Arcadium (11 page)

“Here we go
again,” Henry says. “What’s the plan?”

Kean and
Trouble are looking back at me, waiting.

“Well.” I look
up at the building. “I think we should take the first floor. Block
off the stairs to the upper levels and clear every room so we don’t
have to worry. We can easily get off those balconies if the lobby
entrance becomes unusable.”

“I’m happy with
that,” Kean says.

Henry leans
forward. “Sounds good to me.”

“Ok then.” I
hop out and Liss follows. Kean sets up Henry in his wheelchair and
Trouble waits by the glass doors with his baseball bat.

When we’ve all
gathered I nod to Trouble and we follow him through into the lobby.
It’s nice and bright on account of the huge glass windows running
down the sidewall. There are grey suede couches sitting on bright
red carpet and a glass chandelier hovering above us, gathering
dust.

Henry rolls
over to the elevator and presses the button a few times. Nothing
happens. “Well I give this place a one star for wheelchair
accessibility,” he says.

On the back
wall is a glossy wooden reception bench with a glass top. Kean
wanders over and starts going through drawers.

To the right is
a white door leading to stairs and Trouble is peering through the
glass panel into the stairwell. Next to it, a large potted plant is
toppled on the floor, spilling dirt everywhere.

“Looks like
there are eight rooms on the first floor,” Kean says holding up a
bunch of keys. “Room one and two keys aren’t here but the rest
are.”

I nod to Henry.
“How do we get him up the stairs?”

Henry rolls
over to the stairwell door and Kean meets him there. I watch as
Kean kneels down and Henry puts his arm around his brother’s neck.
Kean stands, stooping forward so Henry doesn’t strangle him with
his weight, and spins, folding the chair flat and hoisting it up in
his arms.

“Ok.” I nod to
Trouble. “Let’s go.”

The stairwell
carpet matches the stuff in the lobby. Blood red. Windows let in
soft afternoon light and dust motes hover in the yellow glow.

Trouble leads
the way, bat held out in front, stepping quietly. Kean heaves each
step, carrying both his brother and the chair. Maybe I should offer
to carry the chair but it seems like the opportunity has passed, so
I just pad along behind with Liss and marvel at his strength.

At the first
floor landing Trouble pauses, glancing up the stairwell. Kean
unfolds the wheelchair and dumps Henry back into it. Liss grabs my
hand as Trouble pushes through the door. We all follow, one by
one.

The corridor is
long and plain, just white walls and glossy grey doors. It’s dim
and shadowy and the air is stale. The only source of light is a
window at the far end.

I’m standing
just past the elevator, between room one and two; the doors we
don’t have keys to. That either means there are infected inside or
just dead bodies. My bet is on dead bodies.

“I can check
the rooms,” I say. “If you guys want to check the stairwell.”

Kean narrows
his eyes. “You don’t have a weapon.”

“I’ll just
close the door again. I’ll be fine.”

Kean blinks a
few times. “Ok.” He hands me all the keys and nods to Trouble. They
move out into the stairwell and I shuffle through the room key
tags. I pace down, pressing my ear to each door. At number eight, I
listen for twice as long. Liss and Henry are watching me from the
other end of the hallway.

I hear nothing
from within so I slip the key in and open it a crack.

Still
quiet.

I push the door
open just enough so I can see in. The walls that I can see are deep
purple and the carpet is cream. The room banks away to the left and
blocks my view.

I tighten my
grip on the handle and clear my throat.

Nothing.

I do it again,
louder.

Nothing.

“Hello,” I
call.

I wait a few
seconds before stepping in. The curtains are open, the king sized
bed is made. The room is spotless and free of infected people.

I knock on the
bathroom door, wait a few seconds and open it. This room is dark
because there’s no natural light. Granite black tiles cover the
floor and climb up the walls. It’s pretty standard: bath, shower,
toilet, sink. Folded white towels sit on a shelf next to the bath
and on the sink are little toiletry bottles: shampoo and
conditioner and all the other stuff that seems completely
irrelevant now.

“Hey guys,” I
call out holding the door open. “Come and look at this.”

Liss and Henry
appear in the hallway and their faces light up. Liss walks straight
in. Henry rolls in behind her.

“There’s a
bed!”

I leave Liss
and Henry in the safety of room eight and continue checking the
other rooms. They’re all empty, all made up and ready for guests
they’ll never receive... well, except for us. I’m standing with my
ear pressed against the door of room one when Kean and Trouble
emerge from the stairwell.

“You survived,”
Kean says.

“So did
you.”

Kean smiles and
looks over at Trouble. “Well the stairs and other corridors are
clear so you can walk around safely if needed. We jammed a couch
behind the lobby door too, so nothing can get in.”

I nod. “You
guys want your rooms?” I hold up the keys to room six and
seven.

I take Trouble
to his room and try to explain in some kind of crazy sign language
that it’s his. He looks ecstatic, I swear, like his face is the sun
shining on a freaking perfect day.

When I go back
out into the hallway Kean has his ear against the door to room
one.

“Anything?” I
ask wandering over.

Kean shakes his
head. “Just another mystery to remain unsolved. Though I suppose
they’re dead.”

“I supposed
that too.”

“So ah…” Kean
straightens. “Where are we heading after this stop?”

I pull a
plastic smile. “Nice try.”

“Look I get
it,” Kean says, lolling his eyes toward the door. “There’s only one
thing worth trekking across an infected cesspool of death and
destruction for. I know where you’re going… more or less”

I look at him
for a while. “Don’t you trust me?”

“I only met you
today but even when I didn’t trust you, you saved my life. Twice.”
He sighs at the door. “You’re looking for salvation.”

“Aren’t you
guys?”

Kean looks away
from the door, straight at me. “What if we’ve found it?”

I look down at
the floor.

“Sorry,” he
says quickly. “I shouldn’t hassle you about it. You don’t want to
tell me.” He shrugs. “I don’t need to know.”

“Ok, then,” I
say. But really I don’t know what else to say. There’s an electric
tension in the air and I don’t know how to break.

“Well, I’m
hungry…” Kean says. “Time for dinner?”

I smile. “Lets
see what they’ve got on offer.”

Kean and I take
a room each and compile all the food. There’s a snack basket on the
counter with packets of chips, nuts, biscuits, processed and
packaged muffins, even some of those nut health bars. At the very
bottom is a menu with a price list and I chuckle to myself. It’s
like five dollars for a small packet of chips… that’s insane!

The mini bar
fridge has been powerless for some time but apart from the off milk
nothing else is perishable. It’s all chocolate and fizzy drink cans
and fancy spring water with a drop of flavour. There’s alcohol too;
mini bottles of vodka, bourbon, gin, and wine, but I leave all of
those.

I carry the
basket against my hip and head out into the hallway. Kean is
carrying his basket of food on his head, balancing it with one hand
and banging on room eight’s door with the other. “Party in
Trouble’s room!” he calls through the wood.

I head straight
over to room seven and knock on the door. It reminds me of normal
times when we had privacy and little spaces for ourselves, and when
we had to be polite and respectful and all that.

Trouble opens
the door and beckons me in. I dump the food basket on the floor and
sit next to it. A few seconds later Liss, Kean and Henry come in.
They sit around in a circle on the floor, and Trouble copies. Kean
pushes his food basket next to mine. “Dig in, everyone.”

I split open a
packet of roasted cashew nuts as everyone sifts through the
goodies. Liss is chewing on a health bar while Henry and Kean are
arguing over whether a Mars bar or Snickers bar is more
nutritionally appropriate for the apocalypse.

It’s not until
everyone is finally eating something that Trouble looks over the
basket carefully. He picks up a bag of salted peanuts and shakes it
next to his ear.

“So how far
away from this place are we, Florence?” Kean asks.

“Not far.”

“Hey, how come
you answer him?” Liss says. “You always growl at me when I
ask.”

“That’s because
you ask every five minutes.”

“Yeah and I
only ask every ten minutes,” Kean says, grinning. “Gives Florence a
bit of break.”

“Can’t we just
stay here?” Liss asks, popping open a can of Fanta.

“Not forever.”
I stare at the pile of cashews in my palm. “Maybe a night or
two.”

Liss
groans.

“It’s not far.
Probably two hours walk? So a short car trip. Just down that road,
and then up that way.” I point, but Kean is the only one paying
attention. Trouble is staring at the ceiling, Liss has one eye
closed and is staring into her Fanta can.

“Where are you
guys from?” I ask Kean.

“Camberwell.”

I arch an
eyebrow. “Rich boys?”

He smiles.
“There may be traces of private grammar school training, but we’ve
managed to shirk most of it. Especially Henry. You’re a savage now,
aren’t you, Henry?”

Henry makes a
thoughtful face. “If by savage you mean not savage in any way,
shape or form then… yes.”

Liss giggles
into her orange can.

“What were you
doing in Albanvale?” I ask. “It’s pretty far from Camberwell.”

“We were
staying with our Aunt… you know, running from the outbreak. It hit
the inner city suburbs so fast.”

“Where’s the
rest of your family?”

Kean frowns at
the floor. “We had so many people staying in the same house that
Henry and I were camping out in the garage. Infected people must
have gotten into the house one morning and it was chaos. So I
assume they’re either all infected or all dead. What about
yours?”

“I don’t know.
I came home from school one day and couldn’t find mum so I went to
find Liss. Dad never came home either… so I assume the same.”

“I wonder how
many people are left,” Henry says.

I shrug. “I
didn’t run into many.”

“We saw heaps,”
Liss corrects me. “We just didn’t stop.”

“Actually yeah,
we did see that big group, I guess. It was like twelve people.” I
look at Kean and shake my head. “They didn’t last long. Next day
they were the ones attacking us.”

“How’d you get
away?”

I scratch my
head, thinking. “We hid in wheely bins for that one.”

“Holy bleep,”
Henry says.

“It was
horrible.” Liss burps a tiny girly burp and smiles. “But that’s
when we met Trouble.”

“We met a fair
few…” Kean’s words trickle off.

“But,” Henry
continues for him, “everyone’s afraid of the kid in a
wheelchair.”

Kean laughs…
like really laughs and he shakes his head. “You should see them
run!”

“It’s like they
think I’m infected or something,” Henry says with his hands in the
air. “Like they’ll all catch the horrible wheelchair disease!” He
drops his arms again. “Honestly. People are so stupid.”

“Cheers to
that, brother.” Kean passes Henry a can of drink.

Henry opens it
and lemonade sprays in a whitewash all over his face. Kean falls
back laughing, tears streaming down his face. Henry sits with this
pretend stern look on his face, but his amusement shows through.
“Thanks a lot,” he says to Kean. “Now you’ll have to give me a
sponge bath.”

Kean cuts his
laughter short and sits up straight. “Damn it.”

“You never
think, do you?” Henry shakes his head and lemonade drops go flying
out. “As I said before, I’m definitely the brains of this
operation.”

“That makes me
the brawn then.” Kean waggles his eyebrows.

Henry screws up
his face in response and leans over. “That’s a bit hopeful,
brother.” He pours the rest of the can over Kean’s head and Kean
just sits there with a wide goofy smile and takes it; the liquid
rolls off his head and slides in rivers down his cheeks.

“Argh!” He
twists away and jumps up suddenly. “It’s going down my back!”

Liss is
watching so intensely it’s like a kid sitting in front of a Wiggles
DVD. Kean ducks into the bathroom and brings out a few towels. He
chucks one at Henry and it smacks into his face, wrapping itself
around his head.

“Sorry about
the mess, mate,” Kean says looking at Trouble. “We’ll clean it up,
don’t worry.”

Trouble just
nods and smiles his glittery smile.

Chapter
10

I’ve been
sitting on my side of the bed for some time now, just watching Liss
sleep in the darkness. I’ve left the balcony curtains open so the
moonlight can shine through.

Liss is
sandwiched between the crisp white sheets, perfectly still. The bed
is so good, like sleeping in a warm hug. I was in it before but I’m
so full from all the sugary salty crap we ate at dinner and I just
can’t seem to drift off.

Liss wants to
stay here, I know. She’s got friends and food, a room of her own
and a bed. But she doesn’t understand. These moments of peace are
always temporary. Everything is temporary in this world. Eventually
we’d run out of food, or make a mistake and attract the infected.
Eventually other survivors would want a piece of our serenity and
then we’d be challenging for leadership and all sorts of stupid
things people do when they get together in mass. I don’t want to be
part of a gang.