Watched

"You two look like hell," Riley said offhandedly while vigorously scrubbing a pan clean in the sink. Sabrina and Archer were tiredly munching their club sandwiches that Cody had made for them earlier as they made their way to the other girl.

Sabrina scanned her surroundings looking for the chipper boy, but he was nowhere to be found. "He's in the bathroom," Riley supplied and Sabrina made a noise of acknowledgment even though her mouth was completely full.

Archer, who had contributed nothing to that conversation pulled out two bottles of water from the fridge and tossed one into the air. Sabrina watched the light catch on and shine through the liquid in an array of colours as it flipped and twirled in the air before seizing it by the neck just before it hit the counter.

She swallowed. "Thanks," she said completely sincere, just to be waved off by Archer's grunt before he gulped down a third of his bottle's content.

I thought we bonded.

Sabrina pouted immaturely, and he didn't pay her mind. She sighed, "So when are we leaving?"

"In 10 minutes. Get your things ready," he ordered and walked away, disappearing into the confines of their sleeping quarters. "Gosh, he's so grumpy. I actually thought that we were finally getting somewhere. Guess not," Sabrina said dejectedly.

Riley sensing her friend's distress, stopped cleaning up and wiped her hands on a cloth before situating herself next to Sabrina. "Hey, he's just like that, you know? He had a rough time before all of this so it's kind of adding on to his plate. I don't think he doesn't want to trust you, it's just that he doesn't know how," Riley said in a comforting tone and leaned closer, holding Sabrina's hand in her own.

"Even Cody and I didn't trust you at first, but now look at us. He just needs more time, that's all. You just need to give it to him," she continued offering the brunette a kind smile. Her emerald orbs boring into Sabrina's hazel one's. "I guess I can do that," Sabrina smiled back.

Riley leaned back against the counter with her elbows supporting her. "Don't take it too personally," she said. "I know, I just really want this team thing to work. It has to," Sabrina said looking down. It took a lot of effort on her part to will her voice to come out steady and to her relief it did.

Riley patted her sympathetically on her back once. "It will," she assured her and went back to cleaning up. Sabrina feeling content with that little exchange, spun around slowly on the heel of her foot, on her way to gearing up.

"Your gear is on the table. Cody and I set it up there for both of you," Riley called out helpfully.

"Thanks," Sabrina said back and began choosing her weapons.

xxx

The weather was unforgiving. The sun glared down at the two teenagers in their dark clothing. Sabrina was regretting the covert part of the job. She wanted to complain, her thoughts were whining as well as her limbs. If she said them out loud, Archer would probably stab her, but keeping it in felt like she was about to burst.

Get yourself together. Stop complaining like a child.

She kept repeating that to herself. Over and over again, but she couldn't help it. She dragged her legs lazily behind the older boy. She could see that he was feeling the heat too. The brown locks of hair at the back of his head, stuck to his neck, and he was panting slightly. They were walking for a while now, probably around 45 minutes.

"How much further until we reach?," she found herself asking. She wiped a bead of sweat that was about to roll off her forehead with the back of her sleeve. At least the long sleeves prevented some sunburn, even though she felt like a human sauna. You know, glass half full?

"I think we're almost there," he said and then directed Sabrina's attention slightly left. She saw a bunch of small buildings built closely to one another, the highest of which was 4 stories. Little town. She let out a sigh of relief that they were getting closer.

"Damn," Archer whispered under his breath. "Damn, indeed," Sabrina agreed which earned a scoff by the boy.

Okay then...

The rest of the journey on the tarred road was accompanied by silence. God, Sabrina wished there were trees or something to offer some sort of protection from the merciless rays of the sun.

Her mouth and throat were dry, so she swung her bag off one shoulder and held it in front of her as she walked, unzipping it hastily to retrieve a bottle of water that was concealed within a waterproof pocket. She stopped for a bit and Archer stopped too. He copied her actions and took out a bottle of his own. They uncapped it at the same time and gulped down the liquid.

They both scrunched their eyebrows and looked at each other.

Warm.

The water was warm.

But it did rehydrate them so they were grateful. They couldn't be choosy. They deposited the bottles back into their bags and continued.

The two of them reached the outskirts of the town after 10 minutes. Sabrina snatched a newspaper off the ground and fanned herself with it. It kind of helped. Archer looked at her questioningly to which she responded with shrug. He turned back around, walking swiftly. Most of their exhaustion had disappeared due to the adrenaline that now flowed through with their exploration of the new town.

It was deserted too. No signs of life, human or animal. No sentries either. That was a good sign. Hopefully the buildings were as empty as they seemed. Sabrina felt off. She didn't know why, but she did. It was one of those gut feelings. She sensed that Archer was feeling the same way because of how tense his shoulders were. She knew he wasn't scared, just being cautious.

After scouring three buildings, one of which was an actual home, she couldn't shake the feeling that they were being watched. She would feel a presence behind her and quickly turn, but nothing would be there to confirm her suspicions. She was getting frustrated with it and Archer could see that.

"I feel it too," he said. She just nodded and they both kept looking around. They wandered into an abandoned shop. It looked promising. She looked around enthusiastically at all the tech junk lying around. Spare parts, scraps, properly made products, tools and other packaged goods.

"No wonder you and Cody get along so well," Archer commented as he picked up and examined - what looked like to him - a futuristic-looking Rubik cube.

"What?", Sabrina asked confused by the sudden statement. "You and Cody. Your eyes light up when you look at this kind of stuff," he said putting the cube down and looked at her before realising something and quickly looked away.

Sabrina turned her head to the side, like a puppy would do when shown something new. "Huh," she pondered, eyes going to a far-away place before zooming right back in. "Guess, we do. We're both nerds," she simply agreed.

This was new information to Archer. Sabrina normally didn't open up too much to him, but she just threw this out there. He didn't really push her to tell him more about herself since she came even though he wanted to know her true motives. He was initially going to drill her every chance he got, but after he witnessed her in the aftermath of her nightmare, he decided against it. She looked vulnerable. He knew what that felt like, and he didn't want to make her feel worse.

Because against popular belief, he wasn't a monster.

"Yeah," he said distractedly, resuming their search. There wasn't much in this shop that looked useful to him. He wasn't into the whole tech department. He did enjoy making things but not like this. It was completely the opposite for his raid partner, though. She was literally bouncing around the store, shoving these things into her sack and reading the backs of packages with a sort of wonder you'd see from a child reading a fairy tale.

He found that endearing.

He saw the girl walk towards the back of the store and then a loud gasp. Archer was about to run to her but then realised that it sounded more like an excited gasp and stayed put. He turned to see Sabrina zipping her bag up with a grin that could probably slit her face from how wide it was.

Cody's gonna love this, she thought.

As she said earlier, they were both nerds. Cody was the computer nerd and if she loved this, he would probably worship it.

They exited the shop and scavenged the rest of the stores. This raid wasn't very fruitful. They finally came up to the 4-story building. It looked like a little hospital for the town's people. They had enough first aids and medical supplies back at the bunker, so they didn't really need a surplus at the moment, but they decided to check it out. Just before they could enter, they heard a snap and whirled around in time to catch a glimpse of a figure in a black cloak running between two buildings.

"Crap," Archer grit his teeth and ran after him. "Archer!", Sabrina yelled and bolted after him. They followed the cloaked figure through the little alley between buildings. They were fast, but this person was faster. They didn't realise that it was getting darker, but they kept following the mysterious person.

"Archer stop!", Sabrina yelled, but the stubborn thing didn't listen. She groaned and continued running. Archer was quick, she was struggling to keep up, especially while carrying her sack. She stopped to catch her breath.

Archer didn't collect anything so he pushed on.

He was far ahead and wasn't going to stop.

The cloaked figure, turned a corner and swiftly threw something at Archer, disappearing from sight. Archer's eyes widened as the little ball opened up and a net shot out towards him. He tried to stop and turn, but his momentum had him skidding forward and the net wrapped around him like a python, and he fell to the floor, hitting his on head on the ground.

He saw stars and the world was blurry. The boy closed his eyes in an effort to gather himself and tried to get free. He couldn't. He was about to call out for Sabrina when he heard a low growling from in front of him.

He looked up to see three wolves slowly stalking up to him, baring their teeth and snarling.

Now I remember why we chose to loot the other side of the place.

He struggled in hopes to get free. These wolves were feral, no use bargaining with them. The middle one stepped in front of the others ready to pounce. It barked and Archer shut his eyes as it lunged for him.

BANG

He heard that and a whimper and scuffing of the wolves as they ran away. He opened his eyes and looked back to Sabrina panting with her gun trained on the spot where the wolves were. A stray lock of her chestnut hair fell onto her face and the barrel of her handgun was smoking.

There was blood in the floor. She didn't miss.

Once she was sure that the wolves weren't coming back, she lowered her gun and walked towards Archer. He looked away, ashamed.

He could have caught that guy. He should have expected that move. But, he didn't. Was he losing his touch?

Sabrina put her gun in the holster and fell onto her knees, taking out her switchblade to cut through the net. After a few moments of her silently sawing through the strong rope. Sabrina stood up and offered her hand, and he took it. He didn't meet her eyes, he knew she was angry.

"Thank you," he tried to say sincerely but it came out harsh. He hadn't meant it to sound like that, but he wasn't going to repeat it.

She said nothing and turned around. She picked up her sack which she left on the floor when she arrived and went out the way they came in. They walked in silence, this time Sabrina led the way.

Archer didn't really like her, but he couldn't stand this. He didn't like it when she was angry. He'd much rather have her talk non-stop and be her annoyingly curious and smart self, but she wasn't. She was silent.

"Lia," he said trying to get her attention.

She didn't reply. "Lia," he tried again, this time a little louder. She still didn't respond. He inhaled deeply before letting it out again. "Lia," he tried once more. Still, nothing.

"Please, Lia, I-", he started. "What?", she snapped. "What could you possibly have to say?", she screamed. Archer was wrong. She wasn't angry, she was livid. "I know, I'm-", he tried to apologise, but she wouldn't let him. "You're sorry? Save it. If I had been 2 seconds late, you would have probably been mauled. I told you to stop, but you didn't. You just up and left! You just had to play the hero and catch that guy, didn't you? Newsflash, you're not a hero. You're not invincible. You're an absolute jerk!", she fumed.

Her voice went soft. "If something happened to you, what would I tell Riley and Cody? They both look up to you. They love you. You're their family. If something happened to you, it would have broken them. Cody, he looks up to you. You're his big brother. If he saw the stunt you just pulled, it would have crushed him. Stop thinking about yourself all the time. Think about them too," she said, her voice small.

Archer let those words set in. He knew she was right. He deserved everything that she said. He didn't say anything else for the rest of the trip back.

xxx

Once they both arrived back at the convenience store, Sabrina spoke up for the first time since she yelled at him.

"Tomorrow is Cody's birthday. We will not bring this up until after. For all he knows, the raid went off without a hitch. Act normal. Understand?", she instructed.

"Okay."

"Good."

And with that, they descended into the bunker.