HALF: Dead nor Alive

“So what exactly happened back there? Why do you want to fight the people from the Lynx?” Nova asked as she took a sip of her tea.

“Lynx?” Archie asked back.

“Those guys with tattoos that you beat down, they’re called the Lynx,” Ivan answered. “Well, it was actually me who started it,” he answered Nova’s question.

Ivan decided to tell her everything from the moment he met Archie. Nova listened to his story as she stared at Archie with disbelief and then she laughed when she heard what Ivan did to the drunk guy.

“I see, so that’s why Archie wants to exterminate them,” Nova said as she nodded her head. “Well, not all the Axis Humans from the Lynx are like that, there are nice people but most are a bunch of assholes,” she continued as she looked at Archie.

“Someone needs to teach them, no? If they’re going to keep on doing things like that, sooner or later they will realize that they could do something more without taking any consequences since the government is fine with their existence,” Ivan said while looking at Nova.

“Not really, the government is planning to disband them and they have been discussing that matter for quite a while now. Especially after what Marshal Marlon told the government about what happened to the Eastern Nation,” Nova answered as she looked at Archie, she heard about everything, and it was something that she wouldn’t believe if Daniel didn’t take any photo of the battle between the kings.

“Right, I haven’t asked you about what happened to the Easter Nation, Archie. So what exactly happened over there that you guys decided to sail all the way here?” Ivan asked.

“It’s classified and there’s no reason for you to know about it anyway,” Nova immediately answered before Archie could open his mouth. After knowing that it was classified, Archie thought it would be a bad idea to tell anyone about the situation in the Eastern Nation.

“You wanted to see Faye, right? I can bring you to her but not now. The Valor special force is opening recruitment again next week and I’m planning on applying for that,” Nova said.

“Recruitment? What exactly is the purpose of the Valor special force?” Archie asked.

“You should know about what happened to Iohann and his division, right? After he and all the divisions failed the mission, former Marshal AnGust brought the Axis Humans from the experiment into FalCon-1. They didn’t find a single body there, but they found something else, something that really terrifying,” Nova answered.

Archie raised his eyebrows with curiosity. “Something terrifying?”

“They found a giant hole, a hole that led them into the deep of the earth. In there, they found a new world, a world where parasites live in their own ecosystem. So former Marshal AnGust went back, trained the experimented Axis Humans, and then explored the hole a year after,” Nova answered while she was staring blankly at nothing.

“So the Valor special force is specialized in exploring that hole?” Archie asked.

“To put it simply, yes, but that hole in FalCon-1 hasn’t been explored ever since former Marshal AnGust’s death in the exploration. Their main purpose is to reveal the secret that’s hidden deep inside the earth and to our surprise, there are so many similar holes around the world,” Nova answered as she drank her tea.

“Flavius AnGust died?” Archie asked with a surprised expression.

“Yeah, he died and Faye was the one who brought everyone to safety, the new Marshal made her the Major of her own division. Since that, she kept showing what she was capable of by achieving so many things in a span of two years. Everyone knows who’s Faye and almost every Axis Humans want to be in the Valor special,” Nova replied while nodding her head and leaning on the chair.

Archie looked outside the window and the sun was down. “It’s getting late, we should leave now,”

“Do you even have a place to stay?” Nova asked as she raised her eyebrows.

“I don’t but I can rent a place to stay for the night since I have money for that,” Archie answered while he grabbed the money in his pocket.

“Just stay here if you want to, there are plenty of rooms in this house so if you want, just pick one of the rooms. You can stay here as well if you want to, Ivan,” Nova said as he looked at both of them and pointed at the rooms behind her.

“I can’t, I still have to take care of the business so I’m going back now. You can stay here, Archie, I will come to see you if I need your help,” Ivan replied. “I’m leaving now, see you guys tomorrow, bye-bye!” He said as he left the house.

It was just silence in the house and then Archie looked at Nova with his eyebrows raised. “There must be a reason why you let me stay here, so, what do you want to know?”

“Am I that obvious? Well, you got me so I want to ask what really happened over there?” Nova asked with curiosity.

“Sure, I will tell you what I can tell you,” Archie said.

The story went on and on they both stayed up all night in the living room. Even though Nova looked like a tough gal, she was surprisingly a nice woman like Ruby.

“I heard and read about it, the Landing Site. We haven’t checked on it since the first team decided to kill themselves after they checked the site. I wonder what they saw and what made them like that,” Nova said as she stared at the sunrise.

“It will be a waste of time for you to go there, there’s nothing but death that will await you,” Archie said.

Nova smiled a bit and nodded with understanding. “I will keep that in mind,” she said. “Wow, we have been talking all night and I guess I wasted your time, huh? You should get some rest,” she said as she stood up and took the cup of coffee on the table.

“I’m fine, I don’t really need sleep,” Archie answered as he stared at Nova.

“Well, whether you need it or not, one of the rooms in this house is yours, just take a pick and you can rest whenever you want,” Nova said as she walked to the kitchen.

A week had passed since Archie went to the Northern Nation, Archie was preparing to leave with Nova since they had planned on going to the Central Nation. Nova looked a bit nervous and she had been training almost every day so she would do better in the test.

“Are you ready to leave?” Nova asked as she grabbed her bag from the floor.

“Yeah, I’m ready whenever you are,” Archie answered.

“Let’s go then,” Nova said as she walked out of the house.

Everything looked better and it wasn’t that hard for Archie to travel since the subway was connected to all the stations in the Northern Nation and Central Nation. As Ivan said, it wasn’t that easy to go to the other nations because they needed permission to enter. Thanks to Nova’s influence and rank, he could easily get one from her.

“Is all the Northern Nation habitable?” Archie said as he looked at how many people in the train.

“Yes, some of them live outside the wall and everything seems fine until now. The problem is only on the north side since that’s where the FalCon-2 is, but since last year, we barely see any parasites so it’s a good thing for us,” Nova answered.

“Interesting, I’m glad that everything is fine over here,” Archie said as he looked out the window.

“Yeah, I think the moment the bridge collapsed, we had more than enough energy source to spend on. So, with the extra energy we had, we all used them to expand for something more useful. We took an opportunity from someone else’s misery which sounded like we are being an asshole right now,” Nova explained as she sighed.

“I don’t think that’s really the case since the one who destroyed the bridge was a king parasite. It was nobody’s fault and there’s nobody to blame,” Archie said.

“I know, anyway, we are about to arrive at the Central Nation, you might get your mind blown when you see the capital city because it’s far more better than what we have in the Northern Nation,” Nova said as she stood up and looked at the sign.

Archie stood up and followed Nova out from the train, they both took the elevator and it took them quite a while to reach the surface. The sunlight started to blind him, and the moment he reached the surface he was dumbfounded by the city and its technology.

“Welcome to the Central Nation, Archie,” Nova said as she crossed her arms and stared at the skyscrappers.