Little One (Bioshock)

chapter eleven.

NOVEMBER 21, 1968

She was Lamb's eye. Scouring the city streets for dirty, pathetic Splicer junkies who whined and complained in their disillusioned mind about how hungry they were. It was their own fault they had become this way, and no one in their sane mind felt sorry for them. Everyone knew that a Splicer had did it to themselves. They chose to inject the ADAM, they chose to continue down that path. They would get no pity from any of the clean ocean dwellers of the city, and they certainly wouldn't get any pity from Claire Locke. As they moaned and groaned for another fix, for just one more sweet, little bite of ADAM to satisfy their needs, Claire would come and stomp out their dreams. She had no problem doing so, it was her pleasure in fact. It was some deep hatred inside of her that wanted to break everything around her when she saw some weak, pathetic Rapture junkie begging for the fix that would only harm him. Maybe it was what they had done to the Family, or what something buried within her from her old mind, but nevertheless Claire was the Big Sister that everyone feared. Although Big Sister was said to be only one person, everyone knew who Claire was.

It was on that awful November day that Claire was doing her job. It was cold, colder than anything Rapture had ever felt before, and the waters that surrounded them never gave them any warmth. Even within her suit Claire's teeth still chattered together. The city was quiet, mostly because of this reason. No one wanted to be out in the windless cold. They stayed in their caves and kept warm, but that wasn't to be said for Claire. She, regardless, still had a job to do. So even if the streets were quiet, fear still needed to be pounded into the people's hearts.

The writing on the walls seemed to scream at Claire as she walked down the halls, pressing her fingers across them as she did so. She couldn't remember what the words said but she knew they were about her. About Lamb and the girls. She could feel how much the Splicers worshiped these words, and how dependent they were on Lamb. In a sight, Claire found it unfair. How could Sofia Lamb handle running the city, all on her own? It never sat well with Claire that Sofia did almost everything herself, but she figured in the end it would all be worth the troubles. Sofia's daughter, Eleanor, would be their true utopia soon enough. Their pain would be erased with Eleanor's rising.

Claire dropped down into a hole, with one leg lazily falling forward, into a building she didn't come to often. The Fishbowl Diner, a place the Family Members came to to relax and eat, chat. However, there was no one there on that day. Claire had fallen down from a hole in the ceiling into the diner, her heavy metal boots cracked the old tiles on the floor beneath her. Upon looking around, the girl saw that the doors to the diner were nailed shut with boards. This was odd. She scanned her brain for any memory of the diner closing, but nothing came to mind. Was the diner always closed, boarded up and shut out from people? She wasn't entirely sure now. Looking at the ripped red chairs, Claire made her way behind the counter and into the kitchen. Pots and pans, dishes scattered the room around her, and it made it even more confusing to the girl if the place was closed this whole time. If fair, Claire did have a period in her memory where she was lost and dazed, with only the ADAM to comfort her.

The sight made her sad. In a far off way. She didn't know how to describe it, nor why the feeling came over her, but soon she turned heel and left the place, right back up the hole from where she came.

That's what she did most days. Explore Rapture to her heart's content. She loved doing this, no matter the situation. Whether it was killing or searching, she still found time to look at the lights. It was something that amazed her, calmed her, and gave her hope in this underwater hell. A hell she didn't entirely notice all that much but she knew something was better than these rusted watery streets.

That was until Grace Holloways' voice roared over the overhead like fire, coals spitting from her mouth. Claire's head was too foggy to make out the words, the screeches and echoes attacking blocking out anything that tried to get in. The Big Sister leaned against a wall, weakly lifting her head and strained herself to try and make out what the woman was saying.