HALF: Dead nor Alive

“Alright, I think I marked the right coordinate after I checked the road,” Archie said as he flew back to Eve after he followed the road from above. “Should we go back now or do you want to stay here a bit longer?” Archie asked as he stared at Eve who was staring at the people guarding the tunnel with barricades.

“We can go now, there’s nothing interesting inside there,” Eve answered as she turned around to look at Archie.

“Huh? Did you go down there or something?” Archie asked.

“I did, but not low enough to be detected by those people. I felt dozens of parasites down there, but nothing was piqued my interest,” Eve answered as she nodded her head and stared at the hill below them.

“That’s a valuable information. You should tell Ruby and the others about it so they can prepare with what they’re going to deal with,” Archie replied as he put the map into his backpack.

“Yes, let’s go back, shall we?” Eve said as she stared at Archie with a smile on her face.

Archie nodded, and then both of them flew back to the village.

The wind was supporting them and they arrived at the village in just fifteen minutes. They were surprised when they saw those two come back in just an hour. Eve and Archie explained what they found and informed them about what kind of danger or threat that was in that secret base.

“I’m amazed and shocked that you both did your job really well and so quickly. If we are the ones who go there to gather information, it would take us days or even a week. Thank you for helping us out,” Marlon said as he looked at both of them.

“There’s no need to mention that, Marshal. We are in the same boat and we are fighting the same enemy,” Archie replied as he nodded his head with a serious expression.

Marlon nodded his head in agreement, and then he gathered all the information that he got with Fanheim.

Archie and Eve left the house and looked around the village. Everyone was enjoying the time while they could since Marlon was planning to send them on a mission.

Eve watched Aster and Vincent were chilling on the porch. “Do you want to go and check her, Archie?” Eve asked.

“No, I think my presence around her would only make her uncomfortable. I also have to go and check the hard disk to find that information about Atlantis,” Archie answered as he looked at the barn house where Ruby and Prince were checking the rest of the information on the hard disk.

“Right, let’s go then,” Eve said as she grabbed Archie’s wrist and pulled him toward her.

They entered the barn house and there was nobody else except Ruby and Prince. Those two looked so busy that they didn’t even bother to look at who was entering the barn house.

“Found something interesting?” Archie asked as he and Eve walked toward them.

“Define interesting?” Ruby asked back as she stared at them with her eyebrows raised. “Everything is interesting, but I don’t know what you’re looking for, so I should ask you that question before I can answer that question,” Ruby said as she continued browsing through the files.

“I’m looking for the Atlantis. Did you find anything that mentioned that code name?” Archie asked as he walked around the table.

“Atlantis…” Ruby paused as she looked at the notes in her hand with hundreds of writings on them. “I think I wrote it somewhere here, hold on,” Ruby continued as she read through all the writings that she made.

Archie let Ruby take her time as he grabbed two chairs for him and for Eve to sit on.

“Ah, there you are. Here, I wrote it all down on this page, so you can just read it all without having to look at the hard disk again,” Ruby said as she gave the notes in her hand to Archie.

Archie and Eve read the notes and the first thing they checked was the location of the Atlantis. They both were surprised when they noticed that the Atlantis was in face a base under ground. The location was in fact under the sea as Archie guessed, but the problem was there was no coordinate or hint of the Atlantis location.

“There’s nothing else?” Archie asked as he stared at Ruby who was busy reading the reports with Prince.

“For now, that’s the only thing that we got. Maybe I will get more once I get further in this,” Ruby answered as she kept reading the report. “But I guess it’s going to take a while. So, you can do something else while waiting until I got something about Atlantis. I will notify you when I got a new information about it,” Ruby continued as she looked at Archie.

“Alright, thanks for that,” Archie answered as he stood up and put the notes in his pocket. “Do you need something? I can bring you something to eat or drink,” Archie asked.

“No, we are good. We just had our breakfast,” Ruby answered as she shook her head.

“Okay, good luck, both of you,” Archie said as he walked away with Eve.

They left the barn house and saw Resse was coming out from Marlon’s house. Everyone was staring at her because her hands were bloody and they was wondering what did she do to those people that got captured.

“I see you worked really hard,” Archie said as he stared at Resse’s bloody hands.

Resse scoffed as she stared at her own hands. “Well, it’s necessary and I was right about it,” Resse answered as she wiped her hands with a piece of cloth that was already covered in blood from her pocket.

“Oh? What did you find out?” Archie asked.

“Well then, you should join me to meet Faye because she just brought a spy with her,” Resse said as she stared at Archie. “Imagine what would happen if they managed to escape, maybe we will be dead by now,”

Archie was a bit surprised, but he did expect something like that would happen in the worst case scenario.

“So you killed the spy?” Eve asked with her eyebrow raised.

“Of course, why would you ask the obvious?” Resse replied as she looked at Eve.

“Where did you put the body?” Eve asked.

“Why do you ask that?” Resse asked back with her eyebrows furrowed.

“Eat it, of course,” Eve answered with a smile on her face. “Do you know that we both haven’t ate anything for days now? You don’t want us to eat you instead, right?” Eve jokingly asked, but Resse expression was genuine and she was a bit scared of both of them.

“I’m just joking about it. So, where did you put the body?” Eve asked.

“You mean bodies? They’re still in that farmhouse, so feel free to eat them, I guess…” Resse answered as she looked at both of them with a bit of disgust.

“We are not going to eat them. Human flesh is juicy but not delicious. We are just going to inflict fear on these people so they won’t try to make the same mistake as them,” Eve said as she looked at the people around them. “It’s always nice to put people back to where they belong and remind them what Archie and I are,”

Resse stared at the people that were staring at them as she hummed with understanding and nodded her head in agreement.

“Alright, I guess I should let you guys be then and will tell you the details once you guys are done,” Resse said as she walked toward Faye’s place.

As Eve said, they both went to the farmhouse where the dead bodies were while the others were staring at them with confusion.

Even though Eve said that she didn’t want to eat them, but after looking at the fresh human flesh, she couldn’t resist the temptation. She ate the arms and thighs while Archie at the legs and the bodies of those people.

They left the guts, the heads, and the remains on the table before they left the farmhouse. The moment they came out of the door, everyone was petrified when they saw both of them were covered in blood, their hands, mouths, and cheeks were red.

“You, go and clean the mess,” Eve said as she pointed at the guy who was the most scared of them all.

The guy was startled when Eve was staring and pointing at him. He couldn’t say no because he was terrified of them, and so he hurriedly ran toward the farmhouse.

“I’m still hungry, I wonder who we will be eating next,” Eve said when the guy walked past her as she glanced at him with a mischievous smile on her face.

With that, the rumor spread around them and nobody dared to get too close to them or even thought about leaving.