HALF: Dead nor Alive

The moon was shining brightly and there were no other sounds but crickets and bats flapping their wings. Archie and Eve were just sitting on a bench inside an abandoned building, they both looked down and saw people were still around the checkpoint and preparing to leave.

“Let’s leave,” Archie said as he grabbed his backpack.

Eve followed Archie out of the building, he then said his leave to them and made sure they recognized his face and Eve’s face. After they all wished them good luck, they both walked the road until they were far enough that those people couldn’t see them anymore.

They both flew up into the sky like bats and then flew to the Northern Nation which was only two hours of flying.

“So, which building?” Eve asked as she stared down at the bright city below her.

“This is hard to see if we are up in the sky. Let’s just go there by foot,” Archie answered as he changed his appearance and made sure his new face didn’t resemble his real face.

Eve looked at Archie while smiling and then she did the same thing but it only took her a few seconds while he took a whole minute.

“Are you done?” Eve asked as she looked at Archie who was holding his face.

“Yeah, let’s go,” Archie nodded and they both dove down.

They landed in the forest not far from the city wall, and then they entered the city so casually.

Archie tried to remember the path he took back then when Ivan showed him the direction to the building. Even though he didn’t remember much, the building was tall enough that they could see it from the distance.

Eve stole a leather jacket and jeans on a mannequin that showed behind the glass since she didn’t want her outfit to be recognized. Archie did the same and took the similar leather jacket, they both used the changing room so casually.

Archie stood in the middle of the road, the same road when he met Nova. He saw so many people with tattoos on their neck, arms, and chest were still wandering on the street. He thought the road would be empty but turned out those people were living like a bat.

“What’s the plan?” Eve asked as she leaned on the wall and stared at dozens of them on the street.

“Do whatever you want, I will go straight into the building and get some information,” Archie answered as he tightened his gloves.

“Really? Then I will make the best distraction for you,” Eve replied as she raised her eyebrows. “I’m good at attracting attention,” Eve continued as she walked on the sidewalk and let her hair loose.

Eve walked so casually with her hands inside her jacket pockets, and it was enough to attract the men that were chilling on the sidewalk. They all looked at her with their eyebrows raised, and then they decided to approach her while Archie walked on the other side of the road.

“What’s up, baby? What are you doing here on your own?” A man with a black tank top with tattoos on both arms and on his chest asked as he stood in front of Eve.

“I heard this place is where strong men gathered,” Eve said as she looked at the four men standing in front of her.

“You came to the right place, baby,” The man in a tanktop said.

Before the man could put his hand on Eve’s shoulder, she pushed the man’s hand away from her. She looked at him and raised her eyebrows with a mocking smile on her face, she then walked past him and didn’t say anything.

“You’re not the man I’m looking for, you’re not strong enough to accompany me for tonight,” Eve said as she kept walking.

The four men looked at each other and immediately followed Eve from behind. They all tried to convince her that they were the strongest men on the street, but their loud voices attracted the others who weren’t realized there was a beautiful woman on the street.

Archie saw them walking to the other side of the road and it made him easier to walk toward the building. He looked at dozens of men surrounding her, he felt a bit annoyed to see a lot of men surrounding her even though she was doing it so he could enter the building unnoticed.

It didn’t take long until Eve became the center of attention amongst the men. All the people who were standing in front of the building entrance left to see her up close.

Archie entered the building and was immediately welcomed by a group of men.

“You’re not allowed here!” A man in a black shirt and gold necklace said.

Archie didn’t waste his time speaking, he grabbed two of them on the face and slammed them together. The other men were trying to grab their daggers on their waist, but Archie kicked the guy on the left right on his throat. The last guy was shocked but Archie’s foot was about to hit him on the jaw and couldn’t dodge it.

Archie pulled the four men behind the counter and hid them there, he checked each pocket on their jeans and jackets. He found a keycard and thought it might be for using the lift since that was how they used the lift up in the Sky Station.

Archie used the lift and slid the keycard to give him access to use the lift. He was right about it but unfortunately, the keycard didn’t have permission to reach above the twentieth floor.

“I guess I have to hunt more keycards,” Archie said to himself as he pressed the button to the twentieth floor.

The moment the lift made a *Ding* sound, Archie ran out of the lift because he felt dozens of Axis Humans outside the lift. He looked at each one of them in less than a second and immediately took them down one by one.

“Got it,” Archie said after checking the sixth guy’s shirt pocket and finding the keycard.

Archie went back to the lift and used the new keycard, it gave him access up to the fiftieth floor because it was the last number in the lift.

“For a place with a bunch of thugs to hang out, this is too suspicious with how secure this building is,” Archie said as he slapped his palm with the keycard repeatedly and stared at the number above the door.

It was the same as on the twentieth floor, there were people on the fiftieth floor but it was lesser than before and a lot stronger than the previous ones. He took care of them but the problem was one of them managed to alert the whole building.

“I knew it, there’s a different lift on this floor,” Archie said as he looked at the other side of the floor. “It looks different, and there’s no place to slide the keycard,” Archie continued as he checked on the lift.

Archie found out it needed a fingerprint rather than a keycard, he then grabbed all the men and grabbed their thumbs. One by one he put the men’s thumbs, and luckily one of them had a higher authority and manage to open the lift.

The lift could be pressed up to the highest floor which was the seventy-sixth floor, Archie went up and wonder what he would find on the highest floor.

When Archie reached the seventieth floor, he could feel the presence of a parasite from above. He was suspicious about the presence because it wasn’t that strong but it was different than the other parasites that he had felt.

The moment the lift’s door opened, he saw the whole room was dark with only stripes of lights on the sides of the room. He walked in and immediately automatic lamps switched on, and he saw dozens of Gen-0 parasites being secured inside tubes.

“Why are they here?” Archie asked as he approached one of the tubes and looked at the parasite closely.

The parasite jumped but the glass prevented it from pouncing on Archie’s face. He really wanted to check it out but he came there for a more important thing.

There was a computer right in the middle of the room, he walked there and knew that the computer would be protected by passwords and security that he couldn’t get through. He decided to grab the hard disk because someone might be able to crack it open for him.

“Alright, all I need to do is now leave the building,” Archie said as he put the hard disk in the bag. “I’m not going down there, I can just fly away,” Archie looked at the lift and then tore the wall open with his fingers.

Archie flew out of the building and looked down, he saw hundreds of men laying on the ground while Eve just stood in the middle with bloody hands. He descended and stood right in front of her, he didn’t know what happened but it was a mess.

“Did you kill them?” Archie asked.

“They tried to touch me, so I kill those who tried to touch me,” Eve answered as she looked at all the bodies on the ground.

“So, all of them?” Archie asked again with his eyebrows raised.

“Yes,” Eve answered with an innocent smile.