HA\LF: Dead nor Alive

Ruby flinched as something just flew past her, her eyes throbbed when she noticed Archie just threw the dagger at her. She slowly touched her right cheek and she felt a sting from there, she looked at her hand and noticed the blood on it.

“You left her to death…” Archie said as he frowned his forehead and stared at Ruby with disbelief.

Tears fell down Ruby’s cheeks as she heard that Julia was gone, she fell to her knees as she started sobbing and wiped her eyes. Like the others, Archie heard her painful cry and it felt painful for him to hear it. All he could hear from her mouth was “Sorry…” “I’m sorry” were the only words that came out of her mouth.

Archie was angry at Ruby but at the same time, he was angry with himself for what he did to Julia. He poured his anger on the parasites and Ruby, and then he realized that he shared the guilt and shouldn’t blame Ruby for what happened.

Vincent and the others came and were shocked when they saw Archie standing on top of the pile of parasites while Ruby was on her knees crying. Vincent immediately ran toward Ruby and helped her stand up but Ruby pushed him away as she kept crying.

Archie walked down the pile and approached Ruby who couldn’t stop crying, he wrapped his arms around her thighs and back then lifted her up. Oddly, Ruby didn’t try to resist and just kept crying and it sting Vincent when he saw Ruby being lifted by Archie.

“Follow me, I will bring you guys back to the wall safety…” Archie said with a flat tone.

Archie ran and the others decided to follow him from behind.

Archie knew where the dangers were by the scents and the noises around him, he brought everyone to safety away from the clash. They were amazed about Archie’s survival skills and it had proven it was true, everyone glad that they could rely on him after knowing Ruby was having a meltdown.

After a few hours of walking, they hid in one of the abandoned buildings that Archie guaranteed was safe. They were waiting for the aid to come to pick them up or just to get some rest until the morning come. Ruby hadn’t spoken a single word ever since Archie carried her, Vincent was so worried that he couldn’t help but stay by her side while she rested on the bed and faced the wall.

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Archie couldn’t stop thinking about the taste and the texture of her meat, he tried so hard to stop thinking about it but it kept popping out in his head. He decided to go to the room and rest for the night after knowing the situation around the building was safe enough for him to rest.

“Nadia, you ate lunch already?”

“Nadia, why you didn’t tell me that you enrolled in the army?”

Archie heard a voice that seemed to be coming from his mouth but it was a woman’s voice. He opened his eyes and saw he was inside a neat and cozy room, it looked somehow familiar to him, and realized the futuristic objects around the room. He was inside the Sky Station, he looked at the woman who stood in front of him, a young woman of the same age as Elendra Faye in his memory.

“You’re promoted to Lieutenant?! You’re catching up on me!” The same voice shouted to the woman in front of Archie.

The scenes he watched skipped very quickly that he had no idea what he was watching. One thing that he knew was that he seemed to be inside someone’s memory but he didn’t know who was memories that were.

Archie could hear a loud explosion that came quite close to where he was, the body ran toward the hallway with the lights flickering and people screaming and running away. He was curious about what happened there and noticed the body he possessed staring at a screen on the wall. It was information about the condition of the Sky Station and he saw the bridge was blinking red.

“Is this when the bridge collapsed because of a parasite?” Archie thought to himself.

The memory distorted and changed into a new one, and this time he was on the ground. The people started to build their own houses there because the Sky Station couldn’t support that many people after it lost its power source.

“Nadia, I can’t let you go to that mission, it’s too dangerous,” The woman said with concern.

“I will be fine! It’s not like we are going to make the same mistake as what the Western Nation did,” Nadia replied as she crossed her arms.

The woman grabbed Nadia’s shoulders so tightly. “They didn’t make a mistake, they just weren’t ready for it and neither do you and those people who are going to go on an expedition to FalCon-2!” The woman said as she warned Nadia.

“Whatever! I don’t want to hear a single word from you again!” Nadia yelled as she left the house.

The scenery changed again and Archie was surprised to see her.

“Bubby, can you try to convince her to not go?” The woman asked Ruby who was eating her food.

“Why are you so against her decision to go? We will be fine and it’s necessary for us to go out there because we need all resources to survive,” Ruby replied as she ate her oatmeal.

The woman scoffed and shook her head. “Do you think the major sent dozens of Divisions just to gather some resources?! He wanted something else, and I swear he received a secret mission from Marshall Marlon or something like that.” The woman said as she sighed.

“You’re just being paranoid, Julia…” Ruby said as she looked at the woman.

“Wait, I’m inside Julia’s memories?!” Archie said to himself with confusion.

The memory distorted and changed into a new one, Julia stood near the gate while she looked down. Archie could feel her anxiety and it really blew his mind that he could feel it as if it was his in the first place.

“Ruby? Ruby?!” Julia looked at Ruby who came back with injuries all over her body.

Julia ran toward her and grabbed her body before she collapsed to the ground. “Ruby?! What happened? Where are the others?!” Julia asked as she looked outside the wall with nobody out there.

“I’m sorry, Julia… I’m really sorry…” Ruby said as she tried to lift her hand.

Julia heard clanking sounds of some kind of metal and realized Ruby was holding dozens of dog tags and one of them belonged to Nadia, Julia’s little sister.

“No… no…” Julia said as her vision went blurry because of her tears.

It was quick but it was painful for Archie to watch.

Julia stood in front of a headstone with Nadia’s name carved on it, she stood there and stared at the name while she drank a bottle of whiskey. “I tried your favorite food today, by the way…” Julia said to the headstone. “It tastes really bad… how could you eat rabbit feet like it was chicken meat?” Julia continued as she smiled and scoffed.

Memories of Julia were flashing right in front of Archie, and he knew everything about her relationship with Ruby. She considered Ruby as her little sister and she would do anything so long as Ruby could feel wanted because she knew what happened to Ruby after that incident. She loved her as she loved her little sister so she would try her best to not lose her even if it cost her life.

Archie was watching Julia leading the divisions into the forest, he knew it was the memory of her from a few hours ago.

“Alright, we are safe now…” Julia said as she wiped the sweats on her forehead. “Bubby!” Julia yelled at Ruby who was looking around. “I ordered you to follow my lead, and what you just did is enough to put all of us in danger, do you understand?” Julia glared at Ruby.

“But I saw some-”

“I don’t fucking care if you found a human, a parasite, or even a ghost! You do not go against my order!” Julia kept glaring at Ruby while Ruby lowered her head and looked at the ground. Julia sighed as she rubbed her nose bridge. “Don’t ever do that again, please?” Julia asked calmly.

“Yes, ma’am,” Ruby replied quietly.

A deep growl could be heard from the deep of the forest, everyone immediately on guard and grabbed their melee weapons. Julia looked around and she didn’t see any sign of marks so she thought that it was just a parasite taunting the other parasites who tried to invade its territory.

The growl slowly but surely got closer and Julia realized that the area they were in had no owner for a reason. The area they were in was their hunting ground for those parasites and after she realized that, another growl could be heard from the sides.

“We need to leave, now!” Julia said as she turned around and pointed at the road.

As soon as she said that, the ground shook and a parasite broke through the tree and hit Julia out of nowhere. Ruby and the others immediately pointed their guns at the parasite and emptied their magazines to save her from the parasite.

Everyone tried to save her but Julia stopped them. “Just leave! You’re just wasting time trying to save me!” Julia said as she stood up. “I will catch up with you guys after I have the chance to escape!” Julia continued as she dodged the attacks of the parasite. “Go!” Julia yelled at them.

Knowing Julia’s capability, Vincent ordered everyone to leave the forest and dragged Ruby with him.

“Alright, now it’s just the two of us, I will play with you,” Julia said as she swung her dagger.

Julia really did play around with the parasite as she tried to leave but suddenly another parasite pounced at her from above and bit off half of her arm. The other parasite stomped both of her legs and pulled them off because it knew that her legs were the problem.

Julia couldn’t even do anything while the parasite toyed with her body until a bunch of roots entangled the parasites and squeezed them until they explode. Julia was shocked and she couldn’t tell if she was dreaming, hallucinating, or it was real.

A woman came out from one of the trees and approached her, she looked at Julia’s condition with a pitiful look on her face. Another woman appeared and followed by another, Julia just stared at them and pointed her empty pistol at them until Archie came out of nowhere. Archie watched Julia’s last moment when he carried her and it ended not long after that.

Archie suddenly woke up and sat up as he tried to breathe. “Was it a dream?” Archie held his head as he tried to remember what he saw. “No, it wasn’t a dream, it was real…” Archie whispered as he squinted his eyes.