The Annihilation of Foreverland

Danny reached through the bars, losing sight of the limping man. “YOU HEARTLESS BASTARD!”
    Light cut through the Haystack as the door at the end of the aisle opened. Danny turned away as it hit him in the face, but for a moment he saw Reed’s quivering hands and the shackles squeezing his thumbs. He didn’t see the expression of agony. But he heard it.
    Danny paced back and forth. Reed’s pained breathing was worse than anything inside the Haystack. He’d rather they come put the thumb shackles on him.
    There was nothing he could do.
    He had to find the girl.
    Danny pulled the lucid gear from the top. It whined as the cord unreeled to the floor. He dropped hard on the concrete and pulled it quickly over his head. The needle numbed his forehead, searching for the stent.
    Before it jolted inside his brain, before he arched off the pavement, he muttered something to Reed. He doubted he would hear it.
    “I’m sorry.”
    And then the needle took him.

27
    Danny visualized a spot.
    He imagined it was a glowing dot floating in the darkness where he was drifting. He put his breath into it. One. Two. Three.
    It abolished thoughts.
    It brought focus. Presence.
    And when he felt his body forming near the sundial, he willed it to become numb. There would be no pain when Sid pulled out his intestines. He would melt like water and blow like wind. Nothing would hurt him.
    The grass was beneath him. Sunlight and wind. And the screaming of engines.
    Danny opened his eyes.
    An asphalt racetrack circled the Yard and rocket-shaped cars roared around it, disappearing into the trees. The engines called from the jungle and soon wound around him before reentering the Yard behind him and making another lap.
    He was alone. Sid was nowhere to be seen. Maybe he got bored. Or perhaps he was setting a trap. Didn’t matter. Danny needed to get to the business of finding a Christmas present. And it would be much easier if he was invisible when he did it.
    He put both hands on the sundial and felt the power vibrate through his arms. He pictured the focal dot and willed transparency to enter his body. What was his body other than data, really? Danny knew how to handle data. It helped to think of it that way, that he was computer code that needed to be manipulated. He breathed in and out, in and out.
    Opened his eyes.
    He was still there, but he could see the sundial through his hands.
    “Translucency. Okay, close enough.”
    He wasn’t invisible, but he’d faded enough that no one would notice unless they we re looking right at him. He crou ched down and – as the rocket cars came around – leaped into the sky.

    Danny hovered just inside a cloud.
    The gray haze on the horizon seemed closer than it did the last time. No one would see him, especially being half-faded. As long as no one flew into him, he could stay there all day. Since it seemed everyone was part of the race, he took his time.
    The track serpentined around the entire island – through the trees and over the cliffs. The rocket cars even made a loop into the water. Occasionally, one would fire a weapon and there would be an explosion and parts flying.
    The only other oddity about the island was tiny lights twinkling on top of random trees. He floated around the cloud and willed his vision to zoom on one of the trees. It appeared to be a star set on top, along with smaller lights strung from the branches.
    Christmas trees. They’re all Christmas trees.
    It would’ve been an easy clue to follow, but there was easily a hundred of them scattered over the island. Even one that appeared to be floating out at sea. He cloud-hopped around the sky, zooming in on several trees but couldn’t make out any substantial differences.
    “I’m going to have to go down,” he muttered to no one. Then said like he was the one answering, “Yep, going to have to go down.”
    The sun was already falling toward the horizon. Time in Foreverland went faster than it did in the flesh. He had wasted half of Foreverland’s day in the Haystack. Maybe he already blew it.
    He dropped from the sky and hit the ground like a stone. He was able to quell the pain from the impact. He was getting the hang of it. He dusted off the dirt and stared at the twenty foot tall Christmas tree that shaded a dozen red-wrapped gifts. Nothing else was around. There was no time to waste.
    Danny began ripping open presents.

    He had been to nearly fifty trees. Each one had a pile of gifts that he tore open to find more