HALF: DEAD NOR ALIVE

Ruby watched Archie and Eve change their appearance as she walked toward them. She heard about it from Fanheim, but she never thought to see it with her own two eyes when they used their ability to change their appearance. It was somehow fascinating and terrifying at the same time.

“Uhh, am I bothering you right now?” Ruby asked as she stood in front of the desk and stared at them both.

“No, what’s wrong?” Archie asked in a different voice.

Ruby was a bit surprised that she raised her eyebrows when she heard his voice.

“Nothing’s wrong, I just came to give you this,” Ruby said as he gave her the note book. “I said that I’m going to give you the information about Atlantis as soon as I found them, right? So here it is, and you might be shocked with what I found in there,” Ruby continued as she looked at the note.

Archie and Eve looked at each other, and then they immediately focused on the note book that Ruby gave him. He opened the first page and read it thoroughly with Eve while Ruby looked at them and waited for their reaction to the information written on the book.

“Wait, the location is on the west side of FalCon-1?!” Archie asked in disbelief.

“Yeah, that got me as well. Turns out they were hiding it from us, in the place where nobody wants to set their foot in there. I should have guessed it, but that’s not something that come up to my mind,” Ruby answered as she nodded her head in agreement.

Archie kept reading it until he found out what Atlantis base for, and where it was trying to reach. The Atlantis base was deep under the sea and its purpose was to find its way to the area where the meteor struck the earth.

“So this is his plan, to wake up that thing,” Eve said after she finished reading a part of the information.

“Now it all make sense. He wanted to build his own army to fight that thing, and who knows what makes him think they could fight it,” Archie replied as he nodded his head. “But I guess he’s planning to let that thing to destroy the world, and then kill it once he got what he wanted,” Archie continued as he sighed.

“That’s not entirely impossible since he’s also researching of the serum to kill us. The longer we let him be, the greater his chance to achieve his plan, so we need to make a move now and prevent him from doing so,” Eve said as she kept reading the information. “That’s why we are doing this, right? We are going to stop him from doing so,” Eve asked as she looked at Archie.

“Yeah’ you’re right,” Archie nodded his head in agreement.

“So, the information about the Atlantis isn’t that much since it’s a new project they’re doing. They started this project a year ago, so if you decided to destroy it, I think you will have a higher chance to destroy them before they could even finish their project,” Ruby said as she crossed her arms and legs.

“Well, let’s talk about this more once we are done with our own objective. Right now, let’s just think on the mission we are going to do,” Eve said as she stood up and stretched her arms. “You should prepare yourself to leave since it’s only four hours left before your mission of extraction, right?” Eve asked Ruby.

“Yeah, I guess so,” Ruby sighed as she stood up. “If you’re planning on talking about this, I think you should talk about this with everyone. By everyone I mean Faye, Marlon, Fanheim, and the rest of us,” Ruby said as she stared at Archie.

“That’s fine by me,” Archie answered as he nodded his head.

Ruby left the barn house as Archie and Eve continued to make their faces and voices look exactly the same as the people they tried to imitate.

The night came, everyone watched Faye and the others enter the car as Prince and Resse took a small briefing with Marlon. The warehouses were somewhere in the Northern Nation, and they had to go there by cars, not to mention being undetected.

It was going to be a hard extraction, but then Nova volunteered herself to bring them to the Northern Nation. She knew a lot about the city and the safe route where there would be less soldiers guarding the roads.

Marlon hesitated to bring Nova along with them, but Archie was able to convince him that she was with her, and vouched for her. Marlon then agreed to bring Nova with the rest of them.

“Good luck out there, all of you. This mission is very important and everything and everyone are depending on you,” Marlon said as he looked at Ruby who sat behind the wheel.

“Don’t worry, we are not going to fail,” Ruby replied with a serious expression.

Marlon nodded with understanding.

They drove away as everyone watched them leave. They were nervous even though they were just standing there and weren’t the one who left to do the extraction mission.

“Alright, all of you go back to your own house and rest because you will be leaving early in the morning tomorrow,” Marlon said as he looked at them with a serious expression.

All of them left and were still worried about the mission because they didn’t want to attack the enemy base without proper equipment. Although they were worried, seeing Marlon was confident about the mission, it made them a bit at easy because as long as he was confident, they believed Ruby and the others would come back with the weapons.

When everyone was asleep, Archie guarded the whole village on his own because Eve was on her way to the Western Nation to steal lab coats and items that they were going to wear for tomorrow. The reason why she chose the Western Nation was because she didn’t want to go to the Central and Northern Nations since she didn’t want to get caught.

It didn’t take long until Eve came back with a bunch of stuff in her bag. One thing that surprised Archie more was that she got Marlyn and Dale’s ID cards.

“Wait, where did you get these?” Archie asked as he looked at Dale’s ID card in his hand.

“What do you mean? I took it from them,” Eve answered with her eyebrows furrowed.

“Wait, what? You took them like you stole it or did you kill them?” Archie asked with a confused look.

“Why would I steal them? Of course, I killed both of them since I know where they live thanks to the information that we got. Also, come and follow me, I brought their bodies with me so we can eat their brains and learn about them,” Eve answered as she grabbed Archie’s hand.

Archie was dumbfounded by the fact Eve had killed the scientists, but Eve kept dragging him into the forest. He couldn’t believe that she was so smart and terrifying at the same time.

Archie looked at the dead bodies in the forest, and he looked at them with his eyebrows raised. Eve didn’t hesitate to tear Marlyn’s head open and grabbed Marlyn’s brain with her right hand. She looked at Archie with her eyebrows furrowed.

“What are you doing? Come on, let’s dig in,” Eve asked as she stared Archie in the eye.

“Right,” Archie replied as he went to his knees to grab Dale’s head.

They both only ate their brains, and then buried their bodies in the forest.

They both felt a bit sick because human brains were something special, and the reason why they didn’t want to eat them was because of that. Archie decided to fall asleep first while Eve guarded the area, and would take a turn once he woke up.

Eve looked at the time and it was already 3am and then she saw lights coming from down the hill. It was the cars that Ruby and the others used. She thought she was the only one who was still awake, but then Fanheim and Marlon came out of their houses the moment they heard the sound of the engine in the distance.

“You’re still awake?” Fanheim asked Eve who was holding her head.

“Yeah, barely….” Eve answered as she massaged her head because her head felt so heavy and throbbing really bad.

“You doesn’t look good, I think you should rest,” Marlon said as he stared at Eve.

“I guess I can go to sleep now since they’re back. I need someone to take Archie and my place, we both are going to sleep now,” Eve said as she walked away.

Marlon and Fanheim nodded with understanding.

The cars stopped in front of Marlon and Fanheim, and then Ruby and the others came out of the cars with big smiles on their faces.

“We got everything, nothing left behind,” Prince said to Marlon.

“Perfect, I know I can depend on all of you,” Marlon replied as he nodded his head. “It’s time to prepare then,” Marlon said as he looked at the cars.