HA\\LF: Dead nor Alive

“I need you… to find… the culprit!” Marlon yelled at Prince and Resse in his office with his eyes glaring at them.

“Sir, we have been checking the lab dozens of times and we don’t see anything suspicious,” Prince replied with a bit of frustration.

“Then do it another dozen times until you find something!” Marlon slammed his hand on his desk.

Both Prince and Resse just stared at each other while they exhaled deeply.

“Understood, Sir…” Prince replied and then they both left his office.

“I need to know, I need the result!” Marlon clenched his fist as he stared at his desk.

Archie got up from the bunk bed and left the tent, he looked at the blue sky in the morning while all the soldiers were busy saving things from the laboratory. Archie was shocked when he heard the whole laboratory was swallowed by flames, something didn’t feel right but whatever the cause, it saved him.

Archie went for a walk around the huge training field as he enjoyed the morning breeze, but then the wind stopped blowing and the commotion disappeared in a blink of an eye. He looked around and noticed that everyone stopped moving, the birds were floating still as if everyone was frozen in time.

“Drautnir…” A familiar voice called Archie.

Archie turned around and see a soldier who stood behind him and stared at him blankly.

“You are-”

“Yes, it is us…” The soldier replied before Archie could ask his question.

“What happened? Why are you here? I thought you won’t interfere and let me do what I want to do?” Archie asked as he looked at the soldier with confusion.

“We are, but the human curiosity is endangering your existence, Drautnir.” The soldier replied.

“So it was you who did that?” Archie asked as he furrowed his forehead and squinted his eyes.

“With His will, we are eliminating the humans who are playing with His creation.” The soldier replied as he glared at Archie.

“Then what? Are you going to kill every human that tried to interfere with His plan?” Archie asked as shook his head with disbelief.

“Drautnir, do not speak a word you could not handle the consequence.” The soldier said as he raised his voice a bit which was enough to make Archie tremble in fear.

Archie gulped and lower his head in fear as his heart pounded really fast.

“Your existence as Archie Lancaster is a problem to you and to all of us.” The soldier calmly said.

Archie looked up and furrowed his forehead with confusion. “My existence is a problem? So you’re going to kill me now?” Archie asked with fear in his eyes.

“No, we are going to change the past so you could live as you wish as Drautnir.” The soldier replied and shook his head slowly.

“Change the past?” Archie asked and tilted his head.

“Archie Lancaster will be forgotten, your existence will be replaced with another human being,” The soldier replied.

“What?! My existence will be forgotten? So all the past that I have until now, everyone will forget about me and replace their memories of me with someone else?” Archie pressed his chest as he glared at the soldier.

“Your existence has been forgotten as we speak, Drautnir.” The soldier blankly stared at Archie. “Nobody will know who you are, your past, everything that you told them about yourself, they will forget about them.” The soldier continued as he slowly walked back.

“Why are you doing this now?! Why not when you sent me out here?!” Archie couldn’t believe that they decided to do things without his approval or consent.

The soldier lifted his head and looked at the sky, he stared at it for quite a while while he ignored Archie.

Archie took a step back as he tried to breathe and tried to process what was happening to him.

“Give us names. Names that will still remember who you are.” The soldier asked.

Archie smiled with excitement. “Then I want-”

“We only allowed the names that you have spoken to recently, the humans that you spoke with after we sent you here.” The soldier said as he tried to remind Archie that he couldn’t pick the names of the people in his past.

Archie scoffed as he fell to his knees. “If I can’t choose the names of the people that are important in my life, what’s the point of giving me that false hope?” Archie frowned as he looked at the soldier.

“You will not choose a single name, Drautnir?” The soldier looked down at Archie.

Archie smiled and shook his head slowly. “No, I will not…” Archie sighed as he closed his eyes and accept his fate.

“Very well then, farewell, Drautnir.” The soldier turned around and disappeared.

The wind blew Archie’s hair and the commotion appeared again, he was still on his knees in the middle of the open field while everyone was staring at him weirdly. Archie took a deep breath and stood up, he turned around and walked toward the exit.

“Hey you, where are you going?” A soldier looked at Archie with an assault rifle in his hands.

“I’m going to go get some fresh air…” Archie replied with devastation.

“Are you a new kid? Where’s your ID?” The soldier reached out his hand at Archie.

Archie remembered that he signed the document, he checked all his pockets and grabbed the folded document in his jeans pocket. He gave the document to the soldier and the soldier read the document that Marlon made for him.

The soldier scoffed as he read the document. “So you’re in her division, huh? Tough luck…” The soldier looked at Archie with pity.

Archie just smiled and ignored the soldier.

“Wait, your name is Archie Lancaster?” The soldier stopped Archie from leaving with his hand on Archie’s chest.

Archie gulped nervously and looked at the soldier. “Yes? Is there a problem?” Archie asked.

“Nothing, it’s just weird to see a Western name in this nation.” The soldier replied as he shook his head.

Archie was confused and immediately checked the document, he noticed the name wasn’t Lance Richer but Archie Lancaster. He smiled and shook his head with disbelief and then put the document into his pocket.

“Oh, can you tell me where Captain Ruby is at?”

The soldier hummed as he turned around to look at Archie. “Captain Ruby should be in the hospital over there. You can ask the nurse if you want to know where’s she staying.”

“Thank you…” Archie smiled as he left the headquarters.

Archie went to the hospital and looked around for a nurse, he asked one of the nurses about Ruby. She guided him to her room which was on top of the floor, and while Archie followed the nurse he looked at the hospital that looked advanced compared to the other buildings around it.

“She’s in here but can you keep it quiet because she had a head trauma so a loud noise is enough to give her a headache.” The nurse looked at Archie as she smiled at him.

“Okay, I will keep my voice down. Thank you, nurse.” Archie smiled and nodded with understanding.

The nurse left and Archie stood in front of the door but when he wanted to open it, he could hear Vincent’s voice coming from the room. He decided to lean on the wall to eavesdrop on their conversation first.

“How can there’s no trace of the accident? We are talking about the laboratory inside the headquarters, the most safest and secure place in the Eastern Nation.” Ruby was shocked in disbelief.

“It’s the truth, Prince and Resse are the ones who checked everything dozens of times. If they couldn’t find anything then that means there’s nothing in there. Maybe it really was just an accident, nothing more.” Vincent replied as if he tried to convince Ruby.

“I don’t want to believe that it was an accident, there must be something going on in there, something that they wanted to hide. Could it be the rebellion did this?” Ruby asked as she lowered her voice so nobody could listen to her words.

“Are you serious? I don’t think they’re real. It’s just a rumor that has been going on for the past few months and it has been proven that there was no such a thing as the rebellion.” Vincent replied and scoffed at Ruby’s words as if she was making a joke.

Archie heard enough and he decided to open the door in front of him. As he entered the room, both Ruby and Vincent looked at him with confusion.

“Can I help you?” Vincent looked at Archie with suspicion.

“I’m sorry if I’m bothering your resting time, but I just wanted to check on Captain Ruby since I’m assigned to be in her division from now on,” Archie replied as he looked at both of them.

“Oh, a new guy? What’s your name?” Ruby raised her eyebrows with a smile on her face.

“My name is Archie, Archie Lancaster…” Archie replied without hesitation.

“Archie Lancaster? Nice to meet you, Archie. Welcome to the 102nd Division and I will take care of you from now on.” Ruby squinted her eyes to look at Archie’s face.

Archie smiled as he bowed his head a bit. “Yes, Ma’am.”