by Max Barry

Latest Forum Topics

Advertisement

13

DispatchFactbookMilitary

by The rapture republic. . 205 reads.

The Hard-Boiled Watchman: Elijah Rhodes Brown


Elijah Rhodes Brown


-

Here I am strapped in an electric chair awaiting my execution. With the thought of death and the abyss that'll follow hanging above me. I was a Watchman agent but one would wonder how a loyal official of the state could end up here in this cold metallic chair. Well, hurdle around as old Elijah is going to tell all of you a little story. How all of this came to be...

Act I

Before I became a Watchman agent, life was very simple back then. I was a little black boy growing up in Harlem, New York City. A neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, you see. The neighborhood I grew up in was tough where crime and unemployment were high because I grew up living through the Great Depression in the 30s. I was there to see the Old World for what it is and only fools with rose-tinted glasses would want to bring it back. A fool man's game to bring back the Old World.

But I digress, I grew up with my parents: mom worked at home as a housewife while father worked at an upstart automobiles company called "Steyn Motors" as a factory worker. We get by with my father's line of work at Steyn Motors and he taught me all the ropes there is to life. He was there at every point of my life, never running away when things get tough during the Depression. We were a middle-lower class family living in the streets of Harlem in one of those apartment blocks. All of the immigrant families stayed in our lane as New York continued to gentrify itself.

I am a black kid in 1930s America and life was tough for minorities, black people included. White folks have always stepped on the black man's neck for centuries and expect us to get on our two feet after decades of slavery and segregation notwithstanding. At school and in the neighborhood, I was picked on by the white kids for my skin color. Called me a "monkey", "coon", and a "n****r" at school playgrounds. Turns out, if people view you as subhuman and treat you as one then you'll grow up with a low of self-esteem and trust issues. You internalize that racism when society mandates that your kind are lesser and maybe have doubts that you are human after all. A person without emotions and I came to repress it as a stoic.

Perhaps the white kids weren't the only ones bothering me, the other black kids are picking on me as I was easy picking. I developed a hard shell around me and rarely ever show my sentimental soft side. Every day and night, I trained as a boxer when I was 13 to grasp something known as "power" and "strength". It's the only language that I knew of. Mastering the skills of the self in the martial arts in a Japanese dojo that knew of no race. In life I have learned to depend on myself and that the only person that matters in this world is myself. Black and white, I have many enemies on this world.

When my turn on getting picked around at the playground came around, I was able to defend myself and turn the tables around at the bully. I grabbed the white boy's collar and as I was about to whoop his lily-*ss, my father intervened and stopped the both of us from me giving him some righteous *ss-whooping. Father grew up in a family of pastors and always told me the importance of forgiveness and "turning the other cheek around". He cried as he grasped me in his arms. Probably distraught that the little boy used his time punching bags in the dojo rather than going to church. Jesus didn't taught us to fight after all.

Father told me "Even though we are constantly picked on for our race, you should rise above and become a better man yourself" as a mantra for me to follow. But I don't think I can. It's easy to say that to reassure yourself but the persecution... it just keeps going on. Father knew that beating him up would only reinforce the negative stereotype that our people have. I simply stayed silent and nodded so the old man would stop crying. Looking back, maybe we ought to show a little kindness to each other after all and the root of all conflict comes from not understanding one another.


Act II

However, it wasn't all doom and gloom back then. I lived a normal teenage life in my lane in Harlem. Went to High School and made some friends in the football team when I joined them in 1946. I was 16 at the time and that's when I made sweet love with a black girl. I was the brooding type but that girl whom I forgot the name of tried to pierce through my cold exterior in the dates that we have together. I don't know what she saw in me but I didn't want her to come closer to me as I wasn't able to grapple with my emotions just yet. Or she'll become disappointed when she gets around to finding an empty man beneath it all. We frequently went on dates with each other. Always going to that same café and carnival in Harlem. But her parents found a job in Frisco and we bid our goodbyes to our rather short if eventful relationship. We both waved our goodbyes at each other and looking back, she really did try to teach how to be human.

However, my most memorable teenage experience was that one fateful day when I was playing basketball in the court yards together with my brothers. We were dribbling and making shoots until suddenly a 10-year old white boy came to gawk at us boys playing this weird game of ball. I was never good with basketball but I was trying and the boys noticed the boy gawking at us playing basketball. When the boy came and asked if he could play, my brothers were adamantly against it. But I was the only one who accepted his request. I probably figured that he would be the worst basketball player to make me feel a bit better. We allowed him to test out his moves at the court and to our surprise, the boy is good at it. Always landing his shots and had good posture. We allowed him to play with us to test his mettle. He was on the other side of the team and he became the star MVP of it all.

Carrying his team and evading my maneuvers and we weren't holding back. They won at the end and it's all thanks to that boy who came to spice things up. After the match ended, I befriended the young boy if only to learn his techniques. Turns out you can learn a lot from the most unexpected of people and day and night, I trained with the 10-year old in basket to better ourselves. Taught him a thing or two about karate as well. A genuine friendship blossomed on those weeks and black or white, it doesn't matter. However all goods things have to come to an end. The boy's parents didn't want him to mingle around people like us so they stopped him from meeting us in that courtyard. The meeting ceased but looking back, I knew that boy looked familiar later on in Rapture. Never got to ask for his name but it was the experience that matters.

I enrolled into a black college in 1950 in Tuskegee University, Alabama when universities weren't open to people like us. I was studying English linguistics and literature. It felt... reassuring to be with my black brothers where I could express my self comfortably with little discrimination. Yet my college life was the same as anybody else filled with ups and downs. I earned that English degree in 1954 with my hard work and sweat yet I spared little time for socializing. I moved to Alabama around 1949 when I was presented with an opportunity to enrolled in the college there and life was hard in the south. Didn't made many friends outside of college, didn't intend to. An atmosphere of fear was in the air as the Ku Klux Klan set up shop in Montgomery and were the strongest in the south.

I got a lot of weird looks by onlookers when I walk across the street. Probably thought I'm a criminal or I was out for their wives. There were 'bouts of the word "n****r" thrown at me but most treated me with patronization. Looking down on me and calling me "boy" and such. I tried to pay little attention to them but sometimes that feeling of discrimination stings and not every person could process it the same. However, everything changed in 1956 when a black man was wrongly accused of sexually assaulting a white woman and paid the price when the woman's friends beat him up, set him on fire, and dragged him across town in a lynching without even asking "why" or "who". He's a black man and to them, it's all they needed.

The sight of the lynching of that poor man was an eye-awakening moment for me. Not only because it's white folks killing a black man and desecrating his corpse but because it showed the true depth of human depravity tucked away behind all of their Southern hospitality and smile in a society where order is at a flux. This is what tribalism and misguided superiority does to a motherf*cker. His lynching pointed me towards a career in law enforcement because I felt that I could have done something to stop it but I was too weak and I'm not facing bullies anymore, I'm facing a mob. The police are hardly a friend of the black community but I just hoped that I could leave change through it.

But father had a different idea and we moved from Montgomery, Alabama after the poor man's lynching because it has become no place for people like us. My father worked in Steyn Motors and is a good friend of the boss there known as Howard Steyn. Supposed to be a big shot in America's corporations and to later learn that he will built Rapture in the future was surprising. Father thought that the pay is good and he believed that I should continue his legacy in Steyn Motors as a factory worker. I didn't felt like wasting my time in a factory churning out cars. However there weren't opportunities for me and father so I decided to follow in his footsteps if begrudgingly.

I began working in Steyn Motors in 1957 using my father's connection. I felt like I was a token member of their company as I was one of the few minorities working in their steel mill. Repetition and machinery is where I'm becoming good at and I worked harder to make the naïve if well-meaning old man proud. My pay and condition were equal to any white worker here but I felt like I didn't get enough respect around here as they patronized me as "boy" and looked down upon me as a "lazy bum". Yet I worked twice as harder to prove that notion wrong and my drive to improve myself caught the attention of the big man himself - Howard Steyn.

I didn't trust Mr. Steyn initially but the moment I talked to him was one of the few moments I talked to an actual human. He didn't look down upon me as someone who is one of the wealthiest industrialists in the US, he treated me like a human being. Mr. Steyn came from a poor background and he never forgotten his roots to which I respect him immensely. I am usually a person who has never let his hard shell crack or show sentimentality but Mr. Steyn is a friendly face to be around with and I now understood why my father liked him. Our friendship flourished to the point that he had me managing an entire factory in NYC producing electronics like TVs, radios, and such. My black brothers didn't had it as good as me and often companies refused their employment based on the color of their skin.

It was a damn good honor to serve Mr. Steyn and his company for several years. I was probably one of the first person of color to be in a position of power - managing a Steyn Co. factory no less and it just made me all the more ambitious. Rising through the ladder of power gave people a power rush to do more and more in the service of thy self and I was about to learn it. Life and fortune was beginning to look upon me favorably and I became too... complacent with my position and material possessions. It was 1962 when everything changed. I didn't know who launched first, America or the Soviets and Cubans but in the end, neither of them won. My life turned upside down when the bombs hit.


Act III

Now, I was one of the few lucky ones to be chosen by Mr. Steyn himself owing to me being the son of the star "black employee" as well as a friend of him. Dad and mom didn't join because they wanted to stay in their roots in Harlem and they were growing old. I accepted their request to die together in that atomic blast on NYC. Father was an American patriot and wanted to die in America. I never understood why he maintained his loyalty to a nation that didn't accept people like us but he is stubborn old man who can't let go. The Old World is gone and I shed no tear for it. Yet in some place in my heart, I wish I was with him instead rather than being involved in all of this bullsh*t.

Being chosen to inherit humanity in Rapture was a huge undertaking even for myself who I'm just a humble employee of Steyn Motors. The lives of millions of men, children, and women who perished in the nuclear bombs became a weight to my consciousness. Rapture, this underwater city dome, was too small for them and they died because they weren't worthy enough to represent humanity. I nearly developed a survivor's guilt with all of those lives in my mind but I tried to press onward like the resourceful, ambitious man myself. I am serving myself only and my needs come first. I know how to make myself useful as a black man in Rapture City. Though living underwater can be quite disorienting, the beauty of it all was simply enchanting. An art deco city of the future...

I didn't pursue Mr. Steyn to join his company again. I don't know why but it's either me being too pride for my own good or it reminded me too much of my father but I explored other avenues to attain more power for myself. I rekindled my ambition of joining a law enforcement agency to keep the peace in Rapture. The Mayor, Mr. Steyn himself, as well as the City Council established the so-called "City Monitors" to police the underwater city and scout for malcontents amongst us. He might have assembled the world's brightest minds but they didn't necessarily agree with him. I was one of the first to join the City Monitors when it had just been formed and had the badge to prove it.

My training in the City Monitors was a breeze walk in the park. They had you doing physical wellness test by running around the field, doing sit-ups, as well as doing some gun range shooting to improve the cadet's marksmanship. The thought of a black man joining a police force was out of my imagination but Mayor Steyn was building an egalitarian utopia where merit matters most. For a moment, I believed in his vision of building a haven for humanity. But I didn't embrace that humanity itself, not after what I've seen, and power as well as ambition were the only thing that filled my hollow shell. They say to judge one's character instead of color but I didn't have much character. Just a man trying to live by in this big underwater city.

Yet it was refreshing to see my colleagues treating me as equals in the City Monitors but I should have known that the comradery and pay was too good for me to prepare for my next assignment. When I was a rookie fresh from training in the CM, I patrolled the streets of Rapture in my cruiser along with a partner of mine called James; younger than me. James is a good guy if naïve and he wasn't suited for the moral complexities that comes with this line of work. The citizens of Rapture gawked at the sight of a black man in uniform. Cold glances were made but I didn't let them bother me. James was always at by my side on patrols and together, we roughen as well as rounded up some petty criminals in Rapture. Keeping the city safe even though we are small fries in the system. Yet the badge and baton gave me a sense of power that I once craved.

That was just the crux of my line of work as a Monitor, I was forced to take orders that could conflict with one's... moral code. And that happened in my big assignment. You see, there's an ongoing problem in Rapture with how human test subjects keep running away from Smart Labs for experimentation. You would think that these people are volunteers but the eggheads figured to play God and tried to kidnap some people for their twisted experiments. Notwithstanding is the murmurs among the Monitors of the existence of a secret branch of the Interior Department known as the "Watchmen" like some sort of comic book hero. The ones rumored to be dealing with runaway subjects that the Monitors innocently call as "Runners". I was confused for a moment. How could Mayor Steyn let such things to continue?

However, I never questioned my orders and being at the Chief's bad side would be bad for my health. My first big assignment was that me and James were to catch a Runner by the name of "Laura" and a baby girl she carried along with her. It was me and James running in an alleyway in Hectate Square chasing after the perpetrator. It was a surreal feeling to be running after her as they tried to grasp the fresh air that is "freedom". My ancestors were the descendants of slaves brought to America by slavers. Now, I am playing the role of a slave catcher hunting down a stray runaway slave and that feeling unsettled me to the very core. My ancestors tried running for freedom but here I am snuffing away their freedom.

She was fast but not strong enough to continue as she carried her baby with her and lost the strength to continue running. We captured her in an alleyway in Hectate Square and pinned her down while James took the baby. Perhaps James felt guilt in taking the baby away from her and suggested if we let them go and purposefully fail the mission for their sake. But I refused and that's when I later came to hate myself for it. I told him that we are going to turn them in and he resigned to the reality that we could not do much in this situation. I was blinded by the pursuit of power in that moment and when the police van carried them away, I could see the terror in the woman's face as well as the crying of the baby that will continue to haunt me to this day.

For my bravery and competence in capturing the Runner, I was given the option to join the still-secretive "Watchmen" rather than James. They probably saw through the cameras when James hesitated and I followed orders to a fault. Impressed that I had the makings of a tool of the state. In that pursuit for power, prestige and validation; I accepted their offer with little thought believing that it could help me to climb one step closer towards prestige in the ladder of power. I didn't value humanity back then and all of my life as a powerless negro led up to this moment. I was now officially a Watchman.


Act IV

... I have a dream! That one day me and my little children could enjoy the fineries of a nice jacuzzi, a Cadillac, and a furnished condo. America has always told me that it is the land of opportunity and the melting pot of cultures. That it is the land of freedom and opportunities that they once promised to me in two simple words: The American Dream. Yet that dream is far from us reaching with our grasp and it is in Rapture where I would start life anew. The Rapture Dream where every man can create by his own hands and succeed in life without religion, race, and sex becoming a barrier to one's ambition. Mr. Steyn drilled me with the mindset of always chasing my dreams, desires, and work towards my self-interest. Isn't increasing personal happiness a cause worth fighting for? Thus, my promotion to becoming a Watchman was my calling in climbing through the ladders of power in Rapture with the sweat of my brow.

However, my expectations were dashed when I actually got around to working at their office in the first day of the job. My office was a poorly-ventilated, sh*tty desk for my first day as a Watchmen in Rapture. But we all got to start somewhere - at the bottom. The Watchmen is a "secret police" force much like the Gestapo where we had to use our emotional intelligence to infiltrate resistance cells as well as using a bit of our brain to process and disseminate intelligence. Making sure that we aren't consuming misinformation for our ops. The Watchmen doesn't have much use for soulless robotic followers but emotionally intelligent people who know how to follow orders. I have a hardshell and little sentimentality as a hard-boiled man. I don't feel emotions, I replicate them. I cry when someone tells me that their relatives died yet feeling empty in the inside.

Truth be told, I was living a hollow existence back then when I was a Watchman. Not much mattered to me in this world, not even God or an ideology, just rising to the top of the food chain. The only thing that matters in this world is the material world and the self. I trained my self every day to become a better man tomorrow. Workouts and gun-range shooting, you name it. Mastering the self is what matters most and I couldn't be more happy than looking at my muscles. Didn't made a lot of friends, never intended to and that's what I came to regret later on. However, working at the Watchman wasn't what I expected as I had envisioned a life of glamor and danger at every turn. Instead of confronting humans, I was facing at monitors where numbers and words are rushing through my eyesight as a lot of things were going on.

The cold soulless interface of Rapture's SurveillanceNET came to replace human interactions and my eyes were glued on that damned monitor. I was surveilling the lives of men and women of Rapture through a camera lens view and it was as if I was... God itself by peering through the lives of these people without them noticing. You have stories of servicemen losing their humanity in duty but never had one to begin with and the black coat suited me too nicely as a Watchman. By peering through other people's rooms, I was given an insight to their intimate lives which I was not a part of or had no right to seeing. A life of doing SIGINT ops for the Watchmen from the comforts of my office is a boring existence. Just waiting for weeks on end for an interesting case to pop up for me to deal. When there wasn't any ops for me to do, I just looked through at the monitor and just watching them trying to live life.

Sometimes things could get spicy there and when two loving lovebirds meet, the magic just happens behind closed curtains. Yeah, I watched them doing the deed and sensing boredom, I thought about grabbing some tissues to watch the show. But I went against it in the end as it was "unprofessional" for a Watchman to pleasure himself at his line of duty and it would be hard to clean the stains anyway. Looking at the monitor allowed me to see and hear how people live intimately. I was never a sentimental kind of man, I tend to push away those who try to pierce through this metal heart with their "love" and "compassion". I always believed that nobody can understand me but the truth is, I pushed those who tried at every turn. So this miserable lonely existence was on me and my only entertainment in life as a form of escapism from isolation was seeing people trying to live life under the eye of SurveillanceNET.

I learned a great deal from peering through other people's lives through SurveillanceNET. Their desires, their emotions, how they could connect, their bonding over shared interests... I thought it was all too sappy for a hard-boiled detective like me and always wondered how these people could form an emotional connection with one another. The more I peered through their lives and learn how they live, the more personal it gets. I took an interest towards this particular woman whom I nicknamed her "Pretty Sarah". She always invited men to her apartment room and through an ear tracker, I could hear her divulging plans on committing "acts of terrorism" against the city itself. I found out that she's a Red Cap anarchist. A terrorist good up to no good whose leader is said to be one zealous Ernesto Sandino.

Yet if you reverse the roles between Red Cap and Watchmen then there would be little difference between us. They are lone wolf terrorists with a cause where the Communist Manifesto is their Bible while we are state terrorists using surveillance and mass arrests as a means of subjugation. Anyway, Sarah was up to no good and like any other potential enemy of the state, I revealed her location to my superiors in the Watchmen. I always lied to myself that I'm not guilty for the death of these people whose lives weigh on my conscious. I merely look at their miserable lives then tell my superiors on where to look for them. I seldom carried a gun and never killed a Red Cap terrorist yet but that was one sweet lie to make myself feel better in this line of duty. The line of duty where you have to compromise your morals for power and keeping Rapture safe. I could have easily turned to a life of crime but it felt more good in believing that you're protecting something and father wouldn't have approved of that.

The next day, the Monitors managed to take "Pretty Sarah" along with co-conspirators who were planning on breaking free some test subjects from Rapture's Smart Labs. I was there when they took her in and she had a resigned look to her face where she accepts what's gonna come to her. I heard the eggheads back in the Smart Labs saying that they have something special in plan for these "terrorists". They called such monstrosities that they're cooking as "Skinboys". A boogeyman they created to scare people like us in line lest they turn us into one. Got a hard-skin and an equally large Magnum for deep sea labor as well as killing the local wildlife with their acidic white liquid. Would never want to be turned into one and I got to admit that the Red Caps have balls to rebel if they know that they're going to be turned into one.

I was there when they demonstrated the raw power of the "Skinboy transformation" to demonstrate the process to a bunch of Watchmen. It was me and a bunch of eggheads hurdling around behind a glass wall. They got "Pretty Sarah" strapped into this operating table where all sorts of twisted genetic splicing experiments are going on. Injected her with something known as a "Genome" all over her body in massive doses. Some kind of gene manipulation vial and so that's how they mass-produced skinboys to do Rapture's heavy labor. And back then, my sensei once told me that I wouldn't go far in life as a black man... but he also added that I would make people's lives much shorter than mine and now I got what he said back then. And Sarah's going to live a pretty short life after this.

The process was petrifying. Her skin became all dull and her muscle bloated, the clothes literally ripping apart to reveal the monster in the flesh, some of her "female features" disappeared, a large Magnum grew out of her torso, she lost all bodily hair and her human head was molded to become a dome-shaped head as she screamed throughout the process which has come to haunt me in my dreams. I remember Sarah when she was pretty with her long blonde hair, blue eyes, and warm smile. Now she's not so "pretty" looking after all. The eggheads all smiled at their pet creation. They found a certain twisted beauty in death and bodily deformation.

I was about to throw up at the sight of this unfolding in front of my very eyes and excused myself for a moment to leave. This is the first time I broke down and fall on my knees at such a sight. That's when I realized what kind of job that I had signed up for. All the people that I have condemned from the comforts of my chair... they were all surely turned into Skinboys. I screamed for dear life and life in Rapture turned hellish as a total mental wreck.


Act V

In the tales that humans write, the hero who refuses the call would certainly be compelled to do the right thing when faced with such scenario. But life is complicated and I didn't think about quitting my job just yet. I fell to the abyss as I turned to alcoholism to drink away my woes and found myself half-naked except wearing my underpants after that one fateful day on Rapture's Smart Lab. The screams of the runner and "Pretty Sarah" continued to haunt me in my dreams. Sleeping ceased to be my form of escapism from the hellhole that is this underwater city. I know how a man could fall from salvation when he accepts the temptations of drugs and alcohol so I didn't thought about doing such things to alleviate the pain that I have. Furthermore, suicide by hanging is such an easy way out and certainly not how I wanted to die for someone like me. And God? I think God died back there in 1962.

I was lost in my thoughts in that run-down apartment where I thought about how insignificant I am in the grand scheme of things. Just another nobody in Rapture and an adage to the city's background. A passing memory of someone and nobody by my side to live a shared experience with. I felt like I was the only one that mattered and that nobody could understand me. But I was wrong to think that way. Life would be lonely and soulless without somebody by your side and I came to crave that feeling of companionship which I tossed away for so long. Power seemed all the more hollow in Rapture but there is little alternative to be found. Joining the Red Caps would mean an early transformation into becoming a Skinboy against my will. So I continued my job as a Watchman not only for power but for self-survival. Those who think they can change the world by their own... are surely idiots.

I sat on top of a skyscraper as I overlooked Rapture's nightlife after that altercation to set my mind straight. It's a beautiful city from the outside, a monument to the Old World in all of its glory. Yet inside, it's a rotten hellhole that will chew you out. Certainly Old World problems have continued to persist in Rapture. Crime, drug consumption, political polarization, and armed insurrection. I overlook Rapture's denizens as they try to live life and continue as normal despite the spike in anarchist terrorism. How absolutely pitiful they are for those who live in the Core Regions. That dome became both a physical and mental barrier to their psyche. They've become complacent as men like us do the fighting and dirty work to maintain the peace back home.

These folks put on a mask of normalcy and civility. They call themselves "civilized" people while those of the bottom-class are seen as subhuman filth. These people turn to other forms of escapism to escape from the cruel reality around them such as Virtual Reality worlds and injecting Chromosome all over their body to alter their appearances. But I know that behind that mask is a beast whose desires are chained by the threat of the law. I've seen the conduct of those eggheads in Smart Lab and I like to think that Mayor Steyn didn't know about them, if only. I hate those who are disingenuous and hide behind a mask to cover their true self. However, who am I to preach, I am merely an empty man hiding behind a mask of professionalism and stoicism.

The underwater city is a cruel and cold place made out of steel beams behind all of Rapture's glowing bright lights. A place where people could hardly understand each other or could take the time to care for one another as they are too involved in their own problems as lonely individuals. I thought this city is no place for humanity until I took a good look at the sight of a happy family frolicking around Rapture's shops filled with warmth, joy, and compassion. I certainly envied them in how much they've lived a happier and more fulfilling life than me. I used to think that those who are merely satisfied with what they have as being sore losers... but I'm not so certain anymore. Perhaps there's something to save in Rapture after all and I came to grasp emotions for the first time as a hard-boiled detective down on his luck.

As I was about to leave, I was approached by a certain Japanese broad who looked like she knew how to fight and break some men like me apart. I instinctively pulled out my Colt Python but she seemed rather unfazed by it. Looks 25-years old, had a long black hair, sharp jawline, and a resting b*tch face but I don't know about the b*tch part just yet. We continued to stare at each other's soul as the wind blew on Rapture's towers. And that's how my life would change when I met her. That stern empty gaze into my eye tells me that she has seen some things, been through things that no women should. I knew that she must be another Watchman who was looking after me from the monitors when I broke down on that apartment. It was too... convenient that she entered into my social life. Especially on top of a rooftop.

As she drove me back into HQ, the mysterious Japanese-looking woman broke the ice and told me that her name is "Megumi" or "Meg" for short but surnames don't matter amongst Watchmen. She's supposed to be a hot-shot detective and the best agent that the Watchmen could offer. I heard she's a real Amazonian who has turned in 21 runners, broke the bones of rebels, and a sharpshooter with an eagle eye. I introduced myself as "Elijah" only and she seemed rather unimpressed with my name. Maybe she read the files and found out that I had been wasting time as a Watchman by watching monitors and pushing buttons. Anyway, she's a real killer or so I've heard and I wanted to find that out by myself. We didn't exchange much words as we weren't close yet but there's a certain something in her that I wanted to come closer to find something...

Back in base, she told me that we were supposed to be briefed for a new mission handed out by the chief but before that, I wanted to get to know her better. See what makes her stick out and why she has a certain reputation amongst the Watchmen. I walked to the shooting range where she was practicing her marksmanship with her Walther PP. I put on my ear mufflers and challenged her to a competitive shooting. She grinned for a moment and nodded in agreement without uttering a word. I used to think that women should know their place before men and I was too cocky in thinking that this woman is just a wannabe action girl in the wrong kind of story. Man, was I wrong, she's perfect in everything she did. She scored a perfect bullseye score in shooting with her Walther. Not wanting my pride tarnished by a woman, I fired my shot as I pulled my Python revolver. I somehow missed every shot I made! I looked at her face and I knew she was going to laugh at my predicament.

I challenged her into more and more duels as my pride got the best of me. When I challenged her to karate, she obliged. I wasn't pulling myself back from hitting her and I thought that I could knock her out with a simple grab and throw technique. As I went for the first strike, she knocked my legs out and proceeded to throw me into the ground as she looked at me with a satisfied look on her face. When I challenged her on running laps around the track field, she likewise obliged and I prepared myself. When it began, at first I had the upper hand over her as I attempted to run as fast as I could. But I eventually began to tire myself out and began to lose strength as I didn't conserve enough energy for the run. She overtook me and by the end, she won against me.

I couldn't believe it, I thought I was the best in the field as a Watchman only to be bested by a woman. It's true what they say: "there's always a person better than you" and I would later come to accept that lesson. Yet her smug superiority motivated me to better myself instead and quit the alcohol addiction out of envy for her skills... and perhaps admiration to be at her level. After our little feud, she invited me to drink some coffee at her office where we chatted for a bit as actual humans rather than dumb gorillas trying to one-up each other. She explained to me her philosophy in life. How she enjoys the thrill of battle as well as the feeling of "breaking a man" both physically and mentally as a woman who was "powerless" in her life. I am a man and I'm sitting right in front of her and that's when I realized that she's someone who's not to be messed with.

Megumi told me her reason in joining the Watchmen. She told me how she's an ambitious woman who will stop at nothing to gain power, influence and most importantly validation. Figuring that the Watchmen are the best conduit for her goals. Always improving her skills and techniques to become a better woman than yesterday and how human emotions as well as connection are ultimately useless to her. A woman of action and cold logic rather than words or feelings. Ultimately, her greatest desire, she told me, was to attain human immortality through genetic therapy so that she can enjoy all the riches in life after accumulating enough power and wealth. Her moral duty of protecting Rapture precedes her worldly desires. She scoffed at idealistic fools who think that they can change the system.

I saw myself in her as a man who values strength and professionalism greatly. For the first time I felt like I could connect and relate with someone based on shared ideals and interests. As time passes by, we talked more and more as we opened ourselves to each other about hobbies, philosophy, and so much more. I forgot what joke I told her on that night but she laughed with a warm smile for the first time after getting rid of that snarky tough girl act around me. And so... this is how it must have felt like to grasp emotions and to connect with someone. We are two selfish empty people on this cold city... but our emotions felt genuine for the first time and deep down she knew it as she lightened up. I was going to ask her out for a date but went against it as I thought that she wouldn't be down for such useless activities deep down in my cold heart.


Act VI

The Chief summoned me and Megumi to his office for a briefing on our new top mission. Never knew his name but the Watchmen isn't a fraternity group either. Before he could detail us on our next mission, the Chief chastised us for arriving late and dawdle around HQ. Megumi's chuckle turned into professional silence and we switched seamlessly from people to career officers... or we were always like that. When the Chief is done with his choir preach of the importance of duty, he told us that there's a situation transpiring in Rapture's Iron Altar steel forgery in the Industrial Area. A group of workers have taken over a steel factory with the organizing skills of one "John Henry" named after the mythical hard-working black worker with a hammer in his hand. The Iron Altar is already surrounded by the Monitors and our orders are to infiltrate the Altar from the back and silence the ring leader.

Megumi nodded in acknowledgment of her orders but I inquired the Chief as to the identity of this ring leader to know what kind of terrorist are we dealing with. For some reason, the Chief simply collected his breath and hunched down. Stating that the ring leader is a "dangerous ideological zealot who could not be reasoned with". I was confused for a moment but looking back, I should have known better, he knew what was going on. The zealot archetype can be found on both sides of this conflict. The Monitors genuinely believe they are keeping the peace while the Red Caps or Chaps whatever believe in fighting against unjust hierarchies. These two groups have irreconcilable aims and ideas to the point that they could not understand each other's language.

Before we had to go, the Chief told us about a new "arrangement". He told me that I'm going out with a partner now or a "handler". I was certainly surprised by this arrangement but a welcomed one nonetheless. Being assigned under her wing stung me as the obviously more senior man and I felt like I was being assigned to a "Commissar". I don't want to weigh her down with my "rookiness" and it felt patronizing to be treated that way. But the woman simply smiled with a mysterious intent in her mind and shook my hands. Told me that she was "eager to learn from each other in future missions". Her words felt reassuring but "future missions...", oh Megumi if only I could tell you what would happen next.

As me and Megumi rush to her car, I looked at Megumi when she sat down on her seat and told her "Megumi, promise me on this one, that you will live after this operation is over so that we can get to know... each other better". I didn't know what was in my mind to compel me to say that but the look on her face turned to that of a warm smile behind that cold veneer of a professional Watchman and she responded "You too, Elijah". I was all flustered and embarrassed by her comment to talk while we were in the car. Looking back, I looked at her as some kind of role model to aspire to as a Watchman. A professional from the reports I've heard with accomplishments decorating her name. I'm not good and there will always be people better than us but it's okay, we could improve... as humans from here on out. Never considered myself a human but that interaction seemed like it.

Our primary concern now was the elimination of one ring leader by the name of John Brown in Rapture's Iron Altar, rightful property of Mayor Steyn. We went from the back of the Altar which was lightly defended. Before we entered, Megumi pulled out her silenced Walther PP while rocking a white T-shirt, suspenders with gun holsters, and black trousers as a skilled infiltrator. Me? I was wearing my usual drab black coat while armed with a Colt Python and a Mossberg shotgun at the side. She gave me a Codec with the code 162.1 if I ever need anything as well as a night-vision mask to see through the dark out of her own volition. I wore the mask and the green-black interface as well as numbers came to overwhelm my senses. Just like the monitor, it reduced the living people there acting as guards to mere enemies and numbers with statistics on their beating heart rate.

Megumi made the first move by disarming the guns and knocking them out with a good one-two pistol whip on the nerve. She went first to cover my advance and began taking out armed insurrectionist with her silenced Walther PP with such precision while wearing a thermo-optic camouflage suit. All without alerting the protesting workers on the front from getting riled up with armed gunfight in the inside. She disposed the bodies and guarded the interior to alert me of any sudden movement. I made my way upstairs where I encountered four armed guards with a silenced Uzi. I took cover from behind a steel crate as their bullets bounced off. I peeked through and began lining my shots to hit them on the head for an instant kill. One down. Two down. Three down. Four down. And five down precisely with 5 bullets and only leaving one left.

As I was about to leave to confront John Henry myself, one of the guards suddenly rose and tried to shoot me in the back; Megumi came out of hiding and shot him in the back. She saved my *ss on this one and the beer's on me. I figured that the ring leader was inside the office square of the Altar and as I knocked the door down, I was greeted to the sight of "John Henry" himself. Some sort of man of steel. Wears an arc welder to cover his face, worker's overall with a Kevlar vest, and a large steel hammer on his hand to boot. So this is the zealot of the Red Cap that I'm facing. As I was about to pull out my Magnum, he tossed the office table against me and knocked out my Python out of my hands from the sheer force of it all. Thus I was forced to fight in melee combat against the one John Brown. My bare fist against his hammer of steel. What an unequal yet exhilarating fight. A fight that could prove my worth as a Watchman.

As I was about to pull out my shotgun, John Henry threw a rifle magazine at my hands and knocked the shotgun from my hands. He tried to smash me with his iron hammer but an iron hammer being a heavy weapon in itself, it left him exposed. I dodged his attack and hit him in the sides. As he tried to grab his hammer, I went around him and kicked him from the back. Then the fight really started. We fought bare fisted to level the playing field. He tried to land punches at me but I tried to parry them as a skilled martial artist myself. Training in the martial arts teaches you to exploit an opponent's moment of weakness and strike at the opportune moment.

John Henry then grabbed his hammer and tried throwing it at me with such force. However with some quick thinking, I grabbed the nearest wooden chair and wrapped it over his head before smashing him in the head with it. Knocking him down and left him too weak to fight. I then grabbed my Colt Python which only had one round left and walked over to the masked terrorist. Out of curiosity I unmasked the all-mighty "John Henry" before ending his life right there. To my absolute surprise, the one and only John Henry himself was... my partner, Officer James. I took off my night vision mask to see the man with my own two eyes. It's funny to think that we fought to the death with both of our mask detaching ourselves from the deed.

I fell on to my knees with a dying James on my arms as Megumi came to see the commotion. For the first time, tears were dropping from my eyes as I asked my old partner his reason in joining the terrorist. My partner, James, always a kind man with a heart; told me that he couldn't stand to allow the City Monitors to continue their oppression of Rapture's citizens and defected to the Red Caps to resist against the corrupt system of the Watchmen. Us capturing that Runner with her baby was probably his last straw. In that moment, we weren't enemies blinded by ideology, we were men. I grasped him in his arms as he was bleeding to death. I'm a cold man who never showed his sentimental side. I couldn't afford to look weak and sentimental in front of her but I said to myself to "f*ck it all" and comforted him in his last moments.

I told James that he was always the "good cop" to my "bad cop" role like those action movies we used to watch. We reminisced those times we served in the Monitors together and though it wasn't pretty, it was at least something - a good memory to be cherished as we fought the city's filth together. He smiled as he coughed up blood and as I asked him if he wanted to be treated in a underground "Black Clinic", James refused and told me that he wanted to die in my arms. When he moved his hands around and acted as if he threw a basketball, a surge of memories came rushing back to me. So it was James who was the young white boy who played basketball with me. Separated by race but in his last moments, our bonds felt closer than ever before.

I pulled out my Python with last one round and pointed it at him. I felt dirty for doing so but I told him that I couldn't stand seeing him bleeding to death slowly and wanted to end his pain quickly. Perhaps in a rare moment of empathy that I constantly suppressed myself. With one last round, I shot him in the chest as the gunfire marked the end of the general strike at the Iron Altar. James died in my arms and though I used to scoff at idealists, I took comfort in knowing that he died for a cause and fulfilled his purpose unlike myself. In many ways, he was a better man than me. Megumi looked unimpressed at me for fraternizing with the enemy, even if you knew them close once, but she looked like she was about to tear up and told me to hurry up and leave.

We left the Altar as quickly as we came but not before burying him in an unmarked location so the eggheads won't get their hands on his body. As Megumi drove me to her apartment, I got a message from the Chief himself on my Codec. He revealed that he knew John Henry's identity all along and felt it fitting to give the order to kill him on me. Saw it as a test of loyalty where my loyalty lies - the state or my loved ones. Never had many loved ones but James was the closest there was to me and I killed him with my own hands as his friend. The Chief tried to give me a pep talk on how our line of work demands us to sacrifice a part of ourselves for the greater cause but I had none of it. He bid farewell to me and stopped our conversation when I noticed that Megumi's hand on the wheels began trembling as she overheard our conversation.

When we arrived at her luxury apartment, the mood and air of the place was hard to describe with words... It was all pitch red and black until the lights turned blue with our arrival. As the lights shone over this dark apartment, Megumi stripped her clothes down to her lingerie. Wanted me to sleep with her and I knew where this was going. It was an unforgettable night right after I killed my best friend right there but it felt like we were the only two people existing on Rapture as she laid her head down on my chest in bed. I fell to a trance as the light shone on both of our bodies, naked in the flesh, as we reminisced of the time we had together as well as discussing about our philosophies in life. How life is meaningless and nothing mattered aside from power.

It was here where she revealed... her more human side behind that cold exterior and I came to warm myself up towards her advances. When she climbed on top of me and that's when the magic truly happened after everything that happened between us. This was the real deal and my first time in getting involved in such things... Not confined to looking at romance from an emotionless monitor but doing it in the flesh. I struggled to grasp with such things as love and romance from someone who doesn't consider himself to be human but hey, she was too. That cold professional exterior of her melted to reveal an emotionally suppressed woman with a potential for caring. Deep inside every officer like us, a human is trying to break through out of that shell. Few words were exchanged as we let the actions do the talking.

My eyes faded to black as I fell to the deep abyss of emotions and thoughts to truly enjoy it. What does it mean to be human? If to be human is to be a rational thinking being then I certainly fit that bill to the T. However to feel compassion and to be able to understand one another on an emotional level? I wasn't so sure and I was about to find out myself. It was during this night where I came to value that companionship and empathy which I so desperately tried to suppress as being "unmanly" as a man who never wanted to show weakness. Not after what I've gone through. But in companionship with her and James, I found some meaning in my life. Life became a bit bearable and my existence validated by the close relationship that we have and the bonds we shared. She completed me and I completed her as she wrapped her hands around me with a tight grip.

When we were done doing the deed, she suddenly cried as her tears began pouring through my chest. In a moment of empathy, I embraced her body as I had experienced the same too. She revealed to me how demanding her line of work is and how she was forced to adopt a mask of being a "professional killer for the state" as a woman who had underwent genetic therapy herself in Rapture's Smart Labs. Increasing her grip over my chest, she told me the root of all of her angst which culminated into this one night: she captured a little girl who was a Runner and separated her from her parents to be taken away into one of Rapture's Smart Labs. She saw herself in that girl and her deed in following her orders to capture unsettled her to the very core. I comforted her stating that we have little choice in our duties as Watchmen but I tried to tell a lie to alleviate the burden that weighs on my shoulders.

She excused herself for a moment after my short pep talk and went to the bathroom to take a hot bath. I waited in her bed as I noticed that she had made ten origami cranes all neatly stacked on her bedroom table. In Japanese culture they said that making one thousand origami cranes would be granted their wish, eternal happiness, and good luck. Behind that cold exterior is a woman who is trying to find her place in Rapture. Us Watchmen desire peace even if our actions are misguided and I figured she was making origami cranes for that. However as hours passed by, I began to notice that she isn't leaving the bathroom any time soon.

When I knocked on her door to ask her if she was okay, there was no response from her. Concerned with the safety of my partner, I forcibly entered myself in and broke down her door with a kick on the doorknob. That's when I was greeted with a grizzly sight that I wish had never seen with my own two eyes. She committed suicide on that bath tub - a slit on the wrist and dying from blood loss. Her blood fused with water filled that entire bathtub as I noticed tears rolled down from her face. I had lost another partner... too soon after the death of James. For a moment, I shed a tear to her passing and that's how I came to grasp sadness as a man who rarely ever felt genuine emotion. In death, she found peace and liberation...


Act VII

After her death, I made a lapse in my judgment... too many times. Laura, Pretty Sarah, James, and Megumi. Their names weigh upon my shoulders which I could never forget. Yet they are all gone by my hands. In a society as cold as Rapture, crime proliferates when man becomes desperate enough to sustain their lives. The existence of unlicensed Black Clinics dealing in illegal Genome therapy, Netscape virtual reality hacking, and the rise of organized crime. They are all symptoms of a dying society where profit and leisure supersedes justice... But what justice is there to be found in Rapture? The City Monitors? They are all corrupt self-serving men trying to carve their slice of power and I was one of them. I was a resourceful Watchmen, you hear. Keyword is "was". I operated nominally under the Watchmen but I double-deal with both the Monitors and Red Caps as an "Information Broker".

An Information Broker works as the kind of informant who snoops around for information that both sides of the conflict wants. Information is power in Rapture where misinformation is abundant with the rise of digital technology and knowledge-sharing. But Information Brokers deal with the real thing - true information. Being a middleman and informant gave me a sense of... power. Yet what is power that I'm chasing for. Is it the tangible power of dominating one another to be on top of the food chain just like a primal hierarchical society. Or the power of being in control of your life and destiny? To feel that you are important as a nobody in this large underwater city? Those questions linger in my mind but they won't matter for long. I gain information through several ways including talking with the homeless, hearing things that I'm not supposed to know from the chatters of Rapture's bars, and beating people up to extract anything out of them. I didn't take pride in the last one but in a dog eat dog world, you need to do something to survive.

I've told you before that I'm with the Watchmen on paper but I've been doing my own homework while not taking orders from the Chief. As an Information Broker, I've infiltrated many Red Caps cells as I was working to gain their trust by providing them information on the next City Monitor movement. Some faked but most are genuine. Their leader, Ernesto Sandino, is a regular client of mine who is always one step ahead of the law. But they didn't know that I still had an inkling of loyalty towards the Watchmen. No, I don't think I could turn against what Megumi had fought for or allow myself to be turned into one of "those". All would change for my life during one fateful night when I was doing a covert recon while blending in with a Red Cap cell in Atlantis Square. Maybe God had something planned for us after all...

I became a Red Guard for the Red Caps while I was infiltrating one of their cells. Their cell was located in the sewers just under the beautiful scenery of Rapture's Little Venice area where the canal waters stream. In the Little Venice cell, I became acquainted with the many different personalities within the Red Caps. Many of them coming from numerous different backgrounds with colorful personalities. Their comradery is strong and they felt more genuine than my colleagues back in the Watchmen. I made some friends in the Red Caps including a drunken fellow by the name of "Ted Weissenberg". A total drunkard who said the most nonsensical things I've heard in my life. Kept yapping about the existence of a "Garden of Eden" where it is said that there's a world outside of Rapture, a true paradise, and you could leave the dome if you know certain connections. For some, it might sound impossible but I know there's a world outside of there; I am an Old World relic for God sake. Yet I've heard persistent rumors of the same Eden throughout my travels. Maybe the old geezer's ramblings had some bit of truth to it.

Anyway, Ted is a good friend. I helped him around base as he's too drunk to carry himself around. He's a lovable old Jewish geezer and he reminded me of my old man and that's why I became close to him to remind me of good times. I drink with him... in moderation as his favorite brand of beer is "Pissweiser" but any makeshift alcohol he could get his hand on is good for him. We played spin the beer bottle and as the bottle turned to him, Ted stood up and took his shirt off in what was the most chaotic stunt he ever pulled yet. He raised his red armband and worker's banner high as he sung the "Internationale". The chaps in the Red Caps followed him in his off-tune acapella singing before they moved on to singing "Solidarity Forever" - an union man's song. I was reluctant but I followed them along to not blow my cover. I tried my damn hardest to sing with them. "Solidarity forever!" that's what we chanted as we held our head high. A scab like me got no right to sing it but when Ted wrapped his arm around me, it felt... inspiring.

However, as we sang, I noticed a black woman entering the underground catacomb base. Going in and out like a shadow without people noticing when she's gone. The woman worked as a courier for the Red Cap who was running packages throughout the different cells in Rapture. She had a little girl who was clutching behind her skirt. The little girl looked at me with a sight of dread and feeling of unease. As if I wronged her before. Then the woman I assumed was her mother then noticed me gazing at them promptly picking the girl up and left to her quarters. That was the first time I met them. Something about the girl brought me back... uncomfortable memories of that one night when I captured a Runner and her baby as a City Monitor fresh out of training. It was as if we were connected and that's what I wanted to find out. That woman as well as the existence of the "Garden of Eden".

Days have passed and I became more connected with the members of the Little Venice cell. Ted is my best friend, genuinely, and I came to make close acquaintance with other members as an infiltrator. Many emotions hit me in the gut as I continue to blend in with them. As if I was a wolf living amongst sheep but that's RSU talk. I couldn't decide between ratting them out as a Watchman or keep their little secret safe but I'm put in quite the position. I sat down and pulled out a cigarette for a smoke to calm my nerves down in those thoughts. Then this tough-looking fellow with the brown hair came and sat next to me as I smoked. I didn't strike conversation with him but I knew that he's a real killer with no emotions judging from his looks. A real hardboiled man, probably RSU infiltrator. As a Watchman, it is an unwise to make noise and raise suspicions out of a gut emotion and my training got the best of me. I let the brown-haired man be as he continued his work as a courier. Not knowing that he was the wolf amongst us.

At the meantime, I tried to get closer to the woman with a girl by her side. Couldn't be older than four years old, how time passes by. Having a child by your side while doing all of this terrorist work is just an invitation to get kidnapped as hostage. But I figured that the child must be a runner with nowhere else to go... and I understood her predicament. I struck conversation with her and things started awkward between us. Notwithstanding is that little girl who was too damn afraid of me. I tried to put on my "Nice Uncle Elijah" act but she wasn't having none of it. Hiding behind the woman's skirt and refused to look at me straight in the face as if I was some kind of monster. Awkwardness and tension filled the air as I tried to find something to say as she was left speechless.

In the heat of the moment, I asked her if she was available to go out with me sometime. Take her out to see the sights in Little Venice just above our roof. She was dumbstruck by my break in character but oddly enough, she accepted and was eager to look forward to it. Too eager... However, she left, I asked her name because I don't want to lose someone special without knowing their name. She turned around and looked at me with a warm smirk on her face. She introduced herself as "Rachel Powell" and introduced the little girl for me whose name was "Paz". Spanish for "Peace" or something. I was trying to get close to her to extract more information out of the Red Caps and perhaps... get to know her better as a human. However, I've lost too many good people in my life such as Megumi and James. I didn't want this to end up the same way as them and I wasn't so sure of it. Yet this feeling of companionship... I continued to crave; far greater than power.

We walked along the beautiful stone-paved canals of Rapture's Little Venice as the city's bright lights gleamed around us emanating from Venetian classic buildings. It was awkward to bring a child around for our "little date" but Rachel insisted on bringing her along. Rachel is a nice compassionate woman who had a good sense of humor. We had fun in Venice's carnival which was the first time I saw Paz smile around me when I won that teddy bear for her in a shooting range. As the artificial stars shone upon us, we walked around the replica of the old city as it was before the "Deluge" of 1962. Mayor Steyn always told me that he liked the beauty of Venice during his first trip there and I bet he felt proud in being able to replicate it here on Rapture. Rachel enjoyed it too as we went for a little sight-seeing. Relaxing her back on a beam as the waters from the canal flowed; she told me about the existence of a place faraway from this hellhole called the "Garden of Eden" based on God's paradise or heaven. She told me that a world exists outside of Rapture and has been able to flourish using the resources on the topside of the Earth years after the "Deluge".

Rachel told me all of this because she has contacts with a group who calls themselves "The Wanderers of the Overworld" or "Wanderers". In fact she's a member of the Wanderers who joined based on the promise of salvation from Rapture itself. I saw her grip over beam strengthened and her turning hear head down in grief as she told me her woes with pain in her voice that only a hard-boiled man could notice. How the City Monitors robbed someone special from her and Paz. Living a lonely existence where most indulge in escapism and their own problems to care. I like to believe that Mayor Steyn didn't know what goes on in his utopia but I'm not so sure anymore... I began to grow doubts on my loyalty towards my boss and mayor Howard Steyn. I don't know what to say in this situation as someone who has rejected his emotions for so long but I stood in silence in respect for my black sister and a feeling of sympathy began to develop.

Rachel is a Red Cap and yet she is human as anybody despite the propaganda running around that Red Caps are nothing more than subhuman anarchist terrorist. Our feeling of companionship felt... nostalgic like the bond I used to have with my first love. In Venice, that's where she divulged her plans to me. She was planning on leaving Rapture for good together with Paz to find a better future for the both of them in the Garden of Eden. Said that the conflict between the Red Caps and Monitors is a meaningless vicious cycle. But to gamble away your life based on a false promise of hope? She must be a fool! And that's what I told her in her face. Not out of frustration but concern for her well-being. She was taken aback and was about to lash out until she collected herself. Rachel calmly said to me that she would fight for anything to keep Paz safe and ensure a better future for her outside of this cold underwater city. I broke the ice and sighed as I pulled out my Watchmen badge to set the record straight between the both of us. When I pulled that thing out, it was supposed to be a death sentence for her but she wasn't surprised to know that I'm a Watchman infiltrator.

Rachel calmly explained that she had already suspected that I was an infiltrator and it was why she was eager to accept my offer for a "date" to get close to me. She gritted her teeth in frustration and chastised me for my selfish nature. Bluntly told me that I am a man who's living a "meaningless existence" without nothing to fight for. I didn't utter a word to make a comeback as I already knew that since the beginning. In Rapture, all the things that I have done is for the service of chasing power itself. Always felt it was so close in my grasp yet so far away. She then tried to pull her Smith and Wesson 38 out to silence me as I pulled my Python as well. As Paz cried for the two of us to stop fighting, it was then we realized we had took each other's bullets away during our stroll. Awkwardness filled the air but I burst into laughter for the first time in my life and she did too.

We then made a pact as we clasped our hands together: that we'll leave Rapture together with Paz for Eden. She wouldn't tell the others that I was an infiltrator and I told her to keep an eye out on someone amongst the Red Caps. Might be another infiltrator who wouldn't change his mind one bit as a wolf. As for me? Well, I never had any intention of snitching them out. Keeping it real as they said. Yet it sounded too good to be true for me to receive a happy ending after all I have done to the people of Rapture.


Act VIII

Me, Paz, and Rachel made our way back to the backdoor entrance of the underground catacombs to reconnect with our "comrades". However the mood in the air was different than the last time I came here. I became increasingly unsure as I took steps to get there. My breathing became heavy and my gut wrenching in the inside at the unease of what's to come next after we have left base. I motioned Rachel and Paz to get behind me as I slowly opened the doors to the longue room. As the door creaked and I peered inside with my two little eyes; I saw hell running loose in the base itself. The chaos of close quarter combat in the hallway, the sound of machinegun bullets striking down like thunder, and blood spilled on the floor and wall came rushing through. As I opened the door, the body of a Red Cap had fell beside me after getting his body riddled by bullets. It was then I realized it was Ted who died in front of me. I wanted to cry like I've never done before but there was no time for mourning - Paz and Rachel were with me.

We ran through the intricate corridors and hallways of the Venice catacombs as we braved through rebelling Red Caps and the RSU as well as Monitors sent to hunt us down. It was there that I knew there was another infiltrator among us. The man with the stern glare and brown hair. It was him who ratted us out. As we ran through the hall with the guns in our hand and shielding Paz from the sight of bloodshed; we came face to face with a detachment of Monitors led by an RSU officer. There were five of them and there were six rounds in my Python. As we came face to face with the devil in silver, I immediately shouted the both of them to run for the topside as I covered them. I took cover behind one of the walls as I shot three Monitors in the head with my.357 Magnum bullets. I lined up my shot and killed two of his men as their bullets came raining down on me from a Thompson submachine gun.

I wasted my bullets as I missed my shot against the RSU wolf himself. "Every shot counts, damn it" as I cursed myself and repeated a mantra of my training. As he is about to go out of cover, I lunged at him and tackled him down. That's when the fight turned bloody. I punched him in the helmet even when my hand turned into a bloody pulp from all the metal that I'm punching. As I pinned him down, that's when I noticed that he had a knife and was reaching for it. I rolled over and he came on top of me with a knife on his hand. He was about to land a blow at me until I dodged my head - narrowly avoiding that stab. Adrenaline came rushing in and my survival instinct kicked in when all else failed. As he is about to land a killing blow at me, I grabbed his hands just as it touched the tip of my forehead and began struggling to get a hold of it. All of that body touching sh*t I did with Megumi paid off when I managed to overpower him and pin him down with his own knife.

I aimed for his gas mask circuitry and stabbed him in the head. His body turned lifeless as I was on top of him and gas came out of his mask as his life flashed away from him. I tried to get out before his brothers could come looking for him as I made my way out. Before I go, I snatched his M1911 pistol loaded with a 9mm magazine before I ran as fast as I could. I narrowly dodged bullets as there was commotion between the tight gunfights going on in the catacombs between Red Caps and Monitors. Bright red illuminated over the catacombs as the sound of bullets echoed throughout the hall. I killed a few Monitors who stood in my way with my M1911 as they pointed their guns at me. I couldn't believe it but I was fighting my own brothers in the Monitors. It felt so... eerily easy to point a gun at someone, especially your own brothers, and kill them. But that is the law of survival and I wasn't about to die just yet.

However, as I ran, I felt like my leg was becoming numb before I could notice it. I tried to run as fast as I could but I just can't. That's when I noticed that I was shot in the leg and I'm bleeding out. Bleeding to death in some sh*tty underground catacomb after a disastrous operation was not the way I wanted to die. I laid down for a moment and rested myself against the walls as I spread my legs out. Blood came pouring out and mixed in with the sewer water as I laid powerless there. So... this is how must have felt like to be powerless and defenseless. All alone without someone at your side. This is how Megumi must have felt in her final days... Before I could sulk further into despair, that's when a heavenly sight emerged in my very eyes. It was her, Rachel, who slowly walked towards me and laid down next to me. She pulled out some First Aid kit and began treating my wounds. I just couldn't believe it as I indulged myself further into my thoughts. That she's risking her neck and limb to rescue a Watchman infiltrator even after I divulged my secrets to her.

I begged her to stop treating me and run. I didn't exactly deserve any redemption and I am perfectly content to die for the deeds that I have done to the people of Rapture. However, she slapped me and told me to snap out of my suicidal thoughts. Rachel told me that she was sent here by Ernesto Sandino himself to spy on me and dispose of me. Sandino... he was always one step ahead of us all and was already looking to kill me. However, she told me that she went against his orders during the moment we became close... friends. For all of her life, she viewed the enemy on the other side, Monitors, and Watchmen, as irredeemable evils who aren't humans of their own. But it's when she connected with me that she realized there's a human beneath the mask of order and duty. She treated me and healed my wounds there so that I could live on as a human deserving of dignity. It moved me for a moment as I tried to stand up with the wound in my leg.

As we're finished, a detachment of RSU bastards arrived and began firing at us with their machine guns. We took cover and she requested me to take good care of Paz as she's going to cover me. I wanted to refuse her request for a moment but she told me that she hasn't enough time to cover me and that Paz was waiting outside. I nodded my head in acknowledgment before she gave me the map and keys to the launchpad that will bring her to the "Garden of Eden". I began making my way topside as she covered me with a measly snub nose revolver. I never looked back when I ran for Paz. It was the last time I would meet her but I always thought that she was a braver woman than me in my whole life. That's when I decided to throw away the tough guy act and commit to a cause greater than myself. I wouldn't be able to redeem myself, I am probably beyond redemption, but I wanted to do one final mission before I die. To accomplish her dreams and give Paz a better future than the both of us ever had...

When I made my way topside, I met Paz on the way out on top of the crumbling sewers and catacomb beneath. She noticed that Rachel isn't with me when she volunteered to cover me on that fateful gunfight. However, by the look of her eyes, she knew that Rachel wasn't coming back to hug her in her arms. She fell like a hero back there and I ought to repay my debt to her by giving Paz a better future in the Garden of Eden, I thought to myself. When soft tears began pouring from her eyes, I run down my fingers across her cheek to wipe her tears off. I told her that everything will be alright even though I knew this would be an uphill battle from here on out. I carried her on my back and ran as fast I could as I evaded RSU patrols. When I ran, I felt the same feeling as that scared woman when I and James chased her down on that alleyway on that fateful night.

Using the keys and map Rachel gave me, I navigated through the streets of Little Venice with a kid on my back. It's not how I wanted to go but the hand of fate forced me to me be like this. I narrowly avoided RSU and Monitor patrols as we hid behind walls in every nook and cranny of the neighborhood. Then, I finally arrived to the so-called "Gates of Heaven". Forced me into the Gate by opening it with all of my strength in my body. This is where people of the Old World arrived at Rapture using the submergible "Aquatic Pods". The Gate has since then fallen to a state of disrepair as I observed the dust and aging circuitry of this once magnificent terminal. I remembered going to Rapture using one of those pods and I didn't expect to see them again after all these years...

As I searched for the pods, I found a single working Aquatic Pod just waiting to be used on the right side of the building. I opened the pod and put Paz there. I thought about going with her but the pod's too big for both of us and I didn't care about my life so much after what I've done in Rapture. I saw this as my last shot for redemption and comeuppance for the things I've done. I looked at Paz in the eye and noticed that she was crying as the only father figure she knew in her life was going to abandon her for lands unknown. Few words are exchanged between the two of us but I wanted to let her know that I deeply cared for her safety and wanted the best for her in life as I didn't have the guts to tell these feelings to her. As I administered the Aquatic Pod's launch, suddenly, RSU and Monitor squads began firing at the gate and pinning down the both of us.

With little time to spare, I immediately hit the button and the Aquatic Pod started to ascend to the topside. Through the window, I saw Paz crying and moaning as she reached her hand towards me. However, it's too late for me to join her and go to the promised "Garden of Eden" together. When that pod began making its way topside, my mind was never at ease with how she will fare up there. Would there be people on the top side of the ocean? The radiation from that damned war? Was I doing the right thing? I never made peace with my decision but as long as Paz was away from this hellhole and RSU goons, her future is secured in the new world topside. But this was no time to wonder but to provide cover for Paz as her Pod makes her way topside. Before she left, I glanced at her and gave her my final two-finger salute before I made my last stand here.

I pulled out my Colt Python and began shooting back at the squad of RSU and Monitors forcing its way into the Gate. The Gate of Heaven soon became the Gate of Hell as I fired back at them. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 Monitors as well as RSU soldiers dead with the entire.357 round of my Magnum. However, as I was about to reload, a .308 bullet struck me on the shoulder, and then another hit me on the thigh and leg. I was left immobile and defenseless after those bullets pierced through my limbs. But I tried to drag myself towards cover and pulled out my Colt Python for one showdown. I killed 4 motherf*ckers with the gun but with droves of Monitors overwhelming the perimeter, I gave up and allowed myself to be captured by RSU bastards on the upper levels of the Gate. I was a Watchman but to them, I ceased to be one the moment I fell for that woman. Still, I didn't know what lied ahead of me but it sure wouldn't be pretty for a traitor like me.

Yet I remember my trial as clear as day. A kangaroo court more like just like those courts for people like us in the old world. I stood there in the center of it all in that court where the lights focused on me as the judges made their decision and rulings. They charged me with treason, murder, and conspiracy for the state but I already knew the sentences the moment I stepped foot in that cesspit of corruption. A judge in black and white with darkness obfuscating his face read out my sentence for me. He said that they have condemned me to death for treason without giving me the chance to defend myself or tell my view of the story. However, that is to be expected from Rapture's court so I held my head high and faced the tune as two Monitors grabbed by the elbow and dragged me to the "Waiting Room".

In the Waiting Room, I found myself imprisoned in one dreary concrete room filled with blood splatters and other human fluids. Needless to say, the RSU probably did a bit of torturing here like the impatient cops they are. In that room, I contemplated a lot of things that have happened in my life. The human bonds that I have made, learning what it means to be a feeling man, and then Paz herself. Worrying that there's no such thing as the Garden of Eden but it was at that point where I learned something known as "hope" and I hoped for the best for Paz. From my solitary confinement, I overheard a conversation taking place just outside of my cell. I heard two mechanical voices which I assume to be RSU. It was faint but I heard the name "Anderson" with a Lieutenant rank. I've heard Anderson before and he is a high-ranking officer in the RSU.

I eavesdropped into their conversation and what I heard shook me to the very core. That Mr. Steyn had uploaded his consciousness to some sort of machine to rule Rapture as its AI overlord! From Anderson, I heard that Mr. Steyn had killed himself by the pulling the plug on his mainframe and that he is intent on keeping his death a secret to maintain the illusion of order in Rapture. Anderson was given the orders of "keeping the peace" and their definition of peacekeeping proved liberal than expected. Yet learning that Mr. Steyn had been dead all along and we were just running a dead system beyond its lifespan proved little too late... If only we had known. With the souls that I have condemned to death as a Watchmen, perhaps execution was merciful for a man like me.

I've waited for my death sentence and that sentence came when the prison guards opened that accursed door
for me. I breathe a sigh of relief as this nightmare would be over with by the time sweet death comes rushing towards me. The prison guard led me to a dreary looking door as we walked solemnly as if we were walking like priests during mass. The guard opened the creaky door for me to reveal that an electric chair had been waiting for me. Waiting for an occupant to sit on and die the moment that lever is pulled. I took a deep breath and accepted my inevitable death like a champ. They say it's better to die with courage and your head held high than dying on your knees. When the guard asked me if I had any last words as if last words meant anything to them, I simply said "no" and he carried on with the ritual as usual. Something tells me that this isn't his first rodeo.

Thus I sat there on that electric chair as I treated it as a throne with me as its rightful king. This same metallic chair was the same tool that was used in killing my black brothers. Those who either deserved it or were slandered by the state as scapegoat. Sitting on this chair meant that I'm returning to my roots which I have forsaken in favor of the pursuit of power. It is funny that my one act of goodness led me down a path of me confronting my mortality and my inevitable death... But perhaps I've learned something on that day. When I learned how to create and sustain life instead of taking it from others. It was in Paz that I've shielded life and innocence for her to flourish anew. I looked at my guard with little regrets with two stonecold eyes. I could have cooperated with them but I chose not to. But instead, I did the unthinkable... I was keeping it real.

Thus concludes my story, children. Elijah; God knows how old I am; single. I don't have much time left now but see you on the other side, James, Rachel, Megumi.


-

The rapture republic

RawReport