HALF: DEAD NOR ALIVE

“In danger? Is this about what happened to the headquarters?” Archie asked as he looked at Faye who seemed to not bother with where he and Eve went for the past month.

“Yes, I want both of you to sit down and listen to me. This is more dangerous than the King-type parasite,” Faye answered as she pointed down at the chairs in front of her desk.

Faye explained what happened, and she told the same exact story as when Eve told him about how she got the serum. The only difference was it was from a different perspective and in Faye’s perspective, it was scarier than Eve’s.

Faye looked so scared and terrified after she told them about what happened because knowing there was something other than a parasite that could do something like that. A humanoid parasite and she believed that it was an Ex-Human who seek for revenge for what happened to the King-type parasites that they killed because the Ex-Human took the serum.

It sounded so stupid that Eve almost blew up her cover by chuckling, but she immediately cleared her throat, and Faye didn’t suspect or realize it.

“So, what are we going to do? You’re not thinking of hunting that Ex-Human, aren’t you?” Archie asked as he looked at Faye with his eyebrows raised.

“Personally, I don’t want to, but for everyone’s safety, we are going to investigate this Ex-Human and find where she went to. She took a serum and that’s really dangerous if she decided to use it on us,” Faye answered and looked a bit worried.

“You said it yourself that the parasite could kill dozens of Axis Humans by doing nothing. Do you really think we have a chance to kill her?” Archie asked again. “Let’s not think about killing her, what if she finds us? Do you we will be safe if she decides to kill us all?” Archie continued.

“Don’t be stupid, Faye. If what you said is the truth, you’re just going to kill everyone for nothing and, to be honest, I don’t want to take that risk,” Eve said as she stared Faye in the eye. “You can go out there and find her, but not us, and I believe Ruby and Vincent didn’t agree on this as well, right?”

Faye was a bit surprised when Eve was on point about Ruby and Vincent didn’t agree with her decision.

“Why?” Faye asked with a puzzled look.

“What do you mean why? You should ask that question to Ruby and Vincent if you want the right answer,” Eve answered. “There are things that you don’t know, Faye. It’s better for you to just stay here and don’t make such a decision that would make you regret it,” Eve continued and she sounded like she was threatening Faye.

Faye looked a bit surprised and annoyed with Eve’s words, but she tried to calm herself down.

“I think we should talk about this with Ruby and the others, no? It’s better if we discuss this matter with them so we can vote rather we are going to find that Ex-Human or not,” Archie said and stared at Faye.

Faye sighed and nodded with understanding.

“Even though I already talked about this with the others, but since you both are here, let’s do another meeting to discuss this matter,” Faye replied as she rubbed the bridge of her nose. “By the way, where were you?” Faye asked and looked at both of them.

Archie didn’t know what to say because he had nothing in mind nor any preparation to make a story for it.

“I’m the reason why,” Eve answered. “I want to spend my time alone with Archie and if you’re going to ask us why we were gone for so long is because I think we both deserve it after what we did on the last three missions,”

“But you can tell one of us, at least, so we don’t have to look for you,” Faye said as she looked at Eve.

“Maybe the reason why I didn’t tell anyone about our whereabouts was that I didn’t want to be bothered or to be found in the first place,” Eve replied and kept staring at Faye.

Faye raised her eyebrows and couldn’t say anything else because she already knew that she couldn’t win an argument with Eve. She had nothing to say and decided to believe in Eve’s words.

“You both can leave now, and if you’re looking for Ruby or Vincent, they’re one floor below me, you should be able to find them if you ask someone that lives down here,” Faye said as she grabbed a document from her desk.

Archie nodded his head and then left the office with Eve following him from behind.

The moment the lift’s door was opened, they saw Ruby and Vincent standing in front of the lift.

“Archie!” Ruby’s eyes were wide open with a surprised expression.

“Hi, it’s been a while,” Archie smiled at them.

Ruby looked around and saw nobody near them. “Let’s talk,” Ruby entered the lift as she pulled Vincent’s arm.

They went all the way down and it was quiet in the lift because of the CCTV and the audio recording device that they put in the lift. The moment they left the building, Ruby looked at Archie and Eve with a serious expression.

“We found something and our suspicion about this whole thing is right,” Ruby said as she walked on the sidewalk behind Archie and Eve. “It was you who took the serum, right, Eve?” Ruby stared at Eve from behind.

“Yes, is there a problem?” Eve answered as she glanced at Ruby from the corner of her eyes.

“No, I don’t have a problem with that, and thanks to you, we found something that we never thought we would get so easily,” Ruby replied as she shook her head. “But, we are curious why are you suddenly came back and did that though,”

Eve took a deep breath and stared at Archie. “It was all for him, if I didn’t get that serum, I think Archie would be dead by now or became a dangerous King-type parasite,” Eve answered.

Ruby and Vincent were a bit shocked by it.

“Well, since you’re back, I think you can tell us about it later. Let’s head to the bar so we can talk freely there because Vincent got close with the owner and we both can have a bit of privacy in there,” Ruby said as she nodded her head.

They entered the bar and Vincent did his thing, they were brought to the second floor and it was a great place to talk in private because nobody was up there in the attic.

“This is nice,” Archie said as he looked around and saw so many barrels stacked to each other.

“I know right,” Vincent smiled with his eyebrows raised. “I’m going to grab something for us. You want the usual, right, Archie?”

“Yeah, anything strong for me and Eve,” Archie nodded his head.

“Got it! Be right back,” Vincent replied as he walked downstairs.

Vincent came back with four bottles and opened them all with his bare hands.

“We got information from Faye about the rebellion,” Ruby said as she grabbed her drink. “Everyone knew about what happened and they kept it a secret because they couldn’t find the culprit behind the incident,” Ruby continued.

“And then? Do you know why they didn’t come to rescue you and the people from the Eastern Nation?” Archie asked with his eyebrows raised.

“They said that they did. They tried to sail but ended up dead in the middle of the sea because of the swarm of parasites that live in the sea. Faye showed us the reports and it was all true,” Ruby answered as she sighed.

“Sail? Don’t they have planes and blimps?” Archie asked with his eyebrows furrowed.

“That’s the interesting part,” Ruby nodded her head with understanding. “Turns out, this whole thing, it doesn’t belong to the military anymore,” Ruby answered and looked at Archie and Eve.

“There’s someone who owned almost all the property on this land, and the reason why there’s a Central Nation, it was because of him. His name is Victor Maxim, he’s the one who controls everything in this nation,” Ruby answered. “He’s the one who owns the laboratory, the headquarters, everything and that includes all the technologies they have right now,”

“So you’re saying that he didn’t give them permission to use his technologies?” Archie asked.

“Yes, that’s exactly what happened. He didn’t lend them proper equipment because he said that he needed them to make the Central Nation and to gather resources for the greater good,” Ruby answered. “Faye said that Victor Maxim had his own army of Axis Humans that live under the radar and she believes that they’re equal or even stronger than us,”

Both Archie and Eve looked interested in Victor Maxim.

“Yeah, I talked about this with Eve and she said the same thing. There are people who pretended to be normal human beings but the truth is they’re stronger than both of you,” Archie said.

Ruby and Vincent hummed with understanding.

“Right, now after that incident that happened a month ago, we met him,” Ruby said as she looked at Archie and Eve. “We didn’t have a chance to speak with him but we heard he was pissed,”

“The reason why Faye decided to go and hunt the one who was responsible for the incident, it’s because he was the one who ordered her to hunt the culprit,” Ruby said as she looked at Eve.