Chapter 175 Invested.
HA\LF: Dead nor Alive
âElena, come,â Eve said as she stood up, and then walked into the river. âIâm sure this is it,â Eve continued as she looked at Archie.
Elena didnât 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.
âIs it hurt?â Eve asked as she looked at Elenaâs hands.
âNo, I feel fine. I also feel like my skin is hardened and I weird at the same time,â Elena answered as she shook her head. âDo you know whatâs happening to me?â Elena asked as she stared Eve in the eye.
âYes, 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,â 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 didnât say anything to her.
âLooks like the parasite has been living inside your body longer than you think,â Eve said. âThat parasite is so weak that it shouldnât be able to do something like this if youâre invested a few months ago,â Eve explained.
âSo, youâre saying that this parasite has been living inside her body for a very long time?â Archie asked.
âYes, 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 werenât scared of me, and oddly they all lived peacefully even though they had become a parasite,â Eve answered.
âOne 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 didnât drink the water from that river,â Eve explained as she gently rubbed Elenaâs hands.
âThis 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,â Eve said as she looked at Archie.
Elena looked at her arms, but she looked clueless about it. It wasnât really a bother, but she was curious about it.
âDo you still remember where it was? The river?â Archie asked.
âI donât 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,â Eve answered as she tried to remember.
âDown south? You mean like in the Southern Nation?â Archie asked with his eyebrows raised.
âYes, far south,â Eve answered as she nodded her head.
âHow can something that came from the Southern Nation could be ended up here in the Northern Nation? Iâm 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?â Archie asked with a confused look.
âThatâs really a good question,â 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.
âElena, do remember if thereâs a person that came to you a long time ago? Like maybe when youâre a lot younger?â Archie asked.
Elena looked at Archie with her eyebrows raised. She looked up and moved her eyes around as she tried to remember anything.
âI donât remember,â Elena answered as she shook her head.
âItâs 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 Elenaâs body,â Eve said as she looked at Archie.
âYeah, but that would take like days or even a week if we are aimlessly look for it,â Archie replied.
âThat wouldnât be a problem for me,â Eve said.
âI know itâs 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,â Archie said as he crouched and opened his arms at Elena. âCome on, you will catch a cold if you dip yourself with clothes on,â
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 havenât 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.
âWhatâs wrong? Do you need something?â Fanheim asked with curiosity.
âWe believe that Elena is a test subject all along rather than from an accident. We are just curious if thereâs any information related to her in those,â Archie answered as he kept carrying Elena in his arms.
Elena was surprised when she heard it, and looked confused at the same time.
âI guess thereâs no need to ask where did you get that conclusion, but we can help you find it,â Fanheim said as he looked at Elena.
âThank you,â Archie answered as he passed Elena to Eve.
âAlright, come,â 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 didnât get worried about it at all since she was still a small child that shouldnât be thinking about those stuff.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om
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.
âWhere do you want to start looking for that?â Fanheim asked.
âI think I remember there are three flash disks that I took from level 5,â Archie answered as he looked at the flash disks that were scattered on the table in front of him.
âWhat color was it?â Marlon asked as he stared at Archie.
âSilver, blue, and red, but there are a lot of them with those colors. In fact, almost all of them have the same color,â Archie answered as he sighed.
âThe one from B-3, right? Maybe you should go and check that laptop over there. Thereâs a flash disk plugged in on the laptop with red flash disk. I think that one is yours,â 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 Elenaâs experiment.
âAtlantis Test Subject-05, Elena Kseniya,â Archie said out loud.
âAtlantis? That code name got mentioned a lot in all the information we got here,â Fanheim said.
âLooks like we might get a lot of answer if we take that Atlantis base down, but for now, letâs just gather all the information that we got here. Our hands are full and I donât want to add more until we find out which base that will give us the answers we need,â Marlon said.
âYeah, I know, but this is enough for me,â Archie replied as he removed his hand from the laptop. âIâm here just for Elena and I was right about it that Elena was in fact a test subject all along,â Archie continued.
âNot to mention sheâs the number five, then that means there are four of them like Elena somewhere,â Fanheim said.
âYeah, itâs really bothering,â Archie nodded his head in agreement.