HA\LF: Dead nor Alive

“Please follow me, Professor Dale,” Jenny said as she walked further into the room.

They both walked past the rooms with black glass that they both couldn’t see through on their right. Even though they couldn’t see anything, they could hear the screams of a human and a parasite combined together.

Archie glanced at the black glass and it was enough for him to see what was going on behind it. He stared at Jenny who walked in front of him and she was younger than Daniel who seemed to be in his mid twenties. She was somehow more mature and brave than any other people he knew for someone who wasn’t an Axis Human.

Although Jenny looked brave, the people in all the nations had already gotten used to being surrounded with parasites and looked at them up close since they were their source of energy. So it didn’t faze Archie at all as he kept following her from behind to the other side of the room, or more like a hall.

“I apologise if the surroundings make you nervous or scared, but as I said earlier that everything is safe down here,” Jenny said without looking back. She was curious about what kind of expression Archie was making, but when she turned around, it didn’t meet her expectations at all.

“Looks like I was worried for nothing,” Jenny said as she stared Archie in the eye.

“Hmm? Oh, sorry, I was occupied with something else,” Archie replied as he looked at Jenny.

“I never thought you would be so carefree, Professor Dale. Not carefree, I mean so calm and collected,” Jenny said as she kept staring at him.

“I have been playing with parasites, and they’re the most beautiful living organism that always find its way to survive. Everything that we are doing here, it’s a prove that we are all interested in the same thing, but you wanted a result you want while I don’t mind with all the results,” Archie answered as he smiled at Jenny.

“Then looks like you’re the right person for this project, Professor Dale,” Jenny said as she pulled her ID card for the scanning to open the giant steel door. “You will be observing this subject, Professor Dale,” Jenny said as she pointed at the giant monstrosity that looked like Iohann when he became an Ex-Axis Human.

Archie walked toward the giant glass walls to look at the subject from up close. The subject was chained on every part of its body. Even though it was chained, it could still resist, and one of the chains looked like it was about to snap.

Archie noticed the body structure of the subject had whole turned into a parasite, but it appeared that the subject was still conscious. One thing that he was interested in was that the back of the subject looked like a fin.

“Such a shame,” Archie said as he sighed and stared at the subject.

All of them turned their heads to look at Archie with curious expressions.

“Such a shame? Why is that?” Jenny asked.

“That’s a rare Gen-0 parasite that you guys put in the subject, right?” Archie asked as he looked at Jenny.

“Yes, how did you know that? I haven’t told you anything about this project,” Jenny asked back and she looked at him with a shocked expression.

“The way it’s progressing and the way it modified the body of the subject. It’s obvious how long it took for the parasite to take over the subject’s body, but not the mind. It’s one of the biggest characteristic of Gen-0 parasite, and for some reason, they didn’t attack the host’s consciousness, only the body,” Archie answered as he walked around the glass walls to look at the parasite from different angle.

“Not to mention the progression of the parasitification is still not done yet. And that’s why I said it’s such a shame because the subject will die in less than a week,” Archie continued as he looked at the subject’s back.

Jenny was amazed and dumbfounded by Archie’s knowledge of the parasite. It wasn’t only because of Dale’s memories, but also because he had been through it and saw many things every since he became a Drautnir.

“So? What do you want me to do here?” Archie asked as he looked at Jenny with a smile.

“To be honest, you already answered all of our questions about the subject here. So, I don’t think there will be anything that you have to do,” Jenny answered as she looked at the others. “But, if you’re interested, I guess you can go and check another subject,”

“There’s another subject? Sure,” Archie answered.

“Before we go there, I just want to inform you that this subject isn’t like what you would expect,” Jenny said. “We found her like that, and we didn’t do anything to her,” Jenny continued as she looked at Archie.

“Alright, lead the way,” Archie replied.

Jenny hesitated at first, but then she led Archie back to where they came from. Archie didn’t say anything and just followed her because he was curious what kind of subject that made her act like that.

Jenny looked at the woman standing in front of a small steel door and nodded her head at the woman. The woman nodded back and walked away as she opened the steel door using the code next to the door.

They both entered the room, and it looked like a normal bedroom with a lot of stuff inside. The moment Archie looked to his left, he was surprised because the subject was just a kid. She looked like she was six years old, and she looked scared and looked like a normal kid, but he could tell there was a parasite living inside her body.

“This is Elena, and she’s a unique one, but the problem is that she’s too shy and she hasn’t showed her ability ever since we brought her here,” Jenny said.

“Don’t you think it’s because she’s scared? Bringing a small kid into this kind of place, even if it’s me, I don’t have other things in my mind but being afraid of being in here,” Archie replied as he looked at Elena who was staring at him with fear.

“Well, you know this already. We are not the ones to make the call and decide,” Jenny replied as she looked at Archie.

“Right,” Archie said as he sighed. “Well, let me have a moment with her. I need to observe her and I think it’s better to listen to everything from her rather than you telling me the details,” Archie continued as he looked at Elena and smiled at her.

“Alright, I will give you time, but please don’t force your way in because we don’t want to scare her. It’s already bad enough to brought her down here as you said,” Jenny replied as she looked worried about the Elena as well.

Archie nodded his head as he watched Jenny leave the room.

The steel door closed and it was just Archie and Elena in the room. The first thing he checked were the cameras on the corners, so he couldn’t do anything but keep pretending to be Dale even though he wanted to introduce her to his real self.

“Hi, Elena,” Archie said as he sat on the chair on the other side of the room so he didn’t scare Elena.

“Hi,” Elena answered and she sounded so scared.

“Don’t be scared, I’m not here to do anything to hurt you or make you uncomfortable. I’m just here to have talk if that’s okay with you?” Archie asked as he kept smiling at her.

Elena nodded her head.

“Do you think this place is scary?” Archie asked.

“Yes, because they’re in pain,” Elena answered.

“Yes, they are, but these people are sick, and we are here to treat them,” Archie answered as he looked at the window.

“I’m not talking about them, I’m talking about the parasites. They’re in pain because they’re being forced to be living in a body that they didn’t want to be,” Elena said as she shook her head.

Archie was surprised when Elena said that.

“You can communicate with parasite?” Archie asked with curiosity.

“Not really, it’s just I can feel it,” Elena answered as she stared at Archie.

Elena looked at Archie and noticed the parasites inside his body, and Archie knew that she was staring at them. He put his index finger in front of his lips as he smiled at her and shook his head to tell her to not say it.

“So, can you tell me what happened to you, Elena?” Archie asked as he slowly closed the distance between him and Elena.

“I don’t actually remember, but I was living with my mother outside the wall, and I was sleeping at night after my mom told me a bedtime story. Then, when I woke up the next morning, my mom was already dead, and then I was brought her after Jenny and her friends came,” Elena answered.

“I see, but you will be okay, I can promise you that,” Archie said.

“Okay,” Elena said as she stared at Archie in the eye.

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