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  “Where are we?” she whispered, her tongue thick as a tree trunk, lips cracked and bleeding.

  “Out of the city, hopefully far enough to be safe,” Tyrone said. “I think you’re past the worst of it.”

  She wasn’t sure about that. She couldn’t feel the need gnawing at her, not like she usually could, but she’d never felt so weak in her life. As though she’d been hollowed out.

  “Can you stand?”

  She opened her mouth to say no, but instead of the word vomit poured forth, covering her and Tyrone both.

  It was night. The stars were a giant bowl above her. She was warm, dressed in clean clothes, bundled up in a real sleeping bag and lying before a fire. She could hear Tyrone beside her, his breathing audible over the crack and pop of the flames. He shifted slightly, “You think you can keep something down?”

  She hadn’t realised he knew she was awake. She nodded. Her belly felt empty but it wasn’t roiling. There was no acid running through her veins, or pinprick feeling against her skin. Her mind felt slow, but not fogged, just waking up.

  Tyrone’s arms were around her, helping her sit, and then he passed her a steaming clay mug. She pulled her arms out of the sleeping bag, letting it slip down to encircle her waist, continue cocooning her legs, and accepted the mug. It was warm against her hands, but didn’t burn, and the smell that came from it made her mouth water. “Is this?”

  “Cup-a-Soup,” Tyrone laughed. “I’ve been saving it for a special occasion.”

  She sipped it, the heat singed her tongue and the broth lit up her taste buds like nothing she’d had since the bombs. She could trace its path down her throat, to her belly, could feel the strength coming back to her with every drink.

  She looked over at Ty, but he was staring at something beyond the flames, and though it took a minute for her, eventually they came into focus. Hoodoos, a great set of them, silhouetted against the stars. “We’re in Drumheller?”

  He nodded. “I’ve always liked dinosaurs, and we’ve got a lot more in common with them these days. It seemed like a good place to come.”

  “For what?”

  “To rebuild. I thought—”

  “You thought?”

  “I thought this was the perfect place to start over. You with your stars, me with my dinos, but—”

  She looked at him until he turned away from the hoodoos to face her. “But?”

  “But I don’t want to keep you here against your will,” his accent seemed heavier, his voice thick. “I got you clean, did what I could to make amends, but now it’s up to you. I’ll take you back to the city if you want.”

  “What do you want?”

  “It may seem impossible but I want a chance at a life. With you.” he said, turning away and staring back at the hoodoos once more.

  What do you want? She asked again, this time of herself, and for the first time ever felt like the answer mattered, like it could change things.

  The sleeping bag around her was confining, and she shimmied out of it, discarding it on the ground in a lumpy pool. She stretched her arms toward the fire, reveling in its heat on her skin, the way the light danced across her body. Her legs, too, she stretched toward the flames, letting the cool breeze and the fire’s warmth play across them, dueling one another. It felt right. It felt clean. It felt like a fresh start. A new life.

  She let her eyes travel across the heavens and thought about how much could change in a week. In an instant. She thought about how men had once stood on the moon, flown through the stars. Once. Maybe someday they could again. “Anything is possible.”

  This story won the 2017 In Places Between short story contest and was originally published in the resulting anthology.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Rhonda Parrish is driven by a desire to do All The Things. She founded and ran Niteblade Magazine, is an Assistant Editor at World Weaver Press and is the editor of several anthologies including, most recently, Mrs. Claus and Equus.

  In addition, Rhonda is a writer whose work has been in publications such as Tesseracts 17: Speculating Canada from Coast to Coast and Imaginarium: The Best Canadian Speculative Writing (2012 & 2015). Her YA Thriller, Hollow, is forthcoming from Tyche Books.

  Her website, updated weekly, is at http://www.rhondaparrish.com

  ALSO AVAILABLE FROM RHONDA PARRISH

  Aphanasian Stories

  Three of Rhonda Parrish's beloved Aphanasian stories in one collection for the first time!

  A Love Story: Z'thandra, a swamp elf living with the Reptar, discovers a human near the village. When she falls in love with him, she faces a decision that will affect the Reptar for generations.

  Lost and Found: Xavier, the escaped subject of a madman's experiments, and Colby, a young lady on a mission to save her brother, combine their efforts to elude capture and recover the magical artifact that will save Colby's brother.

  Sister Margaret: A vampire hunter and a half-incubus swordsman are hired by a priestess to kill the undead pimp that is extorting, torturing and murdering vulnerable girls.

  .

  ALSO AVAILABLE FROM RHONDA PARRISH

  Haunted Hospitals (co-authored with Mark Leslie)

  A look inside the hospitals, asylums, and sanatoriums in which formal spectral residents refuse to move on.

  Hospitals are supposed to be places of healing, places of birth, and places of hope. But with all of the varying highs and lows that are experienced in these buildings, is it any wonder when echoes linger indefinitely? How about asylums, which house some of society’s worst offenders and troubled inmates, or sanatoriums, places where the mentally and physically ill find themselves trapped, even after death?

  Journey inside the history of these macabre settings and learn about the horrors from the past that live on in these frighteningly eerie tales from Canada, the United States, and around the world.

  ALSO AVAILABLE FROM RHONDA PARRISH

  Waste Not (And Other Funny Zombie Stories)

  This collection of three funny zombie stories nods to the tradition of combining zombies and humor and continues it.

  Waste Not - The coming of zombies forces humankind back to the land, to a simple lifestyle where ‘Waste Not, Want Not’ becomes more than a motto, it becomes the key to survival. And revenge.

  Feeders - The zombie apocalypse will affect more than just humans, explore the repercussions of walking dead through the eyes of a cat in this story guaranteed to make you smile.

  …Oh My! - What if the Wicked Witch of the West wasn’t killed by Dorothy’s house? What if she couldn’t be, because she was a zombie. Dun dun dun!

  ALSO AVAILABLE FROM RHONDA PARRISH

  White Noise — Poetry from the Zombie Apocalypse

  Watch the end of the world unfold in these twenty zombie-tastic poems by Rhonda Parrish. Experience the grime and the gore of the shambling, undead menace right alongside moments of hope and love.

  “A collection of vivid scenes laid out in sharp and articulate verse, that when assembled, construct a grim narrative filled with tension, stark imagery, and unusual beauty. WHITE NOISE reaches in and evokes a visceral response— not always the one you'd expect.”

  —Tim Deal, Shroud Quarterly

  .

  ANTHOLOGIES EDITED BY RHONDA PARRISH

  Available Now

  A IS FOR APOCALYPSE

  B IS FOR BROKEN

  C IS FOR CHIMERA

  D IS FOR DINOSAUR

  FAE

  CORVIDAE

  SCARECROW

  SIRENS

  EQUUS

  MRS. CLAUS: NOT THE FAIRY TALE THEY SAY

  METASTASIS

  NITEBLADE MAGAZINE

  Coming Soon

  E IS FOR EVIL

  F IS FOR [REDACTED]

  TESSERACTS TWENTY-ONE: NEVERTHELESS

  FIRE: DEMONS, DRAGONS AND DJINNS

  GRIMM, GRIT AND GASOLINE

  (Links to go Amazon but most titles available at Kobo, B&N & iBooks).

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  Rhonda Parrish, Starry Night