HA\LF: Dead nor Alive

Fanheim talked with them until dawn, and they decided to sleep in his cabin but not Archie. He was watching the forest from the edge of the mountain, he admired the night sky and not a single parasite could be seen. He heard footsteps coming toward him, he turned around and saw Fanheim was holding a new cup of coffee in his hand.

"So you're out here, young man," Fanheim said as he stood next to Archie. "Enjoying the view?" he asked.

"Not really, I have been living in this kind of environment for years so it's not really why I'm standing here," Archie replied as he kept looking at the forest down below.

"Right, you're not originally from the Eastern Nation," Fanheim said as he took a sip of his coffee. "So what are you doing up here on your own?" Fanheim asked.

"Something is off with this place, there are no parasites even though this place is close to FalCon-2," Archie said. "Does this has something to do with that dragon-like parasite that roams around the mountain?" he asked as he looked at Fanheim.

Fanheim nodded. "That's correct. We used to be living far east from here but there was no such a thing as a safe place. We survived for quite a long time and lost a few of our people but thankfully the ordinary humans that followed us are all safe here." Fanheim explained. "That parasite that you saw today, is the ruler of the mountains. It came out occasionally and hunt other parasites, we are not sure why it's eating parasites but it didn't bother us at all as if it allows us to live here as long as we don't bother his hunting ground," he continued as he leaned on the wooden railing.

"And do you have any thoughts of why it does that?" Archie asked.

"We have been living here for a whole year now and we still don't know the reason why it does that. But, for whatever reason it does that, it's giving us a new discovery that not all parasites are dangerous or at least not to us humans." Fanheim replied. "Maybe it tries to protect us from harm so we can live here peacefully, who knows," he continued. "Anyway, the sun is raising, I should get some sleep since I have to guard the outpost again tonight," he said and went into the cabin.

The morning came and the fog with chill wind covered the village. One by one people came out of the cabins and started to work, there were at least 200 people in the village. All of them were greeting each other and noticed Archie who sat at the table next to Fanheim's cabin. They were all whispering to each other and Archie could hear what they were whispering about, and then a guy with long brown hair approached him.

"Are you from the city?" He asked.

"Yes and there's more inside Colonel Fanheim's cabin," Archie replied.

Ruby came out of the cabin and the guy looked at her with a surprised expression. "Bubby?!"

"Long time no see, Mason," Ruby said as she smiled and walked toward him.

Vincent and the others came out of the cabin and saw Mason, they approached him and hug him except for Prince and Resse. They seemed to know each other very well or even closer than just a friend, Archie just watched them at the table.

"Oh, this is Archie, our strongest soldier in the Eastern Nation," Ruby said as she pointed her hand at Archie.

"Eh? Really? This is surprising," Mason said. "Where's Julia? Is she still sleeping in there?" Mason asked while he smiled.

Ruby shook her head. "She's gone,"

Mason's smile disappeared. "Oh, I see..." he said with sadness in his voice.

Ruby nodded and took a deep breath. "Anyway, is Newman here?"

"Newman? His cabin is up there, you will find him in front of his house chopping logs," Mason said.

Ruby nodded with understanding and then looked at Archie. "You can go there on your own, we have another thing to do,"

Archie nodded and left then walked up the mountain to look for Newman.

Archie looked around and saw so many cabins up there, it looked like the village covered the whole mountain. He heard chopping sounds coming from his right, he saw a bald old man chopping the logs, he looked at him for a moment then decided to approach him.

"Are you Newman?" Archie asked.

Newman squinted his eyes and furrowed his forehead. "I have never seen you before, who are you?"

"I'm Archie Lancaster, I came from the city," Archie answered.

Newman hummed. "What do you want?" he asked.

Archie pulled out his bag and grabbed the piece of the fragment then he showed it to Newman. Newman sighed and stuck the axe on the ground, he then approached Archie and looked at the fragment. He was shocked and grabbed it from Archie's hand, he looked at it thoroughly, back and forth.

"Where did you get this?!" Newman asked.

"In the old laboratory hidden behind a steel door in the abandoned city where hundreds of experimented humans turned into parasites," Archie answered as he rested his hands on his waist.

Newman kept looking at the fragment and then he looked at Archie. "So? Why are you showing this to me?" he asked.

"I need your skill to make me a weapon from this," Archie answered.

"What makes you think I'm able to process this thing?" Newman asked while he squinted his eyes.

"Ruby said that you're the best blacksmith in the Eastern Nation, or at least used to be," Archie answered as he crossed his arms.

Newman tried to swing the fragment up and down in his hand, he then shook his head as he shrugged his mouth. "You want me to make a weapon from this? I can't do that because I don't have the equipment to process this. Also, this much isn't enough to make a proper weapon, all I can make from this is a dagger," he explained.

"You don't have to worry about that, there's at least a ton of it inside the laboratory. I only took a small chunk of it to show you in case you don't believe me," Archie said.

"So you came all the way here just so you can ask me to make a weapon for you?" Newman asked. "My answer to that is a no because I don't want to go back to the city since I have a new life here so you can go back to the city and ask the other blacksmiths to make it for you," he said as he gave the fragment back to Archie.

Archie just scoffed and smirked as he looked down.

"What's so funny about it?" Newman raised his eyebrows.

"Nothing," Archie looked at Newman. "If you think you're safe here, you're blind," he continued.

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean you brat?!" Newman yelled at Archie. "You know nothing about this place and you think you know better than us who has been living in this mountain for years?!" he kept yelling at him that starting to attract the people around the mountain.

Ruby came and looked at Archie and Newman. "What's going on here?!"

Newman looked at Ruby then he pointed his finger at Archie. "This brat thinks he knows everything about this place and threatened us by saying that this place is not safe?! What the fuck is this brat thinking?!" he yelled so that everyone could hear what he was saying.

"It's better for you to calm down, Newman, everyone could hear what you're saying and that's not good because you're only making them feel unease," Ruby said as she tried to calm him down.

Ruby looked at Archie as she furrowed her eyebrows and slightly shook her head questioning his words by saying that they were in danger. Archie just knew about it last night because the witch came and told him about the situation around the mountain.

(A few hours ago.)

"What are you talking about?" Archie asked as he looked at the wind witch floated in front of him on the edge of the cliff.

"It ran out of food and it has been wandering around the mountain for hours now. Now that it saw you earlier, it has been tracking you ever since. Knowing that you're here with those humans, he's going to get here sooner or later to hunt for food," The witch explained.

"So we are in danger?" Archie asked.

"Yes, you must leave this place before the sun raises or you all will end up being its food," The witch answered. "You only have a little time but it's all up to you whether you're going to warn them or let them see it for yourself," she continued.

"I see, thank you for the warning," Archie said and then the witch disappeared.

(Back to present.)

Fanheim and the others came and checked on what happened, they were all gathered while Newman was still mad for what Archie said earlier.

"Alright, you need to calm down, Anton," Fanheim said. "Archie, what do you mean that we are not safe here?" he asked.

"You said earlier this morning that the parasite that we were talking about was here to hunt parasites, right? But have you seen any parasites from the past few days?" Archie asked and Fanheim just furrowed his forehead with confusion. "You haven't encountered them lately, isn't it? Do you know what happens when a predator is running out of food? It will hunt something new that lives in the mountain, and that means all of us will be its food next," Archie explained.

The ground suddenly trembled and everyone looked at the ground while they were panicking. A loud banging sound could be heard from the top of the mountain that echoed throughout the whole area. Everyone looked up and they couldn't see anything because the fog was blocking their vision.

Archie sighed and put his hand on Ruby's shoulder. "Bring everyone out to the safety as far as possible," he said as he looked at Ruby. "We only have little time and I can't hold that thing for more than 10 minutes, so make it count," he continued.

Ruby nodded and looked at Vincent and the others. "Bring everyone out from the mountain! Now!" she yelled.

Fanheim looked at Ruby and Vincent was panicking as they ran and told everyone to leave the mountain. "What's going on?!"

"It's better for you to leave as well, Colonel," Archie said as he removed his gloves. "If we are lucky, you can still save half of the people here," he said calmly and looked at Fanheim.

A giant shadow was covering the sunlight from above the fogs, they were looking at the shape of the shadow and it looked like the parasite that they had seen before. The same roar could be heard and everyone was covering their ears because it hurts their eardrums while Archie tried to endure it and prepared himself to fight it.

Everyone was running in panic and then Ruby came back and looked at Archie. "We have gathered all the people!"

Archie turned around and nodded. "Okay, just go and I will catch up with you guys later,"

Ruby nodded and then looked at Fanheim, Prince, and Resse. "Come on, Colonel, Prince, Resse! We need to leave!"

The three of them didn't want to leave and want to fight with Archie but Ruby denied it and told them to leave with her but they were so stubborn that they wanted to stay.

"Let them be, Ruby," Archie said. "It's a good time to show them the truth about this world and who I really am," he continued as he looked at Ruby. "You can go and don't look back, I will bring them with me safely so don't worry," he said.

Ruby was hesitant but then she left leaving the four of them on their own to fight the dragon-like parasite.

"Now, let me show you what this world has become," Archie said as he walked to the front and looked at his hand.