He throws his arms around both his mother and his father and holds them with all the strength he has. Lucas, pulled in by their gravity, joins them in this odd and awkward familial embrace, and for Connor it’s as if the crowd and the police and the world have gone away. But he knows they haven’t. They’re all there, waiting to see how this hair-trigger reunion will end.
Connor’s father, his lips close to Connor’s ear, whispers, “Can you forgive us?”
And Connor realizes he doesn’t have an answer. Right now the yes and the no of his own pie chart are overwhelmed by the part of him that’s undecided.
“I’m doing this to save your lives,” Connor tells him. But he knows it’s more than that. It’s as if his embrace can rewind them—not into the family they once were, but into the one they may still have a chance to be. Connor knows he can’t forgive them today; they will have to fight for his forgiveness. They will have to earn it. But if they all survive today, there will be time for that.
His father now sobs uncontrollably into Connor’s shoulder, and his mother holds his gaze as if looking at him gives her strength. The crowd watches. The crowd waits. And the moment of crisis passes.
It is then that Connor realizes that Aragon was absolutely right. Connor has won. Which means they’ve all won.
“Can we go home now?” Lucas asks.
“Soon,” Connor tells him gently. “Very soon.”
And so, as the mob backs away to give them space . . . and as the riot police holster their weapons, standing down, and as Risa takes the podium, calming the crowd with a voice as soothing as a sonata, Connor Lassiter holds his family like he’ll never let them go.
NealShusterman,New York Times bestselling author, has written more than thirty award-winning books for children, teens, and adults, including the Unwind Dystology (Unwind, UnWholly, UnSouled, and UnDivided), the Skinjacker Trilogy (Everlost, Everwild, and Everfound), Full Tilt, Bruiser, and The Schwa Was Here, which won the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award for fiction. Several of his books are now in development as feature films. Neal lives in Southern California when he’s not traveling the globe, and can be found online at storyman.com.
Simon & Schuster, New York
Visit the author at storyman.com and facebook.com/nealshusterman
Watch videos, get extras, and read exclusives at
TEEN.SimonandSchuster.com
authors.simonandschuster.com/Neal-Shusterman
Also by Neal Shusterman
NOVELS
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
Tesla’s Attic with Eric Elfman
What Daddy Did
THE UNWIND DYSTOLOGY
Unwind
UnWholly
UnSouled
UnStrung (an original novella)
THE SKINJACKER TRILOGY
Everlost
Everwild
Everfound
THE STAR SHARDS CHRONICLES
Scorpion Shards
Thief of Souls
Shattered Sky
THE DARK FUSION SERIES
Dreadlocks
Red Rider’s Hood
Duckling Ugly
STORY COLLECTIONS
Darkness Creeping
Kid Heroes
MindQuakes
MindStorms
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2014 by Neal Shusterman
Jacket photo-illustration copyright © 2014 by Aaron Goodman
“Girl Smuggled into Britain to Have Her Organs Harvested”
© Steven Swinford / Telegraph Media Group Limited, 2013
“Belgium First Country to Allow Euthanasia for Children”
© David Harding / New York Daily News, December 14, 2013
“Body Art: Creations Made of Human Flesh, Blood & Bones”
© WebUrbanist, August 23, 2010
“3D Printing with Stem Cells Could Lead to Printable Organs”
© Amanda Kooser / CNET.com, February 5, 2013
“Anonymous Rallies Against Horrific, Abuse-Riddled ‘Troubled Teen’ Industry”
© Roy Klabin / PolicyMic.com, March 27, 2013
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event, contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com.
Jacket design by Chloë Foglia
Interior 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.
UnDivided / Neal Shusterman.
pages cm.—(Unwind dystology ; 4)
Summary: Three teens band together in order to sway the government to repeal all rulings in support of a procedure in which unwanted teenagers are captured and are unwound into parts that can be reused for transplantation.
ISBN 978-1-4814-0975-9 (hardback)
ISBN 978-1-4814-0977-3 (eBook)
[1. Fugitives from justice—Fiction. 2. Revolutionaries—Fiction. 3. Science fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.S55987Und 2014
[Fic]—dc23
2014003060
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Part One: Sanctuaries of Purpose
Chapter 1: AWOL
Chapter 2: Argent
Chapter 3: Connor
Chapter 4: Lev
Chapter 5: Starkey
Chapter 6: Connor
Part Two: Here Be Dragons
Chapter 7: Sky Jockey
Chapter 8: Cam
Chapter 9: Una
Chapter 10: Fretwell
Chapter 11: Lev
Chapter 12: Una
Chapter 13: Hayden
Chapter 14: Groundskeeper
Chapter 15: Jeevan
Chapter 16: Bam
Chapter 17: Argent
Part Three: A Path to Penance
Chapter 18: Cam
Chapter 19: Risa
Chapter 20: Connor
Chapter 21: Risa
Chapter 22: Connor
Chapter 23: Lev
Chapter 24: Cam
Part Four: This Lane Must Exit
Chapter 25: Starkey
Chapter 26: Podcast
Chapter 27: Mousetail
Chapter 28: Starkey
Chapter 29: Hayden
Chapter 30: Starkey
Chapter 31: Grace
Chapter 32: Sonia
Chapter 33: Nelson