HA\\LF: Dead nor Alive

The birds chirped and roosted on the roof of the houses, it was a quiet and peaceful morning in the city until a static sound came from the speaker around the city. Everyone looked at the speaker on top of the pole and those who were inside the house came out to listen. The radio was making the same sound and it mean that something happened or something will be announced.

An old man’s voice came from the speaker, “Good morning, western nation, my name is Flavius AnGust. Some of you may know me but for those who don’t know who I am, I’m the 44th Marshal of the Western Nation. You may have heard about the expedition of the four nations that happened a month ago.” Flavius cleared his throat and continued, “Without wasting your time, the latest information we got about the expedition… it failed and none of them are going to come back home.”

Everyone murmured and looked at each other with a shocked expression. It was a shock for everyone to hear that the expedition failed, but it wasn’t because of the failure, it was because none of the participants who joined the expedition survived.

“With this broadcast, I will announce my resignation as the 44th Marshal of the Western Nation. The reason I want to step down from my position is that I will personally go to the Fallen Continent One to retrieve my son’s dead body.” Flavius’ voice trembled as if he held his emotion in.

It was a surprise to hear and it was so sudden that Flavius AnGust, the one who defeated ExTP-3 Var-11 stepped down from his position but at the same time they understood his reasoning. Everyone stared at the speakers while they were all waiting for Matthew to say something else.

Flavius exhaled in front of the mic, “Before I leave my position as the Marshal of the Western Nation, I want to tell everyone who’s listening to this broadcast. We have discovered and achieved something that our ancestors couldn’t from the past hundreds of years.” Flavius cleared his throat and continued, “We have finally found a way to create Axis Human from a normal human body.”

It was a shock for the people of the Western Nation to hear something that felt like a dream come true. But, they didn’t think it would come without a price so they waited until Flavius to say more about it.

“You who want to make a change and achieve something that nobody dares to take the risk for it. No matter who you are, how old you are, or whether you’re a father, a mother, a son, a daughter, a brother, or a sister, you are all invited to make that change. I will say that there’s a small chance you would become a parasite and so I’m not persuading you nor asking you to be a part of this experiment. Those who want to take a risk can come to the military base 3 days from now and I will be waiting.”

Everyone was staring at the speakers in silence and thought about it, some of them left and brushed the announcement because they weren’t interested in that.

The day came and thousands of citizens were entering the military base, the soldiers were guiding them to the open field. Since the military base wasn’t meant to be visited by citizens, they were surprised to see the artilleries and the military forces that the Western Nation has. Horses were expensive and only a few people were allowed to have them, and those who breed horses were basically the richest people in the nation.

All those who wanted to make a change in their lives have gathered on the field and they could see Flavius standing on the podium with the rest of the generals and majors standing behind him. Flavius stared at each one of them, he saw from 50 years old to 15 years old kids stood in line, he didn’t show any expression but deep down he was grateful for their sacrifice because they risked their lives for the experiment.

The cold breeze because of the cloudy weather in the morning made all of them a bit nervous because of the atmosphere and the silence.

Flavius glared at them and tapped on the mic, “Good morning to all of you, I’m grateful and glad that so many of you are coming here to volunteer on the experiment. As I said on the broadcast a few days ago, the experiment will have a chance that you won’t become an Axis Human, instead, you will become a parasite and we will kill you when we have the chance.” Flavius paused for a moment and continued, “We haven’t tested it on a human yet but we have tested it on animals. The chance of the success is 34% and that alone isn’t good enough because the moment it succeeds, you will suffer for the next few days, and only 42% survived the second phase.”

Everyone looked at each other and started to doubt their decision, but a few of them kept glaring at Flavius and were ready for the risk.

Flavius knew that some of them were scared and so he walked away from the podium and stood in front of it while he put his hands on his back, “Before I asked you if you’re willing to risk your life for the experiment, there’s something I would like to confess.” Flavius closed his eyes for a moment then he opened them again, “It was the morning like today when I sent my son, the son that I’m so proud of to the FalCon-1. I thought to myself that I have raised my son so proudly and when he became a man, I lived my days with pride.”

Flavius took a deep breath and exhaled deeply while he stared at the sky, “All the badges and medals that I’m wearing right now are the proof of my courage and bravery, but also because of my hard work. These badges and medals couldn’t be compared when I saw my son go outside the wall and came back with outstanding results.” Flavius put his right hand on his chest, “That carved the badge in my heart and a proof that I raised him finely, but now, this badge is hurting me. The pin pokes me every night and it keeps me awake and hurting me ever since I heard that my son failed and died on a mission.”

Flavius walked down the podium and stood in front of them, “If I could take the experiment with you, I would because the pain that I’m feeling right now is so unbearable that I would take all the physical pain than this…” Flavius walked past them and looked at each one of them, “I had enough sitting behind my desk, I’m resigning from my position so I can go out there and take back what’s left from my son. This is the reason why I want to make a change because I’m sick of doing nothing while I had to send my son to his death.”

“I will be there when you’re ongoing on the experiment, I will be there to see if you succeed or not, and I will be there to end your life if you turn into a parasite.” Flavius turned around while he stared at the podium and the generals and majors stood on the podium.

“I will bear your burden, I will bear your pain…” Flavius turned around once again and looked at them, “I will bear your life, death, and sin because that’s the only thing I can do for you.” He walked back up to the podium and took a deep breath, “So, I will ask you one last time, are you going to take a chance and change the world with me?”

Because of Flavius’ speech, they made up their minds and so they nodded in agreement. Flavius smiled while he nodded, “Thank you, and good luck because that’s all it is to it.”

Flavius came down from the podium and the soldiers were leading all the volunteers to the laboratory for the experiment. Flavius and all the majors were following them from behind because they wanted to see the process and how many of them that will succeed in the experiment.

The experiment proceed without delay, Flavius and all the majors watched every single one of them from the other side of the mirror. A guy came into the room and stood next to Flavius with his lab coat and clipboard in his hand, “These are the last ones, Marshal.”

Flavius hummed with understanding without letting his gaze away from the volunteers on the bed. “How many so far have shown the sign, Prof?” As Flavius stared at the professor from the corner of his eyes.

“21% so far, Marshal…” The professor removed his glasses and then massaged his nose bridge. Flavius took a deep breath while he raised his shoulders because of the news, “It’s better than none, but how can it be so low?” Flavius turned his body toward the professor while he exhaled deeply.

The professor sat down at the table behind Flavius, he looked at his hands while he raised his eyebrows, “Because we don’t have the sample of the ExTP-0, it’s hard to modify the sample of ExTP-1 type on Archie’s blood…”

“I still don’t understand that at all, Professor, please explain it simply to all of us so we can understand.” Flavius leaned on the big see-through glass behind him and crossed his arms.

The Professor looked at him while he tilted his head and raised his eyebrows, “First, let’s compared it to the immune system of the Axis human. The Axis human’s immune system is extraordinarily strong that they can kill the parasite inside their body. It’s like injecting our body with a vaccine and their immune system attack the parasite and kills them and takes the power from the parasite that’s left from the parasite and makes it theirs.”

The Professor flipped his hand and looked at Flavius, “On the other hand, Archie’s immune system is unbelievably rare that when a parasite attacked his body, his immune system adapts and lives with it. The parasite on the other hand can’t modify and pass his immune system no matter how strong the parasite is.”

The professor rested both of his arms on the table, “After observing his blood sample, Archie’s immune system actually took over the parasite very slowly. Instead of attacking and killing the parasite, it prevents the parasite from leaving his body and it trapped the parasite while slowly devouring it into one. Unfortunately, the stronger the parasite the longer it takes for him to devour the parasite. If we are talking about the first-gen parasite, it will take him at least 10 years to devour it entirely.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Flavius squinted his eyes while he stared at the professor.

The professor stood up and looked at the volunteer behind the glass, “It means that Archie’s immune system will take control of the whole parasite inside his body. His immune system could handle more than one parasite in his body based on the test I ran. Unfortunately, because of his very little blood sample, I couldn’t do much of a test on it and the parasite we have is quite strong so even if his blood sample could handle the parasite and suppress it from taking over, once it’s injected into someone else’s body, their immune system will try to fight Archie’s genes because of that.”

“Are you telling me that Archie is still alive now?” Flavius stood straight and approached the professor.

“I guarantee that he’s still alive as we speak.” As the professor nodded at Flavius.

“Excuse me, Professor Larse! You said that Archie is still alive?!” A guy who guarded the door behind him looked at Larse with his eyes widened.

Flavius tilted his head and looked at the guy, “Oh right, you know him very well. Isn’t that right, Aster? Speaking of which, you came here with a woman and I believe she volunteered in this experiment as well. Is she your partner?”

Aster shook his head, “No, Sir, she’s Archie’s friend, her name is Faye. She volunteered because she wants to find Archie.”

Flavius hummed with understanding but then Larse looked at his clipboard and raised his eyebrows with a shocked expression, “Faye… Elendra Faye?” as he looked at Aster.

Aster nodded repeatedly. “Yes, Elendra Faye, what’s wrong professor? Is she-”

Before Aster could finish his sentence, Larse chuckled with disbelief while he kept staring at the clipboard, “No, she took it quite easily and she is currently the only one that’s guaranteed to evolve into Axis Human.”

Both Flavius and Aster were shocked by Lerse’s statement.