It's Life

This is written about experiences in the Xbox 360/PC game BioShock that I have had, but from the character's viewpoint. Enjoy!

It's Life

 

Jack turned the corner carefully, a pistol in one hand, a red ball in the other. Under close inspection one would see that the ball glowed and the hand that held it was covered in slime, but no one took a good look in this town unless they wanted a fireball in the face.

Such was life in the underwater city of Rapture. And, by what seemed like the heavy hand of fate, Jack was a part of it.

Only hours earlier he had been on a plane over the Atlantic, smoking a cigarette and reading a newspaper dated March 15, 1960. God, how he loved living in the sixties. He'd stared at the legs of the stewardess going past, and then...what? Jack struggled to remember, but something blocked him out.

Suddenly, there was a scream, and a man with a deformed face and a heavy pipe launched himself from the shadows. Jack jumped back just in time, the lead pipe whooshing through the air where his head had been. Two more similar people stepped from a doorway, and they faced him, gnashing their teeth and shaking their pipes. But Jack was ready.

He tossed the red ball at the attacker in the middle. It hit his face and coated him with a red, slimy substance. The man let out a roar and bashed his nearest companion over the face with his pipe. The companion didn't take kindly to that, and they fell to the ground, wrestling. The third man saw this and ran up to Jack, but as he leapt to make his strike, Jack fired one shot from his pistol. It struck the man in the middle of the head, and he fell at Jack's feet.

The effects of the ball Jack had thrown earlier had worn off, and now Jack found himself staring at two very angry and slightly bloody maniacs. But they didn't know what they were standing on. Jack clicked his fingers, and the oil underneath their feet burst into flame.

They screamed and gibbered, shaking wildly. They spotted a large pool of water and leapt into it, giving relieved moans as the fire was put out. But Jack shook a disapproving finger. "See you later, boys," he said, and he fired a bolt of lightning into the water. The men let out one last yell and collapsed, convulsing, into the water.

Jack continued on his way, but with a light swagger now. That was the third attack he had fended off that morning without a scratch. He was getting good.

And then a fireball flew out of the darkness.

Jack ducked, but barely in time; the hair on the back of his neck burned, and his skin sizzled. Grimacing at the pain, he turned to face his new attackers.

It was a Spider Splicer and a Houdini Splicer. The Spider Splicer was an acrobatic freak that carried hooks for weapons, and the Houdini Splicer had thrown the fireball. The Houdini Splicer disappeared in a puff of red smoke and reappeared behind Jack. Jack crouched and the fireball intended for him flew over his head and hit the Spider Splicer instead.

The Spider Splicer screamed and did a back handspring into some water, but before Jack could fry him, he leapt back out, sopping wet and grinning. "I know just what to do with you two," said Jack, and his hands began to shake. They grew puckered and full of holes, and out of those holes came hornets. He thrust his hands to either side and the hornets hit the Splicers, stinging them and distracting them.

Jack brought out his grenade launcher. "If you do that," said the Houdini Splicer with some difficulty, "we'll all die!"

Jack grinned. "Shaped charges," he said, and fired at them.

The blast, directed entirely at them, did not affect him one bit. Jack saw that they had ended up in a corner, burned and blackened. He went over to the Spider Splicer and sliced him open. He ripped out the Splicer's liver and bit into it. He felt the organ's resorative properties working on his neck, and after he finished healing, he went on his way.

 

End.

Author's Note

I know it was a little grotesque, but that's life down there. What do you guys think?

Reviews

[Gideon Jacob]

A cool piece. It was gruesome but then, so is Bioshock. =P You managed to capture the gameplay well I thought and it's not hard to imagine a scene like that occurring in the city of Rapture. Well written and entertaining. Again, it was gruesome but that added to it, not detracted from it as fight scenes are meant to be gritty for the most part. A job well done here I think. The title is wonderfully fitting as well!