Risa
She sits at a booth in a small diner just outside of Montrose Colorado. She's blowing and sipping on chicken noodle soup. She's been searching for Connor for moths now. She doesn't know where else to look, much less how to get there. Finding him was like trying to find a needle in a hay stack. It's been a year since the graveyard was raided. She's tried to be optimistic. She's tried to believe that he escaped some how. But lately her hope is diminishing. He could very well have been caught in the raid or else where. She was getting to the conclusion that there was no point of looking anymore, Connor was gone.
A bunch of groans from the guys in the diner interrupt her thoughts. She looks up to see what happened. The football game on the big T.V. had gone pitch black. A power shortage maybe?
The words "We interrupt all station to bring you live Breaking News. Mass Riots in Washington D.C." go across the screen. Pictures of broken electricity posts, destroyed cars and buildings on fire flash across the screen. A man and a woman sit at a desk trying to remain calm and do their job. But both appear to be shaking with fear. You hear pounding and screaming coming from what seems to be just outside the room they're in.
The woman shakily says, "Unwind are rioting all over D.C. We now go live to intern Rene Vanna just outside what seems to be the heart of the riots."
A young girl with blond hair and green eyes stands completely calm as a huge building a block behind her is on fire and teenagers are breaking everything in sight. The girl can't be more then 17 but the strength in her voice succeeds her years.
"I am now live just outside Proactive Citizenry headquarters, which seems to be the unwinds main target. As you can see its pure chaos out here just like the rest of D.C. The Juvenile Reinforcement cops and S.W.A.T.T. teams are doing all they can to round up these AWOLs." she says.
The screen goes to firing squads releasing round after round of tranque bullets on the teens but to no avail. Most of the teens are in what looks like to be stolen military raid gear. Bullets bounce off the armor as teens shoot up everything.
Back to the young girl who's still calm. "What is the cause of all this you may be asking? Well the answer is Proactive Citizenry, or to be exact their new law making the cut off age for unwinding a child 18 again instead of 17, she pauses for a minute.
As a teenager runs in front of the camera and screams, "Down withe Proactive Citizenry!" Then runs off.
The girl smirks for a second and continues, "As we all know Proactive Citizenry just earlier this week passed this law. They were even asking everyone to help round up the 17 year old unwinds so they could be taken to harvest camps before they turn 18. There was even a reward for every unwind turned in."
Screen goes back to the man and woman now both under the desk. You can see a wall in the room being torn down. The man screams, "We now go live to a press conference with the president of Proactive Citizenry, Jared Mathews!"
The screen turns black then goes back to the see the man and woman removed from under the desk by two big bulky teenagers. A pale blond kid with braces sits at the desk. Hayden?!
"But before we go live to the president of Proactive Citizenry we would like you to think about some things. Like how much do you truly know about that organization? For example did you know that they knew the Graveyard, I mean the unwind retreat existed years before it was raided. They kept the Juvey cops from raiding it up until that point. Who knows what else they've been keeping from you? And then we come to one of my favorite questions, and I want all our viewers especially the adults to think about this. "If you were unwound and in the divided state, are you, yourself, alive still?" Hayden asks with a smirk.
Then Connor walks over to Hayden and also smirks. Risa can't believe her eyes, Connor is there with Hayden on the T.V. She is overcome with shock, happiness, and then worry. WHAT THE FUCK IS HE DOING!
Connor smiles at the camera and says, "Lastly, this is a message for all AWOLs and unwinds. I am Connor Lassiter, the Akron AWOL. I am alive, and now I ask you all to stand up for yourselves. The time to rebel is now! It is the time to make yourselves heard! The time to make all our fellow fallen unwinds screams of death be heard! Change is in the air! And our world is ripe for the saving!"
Cheers from the room follow his words.
"Now, we go live to the president of Proactive Citizenry, Jared Mathews," Hayden says as the screen goes to a dumbstruck guy who's whole face is made up of unwind parts.
Jared
He stares at the live T.V. in disbelief of what he's just seen. Only a minute later does he now realize he's on the screen. He speaks into the microphone arrogantly, "Well wasn't that an interesting little surprise interruption. But no matter, rest assured all AWOLs will be caught. At which time we will send out a public message. Until then, we ask that you go home and stay inside. Keep your houses locked up. For no reason do we recommend going outside or opening your doors for anyone other than an officer." He smirks and continues, "We would also like to remind everyone that harboring an AWOL is illegal and anyone caught doing so will be immediately arrested."
The reporters all start yelling questions but Jared answers none and walks away into a body of security men.
Lev
Lev sits in an under ground bunker with Sonia and an elite team of unwinds. Him and Sonia watch as the T.V. goes back to Rene, one of Connors top undercover agents, she helped make it possible to get Connors announcement on the live broadcast.
"Proactive Citizenry has made no statements on their new law except that they stand firmly by it. That its for the good of all of us, but many wonder if the spare parts are worth all this damage." she says as calm as ever. She's very good at poker faces, Lev thinks too good. He doesn't trust her at all.
She continues, "We now go live to a debate on the subject."
The screen fades out as Rene gets attacked by some of the unwinds. As they planned. The fake attack is so no one suspects her or looks for her. It also means she's on her way to Connor's meeting point.
Two men and three women are now arguing on the screen. The women are all in there early thirties there's a brunette, a blond and an Asian. The men are an old prestigious looking guy and a young man that looks really familiar to Lev.
The Asian woman says, "I don't care what their reasoning for that law is, it's wrong. These kids have already been promised freedom and a chance for a new start when they turn 17, you can't just take that away from them!"
The brunette woman argues right back, "So they're just suppose to let innocent people die because of the unwind part shortage!?"
The Asian woman yells back, "Oh so we're just suppose to take these innocent young adults new lives away from them just because of a mild parts shortage!? They werent doing anything wrong, they were just trying to start a new life, to make something of themselves!"
The old man laughs, "Innocent? They're AWOL's! The whole reason why they made it to 17 is because they ran away from the cops!"
"Plus the whole reason behind unwinding is so that bad teenagers can start a new life and make something of themselves in the divided state." Adds the blond girl.
The asian girl retorts with, "So just because they ran from their death they don't deserve a chance out there in the world as themselves!?"
The old man yells, "Not when there's that many of them crowding up the streets, bugging civilians!"
"They're bad kids anyways that's why they were first ordered to be unwound," the brunette adds as she flips her hair like they have won.
Finally the young man who's been completely silent through out the whole debate, the one Levs been eyeing, speaks, "So just because they weren't perfect as a kid, that gives you the right to throw them away! To totally erase who they were and never give them a chance to grow up. Never give them the chance to become who they want to be!" He stands up and yells; "Its okay to throw a human's life away, the whole history of them away?! Just because they're not perfect?! Just because you don't like them?! Just because of your religion!" That last sentence strikes a cord in Levs brain and he starts to cry. It is Marcus, it is his beloved older brother. Again against their parents wishes Marcus is up there, on T.V. speaking up against unwinding. He's up there speaking for Lev.
Marcus looks straight at the camera and says, "Undwinding is straight up, always has been and always will be murder!" With that he gets up and walks out of the room, with the same unshakable, confidence he had at Lev's tithing party. Then every channel broadcasting it live went fuzzy.
