The Quaranteam Universe is the creation of CorruptingPower, used with permission.
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Chapter 15: Architecture
18 September 2020
Many chapters of Adam's life had been started by being dropped off by a van in front of a building, recently. Even if this particular building was home, now, and technically had been a couple of weeks before. The sky was gray and heavily overcast, the building somewhat foreboding despite the cheery new sign outside declaring its new name, and his familiarity with most of its features.
Team Jeffries walked inside, still bundled up for protection. The gradually dropping temperatures were making that much more bearable, but the feeling was still unpleasant. Especially since, despite everything, the van had passed by several knots of unmasked people on the way there. It was like the country was divided into thirds. The ones who were careful and trying to stay alive, the ones who were flouting every rule and recommended step, and the ones who were too dead to weigh in. And the thing was, when group two did what they did, they contributed to group 3 from way more than just their own numbers.
At least the elevator was working now. All four of them piled in with their luggage and backpacks, and though the trip was probably a bit slower than if they'd taken the stairs it got them where they were going. There were way fewer doors now. Way fewer apartments. Each was much larger, so it made sense, but it still felt odd. The door to his apartment no longer led to a living room with a couple of offshoots. No, it was at one end of a much longer kind of space. Even to his eyes it was obvious what the renovators had done. They had gone through and knocked out as many walls as they could, the ones left up not quite random but close. Anything load-bearing was left, and anything else was just to make those look decent. And it looked like whoever was making that decision was trained in "keep the building from collapsing" first and "aesthetic architecture" a distant fifth or sixth place.
Still, it could work. Eventually, with effort, it could work. What was irritating was the state of their belongings. When the crews had come through to do the renovations, it looked like the movers simply grabbed all of the stuff they'd left and shoved it into boxes to haul out. Then, once the renovations were done, they hauled it all back... and left it in disorganized piles. The one in the middle of the living room, or at least what was once the living room and seemed to be serving a similar purpose this time around, looked like it was mostly taken from the general area. Just scrambled and haphazardly stacked. There was no telling where the other piles might be, what they contained, or how much work it was going to be to set them straight.
Adam started stripping layers of clothing off and the others followed suit. "I don't know about all of you, but I'm exhausted. Let's get the food put away, everything else can wait for tomorrow."
Callie nodded in agreement after she peeled off her own outer layer. "That sounds good. I don't even see the bean bag chair or the cot, so unless there are actually more beds around then I don't know where Esther and I are going to sleep." She shook her head. "This place feels creepy, too. Maybe it's just me."
"I thought it was just me," Esther commented. "I was not here for long enough to get used to it before our absence, but it does not feel like home right now." Her own skin was getting noticeably firmer, her movements much more smooth. It was something the others noticed, now, not just something Adam had to remind her to measure.
"I think I found them!" Shannon's voice came from a door that used to lead to a bedroom. She had decided to roll her suitcase there first thing, since her belongings mostly went there anyway. "And... uh, this is going to take some getting used to."
Adam swiftly walked over to his busty girlfriend and looked at the room. It had nearly doubled in size, the small bed replaced by a king-sized one. The cot, beanbag chair, and computer table were all there, though arranged haphazardly. The closet door was ajar, revealing that the interior had become a walk-in rather than the shallow one he had. "You're not lying, Shannon. I'm not even sure where to start."
"I think we need to start in daylight, Adam." She was still standing there, trying her best to mentally map this place to where she had been living. "You're right. Let's shove some stuff in the fridge and get to sleep."
In the end, the capacity of that large bed was tested. Both Esther and Callie joined Adam and Shannon there. The rest of the apartment was just too unfamiliar, too cluttered for them to even want to explore. The sun would make it all easier. For now, they all needed rest, and they all needed to feel like they were home. If the apartment wouldn't help them, then they could help each other. Call the test a success, after finding enough blankets for four they slept quite comfortably.
The problem with the tactic of leaving tasks for tomorrow is that tomorrow has an annoying habit of showing up promptly. Four sets of eyes opened, and then it was suddenly time to get started on everything. The desire to stay in a comfortable cuddle pile warred with the desire for fresh coffee in Adam's mind. Ultimately, coffee won, and once that was brewing he started pulling out ingredients for breakfast since he was there anyway. Appliances and pans were in the correct general vicinity, even if they weren't quite in the places he left them. Eggs and bread were in the fridge, as was butter. That would be enough. The smells were more than sufficient to start drawing the others out of the aforementioned cuddle pile, starting with Esther.
She looked around. "Last night when we got home I thought it was a mess. Good to know I was right about that."
"Yeah. I took one look at that and figured I wanted to wait for help before diving in. You're out first, mind helping me with the coffee assembly?"
"As long as you remember to actually put seasonings on the eggs. We have them, use them." She opened up the fridge for creamer, then went to grab sugar, pausing to pointedly watch Adam until he got some dried herbs to mix in with the scrambled eggs. Nodding approvingly, she started pouring coffee mugs full of the day's kickstart. Callie and Shannon came out shortly after, looked disapprovingly at the pile of stuff in the middle of the living room, then gratefully accepted the coffee and breakfast. Of course, all of them had to eat it while sitting on the floor since the table was piled up, but it was at least a start.
"Okay, here's the thought," Adam got started once he had a few bites of food in him along with half of his mug of coffee. "We take a look around the newly-enlarged place to get an idea of the layout, decide where everything is supposed to be, then work on getting things that way. We start from the living room and kitchen so that we can have an area to stage things and one for snacks. The goal for today is that plus the bedroom in at least decent shape."
"So basically the old apartment, then start unlocking the extras?" Shannon asked.
Callie chuckled. "Only you would put that in video game terms, but I think so. Let me go ahead and add, we need to be looking for damage to the place. Anything they scratched up, dented, or did wrong. I don't know who we would report it to, but I've never seen a renovation actually go a hundred percent smoothly even when it wasn't for a radical change, by government contractors, and on a rushed schedule."
Esther had a bit of a laugh, herself. "And only you would think to put it in legal terms first. That said, you're right. I can already see scratches in the linoleum that weren't there before we left."
Adam sighed. "Let it be known that I don't like how right you two are. When I used the sink earlier I thought I heard a thunk coming from the pipes, so that might be something to be added to the notes."
Shannon pulled her phone out and started tapping something out. "Time to make this easier for us. Everyone, I just sent you a link to a blank document and I'm writing categories. When you find something wrong, write it in the appropriate place and it'll all be in one place for us. That work for everyone?" Everyone gave some form of yes, then focused on finishing their food.
Callie was first to stand, since she still wasn't exactly eating much, and took her cup to the sink. "I think I might have found the first thing to add. Aren't sinks supposed to be sealed? Around the edges?"
"Caulked, but yeah." Adam stood and went to look. Sure enough, he'd missed it when filling up the coffee pot earlier. He gave an experimental push, and the sink shifted by a millimeter or so. "Looks like they skipped a step, which means we need to look for a lot more than just dings and scratches." He sighed, suddenly tired despite having just woken up. "The kitchen is the heart of a home. If they skimped here then that means they weren't paying attention to quality control anywhere. We'll fix or patch what we can once we get the place mapped out and our stuff put away."
What followed was a long and frustrating kind of process. Taken as a whole, the rooms weren't laid out in any kind of logical pattern. They connected oddly, open spaces interspersed with bathrooms and bedrooms seemingly at random. It was Esther who finally thought to lay down a few brightly-colored knickknacks in a line on the ground in two spots. Once these divided the space up it was easy to feel where the different apartments used to be. This let them see the open areas as former living rooms, no matter what purpose they might put them to later. It let them get a feel for where the three bedrooms were, and made the second kitchen way more obvious in its spot at the opposite end of the home. The third one, previously near the middle of the space, was conspicuous by its absence, replaced by what seemed to be extra closet space.
And then there was the furniture. Almost all of it was new or near-new blandly generic rapid assembly kinds of things. Stuff that could be bought in bulk relatively cheaply and put where it would be needed. That wasn't shocking, though. It was the few objects that weren't that gave a clue what was up. They were all larger pieces that could not be easily disassembled or moved. Shelves, a large rocking chair, and the like. Those had a lot more wear on them, more character. It was like those bits of the lives of the previous residents stayed, even if those people were either dead or gone. Adam ran his hand over a square imprint in one shelf. Had it been full of books, and this where the bookend was? Maybe a small trophy for one accomplishment or another? He'd never know, and his musings were interrupted by the others starting to call out issues.
"This door swings open if it isn't completely shut, and you kind of have to lift it a bit to get it to close.."
"Found a couple of plugs that are really finicky. They'll work, but you have to jiggle a bit to get the plug in the right spot."
"I tried the water in the showers. One of them has the hot and cold reversed."
"This toilet isn't completely steady, it rocks a bit if you shift your body weight too much."
