addictive agents within her. The big daddy fired his pistol, his shotgun and threw mines. He fought off the attacking horde while Christina mindlessly did as she was mentally programmed to do. She ignored the fighting behind her, as the big daddy protected her from the harm that would come to her. After a few moments she stood and side stepped the body of another dead splicer as it was flung to the side by her bodyguard.

Staring at the ferocity of the battle and the near endless assault of the splicers, Christina cheered for her champion. “Kill ‘em!” Dozens of splicers lay dead at her feet as Christina glared at their lifeless forms. There was ADAM within their veins, but Christina remembered the rules; she was only to gather ADAM from the bodies on display, not the new bodies that her bodyguard had killed.

She was a good girl and always obeyed the rules.

When the last body tumbled to the ground Christina smiled up at her new body guard. She began to remember how other big daddies had failed and died while trying to protect her. Maybe her old big daddy was also dead. She no longer had the luxury of thinking about her old big daddy. This new big daddy was strong.

She looked up as the new big daddy refilled his ammo. “My Bubbles is stronger than a train! My Bubbles is unbeatable!” She cheered. “Come Mr. Bubbles, we’re almost there.” The big daddy looked down as Christina began to walk away and he quickly followed her.

They reached the end of the hall and Christina turned toward the next door leading into the elevator chamber for Point Prometheus. As she stepped toward the door the wall beside them exploded as a massive big daddy with red eyes, bowled into Christina’s new bodyguard. Unknown to Christina, this was her old big daddy and he had come to reclaim her.

He was full of rage and relentless in his assault. The eye portals on his helmet glowed blood red as he charged toward the new bodyguard. It tossed Christina’s new bodyguard to the side and pressed him against wall with its drill. Sparks exploded as the old big daddy’s drill slammed into the new bodyguard’s armor. The new bodyguard kicked out with it massive weighted boots, causing the old big daddy to stumble backwards. The new bodyguard stood and began to fire an electric gel at the big daddy causing it to smoke, shake and convulse. The old big daddy groaned in pain, staggering as it attempted to keep itself upright. Soon the old big daddy crumbled to its knees but slowly attempted to stand.

“Get him bubbles!” Christina screamed as her new bodyguard lowered the electrical weapon a pulled down a shotgun from its back. “Kill him! Don’t let him stop us! Kill Mr. B!”

Shocked by the outcry of Christina, her old big daddy raised his head in shock at Christina’s words. She was not cheering for him, she was cheering for her new guard. His eyes flickered from red to yellow, but quickly changed back to red. He was wounded physically, and what remained of his heart was now broken.

The new bodyguard fired his shotgun blowing the big daddy’s chest open, rocking him backwards and forcing him to land in a pile of his own metal and fluid. Steam and fluid dripped from the armor as he groaned in pain.

The old big daddy could hear the new bodyguard breathing as it reloaded its weapons and healed its wounds with Plasmids; another by product of ADAM research. With his last bit of energy bubbles leaned his head and watched as Christina began to lead the strange big daddy out of the test hall. The old big daddy reached out his bloody glove as Christina walked past his dieing form.

She looked down with a curious glare, as her brushed against her tiny arm. The old big daddy rolled his hand over, exposing his palm, hoping that Christina would take his hand, if only for a second. Christina squinted, looking curiously at the hand. She motioned to place her hand onto the massive bloody glove, but the new big daddy pushed her forward with a loud groan.

“Okay, Bubbles. Don’t be such a pushy poo. We’re almost there.” Christina skipped forward, leaving her old protector to die, while her new and stronger hero followed.

The lights inside the old big daddy’s helmet quickly faded as the test hall where he and Christina first met became deathly silent. He slowly dropped his arm to the ground and his life passed on.

Christina had found her new hero, a true angel. She opened the last door and watched as her new bodyguard began to gather ammo and more equipment from the stockpile scattered within the room. Knowing that a battle was about to begin, Christina quickly climbed into the nearest hidey hole, and then gave her new bodyguard her ADAM probe. The new big daddy reached up and took the probe from her tiny hands. She then smiled as she watched her new bodyguard climb into the elevator that would take him to the top of Rapture where he would face the bad man. Soon, Christina and the other little girls would be saved.

“Christina! Come on!” Another girl said from deeper with the hidey hole. “We have to go watch bubbles defeat the bad man!”

Christina followed the other five girls as they navigated up the hidey hole tunnel toward the area where the Angel and the Devil fought. “Our Bubbles can’t be defeated, and then nobody will ever hurt us again.”

But Christina’s young mind suddenly returned to the big daddy that her new bodyguard had slain. She didn’t think of it before, but Big Daddy’s never fought against each other. So why had that big daddy attacked? She huffed and ignored the thought, filling it with the hope of being safe from the bad people and the leader within Rapture.

The End.