HALF: Dead nor Alive

Archie furrowed his forehead as he stared at nothing and chewed the meat, he then looked at the black-haired witch. “Wait, didn’t I suppose to use that meteorite fragment to fight him?” Archie asked.

The black-haired witch took some of the meat on the tree branch. “That was the plan before you encountered him and told you that you only have 7 days to prepare.” She said. “After knowing that you only have 7 days, there’s no way for a human to be able to process that fragment.” She continued as she chewed the meat.

Archie hummed with understanding but then he looked at the red-haired witch and pointed at her. “Isn’t she able to melt the fragment with her power? I remember that the fire witch from where I came from abled to melt it with her fire.”

The red-haired witch looked at Archie. “I’m not strong enough to melt the fragment like her, and the reason why is because I’m the weakest compared to my other fire sisters. The one that you mentioned, she’s the strongest fire sister so it’s not a surprise that she is able to do that.”

“So? If each element has the strongest one, which one of you is the strongest compared to your own element?” Archie asked as he looked at the black-haired and green-haired witches.

The green-haired witch raised her hand. “That would be me, I’m the strongest one compared to my other sisters. You can see that I have a body while the rest of my sisters don’t, and I can control all the trees and roots in this land easily while the others can’t.”

Archie nodded with understanding as he stood up. “Alright, I should get going now because the sun is about to rise.”

The three witches nodded and Archie immediately ran to the forest edge.

Archie looked around in the abandoned city and he couldn’t feel a single parasite which was weird since today was the day that guy planned to attack the city. He kept looking and planned to reduce the threat and danger so the humans could handle the easier ones but he couldn’t find any.

He arrived in the city and went straight to his house, Marie was cleaning the ground and saw Archie in the alleyway.

“Ah! Where have you been? I haven’t seen you for days!” Marie asked as she approached Archie.

“Oh, I was working on the other side of the city and I didn’t have the time to go back because it’s quite far from here.” Archie lied as he smiled at Marie.

“I see, well, I’m glad that you’re back,” Marie said. “But…” Marie continued and her expression changed drastically. “The situation around here is getting worse, Archie, the soldiers have been moving a lot lately. Not only that, I saw them bringing the tanks, apache helicopter, and the big guns to the south wall. Something must have happened and they prepared for something big there.” Marie said as she looked at the south wall with a worried expression.

Archie noticed that on his way back to the city, he saw dozens of gatling guns and heavy machine guns installed on the walls. If they prepared all the heavy weapons there, that must mean they knew about the disaster that was going to happen soon.

“Did a friend of mine come here to look for me, Marie?” Archie asked.

Marie nodded. “Yes, a woman and a man were here last night, they asked me about you but I told them that I haven’t seen you so they immediately leave after knowing that you’re not home,” Marie replied. “Oh, speaking of that, they left me something and they want me to give it to you,” Marie said as she tried to reach for something in her pocket. “Here…” Marie said as she gave a piece of paper to Archie.

Archie grabbed the paper and it was a pub where he spent the night with Ruby and the others.

“Thank you, Marie, I will go there right now,” Archie said then left to the pub.

Archie arrived at the front door of the pub, he could hear a lot of people talking from inside, he then opened the door and saw Ruby, Tommy, Vincent, and Daniel on the counter. They turned their heads and looked at Archie with a surprised expression, then Ruby jolted from her seat and approached him.

“Archie…” Ruby said with a slight smile on her face.

Archie looked around and there were only the 4 of them and Frank behind the counter. “So, why do you want to see me here?” Archie asked Ruby.

“Come here, I will tell you the details,” Ruby said as she walked back to the counter. Archie followed her from behind and looked at Vincent who seemed glad to see him back.

Archie sat down in between them and Frank offered him a drink, he then asked for a big glass of whiskey.

“A lot of things happened when you were gone,” Ruby said.

“Okay, tell me everything,” Archie replied.

“3 days ago, the same ExTP that made Prince and Resse in a comatose state appeared again. Marlon deployed the 11th up to 20th Divisions to defeat it, and as you know all of them are the product of the experiment. They managed to kill that parasite but lost dozens of them in the process. After that, Marlon sent a scout team to check the situation in the south, they found out there were hundreds of parasites that are Gen 4 up to Gen 6 in the abandoned city,” Marie said.

“One of the scouts was seen dead, and there was a piece of paper in his hand. It was a warning and said that today will be the day all the parasites will come and attack the city. It’s as you said, Archie, they’re really coming here to destroy the city.” Vincent said.

Archie took a sip and looked at the bottles that were being displayed on the wall. “What about him? Did he show himself or not?”

Vincent shook his head while both Tommy and Frank were looking at each other with confusion. “There’s no sign of him, but you said that he will come here today as well, right? Then he should be around the abandoned city right now.” Vincent said.

“I didn’t find him anywhere nor the parasites that you just said,” Archie said and looked at Vincent. “There were no signs of them out there in the abandoned city,” Archie continued.

Both Ruby and Vincent looked at each other and then Ruby grabbed Archie’s arm. “That’s impossible because we all saw it with our own eyes with a telescope and thermal scope last night. There were dozens of them or even a hundred, there’s no way that they’re not out there now,” Ruby said with confidence.

Archie furrowed his forehead and looked at his own reflection on the whiskey, and before he could say a word, he heard a siren was being rung outside. All of them immediately looked at the window and got up to check what that siren was about. The siren was long enough to tell everyone that it was an emergency situation.

“This is it?” Tommy asked as he stared through the window.

“Let’s move!” Ruby said as she opened the door in front of her.

Ruby and the others immediately got out of the pub and Archie followed them from behind.

Ruby asked the soldiers around the pub but they had no idea what was the siren for. Ruby then decided to go to the south wall to check if it had something to do with the attack.

Archie followed them from behind and suddenly he stopped moving because his right hand trembled. He started to sense the danger that came from outside the wall, he looked at the gate with confusion because he didn’t feel anything earlier but for some reason, he now could feel the presence of the parasites.

“Archie! Come on!” Ruby yelled at Archie.

Archie nodded and ran to catch up with them.

Ruby looked up as the soldiers were running around and loaded the big guns. “Hey! What’s going on?!” Ruby shouted at the soldiers on the wall.

One of the soldiers looked down and they could see the fear in his face. “Th-they are here!” The soldier shouted with his voice cracked.

“How many?” Ruby asked.

“Hundreds of them! And some of them are gigantic!” The soldier replied.

Ruby looked at Vincent, Tommy, Daniel, and Archie. “Let’s go up there and see it for ourselves.”

All of them nodded and immediately took the stairs.

Ruby was the first one to reach the top of the wall, she looked to her left and she suddenly stopped moving. Tommy and Vincent were next to reach the top and they both immediately covered their mouth and rubbed their cheek. Daniel and Archie were the last ones to reach the top, when they saw beyond the wall, Daniel gasped while Archie just furrowed his forehead.

“This isn’t an attack, this is an annihilation,” Ruby said quietly as she saw hundreds of parasites walking toward the city while they were destroying the buildings around them.