AntipodeanSF Issue 313

By Tim Borella

If the boss said the new guy’s name, Hempel can’t remember it. No matter. New Guy will do. The kid seems to know his way around a chainsaw, but Hempel hates him already. Long hair, weedy. Talks like a know-it-all student. The kind you’d expect to find chained to a big old tree, not cutting it down.

Lohan Logging doesn’t bother with fancy safety rules, and surprisingly, New Guy doesn’t argue when Hempel orders him to ditch the goggles and hi-vis. They bounce deep into old growth, Hempel wrestling the banged-up jeep while the kid gapes like a hick seeing skyscrapers for the first time. The massed foliage mutes bright sunlight, giving New Guy’s pasty skin a greenish cast.

They work all day, dropping mountain ash with branches that are as big as trunks themselves. Hempel sweats and puffs, ready to down tools when the sun dips. New Guy can work, he’ll give him that.

Then the damn jeep won’t start. 

“Nobody’s gonna come lookin’ till tomorrow,” Hempel says. “Make yourself useful and build a fire, numb-nuts.”

But when darkness falls, another fire flickers through the trees. They investigate. Campers shouldn’t be here. What in hell? In a clearing, a circle of naked people, leaves and feathers in their hair. Mostly women.

“Holy shit,” Hempel breathes. “Suit yourself, New Guy, but I’m making some new hippie friends.”

They don’t seem surprised. Instead of hiding their bodies, the women smile, offering food and wine.

Some hazy time later, Hempel’s naked too, warm, feeling no pain. What’s in that liquor? Now they’re carrying him to a corral of logs, throwing him over the rail. He drags himself up, recoiling from a press of other male bodies. One rushes up, swinging, and suddenly he’s fighting for his life. They all have his face.

Hempel punches, kicks and bites until he can fight no more. Unbelievably, he’s the last one standing. He’s dragged out and dumped in front of a tall, regal woman. His prize? No, her green eyes are icy, like her voice. “So, you survive your first challenge, not that you deserve to. Now go on, if you can.”

They bind Hempel to a huge ash with plaited vines. Insects bite and burrow into his body; choking weeds wind around him. Rain starts, growing from patter to deluge. Water rises higher and higher until his head’s tilted back, only nostrils showing. Hours pass, or it could be years.

The water recedes at last, but there’s no proper relief. A burning sun takes its place, fixed overhead, blistering Hempel’s tortured, wrinkled skin. The now-dry grass chars and catches fire. As the flamefront approaches, acrid smoke fills his lungs. There’s no more defiance left in him. He slumps, utterly spent.

But somehow he still lives, surrounded by a press of forest people with green-tinged hair and skin, fur, even wings. The tall woman takes him by the chin, forcing him to look at her. Now she has antlers. “Destroyer! The challenges you’ve faced are as nothing compared to those of the majestic giants all around us. From germination, every minute of their existence is competition — fire, flood, drought; an endless fight to reach maturity. Then you come! I see your shrivelled soul. You won’t learn; you’ll just keep killing. And so it must end.”

She nods, and a man steps forward. It’s New Guy, naked, with a thorny crown and a glistening chainsaw. “Call me Pan,” he says, cold-eyed. 

Hempel’s scream becomes a sickening gurgle as the roaring, hungry saw bites into his neck.

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About the Author

tim borellaTim Borella is an Australian author, mainly of short speculative fiction published in anthologies, online and in podcasts.

He’s also a songwriter, and has been fortunate enough to have spent most of his working life doing something else he loves, flying.

Tim lives with his wife Georgie in beautiful Far North Queensland. For more information, visit his Tim Borella – Author Facebook page.

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Issue Contributors

The AntiSF Radio Show

antipod-show-50Our weekly podcast features the stories from recently published issues, often narrated by the authors themselves.

Listen to the latest episode now:

The AntipodeanSF Radio Show is also broadcast on community radio, 2NVR, 105.9FM every Sunday evening at 7:00pm.

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Meet the Narrators

  • Tim Borella

    tim borellaTim Borella is an Australian author, mainly of short speculative fiction published in anthologies, online and in podcasts.

    He’s also a songwriter, and has been fortunate enough to have spent most of his working life doing something else he loves, flying.

    Tim lives with his wife Georgie in beautiful Far

    ...
  • Geraldine Borella

    geraldine borella 200Geraldine Borella writes fiction for children, young adults and adults. Her work has been published by Deadset Press, IFWG Publishing, Wombat Books/Rhiza Edge, AHWA/Midnight Echo, Antipodean SF, Shacklebound Books, Black Ink Fiction, Paramour Ink Fiction, House of Loki and Raven & Drake

    ...
  • Carolyn Eccles

    carolyn eccles 100

    Carolyn's work spans devising, performance, theatre-in-education and a collaborative visual art practice.

    She tours children's works to schools nationally with School Performance Tours, is a member of the Bathurst physical theatre ensemble Lingua Franca and one half of darkroom —

    ...
  • Sarah Jane Justice

    Sarah Jane Justice 200Sarah Jane Justice is an Adelaide-based fiction writer, poet, musician and spoken word artist.

    Among other achievements, she has performed in the National Finals of the Australian Poetry Slam, released two albums of her original music and seen her poetry

    ...
  • Sarah Pratt

    sarah pratt 200Sarah Pratt is an avid fiction writer and a Marketing Consultant.

    She is currently working on her first novel but loves diving into short stories to bring a little lightness, intrigue or humour to the day.

    Her work has appeared in Sponge Magazine and The Commuting

    ...
  • Alistair Lloyd

    alistair lloyd 200Alistair Lloyd is a Melbourne based writer and narrator who has been consuming good quality science fiction and fantasy most of his life.

    You may find him on Twitter as <@mr_al> and online at <...

  • Merri Andrew

    merri andrew 200Merri Andrew writes poetry and short fiction, some of which has appeared in Cordite, Be:longing, Baby Teeth and Islet, among other places.

    She has been a featured artist for the Noted festival, won a Red Room #30in30 daily poetry challenge and was shortlisted for the

    ...
  • Chuck McKenzie

    chuck mckenzie 200Chuck McKenzie was born in 1970, and still spends much of his time there.

    He also runs the YouTube channel 'A Touch of the Terrors', where — as 'Uncle Charles' — he performs readings of his favourite horror tales in a manner that makes most ham actors

    ...
  • Marg Essex

    marg essex 200Margaret lives the good life on a small piece of rural New South Wales Australia, with an amazing man, a couple of pets, and several rambunctious wombats.

    She feels so lucky to be a part of the AntiSF team.

    ...

  • Michelle Walker

    michelle walker32My time at Nambucca Valley Community Radio began back in 2016 after moving into the area from Sydney.

    As a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, I recognised it was definitely God who opened up the pathways for my husband and I to settle in the Valley.

    Within

    ...
  • Ed Errington

    ed erringtonEd lives with his wife plus a magical assortment of native animals in tropical North Queensland.

    His efforts at wallaby wrangling are without parallel — at least in this universe.

    He enjoys reading and writing science-fiction stories set within intriguing, yet plausible contexts, and invite readers’ “willing suspension of

    ...
  • Laurie Bell

    lauriebell 2 200

    Laurie Bell lives in Melbourne, Australia and is the author of "The Stones of Power Series" via Wyvern's Peak Publishing: "The Butterfly Stone", "The Tiger's Eye" and "The Crow's Heart" (YA/Fantasy).

    She is also the author of "White Fire" (Sci-Fi) and "The Good, the Bad and the Undecided" (a

    ...
  • Mark English

    mark english 100Mark is an astrophysicist and space scientist who worked on the Cassini/Huygens mission to Saturn. Following this he worked in computer consultancy, engineering, and high energy research (with a stint at the JET Fusion Torus).

    All this science hasn't damped his love of fantasy and science fiction. It has, however, ruined his

    ...
  • Barry Yedvobnick

    barry yedvobnick 200Barry Yedvobnick is a recently retired Biology Professor. He performed molecular biology and genetic research, and taught, at Emory University in Atlanta for 34 years. He is new to fiction writing, and enjoys taking real science a step or two beyond its known boundaries in his

    ...
  • Emma Gill

    Emma Louise GillEmma Louise Gill (she/her) is a British-Australian spec fic writer and consumer of vast amounts of coffee. Brought up on a diet of English lit, she rebelled and now spends her time writing explosive space opera and other fantastical things in

    ...