HALF: Dead nor Alive

“It’s impossible to find him in this massive city…” Daniel said as he sat down to rest his legs after walking for 5 hours straight.

Everyone was tired of walking around the city that was abandoned and everyone from the 111th Division started to think that Ruby was crazy in the head but they couldn’t say it out loud. Her unreasonable mission only made her reputation worse but that was something she didn’t care about the most.

“Have you noticed?” Julia asked as she looked at Ruby.

“Yes. It’s too quiet here and there’s no sign of any parasite ever since we left the wall,” Ruby replied as she opened a bottle of water. “It’s as if he cleared the whole city on his own the past 3 days…” Ruby continued as she played with the bottle cap.

“I heard that Tommy was beaten by that guy, is that true?” Vincent asked as he leaned on the wall.

“Not only that, he was fine after we beat him up quite roughly. Tommy’s fingers were all broken after that fight because of how tough Archie’s skull is.” Ruby replied as she put the bottle into the bag.

Vincent looked at Ruby with disbelief and then he looked at Julia for confirmation while Julia just nodded in agreement.

“Capt, we can’t keep going on like this. We are just wasting our time out here and there was no sign of him and it’s impossible to find him in a single in this massive city,” Tommy said as he walked toward Ruby.

Ruby looked at the others who were resting on the road, she sighed and shook her head. “I know,” Ruby replied with her head lowered. She looked at the red sky and then looked at Julia and Vincent, they both just stared back at her without showing any expression.

“It’s your call, Bub. This is your mission, and I’m just here to accompany you, not to supervise you guys,” Julia said as she checked her pistol.

“Alright, let’s head back then,” Ruby said as she nodded and looked at Tommy.

Tommy nodded and immediately left to inform the others.

When they were planning to go back, all of them stopped moving as their eyes were staring at each other widely opened. They could hear a rumbling sound coming from the wall’s direction toward their location, they all stood up and immediately grabbed their guns.

Ruby cocked her submachine gun and pointed pulled the safety off. “That was loud, how many of them do you think?” Ruby asked as she looked at Julia.

“Either a big one or dozens of them,” Julia replied as she grabbed her assault rifle on her back.

Ruby looked at Daniel holding a sniper. “Dan, give us vision,” Ruby said.

“Yes, Capt!” Daniel replied as he looked for a tall building.

Everyone looked nervous because the noises were getting louder and louder.

“Capt! We are in luck!” Daniel shouted from the top of the building.

“What is it?” Ruby asked as she looked up.

“It’s a turf war, they’re not coming toward us, they’re fighting each other!” Daniel replied as he kept his eye behind the scope.

“We need to move, we are in the middle of a clash and the commotion will only attract the others. We don’t want to be in the middle of the clash or we won’t be able to see the sun.” Julia said as she walked toward Ruby. “Daniel, check your 3 and 9, which one is the safest,” Julia asked.

“Uhh…” Daniel responded as he looked to his left and right with his scope. “Bad news, Major…” Daniel replied. “Both sides are no good,” Daniel said as he looked down at Julia.

“How fortunate, we are going south then,” Julia said as she walked to the south.

“We are going south?” Ruby asked.

“I will take the lead from here, you just follow my order, do you understand, Bub?” Julia asked without even looking back at Ruby.

“Yes, ma’am,” Ruby answered.

“Everyone, follow my lead! Nobody is going to be left behind!” Julia shouted as she checked all her equipment.

“Yes, ma’am!” Everyone replied.

Julia led both divisions under her command and as she said earlier that they were in the middle of the clash, it happened. They were attacked by parasites but with Julia’s command, everything was fine and nobody was injured.

Julia “The Sixth Sense” Ares was her nickname, and the reason why people called her that was because all the predictions and words she said were 90% came true. Her insight of the situation was on par with Archie’s, and her combative skill could be compared to Iohann if only she was born in the same year as Iohann who was only 2 years apart. Both never met with each other but both of them acknowledge each other for their own achievements.

Julia didn’t like to work so she decided to stay in her previous rank since it was not too low and not too high. Everyone looked up to her even the people that had a higher rank than her, she achieved a lot at a young age but she stopped showing her capability after she lost her younger sister because of the decision she made that she thought she could change the outcome even though she knew it would be impossible.

With Julia taking the command, everyone could feel at ease and had nothing to worry about. But it changed as soon as the parasites knew that there were humans among the parasite, and at that moment all the parasites decided to chase after them.

Julia headshot all the parasites in front of her with her assault rifle then immediately switched to pistol and finished the rest. She made a path for everyone so they could follow her, she used her pistols, rifle, and sword to clear the path in front of her with zero fear. Her responsibility as a Major changed her way of thinking in a single snap and she became fierce and strict toward everyone including Ruby.

“Quick equipment check!” Julia said as she looked at the empty magazine in her hand.

“0-1”

“0-0”

“1-1”

“1-0”

Everyone responded in order while Julia listened to all of them.

“Not good, everyone is out of bullets either on their primary or secondary guns, we have to go further to the south,” Julia said as she looked at Ruby and Vincent. “Shot the flare, we need back up from the elites to pick us up. We won’t be able to survive the night on our own in here,” Julia continued as she put her guns on her back.

Ruby grabbed the flare gun and shot a yellow flare in the sky, everyone looked at the sky and it always gave them goosebumps whenever they saw a yellow flare.

“Let’s hope they could pick us up before the sun is rising…” Julia said while she wiped her sweat on her forehead. “Let’s move, we need to go into the forest and survive the night together.” Julia continued as she held a sword in her right hand and a dagger in her left hand.

“Why the forest?” Ruby asked.

“We don’t want to stay here in the city, we will only be surrounded by parasites with nowhere to run. If we go to the forest, we have so many ways to go and we will know if the forest is safe or not based on the signs that we are going to find,” Julia explained.

Without wasting any time they followed Julia into the forest which was only a few kilometers away from where they were.

As they reached the entrance to the forest, Ruby squinted her eyes because he saw someone.

“Archie? Archie!” Ruby shouted at the person she saw.

The person looked in their direction but immediately went into the forest so quickly.

“Bubby! Wait!” Julia yelled at Ruby who went after the person she saw.

(At the same time in the middle of the forest.)

Archie fought 2 parasites that were similar to the one he fought outside the wall. He fought them for hours and he couldn’t kill them since he had no weapon on him.

“Why there are so many of them suddenly?” Archie said as he held a fang from one of the parasites.

As he fought the parasites, he heard so many gunshots that it startled him and the parasites. He looked in the direction where the gunshots came from, he then decided to run toward it and checked who went deep into the forest at this hour. The parasites tried to chase after Archie but somehow their feet were tangled by roots.

Archie ran as fast as he could but the gunshots were getting lesser and lesser until one last gunshot could be heard not far from where he was. He looked around and he smelt human scent, he ran toward it and checked what happened.

Archie stopped running as he saw 3 women surrounding a woman who was laying on the ground with a pistol pointed at them.

“Who’s that?” Archie asked the 3 women.

“Ar… chie?” The woman on the ground said with a very weak voice and looked at him.

Archie looked at the woman and noticed that it was Julia, he immediately walked toward her.

Julia who had lost both her legs and half of her left arm stared at Archie with a blank expression.

“It’s… really you…” Julia said as she coughed blood.