Beyond Carousel (9 page)

‘I would, if I were him,' said Lizzy.

‘I still say
fuck him
,' I said. ‘For Rocky.'

Lizzy smiled. ‘Sure. For Rocky,' she said.

Chess stood up, shuffled, and sat back where he was. He wasn't enjoying the storm like Lizzy.

‘What do you want to do when we get to the city?' I asked.

‘Look around. Meet some people. Not die,' she shrugged.

‘Totally,' I said.

‘Honestly,' she added. ‘The only thing I'm excited about is gigging the album.'

I looked at her and smiled.

‘Does that sound messed up?' she asked.

‘Nah. It sounds awesome,' I replied. ‘Put me on the door?'

Lizzy feigned reluctance. I shoved her.

‘What do you want to do when we get there?' she asked.

‘I don't know. Just fit in,' I said.

‘Nox, come on. That Patron thing is bullshit, man,' said Lizzy.

I looked at her. Wondering if she somehow knew about Stuart and the taxi.

‘All of this is bullshit,' said Lizzy, nodding out at the blackness and lightning. ‘Plus you're with us now.'

‘I don't know. Are you guys still cool?' I joked.

‘Well, that's a point,' said Lizzy. ‘Maybe not, according to Kink & Kink.'

‘Or The Racketballs?' I asked.

Lizzy let out a laugh and turned to check that she hadn't woken Taylor.

‘I knew you made them up,' I said.

‘Those guys totally bought it. Kids your age are screwed without the internet,' said Lizzy.

‘You sound like a hundred,' I replied.

‘Shut up, Nox. God. Way to ruin my storm,' said Lizzy.

I smiled and we stayed there until dawn really arrived. And we could see that the hills were on fire.

A swampy red glow engulfed the hills for as far as we could see. The scarp seemed bigger than normal. As if it were trying to rise up and run away from itself. Within the mass of black and red were the ripple and snap of great flames. The Perth hills were dry and overgrown and now they burnt with a fire to end all fires.

Immediately our thoughts went to Tommy. He was up there somewhere. Most likely alone. Most likely without a car or a bike. Tommy probably didn't know this, but those hills were bushfire central during Perth's summer months. Every year houses were lost and people evacuated. Now, without fire trucks and water bombers, a fire could tear its way through the bush as it pleased.

The three of us stared at it in horror for a while, trying to reassure ourselves that Tommy would be fine. Eventually we left the apartment and resumed our way south, glancing sideways to the hills as we went. We left behind the motels and hire-car rentals, moving into an area where the highway widened and buildings shrunk
back, making way for exit ramps, bus stops and token parkland.

At eight the wind turned to the east, blowing giant mountains of smoke across the outer suburbs. It took a half-hour to reach us. By eight-thirty the whole of the east was blanketed. By nine we lost sight of the highway in front of us.

‘Okay. So do we have a plan or something?' asked Lizzy.

Taylor and I stopped and squinted into the distance. The smoke wasn't choking thick just yet. More like a cloud wrapping itself around a mountain.

‘Do you think we're far from a bridge, Nox?' asked Taylor.

‘I don't think so. But we could walk straight past in this,' I replied.

‘Do we really want to be on a bridge when we can't see properly?' asked Lizzy.

Taylor sighed and coughed.

‘We should keep moving south towards the city. Even if we miss a bridge there are others, right?' said Taylor.

‘Yeah, eventually,' I replied.

‘Alright,' said Taylor, and set off without waiting.

Taylor seemed kind of frantic. As if our path to the city was somehow closing. Lizzy and I shared a glance. She put a leash on Chess and grudgingly we followed.

We kept on. Walking our bikes like trolleys. Wayfarers covering our eyes and t-shirts pulled up
over our noses. Ill-equipped hipsters coughing our way through the apocalypse. What I could see through my tinted lenses looked surreal. The world had turned the plastic cheese yellow of a fast-food chain. Smoke shifted, slow and ominous like a giant squid on some secret current. Two dirty pairs of Chuck Taylors scraped their way along the footpath ahead of me. I got a flash of reality. This was our world now. This is what it looked like at the end of things. I was terrified but at the same time tuned into the world like never before.

The easterly was heating up and getting stronger. None of us could see anything now, let alone breathe properly. Chess stopped and looked around as if to say
Okay. This is getting stupid
.

‘We need to stop somewhere,' said Lizzy.

‘There is nowhere,' replied Taylor.

Stupidly we had waited until the smoke had swallowed everything around us. I felt the Finns' eyes on me, waiting.

‘There were more buildings back the way we came,' I said.

‘We're not going backwards,' said Taylor bluntly.

‘She's not going anywhere, Taylor,' I snapped.

‘What? Who's not going anywhere?' asked Lizzy.

‘Nobody,' said Taylor sharply. ‘Come on. This is ridiculous.'

‘Taylor. What the fuck is going on?' asked Lizzy.

‘Nothing, Lizzy,' said Taylor.

‘Fine then. Let's go back and find shelter,' said Lizzy stubbornly.

‘Oh my god. Seriously. This is so fucking stupid,' said Taylor.

Lizzy stood firm. I cursed myself for letting the painter slip.

‘Okay. Alright. He's talking about the Boxing Day painter. Tommy said she might be in the city. So what?' said Taylor.

‘Wow,' said Lizzy.

Chess started barking. A triggered smoke alarm was wailing away in a distant building.

‘Lizzy. Come on. Do you really want to do this out here? Let's find somewhere to shelter before we all choke and die,' said Taylor.

Lizzy was silent. I could feel her fuming away beside me. My mind was racing, trying to dig us all a way out of this.

‘There's a casino on the river,' I blurted out. ‘We should be right beside it now. If we head west I'm sure we'll run into it.'

Taylor was silent.

‘Alright. Leave the bikes. We'll come back for them later,' said Lizzy.

She and Chess hovered impatiently beside me and we set out away from the highway toward what I hoped would be the river and casino. At first there was grass beneath our shoes. Then road. Then grass again. Alarms
were triggering all over now and the smoke was thicker than ever. We should have tied ourselves together or something. Not that Taylor and Lizzy would go for that right now. I stopped, suddenly freaking out that I had lost the others. Taylor bumped into me.

‘Are we there?' she yelled, above the alarms.

Lizzy and Chess emerged from the smoke behind her.

‘Almost, I think,' I replied, without confidence.

We kept moving. The grass started sloping upwards. Climbing felt hard. Like we were on a mountain, not some small, sculptured hill. I was breathless and straining but every step we took upward made the smoke even worse. I began to feel a giant pressure on my shoulders. Like the casino had disappeared or was someplace else entirely.

I screamed as my shin rammed flush into steel.

‘Are you okay?' yelled Taylor.

‘Yeah,' I replied.

‘What is it?' asked Taylor.

‘I don't know. A fence or something maybe,' I replied.

I heard the zip of Taylor's backpack and saw the dull beam of torchlight. She leant in close to the steel.

‘It's a billboard,' said Taylor.

‘What does it say?' I asked.

‘Guess,' said Taylor.

‘Seriously?' I replied.

‘Pink,' said Taylor, laughing and coughing at the same time.

‘What do you mean?' I asked.

‘She was supposed to play here. At the casino. You found it, Nox,' said Taylor.

I slumped down against the billboard and held my leg.

‘Thank fuck for that,' I muttered.

‘Lizzy, check this out,' said Taylor.

There was just alarms and smoke. Taylor looked up and waited.

‘Lizzy!' yelled Taylor.

No reply. Lizzy and Chess were gone.

The Burswood resort and casino had been towering over the river to the east of the city for as long as I could remember. There had been name changes and expansions, but the chunky pyramid design and murky white walls had remained. It was Perth's sole casino. Home to a mix of haggard old pokey fiends, FIFO workers just back from shift, bank accounts brimming and body clocks all out of whack, and wealthy tourists from Asia sold on glossy brochures and partner deals with casinos on the east coast.

I had been there a few times. A birthday dinner for Dad in the fancy Chinese restaurant. With some German mates from uni to watch European soccer in the sports bar. Once with Heather for a one-night stay on our anniversary.

For a while there was a giant pressurised dome next door housing tennis tournaments and big touring artists like Katy Perry and Coldplay. Now it was all car bays and sprawling construction, like the rest of Perth.

Taylor and I hit the east side of the building and traced it around to a taxi rank and some restaurants. These places were locked, but further along was a foyer area where the doors were open and an information desk with flyers, luggage and trolleys stood unattended. I sat there alone on an empty trolley. My head numb and swirling. My eyes gone past stinging to some other sensation. Taylor had spent just a minute inside breathing the semi-fresh air before racing back into the chaos to find her sister. I was to stay by the taxi rank in case Lizzy and Chess found their way to the building.

My mouth felt dry and I realised that I was probably super dehydrated. I took the final bottle of water from my bag and forced myself to drink it despite feeling like I could throw up at any minute. Time felt fractured and uncertain. Like I had just watched Taylor run back out into the smoke, but also like I had been sitting there for hours. I felt a sharp spike of panic and ran outside to yell after them. My voice was hoarse and weak. I pushed through the smoke to the edge of the building and yelled some more. Nothing came back to me.

Suddenly I remembered the radios.

I raced back inside and rifled through my bag to find my walkie-talkie. It was tucked away at the bottom. I pulled it out and switched it on, but the battery was dead. We had charged them before we left the hills, but not since. A lot of the time the three of us still acted like we were inside Carousel or our mansion; not stressing
about things like batteries or drinking water. We were idiots and the world had quickly found us out.

I sat back down and lent against the wall. Visions of my parents' place swamped through my thumping head. It was probably gone now. The big, awkward deck that Dad had designed and built. The mishmash floorboards that Mum was constantly sweeping. Our bedrooms. Empty, but with the smells and sounds of our childhood. All of it burning or burnt already. I never loved our house in the hills, but I couldn't stand the idea of it burning down with nobody around to fight for it.

The smoke outside had started to finger its way into the foyer. I swore at it, kicked the doors shut and felt about as alone as I ever had.

Taylor would find them.

Taylor would find them.

Taylor would find them.

I twirled downward into a horrible, empty sleep.

The daylight was fading when I awoke. I pulled myself up and looked around. I was alone in the foyer. The smoke outside in the taxi rank was thick and seemed no different to before. I tied a shirt around my face, put on my sunglasses and pushed open the door. It was quieter out there now. A lonely smoke alarm sang in the distance. The wind blew, but had softened from the howling version of the morning. Somewhere to the east I could hear a low rumbling. Dull, like the idling of heavy
machinery. It was the sound of the hills still burning.

I shuffled out to the edge of the building and braced myself.

‘Taylor?' I yelled, meekly.

I wheezed and coughed like a chain smoker. My voice had all but gone. The Finns would struggle to hear me across a table, let alone a suburb. I cursed myself and ventured out further from the building to assess the surrounds. It was futile. The smoke had swallowed everything and it looked like the sun would be gone soon too. I turned around and felt a ripple of panic as I couldn't see the casino. I stumbled back towards it, arms stretched like a zombie.

I tried the headlights on a couple of the taxis parked in the rank to see if I could send a beacon out that way. The batteries were long gone. I went inside and rummaged through my backpack for some tape and the second torch. I stuck this to the bonnet of the furthest taxi and pointed the light out into the smoke and distance. Maybe once it was dark the beam would be strong enough for Taylor or Lizzy to see and trace back to the building.

My throat started to itch with dryness. I had no water left and the foyer had nothing to offer. I took my torch and headed through a door into a larger lobby area. It was brighter in there. Walls of glass rose on two sides to a decorative atrium above. Smoke blocked any view outward but the remaining daylight seeped through to
illuminate the space. There was a bank of elevators to my left and a couple of function rooms to the right. I looked around for a map of the place but found only ads for meal deals and loyalty clubs. It felt weird being back inside a cavernous building like Carousel. I wasn't keen to stick around.

There was a dual staircase wrapping away decoratively behind the elevators with a sign reading
Bars & Gaming
. I pointed the torch up there reluctantly. It was dim and uninviting. I set off before I had a chance to chicken out. The stairways took a long sweep and then converged on an ornate double door and a chasm of blackness. I swiped my torch around the space ahead. Blackjack tables. Money wheels. The glint and sparkle of pokey machines. The room seemed to fan out sideways and stretch on forever. It was impressively dark. Not a hint of natural light. A place designed to swallow time and people with it.