And All the Stars

by Andrea K Höst

  "Oh."

  Noi lowered the bolt cutter, gazing into a room dominated by a king-sized bed. A pale cream spread had been drawn over the occupant. Two steps and a twitch of the cloth and they had found an obvious candidate for 'him'.

  "I almost wish she'd come at us yelling 'Brainnnsss!'. Then I could justify running away."

  Madeleine nodded, staring at a thick-set man in his sixties, whose cheery strawberry-striped pyjama pants cut into a swelling stomach, the skin unpleasantly mottled. Probably one of those who had died the very first night.

  "Could we even lift him?" she asked. "Where would we take him to?"

  "One of the other apartments?" Noi was frowning, but no longer held the bolt cutters at ready as she worked through the problem. "I think it's doable. We'll need something to shift him with, but I've got an idea for that. Come on."

  Calling out that they were going to get something to help, Noi led the way down to the wharf's echoing central hall.

  "You head back to the restaurant and grab a couple of pairs of gloves. They should be in the box in the storage room to the left in the kitchen. Meet back at the elevator."

  That was easily accomplished, and Madeleine found Noi had beaten her, and was lazily spinning a wheeled platform topped with a gilt metal framework.

  "Luggage thing from the hotel," she explained. "All we have to do is get him off the bed."

  The mystery woman hadn't shut them out. The dead man was still large and unwieldy.

  "His arms and legs will trail off the sides," Madeleine pointed out, reluctant to touch the man even with gloves.

  "How about this?"

  Noi dragged the cover fully off the bed, then pulled out the near corners of the blue bed sheet. Catching on, Madeleine lifted the section of cloth nearest her.

  "Hold your side a little lower," Noi instructed, then lifted hers, straining, and flopped the man onto his side in the very centre of the sheet. "Now if we tie the corners across, they'll be like handles."

  It was still awkward, and moving him made the smell worse, but they managed to haul the sheet-bag to the side of the bed, and line the baggage cart up so the man could be pulled through the tubular metal frame to lie more on than off. They exposed a large stain on the mattress in the process, and Madeleine gagged at the stench of it, and hastily followed Noi as she pushed the cart effortlessly out of the apartment. After a moment's debate they returned and hauled the mattress out as well

  "He's gone now," Madeleine called back from the doorway. "We...let us know if you need anything else."

  She pulled the door closed and caught up with Noi and the cart, two doors down at one of the apartments they'd cleared already, to help her slide the heavy bundle to the floor. After bringing the mattress, and a quick detour to the apartment bathroom to abandon gloves and wash hands, they left the empty cart still in the room and shut themselves outside, heading back to their trolley of supplies.

  "Time out for existential crisis," Noi said, sitting down. The words were light, but the girl grey, eyes squeezed shut, arms wrapped around her knees.

  Madeleine sat down to wait, understanding that Noi was here because her home was filled with the bodies of her family, her wry good humour a façade of normality plastered over extreme grief. Madeleine's ongoing worry about her parents was a minor thing by comparison, and had lessened after last night's rain, though she wished she could get through to Tyler. Her phone was on its last legs, too, nearly out of charge.

  A distant shout: "Are you two okay?"

  Across the central hall, standing on the matching walkway of the parallel southern apartment building, was a girl in a dark purple gown and violet hijab, and a tall, hollow-cheeked man with a neatly trimmed beard, both of them loaded down with shopping bags. It was such an everyday, ordinary sight that Madeleine had a moment's dislocation, and told herself that there was no chance at all that they'd found an open supermarket.

  "Yes!" Noi called. "Glad to see you! We've just been going door to door checking on people."

  The man said something to the girl, who nodded, and called: "Good idea! Wait a sec and we'll come across!"

  "I think our luck's turned," Noi murmured, as the pair took their bags into a nearby apartment – greeted by a weary, green-stained woman – and then made their way over.

  "I'm Faliha Jabbour, and this is my Dad," the girl said, when they arrived. She was about fifteen, round-cheeked and blue-palmed. "What's the plan?"

  Noi introduced herself and Madeleine, and explained their progress so far.

  "So few?" Mr Jabbour asked, his English slow and heavily accented but understandable. "We must hope for better."

  "We should do our floor first," Faliha said. "Check on Penny and Tesh."

  Her father shook his head. "For the sake of safety, it is perhaps best to remain within quick reach of each other." He gave Madeleine and Noi a grave glance, clearly not wanting his daughter to face the apartment of friends.

  "We can leap-frog," Noi said. "There's only one bolt cutter anyway."

  Leap-frogging worked well, vastly speeding up their progress. Faliha knocked, called out, and unlocked the doors, but waited outside while her father checked the apartments. And soon they were joined by Carl, then Asha and Annie, Mr Lassiter, and Sang-Kyu: all the Blues in three hundred apartments and a hotel. There were also twenty-four Greens, most of them barely able to shuffle to their doors. Asha and Annie brought back to their apartment a Green boy only eleven or so – the youngest survivor Madeleine had seen so far – while Mr Lassiter, supplementing rusty high school French with a translation app, took in a very ill tourist who could barely speak English. The baggage cart was called into use again and again.

  Once every room had been checked, all the Blues went down to the restaurants and sorted through them while Noi and Sang-Kyu cooked up a couple of massive vats of curry – one chicken, one vegetarian – discussing what constituted Halal with Faliha and what was vegan with Asha. And what their food prospects would be in a few weeks.

  Madeleine helped clean up, watching their faces. Everyone red-eyed, smiles fragile. The sun was setting by the time they broke up to deliver curry and head to their respective homes. A gorgeous autumn evening, with a ribbon of smoke smudging the northern sky, and a mute tower of black watching, and waiting.

  ooOoo

  "What's your cousin like?" Noi asked, as Madeleine unlocked the apartment door. "Worth the hero-worship?"

  "I guess. I don't know anyone else who is so resolutely…his own self, which is an odd thing to say about an actor. He says he only ever plays himself, though, just in very strange situations."

  "An actor? Anyone I'd have heard of?" Noi parked the trolley of food, glanced around Tyler's spacious apartment, and fixed on the portrait. She gave Madeleine an incredulous glance, looked back, then said: "Okay, I so should have realised that. You've the same colour eyes. Why didn't you say anything when we were talking about him before?"

  "Habit? Once people know I'm Tyler's cousin, that's all they see me as. My parents moved to Sydney so I could get away from people trying to be my friend or picking fights with me because of Tyler."

  "Did you actually paint this?" Noi asked, picking up a brush.

  "Yeah." Madeleine tried to sound casual, to not show how closely she was watching Noi's face.

  "Shit, why would you need to worry about being thought of as just someone's cousin?"

  "I think I'd have to do something pretty spectacular to overcome Tyler," Madeleine said, and laughed quietly at herself for liking Noi more because of the way she was looking at the painting, impossible as it was not to be that way. "I've been sleeping on the couch so I could see the TV," she added. "But there's a spare room if you want it."

  "Couch is good," Noi said, glancing at the large leather half-square. "I don't suppose your cousin runs to enormous vats of bubble bath? I want to soak, but after this morning I need bubbles to make it not like that woman."

  "There might be, but I should clean the floor again. I
broke the mirror."

  Noi followed Madeleine to the bathroom, stared but did not comment on the amount of damage, and opted to re-purpose some of Tyler's enormous supply of shampoo. While the older girl was in the bath, Madeleine found herself fussing about, fixing pillows and blankets, hunting through Tyler's clothes for things Noi could wear, anxious to please. Not her usual behaviour, especially when she was itching to get at her sketch pad, but nothing was usual. She moved about restlessly, spent a few minutes on the phone to her parents, then let herself do what she'd wanted for hours.

  So many people. Small, quick sketches at first. Noi holding a cup of tea with little finger raised, outwardly serene. Fisher tumbled on the stair. Nash, head thrown back, ready for action. Pan, all grin. Gav, blushing but sure of himself. The woman in the bath, naked breasts bobbing in crimson. Faliha, knocking on a door, eager and afraid. Mr Jabbour, his smile sad. Carl, with an Iron Man physique, but hesitant, looking down and away. Asha, short blonde hair sticking up, checking warily over her shoulder. Annie, shoulders sagging. Mr Lassiter, superbly neat, running an absent hand over the close-cropped black fuzz on his head. Sang-Kyu, giving a thumbs-up signal.

  This first rush done, she came up for air and discovered Noi curled beneath the quilt on the other half of the couch, already asleep despite the early hour. Madeleine hadn't even heard her come into the room, and wondered why she hadn't said anything. Or perhaps Noi had, and been ignored, as Madeleine was too used to doing when interruptions came when she was drawing. Stupid and rude of her, and not how she wanted to treat Noi.

  The girl had pulled her mass of curling hair up into a topknot, but a few black spirals escaped to spring across her face and, captured by the image, Madeleine shrugged off her annoyance and began a new sketch, a very detailed one. Then she moved on to more pictures of Noi, and of the four boys and their apple-green car, and tried to decide if they were as likeable as they'd seemed, or if she was just reacting to the situation. Madeleine was used to distrusting people and holding herself in reserve, and yet she'd met Noi and teamed up instantly, and did not want that to end. She didn't even dislike the idea of joining the four boys at their school. Still, she could surely accept the need for allies without forgetting to be wary about relying on others.

  When hunger and weariness finally broke through she snacked and showered, then killed all but the hall light. With the TV off, the city skyline became more dominant, blazing away at however many kilowatts per hour, keeping the corpses lit. Once again she heard a weird electronic music, almost like an untuned radio.

  Had her mother sounded strange? Even though her eyes were sandy-tired, Madeleine couldn't make herself stop analysing their brief discussion. Had there really been something there, or was she just looking for the next disaster? The day's activity should have left her feeling, if not cheerful, at least hopeful. There were people around her who were friendly, and she'd solved the problem of food for a solid chunk of time. Instead of reassured, she was on edge.

  A noise in the dark. Madeleine shifted, unsure if she'd been sleeping, and tried to process what she'd heard. A close sound, stifled and secret. A minute or more passed before she realised it was Noi, crying.

  Pinned between a desire to do something, and knowing that nothing she might do could make any real difference, Madeleine lay listening to the muted betrayal of pain. If Noi was anything like Madeleine, she wouldn't want anyone to know she was crying anyway, so it was better to stay still and quiet, not go blundering in.

  The question of whether that was the right way to treat Noi occupied her until long after the last tiny sob had faded.

  Chapter Six

  Sunlight crept beneath Madeleine's eyelids, but it was a sumptuous roil of cinnamon and chocolate which woke her. She scrubbed a hand across her face, stretching, and blinked at a man on television filming himself in front of a Spire. The only sound was from Noi clunking something in the kitchen.

  For some minutes Madeleine didn't move, watching the man holding up a star-studded arm, displaying it as best he could next to the Spire's whorl of light. Then she shifted her attention to the easel, to Tyler who was somewhere out there probably dead. Painted eyes gazed back at her, uncompromising, and she realised that she felt no impulse to return to the portrait because it didn't need it. The roughly blocked background, the quick strokes she'd used for everything except the highlight points of head, hand and hair, worked perfectly.

  "Which do you prefer for shops: King's Cross or Bondi Junction?" Noi asked as Madeleine sat up. "There's a fair few things I need, and from what Faliha was telling me it's probably not a good idea to wait too long."

  "I've never been shopping at either of them," Madeleine said. Finding the room unexpectedly chilly, she pulled the koi dressing gown around her. "What on earth are you cooking?"

  "Fudge, and caramel squares. I figure we need to always carry something with a big sugar hit – little blocks of emergency energy. There's pancakes for breakfast, or will be by the time you're dressed."

  "Can I keep you?" Madeleine asked wonderingly, and then laughed with Noi at how that sounded. "I'm guessing you get that a lot. It must be nice to be good at something so useful."

  "What, and you aren't?" Noi said, looking pleased. "I'd kill to be able to draw like that." She nodded toward Madeleine's sketchbook on the coffee table. "I can't believe you did those from memory."

  "Not a useful skill," Madeleine muttered, and shrugged at Noi's questioning look. "My mother wants me to be a vet. There's no money in art. I need a real career, need to be practical, can still paint in my spare time." She pulled herself up, hearing the resentment leaking into her voice. "Guess none of that matters now. Did you always want to cook?"

  "Hell, no. I was destined to be a pro basketball player." All of five foot nothing, she grinned blithely. "Well, okay, maybe I did watch a few too many episodes of Masterchef when I was a kid. And food's a big thing in my family – I'm Thai-Italian, so I'm like Aussie fusion cooking incarnate. My Dad would have preferred I finished Year Twelve before starting my apprenticeship, but he knew it was the only thing I wanted to do." Her smile faded, and she stirred the bubbling pot of fudge.

  "I'll go get dressed," Madeleine said, hesitated, then murmured "Thanks," and left it at that.

  After another raid on Tyler's closet, they disposed of the pancakes and found a second backpack for carrying supplies. Madeleine took a moment to remove the boring print over Tyler's bed and hang his portrait, balancing the frame of the stretcher on the hook. She refused to acknowledge any symbolism to the gesture.

  "We'll have to search some of the apartments for car keys later," Noi said as they headed down. "But my bike should be enough for this trip. Meet me out front."

  It was still early, a breezy and overcast day with a chill southern breeze. Madeleine wished she'd added a jacket to her ensemble, and tucked her hands into her armpits as she walked slowly down the wharf, attention on the Spire flirting with the clouds. Every velvet step reminded her of warm, unnatural stone.

  A tutting motor warned her of Noi's emergence from the driveway on the eastern side of the wharf. Her curls foamed beneath a white helmet and she rode a cream moped, speeding to a precipitous stop at the curb.

  "I've only the one helmet, sorry," she said. "The Cross is closer, so we'll head there. Anything you particularly need?"

  "Underwear," Madeleine said, sliding onto the seat behind the shorter girl and feeling a little ridiculous.

  "Underwear it is!" Noi said, and shot them across the street, past the Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel, and by a collection of tiny terrace houses. She rode with verve and obvious pleasure at having no competition for the road, but it was the shortest of trips, and when they reached the shop-lined streets around King's Cross Station she slowed to a crawl, staring at ragged holes and spills of safety glass.

  "Looks like we're late to the party," Noi said. "Looting: the new economy."

  Madeleine was shocked by the destruction: there was hardly a shopfront intact. Ki
ng's Cross had a certain reputation for a drugs-and-prostitution nightlife, but it was an ordinary enough inner-city suburb otherwise.

  "What would anyone need from a nail salon?" she wondered.

  "Cuticle crisis? Hangnail emergency?" Noi shook her head. "Let's do this quickly."

  Tucking her moped between two cars, she led the way into a Best & Less, snagging a couple of enviro-bags from a checkout. The store offered a full range of cheap, serviceable clothing, and there was no sign of whoever had broken the door open, so Madeleine quickly stuffed bags with clothing suitable for a Sydney winter, and slipped on a plum-coloured coat with a white lined hood.

  "Did you see a shoe store?" Noi asked, joining her at the door. "I want some serious boots."

  "Next to the chemists?"

  They left the unwieldy bags at the moped, and headed to an up-market shoe store, with a brief detour for chargers from a phone specialty shop. Madeleine quickly found sneakers and some comfortable slip-ons, then told Noi she'd be next door.

  The chemists was a disaster zone, and she hesitated at the door, not overly surprised at the mess. The scatter of items in the front of the store was nothing compared to the complete shambles at the back, where a pharmacist would dispense prescription medicine. But Madeleine didn't need anything serious, and slipped off her backpack to do a cautious tour, collecting aspirin, toothbrushes, tampons, and a couple of bottles of cough mixture in anticipation of flu season. Heading out, she paused and picked a box off a shelf, reading the label doubtfully.

  "They were four very fanciable boys weren't they?"

  Madeleine hastily tried to put the box back, but Noi plucked it from her hand.

  "No, no, it's just what I was thinking. Though I see this packet has Science Boy's name written all over it."

  Madeleine stared. "I didn't–"