Tag: new zealand

All Stories, General Fiction, Historical

The Sound That Nothing Makes by Alain Kerfs

literallystories2014

Stephens Island, New Zealand, January 1894

A small brown bird, mouse-like in size and attitude, tucks under clumps of wind grass, scrapes delicate ruts in moist ground. Nearby ocean spray cloaks shore rocks and humpback blows punctuate the sea surface.

A foreign sound. The bird stops, more curious than afraid, peers past grass blades. On a rocky clearing, motion. An upright creature on sturdy legs, with arms capable of lifting and pulling and throwing. More than a dozen of these creatures, different sizes, dispersing into recently erected wooden structures beneath a tall column, cloud-white, capped with a small sun that flares out into the grey mist.

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All Stories, General Fiction, Short Fiction

New Zealand’s Immortal Citizen by Frank Beyer

literallystories2014

A story about life extension

Wanaka on a September day, the sun is shining and its fifteen degrees Celsius. The ski season is over in this resort town, but the mountains surrounding Lake Wanaka still have a good covering of snow. The lake itself is of a bright blue seen in New Zealand’s South Island. The brilliance of the colour depends on the minerals present. Outside the town, near the pepply lakefront or up in the lower reaches of the mountains, are a number of architectural oddities. Dream houses of billionaires with vision but sometimes lacking architectural good taste. Squashed domes and rhombohedrons are favourite shapes, many of these houses are now abandoned. Unlike like a lot of the planet, the population here has never been high, no squatters have moved in to enjoy faded luxury. Foreigners, mainly Americans, have been building bunkers here for sixty years – but in the last five people have actually started to live in them. Unamused locals have observed the long preparation for the apocalypse has finally caused it to happen. Some of the wealthy, unable to let go of their mansions, have built bunkers right underneath them… Peter, a longtime resident of Wanaka, is one of these.

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