HA\LF: Dead nor Alive

“Here they come,” Daniel said as he used his sniper rifle’s scope and stared at the hordes of parasites lurking around the port and hiding in the dark. “There are at least a dozen of them on the northwest,” Daniel informed Ruby.

“Alright, I will inform Faye about it,” Ruby said as she grabbed her radio. “Do you know what Gen of those parasites?” She asked as she stared at Daniel.

Daniel hummed as he squinted his eyes. “I’m not sure, but they’re just normal parasites. Maybe Gen 3 or 4,” Daniel answered as he tried to adjust his scope.

“Faye, do you read me? There are a dozen of parasites northwest of the port. Send some people to take care of them,” Ruby spoke to the radio in front of her mouth. “Those parasites are just small fries, Gen 3 and Gen 4 parasites,” She continued.

“Copy that,” Faye’s voice could be heard from the radio. “I have sent a few people there,”

Faye looked northwest of the port, and she already heard gunshots coming from that direction. She was glad to have eyes at the tower because it made things easier for her to understand the situation of the surroundings.

“Faye, there’s a contact on the west side of the port as well, at least forty of them,” Aster said as he checked the bullets in the magazine. “I’m going there to give them back up,”

“Okay, please be careful and inform me if you need a backup,” Faye nodded her head.

Aster left hurriedly and brought a dozen of men with him while Faye looked at them leave. She then looked at the building where Archie and Eve went, she couldn’t hear anything in there anymore and it was just silence._.

Archie took a few bites to fill his stomach while Eve was just watching him and made sure nobody was inside the building with them.

“You’re not going to eat some?” Archie asked as he wiped his mouth.

“No, I don’t like the taste and I don’t really need to eat since I already satisfied myself when you were unconscious,” Eve answered and looked out the window. “Oh, Faye is coming, you should stop eating them,”

“Yeah, I’m done,” Archie said as he tossed the body of the parasite away from him.

Faye silently entered the building and saw dozens of parasites laying on the ground and hanging on the railing. She was surprised by what she saw, but she wasn’t surprised about it since it was Archie and Eve who did all that.

“Archie? Eve?” Faye called for them quietly because she didn’t want to attract the parasites that might be still lurking in the building.

Faye didn’t hear any response from them, not only that, it was just silence inside that made her feel a bit uncomfortable.

Faye carefully and silently walked around the building and looked at the dead bodies of the parasites on the floor. She looked around and felt like someone or something was watching her somewhere in the dark.

“Boo!” Eve screamed as she grabbed Faye’s shoulders from behind.

Faye was startled and let out a scream that echoed throughout the building while Eve was laughing at her. It was Archie’s idea because he knew her so well that she was a scaredy-cat and couldn’t handle horror stuff.

“Eve…” Faye said weakly as she held her chest with both hands. “Please don’t do that,” She continued while she was frowning.

“I couldn’t resist and I had to do it since it fits with the atmosphere,” Eve said while she kept laughing at Faye.

Faye exhaled deeply as she watched how beautiful Eve’s smile and laughter were that it made her kind of jealous. She then looked around and saw Archie walking toward her with a smile on his face because he enjoyed the show.

“Was it your idea?” Faye asked as she squinted her eyes and stared at Archie.

“Yeah, it’s been a while since I heard you scream like that. You’re still a scaredy-cat even though you’re the Lieutenant Colonel and the leader of the strongest Axis Humans,” Archie nodded his head.

Faye looked at Archie and remembered the words he said to her back then that they both used to know each other. At first, she didn’t bother to think about that until this happened and thought maybe he was telling the truth.

“Anyway, are you guys done here? We might need some help at the north because there are dozens of parasites coming to the port based,” Faye said and looked at both of them.

“Say no more, we will go there now,” Eve said as she tightened her gloves and rolled her sleeves. “You don’t have to worry about the situation, there’s no real threat around here,”

“Hearing that from you makes me at ease,” Faye replied. “Let’s go then,”

Both Archie and Eve nodded with understanding and then left the building with Faye.

As Ruby said before, the parasites kept coming until the sun rose and the parasites stopped coming to the port. Everyone was exhausted and Faye decided to let everyone rest until noon at the port while the technicians maintained the weapon.

The weapon looked like a cannon with a very long barrel and not to mention how big the hole was. Archie was curious about the weapon and decided to look at it up close and watched the technicians checking the weapon.

“It’s amazing, right?” Faye asked as she walked toward Archie and then stood next to him while looking up at the barrel. “They said that this weapon could pierce steel like a needle pierce a cloth,”

“By the look of the ammunition, I can see that,” Archie replied and looked at the ammunition right next to the weapon. The tip was sharp and pointy while the body was big and bulky. “So there’s nothing inside the ammunition other than gunpowder?” Archie asked as if he was skeptical about the inside of the ammunition.

“To be honest with you, I don’t know,” Faye answered and looked at Archie with a bit of guilt because she convinced him and the others that it was just a normal weapon.

“Well, you said the weapon is nothing but heavy artillery, but you didn’t mention anything about the ammunition,” Archie said with his arms crossed. “Looking at there are only three ammunitions and they asked us to bring this weapon all the way here. I don’t think this is just an “ordinary” weapon,”

“You’re right, but I really don’t know much about the ammunitions,” Faye replied and looked at one of the ammunitions being put inside the barrel from the back.

“I think Ruby and the others already have their suspicion about this as well, but they just keep quiet about it,” Archie said. “By the way, are we really going to carry this weapon? This weapon must weigh tons,”

“Yes, and I suppose it’s not going to be a hard task since it came with wheels underneath, so it will make it easier to move this thing,” Faye answered with her hands resting on her waist.

Faye looked at her watch and it was 10 A.M., she looked at the people behind her. “We have to start the briefing now, come on,”

Archie nodded and followed Faye from behind.

Faye, Aster, Nova, Archie, Ruby, Eve, Vincent, and Fanheim were gathering inside a room that used to be an office. Faye grabbed a map that she brought with her and spread it open on the table.

“This is our current position,” Faye tapped the map and looked at the others. “The last report of the King-type parasite’s location was over here,” Faye dragged her index finger all the way to the middle of the island.

“That’s at least twenty miles from here,” Fanheim said as he looked at the scale of the map and the distance from their location to the King-type parasite location. “It would take us at least six hours if we want to reach there with the weapon on us,”

“Yes, but they said the weapon could shoot up to twenty miles away, so we don’t really have to bring this weapon to the location. We can just put the weapon on the high ground with a dozen people guarding it,” Faye nodded her head in agreement.

“Are you really going to risk putting the weapon far away? We only have three ammunitions and if we missed one, that would be a waste of resources,” Ruby asked. “We should bring this weapon as close as possible but at the same time, away from the parasite so it won’t be destroyed,”

“I agree with Ruby, we can’t risk it,” Nova said.

“Alright then, we will bring the weapon two miles away from the location,” Faye replied as she nodded her head.

“Okay, it’s going to be a long journey,” Vincent said as he stretched his arms up. “We also have to pay attention to our surroundings because we are literally on the island with nothing but parasites around us,”

“Is there any question?” Faye asked as she looked at them but everyone shook their heads. “Good, let’s start moving,”