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Rhiannon listened to her wife patiently and let her gaze linger on the many features of her face. It slowly dawned on her that she could still lose her wife. Yes, one catastrophe was past them. But there were many other dangers. No one could tell what the time travel had done to them. Were they fine on a molecular level? Were their cells slowly disintegrating? Would their mind fail them at some point due to the sheer force of bending space and time and pushing their bodies through that process? The effects of their machine were fully unknown. It could very well be that they were dying right this minute.

Rhia pushed the thought away. She could not deal with such an emotionally heavy topic at the moment.

[color=f7941d]"I appreciate your apology. We're a team. That's all I want from you, Lisa. Honesty, respect, inclusion."[/color] She didn't feel like any more words were left in her about this unhappy incident. Lisa had made a mistake. But they were alive and somewhere entirely else, likely some[i]time[/i] entirely else. They had just survived the sabotage that probably killed the entire staff working in that facility.

[color=f7941d]"Not to be a downer but if the time machine is gone... How do we get home? It took us half a lifetime to get the first one to work. With our modern technology and all the money we could've dreamt of. Just... something to keep in mind maybe."[/color] Of course, there was nothing they could do right now so she changed the subject. [color=f7941d]"You're right. We should get going and find shelter. Hopefully some food and information on when and where we are."[/color]

She followed her wife's action by standing up and soon they began to put one foot in front of the other with little idea if the direction they picked would bring them luck or hardship. She imagined them in a movie. How the camera would shift to birdseye-view and show them as two tiny dots moving away from the safety that lied only 200 meters in the different direction. She had always liked that movie cliché. It showed how perspectives were important to base your decision on something more than intuition. But now she didn't feel too fond of it anymore. She felt mocked by her own association with the trope. [color=f7941d][i]Lisa knows what to do... kind of.[/i][/color]

It was true that her wife would be much better equipped to do anything of value in a survival situation. Rhiannon had always been a head person. She loved to learn, to read, to discuss, to debate, to wonder. There was no need for her to know how to read the stars to orientate herself, she hadn't needed to learn how to survive on the bare minimum. And while Lisa's life had thrown more hardships at her, Lisa had also never [i]needed[/i] any of that training. The social justice system took care of people. It didn't discriminate, it didn't need you to fulfill a certain amount of things and keep up with a ton of rules. It was more flexible than ever and it made sure people were always provided with what they needed on a basic level. But Lisa had enjoyed learning these things. She had always had an interest in keeping herself alive. Her wife liked staying busy with her hands and being able to rely on herself instead of anyone - or any government or system. Rhiannon hadn't thought they'd ever need to rely on this hobby of Lisa's.

While Rhiannon was - typical! - in her own thoughts, Lisa found what seemed to be a leftover of a once intact fence. [color=f7941d]"You think the farm might be in better shape than this fence and field? I am all for a dry place to sleep but I'd rather not be buried beneath a collapsing old house in the storm."[/color] 

They continued their way on, stepping onto the overgrown field. They walked for quite a while. As they crossed over the first field, which had been bigger than anticipated, they reached something that remotely reminded them of a sandy road. It had been a long time since it had been used so it was hard to tell at first, grass and other greenery had overgrown the path. But they followed its many curves and soon found the old farm. There was a house, a big shed, and a hut. As they got closer, they could make out the house better. It had been painted white once upon a time, but the paint was coming off more than it was staying on. The two front windows that faced them were broken and the door seemed closed. The entire house was battered from nature, vines were overgrowing it and Rhiannon found small insects crawling along the wood, the vines, and the other greenery attempting to pull the house into the earth. It had two stories and Rhia would have guessed it had a very small attic where one could barely stand.

Rhiannon went up to the windows and peeked inside. It was mostly empty. Dirt was scattered along the floor, some greenery had managed to get inside through the broken windows. In one corner stood an old piano that was missing a whole bunch of its keys and one leg. There was no stool. She attempted to open the door but it was shut close. [color=f7941d]"The weather must have rusted the lock. It won't budge."[/color] The physicist took one look up and down the house, threw her body testingly against the wall and decided it was probably stable enough so it wouldn't fall down on them at night. [color=f7941d]"We could climb in through the window."[/color]

Before her wife could voice her opinion on that, Rhiannon had already swung a leg over the windowsill and climbed inside the house. The windows sat low enough so that an adult would barely have any problems lifting themself up onto it.


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