Breach: Issue #03 The Zombie Issue

By Breach

We think every writer has a zombie story in them somewhere, and Breach's third issue celebrates all things zombie to serve up six helpings of brand new zombie fiction.

Piper Mejia gives us every parent's worst nightmare in Little Fingers, while Claire Fitzpatrick takes no prisoners in her apocalyptic gore-fest Eat. Peter Kirk tries out a new kind of undead entertainment in Exhibition Match, and Ronnie Smart delivers the moral conundrum of What Have You Done? Finish the meal with two light-hearted but no less horrifying tales - Mouse Diver-Dudfield's The Long Weekend and Arthur Robinson's The Mechanised Jewish Zombie Army Strikes Back.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Breach
• Release date: Oct 19, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370239283

Breach

Breach is bi-monthly online zine showcasing Australian and NZ writers and artists, with a lean to sci-fi and horror. Our focus is on new and emerging Australian and New Zealand writers and artists, and helping them get their work out into the world. Publishers of Alfie Simpson's "Sub-Urban" (Breach #07), winner of the Best Horror Short Story at the 2018 Aurealis Awards. Our stories have been shortlisted for numerous awards, including the Aurealis, Australian Shadows and the Sir Julius Vogel Awards. We only publish what we love and believe in and we champion our authors every way we can.

Book preview

Copyright © 2017 by each individual author as noted.

All rights reserved.

Published by Breach at Smashwords.

Cover Art by Oliver Hayes / Design by Peter Kirk

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. Thank you for respecting the hard work of our authors.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

Contents

Piper Mejia – Little Fingers

Claire Fitzpatrick – Eat

Peter Kirk – Exhibition Match

Ronnie Smart – What Have You Done?

Mouse Diver-Dudfield – The Long Weekend

Arthur Robinson – The Mechanised Jewish Zombie Army Strikes Back

Little Fingers

Piper Mejia

Piper Mejia is an advocate for New Zealand writers and literature. She is the co-editor of Write Off Line (2012/2013) and Beyond This… (2012/2013), both collections by New Zealand intermediate and secondary students. Her story Lockdown was shortlisted for the Sir Julius Vogel Award for science fiction and fantasy writing. As a child, Piper stayed up late laughing at horror films. As an adult, she spends a lot of time being disappointed by plot holes and yet somehow she has never lost her love for Science Fiction; the one genre that continues to ask the question What if …

Son, I swear I am going to murder you and bury you in the back yard if you don’t stop eating your fingers. The rear view mirror gives Maria a clear view of her son gnawing on the index finger of his left hand.

I was just cleaning them. See. David holds up both hands for inspection; the nails are mere slivers of pink against the red swollen finger tips.

Ew, no. Don’t show me. She flicks her attention back to the road, wiggling her shoulders to dislodge images of blood and bone. I just don’t understand how you can do that to yourself. Surely, it must bother you too.

Nope. He unzips the bag at his feet and pulls out an apple; the first bite cracks like bones snapping. He eats it down to the core, then eats the core too, one bite at a time.

Well, it’s not healthy. Think about all the germs you swallow from constantly putting unwashed fingers in your mouth. She flattens her hands against the steering wheel and admires her own recently manicured nails. You can tell a lot about a person by their hands, you know.

Yeah, like they spend too much time on their nails. Let me out here, Mum. David has the door half open before Maria comes to a full stop, a short distance from the high school. Is it okay to go to Craig’s after school?

Sure. I’ve got some errands to run and your dad’s working late so one of us will pick you up on our way home. She blows her son a kiss.

Thanks, David ducks the kiss and slams the door close.

Maria watches her only son lope across the road, greeting a trio of friends with hand clasps and should bumps. Ugh. How can they stand to touch him?

*

Maria: Did you pick up David?

Joe: No. Still at work.

Maria: OK. Leaving now. Will