HALF: Dead nor Alive

“Archie Lancaster? Is Archie Lancaster in here?” An old man’s voice seemed to be calling his name, he stood up while he was still holding my beer. Everyone looked at Archie and they were all pointing at him and telling the old man that he was here with them.

“Archie Lancaster, the professor is looking for you.” The old man entered the cafeteria and approached him.

Everyone gently tapped their hands on Archie’s back as they congratulated him.

Archie had no idea what was going on in this memory but Archie in his memory seemed happy about it.

Archie followed the old man and left the cafeteria, the old man looked at him but he couldn’t see his face but he was talking about the course that he should take before he enrolled in the big expedition. He was excited and smiled widely when he was talking with this old man.

They were at the end of the hallway, and they both stood in front of a mechanic steel door that suddenly slid open. They both entered the room that looked like a study room and there was a man in a lab coat.

The Professor looked at Archie and nodded up while he was raising his hand at him, he approached Archie with a clipboard in his hand. He looked at Archie from top to bottom judgingly as if he was examining his body.

“Archie Lancaster, before you’re going to go on the biggest expedition of the four nations, I would like you to take a few courses. I know that you know a lot about parasites, but I want to know how far and how good are you in this field. So please take a seat.” The Professor crossed his arms as he walked to his desk.

The old man left the room leaving Archie with the Professor.

Archie sat down on one of the chairs and looked at the map hung on the wall, he remembered that map, it was the map of the current map that the humans can live in while the rest of the world were inhabitants for them since there was too much danger coming in from all directions. That was why they built walls separating them from those monsters and parasites and protecting the walls all day, for weeks, months, and years.

“The four nations…” Archie said to himself while he stared at the map in his memory.

The four nations are the northern nation or it used to be Indonesia up to Russia but only half of Russia is a part of the northern nation.

The western nation used to be the European nations. The eastern nation used to be half of the United States, Canada, and Mexico the rest of them are inhabitants.

Unfortunately, for the eastern nation, because they were way apart from the rest of the nations, they had to survive on their own but the rest of the nations kept sending human resources to them to help defend themselves.

The southern nation used to be Australia, and unlike the eastern nation, Australia was still reachable for them and it was easy to give them support.

The African Continent was gone because of the meteor strike and had become the place for the parasites and those monsters to breed, they called the African Continent was the Fallen Continent One or FalCon-1, and the reason why they called it one was because it was the most dangerous place on earth. Nobody survived in the last few hundred years once they set foot in there, so it would be best to not go there unless it was necessary.

The South American Continent was also gone and has the same fate as the FalCon-1, they called it the FalCon-3 and it was the second most dangerous place on earth. North America all the way to East Russia was also gone and had the same fate as the other two continents, they called it the FalCon-2.

The east side of America and Canada is FalCon-4 and they had to sacrifice their territory and build a wall to protect themselves from those parasites.

“These fucking parasites…” Archie clenched his teeth and fists while he was glaring at his surroundings hoping that the parasite inside his body could hear him.

It all began on an ordinary sunny day in the year 2011, four hundred years ago when people went to work, hang out, and just went for walk was where the beginning of the apocalypse. People thought that it was a hot ordinary day, but what they didn’t realize was a meteorite was about to hit the earth.

There was no warning in some areas and people just lived their lives as usual, and then the meteor struck the earth, on the south Atlantic ocean and destroyed almost half of the earth. Because of that, the earth had a big chunk and the sea level drastically went lower to fill that big hole.

There was a warning, but only to realize that it was too late and people didn’t even have the chance to save themselves. Billions of lives were taken that day, and those who didn’t survive must have accepted their death, and nobody would be able to imagine how terrifying it was if anyone was in their shoes.

After the meteor struck the earth, so many disasters happened around the world and those who were unfortunate died from the disaster. The sea flooded so many cities, eruptions melted so many cities, the storm wiped so many cities, and earthquakes swallowed the cities. People lost their friends, family, and loved ones, they lost almost everything that was important to them, but when a human lost their hope was when they lost everything.

After a hundred years of suffering and struggling, humankind was finally able to stand on their own two feet and rebuilt everything so those who already lost their hope could still have a second chance, that was what made them humans different from any other species.

They lost so many lives, but they kept moving forward. They thought that they could start a new life after the meteor struck the earth, but that thought disappeared immediately when the scientists discovered that the meteor brought something else with it, something that shouldn’t belong there on earth.

The scientists made some discoveries when they brought one of those things, they tested it, they bred it, and they did something that they shouldn’t have done. They finally gave them a name, they called it the Extrateresterrial Parasite or the ExTP.

The scientists took their time and they got something from the ExTP, they realized that the ExTP was harmless and they ate what the scientists gave them. That was the worst decision that they have ever made and realized that they made a horrible and life-threatening mistake.

They learned the hard way and they admitted that they shouldn’t have brought the ExTP to a place where it could grow and adapt in a perfect environment like earth. The ExTP started to infect anything that live and mutated into something that was brought from the depth of hell, and those scientists were the ones who made those ExTP healthy and alive.

Archie answered all the questions that the professor asked him, and he showed him slides of images on the wall from the projector.

Photos of types of parasite, there were three of them originally, they called them the ExTP-0 or the parasites generation zero that those scientists brought back to life. The first one looked like fiber or a web, the second one looked like a liquid, and the last one looked like a slug. Those parasites were harmless if they didn’t make any contact with living beings but as soon as they host those living beings, they started to grow and mutate into something terrifying.

That was what happened to Archie, he was hopeless and helpless, He didn’t want to be like those monsters around him.

Once the parasites host living beings and mutated into different things based on the host’s body and muscle structures, they become ExTP-1. That was when those scientists that fed those ExTP-0 have become, they killed them, humans, tearing other people’s bodies in half and feeding on their flesh making them stronger and stronger.

They were desperate because bullets didn’t affect them at all since they were able to regenerate their body immediately. They thought only bombs that could kill them, so they decided to use nuclear bombs to exterminate those parasites, but again, they were making a huge mistake.

The parasite grew and bred like crazy, not just that, but the nuclear bombs only made them stronger and more terrifying. It was hell and in the end, they lost the war and decided to run away and hide from those parasites.

They were on the brink of extinction but then a miracle came at the perfect time, people that they thought had died or lost to the parasite came back with a superpower.

The scientist examined those people and discovered that some people who were infected and no longer being hosted by the parasite had a chance to evolve into superhumans or what they called Axis Humans. They thought they have hope to fight those parasites back with the power of those Axis Humans, but what they didn’t know was that those Axis Humans weren’t untouchable by the parasite.

One of the Axis Humans was surrounded by those parasites and it was a beautiful lie to think that they could fight the parasite because once the parasite hosted the Axis Humans, they become one of them and stronger with very high intelligence than the other parasites. In the end, they decided to build those walls to protect themselves and researched how to defeat those parasites.

A hundred years later, they built those stations above the ground so they could find a way to defeat those parasites while the Axis Humans protected the walls and what was left for them on earth until now and the ordinary humans could live peacefully in the station.

“It seems that you know about everything already, then it’s time for your examination test.” The Professor looked at Archie and nodded with understanding.

The professor lowered his head while he stared at Archie, “Now, let us test your immune system and your blood, shall we?”