Jack worries about being "a guy." He wants acceptance and security. But his sense of masculinity has been violated in a way he can't get past. Freddie Horvath kidnapped Jack and nearly raped him. Jack blames himself, but his guy code doesn't allow him to feel shame or embarrassment, doesn't allow him to express--or even admit--the way it's made him feel, the hurt and pain and helplessness of the moment. It doesn't allow him to cry. All it allows for is anger and hatred, which he channels at anyone and everyone. Most of all, at himself. --- Repressed feelings don't just go away, though, even after turning into anger. No, they still find ways to have their say if you won't express them. In Jack's case, they turn into Marbury, a desolated wasteland of a world that mirrors our own. A different version of Jack exists there, along with versions of his best friend Conner and the two brothers he looks after, Ben and Griffin, as well as everyone else he meets. Despite its violence and desolation, Marbury is addictive, and the four boys keep traveling back there by way of the lens Jack has. Except Jack and Conner are heading to England for school at the end of the summer and Ben and Griffin don't want to lose their access to Marbury, so they decide to break the lens in half. --- Breaking the lens doesn't divide it, however; instead it shatters Marbury. Now the boys are split up at different places and times, jumping between layer upon layer of Marbury and not-Marbury and not-California and not-England. Everywhere they go is a hostile puzzle. They are isolated and lost and scared, and don't know if they'll ever find a way back to each other or their real lives. Heck, most of the time they don't even know if they'll survive long enough to try. Because, in all the different layers of Marbury, everyone is desperately vicious and life is a matter of kill or be killed. --- In Marbury, everything is anger.