Steve was clutching his broken and bleeding arm, dragging himself to a heal station. He tried to recall how he got this way. Just two hours ago he was enjoying new years eve, and then. It all happend so fast, one moment he was sipping champagne, the next his friends were laying dead around him.

They came without warning, at midnight exactly, screaming "long live Atlas" and "dead to Ryan". they came brandishing guns and plasmids, but most were armed with makeshift weapons like pipes and wrenches. They killed a bunch of people before anyone even knew what hit them.

Fortunatly there were quite a few splicers at the party, men and woman armed by Andrew Ryan with the best Plasmids and Tonics, exactly for when this kind of insurgency would happen. shooting fire and ice they confronted the rioters.

Steve never was much of splicer, other then a few tonics to improve his physiqe he tried to stay away from that stuff "to expensive a hobby" he called it. At that moment he whished that he had spliced more so that he to could have fought against the parasites. But he could do nothing but flee in terror in the confussion whilst both sides, the splicers under Ryan and the rioters under Atlas, waged war on each other.

whilst fleeing a plasmid struck his arm, setting it ablaze until he could find a toilet to put it out in.
His arm was numb as he had sixth degree burns, his arm now was nothing but charred bone, all the senses were eaten away by the fire "good" he thought "at least now I dont feel the pain anymore".

He reached the heal station, he looked in wonder at how the medicine being injected into him now was regenerating his flesh before his eyes. He let out a pained growl, after all bringing bringing back lost tissue still hurt like hell.

"someone should do something about the pain of this procedure" he thought to himself "after these riots are quelched that is". He laughed at his own thoughts, five years ago such a wound would have been fatal, and now he was being pissed about the fact that it couldnt be done without pain.

He looked around him, before he was focused only about finding a heal station, but now he started to observe the enviroment.

"those rioters realy did a number on this place" he thought. He saw broken pillars, walls having been eaten away by gunfire, several piles of junk were burning.

He was becoming more anxious, healing his arm had been his only task, but now he realised he still had to get to safety. He didnt know what the hell was going on right now, which side was winning, where they were fighting, how large a group the rioters were, and where the hell the rioters were right now, so he could stay as far away as possible.

"I need some protection" he thought. "I should look for a gathers garden, get myself some plasmids."

He heard footsteps behind him, for a moment he was filled with relief as he thought it was on of them big daddys, Surely Ryan would have sent them out to strike down the rioters. But then he realised the footsteps were lighter, and that there were more then on person making them.

He searched for a place to hide, as the footsteps, which were clearly belonging to a rather large group of people, became closer. He fled into a bathroom stall on the other side of the room.

he heard voices now."so how much did you make?" asked one "I got about threehunderd. I found one guy who carried about twohunderd bucks on him" said another voice "I aint in it for the money" another voice said laughingly "I just want to see the faces of those bastards, whilst im bashing their heads in". At this comment the troop of men laughed loudly "To Atlas" one of them cheered, "To Atlas" the others cheered in unison.

"So where should we be going next" one asked "Atlas will tell us when its time for us to know" one replied, the tone in his voice indicating that he was the leader.

Steve stood frozen in the stall, scared beyond his wits. "come on" a bloodthirsty one said "lets go find us some rich guy and string him" "We wont make a move until Atlas tells us to, got it" the leader said "who made you in charge?" the bloodthirsty one asked "Atlas did, so shut your goddamn mouth" the leader answered "yeah well, even Atlas can make mistakes, now can he" The bloodthirsty one replied.

Steve heard a gunshot. then the leader spoke "No man doubts Atlas, understand. Now keep on moving, we need to reach Arcadia by morning, there Atlas will tell us what to do" Steve heard the steps continueing much more silently though.

Steve waited for five minutes after the footsteps vanished untill he came out of hiding. carefully he walked back into the room watching intently if someone was still there.

Convinced that there was no one left he dropped his guard. He know looked at the corps of a rioter, a bullet portruding the front of his head. Obviously the one who disagreed with the leader. He saw a gun lying next to him, he wonderd why the rioters didnt take the gun, but he picked it up anyway. At least now he had some kind of protection.

"Arcadia" he thought "If the rioters take control of Arcadia, they would control the oxygen in Rapture. They would control the city, they would be able to just bunker up in arcadia and shut down all oxygen supply to the rest of the city" he needed to tell someone, he needed to safe the city.

"If I can get to safety Ill tell someone" he told himself but then he thought "Ryan knows the importance of Arcadia, he wont allow it to go to the rioters" he calmed at the thought. But then he became aware of his surroundings again, and that he wasnt exactly in the safest place in the world right now.

He heard footsteps again, this time they were solitary. He grasped the gun he held tightly and was preparing himself to shoot as soon as someone came in his sight. He never Held a gun though, the weight of it surprised him, but he held steady ready to shoot.

As soon as he saw a figure before him he shot, he hit it in the leg and shot again this time in the stomach he shot again this time hitting it in the right longue.

He stood there shocked, he never killed a person before.

Now he finaly took a good look at the person he shot. He saw the blood dripping out of the lifeless body.
He saw it was a woman, her long beautifull blond hair being tainted by her own blood pouring over it.
Then he saw she was wearing a mask, a mask from the masked new years eve party. The shocking realisation hit him that she was not one of the rioters.

He removed the mask, he didnt even understand why he did that, it was as if his body was moving on its own will. He recognized the face, it was Maris Lampert, one of Raptures most famous and most beautifull movie stars.

He was a long time fan of her. He knew her story well. She was a real circus freak once, ugly beyond comparison. Then Steinman took care of her, his finest work to date. She became the poster child of what one could become in Rapture, to go from dispicable to drop dead gorgeous, a showcasing of what one could become in Rapture. She couldnt act but that was of no real concern, she was good looking after all.

But the face he saw now was distorted, the marks of recent plastic surgery were clearly visible. Something was wrong with her face, as if someone diliberatly went and messed it up. He didnt understand, she always went to Steinman for surgery, that was public knowledge, and steinman was Raptures foremost plastic surgeon.
"Surely Steinman couldnt have done such a botched job."

He found audio diary on her. He turned on the recording and he recognized it was her voice.

"I dont understand it. Steinman told me he knew how to make me pretier then ever before, now look at me.
My agent tells me we can get it fixed, we should just avoid steinman from now on. My agent says that whats important right now is to go out and go to the new year party. A way to be seen and still hide my face. I just dont understand why Steinman did this to me. My career is over. Not all the adam in the world will make me pretty now, Why did he do this?"

Steve didnt understand either, why would Steinman do this? Did he lose his mind?

Then he rememberd that, that wasnt what was important right now, he was the one who shot her after all.
and he still had to survive.

He suddenly was overcome with guilt. "Why did I do this, why couldnt I first look" he thought "now an innocent person is dead, because of me" he felt tears sting his eyes, he started sobbing.
"why didnt I wait to see who it was" he cried out aloud.

Then he thought "toughen up man. You made an acciddent, a womans life was lost, but that doesnt mean yours should to"
He started walking, "ive got to get out of here" he thought "The core is probaply still save that is the most heavily guarded piece of the city, if I get there, Ill tell them that the rioters are going to Arcadia.
They may already now, but ive got to be certain"

He wiped the tears from his face and started walking.