Bioshock: The Story of Henry Walker

Chapter 14: The Workshop

Henry rubbed the sleep from his eyes and slowly slipped out of bed. His feet hit the cold wooden floor as he stood and stretched. He let out a satisfying groan and walked over to the massive window and looked out to Rapture. The underwater buildings stood tall and erect, most of the neon lights that Henry had seen last night had been turned off. He watched bathyspheres zip around the city at impressive speeds. The water had taken on a lighter aqua colour. He looked away from the window, towards his nightstand, a bronze clock was sitting on the top of it, slowly ticking away the time. Henry walked over to the clock. "Nine o'clock eh? Guess I should get prepared for the day." he said quietly. Looking around the room, Henry spotted a large oak armoire with two dressers on both sides of it, up against the wall on the far right side of the room. Henry opened the armoire and found, like in his cabin on the Odyssey, a plethora of different shirts, sweaters, jackets, pants and even hats. He shook his head smiling and opened the dressers to find a multitude of different shoes, socks, ties and even cufflinks! "This place never ceases to amaze me." Henry chuckled. He put a hand to his cheek and felt the scratch of stubble. He walked into the massive bathroom at the end of the hallway. He opened the mirrored cabinet above the two sinks and found an assortment of toiletries at his disposal. He shook his head in disbelief. "This is definitely the elite, I'm living the life now!" he laughed. Henry washed up and headed back to his room. He decided to wear something casual today. Tan pants with black suspenders and a black and white flannel shirt. Henry bent down to tie up his shoes when he saw something out of the corner of his eye. Henry turned to see a massive painting hanging on the wall opposite to his bed. Curious, he walked over to the painting, it was a masterpiece, a lighthouse made of numerous cogs and gears all golden and shining and beneath the picture were the words, engraved in silver, Creation is the greatest gift of man. A small red button was positioned on the left side of the painting. Henry raised a hand and pressed his index finger against the small button. He heard a series of clicks and clanks as the gears on the lighthouse began to move. The entire painting lifted up and lights flickered on to reveal a room inside. Amazed, Henry stepped into the room and couldn't believe what he saw. Various tools hung from the walls, all organized and neatly placed. Shelves crammed with all kinds of materials and books stood up against the back of the room. In the middle of the room was a massive table, a bright lamp hung above the table, illuminating its intricate features. Henry walked over the table and found a lone book with a golden H.W. on the front of it which stood for his initials. He opened the book and flipped through it several times. Henry couldn't believe it. Every invention and schematic he had ever created was written down in the brown pages of the book, hundreds of other pages were left blank. Henry was baffled. "How the hell did they get my schematics?" he thought. He definitely had some questions for Ryan today. He realized what this room was. An inventive room, built solely for the purpose of creating and inventing. A room built specially for him. His own workshop. Henry chuckled and couldn't believe his luck. Everything was changing. The sound of knocking on the door echoed from downstairs. Henry walked out of the hidden room, pressed the button that brought the movable wall back down to conceal it, and headed down the stairs.