The Annihilation of Foreverland

this came from.” Sid kicked dirt in his face. “You got to sleep sometime.”
    “So do you.”
    They laughed. Sid led the way toward the corner of the building where they’d sit their fat asses on the card table and yuck it up. Danny just needed to sit it out until they were gone. He was going to need stitches, but what would he tell Mr. Jones? The truth would probably help the most, but that seemed boring. Besides, Danny sensed the thrill beneath the throbbing in his face. And that’s what made him stand up.
    “You forgot something!” He took a shuffle-step to catch his balance then threw up his middle finger. “Take this to the game room with you.”
    Sid thought about it. It would be easier to let this one go, but everyone was watching and Danny hadn’t learned his lesson. And that was the whole point. How could Sid really be the king if a little punk gave him the finger and got away with it? If he walked off, Danny wins no matter how many stitches it takes.
    Danny sealed the deal when he threw his hands out to the side. Still standing, bitch.
    Sid got a running start.
    Danny bent at the knees, balled his fists. He was going to start swinging before Sid got too close. He had no plan after that. But it didn’t matter.
    Sid launched himself – feet first.
    Danny went flying like a limp doll. Before his wits returned, Sid was on top. He tasted gritty blood, now. Sid planted his knees on Danny’s arms, grinding them into the dirt and sat on his chest. Danny’s legs flailed behind Sid. He grabbed a handful of Danny’s hair and held his head still. A bubbly glob of spit hung on Sid’s lower lip, then fell.
    “How’s that, munchkin?” Sid said.
    The others gathered around. Their shadows loomed.
    “That loogey matches the one I dropped on you in the Haystack. That was from me and you’re welcome.”
    The snail slime when I woke up.
    The pain radiating from his arms had extinguished the thrill and replaced it with rage. But he was too small to do anything, helpless beneath 180 pounds of Sid. He tried to spit on him but it only landed on his own face.
    “Listen, you crazy dwarf. What I say goes. You’ll game and shut your bloody mouth or I’ll spit in your eye every day you wake up. You’ll be begging to get smoked when I’m done with you. You think you can out-crazy me? Well, I got news for you, I’m the real deal. I’m a psychopath. I’ll climb inside you and eat your damn gizzard.”
    Danny started laughing. Gizzard. What an idiot.
    This caught Sid off-guard. Danny’s cheek lit up with a loud smack. But it only made him laugh harder. He didn’t care about pain. Sid would have to break his teeth out to get him to shut up. And that’s what he was about to do, pulling his fist behind his ear— Sid went rolling across the ground.
    Elbows flying.
    Danny was back on his hands and knees, catching his breath, listening to grunts and the slap of skin-on-skin. Sid was on feet, dragging someone with him.
    Reed.
    His shirt was pulled over his head, revealing his bony chest. Sid pushed him into the group and two of them pinned his arms behind him. Reed’s face was gaunt. Yellow-darkness hung beneath his eyes. He was out of breath.
    “A hero, huh?” Sid paced closer. “Hold him still, let me show you what we do to heroes.”
    He pulled his fist behind his ear, again, lined up a shot that would break Reed’s entire face—
    They all dropped on the ground.
    Sid, Reed, and all the rest. They fell like dead bodies.
    “It’s all right, Danny Boy.” Mr. Jones was on one knee. “We got things under control.”
    Golf carts pulled up and old men unloaded, each one of them going to their camper. They rolled them over, cradled their heads. Their eyes were rolled back and the Investors talked to them. Slowly, they came out of the tracker-zapping stupor and their Investors – each with his own look of disapproval – guided them away.
    “Come along.” Mr. Jones helped Danny up. “Let’s get you to the doctor to have a look. Don’t worry about those boys, it’s all right now.”
    Each of them was up and being cared for, tended to. All of them, except one.
    Reed was alone and still unconscious.

34
    It was Danny’s second time inside the Chimney.
    Mr. Jones took him to the big, silver elevator shaft in the center of the first floor. He held Mr. Jones’s handkerchief to his mouth. It was white with major splotches of blood. They went to the second floor. Danny didn’t see a stairwell. Either Mr.