Arcadium (2 page)

I glance over
both shoulders. “Yep. Just stay at the top until I give you the all
clear, yeah?”

For all her
visible frailness Liss is actually pretty decent at climbing. She
scales the three-meter fence with no problem and straddles the top.
“Kay, I’m good,” she calls down to me.

Liss holds on
as I climb, wobbling the fence back and forth. When I reach the top
I realise we’ve got a pretty good view of the estate from here. The
buildings on the left are just frames but the ones on the right
have roofs and walls and hopefully lockable doors… not like the
infected can work out how to turn door knobs, but normal people can
be just as threatening.

“What do you
think?” Liss asks. The breeze plays with her loose hair.

I point to the
far corner. “I say we walk around to that far side and find
shelter. It looks quiet.”

Liss nods. “No
blood.”

“No blood,” I
agree. That’s a good sign. If the infected were in here they’d be
trailing blood everywhere. “We’ll hole up in one of those houses. I
bet that portable office will have food.”

Liss nods and
begins to climb down. I’m about to follow but I hear something and
freeze. Liss looks up and pauses, clinging to the mid section of
the fence.

I search for
visual clues but can’t see anything strange. The noise is subtle
and slowly growing louder: sweeping sounds like jeans scraping
along the bitumen. I glance around but can’t see the source so I
wave at Liss to keep going. I pause a moment longer, feeling an
ominous chill spread through my bones.

The sound is on
the other side of the fence, somewhere down the road we just came
off. Scraping and scratching and shuffling and moving, heading in
our general direction. It’s a sound I’ve heard many times before.
Infected people are coming.

Liss is
watching me carefully as I step down. “What is it?”

“Nothing
probably.” My hand lingers on the fence. “Have you still got your
iPod?”

Liss nods.

“Why don’t you
put it on?”

She stares at
me for a second and then does a scan of the road before pulling it
out of her bag.

“What are you
listening to?” I put my hands on her shoulders and walk behind
her.

Liss puts the
buds in her ears, presses play and pauses it again. “Michael
Jackson. Thriller.”

I smile and
shake my head. “How ironic.”

Liss presses
play and I can just hear the tinny tune coming out of the
headphones.

A scream rips
though the naked air. Liss hears it too and looks around.

A man, maybe
late twenties, comes tearing out of nowhere, running toward us on
the other side of the fence.

His eyes lock
onto mine and widen. “Help me, please!” he screams. He’s frantic,
barefoot and there’s blood on his arm. Even if he weren’t possibly
infected I still wouldn’t help him. My only priority is Liss.

He smashes his
whole body against the chain link fence making it wobble and clang.
Bad move buddy. Noise is the infected people’s second favourite
thing.

Liss looks from
the man to me. I place my hand over her ears, point her head in the
direction I want to go and we keep moving. There are no deviations
from the plan, we’re walking along the fence line the whole way,
even if we have a crazy man shouting at us.

“Hey!” The man
bangs the fence with his palms and tries to get me to look at him.
I mean, really? Here’s a grown man asking a sixteen-year-old girl
and her kid sister to help him. I press my lips together and keep
on going, trying to ignore his stupidity. I do want to say
something helpful like
just climb the damned fence
or
run!
These are two fantastic pieces of advice in any
apocalyptic situation. But I never ever talk to strangers now, it’s
just too dangerous. One word is enough to form a bond, and I can’t
have anyone hanging off us. Everyone just wants someone to look
after them so that when things go wrong they can blame someone
else.

I stare
straight ahead and from the corner of my eye I see them coming. The
man is jogging alongside the fence, following us and rattling the
chain links with his back to the road. The infected zero in on him
like grains in an hourglass rushing toward one tiny gap.

I move my right
hand forward so it acts as a blinker for Liss. It’s about to get
very ugly for this man with no apparent running or climbing skills.
I’ve seen it before but I don’t want Liss to see.

There are eight
infected people, running wildly towards him, arms outstretched and
mouths gaping. The infection seems to suck all the pigment from
their skin and renders them pale white. Not like sexy vampire pale,
mind you, more like a weary faded fabric worn to its last threads.
And they’re so gross with dirty flesh tendrils hanging from their
teeth, beards of dried blood and fingers scratched down to bones. A
few are missing arms or great chunks of flesh and one even has a
giant hole in his stomach, through and through.

Common sense
says all of them should be dead, but nothing seems to stop them
once they’re riddled with the disease, that is except for killing
off their last driving engine: the good old brain.

The man doesn’t
even turn around when they reach him. He just keeps trying to catch
my evading eyes. The infected slam him up against the fence and
loose control. I concentrate on looking ahead, steadying my breath
and steering Liss.

The man
screams, lips pressed against the wired diamonds of the fence. It’s
soon accompanied by the porous sound of tearing flesh. Not a great
sound. Not something anyone ever really wants to hear.

The infected
are probably tearing him limb from limb and feasting on his insides
now. The screaming becomes wet gurgling and I can’t help it. I
actually look down at him. He raises his twitching hand, reaching
for me through the throng of bodies gnawing at him. All I can think
is
should have jumped the fence, mate
. And if he had he
would have been fine.

I snap my head
away and focus on what’s in front of us. It’s every man, woman and
child for themselves now.

The infected
aren’t interested in following us since they have an easy feed at
their feet and we kept on walking, slowly, slowly, so we don’t
attract any unnecessary attention. Nobody ever notices the person
calming walking but we all notice the person running like a
madman.

At the end of
the housing estate I can’t hear the gross moans and gargling sounds
anymore so I drop my hands and tap Liss on the shoulder. When she
turns around I mimic pulling invisible earphone from my ears. She
stops and puts the iPod away.

“Should we get
some food?” I ask.

She gives a
tiny nod.

After my
appetiser of human grossness, I’m not at all hungry but food is
strength and we always need to be stronger.

I decided to
scope out a house first. Just to be safe I leave Liss in an
overgrown bush and head over to investigate.

I suppose this
is where a weapon would come in handy but my kid sister, who looks
up to me, is watching. Even now, I feel a responsibility to set
some kind of example for her because if I can get her through this
damned outbreak without grizzly memories of me chopping people up
and what not, then Liss might actually stand a chance to grow up to
be a normal person. Besides do I look like a samurai? I don’t know
how to use weapons… wielding one probably puts me in more danger
than it does any infected person. And in my experience, running and
hiding is far more effective than roaming around like Rambo.

I step through
the empty garden and peer in the front window. Inside it’s empty,
the walls aren’t even painted yet. I try the front door and it
swings open. A musty smell lingers but it’s silent within. I move
from room to room, checking every space a person might be able to
fit before deciding it’s safe enough for Liss. I check the kitchen
cupboards too but they’re empty. Figures.

The garage is
just brick and concrete and only enough room for one small car, so
it seems like a good spot to hole up for the night. From what I can
see there are three exits: the roller door, the door leading into
the house and the roof cavity (the ceiling boards aren’t in place
yet so we could get up there if needed). Perfect.

I lift the
roller door a crack and listen before lifting it higher and sliding
out. After a slow and careful scan I head over to Liss.

“It’s good,” I
say. “We’ll stay here tonight but first we need food.”

“What do you
think builders eat?” Liss asks as we wander over to the portable
office.

“I don’t know.
Snacky things, I suppose.” I stand on my tiptoes and peer in
through the window. I have to cup my hands against the glass
because of the late afternoon glare.

“All clear?”
Liss asks, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

I look down at
her. “I’ll go first.”

The screen door
and main door are both unlocked, which isn’t that strange I
suppose. When the outbreak really took hold people just upped and
left in such a hurry that locking doors wasn’t a priority. Looting
never even got to be a huge problem because people on the streets
just got infected so quickly. I sometimes wonder how many normal
people there are left.

Inside the
metal cube it’s stonking hot and smells like sweat. There’s a desk
full of paper, a phone that won’t work now, a couch and a vending
machine. Jackpot.

I wander over
and touch the glass. “Find me something to break it with?” I say to
Liss’ reflection.

Liss puts her
hands on her hips and surveys the room. “The chair maybe?”

“Do I look like
the hulk?” I’ve already worked out what I’m going to use but I want
her to be able to figure it out on her own too.

She looks back.
“Umm.”

“Quick. Think.
Before we die from heatstroke.”

Liss narrows
her eyes. “That thing.” She points to the fire alarm where a
glass-breaking hammer hangs.

“Yeah.” I nod.
“That’ll work.”

Liss hands it
to me and stands back. I take my leather jacket from my bag, wrap
it around my hand and slam the hammer against the glass. The glass
cracks and a shower of shards fall to the floor and I shake out my
jacket. “Ok, what’ll it be?”

Liss Grins.
“One of everything.”

“Two of
everything it is.” I start pulling out chips and chocolate bars and
using my jacket as a sack, I stuff it full. “You want to check the
desk draws, see if there’s anything interesting?”

I hear her go
through each draw. “Paper… stationary… gum…”

“I like gum.
Take it.”

“Keys… asthma
inhaler thingy… Panadol…”

“Panadol, I
guess. That’s enough, leave the rest. But grab those couch
cushions. We should hole up before it gets dark.”

I used to think
night time was cool. At my friend’s (parent free) parties, we used
to run around the dark streets, totally free, running amuck. Drunk
of course, which probably made it feel all the more epic. But you
wouldn’t catch me doing that now. The infected don’t sleep and they
can sneak pretty well. I just can’t risk moving in the dark.

The roller door
locks from inside which is super handy but I leave the house door
unlocked in case we need to leave in a hurry. Liss has her
M&M’s spread across the floor. She slowly sorts them into
colour order.

“Can you sort
mine too?” I say.

Liss nods but
doesn’t look up, just grabs my pack, tears it open and starts
sorting. I’m eating salt and vinegar chips, trying to eat them
quietly if that’s at all possible because each damned crunch sounds
loud enough to attract the dead. The couch cushions are positioned
on the ground, right next to the brick wall. Liss always sleeps
with her back to the wall and I sleep on the other side of her so I
get the bad guys first.

We’ve made ok
progress today, I mean it’s not like we’re up against the clock or
anything. The place we’re heading too, I don’t want to say where in
case I jinx it, will still be there in two days or two months. One
thing’s for sure: I want to bypass the city ASAP. It’s too dense,
too concentrated with infected and it totally creeps me out. I
don’t know this side of town so well but if I can get Liss to the
South Eastern Suburbs, we’ll have a better chance. That side of
town I know.

Chapter 2

Today we have
to find water. I think there’s a service station somewhere down the
road. It’s always risky going into places like that, and they’re
almost always cleaned out anyway, but it’s worth a try because
without water in this heat we’ll just die.

We each have a
melted Snickers bar for breakfast, since I figure peanuts are
probably the healthiest ingredient we have here… or maybe it’s
potatoes from the chips. But really that’s a tough call.

“Ready?” I
ask.

Liss licks the
chocolate off her fingers and seems pleased. I used to love
chocolate but eating it all the time kind of grinds especially
since I can actually feel the sugar crash now. Ugh.

I open the
roller door a crack and lie on the floor, peering out. When I’m
happy, I lift it just enough so I can crawl out and survey the
area. It’s all clear so I beckon for Liss.

I can feel the
heat already, it’s going to be one of those days: those sweaty,
uncomfortable, fatiguing days. We’ll need water very soon.

We scale the
fence and drop down quietly. There are definitely infected in the
area, I mean we did just see a bunch yesterday… but aside from that
they’re always out there, even if you can’t see them. They might be
stuck in a house, or behind a fence… or in a service station, and I
bet they see us, even though they may not be able to get to us.

“How far to go
now?” Liss is wearing her oversized aviator sunnies. I can see my
reflection and it looks pretty scary. Greasy brown hair pulled back
into a bun that I haven’t taken out all week, tired eyes and dry
lips. I look away.