The Annihilation of Foreverland

the path, rustling the leaves above them.
    They stepped onto the barren ledge of a cliff. The ground was gray with granite and green with lichens growing in the cracks like whiskers and fuzz. It was the highest Danny had ever been on the island. None of the paths led to this spot. He figured if they continued to the right, they would eventually descend until they reached the beach on the north end.
    The horizon was flat in both directions. The water deep, dark and blue. The Director wedged his hands on his hips and closed his eyes. He inhaled the ocean’s scent.
    “Don’t you wish you could just be that, Danny Boy?”
    He inhaled, again.
    “The ocean, my boy. The smell, the sight… the life it contains. All of it, don’t you want to be that?”
    “How would I know?”
    “What do you want, Danny Boy? If you could have anything in the world, what would you ask for?”
    “I’d start with knowing who I am, but you took that away.”
    “I didn’t take anything away, you didn’t have it.”
    “Only I would know that.”
    The Director stepped closer to the edge. A half-step forward and he’d go a hundred feet to the bottom. He walked along the edge to a boulder that jutted up from the ground – flat like a table.
    “This is where I had the epiphany, Danny Boy. I would come up here to sit every morning and this is where I received the calling. I knew what mankind needed. We needed to harness the power of the mind, the most powerful weapon a man possesses. If we can control the mind, Danny Boy, we get what we want. That’s your answer, son. If you could have anything in the world, it should be the power of the mind.”
    The mind is a weapon.
    “How can you torture us and call that healing?”
    “Your body is a prison, my boy. You need to understand that through experiencing its misery. The Haystack is the best teacher you’ll ever have. It forces you to face the body’s desire, and the suffering that results. You take the needle, you see the freedom of the mind. That’s all we’re doing, son. Setting you free.”
    Danny wanted to flee. Everything about the island was wrong, but in the presence of the Director, it all made sense. The body was a prison. The mind was freedom. When he was inside the needle, there was nothing he couldn’t do. Why was that less real than his flesh? He was still Danny Boy.
    The Director picked up a handful of rocks and pitched them one at a time over the edge. “You went out into the Nowhere with the girl. She’s been teaching you to be bad, Danny Boy. She gave you access to our mainframe and you escaped.”
    He peeked back.
    “Didn’t you, son?”
    Danny didn’t answer. There was no need to make it any worse. Now for the punishment.
    “You’re a true pioneer, Danny Boy.” He threw the last rock as far as he could, grunting. “I tell all the boys they’re a pioneer, but you are true-blue, Danny Boy. Amazing.”
    The Director smiled and laughed.
    “You did something I never knew possible. You transformed yourself into pure mind. You became data without losing your identity. You were still Danny Boy. And I never thought that was possible, son. Always, I believed, the mind was rooted in the brain, it needed the physical body or it dispersed into random thoughts.”
    “The Nowhere. Is that what became of the boys before me?”
    “Some of them. But you, Danny Boy. You went into the Nowhere and remained Danny Boy. She knew, didn’t she? She knew you’d survive being out there, and once you did, you embraced it. You became it. And you were set free.”
    “How do you know her?”
    “I know everything.” He nodded, slowly. “Everything.”
    Danny walked back to the scrawny shade of trees and leaned against one, bending it with his weight. The waves crashed far below.
    It’s over.
    “Is that why you brought me here? To throw me over the edge? Is that what you do with people like me and Reed, throw them in the ocean?”
    Laughter. “Son, you don’t understand what you’ve done. You’ve created an inner reality beyond the needle. Until now, all the boys were limited to Foreverland. Danny Boy, you created a new reality. A new dimension. I want to follow you out of the flesh . I want you to lead us to a new dimension of existence. Show us Nirvana, son. Bring us to the world of pure mind.”
    “You’re wrong,” Danny said. “I’m just a hacker. I just created an illusion, no different than a video game.”
    “We make our own reality.” The Director touched