HA\LF: Dead nor Alive

“Yo, Archie, wake up!”

Archie groaned and tried to open his eyes.

“Come on, kid. Wake up or the Marshall will drag you down the street.”

Archie opened his eyes and saw everyone already in their attire, Archie then jolted from his bed and tried to find his bag. The muscular guy tapped him on the back and he saw his bag in the muscular guy’s hand, “Looking for this? Archie?”.

Archie smiled and nodded while he was grabbing the bag from his hand, “Thank you, Sir.”

“You don’t have to be so formal with me, Archie, just call me…”

A ringing sound hurt Archie’s ears, “Every time a name is mentioned in my memory it gives me a headache.” Archie held his head while he was staring at his own memory.

Archie ran with the muscular guy and his friends, he looked around and saw so many people running in the same direction as him. All of them were Axis Humans and that was the first time he saw hundreds of them at the same place wearing their attire.

Everyone was lining up and staring at the Marshall who stood in front of them with his hands on his back.

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“At ease, boys…” His voice was echoed throughout the field, the Marshall smiled at every single one of them.

Archie looked around and the sun wasn’t even up yet and the cold was enough to give him a chill straight to his bones, the grass was wet because of the morning dew and it smelled quite nice.

“Good morning, boys. How was your sleep?” The Marshall walked side to side and stared at everyone.

“Best night we ever had, Sir!” All of them shouted the same answer that made Archie startled.

“Good! Good! So all of you should be ready for the expedition, right?” The Marshall scoffed and smirked.

“Sir, yes, Sir!” Everyone stood straight and stared at the Marshall.

The Marshall crossed his arms and stared at everyone for quite a while, everyone just stood there and stared at him in silence.

“You all will be deployed outside the south wall, and I just want to remind you, boys, that you all will be entering the Fallen Continent One.” The Marshall walked closer to them as he raised his shoulders because of the cold.

“I don’t have to remind you that you put your life on the line for this mission. We don’t have enough intel about FalCon-1, but we all do know that everything in that continent is dangerous so make sure don’t play around on this mission, do you understand?” The Marshall raised his eyebrow with his hands on his back.

“Sir, yes, Sir!” Archie answered with the rest of them.

The Marshall looked at his son who stood in front of him, “Don’t let me down, kid…”

The muscular guy saluted him, “Sir, yes, Sir!”

The Marshall walked back and turned around, “Your job is simple, bring one of those Ex-Humans with you and you all can go back as soon as you secured your objective. The details will be explained by your division leader, so listen to them carefully.”

Ex-Humans were like the Axis Humans but they sacrificed their humanity and became one with the parasites. They could control their own bodies and minds but they were hostile and aggressive toward any living being that was not hosted by parasites.

There were rumors about those Ex-Humans, they said that they somehow still looked like human beings and they disguised themselves as if they were stranded humans then as soon as they made a contact with a living being, they would kill them immediately and ate their flesh.

The Marshall gave a short speech then everyone was dismissed and went to their own division for a briefing.

They went back to their barrack and the muscular guy stood in front of them with his arms crossed, “You all know that we have no data or information related to the Ex-Humans, and I don’t think those rumors about them were true so don’t believe what you heard about them. Those Ex-Humans aren’t that different from those ExTP so I want you guys to be careful and don’t hesitate to take them down when you see one.”

Archie raised his hand and the muscular guy nodded up and raised his eyebrows, “Yes, Archie?”

“Why do we want to capture the Ex-Human? Is there a reason behind it?” Archie looked at him while he was furrowing his forehead.

Everyone nodded and hummed in agreement since they were all curious about it as well.

The muscular guy sighed and leaned on the frame of the bunk bed, “To be honest, pops didn’t tell me anything about it as well when I asked him. What I believe is that they want to examine them and maybe to turn them back and help us fight against those parasites since we kept losing so many Axis Humans for the past few decades.”

The muscular guy stared at his wristwatch and shook his arm, “Alright, we have 10 minutes to prepare everything. Grab your weapons and tools then let’s meet up at the south wall. Everyone dismissed!”

All of them scattered and went to their own bed to grab their things, Archie just stood there staring at them since he didn’t have anything else to prepare.

“Come with me, Archie, I want you to do me a favor.” The muscular guy wrapped his hand around Archie’s neck and dragged him outside.

Everyone around them was busy preparing their stuff like what the others did in the barrack, the muscular guy looked at Archie while he was tapping his hand on Archie’s shoulder gently, “The reason why I chose you to be in my division is that we need your amazing talent, Archie.”

Archie looked at the muscular guy and furrowed his eyebrows, “My talent? But I’m only good at surviving and that’s only inside a virtual reality.”

“That’s exactly why you’re here right now, Archie.” The muscular guy crossed his arms.

“The reason why we got this mission is that you aced all the VST exams. We were planning to find an individual that able to pass those exams for the past few years. For the last two years, you were the only one who managed to pass the exam and you aced all of them so easily. As soon as we heard that you aced the last two exams, pops gave it a go of this expedition. So it was all because of you, Archie.” The muscular guy patted Archie’s back and smirked proudly.

“Doesn’t that mean you guys put all your worries onto my shoulders? I don’t think I would be able to lead you all because I have never gone outside the wall. Even though I aced all the exams, it would be different in the real world, so I don’t think I will be confident with my talent.” Archie looked nervous and pale.

The muscular guy put his hands on Archie’s shoulder and glared at him while he shook Archie gently, “It will be fine, you will be my adviser and when we are both on the same ground, I will make the call so everyone will follow my lead. How is that, Archie? You don’t have to do anything but be my adviser, and you will be protected by everyone since you’re a very very important asset to us. No, not just us but to all the four nations.”

Archie was so happy to hear that he was very important not just to everyone around him but also to all four nations that he didn’t realize that the muscular guy led him to the south wall. When he noticed that he was in front of a building that look like a bunker, Archie looked at the muscular guy entering the building.

Archie followed him inside and he realized that this place is the station where all the Axis Humans or anyone go to the Fallen Continent. They dug a tunnel around the world and then built rails in it so the trains could go everywhere without a problem or danger.

The muscular guy grabbed his black sword and put it on his waist then grabbed his handgun then put it on his back, the soldiers provided everything that he needed.

The muscular guy took a handgun holder and a gun in it then gave it to Archie, “You will need this, Archie. You need to be able to protect yourself if in the worst-case scenario that nobody could protect you.”

Archie grabbed it and wrapped the holder around his waist.

“It’s time… everyone should be here any minute…” The muscular guy stared at his wristwatch.

In less than a minute, people came into the building with swords, axes, spears, and guns on their waist and back, all of them looked at Archie and they were all smiling and nodding up at him. Those who knew him greeted him and they were all grateful to have him in the expedition.

Archie followed them into the lift and went deep down into the earth and when he reached the bottom, he saw a long bullet train and everyone stood in front of the entrance.

Each division stood in front of a different railway carriage and there were a total of 12 carriages. All the leaders stood in front of each of their teammates while the rest of them checked each other’s equipment for one last time.

“Alright, boys, are you guys ready?” The muscular guy looked at everyone.

“Yes, Sir!” Everyone looked and saluted at him.

The muscular guy nodded with understanding, “Alright, let’s roll out!”