John Shirley - BioShock - Rapture

To her surprise, the doctor offered to go with them. After a while, Sophie reluctantly agreed to try the park. They went down the elevator and walked slowly across the marble-floored lobby. Sophie became more frightened as they got closer to the street. Ever since they’d left the fishing boat that had picked them up off Iceland, she’d darted under cover as quickly as she could, hiding her eyes from the sky.

Then the doctor turned to Sophie and said, in a kindly voice, “May I carry you?”

Sophie looked up at him gravely. “Yes.”

He nodded, equally grave, and knelt by her. She put her arms around his neck, and he lifted her up, carried her piggyback out the door, Elaine walking at his side. Elaine couldn’t help making a grotesque comparison to the way Big Daddies sometimes carried Little Sisters. But she thrust it out of her mind.

“Oh!” Sophie said as they stepped out into the hot sun. But she only clung harder.

They walked over to Central Park. Sophie cried on the way, but didn’t ask to hide from the sky.

They got to the park and found an open green field, with butter-colored flowers. On the edge of the field birds sang in the trees. The doctor let Sophie down, and she walked slowly out into the sunlight.

“Mama,” she said, shading her eyes to look up at the blue sky. “It’s nice out here. It just goes on and on. You know what?”

“What?”

“I think Daddy would have liked seeing this.”

“Yes, Sophie,” Elaine said, just managing not to cry. “Yes, love. Yes, he would have.”

John Shirley won the Bram Stoker Award for his story collection Black Butterflies, and is the author of numerous novels, including the best-seller DEMONS, the cyberpunk classics CITY COME A-WALKIN’, ECLIPSE, and BLACK GLASS, and his latest, new from Simon & Schuster, the urban fantasy novel BLEAK HISTORY. He is a screenwriter, having written for television and movies; he was co-screenwriter of THE CROW. He will be in Prime Books’ THE YEAR’S BEST DARK FANTASY AND HORROR anthology, this year, and his story collection IN EXTREMIS: THE MOST EXTREME SHORT STORIES OF JOHN SHIRLEY from Underland Press has been getting rave advance reviews. His novel BIOSHOCK: RAPTURE, telling the story of the creation and undoing of Rapture, from the hit videogame BIOSHOCK is about to come out from TOR books.

He is also a lyricist, having written lyrics for 18 songs recorded by the Blue Oyster Cult (especially on their albums Heaven Forbidden and Curse of the Hidden Mirror ), and his own recordings.

John Shirley has written only one nonfiction book, GURDJIEFF: AN INTRODUCTION TO HIS LIFE AND IDEAS, published by Penguin/Jeremy Tarcher.

Other John Shirley story collections include BLACK BUTTERFLIES, IN EXTREMIS, LIVING SHADOWS and REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY WEIRD STORIES.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

BIOSHOCK: RAPTURE

Copyright © 2011 by Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.

BioShock and the BioShock logo are trademarks of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.

All rights reserved.

A Tor ®eBook

Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC

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Tor ®is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.

ISBN 978-0-7653-2484-9 (hardcover)

ISBN 978-0-7653-2485-6 (trade paperback)

First Edition: July 2011

eISBN 978-1-4299-4931-6

First Tor eBook Edition: July 2011

Table of Contents

Title Page

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Epigraphs

Prologue

Part One: The First Age of Rapture

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Part Two: The Second Age of Rapture

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Part Three: The Third Age of Rapture

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

About the Author

Copyright