AustLit

'The Mountain on the planet of Icefall holds the mystery to a lost colony and an irresistible, fatal allure to the climbers of the universe. Maggie is determined to be the first to make the summit. Aisha, injured in a climbing incident herself, has always supported her wife, trusting Maggie would return from her adventures. But no one ever returns from the Mountain.'

Source: Press release (http://www.twelfthplanetpress.com/news/announcing-new-novella-icefall-stephanie-gunn). (Sighted: 18/01/2018)

After a flu sweeps the country and leaves most of the population dead, Georgie cares for her two younger sisters and worries for their cystic fibrosis: Annalee had lung transplants before the epidemic and only needs medicine, while Eliza is severely ill. They stay in their house, self-quarantined.

A call comes from the hospital, informing them they have lung transplants ready for Eliza. The sisters travel into inner Melbourne, where they meet a girl, Mari, with an unnamed baby. Mari leaves the baby with them and commits suicide as they're about to reach the hospital.

The hospital is bombed-out, and Eliza reveals that the phone call was a recording she kept from before the epidemic. Annalee is growing more ill as her body rejects the lung transplant, and they're running out of medicine. Eliza faked the calls to get them out of the house. As Georgie begins to despair, the phone rings.

Described by the author as a 'weird steampunk dystopia novelette'.

Source: Author's blog (http://stephaniegunn.com/tag/escapement/). (Sighted: 10/01/2017)

A man sacrifices himself to save his beloved, fearing that she is at risk from the darkness within him.

A woman comes to terms with her reasons for enduring a violent marriage.