A Different Lighthouse

Chapter 3

Ben found that he couldn't take his eyes off of Armitage.

It was less about his looks - although those were very impressive, hello suspenders - and more about the fact that he just couldn't figure him out. One moment he was cussing up a storm, kicking in doors and blowing holes in the heads of Splicers. The next he was making dry jokes, openly mourning the city he used to love that was now in shambles, hacking at the bottoms of Ben's shoes to keep him from slipping and calling him dear. Ben got the feeling that the man wasn't everything he appeared to be.

"So why are you trying to leave?" he asked eventually. Armitage glanced minutely over his shoulder, though his eyes stayed forward. "It sounded to me like you really love this place. Why are you leaving?"

Armitage was quiet for a long moment, which Ben had come to expect. The guy appeared to think through his words very carefully before he spoke, which Ben supposed he could respect.

"Like y'said, dear," Armitage replied after some silence. "Gotta know when to quit."

There was something hanging on the end of that, something he wasn't saying. But, Ben wasn't in any position to pry. He hardly knew the guy, after all.

The medical pavilion was devoid of danger for the moment, though that didn't seem to be of comfort to Armitage. His eyes were still on the walls and ceilings, his shotgun still pulled and at the ready. Ben mirrored him with his pistol, though he didn't feel nearly as confident as he pretended to be. He knew how to shoot from practicing with his dad, but he wasn't exactly proficient, and he certainly wasn't combat-trained. The Splicers were erratic, though, flailing and unsteady on their feet, so fighting them was just a matter of trying not to get hit by a stray bullet.

They emerged onto the second level of Medical, Armitage peering around the corner before waving Ben to follow after him. The quiet was starting to get to Ben, now, as he found himself grinding his teeth.

"This way," Armitage murmured. "Gotta flip the emergency release, then it's a straight shot to Neptune's Bounty."

"This place is a maze," Ben snorted, following closely. "Especially with all the lights out. Dunno how you find your way around."

"This is my city, and I've lived here a long while," Armitage told him lowly, the melodrama practically rolling off of him in waves. "I know her inside and out."

Ben stared at the back of his head for a moment. "You seem like you're real fun at parties, Armitage."

"Shh."

He was about to clap back, but fell quiet when he heard the same thing Armitage had - voices around the corner, muttering feverishly underneath the echo of dripping water. He lifted his pistol, loading it quietly and trying to watch where he put his feet - he hadn't noticed how often he stepped in puddles until Armitage had pointed it out.

As they rounded the corner they saw a Splicer, wearing a ragged doctor's coat and rifling inside the pockets of a corpse. Armitage held out his arm, Ben's chest colliding with it as he halted them both, but it was a second too late. The Splicer's head snapped up, his eyes wide and bloodshot and an ammo pack hanging off of his shoulder. He reached inside it, and Ben only had a second to register him pulling the pin out of a grenade with his teeth before Armitage shoved him back with both hands. He sprawled on the ground, scraping up his back a bit on the concrete and covering his head as the grenade went off somewhere to his left. Bits of shrapnel pinged off of his forearms, but not hard enough to cut through his clothes.