The Annihilation of Foreverland by Tony Bertauski Page A

answers.
    “What’s that?” Zin plucked the paper out of his hand. “Ooo, you’re a Michelangelo and a war hero, huh? Who would’ve guessed?”
    Danny snatched it back. Zin didn’t seem alarmed by the overreaction.
    “That your girlfriend?” Zin asked.
    “Yeah,” Danny said. “I meet her every night in my dreams.”
    Zin opened a box of juice and sipped, absently. When no one seemed interested in what they were doing, Danny unfolded the paper and smoothed out the wrinkles.
    “You ever see her, Zin?”
    He glanced. “No. Why, you?”
    “No, no. I was just wondering, you know, for the next time we’re…” Danny stumbled over his directionless conversation. Again, Zin took no notice.
    “Where do they come from?” Danny asked.
    “The girls?”
    “Yeah. I mean, are they real or just part of Foreverland?”
    “No, they’re real all right.”
    “How do you know?”
    He shrugged. “ Sandy describes a camp kind of like ours. They do the same things we do, only they don’t call it the Haystack. I think they call it the Vase, or something 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