Read Arcadium Online

Authors: Sarah Gray

Tags: #young adult, #Australia, #super team, #infection, #melbourne, #Dystopia, #plague, #zombies, #Sisters, #apocalypse, #journey

Arcadium (10 page)

Seconds tick by
and nothing.

Kean swears and
calls his name.

Still
nothing.

This cannot be
happening. Trouble is my backup for Liss. I can’t leave him. And I
just know he wouldn’t leave us. “Damn it,” I say, and I grab the
umbrella off Henry.

“What are you
going to do?” Liss grips my arm.

“I’m going back
for him.”

She gives me
this sad look.

“Liss, it’s
Trouble. I have to.”

“I know,” she
says.

That surprises
me. But I shake it off. “Crap. I dropped the aerosol back
there.”

Liss takes off
her backpack. “I picked it up when you were fighting that lady.”
She pulls it out of her bag and I just about die from admiration.
“Oh, Liss. Good job. Really good job.” I look back at the tunnel.
“I don’t suppose you picked up the lighter too?”

Liss bites her
lip and shakes her head. Great, all I can do right now is deodorise
the enemy.

“I’ve got one.”
Kean holds it up. “I’m coming with you.”

“But Liss and
Henry...”

“Can wait
here.”

“No… not here.”
I shake my head looking around. I see a bright red door. “In here.”
I pull it open and it’s some kind of fire equipment room. Small and
free of infected. “Quick.”

I close the
door on Liss and Henry and chuck Kean the aerosol. “Sorry for
burning you,” I say and dart back into the darkness.

I grip the
umbrella and slide my other hand against the tiles.

“What’s the
plan?” Kean whispers behind me. When it gets really dark Kean puts
his hand on my shoulder. I can feel the lighter in his grip.

“Find him and
go from there.” I wait a few seconds before calling out, “Trouble?”
The infected scrabble back to ledge but we’re still out of reach.
They can only claw at our feet.

We step
carefully and keep yelling. A few minutes later I hear something
that sounds like hah, hah, hah. It repeats over and over like a
beacon.

“Trouble?”

He stops making
the funny noise and calls back. “Trouble!”

“Where is he?”
Kean says. “Where’s his voice coming from?”

“Oh my God.” I
grip onto Kean’s arm and we stop. “I think he’s out in the tunnel.”
I look at Kean but I see nothing, just blank darkness where his
green eyes and freckled skin and crazy hair should be. “Light?”

Kean flicks on
the lighter and aims the spray into the tunnel. It blazes out and
lights the scene. At our feet, infected people swarm like we’re the
band and they’re stuck in the mosh pit. Hordes of them. My heart
stops when I see Trouble. He’s standing on the roof of a yellow
car, far from the ledge and surrounded by infected. It takes a
moment for him to register the light, and he looks over. This is
bad. I see it in his face.

Kean cuts the
light. We stand, infected jostling and bumping at our feet.

“What now?” he
asks.

I’m still
clutching Kean’s arm. “You want to distract them? I’ve got an
idea.”

“Yeah,
how?”

“Use the light,
and yell. I’ll sneak this way.”

All Trouble
needs is some light and he can get back up here. That’s what I want
to give him.

I squeeze
Kean’s forearm. “Give me twenty seconds then go crazy, try and draw
them deeper into the tunnel.”

“Got it.
Go.”

I scramble
back, over the carpet of broken arms, dragging myself along the
wall, the way we just came. Then I turn stealth and creep along as
quiet as I can. I count out loud in my head and pause, silently
hiding. Right on time Kean lights up the air and starts yelling and
jumping. The infected turn and converge on his display, totally
forgetting about me.

Kean is making
just enough light for me to see what I need and he’s drawing away
the infected perfectly. I fill my lungs with air and slip down onto
the road. God this is insane. I duck behind a car and creep round
the other side. The driver’s door is open and I reach in.

An infected man
brushes past and I tense, but he’s completely dazzled by the
display and doesn’t even notice me. I reach my hands over the wheel
and flick all the levers. Nothing happens. I grasp around and
suddenly the entire tunnel goes pitch black again.

“I’m out of
light,” Kean yells. Then he starts singing something at the top of
his voice. I hear the sound but don’t hear the words.

I keep
searching with my hands, blindly waving them about, pressing
buttons and flicking dials, anything they touch. And then my hand
hits something that clinks. I touch it with my fingertips:
keys.

Please, please,
please, please. I push them forward in the ignition and something
whirs alive in the car. As soon as I hear it I stop pushing. I
don’t want to start it. Suddenly the clock lights up on the
dashboard, dazzling green and I see what I need: a click dial on
the dashboard. I flick it to full beam and light sears out into the
dark lighting up everything. The infected, Kean, Trouble.
Everything.

Kean and
Trouble freeze.

The infected
spin and rush toward the light, moving like a wave. I look at
Trouble one last time and our eyes connect. He holds his bat high
and as the infected move he slides down out of my view.

And now I run.
Even though the light is pointing away from me I can see just
enough. I’m in the middle of the road, swerving between cars and
infected people, poking out with the umbrella. One infected gets
the umbrella to its stomach and to my surprise it goes straight
through its gut and lodges in the cavity. I shove it away and
launch myself back up to the ledge, slamming my cheek against the
wall.

“Kean!” I
scream. “I’m up.” But then I realise he can probably see me.

For a moment
there’s nothing but aggravated moans. I peer down, ignoring the
hands groping at my ankles. I can see Kean but not Trouble.

“I’m here,”
Kean calls. “I’m coming. Trouble’s up too.”

I put my hand
to my chest and let out my breath. They say it’s good luck to hold
your breath all the way through a tunnel. I’m pretty sure I’ve been
holding my breath since we stepped into the dark, so I’m going to
go ahead and believe it. Something claws at me and I kick out with
my foot, crunching it in the head.

Kean reaches
me, and steps past. He locks his fingers into mine and looks back.
Trouble switches the bat to his other hand and reaches for me. We
clasp on and, hand in hand like one of those paper cut out things
they make you do in primary school art class, we move along back
into the darkness together.

With our backs
pressed hard up against the wall, we sidestep all the way out into
the grey light. Kean goes right to the edge for a safety check
while I collect Liss and Henry. When I open the door they peer out
like little animals. Liss sees me and tackles me with a hug. I hold
the door open so Henry can roll himself out. Liss leaves me and
grabs Trouble’s hand.

“Alright you
two. For the next five minutes you’re lookouts.” I point to the end
of the walkway. “Over there. Any movement drop and don’t make a
sound.”

Liss and Henry
head over to the spot and I pick up Trouble’s arm and inspect it
for bites, scratches or marks. Anything that might indicate he’s
infected. I don’t know what happened to him down on the road and
I’m not taking any chances. Although I’m not quite sure what I’ll
do if I find something. “Help me,” I say to Kean. “Make sure there
are no bites or scratches on him.”

Kean begins
inspecting Trouble’s other arm. Trouble lets us, but he glances
between Kean and I, looking confused. I smile and nod at him,
hoping it’s a universal sign for it’s ok.

I push his
t-shirt sleeve up higher and I see he’s got a tattoo on his arm.
Nothing fancy, it’s just a date: sometime not long before the
outbreak. Trouble glances at it and his eyes linger on the ink. I
can feel his arm muscles tense beneath my hands. And then he leans
forward and removes his shirt so we can check everywhere else.

“Looks fine,”
Kean says.

“You have to
check the bottom half.”

Trouble looks
between us, and points to his legs. I nod and turn away, letting
Kean deal with the bare legs.

A minute later
Kean calls out, “Ok, he’s good.”

Thank god for
that.

“What about
you?” Kean says.

“What about
me?”

“You were down
on the road too.”

True. I pull
off my jacket and Kean looks at my arms. He looks up finally.

“Are you
serious?”

He just stares
back.

“Liss, come
here.”

Liss and
Trouble swap places. Kean is still looking at my arm; he picks it
up in his warm fingers and touches the side of my hand. “What’s
that?”

“A scar.”

“What from?” he
asks, running a finger over it. Suddenly he pulls back like he’s
just seen a do not touch sign.

“My
rollerblading phase. Ok, now turn around,” I say. “Liss can do the
rest.”

Kean obliges
and wanders over to Henry and Trouble. Liss checks over my skin for
bites, even though I know I wasn’t bitten.

“All good,”
Liss says.

I put
everything back on and slide into my leather jacket.

“Flo?”

“Yeah?”

“Can they come
with us?”

I look over at
the boys. Trouble is leaning on his baseball bat, watching Kean
spin Henry in circles on the end of the ledge. “If they want to, I
guess.”

 

I’m so tired.
It seems the further we travel the more difficult it becomes. There
are more infected people than I’d ever bargained for and I don’t
know how much more I can take. Every time someone almost dies it’s
like cutting a limb off. I can feel myself growing attached to
them; mostly Trouble but there’s something endearing about the way
Kean and Henry keep on going.

I’m standing
with Liss and Henry, watching Trouble and Kean scoping out the
cars. The sky is clearing; the sombre grey giving way to patches of
blue. I can’t look back at the tunnel. I just have the image of
Trouble, standing on the car and completely surrounded, stuck in my
head. I wonder what would have happened if we’d left him? Would the
old me have left him? I don’t like to think of the answer.

A car starts
and we all look up. Our new ride is an old purple hatchback.

After Kean
sorts out the wheelchair business he hops in the front passenger
seat. Liss slides in next to Henry and I take the window seat.

Trouble steers
the car into a clear lane and we roll away. Liss and Henry are
having some kind of conversation about a kids TV show and the
mostly irrepressible smile is back on Trouble’s face.

Everyone seems
to be on a high but I just feel quiet. There are big thick concrete
walls on either side of the freeway. I stare out the window,
hugging my backpack. Suddenly the sun breaks out of the clouds and
I can see the ghost of my reflection in the window.

Kean is
watching me through the wing mirror. I look over but he doesn’t
flinch away. He just watches me as the world slides by around
us.

 

Chapter 9

Exit signs
flash by as we speed along. Cars lie like skeletons, eroding on the
side of the freeway. Kean fiddles with the radio for a while but
all he gets is static. He puts in an unmarked CD and classical
music flows from the speakers. No one complains. I bet in normal
times we would’ve all gone mental over it, but not now… it’s just
nice to hear something other than silence or screaming.

It’s still
light outside but I just feel like finding a place to stay and
bunkering in. I’m tired, Liss is wrecked, and I’d like a moment of
peace without an infected person trying to claw me to death. I
think that’s a reasonable request.

I lean forward,
tap Trouble on the shoulder and point to the next exit. The road
tilts down and away from the freeway and we stop at the blank set
of traffic lights. Trouble looks around.

I point to the
right. This route takes us up along Warrigal Road, past Chadstone
Shopping Centre. For a moment I can’t believe we’ve made it this
far. Our destination is so close. I just hope we’re heading for
something. But we won’t go straight there. We need to regroup and
repair.

Trouble drives
slowly through the abandoned traffic and mounds of rubbish. We pass
under the freeway bridge and emerge from the dark shadow. This is
the home I remember, this side of the city. This is where I was
born, where I grew up. I lived here, went to school here, had
friends and saw movies and walked along paths here. I remember
school swimming carnivals on sunny days and catching the bus to the
shopping centre and raiding my pockets for coins at the charcoal
chicken shop. Part of me will always belong here. Even though
nothing else remains.

I get Trouble
to stop at the Dandenong Road intersection and Kean turns down the
music.

“I want to find
somewhere to stay for the night.” I point to the corner. “That
hotel there. What do you think?”

“It’ll probably
have infected in it.” Kean stares at the building. “But maybe we
could clear a whole floor and block it off.”

“I bet we’d
find food and water,” I say.

“You mean we’ll
have our own rooms?” Henry says. “And real beds?”

Liss looks at
me and smiles.

“Sounds pretty
good, huh?” I say.

Henry puts his
hands behind his head and leans back. “I could use a relaxing
break.”

Kean glances
over his shoulder. “What are you talking about… a break? You don’t
even walk…
I
push you everywhere!”

“Fine.” Henry
rolls his eyes. “You could use a relaxing break then.”

Kean laughs and
Henry laughs and what the hell, I might as well laugh too.

I point to the
hotel and Trouble drives over extra slow. He parks right next to
the glass front doors and we all peer out.

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