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But it's too late The impact of a tranq bullet is uard are instantly incinerated as the six quarts of liquid explosive coursing through Blaine's body ignites

Mai hears the explosion It shakes the entire storage room like an earthquake She doesn't think about it She can't Not anymore She looks at the detonators on her palned the Unwind order This is for the whole world

She claps once

Nothing

She claps twice

Nothing

She claps a third time

The third time is the charm

Thebelow, on the red carpet, an explosion rips through the north wing of the Chop Shop She turns to see the entire wing cruet out of here!" yells Dalton, but before he canthe air-vent caps shooting skyward like rockets The roof beneath their feet cracks like thin ice, and the entire roof gives way Risa plunges with the rest of the band into the smoky abyss, and in that instant all she can think of is Connor, and how the band never got to finish playing his farewell anthelass blows past him He sees the band fall as the roof collapses A howl builds up inside hiony he can't describe His world has truly ended Now hethere before the ruined building, he pulls out the sock in his pocket He fumbles with it until he finds the detonators He peels the backs, revealing the adhesive, and sticks the his agony, he holds his hands up before hio away He holds his hands up before him He holds his hands up before him He holds his hands up before hiether

He wants to He needs to But he can't

Make this go away Please, soo away

No matter how hard he tries, no matter how much his mind wants to end this here and now, another part of hier part of hiether Now he is even a failure as a failure

God, dear God, what aet here?

The crohich had run at the sound of the blasts, has co else they see

"Look!" someone shouts "Look!"

Lev turns to see where the kid is pointing Colass doors of the Chop Shop is Connor He's stu His face is a shredded, bloody led But he's alive!

"Connor blew up the Chop Shop!" someone yells "He blew it up and saved us all!"

And then a guard bursts onto the scene "Get back to your dormitories All of you! Now!"

No one moves

"Didn't you hear ht hook that practically spins his whole body around The guard responds by pulling out his tranq gun and shooting the kid in the offending aroes to dreaun out of the guard's hand, using it against him Just like Connor once had

The word that the Akron AWOL blew up the Chop Shop zigs like lightning through every Unwind in Happy Jack, and in seconds, disobedience erupts into a full-scale revolt Every terrible is now a terror The guards fire, but there are sih tranq bullets For every kid that goes down, there's another kid that doesn't The guards are quickly overwhelate

Connor has no understanding of this event All he knows is that he was led into the building, then so any It hurts It hurts had He can't e beneath his feet His lungs hurt He coughs and they hurtdown steps now There are kids here Lots of kids Unwinds That's right, he's an Unwind They're all Unwinds But thefro Then Connor's legs give out, and suddenly he's on the ground Looking up at the sun

He wants to sleep He knows this isn't a good place, but he wants to anyway He feels wet He feels sticky Is his nose running?

Then there's an angel hovering above hiel says Connor recognizes the voice

"Hi, Lev How are things?"

"Shh"

"My arain?"

Then Lev does so funny He takes off his shirt Then he tears his shirt in half He presses half the torn shirt to Connor's face That roans Then Lev takes the other half of his shirt and ties it around Connor's arht That hurts too

"Heywhat"

"Don't try to talk Just relax"

There are others around hi a tranq pistol looks at Lev, and Lev nods Then the kid kneels down next to Connor

"This is going to hurt a little," says the kid with the tranq gun "But I think you need it"

He aims uncertainly at various parts of Connor's body, then settles on Connor's hip Connor hears the gunshot, feels a sharp pain in his hip, and as his vision begins to darken he sees Lev hurrying shirtless toward a building that's pouring out black soes to a quiet place where none of this matters

Part Seven

Consciousness