tally and shay made it to the cave first.
croy arrived a few minutes later, without warning, heand his board hurtling through the waterfall in a suddenexplosion of splashing and cursing. he tumbled into thedarkness, his body rolling across the stone floor with aseries of sickening thuds.
tally scrambled from the back of the cave, a flashlightin one hand.
croy shook his head and groaned. “i lost them.”
tally looked at the entrance of the cave, the sheet ofwater a solid curtain against the night. “i hope so. where’severybody else?”
“don’t know. maddy told us all to go different ways.
since i was flying solo, i went all the way around thegreenbelt first to get them off track.” he laid his headback, still panting. a position-finder fell from one of hishands.
“wow. you went fast.”
“you’re telling me. no crash bracelets.”
uglies 399“been there. at least you had shoes on,” tally said. “didanyone chase you?”
he nodded. “i held on to my tracker as long as i could.
got most of the specials to follow me. but there were awhole bunch of hoverboard riders in the belt. you know,city kids. the specials kept getting us confused.”
tally smiled. dex, an, and sussy had done theirwork well.
“are david and maddy okay?”
“i wouldn’t know about okay,” he said softly. “but theygot off right after you, and it didn’t look like anyone wasfollowing them. maddy said they were heading straight forthe ruins. we’re supposed to meet them there tomorrownight.”
“tomorrow?” tally said.
“maddy wanted to be alone with david for a while, youknow?”
tally nodded, but her heart wrenched inside her. davidneeded her. at least, she hoped he did. the thought of himdealing with az’s death without her made the icy feeling inher stomach drop a few more degrees.
of course, maddy was there. az had been her husband,after all, and tally had only met the man once. but still.
she sighed. tally tried to remember the last wordsshe’d said to david, and wished they’d been more comforting.
there hadn’t even been time to hold him. since theinvasion of the smoke, tally hadn’t been separated fromdavid for longer than that hour in the storm, and now shewouldn’t see him for a whole day.
“maybe i should go to the ruins. i could hike out theretonight.”
“don’t be crazy,” croy said. “the specials are still outlooking.”
“but just in case they need anything . . .”
“maddy said to tell you no.”
astrix and ryde showed up a half hour later, coming intothe cave more gracefully than croy, but with their own storiesof running from hovercars. the pursuit had been confused,the specials overwhelmed by everything that hadhappened that night.
“they never even got close,” astrix said.
ryde shook his head. “they were all over the place.”
“it’s like we won a battle, you know?” croy said. “webeat them in their own city. made them look like fools.”
“maybe we don’t have to hide in the wild anymore,”
ryde said. “it could be like when we were uglies, playingtricks. but telling the whole city the truth.”
“and if we get caught, tally can come and rescue us!”
croy shouted.
tally tried to smile at their cheers, but knew shewouldn’t feel good about anything until she saw davidagain. not until tomorrow night. she felt exiled, shut outfrom the one thing that really mattered.
400 scott westerfeldshay had fallen asleep in a small crevice after complainingabout the dampness and her hair, asking whenthey were going to take her home. tally crawled back towhere her friend lay and snuggled up next to her, trying toforget the damage that had been done to shay’s mind. atleast shay’s new body wasn’t as painfully skinny; she feltsoft and warm in the damp cold of the cave. cradled againsther, tally managed to stop shivering.
but it was a long time before she fell asleep.
she woke up to the smell of padthai.
croy had found the food packets and purifier in herknapsack and was making food with water from the fall,apparently trying to placate shay.
“a little escape was one thing, but i didn’t know youguys were going to drag me all the way out here. i’mthrough with this whole rebellion thing, i’ve got a wickedhangover, and i really need to wash my hair.”
“there’s a waterfall right there,” croy said.
“but it’s cold! i’m so over this camping-out bogusness.”
tally crawled out into the big part of the cave, everymuscle stiff, every rock she’d slept on imprinted on her.
through the curtain of the waterfall, dusk was falling. shewondered if she’d ever be able to sleep at night again.
shay was squatting on a rock, digging into the padthai,complaining that it wasn’t spicy enough. bedraggled, indirty party clothes, her hair stuck to her face, she was stilluglies 401stunning. ryde and astrix watched her silently, a bitawestruck by her looks. they were two of shay’s old friendswho’d run away to the smoke the time she’d chickened out,so it must have been months since they’d seen a pretty face.
everyone seemed willing to let her go on complaining.
one thing about being pretty, people put up with yourannoying habits.
“morning,” said croy. “swedeballs or vegirice?”
“whatever’s faster.” tally stretched her muscles. shewanted to get to the ruins as soon as possible.
when darkness fell, tally and croy crept out from behindthe waterfall. there was no sign of specials in the sky. shedoubted anyone was searching this far out. forty minutesfrom the city on a fast board was a long way.
they gave the all-clear, and everyone rode fartherupriver, to a place where the river’s course twisted closer tothe ruins. a long hike followed, the four uglies sharing theload of boards and supplies. shay had stopped complaining,settling into a pouty, hungover silence. the walkseemed easy for her. her wiry fitness from hard work at thesmoke hadn’t faded in two weeks, and the operation actuallyfirmed up a new pretty’s muscles, at least for a while.
although shay announced once that she wanted to gohome, heading back on her own didn’t seem to haveentered her mind.
tally wondered what they were going to do with her.
402 scott westerfeldshe knew there was no simple fix. maddy and az hadworked for twenty years to no avail. but they couldn’t leaveshay like this.
of course, the moment she was cured, her hatred fortally would return.
which was worse: a friend with brain damage, or onewho despised you?
they reached the edge of the ruins after midnight, andboarded down to the abandoned building where tally anddavid had camped.
david was waiting outside.
he looked exhausted, the dark lines under his eyes visibleeven in starlight. but he embraced tally the momentshe stepped from the board, his arms tight around her, andshe hugged him back hard. “are you okay?” she whispered,then felt idiotic. what was he supposed to say to that? “oh,david, of course you’re not. i’m sorry, i—”
“shhh. i know.” he pulled away and smiled.
relief flowed through tally, and she squeezed david’shands, confirming the realness of him. “i missed you,”
she said.
“me too.” he kissed her.
“you two are just so cute,” shay said, combing her hairwith her fingers after the windy ride.
“hi, shay.” david gave her a tired smile. “you guys lookhungry.”
uglies 403“only if you have any non-bogus food,” shay said.
“afraid not. three kinds of reconstituted curry.”
shay groaned and pushed past him into the crumblingbuilding. his eyes followed her, but without any of the awestill in ryde’s and astrix’s faces. it was as if david didn’t seeher beauty.
he turned back. “we finally got some luck.”
tally looked into his lined, fatigued face. “really?”
“we got that tablet working, the one dr. cable wascarrying. mom was yanking the phone part out so theycouldn’t track us through it, and she got it to display cable’swork data.”
“about what?”
“all her notes on making pretties into specials. not justthe physical part”—he pulled her closer—“but also how thebrain lesions work. it’s everything my parents weren’t toldwhen they were doctors!”
tally swallowed. “shay . . .”
he nodded. “mom thinks she can find a cure.”
