Arcadium by Sarah Gray Page A

“You’re looking for salvation.”
    “Aren’t you
guys?”
    Kean looks away
from the door, straight at me. “What if we’ve found it?”
    I look down at
the floor.
    “Sorry,” he
says quickly. “I shouldn’t hassle you about it. You don’t want to
tell me.” He shrugs. “I don’t need to know.”
    “Ok, then,” I
say. But really I don’t know what else to say. There’s an electric
tension in the air and I don’t know how to break.
    “Well, I’m
hungry…” Kean says. “Time for dinner?”
    I smile. “Lets
see what they’ve got on offer.”
     
    Kean and I take
a room each and compile all the food. There’s a snack basket on the
counter with packets of chips, nuts, biscuits, processed and
packaged muffins, even some of those nut health bars. At the very
bottom is a menu with a price list and I chuckle to myself. It’s
like five dollars for a small packet of chips… that’s insane!
    The mini bar
fridge has been powerless for some time but apart from the off milk
nothing else is perishable. It’s all chocolate and fizzy drink cans
and fancy spring water with a drop of flavour. There’s alcohol too;
mini bottles of vodka, bourbon, gin, and wine, but I leave all of
those.
    I carry the
basket against my hip and head out into the hallway. Kean is
carrying his basket of food on his head, balancing it with one hand
and banging on room eight’s door with the other. “Party in
Trouble’s room!” he calls through the wood.
    I head straight
over to room seven and knock on the door. It reminds me of normal
times when we had privacy and little spaces for ourselves, and when
we had to be polite and respectful and all that.
    Trouble opens
the door and beckons me in. I dump the food basket on the floor and
sit next to it. A few seconds later Liss, Kean and Henry come in.
They sit around in a circle on the floor, and Trouble copies. Kean
pushes his food basket next to mine. “Dig in, everyone.”
    I split open a
packet of roasted cashew nuts as everyone sifts through the
goodies. Liss is chewing on a health bar while Henry and Kean are
arguing over whether a Mars bar or Snickers bar is more
nutritionally appropriate for the apocalypse.
    It’s not until
everyone is finally eating something that Trouble looks over the
basket carefully. He picks up a bag of salted peanuts and shakes it
next to his ear.
    “So how far
away from this place are we, Florence?” Kean asks.
    “Not far.”
    “Hey, how come
you answer him?” Liss says. “You always growl at me when I
ask.”
    “That’s because
you ask every five minutes.”
    “Yeah and I
only ask every ten minutes,” Kean says, grinning. “Gives Florence a
bit of break.”
    “Can’t we just
stay here?” Liss asks, popping open a can of Fanta.
    “Not forever.”
I stare at the pile of cashews in my palm. “Maybe a night or
two.”
    Liss
groans.
    “It’s not far.
Probably two hours walk? So a short car trip. Just down that road,
and then up that way.” I point, but Kean is the only one paying
attention. Trouble is staring at the ceiling, Liss has one eye
closed and is staring into her Fanta can.
    “Where are you
guys from?” I ask Kean.
    “Camberwell.”
    I arch an
eyebrow. “Rich boys?”
    He smiles.
“There may be traces of private grammar school training, but we’ve
managed to shirk most of it. Especially Henry. You’re a savage now,
aren’t you, Henry?”
    Henry makes a
thoughtful face. “If by savage you mean not savage in any way,
shape or form then… yes.”
    Liss giggles
into her orange can.
    “What were you
doing in Albanvale?” I ask. “It’s pretty far from Camberwell.”
    “We were
staying with our Aunt… you know, running from the outbreak. It hit
the inner city suburbs so fast.”
    “Where’s the
rest of your family?”
    Kean frowns at
the floor. “We had so many people staying in the same house that
Henry and I were camping out in the garage. Infected people must
have gotten into the house one morning and it was chaos.