HA\\LF: Dead nor Alive

“My head…” Ruby groaned as her hand slowly rubbed her head.

Both Ruby and Vincent were brought to the hospital because their injuries were bad, the doctor had to stitches on the back of their heads.

“You finally wake up, Bub…” Vincent sat on the chair next to Ruby’s bed. Ruby saw the bandages around Vincent’s head and it looked back from her perspective.

“Are you alright, Vince?” Ruby slowly lifted her hand and pointed at his head.

“This is nothing, it’s nothing compared to what you have been through. You have been unconscious for 3 days.” Vincent crossed his arms while he stared at Ruby with a worried expression.

“3 days?” Ruby replied with a weak voice.

“Yeah, and thanks to that incident, Resse is getting punishment and she’s now patrolling outside the wall,” Vince said with a smile on his face.

“What about him? Where’s he now?” Ruby slowly looked around to see if Archie was around.

“He’s living in one of the barracks in the headquarters,” Vincent replied with his thumb pointed at his back.

“A lot of things happened when you were unconscious, Bub…” Vincent continued as he slowly lifted the chair closer to the bed.

“What happened?” Ruby asked with her eyebrows furrowed.

(3 days ago)

“You’re not going anywhere, you’re coming with me to my office.” Marlon walked out of the room and stared at Archie.

Archie looked at the medics carefully carrying both Ruby and Vincent out of the room and decided to follow Marlon after Ruby and Vincent were safely out of the building.

Archie followed Marlon to the next building, a building where the trucks were parked in line. He looked at the people who came in and out of the building, he noticed that every single one of them was wearing a lab coat. Archie looked at Marlon and he knew where he was taking him and what was he planning to do. Archie was a bit nervous as he kept following Marlon from behind because if they took his blood, he would know that he was Archie Lancaster.

“We are going to the lab and take your blood sample,” Marlon said as he turned his head and looked at Archie.

“Yes, Sir…” Archie replied without hesitation but he was so nervous about it.

“I still can’t believe you survive on your own out there, you’re really good at surviving and we are in need of someone like you, Lance.” Marlon walked into the building while he greeted the people around.

“I had no other choice, Sir…” Archie replied as he kept following him in the hallway.

“What a great answer, I wish half of the soldiers have the same thinking as you are.” Marlon laughed as he opened the door in front of him.

“Professor, do you have time?” Marlon removed his cap and fixed his hair.

“Marshall Marlon?! What can I do for you?” The professor was surprised and stopped reading the book in his hand.

“Can you take this kid’s blood? We found a newly born Axis Human with a natural way over here.” Marlon patted his hand on Archie’s back.

The professor stared at Archie with disbelief and he immediately nodded with understanding and guided Archie to the chair.

“Don’t worry, it won’t hurt.” The professor said but then Archie chuckled unconsciously because he had a deja vu.

“I’m sorry, I was chuckling because I’m nervous.” Archie smiled and cleared his throat while the professor was smiling at him and nodding with understanding.

The professor checked the needle and then he pressed the syringe into Archie’s skin but he was so confused that the needle won’t penetrate his skin. He added more pressure on the syringe but the needle couldn’t pass through his skin and it bent to the side. The professor was shocked and showed the bent needle to Marlon, Marlon just scoffed while he shook his head with disbelief.

“You better bring a bigger needle, professor,” Marlon said as he watched from behind Archie.

“Yes, I will bring a new one right away…” The professor checked the cupboard next to his desk.

“So you have a very tough skin, huh?” Marlon stared down at Archie.

“Yes, I do, it was convenient because when a parasite tried to bite my hand or scratch my skin, sometimes they couldn’t tear it open because of how tough my skin is.” Archie looked at his right arm and flipped it around.

“I know this syringe looks scary, but I guess this should work…” The professor grabbed a bigger syringe and Archie looked at it with disbelief.

Archie gulped and put his arm on the table again so the professor can start his work.

“Alright, it’s in…” The professor sighed as he managed to put the needle into Archie’s skin.

He started to pull out the blood inside Archie while Archie nervously watched the tube because he knew that his blood was no longer red, but black. While the professor carefully sucked the blood out, the three of them were surprised when they saw how dark-red Archie’s blood was. Archie was so confused that his blood shouldn’t be red but pitch black like tar.

“I will run a few tests now.” The professor looked at Archie’s blood and slid his chair to the other side of the room.

“How long does it take?” Marlon crossed his arms and looked at the professor who was already busy putting Archie’s blood into different tubes.

“I can give the result in a few hours, Marshall. I will give the result as soon as I have it in my hand.” The professor carefully dripped the blood on a tube.

“Before you run those tests, could you try to test his DNA with Archie’s DNA, professor?” Marlon glared down at Archie who stood in front of him.

The professor’s hands stopped moving and he turned his head to look at Archie and Marlon back and forth. “Sure….” The professor looked at Archie as if he was curious about him.

Archie was so nervous that he didn’t want to move a muscle as he watched the professor put his blood into a test tube and put it inside a machine.

“Send me the result in my office when you’re done running the test.” Marlon stared at the professor.

“Yes, I can give the result in 3 hours, Marshall.” The professor looked at him in fear.

“Come with me, Lance, we will talk about other things in my office,” Marlon said as he walked toward the door.

“Yes, Sir.” Archie gulped and stood up then follow Marlon to his office.

Archie couldn’t feel at ease knowing that his blood was being observed, not to mention that the result only took a few hours. He was thinking about running away but with the current situation he was in, he would endanger Ruby’s life.

They both sat at the table while Marlon wrote a document for him since he accepted Archie’s offer about him knowing the terrains outside the wall compared to the others. Marlon looked at the document he wrote and then he looked up to see the clock on the wall. Archie just sat there did nothing and listened to the clock ticking.

“I’m done with the document, all you have to do is to sign it down here.” Marlon tapped on the document on the table.

Archie tried to grab it but Marlon’s fingers prevented him from taking it away from him. Archie looked at Marlon who was staring at him with suspicion.

“Is there a problem, Sir?” Archie calmly asked.

“How about we wait for a little longer until the professor comes with the result?” Marlon smiled as he kept staring at Archie.

Archie tried his best to not panic and looked at the time on Iohann’s watch. 3 hours had passed since he came to Marlon’s office which also meant that the professor was on his way there.

(At the same time in the laboratory)

“This is?!” The professor checked the result on the screen. “I have to immediately report this to Marshall Marlon!” The professor clicked on the screen to print the result.

“Professor?” A soldier came into his room that startled the professor.

“You scared the hell out of me! What do you want?” The professor looked at the soldier.

“We have a problem, prof.” The soldier approached the professor suspiciously.

“What kind of-” The professor stopped in the middle of his sentence as his eyes were glaring wide open.

The professor’s head fell from his head as the soldier wiped his sword in his hand.

“Human curiosity is dangerous…” The soldier stared at the professor’s head rolled on the floor.

(Back to Marlon’s office)

They both waited and there was no sign of the professor until someone knocked on his door. Archie’s heart stopped pounding for a split second, and they both looked at the door.

“Come in…” Marlon stood up and when he realized that the person who knocked on the door wasn’t the professor, he furrowed his head with confusion.

“What is it?” Marlon asked with a bit of disappointment written on his face.

“The laboratory is on fire, Sir!” The soldier replied while he caught his breath.

“What?!” Marlon’s eyes were wide open with disbelief.

(Back to the present)

“So yeah, that happened and we lost a lot of people in that incident.” Vincent raised his eyebrows while he stared at nothing.

“Did they find out who did that?” Ruby asked.

“No, there was no trace on the culprit behind that incident.” Vincent looked at Ruby while he shook his head.