“You need to know that not everyone’s your enemy,” Karla says. “Things are changing out there. People are changing. It might not be all that obvious, but it’s there, and I see it every day. Why, just last week a trucker came in and was bragging all about how last year he picked up that Akron AWOL kid at a rest stop and gave him a ride. Poor guy got arrested for it too, but still he was bragging, because he knew it was the right thing to do.”
Connor suppresses a smile. He knows the exact trucker she’s talking about. Josias Aldridge, with the grafted card-trick arm. Connor has to clench his jaw to keep himself from telling her all about it.
“There’s ordinary people out there doing extraordinary things.” Then she winks at them again. “And now you’ve given me the chance to be one of those extraordinary/ordinary people, so I should be the one thanking you.”
Connor rubs the rabbit’s foot between his fingers, hoping that his own luck has finally changed. “It’s too suspicious if you don’t report it as stolen.”
“I will,” Karla says. “Eventually.” Then she stands up and starts stacking their empty plates. “I’m telling you, change is on the way,” she says. “It’s like a plump old peach, ripe and ready to drop.” Then she offers them both a warm smile before going back to waiting tables. “You take care now.”
Connor and Lev take a few moments to collect their thoughts. Then they head out and around back to find a classic red Charger with some fender damage. Not exactly a show car, but no clunker, either. They get in, Connor starts it, and it purrs like a waking lion. The car smells of rose air freshener, and there are middle-aged-woman accessories everywhere, but that’s okay. Connor doesn’t mind being reminded of ordinary/extraordinary Karla.
As they pull out onto the road, Lev looks over at Connor. “Ohio?” Lev says. “Does it really have to be Ohio?”
Connor grins at him. “Yes, it does. And when we get there, the first thing I’m gonna do is make you get a haircut.”
Then they pull onto Route 66, heading east into a world that’s ripe for saving.
NEAL SHUSTERMAN
is the author of many critically acclaimed novels for young adults, including the Skinjacker Trilogy,
Unwind
, and
Downsiders
. He also writes screenplays for motion pictures and television shows. The father of four children, Neal lives in southern California. Visit him at
storyman.com
.
Simon & Schuster, New York
Cover design by Chloe Foglia,
based on original design by Krista Vossen
Cover photograph copyright © 2012 by
Thinkstock.com
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Also by Neal Shusterman
Antsy Does Time
Bruiser
The Dark Side of Nowhere
Dissidents
Downsiders
The Eyes of Kid Midas
Full Tilt
The Schwa Was Here
The Shadow Club
The Shadow Club Rising
Speeding Bullet
Unwind
UnStrung
What Daddy Did
THE SKINJACKER TRILOGY
Everlost
Everwild
Everfound
THE STAR SHARDS CHRONICLES
Scorpion Shards
Thief of Souls
Shattered Sky
THE DARK FUSION SERIES
Dread Locks
Red Rider’s Hood
Duckling Ugly
STORY COLLECTIONS
Darkness Creeping
MindQuakes
MindStorms
MindBenders
Visit the author at storyman.com and facebook.com/nealshusterman
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2012 by Neal Shusterman
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
Black market organ statistics courtesy of www.havocscope.com
“Belgian Surgeons Harvest Organs After Euthanasia” by Michael Cook, © BioEdge Web Journal, May 14, 2010
“Hoodies, Louts, Scum: How Media Demonises Teenagers” by Richard Garner, © The Independent, March 13, 2009
“34 Children Abandoned Under Nebraska’s Safe-Haven Law” by Nate Jenkins, © The Associated Press, November 14, 2008
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Book design by Hilary Zarycky based on a design by Al Cetta
The text for this book is set in Fairfield.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Shusterman, Neal. UnWholly / Neal Shusterman. p. cm. Sequel to: Unwind.
Summary: Thanks to Connor, Lev, and Risa, and their high-profile revolt at Happy Jack Harvest Camp, people can no longer turn a blind eye to unwinding. Ridding society of troublesome teens and, in the same stroke, providing much-needed tissues for transplant might be convenient, but its morality has finally been brought into question. However, unwinding has become big business, and there are powerful political and corporate interests that want to see it not only continue, but expand, allowing the unwinding of prisoners and the impoverished. Cam is a teen who does not exist. He is made entirely out of the parts of other unwinds. Cam, a 21st century Frankenstein, struggles with a search for identity and meaning, as well as the concept of his own soul, if indeed a rewound being can have one. When a sadistic bounty hunter who takes “trophies” from the unwinds he captures starts to pursue Connor, Risa and Lev, Cam finds his fate inextricably bound with theirs.
ISBN 978-1-4424-2366-4 (hardback)
ISBN 978-1-4424-2368-8 (eBook)
[1. Fugitives from justice—Fiction. 2. Survival—Fiction. 3. Revolutionaries—Fiction. 4. Identity—Fiction. 5. Science fiction.] I. Title. PZ7.S55987Uv 2012 [Fic]—dc23 2012002729