All things considered it didn't take him long to find him friends. Well, tell a lie, he spent about four days scouring the city for any sign of them, but seeing as he wasn't even sure if they were alive he would call finding them on the fifth day quite fast all things considered. He'd had no real evidence as to where they were, and as a result he'd resolved to just search the city building-by-building if he had to, no matter how slow or inefficient such a method was. He knew he needed to think smarter if he wanted to find them, but at that point in time he didn't have the capacity for thinking logically.
When the first few days had passed and the worst of his anger and sorrow had burned away, he began to think. The creature he'd fought had first made itself known when he and Cygnus had gone to the old secondary school across town, right? Maybe the creature had taken them back there at some point, since it seemed to use the old school as something of a home territory. If they were going to be anywhere it would have made sense for them to be there.
The day he'd set off across the city towards his old school was probably the single longest day of his life. He'd led in bed awake all night, unable to sleep even for a few minutes, and then spent the next few hours walking across the city to the school. It was on that walk, that long and seemingly endless walk, that he noticed something.
Bullets. Rifle bullets, discarded on the ground. Not empty shells as though fired from a gun, but deliberately dropped like... like a breadcrumb trail.
With that newfound shred of cautious hope he carried on walking along the way, until about ten metres in front of him on the road he caught a brassy glint. He sprinted to it, ignoring how tired he felt, then he grinned. Another bullet.
Cygnus, you motherfucker. I'm coming to find you all, just hang tight a little while longer.
He tore off along the route to the school, every discarded or dropped rifle round sending a jolt of energy through his tired limbs. It didn't matter that he was tired, he needed to make sure he got to them all as soon as possible. Cygnus had left a trail, and that meant that Cygnus had been alive to leave a trail. If Cygnus had been alive to leave a trail, it meant that this creature hadn't just mindlessly killed him. If the creature hadn't mindlessly killed him, well...
Why would it have mindlessly killed the others? Surely if Cygnus had been taken this way then the others would have been taken along this route as well?
He tore along the trail of bullets his boyfriend had left for him at a truly breakneck pace; he couldn't recall the last time he'd ran so fast and for so long. Even his flight from his old school when what he now knew had been that creature had been watching him all day hadn't been so fast-paced. Twice he'd had to basically skid to a halt and change direction as he caught the brassy glint of a rifle round discarded on the ground, but both times he'd simply stumbled to a stop, turned in the new direction, and began sprinting again.
It was amazing what adrenaline could do when you felt like you absolutely had to get something right. Virgil had always had pretty good stamina and reflexes, tempered by somewhere around half a year spent running around the city and nicking shit before fleeing from incoming creatures, but even for him this was a pace that he knew was something special. Put it this way, he very much suspected that he'd never be able to match this pace again. Not that he particularly minded; if he found what he was looking for at the end of this trail he didn't think the journey back to the apartment would be anywhere near as fast-paced.
Eventually he reached the gates of his old school, and despite all his former misgivings about the place he didn't even slow down. He all but kicked the outer gate open and shoulder-barged his way through the doors to the reception desk, following the glittering trail that had been left for him, until he came to a door that led to the basement. He'd never actually been in the basement of his school before, because why would a student ever need to go to the basement of their school, but he guessed there was a first time for everything.
There was what appeared to be a rudimentary lock on the door, and a single bullet in front of it. Virgil pulled out his pistol, made sure it was unloaded, held it by the barrel, and used it as a club to strike the lock off of its place on the door. With that done he pulled his right leg back and thrust it forwards with as much force as he could physically get behind the motion, breathing an extremely large sigh of relief as the doors swang open to allow him entry into the room.
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And there they were. Gaunt, frail, weak, but alive. They were all alive. Most of his friends appeared to be unconscious, but Madison's face smiled up at him from where she lay on the floor. She nodded over at the corner next to the door, and he turned around to be met with the shocked face of his boyfriend. Cygnus was gaunt, just as the others were, but there was something else behind his eyes. Relief, of course, but given how sunken they were it was almost as if he hadn't slept a wink since disappearing.
There were no words between them. Virgil was too overcome with emotion to even move for the longest while, but Cygnus had no such hesitations. Moving forwards at a pace that was really more of a fast stumble than anything else Virgil's boyfriend made his way towards him. When the man was in arms reach of him Cygnus all but collapsed into his arms, smiling up at him before closing his eyes and passing out.
Fuck, he must have made it here just in time.
Hurriedly, almost frantically, he set down Cygnus and took off his backpack. Inside were a half-dozen bottles of water, another half-dozen bottled of sports drinks, and his lunch. Originally he'd been planning to loot a store on the way back to get his friends some food, but it looked like he'd underestimated just how poor a state they were all in. It would take all the effort they had to just walk back to the apartment, let alone stopping along the way.
He divided his lunch up as best he could into five equal portions, though seeing as his sandwich was cut into four pieces that was a bit of a faff, and put the drinks out with each of them. Madison, being the only one awake as of right now, smiled warmly at him and reached for a bottle of water with a hand that shook only a little bit. Virgil nodded at her, and she drank about half of the bottle in one go with a satisfied gasp of air at the end. She'd then picked up her portion of food and began to nibble at it, understanding that he hadn't brought much with him but that there was doubtless more back at the apartment.
He moved around the room, going to nudge his friends awake one by one to make sure they had at least some food and drink, making sure that they were all okay. They weren't good, of course they weren't, but they were okay. That would have to do for now, at least until he could get them all back home and play nurse until they were all on their feet and running about again.
"Sterling? I need you to wake up. You think you can do that?"
The youngest member of the group blinked himself awake with an exhausted and yet feverish expression.
"Virgil? Virgil? The fuck are you doing here? Did it get you as well?"
Virgil scoffed, forcing as much bravado into his voice as he could.
"Me? Fuck that, I nailed the bastard. Its corpse is rotting somewhere just outside the flat; I killed it in my bedroom, but I had to move the fucker's corpse out before it started to smell. It's dead and gone now, I can promise you that. Fucked up my hand a little in the process since I had to fire my pistol off at a weird angle, but nothing serious. Just a bit sore is all."
Sterling sat up, half-smiling and half-incredulous.
"Didn't follow your own rules on discharging firearms, huh?"
Virgil gently nudged his friend's side, careful not to put him off balance given how unstable he looked.
"Oi, none of that now. Cut me a little slack, I was never trained to use the rifle and needed to get in close to deal any real damage to it."
His friend looked at him, silent for a moment, and then all of a sudden Virgil found Sterling's arms thrown around him.
"You motherfucker, I'm so fucking happy I met you, you know that right?"
Virgil smiled and rolled his eyes playfully, patting his friend on the back.
"Yeah, I do. I do, Ster. Now come on, lets get you some food and drink. I didn't bring much food with me, but there's at least a few bites worth for you before we set off back to the apartment. I brought water and sports drinks though, since I thought you all might need some of them."
"I fucking love you, man. Please, for the love of god, chuck me one of them sports drinks."
"Coming right up!"
He tossed one of them over to Sterling, and fair play to his friend but the tired bastard caught it effortlessly. In one fluid motion Sterling had popped the cap off and was slowly drinking. Virgil was pretty sure that was what you were supposed to do in a situation like this rather than guzzle liquids down as fast as you could, but then biology had never been his strong point. Wait, was that biology or physical education? Both?
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He shook his head, pushing those thoughts to the side. He still needed to wake up three of his friends and that was what his mind chose to focus on?
Sterling drank from the bottle for a few more seconds, then wiped his mouth in his sleeve.
"Right, I'll work on getting Wesley up. You wake Lyla then go and focus on your boyfriend. Fuck knows how much sleep he's got since he got here."
"Yeah, that sounds good to me. That doesn't really surprise me either, not with how we both know Cyg can be. Fuck, I'm so glad to have you all back, Ster."
The youngest member of their group rolled his eyes, but Virgil would have had to have been blind to miss the tears forming in the corners of the aforementioned eyes.
"Yeah yeah, focus on getting the others up you sap. I'm glad to have you back as well."
Virgil nodded at him and smiled, then turned to the elder of the Alistair twins. Her brother might have been the one with a sleeping disorder, but damn him if she wasn't capable of sleeping through the end of the world as well.
"Lyla. Hey, Lyla, wake up. It's me, it's Virgil, I'm here. I brought food with me."
Lyla remained completely silent and still all through Virgil's rambling, right up until the end when he mentioned food. At the mere mention of having something to eat she bolted upright where she lay and looked at him with a mixture of confusion and hope.
"Virgil? Fucking hell, you look like shit. Wait, did you say food?"
Virgil rolled his eyes and handed her the small portion of food he'd set aside for her.
"Yeah, it's nice to see you too Lye."
"Oh right, yeah, it's nice to see you and all of that. What, did we get the fucker in the end then?"
"Yep. Shot it seven times, last couple at close range. Stomped on its head until it cracked open into a dozen pieces. No biggie."
Lyla gave him a look that was somewhere between exasperation, admiration, and respect.
"Stomped on its head, eh? Guess you were taught well after all. Hey, you spoken to Sea yet?"
Virgil shook his head.
"He was awake when I got in here but he passed out pretty much as soon as he saw me."
Lyla nodded, smiling.
"That checks out. He's been going on the whole time about how you'd find us and get us out of here. Since he got here he's basically tried to act as a guard, but I'm not sure what he thought he'd be able to accomplish given the fact that, you know, he was unfed and didn't have a weapon the whole time, but the thought was still there. I think when he saw you he realised that he didn't need to do that anymore and basically switched his body off."
Virgil shook his head as he turned to look at his unconscious boyfriend.
"Christ. I love him, but he's an idiot where his own health and needs are concerned sometimes. Well, seeing as Sterling is getting your brother up I'm going to go try and get Cyg up so I can get some food and water in him. You've got a bottle of water and a sports drink there, and if you want any more you can ask and have some of mine, but don't just take since theres only enough for one each really. Anyway, go wild and enjoy!"
She gave him a two-fingered salute and began moving over to the pile of bottles, allowing Virgil to move past her and get back to where his boyfriend had collapsed.
He carefully moved Cygnus so that the man's head was in his lap, and gently ran a hand through his hair for a minute or two before he came to.
"Come on, Cyg. You and I both know you need to get some food down you before sleeping. Hell, you and I both know you'll enjoy sleeping a lot more if you sleep at home and not in this empty concrete basement room. Come on, I still need to shout at you for being so reckless and I can't do that until you get your strength back, so wake up and have something to eat and drink so we can start moving to get you all back home and recovering."
Cygnus' eyes blinked open slowly, and Virgil pushed some of his boyfriend's hair out of his face.
"There you are, Cyg. I told you I'd find you didn't I?"
His boyfriend remained completely silent, only staring up at him. After a few seconds a small and yet impossibly warm smile came over his face as he raised one of his arms to cup Virgil's cheek.
"I told them you'd find us."
Virgil placed a hand on top of Cygnus' own, smiling back at him.
"And did they believe you?"
Cygnus nodded slowly.
"Of course they did. Everyone thought you'd find us eventually, they just didn't know if it would be too late by the time that you did. But I knew you'd find us in time. You're my partner, my love, and you're so breathtakingly intelligent that I knew it wouldn't be long before you found us. Did you kill it, love?"
Virgil nodded, fighting back tears.
"I did, Cyg. It's dead. Well and truly dead. I shattered its face into pieces with the heel of my boot after shooting it in the wound you made in it. It was still injured, so I took full advantage of that. I killed it, and it'll never take any of you from me again."
"Good," his boyfriend replied, still seeming extremely tired, "I'm glad to hear that. I do not believe that I would have been capable of what you have accomplished here, Virgil. I owe you a debt that I can never repay."
Virgil scoffed at his boyfriend's words, pulling the young man up so the two of them were sat opposite each other before clambering onto his lap and pressing their forheads together.
"If you try and tell me that you owe me anything for finding you, I'll kill you. I found you because I love you, all of you and all of them, and it was with the skills that you taught me that I was able to do it. More than that, the trail you left behind led me to the school. The clues were all there when I was in a right enough mind to see them, and as soon as I saw them I knew where you all were. There was no force on hell or earth that was going to keep me from finding all of you. Not the memories I have of this place, not my own worries, and definitely not some tall man made of shadows and ichor. I was always going to find you."
Cygnus smiled at him, but then coughed a little and tried to clear his throat. Virgil unentangled himself from his boyfriend and grabbed a bottle of water, then unscrewed the cap and gently tipped it past his boyfriend's lips.
His partner drank deeply before Virgil took away the bottle, not wanting Cygnus to make himself sick, then took a moment to look him over again.
Cygnus didn't look at him with confusion like the others had. No, his boyfriend just gave him a warm smile and a look that absolutely radiated pride. Cygnus had never for a moment doubted Virgil's ability to capitalise on the wounds that the creature had been dealt, nor did he doubt the fact that Virgil would find them and save them. Cygnus hadn't doubted him for one moment, and as a result the man could only exude pride in Virgil. Virgil, for his part, was so choked up with emotion that all he could think to do was to borderline throw himself at his partner and make sure he was real, he was there, Virgil wasn't just imagining things. After a few moments in which he was not afraid to admit he was pretty much sobbing, he pulled back and grabbed Cygnus' portion of the food and the sports drink. His boyfriend looked at him and split the portion in half, offering some to Virgil, but he was stopped by the borderline angry look that he was given in response.
"Cygnus, I love you, but if you don't eat that whole thing right now I can't be held accountable for what I'm going to do to you."
Cygnus rolled his eyes playfully, but seeing as he ate his portion of food in the span of a minute Virgil didn't think his boyfriend minded being told to actually eat it all to be honest.
"I'm glad you're here, Virgil. I'm glad you're here."
"Yeah," he replied, "me too. Now come on, we'll have plenty of time to be all lovey-dovey when we get back to the apartment, but it's a long walk back from here. Sterling, have you got Wesley up yet?"
He turned around to look over a the others and found Sterling giving him a thumbs up, whilst a half-asleep and half-wide-awake Wesley stared back at him with about half of his portion in his mouth.
His friend swallowed hastily, then all but threw himself across the room at Virgil.
"Hi Virgil! How have you been?"
Virgil raised an eyebrow and pointedly looked around the room, resulting in a snort from Wesley.
"Okay, fair enough. In my defence I was just trying to make polite conversation. I slept through most of what happened so I'm gonna actively avoid unpacking the parts I was awake for when it comes to what we've all just been through. What about you? Any plans?"
Virgil flicked him on the nose.
"Yeah, my plan right now amounts to getting the five of you the fuck out of here and back to the apartment before nightfall. And no repression! We've talked about that!"
Wesley rolled his eyes before rising to his feet.
"Fair enough. I can't say I'm disappointed to see the back of this place. We tried getting out pretty much every day but that creature always corralled us back in here. I don't know what it wanted us for, but I'm glad its dead."
"Me too. Now come on, all of you, on your feet. Can you all stand?"
There was a muttered chorus of "yes" from the five others in the room, and Virgil rose to his feet himself and made to start helping the others up. The sooner they were on the move the sooner they would be back at the apartment, and the sooner they were back at the apartment the sooner this whole ordeal could finally be called 'over'.
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The walk back had taken them a few hours, like he'd expected it would. The school was right on the other side of town, he was tired after having basically ran the whole way to the school earlier that day, and his friends were underfed and had received very poor rest the last week or two. To be honest it was a miracle that they'd all made it back without collapsing. Wesley seemed the least effected, which Virgil supposed was because he was used to needing to move around despite being constantly tired, whilst Cygnus fell somewhere in the middle of the group in terms of his state. He'd been watchful and alert since getting there, but he'd been there for a fair while less than the others had, so it sort of evened out a little. Not that it should have needed to of course, but it did.
Virgil had done his best to keep them all moving and stimulated, understanding that the occasional burst of adrenaline was just about the only thing keeping them all moving at this point, making sure to keep talking just to fill the void and give everyone something to focus on. He asked them questions about things that he knew they liked, making sure they all took their time to answer him so that they were actually engaging in conversation and not just listening to him, because he knew that it was a great way to keep people awake. He'd read in an old geography book that there had been an old mountain-climbing expedition that had needed to keep themselves awake overnight and had done so by singing songs and sucking on boiled sweets, but he wasn't mad enough to start singing just yet and he hadn't brought any boiled sweets with him.
He'd been wishing that entire way back that he'd brought more food with him to find them, since he was already bringing twelve drinks bottles with him, but he hadn't been entirely sure as to whether or not he'd actually have found them that day. Still, they'd all made it back to their apartment in one piece, and that was what was important. They'd stepped over the broken tin-can alarm system, through the door, barely registered the smashed coffee table that still had the dinner table stuck in it, and immediately crashed out on the sofa.
Virgil had chucked a bunch of frozen food into the oven and waited for it to be done before remembering that he kind of needed the table for the next part. He'd conscripted Sterling and Cygnus to help him pick the table up and set it back down in the kitchen, then he'd placed the scattered chairs in their right place and began serving the food as the others had all made their way in and sat down.
To say they'd thanked him for finding them, and for the food for that matter, was an understatement. Right now he was stuck at the bottom of a pile of affection, his friends and partner all around him and quickly falling asleep. Virgil would be very surprised if he would be allowed to move all night from out of this warm and soft prison.
But to be honest, he didn't think he would mind being stuck here all that much.