The next morning, same as ever, had seen him trekking back across the city with Cygnus in search of supplies. Personally Virgil thought they could take a step back and have a few days rest since they were hardly at risk of running dry anytime soon, but then he guessed that there was a reason Cygnus was basically in charge of their little group. He wasn't content to rest on his arse when there was something he could be doing, not without a good reason anyway. Oh, he took breaks every now and again of course, but he certainly didn't take them often enough for Virgil's liking. Or Madison's liking, for that matter. Actually Virgil was pretty sure that all of them wanted Cygnus to take some time off and rest, but his boyfriend was nothing if not driven and determined to 'make the most of his time', whatever that meant.
"So, where exactly are we headed today?"
Cygnus turned to look at him, a small smile on his face.
"We're heading back out to the old secondary school across the city. I want to start mapping out some of the larger buildings in the cities so that we can get a better idea of their internal layouts and how they've shifted from the pre-disappearance maps. Of course, it will also help us if we start marking down what creatures are in each of them like you have been doing in your notebook. It will make our lives a fair bit easier from here on out, for if nothing else it means we can better try to avoid a repeat of yesterday's run."
Virgil nodded. That made more sense to him. Supplies they didn't particularly need to gather at the moment, but taking some free time to try and map out the town a little bit better would be time well spent in his mind. Fuck it, he was now sold on this idea.
"Aight, makes sense to me. Any particular reason you want to start with the old secondary school? Like you said, it's the other side of town."
"I figured it would be better to start with those areas furthest away from our apartment so that, as we continue with this task, the areas we are mapping out get closer to our home rather than further away. As a result it should become easier, not harder, to continue this little task of ours in between supply runs."
Virgil nodded again. That made sense to him.
"Fair enough. So, back to school for us is it? Let me tell you, I fucking hated that place. Too many people, too many stupid fights, and too much useless drama. Any authority figures present couldn't have cared less so long as they couldn't be personally implicated in anything bad happening to you."
Cygnus snorted.
"I never attended that secondary school for my secondary education, I went to the ones just out of town, but that tracks about right from what I remember. I think it doesn't really matter which secondary school you went to, since they were all truly awful."
He nodded his agreement at his boyfriend's words. Secondary school had been a fucking nightmare. He'd just spent most of the time hiding away in the library or classrooms by himself during lunch and breaktime, avoiding the packs of roving ingrates and morons so that he could make it through the day without some form of harassment if he was lucky. God, school had been the fucking worst. Thank fuck his A-Levels had been better, if for no other reason than a good portion of the ingrates dropped out and most of the ones who remained had admittedly matured a fair amount.
Cygnus took a sharp left and headed down a by-road joining the larger streets, and Virgil followed almost on autopilot. Cygnus knew where he was going, and even though Virgil of course did as well it was nice to not have to think about where he was going and just follow someone else instead. It wasn't the route he'd ever have walked to the school, for he'd lived much closer by on the other side of town back then, but he'd had to leave in the middle of his A-Levels since his parents really didn't want someone like him in the house anymore. Luckily Madison's parents had let him crash for a week before Cygnus' apartment lease began, so Virgil had never lacked for somewhere to stay like his boyfriend had at his age.
"I had this one teacher," Cygnus continued, "I don't recall his name, but I remember that he taught me history. I don't know why he didn't like me, but he really seemed to have it out for me on the day-to-day. Always gave me detentions for reasons I'm still not sure of, kept me back after school to talk about my 'attitude' in his class. I didn't have an 'attitude' in his class, I was the same to almost all my teachers and other faculty members around the school. Guess he just thought I had a chip on my shoulder or I was being rude, but I'm still not sure why."
Virgil snorted in derision at the nameless teacher his boyfriend was complaining about.
"That's rough. Getting picked on by teachers who have a grudge against you is the worst. Especially because back then you were what, fourteen or so? A child basically. You're a child, and this grown-ass adult with a job and a family and a home somewhere is feuding with you for reasons you don't understand. It's pathetic is what it is."
He looked around for a moment before ducking around a corner, Cygnus quickly following behind. There were the sound of wingbeats for a moment, but they faded off just as quickly as they'd apparated, so Virgil took that to mean the coast was clear once more and walked casually back out from the temporary hiding place.
"Wait, when you say you went to the school just out of town, which one was it? West Hill or Cairn Heath? I can never remember for some reason."
Cygnus made a noise that suggested he was tense, or otherwise uncomfortable.
"That's not your fault. I don't really like talking about it much and have tried to distance myself from that part of my life, so I never really brought it up to anyone. I attended both, at different points in my life. West Hill first, Cairn Heath for the last year of my secondary school. Obviously I went to this one in the town for my A-Levels, as you recall, but in terms of my secondary education I attended both West Hill and Cairn Heath. Both of them were awful, and I'm rather glad in the knowledge that there's no way it'd be safe for any of us to go outside the town to visit them now."
"Which one was the least shit?"
Cygnus chuckled, which made Virgil happy to have broken his tenseness, then huffed a little as he thought.
"When I say both were awful I mean it. I had knives pulled on me in both of them, but I guess I at least had a nice view of the sea whilst I was being held up at Cairn Heath so I guess I preferred that one."
Despite the content of what his boyfriend had just said Virgil couldn't help but laugh.
"Well, that makes sense to me! Better to have a nice view whilst you're being mugged than a shit one."
"And that's the truth right there. Here, make sure you take the next right. We'll avoid Cryer's Boulevard if we can help it, that place never sat right with me even before the disappearance. Too much crime and not enough authority coverage."
"I don't thing we need to worry about criminals anymore, Cyg."
His boyfriend gave him a nod of acknowledgement before continuing.
"Yes, that is true. However it is also true that the area is poorly lit, surrounded by buildings we can't really see into and have never been in before, and generally is a perfect hub for more than one of the creatures around here. I'd be very surprised if there didn't turn out to be at least half a dozen of them in there."
Virgil nodded back with his own acknowledging gesture.
"Yeah, those are all fair points. So we're avoiding Cryer's Boulevard, got it. I can't say I can complain. When I was younger, back before you met me and I was still- you know what I mean, I still wasn't publicly the real me yet, I was always told to avoid that part of town anyway. Not that I ever really had a reason to go down there, since I lived pretty close to my school, but you get what I mean. So the route we're taking will probably be ten minutes longer if we aren't going through there, right? Might be closer to twenty, if I think about it.
"I mean, we'll have to keep a good eye on the time in that case. If the trek across the city to get here takes an hour and a half, and we're adding on another twenty by avoiding Cryer's, then we'll need to make sure we leave with enough time left before the sunset to actually make it back to the apartment in time. How many hours do you reckon that will give us? Personally I make that four hours to prod around in there, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't want us to leave an hour earlier to make sure we absolutely get back in time."
Cygnus smiled at him and gave him a half-hug, pressing a light kiss to his forehead.
"Now you're thinking like an explorer out here, V. We need to get back before darkness, on that much I certainly agree, for the creatures are a lot more active when an area is lacking in natural light. We'll be sure to leave before we get anywhere close to nightfall, because for some reason the sunsets have been rather unpredictable as of late, so I'd say we'll spend about three hours exploring the school mapping it out to make sure there's no discrepancies between the pre-existing maps and reality before calling it a day and heading back. Of course if we encounter a creature of some sort then that will likely change our plans, but assuming the school is abandoned for now we'll plan to spend three hours there before leaving. That should give us ample time to explore it, no?"
Virgil nodded. The plan made sense to him, and he'd be lying if he said he wasn't at least slightly curious as to what had become of his old school in the absence of any other people.
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A little while later, when they were within eyeshot of the school, the two of them stopped to have their lunch. It was a simple affair, but nice nonetheless.
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Virgil plopped himself down on the bonnet of an ivy and moss covered red pickup truck, then stretched his legs. Ah, that's a hell of a lot better. A short break for lunch will do us both some good, he thought to himself. Cygnus moved to sit down besides him, and the two of them broke out the lunches they'd brought with them. They each had a sandwich, some jam thumbprints that Madison and Sterling had made, and a few fresh strawberries to be divvied up between them. By Virgil's estimation it was a pretty good lunch haul.
Virgil's sandwiches were relatively plain, simply containing ham and cheese as he liked it, whereas Cygnus' sandwich was filled with cucumber, tomato, lettuce, onion, cheese, and ham. Virgil would be lying if he said Cygnus' looked unappetising, because in truth they did look a damn sight better than his own, but he'd never enjoyed the texture of tomatoes. Still, it was good to know that the vegetable garden on the balcony was still both expanding and blooming. He wasn't sure when the trellis of cucumber vines had started sprouting, and he was certain that the lettuce would just be from a frozen bag they'd picked up in one of their supply runs, but it was nice to know that his boyfriend could still enjoy his salads and the like every now and again. It was something small that let Virgil know that they were actually all doing pretty good at this whole 'post-apocalypse self-sufficient lifestyle' thing.
The two of them ate in comfortable silence, enjoying the relative peace that came from being out here as opposed to in the flat, and Virgil silently wondered how the others were doing at the moment. He didn't doubt for a moment that they were all fine, for nothing of import ever seemed to really happen around their apartment building, but he still worried every now and again regardless of how much he knew that they were all probably fine. Half the time he didn't even know what they did with their days; he knew they kept themselves busy with the balcony-garden as well as keeping the apartment clean and tidy, but did that take the four of them all day? Maybe it did, he didn't pretend to know, but he felt like there were other things they all did as well.
Sterling and Madison spent a fair amount of time baking together, so that was probably quite time consuming when they weren't cleaning or tending to the garden. Wesley spent most of his free time napping throughout the day, or otherwise reading whilst trying to keep himself awake, and Lyla...
You know, he genuinely had no idea what she got up to in the daytime. Sometimes she went to the roof with Sterling to kick around a football for a bit, but that was hardly an everyday occurrence. He'd have to ask her about it when they got back to the flat after today.
Oh! He had completely forgotten to bring up the idea of getting the others involved in expeditions to Cygnus last night!
"Hey, Cyg? I was just wondering something."
His boyfriend nodded at him to continue as he chewed on a bite of his sandwich.
"Do you think it would be a good idea to start getting some of the others involved in our excursions? I know Wesley and Madison probably wouldn't be up for it, but don't you think that Lyla or Sterling might want to join every now and again? We'd be able to make trips less regularly if there was a third backpack with us."
Cygnus looked unconvinced, but nodded nonetheless.
"That much is true, however most of our friends lack the combined skills for urban exploration and scavenging. I mean, out of the six of us only you and I know how to safely and effectively handle firearms. I wouldn't want to risk them getting hurt, not if I can go out and do it instead."
Virgil pursed his lips a little, continuing to state his case.
"We could teach them. Sterling and Lyla both have good stamina and steady hands, we know this. Lyla is a little bit uncontrollable at times, I know, but Sterling looks up to you like an older brother. If you impress upon them the need to be quiet or stop moving when one of us tells them to, they'd probably fit right in with our missions. After a while we might even be able to split off into two groups to cover twice as much ground across the city than we were able to before. Surely it's worth a try?"
Cygnus looked off into the distance, rubbing his chin with one hand as he held his half-eaten sandwich with the other. After a little while he began to slowly nod.
"Yeah... yes, I think what you say has a great deal of merit. My own misgivings about their safety should not overrule the logic you present me with. I would not feel comfortable with them coming with us straight away, but we can certainly begin to coach them and train their climbing skills as well as their lockpicking and firearm usage. Yes, that wouldn't be so bad after all.
"May I ask what has brought this about, however? I'm not against this idea, not for any reason based in logic anyway, but it seems rather sudden."
He just shrugged at his partner in response. There hadn't really been an inciting moment per-se, more just a gradual want to need to spend less time outside the apartment. He didn't want to completely wall himself inside, not at all, but it would be nice to have the option of staying in bed instead of heading out every now and again.
"Nothing in particular. I've had the thoughts every now and again for quite a while to be honest, but I thought about it properly yesterday. You know, when we were being chased? I thought that it would have been a more successful trip if we'd had someone else shoving food and supplies into their bag so that we'd have three lots to unpack instead of two."
"Yes, I suppose that's a fair observation. I won't pretend that I don't have my misgivings about this idea, and I won't pretend that I won't worry frightfully for a long while after we start taking them out, but I think you're right in that it's a good decision for our group to make. Besides, I can't very well dictate to them what they can and cannot do, can I? We'll bring it up to them in the next couple of days, and see what they think of your idea. They can make their own decisions, and... and I trust you all to know when you're in too deep and need help. So long as Lyla is relatively serious when she needs to be and Sterling is able to acknowledge when he needs help with something instead of letting his pride get in the way, which are things the two of them have struggled with but have made a great deal of improvement in during this last year, I will be happy to teach them how to explore and scavenge as well as lead them out on our excursions."
Virgil smiled at his boyfriend.
"I'm happy to hear that. Hey, maybe one day we can send them out and we can have a quiet day in instead."
Cygnus snorted.
"Quite possibly, yes. Anyway, I'm just about finished with my sandwich now. We'll divide up the strawberries to eat on the move if it's fine with you, and keep the thumbprints back for a snack before we walk back later?"
He nodded at his boyfriend's proposition, and hopped down off of the bonnet of the truck.
"Works for me. Let's get this show back on the road! A few hours of poking around my old fucking school and seeing if any beasties have made a home out of it, then we're off back home!"
They carried on walking for a little while, the pavement and tarmac alike cracked and overgrown, and soon enough the school gates were in front of him. Well, not quite. Technically these were the outer gates that led to the car-park and sports centre, but it was still school grounds so he counted them as being the school gates.
"Are you alright there, dear? We can take a few minutes to stop if you need to-"
"No, I'm fine," Virgil cut his boyfriend off, not realising that he'd just been staring at the buildings that made up the school for a little while as he was lost in thought, "just... just some bad memories about this place."
"Some good ones as well, I hope?"
He smiled at his partner and slid a hand into Cygnus', intertwining their fingers.
"A couple, yeah. You wanna check out the sports centre first? It shouldn't take as long, since there's only around a dozen rooms here I think."
"Not counting the main hall or the changing rooms though?"
Virgil nodded again.
"Yeah, not counting them. I'd suggest splitting up like we normally do, but- I mean, you can if you want, but I- I don't like this place very much, and-"
He was broken from his thoughts by Cygnus raising their intertwined hands and gently kissing Virgil's hand, smiling softly as he did so.
"Breath, love. Breath. We'll stick together, and we'll get this over with today so we don't need to waste anymore time here in the future. We're just going to look around and make sure there's no creatures that have made their home in this place, not ones that we need to be wary of anyway. Aside from that its a simple matter of making sure the layout of the building matches what the maps show, which they almost certainly should but there's no harm in making sure, and taking note of anything that might be useful to us back in our apartment in the future. Woodworking equipment, welding and soldering equipment, etcetera. They might come in handy in the future, so even if we aren't able to move them today it will be good to take stock of what's here."
Virgil nodded again, his boyfriend's voice and explanations grounding him and giving him something to focus on rather than his poor memories of this place.
"Yeah, that makes sense. We won't spend too long in this bit then, because there won't be much useful in here, but we'll still look around and make sure it's all safe. That way we'll be able to let the others know that there's a glut of sewing and other home-economics equipment here if they needed anything in the future. I take it we don't exactly need to try and take the batteries out of every electric door and emergency light this time? Because we will be here for days if we try and do that."
Cygnus gave him an amused smile.
"Don't you worry, I can assure you that the vast majority electronic devices here will be plugged into the mains or a backup generator. They won't be battery-ran, so I won't worry about taking them out of here."
"You're telling me the only reason you won't take them out is because they're probably not battery powered?"
Cygnus gave him a cheeky grin and a conspiratorial wink, and Virgil couldn't help but laugh in response. Sometimes he was certain that this man was an actual fucking guardian angel who'd been sent to make sure Virgil was okay, that he was happy and loved. He'd done a pretty good job of that since coming into his life, that was for sure.
"I remember this classroom," Cygnus began as they walked through the halls of the sports centre and entered the first room of many they'd go into on that day, "this was where I was briefed on map-reading and orientation skills prior to my participation in the Duke of Edinburgh award during my A-Levels. The extracurricular activities were always difficult for me since I never had a great deal of money to put towards a club or sport so that I could claim to have bettered my skills in that way, but the hike itself was a great deal of fun. That really kickstarted my appreciation for hiking and walking in general, truth be told."
Virgil smiled at his partner as they walked into the next room, swapping stories about their happier moments at school, which were unsurprisingly almost always after the main body of Virgil's schooling was about three-quarters completed and both Cygnus' and Madison's A-Level schooling had begun. Funny that; his favourite memories all seemed to come from around the time that their friend group had begun to coalesce.
Virgil hadn't ever been a big fan of this place, and he had certainly never tried to hide such feelings from anyone, but he was certain that he was never going to let what had happened in the past keep him down anymore. Cygnus would be there by his side no matter what, and even if Cygnus was somehow indisposed and unable to support him he knew that the rest of their friends would be there for them in a heartbeat. Not that Virgil thought for a second that anything would possibly keep Cygnus from helping him of course, but their other friends were there as well.
If they were with him then he could take on the whole fucking world, and he could definitely manage to confront his bad memories of this place for just one day.