Arcadium (7 page)

We play until
we run out of light and then Liss and I retire to our blue car. She
stretches out on the back seat and I recline the front passenger
seat as far back as I can. Trouble is in the red Honda behind
us.

I tilt the rear
view mirror so I can see into the back seat; Liss looks peaceful. I
lay my head back and watch the twinkling stars out the window until
I fall asleep.

Chapter 6

My head is
grainy this morning. Maybe I haven’t had enough water or I’m sugar
crashing or… hey, I know, maybe it’s too much of this apocalypse
bull. I hug my arms closer. Light bleeds into my retinas and I see
Liss and Trouble sitting on the car bonnet outside. Liss’ hair
seems to sparkle in the sunlight and Trouble has his trademark
smile. They’re eating… holy shit.

Ok, that didn’t
come out right. They’re eating apples. I know back in normal times
it wouldn’t seem so amazing but now anything remotely fresh is like
your favourite food times twenty. Not from a tin!

When I pop the
car door open they both turn. Liss takes a huge bite and the crunch
echoes out.

Trouble hands
me one, and I look down. A green apple streaked with red and white.
Somewhere in my head a choir starts up. “Uh…”

“It’s good,”
Liss says with her mouth full.

“Yeah, thanks.”
I take the apple from Trouble and smile. “Where’d he get them
from?”

Liss shrugs.
“He’s magic.”

I look down at
the apple. Before the outbreak I never liked fruit. Well, that’s
not true, maybe it was just that there were so many better foods
like chocolate and chips and stuff, that I didn’t have time for
fruit. But now, looking at this thing I once had but didn’t want,
it makes me think about all the other things I had but didn’t want.
Mum, dad, Liss, fruit, vegetables, fresh water, the ability to go
outside without fear of dying. Now all I want is the apple, and
Liss and mum and dad too. Screw TV and computers and school and
work. Before, I had everything and didn’t care; now I have nothing
and this damned apple is everything.

“Florence…”

“Mmm?” I look
up and realise they’re both watching me with anticipation. So I
take a bite. The sweet juice explodes in my mouth, re-igniting
every taste bud that my poor apocalypse diet has managed to
paralyse. “It’s good,” I say as I chew.

That’s an
understatement. Remember that choir? Quadruple it, add a bass and
strings section, hook up the amp and wind that volume dial all the
way up and you’re half way there.

I eat every
part but the stalk and then put the seeds in the front pocket of my
backpack… just in case I ever get the chance to grow an apple tree
one day. The sun dips behind a thick grey cloud and a shadow falls
over us.

“How old do you
think Trouble is?” Liss asks, staring at him as if he’s a statue
and not a real person.

“Liss, if you
stare too hard your eyes will turn into lasers and then… you know,
bad stuff happens to the people you look at.”

She looks over
at me.

“I don’t know,
why don’t you ask him?” I scratch my thumbnail against a blemish in
the car’s paintwork.

Liss narrows
her eyes at Trouble. “How old are you?”

Trouble tips
his head but says nothing, for obvious reasons. Liss scratches her
head, then she points to herself and hold up nine fingers.

Trouble
blinks.

Liss points to
me and holds up ten fingers, followed by six.

Liss points to
Trouble.

For a moment I
think he doesn’t get it but then he flashes two tens and a seven
with his fingers.

Liss gives a
triumphant smile. “He’s twenty seven.”

“Where did you
learn to count so well?” I say with a smirk.

I feel the rain
before I see it. I lift my nose skyward. “Feel that?”

“Feel what?”
Liss looks around.

“It’s
raining.”

Liss furrows
her brow. “No it’s not.”

“Yes it
is.”

“Is not.”

“Is.”

“Not.”

Deep breaths, I
am the mature one here. A raindrop hits the windscreen, followed by
another and another. They start catching on Liss’ hair.

“Ok, I think
it’s raining,” Liss says, holding out her palms.

I swear my eyes
must be the fittest part if me with all this eye rolling.

We take shelter
in the car. Trouble sits in the driver’s seat, I’m in the front
passenger seat and Liss is lying across the back seat, watching the
rain drip down the windows.

The rain on the
metal roof sounds like static. I stare at the dashboard for a
while. “Hey Liss,” I say. “What radio station you want?”

Liss sits up
and scratches her chin. “But they don’t work anymore.”

“Really?” I
press the radio button and look back. “In other news today… Liss
find out she’s wrong.”

Liss stares for
a moment and then smiles. “In further news,” she says putting on
her deepest adult voice, “Florence is an idiot.”

“Oh hey, I
think I hear a song coming on.” I roll up the volume and sing,
“There is a girl, a girl called Liss, the one the boys all want to
kiss.”

“Ew gross.”
Liss scrunches up her face but amusement twinkles in her eyes.

I keep singing.
“But she turns around, says go away, I don’t do boy germs, hey,
hey, hey.”

Liss leans
forward grabbing both our seats. “See if there’s something on for
Trouble.”

“China FM?” I
say, fiddling with the dial. “Hang on. Yep, here it is.” I point
with both hands at Trouble. “Take it away, Trouble.”

He blinks back
at me.

Silence.

Awkward
silence.

But suddenly he
starts clapping out a beat that’s like one, two, cha-cha-cha. Liss
claps along in time and when I finally join in, Trouble breaks into
song. I can’t understand the words but it sounds like a Chinese boy
band song. Soon he’s busting out crazy actions with it. Liss is
rolling around in the back laughing her head off and Trouble is
really getting into his act.

I tip my head
back and laugh.

For the finale
Trouble holds the last note until he runs out of breath and then he
bows. Liss jumps up in the back. “Bravo!”

Trouble nods
and we give him a round of applause.

As the noise
dies down something else catches my attention. I swear it’s
singing. “Shh,” I say, doing the sign too for Trouble. “You hear
that?”

Liss looks
around. “Yeah, sounds like someone singing. Is the radio
working?”

I press my ear
to the speakers but it’s not coming from the car. It’s growing ever
louder. I wind down the window a crack and the voice floods in.
It’s a male voice… no, two male voices.

“What is it?”
Liss says.

We all press up
against the windows, peering out the rain blurred glass. I see
movement and point. “There.”

It’s on our
side. All I can see is umbrellas bobbing along and before I can
stop her Liss winds her window all the way down.

“Liss, no!” I
hiss at her, but she leans out the window anyway and calls out.

All that
training literally goes out the window.

“Hey!” she
yells.

The bobbing
umbrellas stop, and so does the singing. One of the dark brollies
lifts and I can see the person underneath. A teenage boy. And it
looks like he’s pushing a wheelchair. I wind down my window all the
way, doing a quick scan of the entire area.

“What are you
doing?” Liss asks.

The boy looks
at her and then at me. The voice that replies comes from beneath
the front umbrella. “Singing… clearly.”

Liss glances
over at me. “Why?” she says.

The front
umbrella tips back and I can see the kid is pretty young like Liss.
“Just because,” he says. “What are you doing?”

What are the
chances of finding two apocalyptic survival parties singing at
random?

“Aren’t you
worried about getting wet?” Liss says.

The older boy
speaks back this time. “I think that’s the least of our
worries.”

“You can say
that again.” I’ve said it before I can stop myself. Curses. Never
speak to other people. Never, never. But then again I’ve never
really spoken to Trouble and look what happened there.

“Why are you in
a wheelchair?” Liss says.

“Liss!” The
girl has no boundaries, I swear.

The young boy
looks back. “My legs don’t work.”

Liss looks at
me. “Then how does he run?” she whispers. “How does he hide?”

I shrug.
Honestly that’s got to be a miracle. I don’t know how he’s made it
this far into the outbreak; I mean he’s in a wheelchair! That’s
ninety nine times more difficult than just looking after a kid. I
look at the older boy; he must be one hell of a fighter... or just
smart. But then wandering along a freeway, singing at the top of
his voice with and a helpless boy and infected all around doesn’t
seem like a logical thing to do. I suppose luck plays a part.

Suddenly
they’re walking over to us.

“Nice car,” the
older boy says.

“I’m Liss.”

“Oh my God,
Liss, do you not listen to a thing I say?”

Liss looks
over. “What?”

“I’m Henry,”
the boy in the wheelchair says. “And this is my brother, Kean.”

“That’s my
sister, Florence. She doesn’t like people.”

Suddenly the
car starts vibrating. My head snaps over to Trouble. He’s bent over
in the foot well. When he sits back he gives me a thumbs-up. The
lights flash up on the dashboard and I realise he’s started the
car. Holy crap.

“You guys want
a ride?” Liss says.

“Liss!” I say
in my most reprimanding voice. “Oh my God!”

And suddenly I
feel like I’ve lost control of everything. This is not good.

The boys look
at each other and shrug. “Sure, why not.”

Liss pops open
her door and slides across. Henry jumps himself up onto the back
seat and shuffles into the middle.

Kean folds up
the wheelchair, stows it in the boot then comes around and sits in
the back, directly behind me.

“You shouldn’t
be so trusting,” I say, twisting around as the car begins to move.
“We might be serial killers.”

“Are you?”
Henry asks.

I turn away,
facing forwards. “Well, No.”

“Too bad. I
reckon they’d do well now, killing the creepies and all.”

“Creepies?”
Liss says.

“The infected
people.”

“Oh.”

Trouble is
watching the boys in the rear view mirror.

“Guys, this is
Trouble,” I say pointing. “Trouble, this is Henry and Kean.”

“Hi, Trouble,
that’s a weird name…”

Trouble glances
over his shoulder and smiles a big cheesy grin.

“Uh… yeah it’s
kind of a nickname,” I say. “He only knows one English word.”

“Oh I get,”
Henry says, nodding. “Smart. Of all the words to know, it seems a
good choice.”

Kean looks
baffled. “How do you communicate with him?”

“How do you
keep a kid in a wheel chair alive in the apocalypse?” I
counter.

His eyes move
to me. “True.”

Henry butts in.
“You can say it. I’m a cripple.”

Everyone goes
quiet.

“What?” he
says. “It’s always the elephant in the room. I’m just getting it
out there. You should know though, I can’t move my legs but it’s
like my brain is a hundred times smarter because of it. You know
how blind people can hear like superheroes? Yeah, it’s kind of the
same thing.”

I look over my
shoulder at Kean. “He talks a lot.”

“I know.” Kean
looks at his brother and smiles back at me. “Why do you think we
were singing? It’s the only peace I get.”

“I’ll give you
peace.” Henry punches Kean in the shoulder. “A piece of my
fist.”

“Don’t worry
guys,” Kean says, grinning. “I think he’s just excited to be
sitting next to a girl.”

Henry punches
Kean again, hard.

“Oh, we don’t
do boy germs,” I say.

“Good,” Henry
says, getting a noogie from Kean. When Kean pulls back he looks at
me.

His eyes are
faded green and his nose is freckled. His dark blonde hair is so
greasy it looks like he tried to make it a mohawk with his hands
and it’s stuck in a perfect point as if it’s full of styling
gel.

“Where you
heading?” Kean asks.

“It’s a
secret,” Liss says.

I suck in a
breath and force it out like a snorting angry bull. Kean is still
staring at me. “You’re not going home are you?” He swaps a quick
glance with his brother. “Everyone makes the pilgrimage home and
they always end up getting everyone killed.”

I narrow my
eyes. “We’re not going home.”

“Where
then?”

“The South
Eastern Suburbs.”

“Why?”

“You can’t half
tell you’re brothers,” I say.

Henry snorts a
laugh. Kean smiles, pulls up the hood of his jumper and leans back.
I turn back to Trouble and watch him navigate around some cars. The
windshield wipers give us a second of good view followed by three
seconds of blurred mess. On the next swipe I see an infected and
Liss screams. We flash past and it’s gone again.

I look back at
Liss and nod. She nods back.

“Looks like we
hitched a ride just in time then,” Henry says.

I look up in
the mirror. “What would you have done, running into one?”

He shrugs.
“Roll away, very fast.”

“Have you run
into many?” I ask Kean.

“A few.” He
nods but doesn’t elaborate; he doesn’t have to. I can see it all in
his eyes, like they’re playing me a movie of all the moments he
can’t mention: all the bodies and gore and blood and destruction. I
have to look away, and I wonder if Liss sees stuff like that in my
eyes.

Chapter 7

The car is
quiet for a while and it’s weird. There are five people in this
car. I know I said never work with anyone else, but if Trouble
wasn’t here Liss and I would still be walking, battling infected
people because I can’t drive. I never even had the chance to test
for my learner’s license; I had an appointment but now it’s lost in
a dead computer system. And I guess it’s the same for Henry and
Kean; if they didn’t get into the car they’d be back there,
battling creepies.