Amongst the Gum Trees

A Horror Short Story

She took her foot off the accelerator and the howl of the dry wind subsided. The horizon shimmered, and a glint on the country road formed into a clean hatchback, parked to the side. A figure leaned against it. She kept one hand on the wheel while she reached over to the passenger seat and picked up a shoebox. It clattered with a sharp metallic tone as she dropped it onto one of the booster seats in the back. Squinting into the sun, she surveyed the landscape from the driver's side window. Dull green fields unfolded out to where the pale blue sky, devoid of clouds, began to surrender to amber hues.

The Landcruiser, coated in a layer of reddish-brown dust, came to a halt beside the sleek navy hatchback that looked like a toy car in comparison. Both tyres on the driver’s side were deflated and rims gouged into the dirt. The young man leaning against it jumped, dropping his phone on the ground. He cursed under his breath as he picked it up.

“Hey,” she called out across the passenger seat. “You right?”

He looked up from his phone and gave her a once-over, judging her sunburnt face and her faded denim jacket. He waved his phone in the air.

“Yeah, nah, I'm good," he said. He flailed the phone in the air.

His eyes fell back to his phone. She scanned the road ahead, then out westward horizon. An arid breeze did little to cool her from the sun’s rays. At the edge of the road, the grasses were a gradient of yellow and green. A desiccated joey, its mouth twisted in a silent scream, lay half-buried and riddled with the withered roots of a tree long since gone. Tightening her grip on the wheel, she swallowed some spit to ease her throat.

“Mate, this is a dead spot. There’s a hill not far from my property that gets some reception. Hop in and I'll take you there, call for a tow.”

The strained smile on her face dissolved as the young man continued to fixate on his phone. She bit her bottom lip and drew a deep breath through her nose.

“The nearest town is fifty kays away and it's gonna be dark soon.”

He looked down the desolate road ahead, using the phone in his hand to cast his eyes in shadow. He nodded then retrieved a bag from the hatchback before locking the doors.

“Thanks,” he said as he climbed into the passenger seat. She pressed the peddle, and the engine roared back to life. Parched air filled the cabin as the heavy 4x4 tyres droned on bitumen.

“My name is—”

She double-clutched, forcing the beast to shudder. Cutting him off. She didn’t want to know his name. He slunk back to the isolation of his phone. As the cruiser ventured further down the road, vast patches of yellow took hold in the landscape. Scattered across the plain, bleached shrubs stood as sentinels and tracks of shallow craters wandered.

The constant thrum of the engine filled the cab. She hated moments like this. That awkward silence. She knew it would be better to say nothing and keep her distance. Just get the job done. Like she’s done before. But the silence always ate away at her.

“Gone a bit out of the way?”

Pressing his lips together, he placed his phone face down on his lap and watched the road unfold before him. “Yeah. The highway was backed up, so I thought I'd go around.”

“You’re not the first,” she said. “There’s a lot of crap like nails and debris falling off trucks around here. Heaps of cars get a flat or two on these roads.”

“Great,” he said as he turned his gaze out of the passenger window, his fingernail started tapping on the back of his phone. She slowed down and turned off onto a smaller road. The cracked bitumen gave way to crimson soil. Fields of withered and broken grasses dominated. Devoid of vitality and drained of all colours. The windshield filled with a copper sky as the sun sank in the distance. She tightened her grip on the steering wheel as the knot in her stomach grew tighter. They were getting close.

“Are we going the right way?”

“Not far,” she said. “Where were you heading?”

“Huh? Oh, um. Melbourne.”

“Nice. You live there?”

“No, seeing family for the holidays.”

“That’s good. Family is important.”

“Not really,” he turned his phone over.

Petrified fenceposts lining the road cast elongated shadows, and their passing became a metronome, counting them down.  Emaciated gum trees edged closer to the road as a hill rose in the distance.

“I bet your mother will be happy to see you.”

His eyebrow raised slightly. The sharp scent of eucalyptus assailed her nose, causing her body to tense up. Stray saplings stood in the field.

“I bet she’d do anything to protect her family.”

Her eyes were drawn to the clumps of gum trees amassed on the hill ahead. She brought the Landcruiser to an abrupt halt base of the rise and crimson dust engulfed the vehicle for a moment before the sickly air cast it off into the immensity of the landscape.

“Just up there,” she pointed with her chin. “Where those trees are.”

He climbed out and made his way towards the incline, phone still clutched in his hand. Waving with gnarled branches, the gum trees swayed from side to side, welcoming him. Their roots writhed and twisted, like serpents slithering through the soil.

He trudged up the hill with eyes glued to his phone, oblivious to the gum trees that encircle him. Roots and branches pulled, tore, and dragged their catch into the soil. She waited until the screams were swallowed by the earth. Blood and bone is the best fertiliser, and that would keep her family safe, for now.

Home, amongst the gum trees.

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