It took a special kind of man to ride out into dense scrubland hunting escaped convicts, but Tyrek Lind knew he’d never be that soldier. He inhaled sharply as a cluster of eucalyptus brushed past his face; a scent he knew would strengthen as the Tinderbox sun climbed over the forest canopy. He loathed it; the wilderness, the witless horse beneath him. His fear of these ominous, overgrown hills was boundless.

Fear that ran its chill finger down his spine in the dead of night, the fear of being lost while a dead man’s boots trod in his wake, a ghost seeking retribution.

You can read the rest of my short story ‘Done and Darbie’d’ in The Never Never Land, edited by Mitchell Akhurst, Phillip Berrie and Ian McHugh.