Bioshock Infinite: The Parasite Plane

The Parasite Plane

Booker's feet slammed hard against the pavement as he ran, Elizabeth right behind him. The streets around them were a scene of devastation, as if they had been turned upside down and kicked about by a furious giant. Everywhere windows were smashed, buildings lay in ruins and all manner of rubble littered the roads. The air cracked with gunfire all around, as Columbia's security forces battled the Vox Populi rebels. In the sky above, an airship spiralled down in a mass of flames, it's klaxon waling.

"We're almost there," Booker said as he stopped next to an overturned fruit cart to catch his breath.
"Are you sure we can trust Daisy?" Elizabeth said, stopping beside him.
"Not like we have much of a choice," he replied, "And without her you'd still be trapped in Comstock house."
He took a tattered piece of paper from his pocket and studied it for a moment.
"According to Fitzroy the hanger should just be round the corner," he said, stuffing the paper back into his waistcoat.

The two quietly moved on, sticking to the edge of the street, listening carefully in case anyone lay in ambush up ahead.
"Booker, over here!" a voice shouted out.
After almost jumping out of their skin, Booker and Elizabeth spotted a familiar figure waving to them from the doorway of a large wooden warehouse across the street.
"Daisy!" Booker cried out happily, "I was starting to worry."
"Come on you two," she shouted back, "Comstock's boot boys will be here any minute!"
Knowing she was right, Booker and Elizabeth ran as fast as they could across the road and through the door which Daisy slammed shut behind them.

The warehouse was a long and fairly wide building, lit by a large skylight that ran the length of the roof. Along the centre of the floor was a single steel rail, upon which a flimsy looking biplane sat.
"So this heap of canvas and balsa wood is gonna get us off Columbia," Booker said dryly.
"Don't let looks deceive you DeWitt," Daisy replied, putting a latch across the door, "She's faster than any of Comstock's zeppelins and far more manoeuvrable."
"Well, we'll soon see how true that is. Come on, let's get the hanger doors open."
"Elizabeth," Daisy said, "Keep an eye on the street while me and DeWitt get the doors."

Elizabeth nodded and positioned herself by the front window. With explosions echoing around them, the other two ran to the massive doors at the far end of the hanger and took hold of the handles, pulling with all their strength.
Slowly the doors creaked open, revealing a sky alive with rage. Airships and hovercraft chased one another, their crews firing bullets and rockets in every direction. One craft rammed into another, raining flames and twisted metal on the buildings below.

"Booker! Daisy!" Elizabeth suddenly shouted, "I can see people coming down the street, I think they're Comstock's men!"
"Damnit!" Daisy hissed, running back down the warehouse and peering through the dusty window, "Booker, Elizabeth, get in the plane, I'll hold them off."
"Daisy no!" Booker replied, "We can escape together."
Though he had not trusted Daisy or the Vox Populi at first, after everything they had done for him, leaving her hear to face Comstock's men alone felt like a betrayal.
"I made my choice long ago DeWitt," she shot back, "My place is here. Now get off this floating hell!"
Reluctantly, Booker ran to the plane. Elizabeth was already standing beside the cockpit but made no attempt to get in.

"We can't just leave you!" she said as Daisy pushed a heavy crate against the door.
"The Vox lost a lot of good people getting you out of Comstock house, don't let them have died in vain," Daisy snapped back.
Elizabeth fought with herself for a moment, then sadly climbed up into the passenger seat of the biplane. Doing his best to ignore the growing feeling of guilt, Booker went to the front of the plane and placed his hand on the propeller.
"Okay," he breathed, understandably nervous about what was going to happen, "One, two, three!"

With one almighty shove, he threw the propeller around and the engine spluttered into life, filling the hanger with a furious roar that shook the wooden walls. At that same moment, a hail of bullets crashed through the warehouse, smashing glass and splintering wood.
"GO! GO NOW!" Daisy shouted, drawing her pistol and firing wildly through the shattered window.
Dodging around the screaming propeller, Booker quickly hoisted himself into the cockpit. Spotting the release lever on the floor next to his foot, he pulled it up, causing the biplane to shoot forward and out through the open doors.

At first, they fell.
"BOOKER! PULL UP! PULL UP!" Elizabeth screamed over the roar of the engine.
Booker wrestled with the control stick and was able to pull out of the dive just as the undercarriage skimmed a rooftop. There was no time to celebrate however as he desperately battled to keep them from being knocked out of the air. No matter where he turned, it seemed there was a building or airship in their path, forcing him to change direction. A rocket exploded right under the plane, causing it to swing violently.

Then he saw what they needed. A path to clear sky through the wrecked buildings. Booker gunned the engine as hard as he could, forcing the plane on ever faster.
Suddenly there was a terrible screech that seemed to drown out all other sounds.
"It's him!" Elizabeth shouted, pointing to the sky.
Cold fear flooded Booker as a vast bat-like shape swept across his path.
Songbird.

"Elizabeth, you've gotta open a tear! NOW!" he shouted. The plane might be fast, but there was no way it could outfly that dreadful creature.
"I'll try!" Elizabeth shouted back, standing gingerly up in her seat, "Just hold the plane level for a minute!"
Booker levelled out the aircraft. Ahead of them was open sky. They were so close, too close to fail now, that would just be insulting.

The air crackled with electricity, then split apart in a thunderous roar as a tear opened in front of the plane, showing a grainy view of New York's distant skyline.
"Just a few seconds!" Booker yelled, hands white on the control stick.
But as the words left his mouth, a great shadow fell across the cockpit. He had just long enough to see an enormous black shape plunging towards him before Songbird collided with the biplane, turning his world into a storm of fragmented wood and metal.

Elizabeth screamed in terror as she hurtled through the air, the wind roaring in her ears. Then with a sudden jerk, she felt herself soaring upwards. Focusing her eyes, she saw to her horror that Songbird's huge claw was clenched around her waist. Frantically she twisted her body, trying to free herself, but it was no good.
"BOOKER" she cried out, "BOOKER!"
But all she could see of the plane was a dissipating cloud of smoke. Booker, like the plane, had been smashed from the air, and was now falling to his death far below.
With silent tears rolling down her face, she let her body go limp as Songbird turned and began to fly back to Comstock House.