Read Online Arcadium by Sarah Gray - Free Book Online

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