The Annihilation of Foreverland

girly.”
    “How do you know it’s real?”
    He shrugged, again. “I don’t, but it makes sense. We’re a boys’ camp and they’re a girls’ camp. Why not?”
    Danny looked at the face in the doodle. She was different than the rest. Maybe she wasn’t real.
    “But how do you know?” he said. “Who says that this, right here, isn’t real? Maybe this is the dream.”
    Zin shook his head, took another sip and grimaced.
    “I mean, what proof do I have that any of this is real? Maybe this is just another Foreverland that we think we woke up in and we’re really still in a dark room somewhere freezing our asses off while we wander around another Foreverland—”
    “Look! This is real!” Zin slammed his juice down. “It just is, so get that through your little punctured skull, all right? This is real, Foreverland is real, it’s all real.” He grabbed the paper and held it up to Danny’s face. “She’s real, too, Danny Boy. You know why?”
    Danny backed off.
    “Because we got nothing else. It’s just this, and that’s all. My girl is real, you got it? Stop pissing all over my party, why don’t you?”
    He finished the drink in one long sip and crushed the carton on the table. His leg was shaking. Then he got up and left.
    Sid didn’t see any of it, just figured Zin was making an early exit for the game room. In seconds, all of them followed Zin out. Everyone on the island had a nerve, Zin once told him.
    Danny just stepped on Zin’s.

15
    Danny woke early for the second round.
    Mr. Jones walked him to the Haystack. They walked inside without introductions from another clipboard carrier as the last bell faded.
    Danny wasn’t nervous until the air inside hit him and the steel fan loomed overhead and the smell of dank misery crawled up his nose. By the time he reached his cell, his insides had turned to jelly. Mr. Jones had sensed his hesitancy and placed a firm comforting hand on his shoulder. Danny turned quickly into his cell to get away. He waited until everyone was inside their cells before getting undressed, doing it quickly and folding everything neatly so that Mr. Jones would leave.
    “Hey, Danny Boy,” Sid shouted. “I want you fully lucid this time and get to the sundial, my man. You hear? Once you’re inside the needle, none of this exploring crap like a new poke, you stay in the Yard and meet us at the sundial. We need to clock some real kills in the game, son. We only need to stay in first place another week!”
    Someone whooped and shouted, “ FIRST PLACE !”
    And then everyone joined the seemingly random celebration.
    “Zin, you, too!” Sid shouted above the melee. “You be at the sundial, boy, or I’ll dot both your eyes. You’re screwing with my time if you get lost inside the needle.”
    And the chant continued. FIRST PLACE ! FIRST PLACE !
    “What’s the obsession with the game?” Danny said.
    Zin was already sitting on the floor with his back straight. “There’s a reward for any team that captures first place for three straight weeks. They drop the needle as soon as we get here. No getting naked and no suffering.”
    “Why didn’t anyone tell me?” Danny grabbed the bars. He wanted to pull them apart and throttle Zin sitting so composed and unmoved. No suffering? I’d be in that game room every waking second!
    “Bad luck to tell you,” Zin said. “It’s a jinx.”
    Danny wanted to argue, but he was right. They were in first.
    “Don’t fight it, Danny Boy.” Zin took a deep breath. “Suffering is part of life. Either way, we go inside the needle.”
    “You mean you like this?”
    “Hell, no. But it doesn’t matter how I feel.” Another deep breath. “Be here, no matter what.”
    “Fine.” Danny crossed his arms and began pacing. “If you want to freeze your ass off, be my guest. I want out.”
    Reed was standing in his cell with his back to Danny. He was as motionless as Zin was sitting. The skylights began to turn, followed by another round of cheers. Light faded. Darkness settled like thick soup. Forms disappeared. Voices became bodiless chatter.
    The second round had begun.

    “Danny Boy?”
    Zin’s voice was soft, blending in with the docile conversations that were beginning to trail off into the silence of impending pain.
    “The game, it’s a waste of time,” he said. “We’re going to explore once we’re inside the needle. I’m going to give you the tour, show you Foreverland.”
    Danny resumed breathing like Zin had taught him.