HALF: Dead nor Alive

Archie woke up and the sun was already up. He jolted from his bed and looked around, but he found nobody and Eve was still asleep next to him. He got off the bed and looked out the window to see if there were people outside, but it was too quiet as if nobody was in the village.

Archie walked out of the house and decided to look around. The cars were gone and that meant Ruby and the others had left for the mission.

“Archie? You finally wake up,” Fanheim said from behind the window.

“Yeah, I just woke up and where’s everybody? I mean the others who don’t go on a mission,” Archie replied as he looked around but still couldn’t find anyone.

“Ah, they’re going out to hunt some food. We can’t stay here without food so they all went around the mountain to find rabbits and deers or anything that has meat in it,” Fanheim answered as he walked toward the door and opened it. “Why don’t you come here and have a cup of coffee,” Fanheim said as he waved his hand toward the inside of the house.

Archie nodded his head as he walked to Fanheim’s house.

“Is Eve still asleep?” Fanheim asked as he brewed a coffee.

“Yeah, when did she go to sleep?” Archie asked.

“Around 3am I believe. She didn’t feel well and she asked us to guard the village. I’m not sure what happened to her, but she looked so pale and was in pain for some reason,” Fanheim answered as he poured the coffee into a cup.

“Yes, that’s because of the drawback from eating a human brain,” Archie answered as he massaged his head because his head was still throbbing.

Fanheim stopped moving and slowly turned around to look at Archie with his surprised expression.

“Human brain? Why did she eat that?” Fanheim asked with a curious look on his face as he walked to the table with a cup of coffee.

“Last night she went and killed the two scientist that we tried to copy. Marlyn and Dale, she brought their dead bodies here, and we ate their brains last night and buried their bodies in the forest,” Archie answered as he grabbed the cup of coffee from Fanheim’s hand. “The reason why we ate their brains was so we can see their memories, or at least some of them. It’s a good way to imitate them and act like them,” Archie continued as he stared at the black coffee.

“That’s interesting and terrifying at the same time. How does it work? So you ate their brains and then the memories come to you like immediately?” Fanheim asked with eyebrows furrowed.

“No, it’s more like a dream. When we ate their brains, it made us sleepy and gave us a massive headache. When we sleep, the memories will become our dreams but it felt so real as if we are inside the bodies of the brains that we ate,” Archie answered as took a sip of the coffee. “It sounds interesting and complicated, right? We actually don’t know why we have that ability, maybe all the parasites are like that,”

Fanheim stared at Archie and was still trying to process what Archie had told him.

“So, did you manage to get something from their memories? Like what they hid and did in the secret bases?” Fanheim asked.

“Yes, it was quite a dream and they treated those people like animals. No, they were treated like trash and tossed them around when they died or killed them when they turned into parasites. It was worse when you see it yourself than I’m telling you the story,” Archie answered.

“I guess we will be seeing it ourselves when they come back,” Fanheim said as he tapped the table with his fingers. “Looks like Eve is awake,” Fanheim said as he tilted his head toward the window.

Archie turned around and saw Eve facing the sun as she closed her eyes.

“You know, Archie, you’re the luckiest living being have gorgeous woman like her. She’s the most beautiful woman that I have ever seen in my entire life. Although, her personality is kind of terrifying,” Fanheim said as he chuckled. “Anyway, I believe you will be leaving soon, right? You can go and prepare yourself,”

Archie nodded and then left the house to greet Eve.

“How are you feeling?” Archie asked as he walked down the porch. “Want coffee?”

Eve grabbed the coffee and took a sip of it. “I’m doing fine, I’m still a bit tired though,” Eve answered as she was still trying to reduce the headache by breathing heavily and closing her eyes.

“I think you should sit down and recover before we go,” Archie said. “I don’t want both of us to mess it up because this is the first time for both of us to do a steatlh mission,” Archie explained as he walked toward their house.

Eve followed Archie from behind and sat down on the porch as she kept drinking the coffee. She was feeling a little buzzed from the night before and was looking forward to some alone time with him.

An hour had passed, and they were both feeling much better.

Archie and Eve brought the lab coats, ID cards, sunglasses, and a formal uniform that Eve stole last night. They both were about to leave, and then Marlon and Fanheim approached them to bid their farewell to them.

“Good luck out there, and don’t forget to bring something important back to us, like data or maybe a living prove of the experiment,” Marlon said as he looked at both of them.

“We will see what we can. It’s going to be hard to bring back a living person especially when we are in the most secured Nation, but the data is going to be easy,” Archie replied as he looked at Marlon.

“Alright, fair enough. You’re good to go and be safe, both of you,” Marlon said with a serious expression.

Archie nodded his head in understanding and then both Archie and Eve quickly spread their wings. They both flew away so quickly that they were already above the clouds in just a few seconds. They were soon lost to sight, swallowed up by the clouds.

“I wonder how it feels to be able to fly,” Fanheim said as he watched those two fly away.

“I’m more curious if those experimented people could fly like them as well. Just imagine there would be dozens or even a hundred of them flying around and killing anyone they’re ordered,” Marlon replied as he stared at Fanheim.

“Yeah, that would be terrifying, but I guess that’s why we are doing this. If Victor and the Drautnir who backs him up managed to make those army, I guess we are done for,” Fanheim said as he nodded his head.

Archie and Eve flew to the Northern Nation and it only took them ten minutes to get there. They both landed in a slum area where there was barely anyone living in that area with no cameras to watch the area.

Both of them quickly changed their appearance as they looked at Marlyn and Dale’s photos on their phones. It only took them ten minutes to change their appearance from top to bottom and their voices as well.

They wore a long sleeve shirt and a trouser while Eve wore heels and Archie wore loafers. They both walked into the city and people weren’t suspicious about them at all, and then they went to the station since the secret base was on the west side of the city and deep underground.

They were carrying their own bags as how Marlyn and Dale used to bring with them. They learned a lot from their memories and felt normal as if they were the real Marlyn and Dale.

After they took the train and arrived at the west side of the city, they went to a big building where dozens of men were hanging around the building. They were Axis Humans who pretended to be office workers.

Archie and Eve walked past them and they didn’t even bat an eye since those people knew who they were, especially with the ID cards hanging on their necks and the lab coat hung on their arms.

They entered the building and showed their ID cards to the security guy, they then scanned their ID cards so casually. They both went to the lift and waited until it opened. They pretend to talk about their daily life so casually and everyone in the lobby could listen to their natural conversation.

They passed the tightest security like it was nothing, and then they entered the lift to go to the lowest floor in the building. They didn’t stop pretending because they were being watched through CCTV in the lift.

The moment the lift opened the doors, they stared at the long hallway with steel walls painted in white.

“Alright, let’s do this,” Archie said as he stared at the end of the hallway.