The Annihilation of Foreverland

started for the bed.
    “Ah-ah-ah.” Danny pulled the hard chair from the desk. “Have a seat, my friend. You’re eating and then we’re going to the Yard. If your skin gets any lighter, you’ll officially be Caucasian.”
    “I didn’t realize it was that easy.”
    “You see yourself lately? You’re a ghost.”
    “Well, that’s how I feel.” He fell into the chair and limply unwrapped the sandwich. He leaned back and chewed with his mouth open. “This sucks, dude.”
    “Sorry. I would’ve taken your order but you were busy snoring.”
    “Not this.” Zin held up the sandwich. “I feel like I’m barely here, like a puppet down to one string. I can barely remember anything. It’s like everything that was me is still in Foreverland.”
    “Right now, get some of this highly nutritious food in you and stop complaining. We can get to the Yard and if we got time we can chase Sid around.”
    Zin was still awake but the distant gaze fogged over his eyes while he stuffed chips in his mouth. Danny had learned not to push. It was better to let him zone out from time to time. He was more responsive afterwards. As long as he was awake, he’d eventually come back. Danny pulled his notes out of his pocket. It wasn’t much and he didn’t need anything written down. It would be better to destroy it. He took a pen from the desk drawer and blacked out all the words.
    “What’s that?” Zin shot food out with the words.
    “Nothing, just ideas.”
    Danny wadded up the paper and tossed it in the air, playing catch with himself. He couldn’t decide which idea to go with. Maybe he could bounce them off Zin, he would know what to do, but it wasn’t worth the chance. He was going to disappear after the next round and who knows if he talked in his sleep. He might blab the whole plan to his Investor and Danny would be screwed to the max.
    Zin finished the sandwich and opened the pudding. “Maybe I can help.”
    He was behind on the conversation.
    “You want to see these?”
    Zin shrugged.
    Danny went into a wind-up – an exaggerated kick – and threw a fastball right at him. It was a trick throw. When he brought his arm back, he flipped the paperball behind his back and threw an empty hand. Zin still didn’t flinch.
    Instead a fastball hitting him square in the face, it gently lobbed from behind his back and bounced off Zin’s chest.
    Danny stared at it. Something happened. It was déjà-vu, he’d seen someone do that before. He learned it… from his father? He used to do that when he was a kid and it scared him the first time. The fake fastball, he called it. And when Danny’s cousins came over, he’d do it to them and they’d laugh when they flinched. The fake fastball always tricked them. Always hit them right in the face. They never saw it coming.
    It wasn’t Danny’s memory, but it didn’t matter.
    “That’s what I’m going to do,” Danny muttered. “Only I’m going to hit them right in the face with the fastball.”
    “What?”
    “Nothing, nothing.” Danny nodded at the empty desk. “You finished?”
    “If you say so.”
    “Let’s go, then. First, the Yard. After that, Sid-city.”
    Zin pushed himself out of the chair and took his time getting dressed in autopilot. Danny picked up the paperball. Was it my father, really?
    Didn’t matter. Danny was going to hit the island with something the United States military would notice.

37
    The moon was just a sliver.
    Danny didn’t sleep that night. He lay in bed, working through the details of what he’d need to do when he got inside the needle. He’d have one chance. If he blew it, he’d be headed for the Chimney, and probably not to graduate.
    No pressure.
    He got dressed, stopped at Zin’s room. It wasn’t locked anymore, not unless Danny locked it on the way out. Danny didn’t bother turning on the lights. He sat on the edge of the bed, felt a little like one of the Investors. Zin was on his back, mouth open, ripping wind through his throat.
    “Zin.” He shook him, over and over. “Zin, wake up.”
    Zin’s eyes opened but remained unfocused. Danny gently slapped his cheek. He ended up dripping water on his face. “What the…” He looked around the room and couldn’t see Danny right next to him. “What’re you doing?”
    “Two things.” Danny held up two fingers. “First, I got to fight Sid when we get inside the needle so don’t get in the way.”
    Zin nodded, sleepily.
    “Repeat it,” Danny said.
    “You got to