HA\LF: Dead nor Alive

Archie and Eve flew to one of the islands near the Central Nation, and it used to be Korea. Thankfully, Archie had his money in his backpack, so they rented an apartment to stay in.

They stayed there for a few days because Eve needed to wait until the parasites inside her body to be fully evolved. While they were waiting for her to be ready, they spend their time wandering around the city and it was really a nice place to stay in.

“So, why with the sudden changes?” Archie asked and looked at Eve who turned her hair colors to yellow and made it shorter, she also changed her eyes to green.

“You protected me from getting exposed, and you brought me all the way here just because of that. It’s better to change my appearance,” Eve answered as she stared at her own reflection in the mirror.

- Archie and Eve agreed on dealing with the Adams first because they were the real threat rather than the King-type parasite. Eve hadn’t told Archie about what those Adams were doing, but if she looked anxious, that meant whatever they were doing scared her.

“So, where do you want us to go first?” Archie asked and looked at Eve through her reflection.

“We know there’s one in Indonesia, we should go there first and kill him,” Eve turned around to look at Archie. “But we don’t know exactly where since Faye didn’t tell us the details about it, so we should ask Ruby’s help if we want to get information about Adam,”

“You should change your appearance as well, Archie,” Eve said as she tilted her head toward the mirror in front of her.

Archie changed his appearance to the Archie he remembered before he became a Drautnir. He tried to remember his old memories while Eve was staring at her from behind.

It took Archie an hour to be done with his transformations, and he looked satisfied with it.

“Is this what you look like in the past?” Eve asked with her hands on Archie’s shoulders.

“I believe so, yeah,” Archie nodded his head as he exhaled deeply. “Should we get going now?”

Eve nodded and then they left the apartment.

They both went to the forest far away from the city since the whole island was not heavily guarded because there were no parasites there. The entire city was free from threat and people were free to go anywhere as if they weren’t scared of anything while the rest of the world was struggling to survive.

Archie and Eve flew away up into the sky and went back to the barrack in the middle of the night.

Ruby, Vincent, and Nova were asleep while Archie and Eve were looking inside the barrack through the window. They both entered the barrack and quietly walked toward Ruby and Vincent, Archie then gently tapped Ruby’s forearm.

Ruby opened her eyes and was surprised when they saw two strangers inside the barrack, but then she realized it was just Archie and Eve because she recognized Eve’s face. Archie put his finger in front of his lips to ask her to stay quiet so those two didn’t wake up.

“Archie? Eve?” Ruby quietly whispered as she looked at Nova and Vincent who were asleep.

Archie kept putting his finger in front of his lips and then he tilted his head toward the door. The three of them left the barrack and went quite further away from there so they could speak normally and casually.

“What’s with that get up? Why are you both changing your appearance?” Ruby asked and still couldn’t believe Archie’s new face.

“It’s a long story and we need your help, Ruby,” Archie asked as he looked around.

“Help? What do you need?” Ruby raised her eyebrows and looked at both of them.

“I need you to find the information about the Adam that the scout team found on one of the islands in Indonesia. Eve and I are going to kill him,” Archie answered.

Ruby furrowed her eyebrows because she seemed a bit confused by Archie’s expression which looked anxious for the first time in a while.

“Sure, I can do that, but I can’t do it now. I might need time and maybe tomorrow afternoon I can get that information,” Ruby replied with her arms crossed.

“That’s fine by me,” Archie nodded his head with understanding. “Let’s meet again tomorrow, how about in the bar where we hung out back then? We can talk about the details there,”

“That’s perfect, let’s meet up there,” Ruby nodded her head. “I will see you guys tomorrow,”

Archie and Eve nodded and then they both flew away and it shocked Ruby because she didn’t know that Archie could fly, especially grow wings on his back like Eve. She looked up in the sky and saw their silhouettes under the moonlight as they flew silently like an owl.

On the next day, Archie and Eve casually entered the bar, even though they were still becoming the center of attention because of Eve’s beauty. They both saw Ruby and Vincent waiting for them on the corner, Ruby saw them and nodded her head to tell them that she got the information.

“That’s you, Archie?” Vincent asked with his eyebrows raised and eyes wide open in disbelief.

“Yeah,” Archie answered with a smile on his face.

“Wow, I don’t recognize you at all,” Vincent kept staring at Archie who sat down in front of him and Ruby.

Without wasting any time, Ruby started to tell them about the information she got from Faye about the appearance of Ex-Human on one of the islands in Indonesia. She opened a map and pointed at Borneo island, she told them that the Ex-Human was found there in the Center of the island.

The Ex-Human seemed to be able to control the parasites, the scout team was hunted by the parasites because they got found out by him. Only three people survived and left the island in time, and even so, they were chased by the parasite, and then only one person survived with heavy injury.

“So Adam is in Borneo,” Archie said as he stared at the map on the table. “That would be hard to find him knowing how big the island is,”

“Yes, but the scout team said that he was making his own army of parasites. If someone is making such an army for himself, there’s a high chance he would stay in the center of the island to prevent getting picked off by the enemies, right?” Ruby replied and looked at both of them.

“Yeah, you’re right. I think if we are close enough, we might be able to sense his presence and that also means that he could sense our presence, especially Eve’s presence,” Archie nodded his head and then looked at Eve.

“By the way, do you want to tell us why suddenly you guys changed your appearance?” Ruby asked.

Archie told them about what happened to Eve, he told them about the dragon heart that Eve ate that made her undergo an evolution. He then told them about the thing about Adam and Eve, it was enough to give Ruby and Vincent a shock that the other Adams were working together to make a catastrophe on Earth.

“What kind of catastrophe are we talking about here?” Ruby asked and looked at both of them.

“That’s something that Eve knows because I know nothing about it as well,” Archie answered and looked at Eve.

“Have any of you humans checked the site of the meteor that struck the Earth?” Eve asked with a serious tone.

Archie never heard any news about the humans exploring the sea to check the site of the meteorite because everyone was too busy dealing with the parasites in their own countries. There was no information related to that and nobody was even bothered to think about it since they had problems that needed to be taken care of right in front of them back then.

“By the look of your expression, it seems that nobody has ever gone there,” Eve said. “Inside the meteorite, there’s a creature that lives inside it. It’s not parasites, those parasites that you know, they were all just lice or a bug that came with it,”

The three of them stared at Eve with a serious expression and they all looked a bit nervous to listen to the truth that Eve was about to tell them.

“I was curious about the site a very long time ago, and I decided to flew there and checked the site myself,” Eve said as she stared blankly at the wall in front of her. “I wasn’t able to go deep down to the sea to look at what was inside the meteorite, but I felt a presence that gave me goosebumps and inflicted fear all over my body,” Eve continued and showed a distress expression.

“You’re telling us that these whole thing that happened was all just because of a bug that came down with the meteorite while the real threat isn’t even come out yet?” Ruby asked with her eyes squinted.

“Yes, the real threat is still hidden and asleep deep down at the bottom of the sea,” Eve nodded her head and stared at Ruby with a serious expression.