Arcadium (6 page)

“Don’t I
always?”

Liss hands me a
tin of sliced pears and she has some alphabet spaghetti. I pack
away the rest of the tins into my backpack, discarding the dog
food.

“Lets keep
going. We can eat and walk.”

We peer out
into the road and when we know it’s all clear we stick to the fence
line and carry on.

You’d think
there’d be loads of jump moments like that in an apocalypse but
it’s more strung out tension and your imagination making up things.
I hate being on the streets right now after such a close encounter,
something in me just thinks the infected are around every corner,
always seconds from jumping out at me. Moving is the best thing I
can do right now.

“Hey, look.”
Liss uses her spoon to point. “It’s Trouble.”

I look over and
thankfully it’s not more infected, just the Chinese man we seem to
be calling Trouble. He’s a few houses down in a front yard doing
pull ups on a tree branch.

When he sees us
his face brightens and he starts doing the pulls ups one handed so
he can wave.

“Show off,” I
say under my breath.

He comes out to
us and does this kind of bow greeting. I don’t know a word of
Chinese. I can’t even remember how to say hello so I just nod. He
points in the direction we’re going.

“Yep, that’s
where we’re going.”

He nods and
steps out onto the footpath.

“Hi, Trouble,”
Liss says.

Trouble gives
her a thumbs-up.

“Ok, well bye,”
I say.

Liss and I keep
walking. And Trouble walks in the same direction. He jogs a few
steps to catch up.

“Ok,” I say.
“Guess we’re going the same way.”

“Is he with us
now, Florence?”

“No. We’re just
heading in the same direction.”

“Oh.” She
shovels a spoon of pasta letters into her mouth. “Flo, how many
pull ups can you do?”

I stare
straight ahead and forget to answer. Oh, the joys of having a
little sister.

It’s weird
walking with someone else, let alone someone whose English
vocabulary starts and ends with the word trouble. Still if you only
know one word in these times it might as well be that one.

Chapter 5

The road ahead
is scattered with abandoned vehicles. There’s a huge unmarked truck
on its side, a trail slide marks gouged deep into the bitumen. The
truck has ended up knocking into a huge billboard that’s now
shattered all over the road. There’s a lot of rubbish floating
around: chocolate wrappers, newspaper pages, plastic bags and stuff
like that.

We have to pick
our way around the cars. Up ahead another truck has been split in
two by a bus and sports gear spills into the middle of the road
like a strange sort of art piece. Trouble jogs over to it. Liss and
I watch him go but we keep moving. We’re not a team, we’re all just
heading in the same direction and so far he hasn’t asked for
anything so… I’ll allow him to follow us for now.

Trouble comes
back with a baseball bat. He lifts it up to show us, and as we’re
walking he swings the bat and makes a visor with his hand,
pretending to watch his imaginary ball fly.

Liss giggles. I
haven’t heard that sound in… forever. I look back at Trouble. It’s
like the glittering smile never leaves his face and he’s just
casually strolling through a messed up world, somehow unaffected.
Can people be that strong?

We’re about to
cross under the freeway. The off-ramp is really narrow so I’m
steering us in the direction of the on-ramp. I finish my can of
sliced pears, juice and all, and leave the tin on top of a car.

Liss tugs on my
arm. “I need to pee.”

“Yeah me too.
You know the drill.”

Liss glances at
Trouble.

“Oh. Right,” I
say.

Trouble stops
and turns around, the baseball bat slung over his shoulder. He
raises his eyebrows as if to say
what’s up?

This is going
to be interesting. “Ah… we need to go to the toilet.”

A crease forms
in his brow.

“Ok,” I say,
pointing ahead. “You go on. We’ll find you.” I tap my watch. “In
one minute.” I hold up my index finger.

Liss is
frowning, her head tipped like she’s contemplating a solution. “It
sounds like you want to play hide and seek with him,” she says.

“Well, I don’t
know.” I slap my hands against my thighs. “I’m trying.”

Trouble glances
between us.

“We. Need. To.
Pee.” Liss says very slowly, enunciating every word clearly.

“Liss, he’s not
slow.”

“I know that,”
she hisses back.

“Have you got
any chalk left?”

Liss rummages
in her bag and pulls out a stick. I take it and start drawing on
the pavement.

Liss and
Trouble look at it sideways. “What is that?” Liss finally says.

I glare up at
her. “A toilet, obviously.”

“It looks like
a planet. Like Saturn.”

“Fine.” I give
her the chalk. “You draw a toilet then.”

Liss scribbles
something and when she’s done I point to both of us, and then the
drawing.

Trouble blinks
and then nods enthusiastically. He points to his chest and points
away.

“Yes.” I nod.
Man, this communication thing really keeps you on your toes.

Trouble keeps
walking on, slowly, and Liss and I duck behind a car.

When we catch
back up to Trouble I steer us onto the on-ramp. Here the cars are
jammed in so tight we have to clamber over them. I go first,
picking out a path that keeps us away from the visible dead rotting
bodies in cars. I don’t want Liss to see that kind of stuff if it
can be avoided.

The on-ramp is
long and flowing and closer to the freeway it clears up. The
freeway is huge, five lanes across on either side, separated by a
double tensioned wire fence with thick metal posts. We stick to the
concrete wall on the left and walk towards the city.

I stay in front
and keep an eye out for movement, always making sure I’ve got a
plan if something were to jump out right now. Behind I can hear
Liss talking to Trouble. He seems very interested in the
conversation, always smiling and nodding and making agreeable
noises, even though he doesn’t understand a word.

I sling my bag
around the front and rummage through looking for the Chupa Chups. I
pick out a strawberry-and-cream one and hold out the bag to Liss.
We stop while she fusses over the flavours.

“Which one do
you want, Trouble?” she asks.

“Liss.”

“What? Why
can’t he have one? It’s just a lollypop and we have heaps more in
there.”

She’s right. We
do have more… but I can’t have him becoming reliant on us… even if
he seems to be a cheery tag along bodyguard for the moment. And I
don’t remember Liss being this generous in normal times.

“Fine.” I turn
the bag to Trouble. “Want one?”

He looks from
the bag to me and then does this long bow.

“It’s just a
lollypop,” I say, shaking the bag in his direction.

He takes one
and I put the rest away.

It’s colder
today, the ground is dark from the rain and I’m able to wear my
jacket without boiling to death. The sky above is thick with clouds
but it’s still rather glary. I watch the abandoned cars as we pass
and wonder where all these people went. Were they infected, now
roaming in packs looking for a feed?

On the other
side of the road are huge factories, all quiet now. The big grey
tin buildings loom over rough grassy expanses. On our side is one
of those noise blocking concrete walls with a strip of bright green
plastic at the top.

I see movement
up ahead so I drop down behind a car and signal to Liss. She stops
and crouches. Thankfully Trouble copies, albeit looking incredibly
confused. He seems to only have two expressions: super happy or
super confused.

I give Liss the
quiet sign and we peer up through the car windows. On the other
side three infected people lumber along, heading in the opposite
direction. I look back at Trouble to see what his reaction is but
he’s just watching quietly, baseball bat sitting loosely in his
hand. All we can do is wait until they pass.

It makes me
wonder where exactly these infected people are going. They’re dead
right? There’s no food in sight… so what drives them? Are they like
little heat seeking missiles that can’t stop until they find a
target?

They pass our
point and when their backs are to us I signal to Liss: single file
and follow me.

I keep low this
time, in case there are more. We creep along the concrete in
silence. To my surprise Trouble just copies us perfectly. He hasn’t
done anything crazy or reckless yet and I kind of just wish he
would already, so we can get over whatever this little thing is,
this teaming up buddy-buddy thing. Sooner or later everyone lets
you down. I’d rather it be sooner in this case.

My back is
aching after two hours of crouch walking. We haven’t seen any more
infected people so I stand up straight. My spine cracks and I
stretch my shoulders. Liss starts talking at Trouble again.

At six o’clock
I stop walking and stare at the orange sun. It’ll start getting
dark at seven so if we find a car to sleep in then we can have
dinner and be tucked away nice and safe by nightfall. Liss stands
next to me. “Which one?” she asks.

The ones on the
edge are more favourable for a good getaway if we need to escape. I
wander up to a blue… something… I’m not really a car person and I
don’t recognise the badges on this one. But it’s big and roomy and
free of dead bodies so I open the doors on our side to air it out.
“What do you think?” I say. “Home away from home?”

Liss nods her
approval. “I’m hungry.” She takes off her backpack and sits
cross-legged on the side of the road. Trouble sits down too and I
take off my backpack. Just before I sit down I realise I’m about to
complete this mini circle and it feels like I’m back at high school
sitting with friends in the yard. I pull out the plastic bag of
tins and Liss begins to pick them out.

“What do you
want, Flo?”

I look over and
pass her the can opener. “Um… I’ll have the… ooh, baked beans with
mini sausages.”

“What would you
like, Trouble?”

“Liss…”

Liss gives me a
stern look. “He needs to eat too. It’s not like we paid for this
stuff.”

I glare back
thinking I almost paid with my life, but what the hell. I lift my
hands in defeat. “Whatever.”

“Ravioli?
Peas?”

“Give him the
peas.”

“Good choice.
And I’ll have the corn.”

Liss sets about
opening all the cans. She hands Trouble the peas first but he looks
shocked and shakes his head. He points at Liss.

“This is mine
and that’s Flo’s.” She points at him. “This is for you.”

Trouble looks
over at me as if for permission so I nod.

Reluctantly he
takes the peas but when the can is in his hand he starts smiling
and bowing and nodding like there aren’t enough movements he can do
to thank us.

Liss giggles at
him. I shake my head and put some beans in my mouth to cover my
almost smile. We eat in silence for a while, since Trouble isn’t
much of a conversationalist and Liss is too busy shoveling
sweetcorn into her gob. When she finishes she says, “I like
corn.”

“I didn’t
notice.” I find one of those little pretend sausages swimming in
the baked beans mix. “Want a sausage?”

Liss leans over
and eats it right off my spoon. “So…”

I know that
tone.

“Didn’t I tell
you to stop asking how long it’ll take?”

Liss pouts and
crosses her arms. “Did you like your peas, Trouble?” Liss points at
the peas and gives him a thumbs-up.

Trouble breaks
into a wide smile and replies with a thumbs-up.

“How come he
smiles a lot?” Liss asks.

I shrug.
“Because he wants to.”

“How come you
don’t?”

Ugh. Kids.
“Because I don’t want to.”

“Ok.”

The sky dims a
shade like a dying florescent light bulb. Trouble takes something
out of his back pocket and opens the box. It’s a pack of playing
cards. He shuffles them quickly and looks at us both. He fans the
entire pack out and holds them towards Liss. She looks at me.

“Go on. Pick
one.”

Liss furrows
her brow and deliberates over the choice. Finally she picks one out
and looks at it. I lean in to see. It’s the ace of hearts.

Trouble nods at
both of us then takes the card back. He slips it into the pile of
others and splits the deck in two, doing one of those crazy fan
shuffles. He closes his eyes for a few seconds, waves his hand over
the deck like he’s doing magic and then offers the pack to
Liss.

She looks
across at me. I shrug. When she picks the top card she slaps her
hand over her mouth. She shows me the card. It’s the ace of hearts
again.

“Whoa,” I say,
leaning in for a proper look. “No way.”

“How did you do
that?” she asks like he’ll just be able to respond.

Trouble smiles
so wide I think his face will split in two. Liss slaps the ground
with quiet excitement and laughs. “Did you see that Flo?”

“I did.”

“It’s
magic!”

I pull a smile.
“Should we teach him something?” I hold out my hand and Trouble
passes the cards. I split them into three even piles and hand them
out. “We’ll teach him snap.”

Liss gives me
one of those
are you mad
looks. “Everyone knows snap.”

“Yeah but I bet
it’s not called snap in Chinese, is it?”

Liss and I win
the first couple of games until Trouble picks up on how to play.
And man is he fast. Though I see him let Liss win a few games every
now and then. She squeals with delight and Trouble laughs with a
deep happy laugh. And I glance around to make sure we’re not
attracting any unwanted attention.