HA\LF: Dead nor Alive

A month had passed since they went back to the Eastern Nation, and everything was as peaceful as usual. There wasn’t even an attack from the parasite, and they managed to capture dozens of them for their feces.

Everyone was waiting for Ivan to come with the machine, and they were curious if it would work or not. They had no idea how the machine would work, but they thought it would need some kind of electricity first.

They weren’t wrong about it, and were a bit worried that everything would end up in futile. Little did they know that Ivan had prepared a back-up plan, a plan that would definitely work. It was a coal-fired plant which only used a turbine to generate the energy from the steam of burning the coal.

Marlon did think about using the coal, but the problem was finding coal was so difficult knowing they were surrounded by parasites. Now that they had Archie and Eve, and also that the parasites had gone hiding, they could gather a lot of coal from mining sites which were in both FalCon-2 and FalCon-3 areas.

They had tested it, and managed to get electricity from coal. That alone was enough to make everyone happy and grateful for having Ivan with them. He was a multi-talented person with so much knowledge about almost everything.

“Looks like he has arrived,” Fanheim said as he looked at the truck that Newman built.

“I can’t believe it. In just a month, we already have a running vehicle, electricity, and now we will have an infinite amount of energy that we can use forever,” Marlon said as he shook his head in disbelief.

“It was all thanks to Archie to have someone so capable and brought him here with us,” Ruby said with her arms crossed as she stared at Archie playing with Elena in the distance.

“Yeah, without him, I don’t think we would be this excited to come back. Everyone worked so hard and gave them motivation the moment he revealed who he was, and what his goal was. He’s like our savior, and I don’t think we can deny that now,” Marlon replied as he nodded in agreement.

“He has been our savior, ever since I met him. There are so many things that we could make things better than now if only I listened to him. She should be alive by now if I wasn’t being stupid,” Ruby said as she kept staring at Archie.

“It’s all in the past, Ruby, don’t dwell it too much and be grateful with what we have right now. There’s no reason to bring it all up because we all have made grave mistake at least once in our lives,” Fanheim replied.

“Yes, I know, I’m just saying that everything could be better if we just listen to him. It’s a reminder to all of us, and just believe in him,” Ruby nodded her head with understanding as she looked at Fanheim and Marlon.

They both nodded in agreement.

“We are here with the machine, and let’s bring this bad boy down,” Newman said as he jumped out from the truck.

Everyone brought the machine down, and it looked like the machine. It was square like a container, and it was so heavy to carry around. The machine looked like a generator, and a place to store the feces inside. It had battery that would get charged by times after the gas on the feces being converted into energy.

“This thing is just a prototype, so we will be making this thing but in a much larger scale,” Ivan said as he looked at his own creation. “It would take a long time, but we aren’t in a rush, right?” Ivan asked.

Ruby looked at the others who were resting on the road, she sighed and shook her head. “I know,” Ruby replied with her head lowered. She looked at the red sky and then looked at Julia and Vincent, they both just stared back at her without showing any expression.

“It’s your call, Bub. This is your mission, and I’m just here to accompany you, not to supervise you guys,” Julia said as she checked her pistol.

“Alright, let’s head back then,” Ruby said as she nodded and looked at Tommy.

Tommy nodded and immediately left to inform the others.

When they were planning to go back, all of them stopped moving as their eyes were staring at each other widely opened. They could hear a rumbling sound coming from the wall’s direction toward their location, they all stood up and immediately grabbed their guns.

Ruby cocked her submachine gun and pointed pulled the safety off. “That was loud, how many of them do you think?” Ruby asked as she looked at Julia.

“Either a big one or dozens of them,” Julia replied as she grabbed her assault rifle on her back.

Ruby looked at Daniel holding a sniper. “Dan, give us vision,” Ruby said.

“Yes, Capt!” Daniel replied as he looked for a tall building.

Everyone looked nervous because the noises were getting louder and louder.

“Capt! We are in luck!” Daniel shouted from the top of the building.

“What is it?” Ruby asked as she looked up.

“It’s a turf war, they’re not coming toward us, they’re fighting each other!” Daniel replied as he kept his eye behind the scope.

“We need to move, we are in the middle of a clash and the commotion will only attract the others. We don’t want to be in the middle of the clash or we won’t be able to see the sun.” Julia said as she walked toward Ruby. “Daniel, check your 3 and 9, which one is the safest,” Julia asked.

“Uhh…” Daniel responded as he looked to his left and right with his scope. “Bad news, Major…” Daniel replied. “Both sides are no good,” Daniel said as he looked down at Julia.

“How fortunate, we are going south then,” Julia said as she walked to the south.

“We are going south?” Ruby asked.

“I will take the lead from here, you just follow my order, do you understand, Bub?” Julia asked without even looking back at Ruby.

“Yes, ma’am,” Ruby answered.

“Everyone, follow my lead! Nobody is going to be left behind!” Julia shouted as she checked all her equipment.

“Yes, ma’am!” Everyone replied.

Julia led both divisions under her command and as she said earlier that they were in the middle of the clash, it happened. They were attacked by parasites but with Julia’s command, everything was fine and nobody was injured.

Julia “The Sixth Sense” Ares was her nickname, and the reason why people called her that was because all the predictions and words she said were 90% came true. Her insight of the situation was on par with Archie’s, and her combative skill could be compared to Iohann if only she was born in the same year as Iohann who was only 2 years apart. Both never met with each other but both of them acknowledge each other for their own achievements.

Julia didn’t like to work so she decided to stay in her previous rank since it was not too low and not too high. Everyone looked up to her even the people that had a higher rank than her, she achieved a lot at a young age but she stopped showing her capability after she lost her younger sister because of the decision she made that she thought she could change the outcome even though she knew it would be impossible.

With Julia taking the command, everyone could feel at ease and had nothing to worry about. But it changed as soon as the parasites knew that there were humans among the parasite, and at that moment all the parasites decided to chase after them.

Julia headshot all the parasites in front of her with her assault rifle then immediately switched to pistol and finished the rest. She made a path for everyone so they could follow her, she used her pistols, rifle, and sword to clear the path in front of her with zero fear. Her responsibility as a Major changed her way of thinking in a single snap and she became fierce and strict toward everyone including Ruby.

“Quick equipment check!” Julia said as she looked at the empty magazine in her hand.

“0-1”

“0-0”

“1-1”

“1-0”

Everyone responded in order while Julia listened to all of them.

“Not good, everyone is out of bullets either on their primary or secondary guns, we have to go further to the south,” Julia said as she looked at Ruby and Vincent. “Shot the flare, we need back up from the elites to pick us up. We won’t be able to survive the night on our own in here,” Julia continued as she put her guns on her back.

Ruby grabbed the flare gun and shot a yellow flare in the sky, everyone looked at the sky and it always gave them goosebumps whenever they saw a yellow flare.

“Let’s hope they could pick us up before the sun is rising…” Julia said while she wiped her sweat on her forehead. “Let’s move, we need to go into the forest and survive the night together.” Julia continued as she held a sword in her right hand and a dagger in her left hand.