HA\\LF: Dead nor Alive

“So, you know Hendrick Fischer as well…” Faye said, and she suddenly looked sad. “I miss him, we used to be together here just staring at the sky and the old city every day. The three of us used to hang out together, but I guess he lived inside me now,” Faye continued as she looked at her hands.

“He’s my closest friend to me as well,” Archie responded with a little chuckle. “I still can’t believe that I can be here again, but unfortunately, I won’t be able to see him again,” Archie sighed as he touched the door and it suddenly opened.

All of them stared at the room, it was empty, but there were still some items inside. The desk that Archie used to use to study parasites. The bed that he used to dream about becoming an Axis Human. Lastly, dozens of books that he loved to read were still on shelves untouched.

Archie ran through all the books on the shelves, he then grabbed a book and it was his favorite book.

“That’s Hendrick’s favorite book. He always had that book in his hand and he reread it for like, dozens of times,” Faye said as she stared at the book in Archie’s hand.

“Yeah, I read this book and that’s why I pick this up,” Archie replied as he nodded his head.

Aster stared at Archie for quite a while and he looked kind of curious and confused at the same time.

“I believe you that you’re Hendrick’s friend because you seem to know a lot about him, but I’m curious why have we never seen you before? I mean, Hendrick would introduce us to you or the other way around,” Aster said as he kept staring at Archie.

“I know Faye, but it appears that she lost a few of her memories about meeting me,” Archie answered as he read the prologue of the book. “But, who knows, maybe there’s a reason why he didn’t want to introduce me to the others,” Archie continued as he flipped the page.

Aster hummed with understanding but he still couldn’t believe it.

“Do you want to go and pay respect to him, Archie? We both are planning to go to his grave,” Faye said as she pointed her thumb over her shoulder.

“Sure,” Archie smiled and stared at Faye.

The four of them walked the long hallway, Eve had been quiet the whole time and it made Archie a bit confused.

“You have been so quiet, Eve, what’s wrong?” Archie asked as he raised his eyebrows.

“Nothing, I’m thinking about something, that’s all,” Eve answered.

“You never told us about where you come from, Eve. From which Nation are you? Do you still have a family?” Faye asked.

“I moved a lot that I don’t actually remember where I came from,” Eve answered and stared at the city from above. “I don’t have a family, I have been alone for as long as I remember,”

Faye turned her head and stared at Eve. “I’m sorry if I’m being rude, and you don’t have to continue if you don’t want to tell us,” Faye said and remembered that Eve was furious at her a few days ago and she still could feel that cold gaze and treatment that Eve gave her.

They went to the cemetery and Archie was curious about what Hendrick’s grave looked like. Was he buried like a hero, or was he buried like anyone else, and he wanted to know how they treated his grave since he was the reason people could survive and make a drastic change in humankind.

“This is his grave,” Faye looked at Archie as she pointed at the gravestone in front of her.

Archie was surprised that Hendrick’s grave looked like it was forgotten like any other graves in the cemetery. He couldn’t help but chuckled and shook his head in disbelief while Faye and Aster looked at him with a puzzled look.

“What’s wrong?” Faye asked with her eyebrows raised.

“I find it funny that he sacrificed himself for humankind, and this is how they treated him?” Archie kept chuckling and stared at Hendrick’s grave.

“It’s easy to forget a good deed and it’s impossible to forget a mistake. There’s nothing we can do about it because it is what it is here, and you know it that everyone will be forgotten once they die,” Faye answered and then pursed her lips.

Archie scoffed and nodded his head in agreement.

After they paid respect to Hendrick’s grave, Faye and Aster left to prepare for the expedition tomorrow while Archie and Eve stayed behind because he wanted to visit his adoptive parents’ graves.

“What are you thinking right now, Eve? I’m kind of worried to see you so quiet so suddenly,” Archie asked as he stared at the gravestones in front of him.

“Do you remember I said that I don’t care about my past?” Eve replied as she stared at the gravestones. “After seeing you back there up in the Sky Station and the way to looked at that room. It made me rethink that it would be nice to have a past to remember,” Eve answered with her arms crossed.

“They might tell you your past if you ask, so why don’t you ask about it when they come to see you again?” Archie asked.

“Even though I never asked them about my past, I already know that they won’t tell me anything about it,” Eve answered as she looked at Archie. “But, there’s no reason to not try it, so I will ask them about it later,”

They stayed in the cemetery for quite a while because Eve was interested in his past and who his adoptive parents were.

Faye was following Aster and she just realized that Aster brought her to the administrative office instead of the armory.

“Where are we going? We are supposed to go the other way,” Faye asked.

“I’m curious about Archie, and since we are here, I want to dig some information about him. I think there’s some oddity about him and his past after thinking about it for quite a while,” Aster answered. “I know you’re thinking about it as well, and this might answer all the questions that we both have right now about him,” Aster looked at Faye with a serious expression.

Faye didn’t say anything and decided to follow Aster because she agreed with him.

They went to the archive room and saw dozens of racks as tall as the room itself with hundreds of boxes on each rack. They both took a deep breath and started looking at the right month and year when Archie was born.

Since they only know that Archie was the same age as Faye, they started from all the archives from January. It took them hours and realized it was already midnight, but after looking a year before and after Faye’s born, they couldn’t find Archie’s name anywhere.

“This isn’t right,” Faye said as she sat down with a stack of paper in her hands. “There’s no way he’s not registered right? He lives in the Sky Station, then he should be here,” Faye looked at the papers that were scattered on the ground.

“Yeah, this is weird and we are not skipping a single document because I saw your data in one of those boxes. I don’t think there’s a mistake here, Faye. I think Archie isn’t from the Western Nation,” Aster replied and put the box back in its place.

“So he’s lying to us?” Faye asked with her eyebrows furrowed.

“Not really, because even if he lied, he knows everything about the Western Nation, and he said he had been living in the Sky Station ever since he was a kid. I believe him but at the same time, I’m suspicious about his past,” Aster answered as he put everything back in its place.

“Wait, you’re right!” Faye said as she sprung and grabbed Aster’s shoulders.

“I’m right? About what?” Aster looked puzzled.

“He said he used to live in the Sky Station, right? We can find video footage from when he lived there!” Faye answered with her eyes wide open.

“Right, but look at the time, Faye. We spent six hours here and we haven’t prepared anything for tomorrow,” Aster said as he looked at his watch. “We should do this once we are back from the expedition,” Aster continued.

“Oh shit, you’re right! We should go,” Faye said.

They both left the archive room and went to the armory, but they didn’t realize that someone had been listening to their conversation from outside the archive room.

“What are you going to do about it, Archie? Are you going to let them find out about who you are?” Eve asked.

“I don’t think they will find anything from the footage, because the past has changed,” Archie answered as he sighed and stared at Faye and Aster walking in the hallway.