the smokies all had lunch together, just like at an uglydorm.
the long tables had clearly been cut from the hearts oftrees. they showed knots and whorls, and wavy tracks ofgrain ran down their entire length. they were rough andbeautiful, but tally couldn’t get over the thought that thetrees had been taken alive.
she was glad when shay and david took her outside tothe cooking fire, where a group of younger uglies hung out.
it was a relief to get away from the felled trees, and from thedisturbing older uglies. out here, at least, any of thesmokies could pass as a senior. tally didn’t have muchexperience in judging an ugly’s age, but she turned out tobe more or less right. two had just arrived from anothercity, and weren’t even sixteen yet. the other three—croy,ryde, and astrix—were friends of shay’s, from the groupthat had run away together back before tally and shay hadfirst met.
here in the smoke only five months, shay’s friendsalready had a hint of david’s self-assurance. somehow, theycarried the authority of middle pretties without the firmjaw, the subtly lined eyes, or the elegant clothing. theyspent lunch talking about projects they were up to. a canalto bring a branch of the creek closer to the smoke; new patternsfor the sheep wool their sweaters were made from; anew latrine. (tally wondered what a “latrine” was.) theyseemed so serious, as if their lives were a really complicatedtrick that had to be planned and replanned every day.
the food was serious too, and was piled on their platesin serious quantities. it was heavier than tally was used to,the tastes too rich, like whenever her food history classtried to cook their own meals. but the strawberries weresweet without sugar, and although it seemed weird to eat itplain, the smokies’ bread had its own flavor without anythingadded. of course, tally would have happily devouredanything that wasn’t spagbol.
she didn’t ask what was in the stew, though. thethought of dead trees was enough to deal with in one day.
as they emptied their plates, shay’s friends startedpumping tally for news from the city. dorm sports results,soap opera story lines, city politics. had she heard of anyoneelse running away? tally answered their questions asbest she could. no one tried to hide their homesickness.
their faces looked years younger as they remembered oldfriends and old tricks.
then astrix asked about her journey here to the smoke.
204 scott westerfeld“it was pretty easy, really. once i got the hang of shay’sdirections.”
“not that easy. took you what, ten days?” david asked.
“you left the night before our birthday, right?” shay said.
“stroke of midnight,” tally said. “nine days . . . anda half.”
croy frowned. “it took a while for the rangers to findyou, didn’t it?”
“i guess so. and they almost roasted me when they did.
they were doing a huge burn that got out of control.”
“really? whoa.” shay’s friends looked impressed.
“my board almost burned. i had to save it and jump inthe river.”
“is that what happened to your face?” ryde asked.
tally touched the peeling skin on her nose. “well, that’skind of . . .” sunburn, she almost said. but the others’ faceswere rapt. she’d been alone so long, tally found herselfenjoying being the center of attention.
“the flames were all around me,” she said. “my shoesmelted crossing this big patch of burning flowers.”
shay whistled. “incredible.”
“that’s weird. the rangers usually keep an eye out forus,” david said.
“well, i guess they missed me.” tally decided not to gointo the fact that she’d intentionally hidden her hoverboard.
“anyway, i was in the river, and i’d never even seena helicopter—except for the day before—and this thinguglies 205came thundering out of the smoke, driving the fire towardme. and of course i had no idea the rangers were the goodguys. i thought they were rusty pyromaniacs risen fromthe grave!”
everyone laughed, and tally felt herself enjoying thewarmth of the group’s attention. it was like telling everyoneat dorm about a really successful trick, but much better,because she really had survived a life-or-death situation.
david and shay were hanging on to every word. tally wasglad she hadn’t activated the pendant yet. she could hardlysit here enjoying the smokies’ admiration if she’d justbetrayed them all. she decided to wait until tonight, whenshe was alone, to do what she had to.
“that must have been creepy,” david said, his voicepulling her away from uncomfortable thoughts, “beingalone in the orchids for all those days, just waiting.”
she shrugged. “i thought they were kind of pretty. ididn’t know about the whole superweed thing.”
david frowned at shay. “didn’t you tell her anything inyour note?”
shay flushed. “you told me not to write anything thatwould give the smoke away, so i put it in code, sort of.”
“it sounds like your code almost got her killed,” davidsaid, and shay’s face fell. he turned to tally. “hardly anyoneever makes the trip alone. not their first time out of the city.”
“i’d been out of the city before.” tally put her arm aroundshay’s shoulder comfortingly. “i was fine. it was just a bunch206 scott westerfeldof pretty flowers to me, and i started with two weeks of food.”
“why did you steal all spagbol?” croy asked. “youmust love the stuff.” the others joined in his laughter.
tally tried to smile. “i didn’t even notice when i pinchedit. three spagbols a day for nine days. i could hardly stomachthe stuff after day two, but you get so hungry.”
they nodded. they all knew about hard traveling, andhard work, too, apparently. tally had already noticed howmuch everyone had consumed for lunch. maybe shay wasn’tso likely to get the not-eating disease. she had cleaned herheaping plate.
“well, i’m glad you made it,” david said. he reachedacross and touched the scratches on tally’s face softly.
“looks like you had more adventures than you’re telling us.”
tally swallowed and shrugged, hoping she looked modest.
shay smiled and hugged david. “i knew you’d thinktally was awesome.”
a bell rang across the grounds, and they hurried tofinish their food.
“what’s that?” she asked.
david grinned. “that’s back to work.”
“you’re coming with us,” shay said. “don’t worry, itwon’t kill you.”
on the way to work, shay explained more about the long,flat roller coasters called railroads. some stretched acrossthe entire continent, one small part of the rusty legacy stilluglies 207scarring the land. but unlike most ruins, the railroads wereactually useful, and not just for hoverboarding. they werethe main source of metal for the smokies.
david had discovered a new railroad track a year or soearlier. it didn’t run anywhere useful, so he had drawn upa plan to plunder it for metal and build more hoverpaths inand around the valley. shay had been working on the projectsince she’d come to the smoke ten days before.
six of them took their boards up and out the other sideof the valley, down a stream churning with white water, andalong a razor-sharp ridge filled with iron ore. from there,tally finally understood how far up the mountain she’dcome since leaving the coast. the whole continent seemedto be spread out before them. a thin bank of clouds belowthe ridge mirrored the heavier layer overhead, but forests,grasslands, and the shimmering arcs of rivers were visiblethrough the misty veil. the sea of white orchids could stillbe glimpsed from this side of the mountain, glowing like anencroaching desert in the sun.
“everything’s so big,” tally murmured.
“that’s what you can never tell from inside,” shay said.
“how small the city is. how small they have to make everyoneto keep them trapped there.”
tally nodded, but she imagined all those people let loosein the countryside below, cutting down trees and killingthings for food, crashing across the landscape like some risenrusty machine.
208 scott westerfeldstill, she wouldn’t have traded anything for thismoment, standing there and looking down at the plainsspread out below. tally had spent the last four years staringat the skyline of new pretty town, thinking it was the mostbeautiful sight in the world, but she didn’t think so anymore.
lower down and halfway around the mountain, anotherriver crossed david’s railroad track. the route there fromthe smoke twisted in all directions, taking advantage ofveins of iron, rivers, and dry creek beds, but they’d neverhad to leave their boards. walking wouldn’t be an option,shay explained, when they came back loaded with heavymetal.
the track was overgrown with vines and stunted trees,every wooden cross-tie in the grip of a dozen tentacles ofvegetation. the forest had been hacked away in patchessurrounding a few missing segments of rail, but it held therest firmly in its grasp.
“how are we going to get any of this out?” tally asked.
she kicked at a gnarled root, feeling puny against thestrength of the wild.
“watch this,” shay said. she pulled a tool from herbackpack, an arm-length pole that telescoped out almost totally’s height. shay twisted one end, and four short strutsunfolded from the other like the ribs of an umbrella. “it’scalled a powerjack, and it can move just about anything.”
uglies 209shay twisted the handle again, and the ribs retracted.
then she thrust one end of the jack under a cross-tie.
with another twist of her wrist, the pole began to shudder,and a groaning sound came from the wood. shay’sfeet slipped backward, but she leaned her weight into thepole, keeping it wedged under the cross-tie. slowly, theancient wood began to rise, tearing free from plants andearth, bending the rail that lay across it. tally saw thestruts of the powerjack unfolding underneath the tie,gradually forcing it up, the rail above beginning to pullfree of its moorings.
shay grinned up at her. “i told you.”
“let me try,” tally said, holding out her hand, eyeswide.
shay laughed and pulled another powerjack from herbackpack. “take that tie there, while i keep this one up.”
the powerjack was heavier than it looked, but its controlswere simple. tally pulled it open and jammed it underthe tie that shay had indicated. she turned the handleslowly, until the jack started to shudder in her hands.
the wood began to shift, the stresses of metal andearth twisting in her hands. vines tore from the ground,and tally could feel their complaints through the soles ofher shoes, like a distant earthquake rumbling. a metalshriek filled the air as the rail began to bend, pulling freeof vegetation and the rusty spikes that had held it down forcenturies. finally, the jack had opened to its full extent, the210 scott westerfeldrail still only half-free from its ancient bonds. she and shaystruggled to pull their jacks out.
“having fun?” shay asked, wiping sweat from her brow.
tally nodded, grinning. “don’t just stand there, let’s finishthe job.”
