Jack hears the footsteps too. And then, a few moments later, the crying.
Oh jeez. They cry?
He pushes himself to his knees, and then to his feet, slower than he'd like and it still feels as if he stood up too fast. No health kits left to deal with it, though. He'll just have to grit his teeth and power through the feeling that his various extremities are haemorrhaging away.
"Hey," he says to her, "shut up?"
She spots him, gasps, and kind of toddles away so that the Daddy corpse is between them. Oh my god, he doesn't feel like chasing her in circles around the thing. "Hey, would you come back?" he asks, fighting the urge to start coughing in case it brings up his own blood or pancreas or whatever's gotten loose in there.
He kind of stumbles forwards, suddenly realising just how much he fucking hurts, and that apparently catches her by surprise -- because she freezes in place and he turns it into a grab that gets her arm. Immediately she's struggling, but she's a little girl and he's built like a house of rocks. There's only gonna be one victor here, injuries or not.
Okay. Moral choice time.
And with everything in balance -- he knows how bad the fighting's gotten already, the smaller dose was great but could've been greater, nobody's threatening to cap him if he does one thing or another -- his choice is sort of clear. They're not human, Atlas said so, no matter what they might look like -- so really it's like killing a turkey or something back on the farm. And, you know, he's kinda earned this. That was a hell of a fight.
He tries putting a hand over her mouth and nose. Closes his eyes, as well, because she's crying so hard and that kinda makes it feel like he's doing something wrong.
Eventually she stops thrashing. He lowers her quietly to the floor, just like a plucked Thanksgiving turkey.
But then she opens her eyes and hauls in a breath.
"What?" he says out loud, panicked. Holy shit. Holy shit, that wasn't meant to happen. "What? No, stop it."
She tries to crawl away, but he retains the presence of mind to grab her again. He stares at her for a moment, reeling, because she was dead. Then he breaks her neck.
Again, she returns to life. It's really really really freaking him out.
"Stop that!"
The turkeys. He remembers how they pacify the turkeys. Electrobolt comes out and he zaps her, hard, in the back of the head before she can wriggle away. And now -- unconscious -- she doesn't open her eyes again.
Jack kind of slumps down with the Sister in his arms, using the Big Daddy's arm as a gory leather couch. That diary he found, about how they're invulnerable with the slug inside them. He recalls it now. Of course he recalls it now, when he's already figured out the shocking way that they don't die. Jesus god almighty.
He pulls himself together a bit, trembling as if he's caught a chill.
And what he does next is obscured by a choking cloud of dark green smoke.
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Oh jeez. They cry?
He pushes himself to his knees, and then to his feet, slower than he'd like and it still feels as if he stood up too fast. No health kits left to deal with it, though. He'll just have to grit his teeth and power through the feeling that his various extremities are haemorrhaging away.
"Hey," he says to her, "shut up?"
She spots him, gasps, and kind of toddles away so that the Daddy corpse is between them. Oh my god, he doesn't feel like chasing her in circles around the thing. "Hey, would you come back?" he asks, fighting the urge to start coughing in case it brings up his own blood or pancreas or whatever's gotten loose in there.
He kind of stumbles forwards, suddenly realising just how much he fucking hurts, and that apparently catches her by surprise -- because she freezes in place and he turns it into a grab that gets her arm. Immediately she's struggling, but she's a little girl and he's built like a house of rocks. There's only gonna be one victor here, injuries or not.
Okay. Moral choice time.
And with everything in balance -- he knows how bad the fighting's gotten already, the smaller dose was great but could've been greater, nobody's threatening to cap him if he does one thing or another -- his choice is sort of clear. They're not human, Atlas said so, no matter what they might look like -- so really it's like killing a turkey or something back on the farm. And, you know, he's kinda earned this. That was a hell of a fight.
He tries putting a hand over her mouth and nose. Closes his eyes, as well, because she's crying so hard and that kinda makes it feel like he's doing something wrong.
Eventually she stops thrashing. He lowers her quietly to the floor, just like a plucked Thanksgiving turkey.
But then she opens her eyes and hauls in a breath.
"What?" he says out loud, panicked. Holy shit. Holy shit, that wasn't meant to happen. "What? No, stop it."
She tries to crawl away, but he retains the presence of mind to grab her again. He stares at her for a moment, reeling, because she was dead. Then he breaks her neck.
Again, she returns to life. It's really really really freaking him out.
"Stop that!"
The turkeys. He remembers how they pacify the turkeys. Electrobolt comes out and he zaps her, hard, in the back of the head before she can wriggle away. And now -- unconscious -- she doesn't open her eyes again.
Jack kind of slumps down with the Sister in his arms, using the Big Daddy's arm as a gory leather couch. That diary he found, about how they're invulnerable with the slug inside them. He recalls it now. Of course he recalls it now, when he's already figured out the shocking way that they don't die. Jesus god almighty.
He pulls himself together a bit, trembling as if he's caught a chill.
And what he does next is obscured by a choking cloud of dark green smoke.