A man walked through the dense Australian bushland, sweating heavily. His long brown hair was tied back a loose ponytail that swished as he walked. A torrent of flies would swarm anxiously whenever it whipped past.

"After all this time, the flies still aren't any better..."

He stood at an imposing 193cm with broad shoulders to match. Fairly average looking, his best feature was often said to be his piercing grey eyes. Sometimes, they would seemingly change to a bright blue, which had caused more than one girl to momentarily hold their breath in awe as they looked at them for the first time.

Stopping for a moment to catch his breath, he took a quick drink from a bottle hanging off of his pack.

"Ahh, I've been in this shitty bush for around 6 months now... This hellhole... It's probably not even 10am and it's already at LEAST 40 degrees (c)! On the bright side, today is the day I'll finally get out of here, no more starving in the heat."

He capped his bottle and wiped his chin, feeling the rough stubble on his face.

"I haven't even managed to grow a decent beard in all this time..."

Walking for a few more minutes, he stumbled into his campsite. A single dome tent was pitched a few meters from a small, clear river that flowed through a hidden valley. A giant Eucalyptus tree provided the only shade in the area around his camp.

"I guess I'll finish tidying up while the fire starts going, then work while it's cooking."

Nodding at his plan, he set the wood in the firepit ablaze, then went into his tent and put his compound-bow away. He folded up his sleeping bag and grabbed a long coil of rope on his way out.

Climbing up the enormous Eucalyptus, he managed to find a safe perch on a low branch and tied the rope firmly at one end. He gave it a tug to test it would hold and was satisfied with his knot. He lowered his weight onto the rope, testing it, before climbing down fully.

After returning to the fire to add more fuel, he went to quickly skin and clean the spoils of his morning hunt; A small feral pig. Not the greatest meat to eat if you can't cook it properly, as it's full of parasites, but at this point he was starving!

He had been hunting almost every day this month and yet this tiny pig was his first catch.

Honestly, he was lucky to have gotten it at all. Perhaps it had been abandoned? It was the first bit of edible wildlife he had even heard, let alone seen in the last 2 weeks. The bushlands around his camp were eerily quiet, besides the usual whine of cicada's and the chuckling of running water.

"Ahh well, won't matter soon. I'll enjoy what I've got here and now. Food is food."

He polished off the entire roast piglet without any guilt over his gluttony. Not eating in 2 weeks would make anyone the same! His clothing and hands were covered in grease, so he washed himself clean at the river. Standing there under the scorching sun, he took a moment to enjoy the feeling of the cool, flowing water on his skin.

"Ok, enough stalling, it's time to do this."

He walked over to the Eucalyptus tree, grabbing a chair on his way over and placing it under the rope.

"Now I rest."

He pulled the noose calmly over his head and tightened it. At that moment, the only thing he could feel was an intense sense of peace. No big regrets, he just wanted eternal sleep.

As he jumped off the stool, there was a feeling of weightless for a second before * SNAP * the rope went taut.

As he struggled, his last conscious thoughts were: “Well shit, should have made the rope longer...”