Arcadium (12 page)

I slide off the
bed and step out onto the balcony. The air is cool and calm, but
it’s weird looking out and seeing perfect black. The traffic lights
and street lamps were the first to go. People used to say machines
were totally superior because they can do amazing things like
calculating crazy sums and shoot us into space and allow us talk to
anyone in the world at any time. But they’re all dead now and those
luxuries are all gone. They serve no purpose. It’s like machines
have been made extinct. But not us, we’re still here, somehow.

I miss the
glitter of city lights on the horizon. No matter how dark the night
was there’d always be this grey cloud of light and you’d just know
people were awake and alive, somewhere out there. At least the moon
is glowing bright tonight.

“Hey.”

I look over at
the voice. Kean is sitting on his balcony, facing towards me, with
his legs slotted through the thin wooden beams of the hand railing.
His cheek is pressed against the wood.

I sit in front
of him, sliding my feet through the barricade and let my legs
dangle in the space between our two balconies. I grip the wood
beams and they remind me of jail cell bars. Not that I’ve been in
jail, but you know what I mean.

“What are you
doing?” Kean says.

“Can’t sleep.
You?”

His skin looks
pale and smooth under the moonlight. He smiles. “Henry snores. Do
you realise how impractical that is in the apocalypse?”

“I can
imagine.” I wiggle my bare toes and look down onto the street. I’m
not exactly being chatty but Kean is picking up the slack for
me.

“I never
thought I’d see the end of the world though,” he says.

I lean my
forehead against the slats. “It’s not really the end.”

“What is it
then?”

“Um… I don’t
know. Just different.” I shrug. “Some of us are still alive, so
it’s not the end.”

“That was
deep,” Kean says with a laugh. “Very profound.”

“Shut up,” I
say, trying to keep a straight face but I know he sees my
smile.

“These are such
philosophical times.”

I blink into
the darkness. “How old are you?”

He stares at me
for a moment then reaches into his pocket. He passes me a little
square of plastic.

The image of
his face stares out from the shiny card. When I move it, a hologram
imprint jumps out in the moonlight. “Really? You carry your
learner’s license?”

He shrugs. “I
don’t want to die a John Doe.”

I look back at
the card. His birthday is ten days before mine. He’s seventeen…
probably almost eighteen. But then again I’m probably almost
seventeen. “Kean Kinley?”

He grins. “Try
saying that ten times fast.”

I hand the card
back.

“Can you
drive?” he asks.

I shake my
head. “I was booked in for my learner’s test though. The Saturday
after the outbreak.”

“That’s bad
luck.”

I shrug. “It’s
not like anyone cares now.”

“I do. I care.
I will take you down for unlicensed driving and perform a citizen’s
arrest if I have to. I’m watching you.”

I laugh
quietly, but I think it sounds like some weird cough. I stare at
the moon until I get a huge white spot in my vision. When I look
back at Kean the spot makes him look like he’s got no face.

“What’s the
plan for tomorrow?” he asks.

“Stay another
night, I guess. Liss likes it here.”

“We’re only
missing an open restaurant and working showers and then it would be
like paradise.”

“I haven’t had
a shower in so long.” I narrow my eyes suddenly. “I shouldn’t tell
you that.”

Kean laughs.
“And you think I bathe regularly? I bet we smell worse than the
infected.”

“As long as I
can’t smell me I’m happy.” I scratch my nose. “I want to go over to
the shopping centre tomorrow morning.”

“Does it have
ramps?”

I shake my
head. “Just me.”

“Oh, what
for?”

“Bookstore.”

Kean nods
slowly. “Mind if I come?”

When I don’t
say anything Kean adds, “I’m only being polite when I ask. You
can’t stop me from following.”

“In that case…
sure why not. You can be Liss for a morning.”

“Do we get to
hold hands?” Kean grins at me.

“We’re not as
close as you guys.”

His smile
fades. “Could have fooled me.”

“We didn’t even
like each other before the outbreak, but then we didn’t really see
each other. Our parents were divorced and Liss and I each lived
with one, then swapped for weekends.”

“What were your
parents like?”

“I don’t know…
they were my parents.” I shrug. “Nice… good people and all, they
just used to fight a lot. What about yours?”

Kean’s eyebrows
go skyward as he speaks. “My mum? She was amazing. Henry’s so much
like her. I think dad was just in awe of her the whole time. I’m
more like dad, I guess.” Kean scratches his neck. “Sometimes I
forget they didn’t make it and expect to see them at any moment. I
mean, sometimes I wonder how Henry and I made it this far.” He
grins for a brief moment. “I know it looks like I’m the one keeping
Henry alive but I swear it’s really the other way round. He can’t
even walk and he’s still just… cool with it all. He has this
unbreakable spirit, always has. I feel like a bad brother sometimes
for getting down about everything…”

“I feel like a
bad sister all the time,” I say. “Sometimes I wish an adult would
just take over and then I wouldn’t have to be responsible for
everything anymore. It’s exhausting trying to stay alive.”

“I know,
right?”

I rub my eyes.
“I should get some sleep. See you at… first light. What’s that like
six-ish?”

Kean nods and
watches me as I go back inside.

Chapter
11

My watch alarm
goes off at six am. I haven’t used it in so long I’d almost
forgotten what it sounded like.

Next to me Liss
stirs, eventually she rolls over and blinks at me. “Go back to
sleep,” I say. “I’ve just got some things to do.”

“You won’t be
far?” she says closing her eyes again.

“I never
am.”

She rolls over
again and snuggles into the blankets. I take the cans out of my
backpack and leave them on the floor.

When I step out
onto the balcony Kean is leaning on the railing, watching the red
sunrise over the city skyline. He looks over. “Want me to carry
your bag?”

I narrow my
eyes. “Get your own backpack.”

Kean gives me a
half smile. “Maybe I will. And maybe I’ll get matching Doc Martins
too.”

I shoulder my
bag, forcing my crease of a smile away. “You couldn’t pull off this
look.”

“Not like you
two.” Kean straightens. “So, how’s this going to work?”

“If you climb
over here, there’s a tree at the end we can go down.”

Kean climbs
over the railing and jumps over the small gap to my balcony. I only
pause for a second before climbing down the tree. It’s only the
first floor and not much of a drop, but Liss is always somewhere in
the back of my mind.

When I’m on the
ground I wait for Kean. It’s weird; I don’t really feel paranoid
like I normally do at ground level. Usually my imagination is
dreaming up infected people to jump out at me, but it’s pretty
quiet in my head.

“I hope you
know the way,” Kean says, dusting off his hands.

“This is my
side of town.” I grin. “Follow me.”

We’re not far.
It’s maybe a five-minute walk straight down the middle of the
Dandenong Road. We stay quiet, walking along in near dead silence
so we don’t get noticed. The highway curves around and a gigantic
pale peach building comes into view.

“Whoa,” Kean
says under his breath.

The car parks
are huge and mostly deserted; it’s like a graveyard for roads.

“There’ll be
creepies in there for sure,” Kean says as we cross over the edge of
the car park and move toward the back entrance.

“Aren’t they
everywhere?”

Kean does a
slow three-sixty spin, checking the area. “How are we going to get
in?”

I point. “The
doors probably.”

Kean arches an
eyebrow. “Looks dark.”

“We’ll stick to
the top floor, it’s got skylights.”

He nods.

The automatic
doors are stuck shut but the push door next to it is unlocked. This
whole entrance is pretty much a wall of glass, doors included, so
we can see straight in.

I go through
first. It’s so quiet in the huge cavern of space I can almost hear
the air shifting from our presence, like we’re spoons stirring a
coffee.

Kean steps in
and closes the door quietly. He looks up and around.

We’re already
on the top level. Soft morning light drifts in from the glass
ceiling. It’s a bit shadowy and grey but it’s easy enough to
see.

There’s a patch
of blood on the pale marbled tiles, with clear footprints leading
out of it, growing weaker and weaker along the floor until they
disappear altogether.

“That’s
ominous,” Kean whispers.

We round the
corner and see the full extent of damage. The shops have been
broken into; merchandise is scattered over a carpet of broken
glass. There are handprints of blood along the gold railing but no
bodies anywhere.

“Man, some
craziness must have gone down here,” Kean says in a low voice.

In the
unsettling mess I begin to wonder if this is a smart idea. But it
feels really important so I trust my gut instinct and push on.

“This way.” I
move through a clear path and look into each of the dark shop’s
windows. Kean walks behind me.

There are
clothing stores, shoe shops, a Darrel Lea chocolate shop that’s
been gutted. And then I see the bookstore.

The security
roller door is down but it doesn’t matter. The front window has
been smashed in.

I step through,
the glass crunching and squealing under my feet. It’s dark in here,
away from the reach of the skylight. Kean steps up next to me.
“They would have heard us already if there were creepies in here.”
He walks over to the front counter. “Besides I doubt their appetite
extends to reading.”

I double check
over in both directions and follow him in. Inside the shop it’s
eerily quiet. Kean is looking at the little things on the counter.
I step over a stack of fallen books and search for the travel
section.

“Florence…”
Kean whispers.

“What?” I
whisper back, looking over the books in front of me.

“What are we
looking for?”

“I’ve found
it.”

I touch the
wall of books, running my fingers over the spines. I have to squint
and lean in to see in the half dark.

Suddenly a
light blasts me from the side and I swear my heart just about
explodes.

Kean lowers the
beam. “Display book-light,” he says with an apologetic smile.

I shake my head
and pull out a Chinese language guide from the shelf. Kean hovers
the light over it and I flick through the pages. “That’s going to
be great if you want to ask him where the nearest train station is
or how to order coffee,” Kean says.

“Mmm.” He’s
right. It’s not great. It’s more for people that are actually in
China.

“Try the
language section. Like a Chinese-English dictionary.”

I squint over
at him through the bright light. “I thought you were just the
brawn.”

Kean aims the
light away. “What can I say? I’m misunderstood.”

We move down
the isle and he shines the light over the books. “Here.”

I pick out the
pocket edition and flip through. The words are tiny. I take off my
backpack, and shove a few different Chinese-English dictionaries
into my bag. I hang it over my shoulder but leave it open.

“You read
much?” Kean says sweeping the light behind us.

A crunch sounds
at the window and we both look over. Kean switches off the light
straight away. The silhouette of an infected person is standing in
the jagged window opening. It steps in and looks around.

Just my
luck.

“I think this
would be my turn.” Kean grins and then winks at me. “I’ve got this
one,” he whispers.

I don’t know if
his smile is a weird fear response or just him going mad but it
looks really creepy, kind of like the guy from the shining when
he’s bashing through the bathroom door.

I zip up my bag
slowly, keeping my eyes on the infected person, and slip the strap
over my other shoulder. The dictionary corners poke against my back
as I stand perfectly still in the dark. The infected people can’t
see any better than us so I’m hidden for the moment.

Suddenly the
light flashes up in the next isle over. “Here, creepy, creepy,”
Kean’s sing-songy voice calls.

Ok, so Kean has
gone insane. Literally.

The infected
person goes straight for the light and sound, kicking through the
fallen pile of books. And Kean comes running back around into my
isle, light off. “Go!”

I bolt for the
door, sliding through the debris. We burst back out into the grey
light and when I glance over my shoulder I see Kean has
stopped.

I spin. He’s
doubled over clutching his stomach.

Panic seizes my
insides but when he looks up, he’s laughing.

“What are you
doing?” I call in the lowest possible voice.

Kean starts
laughing out loud, the sound echoing down the long walkways.

“Are you
insane?”

“Wait.” He
stands up still smiling. “Wait for me. I’m sorry but you should
have seen the look on your face. So serious!”

“This
is
serious!”

Kean looks over
as the infected person tries to climb out the window. It’s in such
a frenzy it slips in all the mess and wriggles back to its
feet.

“Hey there,
clumsy.”

“Kean!
Move!”