Arcadium by Sarah Gray Page B

So I
assume they’re either all infected or all dead. What about
yours?”
    “I don’t know.
I came home from school one day and couldn’t find mum so I went to
find Liss. Dad never came home either… so I assume the same.”
    “I wonder how
many people are left,” Henry says.
    I shrug. “I
didn’t run into many.”
    “We saw heaps,”
Liss corrects me. “We just didn’t stop.”
    “Actually yeah,
we did see that big group, I guess. It was like twelve people.” I
look at Kean and shake my head. “They didn’t last long. Next day
they were the ones attacking us.”
    “How’d you get
away?”
    I scratch my
head, thinking. “We hid in wheely bins for that one.”
    “Holy bleep,”
Henry says.
    “It was
horrible.” Liss burps a tiny girly burp and smiles. “But that’s
when we met Trouble.”
    “We met a fair
few…” Kean’s words trickle off.
    “But,” Henry
continues for him, “everyone’s afraid of the kid in a
wheelchair.”
    Kean laughs…
like really laughs and he shakes his head. “You should see them
run!”
    “It’s like they
think I’m infected or something,” Henry says with his hands in the
air. “Like they’ll all catch the horrible wheelchair disease!” He
drops his arms again. “Honestly. People are so stupid.”
    “Cheers to
that, brother.” Kean passes Henry a can of drink.
    Henry opens it
and lemonade sprays in a whitewash all over his face. Kean falls
back laughing, tears streaming down his face. Henry sits with this
pretend stern look on his face, but his amusement shows through.
“Thanks a lot,” he says to Kean. “Now you’ll have to give me a
sponge bath.”
    Kean cuts his
laughter short and sits up straight. “Damn it.”
    “You never
think, do you?” Henry shakes his head and lemonade drops go flying
out. “As I said before, I’m definitely the brains of this
operation.”
    “That makes me
the brawn then.” Kean waggles his eyebrows.
    Henry screws up
his face in response and leans over. “That’s a bit hopeful,
brother.” He pours the rest of the can over Kean’s head and Kean
just sits there with a wide goofy smile and takes it; the liquid
rolls off his head and slides in rivers down his cheeks.
    “Argh!” He
twists away and jumps up suddenly. “It’s going down my back!”
    Liss is
watching so intensely it’s like a kid sitting in front of a Wiggles
DVD. Kean ducks into the bathroom and brings out a few towels. He
chucks one at Henry and it smacks into his face, wrapping itself
around his head.
    “Sorry about
the mess, mate,” Kean says looking at Trouble. “We’ll clean it up,
don’t worry.”
    Trouble just
nods and smiles his glittery smile.
     

Chapter
10

    I’ve been
sitting on my side of the bed for some time now, just watching Liss
sleep in the darkness. I’ve left the balcony curtains open so the
moonlight can shine through.
    Liss is
sandwiched between the crisp white sheets, perfectly still. The bed
is so good, like sleeping in a warm hug. I was in it before but I’m
so full from all the sugary salty crap we ate at dinner and I just
can’t seem to drift off.
    Liss wants to
stay here, I know. She’s got friends and food, a room of her own
and a bed. But she doesn’t understand. These moments of peace are
always temporary. Everything is temporary in this world. Eventually
we’d run out of food, or make a mistake and attract the infected.
Eventually other survivors would want a piece of our serenity and
then we’d be challenging for leadership and all sorts of stupid
things people do when they get together in mass. I don’t want to be
part of a gang.
    I slide off the
bed and step out onto the balcony. The air is cool and calm, but
it’s weird looking out and seeing perfect black. The traffic lights
and street lamps were the first to go. People used to say machines
were totally superior because they can do amazing things like
calculating crazy sums and shoot us into space and allow us talk to
anyone in the world at any