Free Arcadium by Sarah Gray Page B

baseball-playing stunt-driving
card-shark with a knack for finding apples.”
    “Huh.” Kean
puts his Chupa Chup back in his mouth and stares at me for a few
seconds before looking out the window.
    I shove the
antiseptic wipe into the old Chupa Chup bag and leave it in the
foot well. I glance over at Henry’s legs and he notices
instantly.
    “How come they
don’t work?” I ask. I can’t believe I just said that. It’s like
shock has numbed my moral sensor. “Sorry.”
    Henry grins. “I
don’t care. It was like maybe um... two years ago, yeah Kean?”
    Kean nods and
looks back out the window.
    “It was at
Christmas. My family was up at Echuca and there was this swimming
hole with one of those big swings that starts at the bank and then
you swing out and jump into the water. Well, Kean had already done
it and it was my turn. So I swing out, soar through the air and
drop straight onto this log. You couldn’t see it, just under the
surface. I fell funny, broke my back and they haven’t worked
since.”
    “That’s awful,”
Liss says, leaning her cheek on the seat rest.
    Henry shrugs.
“Don’t need legs to play computer games.”
    “Need working
computers and electricity, though,” Kean says.
    Henry waves his
hand. “A minor blip. Besides, I don’t need them if I’ve still got
you for entertainment.”
    Kean grins and
the brothers clink Chupa Chups together like they’re doing a cheers
with glasses.
    Liss looks at
me but the scene beyond the windscreen distracts me. Trouble slows
down and stops.
    Since he
doesn’t actually say trouble I assume it’s not life threatening.
It’s not like a hundred infected people are circulating outside our
windows. They’re not. It’s just that a fallen truck blocks all five
lanes of the Burnley Tunnel. We’ll have to go on foot. Foot and
wheelchair wheels.
    Beyond the
truck it’s perfectly dark like a huge unexplored cave.
    “Is there a way
round?” Henry says.
    Kean chews the
last of his lollypop. “Not unless you want to go for a swim.”
    “See what I
mean?” Henry looks at me. “Pure entertainment.”
    “Trouble
doesn’t seem worried,” Kean says.
    But I’m
worried. It’s a few kilometres of pitch back in there, bound to be
filled with infected and we still have a kid in a wheelchair.
“There’s a raised ledge on the right hand side, wide enough for the
wheelchair.”
    “Just say
wheels,” Henry says. “It sounds cooler.”
    “It’s pitch
black in there,” I say. “If we get stuck...”
    “I’ve got
umbrellas and a lighter,” Kean says, taking up the slack where my
words trail off. “What weapons have you got?”
    I blink. “We
don’t really have any.”
    He glances
across with a furrowed brow but says nothing.
    “Although,
Trouble has a baseball bat. We’ve got flammable aerosol and a
lighter, so we can get blasts of light.”
    Kean nods.
    “We’re actually
doing this... aren’t we?” Henry says, shaking his head.
    “Just think of
it as another computer game,” Kean says.
    We jump out and
I shoulder my backpack. Kean whips out the wheelchair and sets it
up for Henry. Liss follows me as I walk up to Trouble. He’s already
got his bat out.
    “Here’s the
plan, Trouble. We...” I point to everyone. “Are going in there.
Single file.” Liss jumps in behind me and we walk along showing
him. He doesn’t do anything, just watches with sharp eyes. “Up
along that walkway.” I point and then do a thumbs-up to see if he
understood any of it.
    Trouble grins
and lifts his bat up.
    “Yep, good. Ok,
I think he kind of gets it.”
    Trouble keeps
scanning for... well... trouble. Liss and I stand at the tunnel
entrance, peering in as Henry and Kean roll up. “Liss, can I have
the deodorant and lighter?”
    She rummages
about in her pack.
    “Who’s going
first?” Kean asks, pushing Henry out of the rain.
    Trouble leaps
up onto the walkway and looks down at us, waiting.
    “Guess that’s
settled.” Kean says.
    “Liss can go
second,