HA\\LF: Dead nor Alive

“Elena, come,” Eve said as she stood up, and then walked into the river. “I’m sure this is it,” Eve continued as she looked at Archie.

Elena didn’t ask any questions and slowly walked into the river as Archie followed her from behind.

Archie watched Elena dipped herself into the river, and she started to look at her arms and hands. She felt something that made her look so surprised, and then Eve slowly walked toward her and grabbed her hands.

“Is it hurt?” Eve asked as she looked at Elena’s hands.

“No, I feel fine. I also feel like my skin is hardened and I weird at the same time,” Elena answered as she shook her head. “Do you know what’s happening to me?” Elena asked as she stared Eve in the eye.

“Yes, this is a parasite that I found a long time ago. A parasite that I saw only once in my life, and this parasite can only lives in the water,” Eve answered as she looked at Elena.

Eve hummed as she rubbed her left cheek and kept staring at Elena. She was thinking about something, and so both Elena and Archie didn’t say anything to her.

“Looks like the parasite has been living inside your body longer than you think,” Eve said. “That parasite is so weak that it shouldn’t be able to do something like this if you’re invested a few months ago,” Eve explained.

“So, you’re saying that this parasite has been living inside her body for a very long time?” Archie asked.

“Yes, I remembered when I was hunting for parasite a long time ago and went into a river to look for one. Back then, I saw fishes, deers, and all the animals had this similar skin on them. They weren’t scared of me, and oddly they all lived peacefully even though they had become a parasite,” Eve answered.

“One think that I realized is that the animals back then, they only have a small part of their bodies that became like this. Why I know that the parasite only lives in the water was because all of those animals were drinking the same water from the same river. The other area of that place, none of the other animals had the same mark on their bodies since they didn’t drink the water from that river,” Eve explained as she gently rubbed Elena’s hands.

“This is what I know, and if those animals had been drinking from that same source of water, then they had been invested for a very long time. I know for sure that it had something to do with where the source of the river came from, and we might now the whole truth. So, I think Elena has been invested a lot longer, and it could be she has been invested years ago,” Eve said as she looked at Archie.

Elena looked at her arms, but she looked clueless about it. It wasn’t really a bother, but she was curious about it.

“Do you still remember where it was? The river?” Archie asked.

“I don’t remember exactly where, but it was down south. If I go there and look around, I think I will remember when I see the forest and the river,” Eve answered as she tried to remember.

“Down south? You mean like in the Southern Nation?” Archie asked with his eyebrows raised.

“Yes, far south,” Eve answered as she nodded her head.

“How can something that came from the Southern Nation could be ended up here in the Northern Nation? I’m not saying that the parasite only existed in the south, but what are the odds if we say that only Elena get invested by that parasite if his family, and all the villagers used the same water source as her?” Archie asked with a confused look.

“That’s really a good question,” Eve said as she looked at Elena who seemed to get better by dipping herself in the river with that scale-like body.

Archie and Eve were thinking about the possibility and an answer to how Elena ended up like that. They both suddenly stared at each other, and they made the same expression. They had something similar in their minds, and it was that Elena might have been a test subject all along.

“Elena, do remember if there’s a person that came to you a long time ago? Like maybe when you’re a lot younger?” Archie asked.

Elena looked at Archie with her eyebrows raised. She looked up and moved her eyes around as she tried to remember anything.

“I don’t remember,” Elena answered as she shook her head.

“It’s pointless if we are going to use that method. If we want to find an answer, we have to use force like how we always did. Or, we could go and look for that river and see it for ourselves what kind of parasite that lives inside Elena’s body,” Eve said as she looked at Archie.

“Yeah, but that would take like days or even a week if we are aimlessly look for it,” Archie replied.

“That wouldn’t be a problem for me,” Eve said.

“I know it’s not, but right now we should ask Fanheim and Marlon about this first because they might have something from those flash disks that we all gave them,” Archie said as he crouched and opened his arms at Elena. “Come on, you will catch a cold if you dip yourself with clothes on,”

Elena walked toward Archie, and then he lifted her up and carried her in his arms. She turned herself back as they walked back into the village. The parasite might haven’t fully developed as Eve said, and knowing that Elena was just a normal human being, it would take a lot longer or even forever to be able to control it.

The three of them went back into the village, and Fanheim was talking with Prince and Resse. They approached them, and Archie asked about the information that he and Marlon got from the flash disks. Fanheim said that they barely scratched the surface because there was hundreds of information inside.

“What’s wrong? Do you need something?” Fanheim asked with curiosity.

“We believe that Elena is a test subject all along rather than from an accident. We are just curious if there’s any information related to her in those,” Archie answered as he kept carrying Elena in his arms.

Elena was surprised when she heard it, and looked confused at the same time.

“I guess there’s no need to ask where did you get that conclusion, but we can help you find it,” Fanheim said as he looked at Elena.

“Thank you,” Archie answered as he passed Elena to Eve.

“Alright, come,” Fanheim said as he walked toward the barnhouse.

Eve and Elena stayed behind. Prince and Resse immediately talked with Elena to make her forget about what she just heard. It would be better if Elena didn’t get worried about it at all since she was still a small child that shouldn’t be thinking about those stuff.

Fanheim approached Marlon who was still busy in front of the laptop. This time, there were multiple laptops on the table, and Ruby was the one who brought them back with her since it would be faster if there would be a lot more laptops that could be used to check some of the information at once.

Fanheim told Marlon about what Archie told him, and Marlon looked at Archie with his eyebrows raised. Marlon then waved at Archie and gave him permission to use one of the laptops.

“Where do you want to start looking for that?” Fanheim asked.

“I think I remember there are three flash disks that I took from level 5,” Archie answered as he looked at the flash disks that were scattered on the table in front of him.

“What color was it?” Marlon asked as he stared at Archie.

“Silver, blue, and red, but there are a lot of them with those colors. In fact, almost all of them have the same color,” Archie answered as he sighed.

“The one from B-3, right? Maybe you should go and check that laptop over there. There’s a flash disk plugged in on the laptop with red flash disk. I think that one is yours,” Marlon said as he pointed at the laptop next to Archie.

Archie moved away and used the laptop that Marlon mentioned. He then opened the folders, and immediately found a file name called Jenny on it. He opened it and there were only a few folders inside it, but he found a file called Elena inside.

Archie clicked on it, and it was all just test results that Jenny took on Elena. He almost gave up until he decided to read all of them thoroughly and realized that something was mentioned in the report about Elena’s experiment.

“Atlantis Test Subject-05, Elena Kseniya,” Archie said out loud.

“Atlantis? That code name got mentioned a lot in all the information we got here,” Fanheim said.

“Looks like we might get a lot of answer if we take that Atlantis base down, but for now, let’s just gather all the information that we got here. Our hands are full and I don’t want to add more until we find out which base that will give us the answers we need,” Marlon said.

“Yeah, I know, but this is enough for me,” Archie replied as he removed his hand from the laptop. “I’m here just for Elena and I was right about it that Elena was in fact a test subject all along,” Archie continued.

“Not to mention she’s the number five, then that means there are four of them like Elena somewhere,” Fanheim said.

“Yeah, it’s really bothering,” Archie nodded his head in agreement.