HALF: Dead nor Alive

“What should we do?! It’s too close to us and it might notice our presence here!” Tommy said as he looked at Ruby who was bewildered by how majestic the dragon was.

“We still have time, use it to bring the weapon as far as possible from here!” Faye pointed to the south where the forest was. “Move!”

All of them abandoned the tent and they all dragged and pushed the weapon away as hard as they could. Archie was at the back while Eve was at the front and they both helped the others move the weapon.

They were only a few feet away from their camp and the dragon was already spitting fire at its surroundings to lure out the other parasite. The heatwave struck everyone’s back and it was enough to make them drip in sweat.

The moment they entered the forest, the ground around the camp suddenly was sucked in by something. They all looked at the parasite’s hands dug up to the surface and they could see the wounds on its hands and arms.

“That thing was hiding underneath us all along? How lucky are we to not be eaten alive by it?” Aster said as he watched the camp and the helicopter getting swallowed into the ground.

“What’s the plan?” Vincent looked at Faye.

“We will stay here and watch for now while I’m thinking of a plan,” Faye answered and watched two King-type parasites glaring at each other.

“This is a good opportunity to kill both of them at once. It’s like hitting two birds with one stone,” Daniel said and looked at Vincent. “There won’t be another opportunity like this,” he continued._.

“You’re not wrong, but we need a plan for that as well if we decided to kill both of them,” Vincent replied and looked at the dragon spread its wings and spit fire into the sky that it started to rain fireballs.

Faye looked at the weapon and thought of using it.

“I have an idea but I need your thought about this,” Faye said and looked at Archie and the others. “How about we use this weapon and fire it at whoever is having the high ground?” Faye asked.

“You’re thinking of making both of them die from the fight by interrupting them?” Ruby asked. “That’s not a bad idea, but are you sure about it because you don’t even know if it would work and not to mention that we only have three ammunition,”

“Whether it’s going to work or not, it doesn’t matter since if it’s going to be a big failure, at least we know that the weapon is useless or not rather than regretting it later,” Faye answered and stared at Ruby in the eye.

The ground shook as the parasite charged toward the dragon so quickly and immediately breathe a yellow-ish green flame from its mouth. The dragon flew up high to avoid the fire and then spitted fire down toward the parasite.

It looked like the dragon could easily kill the parasite after watching how bad the injuries on the parasite while the dragon had fully recovered. Everyone believed that would be the case and so Faye asked the technicians to prepare the weapon.

“We need to hit the ribs of that dragon to prevent it from flying away. We want to make them fight to the death because if it keeps going on like this, the dragon is going to win the fight and will immediately fly away,” Faye said as she watched the dragon pour the flame on top of the parasite’s body that slowly burned the parasite’s skin.

Since the dragon was flying low and didn’t move much like a bird, it would be easy to target its body. Since the weapon had a very high muzzle velocity that it only took a second to travel to where the target was and that made things a lot easier.

“Lieutenant Colonel! The weapon is ready to operate!” One of the technicians said as he walked toward Faye.

“Good, now load the ammunition!” Faye replied as she stared at the dragon who was toying with the parasite from above. “We will use all the three of them on that dragon and hope it will be enough to make him fall from its grace,” Faye continued and looked at the parasite screeching in pain as it tried to reach out to the dragon with its tentacles.

The ammunition was loaded, and Faye watched Daniel as the one who took the aim and adjust the angle of the weapon. He was so focused that he didn’t bother about what was happening between the parasites and just focused on aiming at the dragon’s chest.

“Wait for it,” Daniel said and everyone was looking at him and waited patiently. “Hold it,” Daniel looked at the dragon increasing the altitude to avoid the parasite’s tentacles that were slowly expanding to reach out for the dragon.

“Let me readjust the angle,” Daniel said as he carefully pulled the lever so slowly with the help of the hydraulic to move the barrel.

Everyone kept staring at him silently and they started to be impatient because the dragon had been staying at that height for quite a while.

“Fire!” Daniel shouted and then they pulled the lanyard.

A deafening explosion sound and the shockwave of the weapon were enough to make everyone startled and stunned for a split second. They all looked at the bullet travel and hit right on the left side of the dragon’s chest.

The dragon was screeching and started to lose balance but it recovered immediately.

Before they could load another ammunition, the dragon was still screaming in pain until an explosion happened right inside the dragon’s chest. They all looked so confused because the damage was so lethal that the dragon’s chest was almost torn open.

“What the hell is inside that thing?!” Ruby asked with her eyes wide open as she watched the dragon’s chest glowing white as if there was a chain reaction after the explosion.

Faye turned around and looked at the two remaining ammunitions, she was shocked by how powerful the effect was.

“Load the next one,” Faye said with a serious expression. “This is our chance!”

They all nodded with understanding and then grabbed the ammunition and put it inside the weapon.

Daniel put his right eye on the aim and slowly pulled down the barrel to where the dragon was. He could see it clearly, the aftereffect of the damage they did to the dragon.

The skin melted and the flesh was cooked by it that it started to shrink but then he realized it wasn’t because of the heat. He looked at it carefully and noticed the flesh and skin were melted because of the suspicious chemical.

“That’s…” Daniel paused and it made Ruby and Vincent curious.

“What is it?” Ruby asked with her eyebrows raised.

“It’s similar to the one that I made,” Daniel answered and stared at Ruby with his left eye. “But this one is more advanced and lethal,” Daniel explained.

“I see, that explains everything,” Ruby replied and looked at the dragon was in pain.

“Daniel, we don’t have time to waste, aim the weapon at the dragon,” Faye said with a serious expression. “Shoot that thing while we can,”

Daniel nodded his head and aimed the dragon’s chest again.

“Fire!” Daniel shouted and everyone closed their ears and eyes immediately.

The second bullet was shot and pierced through right in the middle of the dragon’s chest. It exploded again and the parasite used the opportunity to swing its tentacles at the dragon.

The dragon was staggering and weakened by the serum that he couldn’t do anything but block the attacks with his wings. The parasite tore the wings with its tentacle, the parasite knew that the wings were the most important parts that it needed to eliminate immediately.

Faye looked so happy but Ruby and vincent weren’t.

“Faye, do you understand the real situation right now?” Ruby asked.

“The real situation?” Faye asked back and looked at Ruby with confusion.

“The ammunition contained the similar serum that Daniel’s made, and that serum worked like a charm and we know that already,” Ruby answered. “The problem is we won’t be able to use it on the other parasite because it has mutated into a new one and the serum wouldn’t be able to hurt the parasite, in fact, it would only make it stronger if you decided to shot the last one at it,” Ruby explained and looked at Faye.

“That wouldn’t be a problem, Ruby,” Eve said as she walked toward Ruby. “That parasite is already dying and don’t believe what you see because the dragon one is nothing like the others,” Eve continued and pointed her finger at the dragon.

Ruby and Faye looked at the dragon then realized the wound stopped destroying its body. In fact, the body was slowly regenerating.

“That’s the power of the pure breed parasite, it could adapt and overcome quite easily because it has survived the struggle to reach the peak,” Eve said while those two were shocked by what they witnessed.