This story was inspired by the whimbrel. A migratory estuary bird that breeds on the east coast of Australia in summer and then flies to the Northern hemisphere to the Arctic in Autumn. I became fascinated with the many birds that come to the small seaside town I grew up in to breed and eat in the estuaries one year when I found out how far they fly. It seemed impossible, yet they do it, year after year.  'Half of Midnight on an Empty Ocean' is one of five stories written for an anthology of dystopian short stories written for Young Adults, for my Masters of Secondary Education minor thesis.