HA\\LF: Dead nor Alive

Archie reached the wall and he could see smoke coming up into the sky from behind the wall. He transformed himself back to his human form, and the moment he entered the abandoned city, he saw the smoke coming from the city. He then started to run as fast as he could to find out what was happening in the city the moment he left.

Archie heard people screaming from behind the wall, and he saw so many parasites laying on the ground dead. He looked at all of them and they were Gen 3 and above parasites which were still fine, but the problem was what Gen of parasites was inside the city.

As soon as he entered the gate, he saw parasites jumping around and fighting the Axis Humans. Archie was shocked and immediately try to send them all back to where they belonged, but they didn’t listen to his command at all.

“Archie!” A woman’s voice was screaming his name. “Over here!” she continued.

Archie looked up and saw Ruby was covered with blood but she seemed fine. “What’s happening here?!” he asked but Ruby couldn’t hear him so he unsheathed his swords and started to make his way up to the wall.

Ruby decapitated the parasite and kicked it down the wall, she then looked at Archie and pointed at the south. “Look over there!” she said.

Archie stood next to her and saw hordes of parasites on their way to the city. “What’s happening?”

“It happened so suddenly, it happened three days ago when the huge storm hit the city,” Ruby answered as she wiped her mouth from the parasite’s blood. “At midnight, we were worried that the city might get wiped by the storm, but then this happen. Parasites came into the city with the storm and they seemed to be running away from the FalCon-3,” she explained.

Archie looked at the hordes and then he looked down. “I will take care of the hordes, you keep the city safe from the parasite,” he said.

Ruby nodded with understanding. “Please do, we need your help,”

Archie jumped down from the wall and ran to the south where the hordes were. Ruby was watching him from the wall and she was glad that he came back at the right moment.

“Ruby!” A man’s voice called her name.

Ruby walked to the other side of the wall and looked down, she saw Resse looking up as she searched for ruby. “What?” she answered.

Resse looked at her and gulped. “It’s time! Marshal Marlon gave the orders and we are going to board the ship with the civils!” she said. “We need you to protect the port!” she continued.

Ruby nodded. “Alright, I’m on my way there!”

Ruby followed Resse and the situation in the city was a lot worse than she thought. The parasites had breached the whole city and there were so many innocent people died because they couldn’t protect themselves.

Vincent and the others were guarding the west gate against the parasite since the port was far on the west. He looked at Ruby who ran next to Resse, he immediately asked his team to move and escort the civils to the port.

“Bub, how’s the situation in the south?” Vincent asked with a worried expression.

Ruby shook her head. “It’s bad over there but Archie came back at the right moment, and now he’s dealing with the hordes on the south,”

Resse and Vincent looked at Ruby with surprised expressions. “Wait, Archie came back already?” Vincent asked.

“That was fast, did he come back before he can reach FalCon-4? Resse asked.

“I don’t know but I’m glad that he’s back because if he’s not here, they will twice the casualty here,” Ruby answered. “Let’s escort more civils in the city, we got extra time because Archie is here and he can take care of all the parasites,” she continued.

The two of them nodded with understanding and brought a few soldiers with them and went back to the city.

“Capt, are you sure we are going to do this? This is a terrible idea to go out here,” An Axis Human said to his captain. “It’s been raining for three whole days, and it’s not just heavy run but also a thunderstorm, what’s happening here,” he continued.

“It’s an order from the major, and I honestly don’t think we should be out here where the people in the city are betting on their lives to survive,” The captain answered.

“Why is the major sent a guy to deal with the horses anyway? Is she gone mad?” The other Axis Human asked.

The other Axis Human clicked his tongue. “You heard about the rumor don’t you? Not just her but Captain Resse, Vincent, and Prince were acting the same. Something might have happened to them and now they’re all crazy in the head,”

The captain suddenly raised his hand and clenched it, everyone immediately stopped moving and looked at him quietly. The captain walked to the corner and his expression was priceless, the other soldiers came out from the corner and they were all making the same expression.

Archie pulled his sword from the parasite’s head and he turned his head and looked at the group of Axis Humans staring at him from the distance. He raised his eyebrow and looked at them with curiosity. “What are you guys doing out here?”

They were all ignoring Archie’s question because they saw hundreds of parasites laying on the ground dead and they were all butchered with body parts all over the places.

A gigantic parasite broke through the building and charged at Archie, he looked at it and swung his sword. He ran and jumped at it then decapitated the head in a single strike then cut the body in half with his other sword.

“Are you guys here to watch?” Archie asked as he cleaned the swords with his jacket.

The captain shook his head. “No, we came here to help…” he answered with a shock on his face.

“Help?” Archie asked but the heavy rain suddenly stopped for a moment then it started to rain again. They were all looking up and saw a massive dark silhouette of something that just flew by them in the dark clouds.

“What was that?!” The captain asked as he looked at the sky. “I swear I saw something!” he continued while he was panicking.

Archie could feel the presence of a king earlier, and that thing that just flew by them was a king. He looked at the sky and he could tell the parasite just flew around in the sky as if it was waiting for the other kings to appear.

“There’s no time to waste,” Archie said. “Let’s go back and tell what we just saw, we need to warn them before it’s too late,” he continued as he looked at the captain.

The captain nodded in agreement. “You’re right, we need to inform Marshal Marlon about this! Let’s go back!” he said.

As Archie ran back to the city, he felt a very strong presence around him, he stopped walking and glanced to his right, and saw a person standing on top of a building. He turned his head to look at the figure again but it disappeared, he was sure that was a person and not his imagination. He looked around and he couldn’t feel the presence again then decided to keep running and go back to the city.

The situation in the city was a lot better than before, the soldiers were cleaning up the parasite that infiltrated the city. Archie looked around to look for Ruby but he couldn’t find him anywhere, he then asked the soldiers around and told him that Ruby went to the west with Resse.

Archie helped clean up the parasite and ended up in the center of the city, he looked around and everything was a mess. He went to his house and checked on Marie but he couldn’t find her in her house.

“Archie!” Ruby said the moment she exited the alleyway with Vincent and Resse.

“What are you guys doing here?” Archie asked.

“We are evacuating the civils out of the city and to the port,” Ruby answered. “We are going to aboard the civils into the ships, Marlon gave it a go and that’s why we are here,” she explained.

“Now? But that won’t be enough to bring everyone into the ship,” Archie said.

“Yes, but we can’t just wait here after knowing the situation we are in. We might have to leave some people behind and to answer that question, we will find out soon who will be staying,” Ruby said with a sorrowful voice.

“You guys don’t have to worry about that,” Marie said as she came out from the back of her house.

“Marie?” Ruby asked.

Marie sighed as she sat down on her wooden chair. “We the old people decided to stay here because we have no use anywhere,” she said. “Our time has finally come, and we all have been talking about this for quite a while so you guys don’t have to worry about the old people because none of us are going to leave this city. You know that already, don’t you, Ruby?” she continued.

Ruby lowered her head and clenched her fist. “Yes, we did, they said the same thing to us, earlier,”

Marie smiled and nodded. “Then what are you guys doing here? Go to the port and leave. Let us the old people take care of this situation on our own,”