The Fate of Elizabeth (Bioshock Infinite)

Chapter 15: Hurricane of Flames

The group led by Mathias and Elizabeth is now at a point of no return aboard the personal zeppelin of Zachary Comstock, the Hand of the Prophet, proud first airship of Columbia. Seeing that Elizabeth is not armed, except with a Skyhook, Mathias makes sure she stays behind him, to protect her, even if she knows how to defend herself, he would not want her to be hit by a bullet. Scarcely have they passed the next door to enter the zeppelin, a burst of fire comes to welcome them, making a terrible din and sparks everywhere. "Hide!" Screamed Cornelius, throwing himself on the side, sheltered behind a wall, and Mathias did the same, taking Elizabeth by the hand. Two rebels are however killed by gusts, their bodies riddled with bullets and glowing with blood, collapse to the ground. Towards the end of the corridor, a troop of Comstock soldiers, also behind barricades, continue to fire in gusts, and behind them is a kind of automaton, having the form of President George Washington, with a inexpressive, cracked and terrifying face, and seeking new targets to eliminate with his weapon, a cranked cannon. American flags are fixed in his back with iron bars. Bullets are fired everywhere and the deafening noise of shots and impacts prevents communication. Mathias shoots several times on the enemies, and touches one of them on the arm.

Cornelius aims more attentively and with his rifle, shoots one of the soldiers with a mortal precision. Elizabeth suspected that it would not be so simple, this ambush proves it. Zachary was waiting for them, with firm footing, and he will do everything to eliminate Mathias and take her back under his control. The situation gets worse when two other rebels, wanting to try their luck to shoot, are violently killed by a new burst of the automaton machine gun, who seems perfectly invulnerable. The robot begins to speak with his mechanical voice, uttering words like a man of faith speaking to the faithful, while continue fire with the cannon.

(Motorized Patriot): "I am the hammer of judgment that falls upon the enemies of the Lord. Repent or suffer the divine wrath."

(Mathias): "What the hell is this infernal machine?!"

(Elizabeth): "A motorized patriot! The Iron soldiers of the prophet!"

A terrifying machine without soul preaching the good word while killing? Mathias did not think Zachary's twisted mind would have allowed him to create such things. Cornelius, seeing his soldiers killed one after another like flies, clenched his teeth, determined to fight to the death if necessary. He took his machine-gun and, with a decided step, came out of his hiding-place and pulled a powerful gust across the corridor. The remaining soldiers are hit on all sides by the projectiles, blood beads squirting from their wounds, but unfortunately without effect on the Motorized Patriot. Under the eyes of the couple, Cornelius is brutally touched in the chest, and in a groan of pain, collapses against a wall, leaving his weapon.

(Mathias): "Cornelius!"

With his inflamed hand, Mathias throws a ball of fire in the direction of the machine, which is covered with flames, but in spite of that, continues to move and is about to shoot. The spell was not powerful enough. "Shit" Mathias thought. Elizabeth decides not to remain without act, holds out her hands, and makes a pile of wooden boxes appear by a vortex above the patriot, which, like a rain, fall upon the machine and crushes it, Reducing it to crumbs. A box breaks his head in two, revealing the inside of his robotic skull and his wax eyes bulging, and dozens of iron plates and mechanical wheels fall to the ground in a big loud. "Redemption .... Is the gift ..... Of the lord...." Are the last words of the automaton before being definitively deactivated, crushed under the stack of boxes. The shoots stop and the silence comes back. The gunfire is silenced and the fighting is over, and when the smoke disappears a little, Mathias and Elizabeth stand in the corridor, realizing that they are the only survivors of the ambush, the rebels lying in their blood, but being dead for a cause to which they all believed. The couple kneels beside Cornelius, who is sit against the wall, breathing more and more feebly, the blood continuing to pear out of his wounds, his body was pierced by dozens of projectiles. His face twisted with pain, but resistant as best he could, he looks at the two young people, and smiles at them one last time, his teeth red with blood.