A Trip

"You all set?" The boy says to his companion, the two of them have empty bags set up on their backs, ready to head out. The girl ties her grayed out hair up with a band, the boys mouth faintly drops into a barely noticeable frown.

"Alright then, you pull up the directions to the nearest Coszco yet?" She says completing her ponytail, a few streaks of dark brown hair become noticeable. The sides of the boy's mouth shift upwards, causing the girl to glare at him with equally dark eyes.

"Y-yes," her action caused him to stutter. "Anyways, you've lived here far longer than I have, so why have me pull up the directions?" He brings up, trying to distract himself from those eyes staring at him, as if he was a bug.

"This store only popped up a year before I left, and I've been told I've had a penchant for getting lost." He stares at her for a good second before responding.

"...Chell, that is a very worrying statement you made right there."

"It's fine, they all made it there alright... Claude." She slings the backpack over her shoulder and places her foot out from the room. To which the boy comes out of his daze and dashes to catch up.

Almost slipping, he catches himself and follows beside the girl with his phone ready.

"No running in the halls Claude." Ignoring her last statement, he checks the gps map for the directions to the supermarket. Suddenly he opens his eyes wide and looks at her, as if he's started to see through her.

"So that's why Kyrie was always leading the group whe..."

"You have never met the girl named Chell before 2 days ago, is that not right?" He stops his words and looks back down at his phone.

"No I have not." He repeats to himself. The sound of their shoes hitting the floor becomes painfully loud. The view outside the window was bearable for the girl though. The sky always being a dark red purple shade always put her off a bit, but she had gotten used to it after the first months. The scene below the sky was rather calming, the old style buildings that filled her childhood were prominent figures in her eyes.

When she sees the overgrown grass and vines though, she cannot help but become a little bit sullen.

"Isn't it surprising that the GPS still works after all this time?" The question managed to get her out of her stupor, and she quickly calmed herself enough to reply.

"I don't think the satellites are going to go anywhere any time soon."

"You never know with he way the world I right now, and besides, aren't the servers for Maps past the border by now?"

"I guess you're right." Turning the corner, the arrive at the entrance to the school. The light that fell upon her skin was neither warm, nor cold. Merely lukewarm, causing her to feel an out of place discomfort even if the sky had shone this light continuously for many months.

Walking down the path, the conversation became had an awkwardness towards it. With no one else to break the ice, and no pressing concern shared between the two of them, they started find it hard to hold normal conversation.

"Read any books lately...Chell?" The boy's attempts to break the silence was much appreciated by the girl.

"I haven't had much space to carry one...Claude." Almost reminding herself of the name, she quipped.

"Webnovel exist you know." He pulls out his phone and loads up qidian.

"With no one around to update. Besides, I don't have a phone." She brushes him off.

"Want me to share some with you?" He pulls up a favorite of his.

"Let me guess, the main character is a guy who died and reincarnated into a world of cultivation in the body of a playboy who recently got his engagement annulled and was then assassinated with some kind of crippling poison. Also inheriting a system that'll help him slap the faces of all those who 'cannot see Mt.Tai'." The boy just began to stare blankly at her, apparently he as well could not see mount tai. Her lips curled up in a smug smirk. "Kyrie was a fan." The boy sighs with a look of understanding.

"Of course she was, I told her about it." He mumbles, barely audible to the girl. He noticed her pondering, with her holding her chin up with her left hand.

"Why don't you pick up a romance novel or something, you know, change of pace."

"I don't really know about that..." His face contorted a bit to show his reluctance.

"It's not like you don't have any free time, I'll read with you." She tries to show interest.

"My phone is only so big."

"The give me your phone."

"On second thought..."

"What? Are you afraid I'll find your porn preferences? Don't worry, Kyrie told me all about them, should I start listing off?"

"And here you go." Handing the device to her, he avoids the embarrassment. Thus she opens up the camera app and takes a bunch of selfies. Then promptly returns the phone.

"I get lost remember."

"You certainly lost my respect for you." He takes it back and starts deleting all the selfies, which takes long enough that he has to stand still, since he doesn't want to pull up he map till all the selfies are deleted. After a solid minute, he closes the camera app and opens the map application again.

"I thought you'd appreciate those considering how often you look at my face." She pretends to sulk, but it comes off extremely badly that he has to stifle a laugh.

"Only trying to find the best angle to punch your nose in."

"Uwahh, how scary. I wish the police were still here to arrest this man for domestic abuse."

"I am a wholehearted supporter of gender equality," His smile is as prominent as Cheshire cat's "And also wouldn't domestic violence necessitate is being in a relationship." His question causes the girl to think for a bit.

"It could technically be right if we were in a house."

"But we're on a street."

"Hmm..." she begins to think. "I guess that'd be assault and battery. Which reminds me, I need some salt for cooking and a battery for the gameboy I found lying around."

He gives her a look of disappointment. "Are you serious?"

"Sirius is a good name, maybe I should change my name from Chell to Sirius."

"I hate you."

"Yu did nothing wrong?"

"Nobody is more infuriating that you."

"Yes, I agree that Odysseus managed to anger the cyclops a lot more than I think Yu would."

"Forget it."

"The movie IT was alright I'd say, I don't think I'd be able to forget it though."

"..." there were no more words left in his mouth to describe how done he was with this conversation. The silence continued until they arrived at the supermarket. After cooling off, he walked inside, with the girl following suit after she grabbed a shopping cart from the front.

"What are we getting again?" He poses to the girl beside him.

"A salt and battery."

"Please don't start this again." She shrugs and starts counting on her fingers while staring at the ceiling.

"Take all the food you can carry, better yet, let's try and jack a car in the parking lot. We could also a small generator in case the power grid dies. Other things we might need..."

"Let's get a tv and some games."

"Hmm... I guess that's alright. Let's get a switch." Discussing their game preferences, the eventually settle on a couple of games, after browsing on the store, both of them realize that there are no games here.

"Gamestart is a couple blocks down," She proposes.

"I hate gamestart though, always overcharging their customers."

"There no one even there anymore."

"It's a matter of principle." She stops arguing, although her face shows that she has quite a lot to say about these principles.

Turning into an aisle, the girl begins to ponder over their choices.

"Do you want Tomato soup in a can, chicken soup in a can, beef stew in a can, or maybe even corn in a can."

"Why are they all in cans?"

"Can you cook?"

"Better than you can."

"Not a very high bar." She says packing all the cans I got the shopping cart.

"At least get some of the microwaveable meals."

"Alright then." She says going to the refrigerator aisle. Picking one of the boxes up, she looks at the back.

"Best by August 13th. What day is it again?"

"It's the 12th."

"So it'll be good for another week."

"What year though?" She looks again.

"Doesn't say."

"Hmm...Let's take our chances, it's been a while since I've had a pizza pocket."

The two traveled on for a bit, picking up a few bottles of wine because those wouldn't go bad. All the other fruits and produce were rotten, which caused Claude to throw up into a nearby trash can. They eventually found clips to plug their noses so that the smell would be bearable.

"Maybe we should get a mattress."

"The infirmary should be fine for now."

"Those beds are really uncomfortable though."

"How long are you planning on staying."

"As long as we need to."

She stops walking, causing him to have to stop as well. Her eyes glare at him once more.

"Are you seriously planning on sticking around?"

"We have to find your house after all." He says without a change of inflection. Staring at her as if she was staying the obvious. This makes her noticeably peeved.

"I have checked, it's already past the border, there's no way to get it back."

"We don't know that until we try."

"When YOU try, I'm not committing a double suicide." She yells at him, clenching her fists.

"That's fine with me," her eyes become even more enraged as he says this, she grabs him by the collar and proceeds to shout in his face.

"What is with you and throwing your life away huh?"

"I don't know what you mean." He lies.

"Liar." Her eyes see right through him. "If you weren't like this..." she turns away and remains quiet. The boy has nothing more to say and the awkward atmosphere remains until they get to the register, where the boy goes to the other side, and begins to check out all their items. To which the girl glares at him once more.

"Why are you like this?" Her questions stabs his ears.

"It's a matter of principle."

"To hell with your principles, who are they benefitting anyways?"

"What difference would we be from animals if we no longer had any principles."

"Even animals can tell right from wrong."

"What about those species that kill their own children?"

"You mean sacrificing those that wouldn't have survived anyways so that the others can live?"

"No matter how you twist it Chell, that's just wrong."

"And no matter how much you deny it Claude, that's just the way things are."

Neither side having anything left to say, the boy continues to scan the items, ringing the cans, the mattress, and various other products. He places of them back into the shopping cart and the girl pushes the cart out to a random car in the street.

She breaks open a panel on the dashboard and successfully hot wires the car. Afterwards sitting in the passenger seat after the boy has loaded up the car. Getting into his seat, he looks at the girl staring out the side window with her hand supporting her head Halfway into the drive, the boy opens his mouth.

"I'm trying to preserve our world." The words sink into the surroundings, he looks out of the corner of his eye and the girl hasn't moved from her original position. A minute later, she finally replies.

"The world died a long time ago." Her voice was deadpan, but he could almost hear the grief justifying her words. He turns his eyes away back to the road.

"Who knows."