The Farm

"Heads up. We're almost there," Sam announced, slowing down a bit.

"Finally," Sabrina said, relief flooding through her veins.

Archer merely nodded, still in his own world with a ghost of a smile gracing his face.

"Just a warning. They're pretty stubborn and some may be... a bit much to handle. Just keep your calm and hopefully all will go well," Sam said shooting them a quick smile. Sabrina could tell he was nervous. These guys were his friends at some point. 'Friends', honestly she didn't even know if they were actually.

Let's just hope for the best.

"Don't expect me to play diplomat," Archer told them waking with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Hopefully my word will be enough. I doubt they'll listen to you guys because they don't know who you are. No offense," Sam put his hands up in mock surrender, following Archer and slowly overtaking him because well, he was the only one who knew the way.

"I think it's best if we don't talk at all," Sabrina nodded slowly, "Do they get intimidated easily?"

"It depends."

"On what?"

"Lots of things actually. What did you have in mind?", he asked the brunette girl.

"Maybe Archer and I could pose as your scary bodyguards," she suggested, throwing her arm out to imitate a very sloppy punch.

"Yeah, no," Archer snickered.

Sabrina whipped her head in his direction, and she frowned, "What do you mean?"

"You're not exactly scary," he teased, closing his eyes and standing up taller.

She gasped, "How dare you?"

Sam chuckled, "He's right-" Sabrina looked at him, a perfect face of betrayal, "- but your glare could work."

She brightened up at that, "Is that so?"

Sam nodded.

"It could use some work though," Archer smirked.

"Says the clown by that tree," Sabrina said looking behind the boy.

His eyes widened, and he spun around to look behind him, his face settling into his familiar scowl as he realised that she was baiting him.

He glared at her with the heat of a thousand suns.

"Yeah, Lia. Just like that!", Sam laughed pointing at the fuming boy.

She laughed as well, elbowing him lightly.

Archer didn't smile. He really didn't. It was fighting to come out, but he's not one to go down without a fight.

The rebels walked, constantly bickering, just pointing out random things ("What sound does a leaf make?", "Leaves don't talk, Lia.", "Don't you dare hurt its feelings.", "I don't care about its feelings.", "You insolent child!"), while Sam tried his best to match their energy.

It's gonna be a long day.

xxx

"What does this do?", Riley asked, eyes sparkling with curiosity.

Cody flicked his helmet up, "Oh that! It's used to co-"

"And this?", she asked pointing at something else by the sentry's shoulder.

Cody blinked, "That's-"

"Oh my God, what is this?!"

"You know what, I'm not even gonna bother."

Riley hummed and her eyes darted to every little part, commenting on what they reminded her of..

"This looks like a bicycle wheel."

"That's a gear."

"Yes! That. I know what that is."

"Nice."

This prompted a high-five.

"What are you hoping to do with this?", Riley questioned, previous excitement dulled and expression more reserved.

"I don't know. It'll come to me as I work," Cody answered honestly, leaning towards it to look at something.

"I see. It's weird," she commented.

"What is?"

"I mean, these things are trying to kill us. Everyone, actually. It's just weird to see it just sitting there," she explained, gesturing with her arms.

"I get what you mean. It just..."

"Seems a little too easy?"

"Yeah."

A moment of silence.

"Well!", Cody started, "At least we could learn something new. An opportunity is still an opportunity," he grinned.

"Yeah, you're right," she smiled.

She walked to the door and opened it. Surprise flickered across her face. The sun, which had been halfway across the sky, was now setting bathing the sky in a beautiful rust orange.

Time flies.

"Hey bud, think you can finish up quickly? It's getting pretty late," she called out to the boy.

He looked up, just as surprised as she was.

"Oh, yeah sure. Just gimme a few to pack these up," he shuffled around to get his things together.

She smiled once again.

"I'll help."

xxx

A young man walked through a metal hall. Two guards were coming his way, and he set his face into a neutral expression even though it was hidden behind a helmet with a solid black visor.

His eyes flickered down to the badge that he wore. A head guard badge.

He slipped his index and middle finger through a crevice in his helmet to fiddle with the piece of metal in his ear, and then slid them out once it was secure.

The guards were closer now, guns held in their hands, pointed at the floor while they chatted.

They greeted him with a "Sir!", which was acknowledged with a nod.

They accepted it and continued their walk in the same direction. The young man watched them go, until they turned and disappeared around the corner. He waited for a few minutes, just to see if they would come back.

They didn't.

He carried on his way until he saw his desired destination. A door to his right. He pulled an ID badge out of the jacket pocket of the uniform and held it up to a scanner that was situated to his right.

To his delight, the screen lit up in green with the words "Access Granted".

He grabbed the handle and pushed the door open.

Two guards turned around to see who entered the room.

"Sir!", they stood up.

He nodded, hoping he'll get away with it a second time.

Unfortunately, fate wasn't doing him anymore favours at this moment.

"Why is your visor down?", one of them with their helmet off asked.

He froze, trying to think of an excuse. He turned his head slowly in the guards direction, hoping to intimidate him.

The guard just raised an eyebrow.

The young man swallowed the lump in his throat.

"Don't worry about it," he said, voice not sounding like his own.

"Yeah, but that's like our thing. So, out with it," the other guard, who was slightly shorter than the first pushed.

"If you must know, I was on a call with the superior and I, uh," he cleared his throat, "didn't want him to see my eyes..."

Way to go, nerd.

Both guard's eyes widened, and he readied himself for an attack.

"Don't tell me...," one started.

"Did you get drunk on the job?", the other one said incredulously.

"Uhhh," he said uncertain.

"That's - I - You like living life on the edge, hey?", the helmet-less guard grinned.

"I mean, yeah?"

The young man shuffled awkwardly and bumped into a box. He gave the two a questioning look and went to open it, revealing multiple bottles of alcohol.

He smirked and then put a finger to his lips, "I won't tell if you won't."

The other two nodded quickly.

"Well, I'll be off now," the young man said and promptly left. He wasn't called back.

Have to wait until they're out. This is gonna be a long wait.

xxx

The sun was setting, the sky fading into orange and red hues.

"And there it is," Sam announced, gesturing I front of him.

They all stopped atop a hill and looked down at their destination.

"Uh...", Sabrina said unsure.

"Are you sure we're in the right place?", Archer asked, tightening his hold around his backpack and scanning the place in front of them.

A barn was situated at the base of the hill. They expected a large building to be there, that's for sure, but what perplexed them was that it looked like a ghost farm.

The barn looked abandoned, a chunk of roof was missing and the paint was chipped. The little buildings around it looked decent but it was clear that they had seen better days. The soil was dry and cracked, no sign of vegetation or life anywhere. A trench went around the further side of the barn, near the stables and pens which were all empty, their fences broken. Sabrina guessed that it was probably a river. A river that was dried up. A little ways from the barn was a cabin that was around half the size of the big building. Its windows were broken, the front door lay on the porch.

All in all, it looked terrible and definitely not habitable.

In her observation, she also noticed that there was no sign of people, no cars, no lights. Absolutely nothing.

Sabrina's mouth hung open, Archer's nose scrunched up and Sam scoffed.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure I brought you to the right place. I'll have you know that I'm great with directions."

"I mean, I don't doubt your skills and stuff, but maybe this is the one exception," she surmised, "Are you absolutely positively sure we didn't stumble across a haunted farm?"

"Of course, it's not haunted. It's -",

"Dude, no judgement if you have a few ghost friends, but that's not our thing," Archer commented, corners of his mouth tugging upward giving away the amusement he was trying to hide.

Sam breathed in deeply and then exhaled.

"Let's just go."

And then he descended the hill, the other two following shooting each other confused looks.

As they got closer, the farm looked different. It wasn't anything obvious, just a little distortion if you focused too hard on something. The sky also seemed a little lighter as Sabrina looked forward, but when she looked directly above her, the sky was a darker shade. A subtle optical illusion.

That's strange.

Another thing that she noticed was that the amount of grass decreased as they covered the distance, finally being almost completely diminished around a certain threshold.

Sam stopped in front of said threshold.

"Ready?", he asked, eyes twinkling with excitement.

The two rebels gave one final glance at their surroundings and then nodded slowly.

Sam grinned and pulled out some sort of remote from his bag.

"Right. I'm going to press a button and on the signal, you get in as quickly as possible," he instructed.

"What's the signal?", Sabrina asked and Archer nodded, the same thought passing through his mind.

"You'll know it when you see it. Just go quickly, okay?"

"Okay," they chorused reluctantly.

"Great."

Sam grinned and then pressed a button on the device.

As quick as lightning, the distortions became more prominent, revealing a light blue force field encompassing the entire farm in a dome. Sabrina had no time to marvel at the new development as she felt a hand on her arm, pushing her through a rectangular opening. The shove was surprisingly gentle, and she complied and went through quickly and the two boys slipped in behind her and the doorway closed.

Sabrina turned around, "You guys okay?"

"Yeah."

"Uh huh."

She smiled and nodded doing a 180 to see what they entered.

Her eyes widened comically, and she heard Archer come to stand beside her, a strangled sound of confusion escaping him.

Sam gestured wildly, "Here's the ghost farm."

Sabrina could hear the quotation marks but paid him no attention because what.

In front of her was a perfectly pristine barn, beautiful paint job, roof intact, fitted with bright lights, functioning doors and windows and is that air conditioning?

From the hill, she saw no evidence of four towers around the land, but here they were in their tall, sturdy glory.

The buildings around the barn were bigger than what she saw, or at least what she thought she saw. Some were conjoined and others just sat by themselves. The soil looked perfectly fertile, some crops growing at one part of the land, with a few animals grazing around lazily in their pens that had proper fencing. Nothing out of place.

And the trench. No, the river. The loud and flowing river was there and from what she'd seen of the trench, it was pretty deep.

She looked to where she saw the cabin and that took the cake. It wasn't a cabin. It was huge, with a second floor and looked fortified. The windows were barred, the door looked extremely strong and there was a separate fence around it.

There was another building next to the cabin. A garage.

There are people here. Actual people.

"You guys done?", Sam stood in front of them, hands crossed over his chest. His weight shifted onto one side, a smirk playing on his face.

Unable to form words, they nodded.

"Okay good, let me just call A-", Sam started but was cut off by a yell.

"Who's there?!"

Sam whipped around.

"Just the guy I needed to see," Sam said cheerfully.

"Sam?", the new guy questioned surprised.

"Hey man," Sam greeted walking towards him, smiling and holding his hand out.

"It really is you," the other boy said as he got closer, returning the smile.

They clasped their hands together and the stranger pulled an unsuspecting Sam into a hug.

"It's been a while," he said when they let go.

"Yeah," Sam agreed.

Sabrina took his appearance in. He was tall, though not as tall as Archer. Pitch-black hair hung just above his shoulder, some locks curling around his ear. He wore a grey shirt and black pants with some boots. A thread hung around his neck and a ring was connected to it.

The stranger looked behind Sam to see Sabrina and Archer standing there. He shot a look at Sam in silent question.

"Oh yes," Sam started, remembering the reason that they had come here about.

"This is Lia and Archer," he introduced pointing to said person as he said their name.

Sabrina offered a little wave as a greeting. Archer kept his face carefully neutral and stayed silent.

"This," Sam said nodding his head towards the other boy, "is Adam."

"Nice to meet you," Adam said, "But why are you here?"

Sam scratched the back of his head.

"About that. We need to talk. Everyone."

Adam understood and began walking to the cabin, the three rebels on his tail.