“Nyet—he understands better than you think,” Karlosky said. “A lot of these others out here, he watched them die. But… he can’t be here for this. He told me. He couldn’t stand to watch you die, Bill. Not good friend like you…”
Bill smiled. He never heard the gunshot that killed him.
A warm day in July…
“I’m too scared to go out there, Mama,” Sophie said, for the tenth time in ten minutes.
Elaine sighed. “I know. But you have to.”
“You have something we call agoraphobia, Sophie,” the doctor said gently. He was an expensive Park Avenue psychiatrist. A kindly middle-aged man in a sweater and bowtie. He had a trim beard, a large nose, a sad smile, inquisitive eyes. But it happened he wasn’t charging Elaine much. He seemed interested in Sophie’s case. Perhaps even interested in Elaine herself, in another way.
“You have to do this, sweetheart,” Elaine said.
“Well, no,” said the doctor. “She doesn’t
“The sky scares me,” Sophie insisted.
“I know it does.” The doctor smiled.
“In Rapture we don’t have sky,” she said. Then she told him some more about Rapture.
He listened patiently, then sent her out to wait with his receptionist, so he could talk to Elaine privately. “She has a remarkable imagination,” he said, chuckling. “‘Rapture’!”
Elaine didn’t try to explain. She couldn’t tell people about Rapture; they would never believe her. And if they did—it could lead to Ryan finding her.
So she just nodded. “Yes, Doctor…”
“She’s been through something traumatic—perhaps in war?” he said. “Somewhere overseas?”
Elaine nodded. “Yes. In war.” That was true, anyhow.
“I thought so. Well, she will heal. But we must start by dealing with her fears. I think, despite appearances, she will go outside today, for a walk in the park…”
To her surprise, the doctor offered to go with them. After a while, Sophie reluctantly agreed to try the park. They went down the elevator and walked slowly across the marble-floored lobby. Sophie became more frightened as they got closer to the street. Ever since they’d left the fishing boat that had picked them up off Iceland, she’d darted under cover as quickly as she could, hiding her eyes from the sky.
Then the doctor turned to Sophie and said, in a kindly voice, “May I carry you?”
Sophie looked up at him gravely. “Yes.”
He nodded, equally grave, and knelt by her. She put her arms around his neck, and he lifted her up, carried her piggyback out the door, Elaine walking at his side. Elaine couldn’t help making a grotesque comparison to the way Big Daddies sometimes carried Little Sisters. But she thrust it out of her mind.
“Oh!” Sophie said as they stepped out into the hot sun. But she only clung harder.
They walked over to Central Park. Sophie cried on the way, but didn’t ask to hide from the sky.
They got to the park and found an open green field, with butter-colored flowers. On the edge of the field birds sang in the trees. The doctor let Sophie down, and she walked slowly out into the sunlight.
“Mama,” she said, shading her eyes to look up at the blue sky. “It’s nice out here. It just goes on and on. You know what?”
“What?”
“I think Daddy would have liked seeing this.”
“Yes, Sophie,” Elaine said, just managing not to cry. “Yes, love. Yes, he would have.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
John Shirley won the Bram Stoker Award for his story collection Black Butterflies, and is the author of numerous novels, including the best-seller DEMONS, the cyberpunk classics CITY COME A-WALKIN’, ECLIPSE, and BLACK GLASS, and his latest, new from Simon & Schuster, the urban fantasy novel BLEAK HISTORY. He is a screenwriter, having written for television and movies; he was co-screenwriter of THE CROW. He will be in Prime Books’ THE YEAR’S BEST DARK FANTASY AND HORROR anthology, this year, and his story collection IN EXTREMIS: THE MOST EXTREME SHORT STORIES OF JOHN SHIRLEY from Underland Press has been getting rave advance reviews. His novel BIOSHOCK: RAPTURE, telling the story of the creation and undoing of Rapture, from the hit videogame BIOSHOCK is about to come out from TOR books.
He is also a lyricist, having written lyrics for 18 songs recorded by the Blue Oyster Cult (especially on their albums
John Shirley has written only one nonfiction book, GURDJIEFF: AN INTRODUCTION TO HIS LIFE AND IDEAS, published by Penguin/Jeremy Tarcher.
Other John Shirley story collections include BLACK BUTTERFLIES, IN EXTREMIS, LIVING SHADOWS and REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY WEIRD STORIES.
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
BIOSHOCK: RAPTURE
Copyright © 2011 by Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.
BioShock and the BioShock logo are trademarks of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.
All rights reserved.
A Tor® eBook
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
Tor® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
ISBN 978-0-7653-2484-9 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-0-7653-2485-6 (trade paperback)
First Edition: July 2011
eISBN 978-1-4299-4931-6
