HA\\LF: Dead nor Alive

“Wow, Frank. This is the first time I taste something delicious since I live down here,” Ruby said as she leaned on the chair and turned her head at Frank.

“Heh! Of course! My wife is the best cook in the city and nobody can match her cooking. Just bring me ingredients and meat when you go out there in return. Maybe she will cook you something delicious again if she’s happy with your catches.” Frank said as he leaned on the wall and crossed his arms.

“Don’t worry about it, Frank! We will bring as many ingredients and meat for you and your wife!” Tommy said as he eat the lamb chops.

Archie just sat there watching everyone eating their foot since normal food didn’t satisfy his hunger so he gave it to Frank so he can enjoy his wife’s cooking.

“Are you guys free after this?” Archie asked as he rested his head on his left fist.

Everyone looked at Ruby since she was the one who gave orders.

“We suppose, yeah, and I’m planning to help those guys rebuild the wall. Why?” Ruby replied as she chewed the meat.

“If you guys are free, I want to show you guys something in the laboratory that you were hiding in back then,” Archie replied.

Ruby ate her food as she kept staring at Archie, she then nodded with understanding. “Okay, we can go out there and maybe hunt some food for Frank.”

“What is it? Vincent asked.

Archie smiled and raised his eyebrows. “You will see.”

After they finished their food, the five of them left the pub and went outside the wall.

On their way to the laboratory, everyone felt a bit uneasy because of something. Archie could tell that a parasite had been keeping an eye on them ever since they left the wall.

Archie suddenly stopped and the others immediately stopped moving as well. “Don’t move.”

Everyone just stared at each other while Archie looked to his left and kept his eyes on the wall. Suddenly a parasite jumped off of the wall and growled at them making Ruby and the others startled and grabbed their guns.

“Wait!” Archie said.

Archie stared at the parasite and tilted his head while the parasite looked back at Archie. He felt something he hadn’t felt before, a feeling that he could understand what the parasite was thinking. He then squinted his eyes and for an unknown reason, he said something in his mind and the parasite immediately ran away toward the forest.

“What the fuck was that?” Ruby asked as she grabbed Archie’s shoulder.

Archie looked at her with a smile on his face. “For some reason, I could understand what the parasite is thinking and for some unknown reason I could order them to leave,” Archie replied.

“Right, you said you ate that Ex-Human and gained his power. Does that mean now you can control the parasites?” Ruby said.

“Yeah, I think so…” Archie replied.

Ruby and Vincent looked at each other with surprised expressions.

“Alright, we should continue walking,” Archie said as he walked.

They arrived at the entrance of the laboratory, unfortunately, the entrance was destroyed by Gideon and so they walked around it and used a different entrance. Archie guided them to the room where the meteor fragment was, he used the same method to open the steel door.

As soon as the door was opened all of them were shocked when they saw so many things inside but mostly they were surprised about the fragment.

“This is what I want to show you guys,” Archie said as he pointed his hand at the fragment.

“This is?” Ruby asked as she walked toward the fragment.

“Yes, it’s the fragment of the meteor,” Archie answered.

All of them were observing the fragment and touched it with their hands since it was the first time they saw it.

Archie walked around them and looked at Ruby. “Do you know a person who could process this thing? I need to make a sword from this,” Archie asked.

Ruby looked at Archie with a surprised expression. “You want to make a weapon from this? I know that this is the best material since the AnGust family had one and it has been proved it was the best weapon ever made,” Ruby said. “But, the problem is that I don’t think anyone could process this fragment anymore…” Ruby continued as she stared at the fragment.

“I think it’s possible…” Vincent said as he looked at Ruby. “Do you remember him? He used to make the best weapon until he left with the others.” Vincent explained.

Ruby rubbed her mouth as she thought about it. “Yeah, you might be right since he was the best blacksmith we ever had,” Ruby replied. “If we want to see him, we have to go far up north but the problem is, the bridge might be filled with parasites by now and it’s almost impossible to bring him back here.” Ruby continued as she leaned on the fragment.

Archie approached her and crossed his arms. “Just tell me his name and where he is, I will bring him back,” Archie said with confidence.

“Even if I want to tell you, you need permission to go up there and you won’t be able to get that permission without Marlon’s approval,” Ruby said as she stared at Archie. “But, I could convince him and give us permission to go up there since we do still have a mission to bring her back to the city,” Ruby continued as she looked at Vincent while she nodded repeatedly.

Archie didn’t know what she was talking about but Vincent seemed to understand what Ruby meant.

“Yeah, she’s still our priority until now so I guess we can get permission to go up north from Marlon,” Vincent said.

“Well then, if we are going to the north, at least that blacksmith would want some kind of proof, right?” Archie said as he cracked his fingers.

“Yeah, but I don’t think anyone would be able to break this thing without proper equipment,” Ruby replied.

Archie smirked and looked at her. “I want to test my new ability, anyway, so please stay back for a moment.”

All of them were looking at each other and walking back at the same time.

Archie pulled his sleeves and transformed his whole fingers into blade-like fingers and wrapped them with the black tissue. They were looking at Archie with their eyes and mouth wide open while Archie was focusing on making his both hands as strong and sharp as possible.

Archie moved his fingers and then scratched them on the fragment, it made a spark as he dragged his hand. There were no scratch marks on the fragment and it didn’t surprise him at all, he then pulled his arm back then thrust the fragment as fast as he could.

The very loud banging sound could even be heard from the outside of the laboratory. Ruby and the others were covering their ears as Archie slashed his fingers at the fragment.

*THUD!*

Everyone looked down and saw a piece of the fragment fall onto the floor. Archie grabbed it and it was a big chunk of a piece of the fragment, he looked at Ruby with a smirk on his face. “I got it.”

Archie’s hands went back to normal and then they approached him to look at the piece of the fragment.

“Your hand doesn’t look good, Archie,” Tommy said as he pointed at Archie’s broken fingers.

“Oh?” Archie said as he looked at his fingers. “Hold on…” Archie said as he moved his fingers and it went back to its original position. “There, it’s fine now,” Archie said as he looked at Tommy who was watching it with disbelief.

“I wonder if I should be jealous or scared from watching that…” Tommy said with his eyebrows raised and his head tilted.

“I guess we are done here, and we can leave this place before anyone notices,” Archie said as he threw and caught the piece of the fragment in his hand.

Ruby nodded in agreement. “Yeah, we should leave and we can start hunting for food as we have promised to Frank that we are going back with our hands full.”

All of them left the laboratory and Archie put the fragment in his bag, they went deeper into the abandoned city and looked for wild animals.

As they were hunting for them, Archie was still curious about the blacksmith and the woman that Ruby mentioned earlier, so he decided to ask about it.

“You still haven’t told me about the blacksmith’s name,” Archie said as he walked next to Vincent and Ruby.

“Oh, right, his name is Antonio Newman, he was famous among us, Axis Humans because everyone would request a weapon from him. All the weapons he made, it’s like a national treasure now so only a very few people can use them.” Ruby explained.

Archie hummed. “What about the woman that you mentioned earlier? You said that she’s the main priority or something like that.” Archie asked.

Ruby hesitated to reply but then she sighed and looked at Archie. “She’s Carolene, the shipwright that built the first ship, without her, we won’t be able to make a proper ship so we need her skill for our plan of migration.”

“What happened? Why is she not here in the city?” Archie asked.

Ruby looked down at the road. “She was devastated when she heard that the people who board the ship were all dead, that includes her husband and children. She ran away with some of the people that felt like they didn’t belong here with us anymore, including Antonio Newman.” She explained. “We don’t know exactly where they are but we got information from the scout team that they live in the mountain up north. We called them those people the Nomad, and Marlon wants them back since there are a few of those nomads that played a huge role in the city back then.” She continued.

“A nomad, huh?” Archie said under his breath.