Disclaimer: I do not own Unwind. It's a very good book. I finished it last week.
A/N: I thought it would be fun to write about an Unwind girl who went crazy. So I sat down and wrote it. And now that I'm finished I would like to say that I want to write more Unwind Fanfics in the future. So I'm open to ideas!
It's a cold January winter in Minnesota, the coldest we've had in then years. The snow and the frost on the trees are quite beautiful, don't get me wrong, but it was the wrong time to be on the run from the Juvy Cops. One reason was that you couldn't cover you tracks as well. Another reason was I was freezing cold. I started running in fall with a thin jacket to keep me warm.
"Keep it together, Marika," I whispered to myself, "Just keep running until you're eighteen. Then they can't unwind you."
That's right, I'm an unwind and I'm on the run. My body parts will not go to random people who have no clue who I am. I knew my parents were going to unwind me as soon as they had a reason. I had been on my best behavior until the fall when I was fifteen. Then I got into a fight with a boy who broke my best friend's heart. And, BAM!, my parents had the unwind form signed.
I forced myself to run faster as a tranq bullet whizzed past my head. My legs were burning and I knew my nose had frost bite. At least I couldn't be unwound until it healed. A tranq bullet stuck in a tree to my right.
"Kid!" they juvy cop who was chasing me yelled, "You're fast! I know somebody who always wanted to run track. You could be a track star if you get unwound."
"NEVER!" I yelled. I sped up despite my protesting lungs. Soon I would faint from exhaustion. Then the juvy cop would catch me and I would be unwound despite my efforts. I'll die before that happens.
I ran into a building. The news paper was sitting on a rack. My school picture was one among many smiling unwinds who were also on the run. Some of them had big black x's through them. Unwinds who had been caught I decided. I would not let that happen to me. No, no, NO!
"My, GOD! Kill me now!" I yelled. "I don't want to be unwound!" I grabbed the juvy cop by his shirt and looked him in the eye. "Don't waste those pathetic tranq bullets on me," I whispered, "be a man and use real bullets on me. Don't you understand? I want to die."
The cop raised his gun with a trembling hand and loaded a real bullet into the barrel. He was shaking so much that his first shot missed me completely and blew out a window. I gave a triumphant laugh and put my hands on my hips. Soon I was laughing really hard and clutching my sides. The cop fired another shot. A searing pain shot through my body. Blood dripped onto the floor. I coughed and more blood splattered the floor. I clutched a spot over my left lung where blood was steadily dripping from.
"Close," I muttered. I looked up and the cop too a step back. Probably because I looked like I belonged in a mental hospital. Then I yelled while laughing, "But not close enough!"
Blood dripped from my mouth as I laughed. A few people had walked into the room with the juvy cop and I in it. They all stayed near the wall giving the cop and I a wide birth of space.
"An unwind!" someone shrieked. It was definitely a woman.
I threw up my head and laughed to the ceiling. "An unwind you say?" I shrieked, "Aha ha! I am not an unwind! Unwinds actually get unwound! Ha ha! I WILL DIE BEFORE ANYONE UNWINDS ME! Aha ha ha ha ha!"
I collapsed to my knees, laughter shaking my entire body. Everyone was watching the cop, waiting for the moment when the bullet that would be my death would leave the gun.
"Shoot! Shoot!" I was screaming, "Shoot! Shoot!" over and over again while still laughing. "Soon I will bleed to death and you will not have the pleasure of saying you shot the crazy unwind to death. Shoot! SHOOT!"
A bang and more pain. I fell backwards and landed spread eagled on my back. A look of surprise flitted over my face before I started laughing again.
"I beat the unwinding!" I yelled, "Don't forget to cross my picture off that freaking news paper! Woo-hoo! Don't forget!" Those were my last words before I silenced myself forever. I wasn't aware that my mom had been the one to yell, "An unwind!" or that she had witnessed her daughter's death. But I was most oblivious to the fact that I would become known as "The Crazy Unwind who Beat Unwinding" But only for a while. Then I was just "The Crazy Unwind." And then, after that, I was nobody. Nobody at all.