HALF: Dead nor Alive

“Archie, just follow my lead and keep close to us because I’m going to need you on my side.” Ruby looked back at Archie while she ran to the gate with the rest of her team.

“Capt, are we really going to go outside of the wall? It’s nighttime and they’re not supposed to be moving at this hour.” One of the soldiers looked at Ruby with an assault rifle in his hands.

“What? Are you telling me the watchers lied to us? Just keep quiet and keep up your pace!” Ruby glared at him as she gave a signal to the watchers above the wall to open the gate.

“Open the gate! Capt. Ruby from the 102nd Division and Capt. Vincent from the 111th Division are going to do a clean-up!” The soldier shouted to the guys who were operating the gate.

“Capt, Who’s that guy with the 102nd Division over there? Is he a new recruit?” A soldier looked at Vincent while he tilted his head toward Archie.

“Don’t waste your time asking a question, we have more important things to do.” Vincent kept his eyes on the road and his surroundings.

“That guy will end up dead anyway if he’s with her…” The soldier scoffed as he kept running and following Vincent from behind.

“We are going to have a conversation after we are done here, Martin.” Vincent glared at Martin and made Martin go quiet and looked away.

“You got what you deserve, Martin…” A soldier laughed as he ran next to him.

Ruby stopped running and raised her left hand while she clenched it, everyone stopped and immediately walked so slowly and quietly. Archie looked at the far right and he could sense a parasite over there and he just kept staring that way silently.

“It’s here, but I can’t tell where…” Ruby looked at Vincent.

“Split up?” Vincent looked at Ruby while he raised his eyebrow.

“Alright, you take the right side and I will take the left side.” Ruby nodded in agreement.

As soon as Vincent and his team went to the right side, a gunshot could be heard. Archie already knew that it would happen while Ruby and her team turned around to check on them.

“Let’s go!” Ruby ran past Archie but then Archie sensed a dangerous presence hiding behind the wall.

“Watch out!” Archie ran toward Ruby and grabbed her arm then pulled her toward him.

The wall broke and a skinless deformed human-like parasite appeared, Archie looked at it and he could tell that something is off with that parasite.

Archie looked to his right and immediately a guy shot a fire toward the parasite then followed by the others. Archie slowly backed away and saw the bullets travel in front of him, it was quite a view because it traveled slowly in his perspective.

The parasite took all the bullets and it seemed that the bullets didn’t affect the parasite at all. It looked at the soldiers and immediately jumped toward the wall and bounced to another. It pounced on one of the soldiers but he managed to dodge it and he grabbed his sword from his back and then slashed the parasite with it.

*Clank!*

“What?!” The soldier was shocked as his hands bounced back.

Since he was still in shock, he stood there for a second, and then the parasite swung its hand at him and tear open his gut.

“Huh? Argh!” The guy fell to the ground as he tried to close the wound on his stomach.

“Fucking hell! Everyone get back!” Ruby walked past Archie and pointed her submachine gun at the parasite.

She aimed at the eyes of the parasite and both of its eyes exploded from the bullets, she then put her gun on her back and grabbed her sword on the back of her waist. She swung the sword as hard as she could but then her sword shattered into pieces.

The parasite screeched at her and pounced at her but Archie suddenly appeared in front of her and grabbed the parasite on the neck. He pushed the parasite back and threw it at the wall, he immediately walked toward the parasite and grabbed its arm then pulled it off so easily. The parasite bit Archie’s right arm and tear it apart but Archie didn’t even flinch and immediately wrapped his right arm around its neck then he broke its neck.

Archie looked at the flesh hung on his arm then he tried to put it back to where it belong while Ruby and the others were just staring at him in silence.

“Are you alright?” Ruby looked at Archie with concern. 𝑓𝔯𝑒e𝘸e𝘣𝓷𝘰ѵe𝚕.c૦𝙢

“Yeah, I’m good…” Archie nodded as he leaned on the wall while he kept holding the flesh on his arm.

“Will it…” Ruby looked at Archie’s arm and pointed at it.

“Yeah, it will but it will take time.” Archie nodded as he looked at the others who were still staring at him.

“Alright! Let’s check on 111th Division and help them out! Let’s move!” Ruby grabbed her gun from her back.

“You should… you know, do your thing?” Ruby looked at Archie then looked at the dead parasite below him.

Archie just stared at the dead parasite and nodded with understanding then Ruby ordered some of his team to carry the injured soldier back to behind the wall. She and her division ran toward the gunshots that came from Vincent’s team.

Archie couldn’t stop staring at the parasite as he swallowed the saliva that kept coming out. He looked at it as if he was staring at a delicious steak, but he shook his head while he took a deep breath.

“I should stop eating them since I can get proper food here…” Archie stood up and walked away even though he couldn’t resist taking a bite of the parasite.

Archie watched them fought dozens of parasites and they kept coming toward them because of the gunshots, screeches, and screams. He watched some of them were injured during the fight and he just stared at them with a blank expression. He didn’t feel sad or sympathetic with those who were injured because he thought to himself of how weak they were and that they kind of deserved that for not being careful.

“Where’s the other? Why it’s just us out here?!” Ruby looked around and didn’t find any reinforcement coming from the wall.

“Just hold them off, Bub, we are fine here since we can still handle them.” Vincent kicked the parasite and pulled his dagger from its neck.

“Captain! More is coming! A lot of them!” Daniel stood on top of a building while he looked down at Ruby.

“Understood!” Ruby bullseye-d every bullet she shot at the parasites.

“Everyone move! We need to fight in a bigger space!” As Ruby lured some of the parasites to the road.

Some of Vincent’s team climbed up the buildings and held their position to give support from above with their guns while the rest of them followed Ruby to the big road. Archie shot the parasites but he couldn’t hit their heads since he wasn’t experienced enough with shooting a gun. He gave up on using a pistol and decided to use his bare hands to fight the parasite since it was easier for him.

Even though there were only 26 of them, they could fight dozens of parasites, it was also thanks to Archie who killed the strongest parasites amongst the rest. His hunger raised as he stared at the corpses of parasites but he tried to ignore it by killing parasites. The more blood he smelt the more he couldn’t resist his hunger, he looked at his hand covered with blood and decided to lick his thumb when nobody looked at him. It made his hunger skyrocketing and he regretted his decision immediately.

A roar could be heard from the distance, and the roar was so loud and deep that it made the parasites crawl away in fear.

“What the fuck was that?!” Martin looked in the direction where the roar came from.

“Whatever it is, it seemed to scare these parasites and that’s not a good sign neither for us nor the parasites,” Vincent said as he reloaded his assault rifle.

The sound of the gate opening made them turn around to look at the gate. A group of people came out from the gate with the same uniform, Archie looked at them and he felt something off with those people. They were walking in line as they walked toward Ruby and Vincent, there was a guy who walked at the front with black hair that seemed to be the leader of the group.

“Captain Vincent, Captain Ruby, we will handle this from here on out.” The black-haired guy said.

Ruby and Vincent stared at him and then looked at the people behind him.

“You sure about that, Prince? There’s a possibility that there’s an ExTP-3 here, so we should work together to fight that.” Ruby asked while she massaged her neck and shoulder.

“You guys have fought well and you all seemed exhausted already. You were out for a mission earlier, right? We will be fine and just get some rest,” Prince replied as he looked at Ruby with a worried expression.

“Alright, let’s go back boys, the elites will handle them from now on,” Ruby looked at the others as she walked backward. None of them complained and followed Ruby happily, Archie then followed them while he stole a glance at Prince and the rest of them.

“Who are those people?” Archie walked next to Ruby while he held his arm.

“They’re basically monsters in a human shell, they’re Axis Human from the result of the experiment,” Ruby replied while she checked her gun.