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To be an AWOL Unwind is one thing, but to be a cop killer is another The manhunt for Starkey becomes more than just your typical Unwind chase It seees his look, dying his straggly brown hair red, cutting it bookworoatee that he’s been cultivating since et a feeling they’ve seen him before, but not know from where, because now he looks less like a face from a wanted poster and more like someone you’d see on a Wheaties box The red hair is a bit of a disconnect with his olive coe has served him well all his life He’s always been a chameleon who could pass for any ethnicity The red hair just adds one more level of misdirection

He skips town and never stays anywhere for more than a day or two Word is that the Pacific Northwest is more sympathetic to AWOL Unwinds than Southern California, so that’s where he’s headed

Starkey is prepared for life as a fugitive, because he has always lived in a kind of protective paranoia Don’t trust anyone, not even your own shadow, and look out for your own best interests His friends appreciated his clear-cut approach to life, because they always knehere they stood He would fight to the end for his friendsas long as it was in his own interest to do so

"You have the soul of a corporation," a teacher once told him It was meant as an insult, but he took it as a cos in this world when they choose to She was a glacier-huggingyear, because who needs oes to show you, hugging a chunk of ice gets you nothing but cold

Noever, Starkey’s one with the huggers, because they’re the kind of people who run the Anti-Divisional Resistance, harboring runaway Unwinds Once he’s in the hands of the ADR, he knows he’ll be safe, but finding them is the hard part

"I’ve been AWOL for aln of the resistance," says an ugly kid with a bulldog face Starkeyout behind a KFC on Christ for them to throw out the leftover chicken He’s not the kind of kid Starkey would hang with in real life, but now that real life has flipped into borrowed tied

"I’ve survived because I don’t fall for no traps," Dogface tells hi place seeood to be true, it probably is An abandoned house with a comfortable mattress; an unlocked truck that happens to be full of canned food They’re traps set by Juvey-cops for AWOL Unwinds There are even Juvies pretending to be part of the Anti-Divisional Resistance

"The Juvies are offering rewards now for people who turn in AWOLs," Dogface says, as they stuff themselves sick with chicken "And there are bounty hunters, too Parts pirates, they call ’e rewards--they sell the AWOLs they catch on the black ular harvest caal ones" The kid ss a ullet like ased by a snake "There never used to be parts pirates," he says, "but since seventeen-year-olds can’t be unwound no e price on the black al to unwind seventeen-year-olds was supposed to save a fifth of the kids , but instead it forced a lot of parents to make their decision earlier Starkey wonders if his parents would have changed their mind if they had another year to decide

"Parts pirates are the worst," Dogface tells him "Their traps aren’t so nice as the ones the Juvies set I heard this story about a trapper who got put out of business when fur was al So he took his heaviest animal traps and retooled the, and you can kiss that leg good-bye" He snaps a chicken bone in half for emphasis, and Starkey shivers in spite of hi chicken grease frohborhood His parents were total losers Strung-out druggies who prolly shoulda been unwound the back in the day Anyway, on his thirteenth birthday, they sign the unwind order and tell him about it"

"Why would they tell hiface explains, "but see, they knew all his secret hiding places, and they told a parts pirate where to find hiht the kid, sold him, and split the fee with the kid’s parents"

"Son of a bitch!"

Dogface shrugs, and flicks away a chicken bone "The kid was a stork-job anyways, so it was no great loss, right?"

Starkey stops chewing, but just for a ht No great loss"

That night the dogfaced kid takes Starkey to a drainage tunnel where he’s been hiding out, and once the kid falls asleep, Starkey gets to work He goes out into a nearby neighborhood and leaves a bucket of chicken at sos the bell, and runs

There’s no chicken in the bucket, though Instead there’s a hand-drawnnote:

Need money? Then send the Juvey-cops here, and you’ll collect a fat reward Happy holidays!