And now let’s find out what Roland’s actually doing.

The Juvey-cop questioning Roland has eyes that don’t exactly match, and a sour smell, like his deodorant soap hadn’t quite worked.

Remember, pretty people good, ugly people bad.

Like his partner in the other room, the man is not easily impressed, and Roland, unlike Connor, doesn’t have the wits to rattle him.

Jesus christ.

We get confirmation that Roland is doing this after Connor’s whole attack and imprisonment thing, carefully rephrased to make Connor seem not like a bad guy.

Connor told him about the riot, and about Cleaver. He offered a lame apology for accusing him of killing the Goldens—an apology that Roland refused to accept. Had Roland been at the riot, it would have been organized and successful. If he had been there, it would have been a revolt, not a riot. By locking Roland away, Connor had robbed him of the chance to lead.
When they had arrived back at the scene of the riot, all focus was on Connor; all questions were directed to him. He was telling everyone what to do, and they were all listening. Even Roland’s closest friends cast their eyes down when they saw him. He instinctively knew that all his support was gone. His absence from the disaster had made him an outsider, and he would never regain what he had lost here—which meant it was time to devise a new plan of action.

So see, it’s not that what Connor did was terrible. Roland’s just mad it screwed up his power bid.

The cop wants to know why he’s doing this, since he’ll get turned in too.

“There’s a reward of five hundred dollars for turning in a runaway Unwind, right

Huh. You’d really expect that to have come up. But then, that would be if this was speculative fiction and not shitty propoganda where stuff only happens when the author feels like it.

The cop corrects him to say that means 1500 for the three of them, but, uh, the cop isn’t the one getting it, right? Because it was the doctor who called the police. If the police are getting paid for it, that’s not the same as turning one in. Also, you’d think if they’re getting paid per kid they deliver it’d have been mentioned by the other cop or as another motivation than Risa’s “bullies or bullied” bit.

“What if I told you I know where there are more than four hundred AWOL Unwinds? What if I helped you take down a whole smuggling operation? What would that be worth?”

In another book there would be an interesting question here about if sufficiently wealthy kids could buy back their organs and avoid being cut up. But since this is the first sign there’s any money involved at all, I have no idea what’s going on. He tells them where the rest of the kids are, they nod and then unwind him anyway because that’s the law. Pretty obvious.

Back to Connor, who also turns out to have no clue Roland was betraying them. When he’s finally ushered in with Risa, he’s surprised to see how smug Roland looks, and only then realizes something’s up. The cops tell him about what Roland says, give them a chance to deny it, and then…

“Actually,” says the cop on the desk, “he’s telling the truth—although we’re surprised the number’s at four hundred. We thought there’d be at least six hundred by now, but I guess they keep on turning eighteen.”
Roland regards him, uncertain. “What?”
“Sorry to tell you this, but we know all about the Admiral and the Graveyard,” the cop says. “We’ve known about it for more than a year.”
The second cop chuckles, amused by the dumbfounded look on Roland’s face.

So all of this was just to fuck with them.

Or, from a plot perspective, it was one stupid fakeout where people acted this way with no reason just to make the reader think one thing was going to happen.

Then there’s the even dumber explanation:

The Admiral— he’s like that neighborhood stray cat that nobody likes but no one wants to get rid of because he takes care of the rats.

This is really not how people look at stray cats, believe me. So not only is this a stupid explanation, but even the comparison for the stupid explanation is itself stupid.

See, runaway Unwinds on the street—that’s a problem for us. But the Admiral gets them off the street and keeps them in that little desert ghetto of his. He doesn’t know it, but he’s doing us a favor. No more rats.”

But that’s what the cops are for.

The cops who are absolutely everywhere and must be taking up a ridiculous amount of money to support.

If this was less insane, it might be interesting to realize that they’re so glutted on organs they jump at an excuse to not harvest some.

Then they say that wait nevermind, if admiral guy dies they’ll go get all the kids. Risa says someone else could do it!!!! and they don’t think it’s likely. Why not just send in a new guy to do the job?

“So, then you’ll let us go back?”
The cop on the desk picks up a file. “I’m afraid I can’t do that. It’s one thing to look the other way, but quite another to release a criminal.” Then he begins to read. “Connor Lassiter. Scheduled to be unwound the 21st of November—until you went AWOL. You caused an accident that killed a bus driver, left dozens of others injured, and shut down an interstate highway for hours. Then, on top of it, you took a hostage and shot a Juvey-cop with his own tranq gun.”
Roland looks at the cop in awe. “He’s the Akron AWOL?!”

The bus driver and all the people injured were completely innocent!

Also, all unwinds are federal criminals, Lev explained this at the start, so this is nonsense. And we know that the accident was covered up, so it’s not like they’re under political pressure to get the kid. And they’re taking Risa because they, unlike the rumor mill, know she was there.

“But what about me?” asks Roland. “I had nothing to do with any of that!”
The cop closes the file. “Ever hear of ‘guilt by association?” he asks Roland. “You should be more careful with the company you keep.” Then he signals for the guards to take all three of them away.

So all of this was an extended excuse to kick Roland around.

This is especially dumb when they just got through explaining they need someone to take over and we’ve had to sit through this long plotline about Roland taking over while Connor and admiral-guy are total idiots about it.

On to part six, Unwound

Because the author doesn’t understand tone, we then get a funny satire quote after all the creepy ones.

For your case and peace of mind, there are a variety of harvest camps to choose from. Each facility is privately owned, state licensed, and federally funded by your tax dollars. Regardless of the site you choose, you can feel confident that your Unwind will receive the finest possible care from our board-certified staff as they make their transition to a divided state.
—From The Parents’ Unwinding Handbook

So it’s basically like privatized prisons, only jacked into our health care system. We pay people to run these things so we can pay through the nose for the organs we paid them to get.

While this is not, technically, part of the prolife platform it is totally the corporate hellscape that they indirectly support by voting for those people so long as they ban abortion, so again, WHAT THE FUCK DID THE PROCHOICE SIDE GET?

It’s probably the fact the government exists, isn’t it? That’s the compromise. We get government and in return it only does stuff we don’t want.

51 Camp

Oh for fuck’s sake you’re not even trying now.

“Camp” is a POV now? Seriously?

no one questions whether an unwinding facility has a soul. It does not.

Actually, corporations are probably still legally people in this world, given it sucks in every other way.

Perhaps that’s why those who build these massive medical factories try so hard to make them kid-conscious and user-friendly, in a number of ways.
First of all, they are no longer called unwinding facilities, as they were when they were first conceived. They are now called harvest camps.

I really don’t know why the book thinks that harvest camp isn’t incredibly sinister. At least the other one sounds clinical. “Harvest camp” is something out of a horror movie. They probably cut you up with sickles or throw you into a threshing machine or something.

Also, they’re all in pretty scenic places, I guess because the author wants to write in those settings because god knows there’s no reason to be picking prime real estate to warehouse these kids, and they’re built like resorts filled with bright pastel colors and as little red as possible, since red is psychologically associated with anger, aggression, and, not coincidentally, blood.

Yes, all people ever feel exactly one way about that color, or at least do now that we nuked the rest of the world. That’ll teach China not to agree with us on symbolism!

Anyway, more about how happy and cheery it is.

The average stay for an Unwind is three weeks, although it varies depending on blood type and supply and demand.

But they know months in advance they’re getting the kid. Why would they wait months to collect the kid and then another month to use them?

Occasionally, in spite of the professional and positive attitude of the staff, outbursts do occur. This week’s rebellion is in the form of graffiti on the side of the medical clinic that reads, YOU’RE NOT FOOLING ANYONE.

Apparently, future graffiti can never be removed. Maybe it’s magic.

Anyway, so, three kids show up one day. Two go in normally, but one…

The third is singled out to take the longer route that passes by the dormitories, the sports fields, and all the various places where Unwinds are gathered.
Hobbled by leg shackles, constricted by handcuffs, Connor’s strides are short, his posture hunched. Armed Juvey-cops are on either side, in front of and behind him.
All things at Happy Jack are serene and gracious—but this moment is the exception to the rule. Once in a while, a particularly troublesome Unwind is singled out and publicly humbled for all to see

Why would this be humbling? Usually, being dragged about by the police is bad because we think criminals are bad, but all these kids hate the police. And needing at least four armed adults, possibly more, to move you when you’re shackled and handcuffed? Pretty damn badass.

There does seem to be some secondary point to this, which is that the kid will rebel and then get unwound almost immediately, so that teaches kids not to rebel, but you could accomplish the same thing by unwinding any kid that rebels, and that wouldn’t make you look so scared of them in the process.

Anyway, because this is Connor and he’s special, this doesn’t work even though it totally worked all those other times.

The staff’s own announcement that they’ve taken down the Akron AWOL does not deflate the spirits of the Unwinds there. Instead, it takes a boy who was only a rumor and turns him into a legend.

Considering there was no evidence that kid even existed before now, no shit. Why are you so stupid?