UnWholly

Nelson wakes up Lev with icy water. Lev and Miracolina are Nelson’s prisoners, tied to beds in a cottage. Nelson talks about the Cavenaugh estate and decides to play Russian roulette with five tranq bullets and one explosive one. When Lev says he doesn’t know if Connor is alive, Nelson shoots Miracolina with a tranq bullet.

In another room of the cottage, Nelson checks the AWOLs he tagged. One of them is in Arizona, at an abandoned air force base (which turns out to be the Graveyard). Nelson listens outside the door when Miracolina wakes up for a moment, then busts through the door, ready to resume the game.

Nelson asks again about Connor’s location, and Lev asks Nelson to shoot him instead of Miracolina. Lev lies, saying Connor is in Pennsylvania. Nelson makes racist remarks about Native Americans on the reservation there, doubts Lev’s information is true, and leaves the room.

Lev thinks about his family trip to the Pennsylvania caves that he lied about to Nelson. Miracolina asks what they are going to do. Lev is eventually able to flip the bed, pull off the rusty bar that one of his hands is tied to, and break the other tie against the rust. He then frees Miracolina by kicking off the rusty bars that her hands are tied to. Lev appears to have a sprained ankle (but later we learn he is faking it).

They get out of the cottage and start walking down a dirt path, with Lev leaning on Miracolina. Lev asks Miracolina to help him warn Connor and admits he lied about Connor’s location.

Miracolina, an obsessive planner, wants to talk to her parents. Lev argues this will jeopardize the Cavenaugh rescue staff’s mission. Miracolina argues with Lev. Eventually, he agrees she can contact her parents, and she calls him out for faking the sprained ankle.

Lev compares this trip to the Graveyard with his first time, recalling the events of the first novel in Shusterman’s series. He steals a cell phone so Miracolina can call her parents and simply inform them that she is alive. He instructs her to ditch the phone afterwards. When they steal, Miracolina says she’s making a list so she can replace the stolen items.

They hide in trucks to get across the country. Lev enjoys their travel more than being in the Cavenaugh mansion. One day, they sneak into the luggage compartment of a Greyhound bus. When Lev finds a shampoo container in someone’s luggage to pee in, Miracolina starts laughing with him. Afterwards, Miracolina leans her head on his shoulder and says she forgives him. Lev cries, and eventually they fall asleep. Nelson follows the bus in his van.

Hayden tells Connor about alarming messages he has heard on communication channels. Fires in Tucson are being blamed on members of the Graveyard, and the Juvey-cops might invade their camp because of it. Hayden says no one has seen Trace that day, so Connor believes Trace has abandoned them for Proactive Citizenry (Trace eventually comes back to help). Hayden points out the homes that were burned the day before the storks who lived in them were supposed to be rounded up by the Juvey-cops.

Connor confronts Starkey, and Starkey defends his actions, introducing Connor to a newly liberated stork. Connor tries to explain how they are outnumbered, but Starkey rallies the storks and affirms that he wants to replace Connor as the leader of the Graveyard.

Hayden and others burst into the gym, use tranq bullets to take out the storks surrounding Starkey, and cuff Starkey. Connor orders the mutineers to be locked up and tells the other AWOLs who have gathered that the Juvies are going to infiltrate the camp. They secure Starkey in Connor’s plane.

Connor meets with his trusted comrades to come up with an alternative plan, since Trace is not there to fly the airplane. His plan is for a group of 50 to corner and surround the Juvies in the main aisle, then fall back to a tanker, which they will blow up. While this is happening, the other 600 can escape. Connor reveals the 50 will probably not survive, and he will be one of them. His trusted friends agree to join him in the sacrifice.

Trace meets with people at Proactive Citizenry who interrogate him about the fires. They don’t believe he was unaware of the plan to burn the houses, and the arson will cause the Juvies to take out the Graveyard. After Trace is fired, he heads back to the Graveyard, driving as fast as possible.

At dusk, he arrives at the Graveyard’s gate. Trace gives the guards live ammo to replace their tranq bullets and tells them to shoot the next person they see because the Juvies are on their way.

Lev and Miracolina arrive at the Graveyard on foot, and Lev starts running toward the gate. A guard shoots his rifle wildly.

Locked in Connor’s jet, Starkey stomps his left hand until enough bones have broken to escape his handcuff.

One of the AWOLs assigned to guard Starkey, Noah Falkowski, and his comrade hear Starkey scream. When Trace’s Jeep pulls up, Noah tells him Connor is having a meeting somewhere else. Trace drives off, and the emergency exit on Connor’s plane opens. Noah leads his comrade into the emergency exit, but Starkey escapes out another one.

Starkey, hiding in a hooded coat of Connor’s, sneaks around the Graveyard. He grabs a stork and tells him to gather all the storks at the escape jet when he lets up a flare. Then, Starkey finds Ashley, a stork on his side, at the arsenal.

Trace heads towards the ComBom but is intercepted by Ashley. She tells him to power up the escape jet. He heads off to do so, and Ashley reports back to Starkey, not telling anyone else about the escape jet.

While Lev avoids the rifle shot, Miracolina is shot by Nelson with a tranq bullet. The guard threatens them, and Nelson shoots him with a tranq. Nelson shoots at Lev, and Lev pretends he is hit by a tranq as well, falling on top of Miracolina.

The narrator reveals how Nelson planned for Lev and Miracolina to escape with his tracking nanites, how he followed them to the Graveyard, and how he armed himself for the mission.

The Graveyard guard who was not shot by Nelson investigates and finds that his friend is merely unconscious. Then, a police battering ram takes out his friend and the gate while he jumps to the side. The Juvies pour in as the kid watches. Lev runs up to the kid, and he gives Lev the keys to the Jeep. Lev asks the kid to look after Miracolina, but after he drives off, the kid simply runs off.

Connor and his volunteers set up to draw the Juvies’ fire and create a barricade. Hayden says he can’t reach the gate guards. Connor sees the headlights of the approaching Juvey force and tells Hayden to sound the alarm.

The narrator takes the point of view of the airplanes to describe the action in this chapter. The planes see the Juvies invade, the AWOLs run south to escape, and Trace prep the escape jet. The planes also see Whollies become confused by the plane powering up.

Then, the perspective switches to inside the ComBom, where Hayden watches the invasion, and to Connor on the battlefield. A kid runs into the aisle where they plan to corner the Juvies, a cop tranqs him, and Connor gives the order to attack. After an exchange of bullets, Connor realizes only some of them are tranqs; some of his volunteers are dead. However, Connor and his Whollies stand their ground.

The narrator then turns to Starkey near the escape jet, taking morphine for his broken hand. He signals the storks with a flare once at the top of the plane’s stairs. The storks surging towards the plane causes other Whollies to run towards the plane as well.

Back on the battlefield, Connor is moving towards phase two—heading towards the fuel tanker. However, the Whollies are all heading towards the jet. Connor sees Starkey on the plane’s stairs. The Juvies take down the Whollies heading towards the jet.

Most of the storks board the plane, but Juvey-cops start shooting kids on the plane’s stairs. Ashley meets Starkey at the top of the stairs. He pulls her in front of him to avoid getting hit with a tranq bullet meant for him and pushes her down the stairs to keep anyone else from boarding.

Starkey tells Trace to leave, and Trace realizes what happened to Connor and the non-stork Whollies. When Trace starts to object, Starkey pulls a gun on him. Trace agrees to fly and threatens to kill Starkey when they land.

As the jet takes off, the Juvies continue shooting at Whollies and packing them into their vehicles. Connor sees a riot truck in the plane’s take-off path. It breaks the plane’s landing gear as the plane flies away.

Backtracking in time slightly, Lev and Nelson move behind the battle. Nelson wears a stolen Juvie uniform, looking among the tranq’d kids for Connor. Lev eventually spots Connor as the plane takes off and reveals himself to Connor. Connor refuses to leave the remaining kids at the Graveyard, so Lev tranqs him, saying he has a new plan.

The narrator turns to Nelson’s perspective of the battle. He searches among the fallen kids for Connor, pretending to be a Juvey-cop. When another Juvey-cop becomes suspicious, Nelson tranqs him. Nelson gets frustrated when the plane takes off, scanning the crowd with binoculars.

He sees Lev drop Connor’s unconscious body from a distance, and when Nelson goes over to check the body, he realizes it’s Connor. Another Juvey-cop tries to stop him from taking Connor with him, but Nelson slips by when other kids distract the Juvey-cop.

Nelson eventually gets Connor in his van and uses a stolen badge to get out of the gate. While he fantasizes about the money Connor will bring him, Lev comes out of his hiding place in the backseat of the van and shoots Nelson with his tranq gun.

The narrator reflects on how Lev got into Nelson’s van before he made it there with Connor, then returns to Lev struggling with an unconscious Nelson behind the van’s wheel. Lev manages to hit the brakes and then exits the van. He checks for Miracolina, but she is not where he left her.

Lev goes back to the van and, after pulling Nelson into the ditch, drives it further away from the Graveyard. As Lev hopes Miracolina is safe, the narrator reveals she is in the backseat of a squad car.

Starkey yells at the storks who are upset about the plane’s broken landing gear. Trace tells Starkey the original escape plan—to travel into Mexican airspace, switch signatures with another jet, and then double back to an abandoned airfield east of San Diego. Trace thinks they might be able to land in the Salton Sea after making the signature switch.

Risa sees news coverage of the Juvies taking down the Graveyard before a scheduled interview. Enraged with Roberta, Risa goes on TV, and the interviewer asks her about the events in Arizona. Risa replies with a confession that she is not in favor of unwinding.

Roberta was not given warning about the raid at the Graveyard and missed the news about the raid in Tucson before Risa and Cam went in for their interview. Roberta watches Risa explain that she was being blackmailed, so she heads towards the studio.

As Risa talks about Proactive Citizenry, a security guard keeps Roberta from going on stage to stop her. Roberta goes to the control booth as Risa talks about her relationship with Cam being a performance. Roberta demands that the producer stop the show, and he refuses. A security guard pulls Roberta out of the control booth.

Roberta goes to Cam’s dressing room, and he says Risa ran down the emergency stairs. Roberta looks for Risa outside, but she doesn’t find her. Roberta’s phone begins to ring.

Roberta gives up on her search for Risa and talks to Cam in the greenroom. As she heads to their car, Cam goes back to his dressing room, where Risa is hiding. Cam apologizes for what happened at the Graveyard, and Risa kisses him on the cheek. Cam tells her he loves her, and she tells him goodbye.

After Risa leaves, Cam smashes up his dressing room. Some security guards try to restrain him, but he breaks free and runs down to the limo. Roberta tries to comfort him, but Cam mentally plots to find Risa and win her heart by taking down Proactive Citizenry.