HA\\LF: Dead nor Alive

“What is going on?!” Newman yelled as he looked at Fanheim.

Archie walked out of the forest and glanced at Fanheim who had been staring at him ever since he left the forest. Archie walked past them and went to the road since he had been sensing parasites all around him.

“I don’t know, Newman…” Fanheim shook his head. “Whatever is happening right now, it’s better for us to leave the mountain for good. The whole forest and mountains are inhabitable right now…” he explained.

“Then where are we going to live?! Our belongings are up there, we can’t just start to live in another place with nothing on us,” Newman yelled as he pointed at the mountain.

“Newman, it’s better for us to go back to the capital city…” Fanheim said heavyheartedly and looked down.

“Are you out of your mind?!” Newman kept yelling at him.

“Newman! Enough!” Fanheim yelled back at him and it surprised everyone because it was the first time Fanheim raised his voice. “We are a fool to think that we can live peacefully… we are so ignorant that we forgot about the reality of this world…” he said quietly as he clenched his fists.

Everyone looked at him with confusion except for Prince and Resse because they were thinking the same thing after they saw what happened up there with their own two eyes.

“This is my selfish request, we have to go back to the city and warn the others about what happened in the mountain…” Fanheim said as he closed his eyes. “With these two with us, I believe I can convince Marlon,” he continued as he looked at Prince and Resse.

Ruby looked around and searched for Archie that gone missing, she then decided to look for him.

Ruby could hear cracking sounds coming from behind the abandoned factory, she walked there and saw Archie ripping a parasite body into half with his bare hands. “So you’re here,” she said.

“There are dozens of parasites around here, I need to clean them up before they started to hunt for food,” Archie said as he threw the body of a parasite to the side.

“What happened up there?” Ruby asked.

“It’s better to wait for Fanheim, Prince, and Resse to calm down a bit then I will tell you guys what really happened up there,” Archie said and looked at Ruby. “For now, help me hunt these parasites,” he continued as he grabbed his sword from the wall.

The sun rose and at its peak, everyone was resting in one of the abandoned factories. Fanheim convinced the nomad to come back to the city and they couldn’t do anything but follow him. Fanheim, Tommy, Daniel, Vincent, Prince, Ruby, and Resse were in one of the rooms in the factory and quietly stared at Archie.

“You know the truth about him, Bub?” Fanheim asked Ruby.

“The four of us do,” Ruby answered as she pointed her hand around Tommy, Daniel, and Vincent.

They look at the three of them and they just nodded and looked away.

“Could you tell us how did you end up like that so we can understand what’s going on?” Fanheim asked.

Archie sighed and leaned on the wall, he then started to explain about everything that happened to him simply to not waste time. Ruby and Vincent helped him and filled the blank in his story, they helped him answer some of the questions they had.

“Is there anything else you want to ask?” Archie asked and looked at the three of them.

They shook their heads since they already got the big picture in their heads.

“So this king you mentioned earlier, is the one who ruled over the parasites on the surface? And you said that there were more of them underneath us?” Fanheim asked.

“Yes, and if you’re asking me how many of them are there, I can’t tell but I believe there are a lot of them based on the information that the wind witch told me,” Archie replied.

“The clash of the kings, that sounds terrifying, and to be honest, with less than a year, we might be able to leave the continent and proceed with the original plan,” Fanheim said as he looked at Ruby and Vincent.

“Can you persuade her, Colonel? We tried but it seems that she doesn’t want to make the same mistake again,” Ruby said.

Fanheim nodded. “I will try to persuade her but that means we have to tell everyone about this situation so everyone will willingly help us build the ship because we can make at least three or four ships with the time that we have left,” he replied.

“Do you think that many ships will be enough to bring everyone out of the continent?” Prince asked.

“No, it won’t be enough so we have to think how many ships are needed for everyone to leave the continent. By the moment those kings surfaced and we have three or four ships, we can safely send at least more than a half of the people out of this continent,” Fanheim answered without hesitation. “Some of us will stay behind and keep making ships for ourselves then we can catch up with the rest,” he continued.

“That would be hard, isn’t it? Leaving those people on their own?” Resse said.

“Yes, that’s why I’m willing to be left behind and it’s better to leave the Axis Humans behind rather than having the civilian to stay behind with me,” Fanheim said. “You both should be board the first ship and lead the people on the sea because you’re stronger than us to deal with whatever that you encounter in the sea,” he continued.

Prince nodded in agreement. “That was the plan to bring all the Axis Humans from the experiment will board the ship. Now that we are going to build more than one ship, I think it’s nice to hear since there are a lot of us more and it will be no problem to protect the people,” he said.

“We are running out of time, and we have to start making progress on this plan. Every hour counts and the responsibility of the people’s lives are in our hands, so we can’t waste it by doing nothing,” Fanheim said. “We have to start to move at night and hope that we can make it back to the city in less than a month knowing that we are bringing ordinary people with us,” he continued.

“Isn’t it better for some of us to go back to the capital first and convince Marshall Marlon to start gathering resources?” Ruby asked as she looked at everyone. “Knowing that Marshall Marlon is favoring Prince and Resse, I think it’s better for you both to go back first as soon as possible,” she said as she looked at both of them.

Prince and Resse looked at each other and then Prince looked at Ruby as he nodded. “We are fine with that, and I don’t we are not really needed here after knowing what Archie is capable of,” he said.

“Yes, you both have to inform Marlon about what happened in the mountain and convince him no matter what,” Fanheim said as he looked at them.

They both nodded and stood up, Archie looked at them as they walked toward the door. Prince stopped and looked back at Archie. “We are not going to tell anyone about who you are, we can promise you that,” he said.

“I’m fine if you tell them about my secret, but don’t hope that you will be able to see the sun again,” Archie said as he stared at both of them.

“We won’t,” Prince said with fear written all over his face.

After Prince and Resse left to the city, Fanheim told the nomad that they were going to leave when the night come. All of them were confused because it would take them a while to reach the city, and it would at least take them a month. Nobody was complaining after Fanheim explained the situation to them, they were all terrified by what they heard and decided to follow him.

Archie was enjoying his alone time outside the building until Ruby approached him and stood next to him.

“What were you thinking?” Ruby asked.

“Nothing, just enjoying the weather here,” Archie replied.

Ruby hummed with understanding and then she looked at Archie for quite a while. “Can I ask you something?”

Archie just looked at her and crossed his arms.

“You told me about your story and hearing all that makes me think that you’re here not because you want to and it feels like you have a purpose as an Ex-Human after that fight with that guy back there,” Ruby said. “Now that I think about it, what’s your real goal as an Ex-Human?” she asked.

Archie scoffed and smiled. “I don’t think you’re ready for that answer and you will understand eventually if you have seen enough.”