Arcadium (19 page)

“You want to
see something else?” he asks.

“Sure.” I
follow Adrian out and further down the corridor. “You’re not
supposed to know about this either but I don’t care. They don’t
come out here during work hours.”

We stop at a
door with another code box. I pretend to glance around but watch
out of the corner of my eye as he punches in his code. I actually
manage to catch the first three digits: four two six.

The passageway
beyond leads us to a dimly lit set of stairs. We go straight up and
hit another coded door. I can’t see anything over Adrian’s shoulder
this time but when he opens the door, light pours through. A warm
breeze sweeps over us and we step out onto the roof.

Chapter
16

“Oh my God,” I
say. “You can go outside?”

“Yeah,” Adrian
grins. “I can. The staff can. But you’re not supposed to.”

“Lucky me,” I
say, walking over to the side.

“Careful. You
go over the side and you have to go through decontamination
again.”

“And I’d
probably die.” The drop must be three or four stories straight down
onto the concrete. There’s also a fire escape ladder screwed into
the side of the building, leaving a drop of two or three metres to
the ground.

“Yeah,” he
laughs. “That too.”

Beyond the
building is a deserted car park. “The infected can’t get in
here?”

Adrian leans
his palms on the ledge. “See that fence over there with the barbed
wire on the top?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s
electrified. So yeah, this is a no go zone for infected
individuals.”

“What about
that one?” I point to the perimeter fence that leads onto the back
of some properties.

“Nah, we don’t
have any trouble from behind the houses. Just the main roads.”

I turn around
and look at the space. The rooftop is small with a few benches and
an ashtray half-filled with cigarette butts. “Where do they get
smokes from?”

“There’s a
vending machine in the scientist quarters but eventually it’ll run
out.”

I walk over to
the bench and sit down. “How do you feed this many people? Where do
you get the food from?”

“Um, all over
Melbourne there are secret bunkers with emergency supplies hidden
away. Things like tinned food, medical supplies, water and…”

I quirk an
eyebrow. “These nifty uniforms?”

Adrian looks up
and cracks a smile. “Yeah. Exactly. Hey, you hungry?”

I shrug.

He looks away,
tapping his foot against the leg of the bench. “Real food, I mean.
Not that slop you have to eat.”

I stare at the
ground for a moment. “How?”

Adrian just
grins and begins to back away. “You wait here. I’ll be ten
minutes.”

“Wait.” I stand
up suddenly. “What if someone comes out here?”

“Relax,” he
says over his shoulder. “They won’t. I’ll be back soon.”

The door closes
behind him with a small clank. I inhale the warm air and sit back
down. Even though it’s warm the sky is cloudy and the gradient of
darkness becomes bolder further toward the horizon. The breeze
blows over my face as I stare out at the unfolding weather.

Well, this day
is not at all what I’d expected. I thought I’d wander around for a
while, bored out of my brains, and then sleep for the rest of it.
Instead I feel like I’m backstage at a huge concert, being ushered
around, seeing things that aren’t for mortal eyes.

I’m pretty sure
Adrian is just looking for someone, anyone, to talk to and I’m just
riding the wave of his need for my own cause. For our own cause.
Suddenly I remember Kean and Trouble are on rubbish duties, and
Liss and Henry are sitting in their classroom. This thought makes
me wonder, what happens when Liss turns sixteen? What’s the best
she can hope for, rubbish duty? Some form of manual labour to keep
the facility running? What if she spends her best years grinding
away in useless jobs just for the safety of shelter and a bit of
bland food?

They may never
find a cure in her lifetime. And is that what I want for Liss? We
survived everything out there: the outbreak, hordes of infected
people, hunger and thirst and daily danger. Could I be happy if
this is all we become? Would it be worth it? And when I’m healed
and put on rubbish duty… that’s it?

The door opens
a crack and I whip my head over. It creeps open and Adrian backs
out holding a drinks tray and a paper bag.

“Miss me?” he
says.

I just smile
and eye the drinks.

“Coffee,” he
says, boosting the tray up. Adrian sits next to me, so close that
the white legs of our uniforms slide up against each other. He
doesn’t seem to notice but I scoot away giving myself more room,
because I definitely notice it. “Where’d you get coffee from?” I
ask.

Adrian passes
me the paper cup and I don’t feel anything straight away but soon
the warmth spreads through the bandages and reaches my hands.

“It’s like
rocket fuel for scientists,” he says, putting down his own cup and
riffling through the bag. “I didn’t know what you like so I grabbed
a few things… chicken pieces…” he says, pulling each listed item
out of the bag and placing it on the space I’ve made between us on
the bench. “Bread, butter, salad… oh, I brought juice as well, in
case you don’t like coffee. Sound good?”

“Sounds…
amazing.” I take a sip of the coffee; it’s hot and bitter. Coffee
used to be my staple breakfast, that and Vegemite on toast. I’d
almost forgotten taste. “How come you have chicken and bread and
vegetables?”

Adrian glances
up as he butters the bread. “We have chickens, and yeast and vege
gardens. The butter and yeast and stuff were part of the emergency
supply. It’s all refrigerated. And the chickens and veges… well,
they’re lab grown but perfectly safe to eat. Just grown with fake
sun.”

Adrian passes
me a chicken salad sandwich. I take a bite and look over at him.
“Oh my god,” I say, and little crumbs of bread shoot out, landing
on his own sandwich. I move to cover my mouth and mumble,
“Sorry.”

Adrian shrugs
and takes a bite. He looks out over the rooftops and trees to the
deep grey band on the horizon. “Storm’s coming,” he says.

Suddenly I miss
Liss and Kean and the others. I don’t know why, but the feeling
spreads through me like a cold chill. I’m not used to being alone,
or with unfamiliar company. The breeze picks up and whips the steam
off the top of my coffee. The dark grey band of cloud is extending
toward us like smoky claws.

“Can I ask you
something?” I say, resting the second half of my sandwich on my
knees.

Adrian’s
already finished his and he hangs his arm over the back of the
bench, sipping his coffee. “Sure.”

“Is your mum
here?”

“Ah…” Adrian
scratches his head for a while and finally stretches his shoulders
out. “Not here. I didn’t really know her, she left when I was
four.”

“Oh,
sorry.”

Adrian shrugs.
“I never knew her so… it’s not like a major loss or anything.”

We sit in
silence for a while, sipping on coffee, watching the skies grow
dark and tormented. When I finish my coffee I don’t have any room
for the rest of the sandwich and I’m thinking of ways to smuggle it
out for Liss.

“I’m kind of
tired,” I say, looking down at my hands. “I might go back and
rest.”

Adrian looks
over. “Will I see you tonight?” His eyes are shining and eager. He
leans forward and I feel myself leaning back a bit, trying to clear
the suspicion from my face.

“The labs,” he
says. “I’m going to take you on a tour, right?”

“Yeah, of
course.”

He nods and
straightens.

“Can I take the
rest of my sandwich?”

Adrian rolls
his tongue over his teeth as he makes his decision. “Just don’t let
anyone else see it, ok?”

I smile, big
and bold, and instantly it puts him at ease. “Can I take the juice
too?”

He glances down
at the full bottle. “You can’t let anyone see it. Not even your
friends. I don’t want to start a riot. And don’t chuck the bottle
away either. Give it to me tonight and I’ll get rid of it.”

“Ok. I’ll do
that.” I wrap up the sandwich in the paper bag and drop in the
juice. “I can let myself back in.”

“I’m coming
inside anyway. It’s depressing sitting out here alone. Besides I’ve
got stuff to do.”

Adrian walks me
back through the halls and doesn’t leave until I close the door to
my room. Yeah, that’s a little bit creepy but I guess if I had no
one and no purpose I’d go a bit crazy too.

I slide onto my
bed and lie back into the shadow cast by the bunk above. A
fluorescent tube flickers on the roof and makes a funny noise. I’m
not really tired enough to sleep; I just want to see the others as
soon as they come back.

After some
hours of staring at the door it swings open and Henry and Liss come
in.

“Hey,” I call
up to them.

Liss ducks down
and smiles. She wriggles in beside me.

“How was
school?” I ask.

“Ok,” Liss
says.

Henry pulls
himself up onto his bed. “It was a bit… I don’t know. Some of the
kids are weird.”

“Did you guys
make any friends?”

“Well… there
was this one boy Sam but…” Liss’ words trail off as she gently
prods the bandages on my hands.

“It’s not like
school at all,” Henry says. “We don’t do much. We draw or muck
about or do these stupid activity sheets.”

“Why can’t you
come to school with us?” Liss shuffles around to give me the full
weight of her stare.

“I’m too old.”
I shrug. “Hey, I got you guys something.”

They both lean
over as I pull out the half sandwich and bottle of juice. “You guys
want to share? It’s real chicken.”

Liss looks back
at Henry and they both go boggle-eyed. “No way! How’d you get
it?”

I break the
sandwich in half and hand them each a piece. “Hey, I have
connections, but don’t tell anyone or we might not get
anymore.”

It goes quiet
for a few moments as they munch away. I crank open the juice bottle
and hand it over. They share the juice, passing it back and forth.
It’s nice to watch them sharing because I imagine it’s one of those
qualities that not many people have anymore. It kind of makes me
feel proud.

Liss licks
every last morsel from her fingers.

“Feel better?”
I ask.

She nods. Liss
and Henry sip on the juice for a while, both trying to make sure
the other gets the very last bit. It’s like some kind of backward
game where the looser is really the winner. Finally Liss groans in
defeat and drinks the last drop. I put the bottle back into the
paper bag just as Kean and Trouble come through the door.

We all look
up.

“How was it?” I
ask.

They both look
tired. Kean ruffles his hair and sits down next to Henry. Trouble
slides his back down the door and sits cross-legged on the concrete
floor. No one says anything but the mood changes almost instantly,
like a wind snuffing out our flame.

I glance
between Kean and Trouble but neither seems to want to make eye
contact with me. “Is it bad?”

Finally Kean
sighs. “Can anyone say slave driver?”

I feel my brow
furrow. “Really?”

He looks down
at me. “There are only so many bins to clear, right? So when we’re
done it’s like they feel compelled to keep us busy or we might
start a riot. We just do the same thing over and over again.
Sorting rubbish into piles, into boxes and bags. For no apparent
reason. And, oh my God, the smell.” Kean pinches his nose and
Trouble nods along in agreement. “If they had whips, I’m sure
they’d use them. I swear I could have punched the main guy, Arnold;
he was up in Trouble’s face the whole time, speaking slow and loud.
It was embarrassing.”

“You think
Trouble knows what the guy was saying?”

“How could he
not? The body language alone…” Kean rubs his hands on his knees.
“Anyway, how was school?”

“Not much
better,” I say.

Henry flicks
Kean on the shoulder. “Activity sheets! What am I, five?”

Kean gives me a
long hard stare, like he wants to say more but can’t. “Should we
head to dinner then?”

“Yeah, before
we miss it.”

Chapter
17

Dinner is
tinned mushrooms and a handful of rice. If it wasn’t for the salt
and pepper the meal would have no taste at all, like eating
textured air.

“Cardboard
probably has more nutrients than this crap,” Kean says, spearing a
droopy mushroom on his fork.

Every one eats
slowly, picking over the food like there might be something extra
hiding under the rice or disguised in the mushrooms. The morale at
our table is pretty low, like everyone has suddenly flat-lined.

Kean is sitting
across from me so I kick him gently under the table and look away.
He stares at me for a moment and a few seconds later I get the
response I’m after. He steps on my toes, pretending to squish them
and I stifle my smile. “As if I don’t have enough injuries,” I say
under my breath.

Kean tips his
head back, pushes away his empty plate and releases the pressure on
my toes, but he does leave his shoe overlapping mine beneath the
table. “And how was your day?”

I shrug with
one shoulder. “I have a few things to show you.”

Kean arches one
eyebrow and the other soon follows. “Interesting. You
finished?”

I roll my eyes.
“Not
that
kind of interesting.”

“Well, I’ve
been staring at rubbish all day so pretty much anything’s going to
be better.” Kean stands up and leans forward on the table. “We’ll
meet you guys back in the room later.”

Kean and I take
our trays to the rubbish trolley and I hear Henry in the background
saying, “There they go again, running off into the sunset.”