Foreverland Is Dead

saw all of them: girls that had wasted their lives. The old women were just taking a body had already been abandoned by the mind. A body is a terrible thing to waste.
    “Time to go,” Linda says.
    The girls come down the slope, their laughter ahead of them. Linda doesn’t mean it’s time to leave the hill. It’s time to leave the camp. Forever .
    Kat, Mad, and Jen have family. They have brothers or sisters, uncles, cousins…someone in the world who wants them. Roc, it turns out, is eighteen. She doesn’t need family. She can go right back to her crappy life. They’ll keep an eye on her for some time. Probably forever. Some government official had informed them that they would be compensated for their pain and suffering with funds confiscated from the Fountain of Youth operation.
    We’re talking millions.
    Cyn’s memories about her stepfather were legitimate. Evidently, she was removed from the home by Family Services and placed with a foster family. She didn’t stay long, though; she was reported missing a month after she arrived. She doesn’t remember much of that, and the memories are coming back slowly. She’s not going back to Ohio, though. She’ll go somewhere else that has the funds to support her.
    For now, she’s going back with Linda. Cyn hopes it’s more than just temporary.
    The girls climb into the back of the vehicle.
    “Can we make a detour?” Cyn asks.
    “Depends.”
    “It’s not far.” She points down the slope at a line of trees. “I just need to see something.”
    Linda checks her watch. “I think we can manage. Hop in.”
    The vehicle is weighted in the back, but they’re going over smooth terrain, straight downhill. She taps Linda on the shoulder and points at the gap in the trees.
    Cyn climbs out.
    The short hairs on the back of her neck tingle. She’s afraid to move, afraid that it will mean that her worst fears are true. But she finds the courage to take a step toward the opening. She holds her hand out, reaching for a feeling she’ll recognize in the lump still in her neck.
    Fear stiffens her arm.
    She steps onto the road, the tracks still on the ground. The same road she encountered in the dream, where the world ends. She walks several feet down it and turns around.
    Drops her arm.
    The girls are watching her from the vehicle.
    Cyn lets out a deep breath. Smiles. Nothing tingles, nothing stops her. And the gray is still in the dream. And this is not the dream.
    She’s ready to start a new life in the real world. She’s convinced it really is out there. And she’s in it. At least this layer.
    “Looking for a dead body?” Kat shouts.
    The girls don’t get out of the vehicle. They stay in the back, chatting away. Cyn considers walking a little farther, wonders if she can stay out here a bit longer, maybe wander down the road and get lost for a while; just be with her thoughts and the promise of a brighter future. It just feels so good to be back in the flesh, in the real world.
    “What was the name of the old lady that had the leather journal?” Kat asks. “The one that sponsored Cyn?”
    There’s discussion. Linda answers. “Her name was Barbara.”
    “Yes?” Cyn says.
    But it wasn’t that she was agreeing with her. It happened so fast, so naturally. No one heard her. Not even Linda. But Cyn knows what happened. She almost collapses with the realization that she answered to the name.
    She answered to Barbara.
    Oh, Sweet Jesus.

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Novels by Tony Bertauski

CLAUS
    Claus: Legend of the Fat Man
    Frost: The Rise of Jack ( Coming this fall!)

FOREVERLAND
    The Annihilation of Foreverland
    Foreverland is Dead
    Beyond Foreverland ( Coming!)

HALFSKIN
    Halfskin
    Clay ( Coming!)
    M0therland (Coming!)