Breach: Issue #08: NZ and Australian SF, Horror and Dark Fantasy

By Breach

Our 8th issue skews heavily to horror, covering a few different subgenres by some amazing writers. Deborah Sheldon (Contrition, Thylacines) starts things off with For Weirdless Days and Weary Nights, a dark tale about friends discovering an abandoned campsite.

Jessica Nelson-Tyers and David Stevens follow with Hit and Rot and Baby, Cold Outside, two stories that may make you think twice the next time you get in a car.

Ferne Merrylees' mournful fantasy Garage Sale of Lost and Unwanted Things offers a brief respite before William Cook's brutal Death Comes Calling.

Carlington Black's darkly comic The New Suit pits two men against each other, while Sam M. Phillips goes to a bleak place in Twisted Labyrinth.

Here we have a brilliant collection of stories from across Australia and New Zealand, by new, emerging and established authors.

And to top it off, regular contributor Claire Fitzpatrick shows off her art skills with her first Breach cover.

​Thank you for supporting independent publishing!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Breach
• Release date: Sep 26, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463421611

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

Issue #08

Science Fiction, Horror and Dark Fantasy from Australia and New Zealand.

ISSN 2209-2196

Copyright © 2018 by each individual author as noted.

All rights reserved.

Find us online at:

breachzine.com

facebook.com/breachzine

twitter.com/BartholemewFord

instagram.com/breach_magazine

Cover Art by Claire Fitzpatrick

Design and Layout by Bartholemew Ford

Edited by Peter Kirk

Published by Breach

Thank you for supporting independent publishers, writers and artists.

Contents

Deborah Sheldon – For Weirdless Days and Weary Nights

Jessica Nelson-Tyers – Hit and Rot

David Stevens – Baby, Cold Outside

Ferne Merrylees – Garage Sale of Lost and Unwanted Things

William Cook – Death Comes Calling

Carlington Black – The New Suit

Sam M. Phillips – Twisted Labyrinth

For Weirdless Days and Weary Nights

Deborah Sheldon

Deborah Sheldon writes across the darker spectrum of crime, noir and horror. Latest works include Contrition, Thylacines, and Perfect Little Stitches and Other Stories (Australian Shadows Best Collected Work 2017). Other credits include TV scripts, feature articles, non-fiction books and award-winning medical writing. Deb lives in Melbourne, Australia. Find out more at deborahsheldon.wordpress.com.

The six caravans, identical and single-berth, were arranged in a ring as if whispering to each other. Covered in mildew, abandoned bird nests, fallen twigs and branches; their tow bars and wheels settled into grass and desiccated leaves. Creepy, Hamilton thought. Not exactly what you’d expect to see in a forest. He consulted the map given out by Mrs Armstrong and read through her handwritten notes on Points of Interest. No mention of a shitty caravan park. He put the map back in his pocket. Manna gums, paperbarks and wattle trees surrounded the vans in a larger, looser ring. Everything was still and quiet.

His friends caught up to him.

Oh cool, an abandoned camp, Kyle said.

How do you know it’s abandoned? Susie said.

Kyle laughed. By using my eyes. Nobody’s touched those vans in years. He left the track and began making his way over. They circled their wagons just like in the movies.

Circled them against what? Hamilton said.

Click, click, click. Susie had already lifted her camera. "Not against anything, Ham. They probably gathered around a communal fire to keep warm and cook their food."

Susie followed Kyle into the clearing. Hamilton adjusted his backpack, tucked his thumbs beneath the straps to ease the chafing on his shoulders, and looked about the forest floor, half-expecting to see the vestiges of a bitumen road somewhere. Nope. Only the walking track through the tussocks and mat-rushes, the same worn ribbon of dirt they had been trudging all morning. His feet hurt. What this hike had to do with Chemistry, he couldn’t fathom.

How did they get the vans out here in the first place? he said.

Susie turned to make a face at him. By car, dumb-arse.

Oh, yeah? Show me the road, Einstein.

By helicopter then, Kyle said. Who the fuck cares? Come on and check it out.

Every caravan window appeared dark and blank. Sweat gathered on Hamilton’s lip. His feet didn’t want to move, and he stared down at them. At the edge of the clearing ran a line of mushrooms. Tall, grey fungi with caps the size of bread plates. The mushrooms seemed to hem the entire clearing. He kicked