At first there was a sound like a roaring wind in herdreams.
Then a tearing noise filled the air, the crackle of drybrush inflamed, and the smell of smoke swept over Tally,bringing her suddenly and completely awake.
Billowing clouds of smoke surrounded her, blotting outthe sky. A ragged wall of flame moved through the flowers,giving off a wave of blistering heat. She grabbed her knapsackand stumbled down the hill away from the fire.
Tally had no idea in which direction the river lay.
Nothing was visible through the dense clouds. Her lungsfought for air in the foul brown smoke.
Then she spotted a few rays from the setting sunbreaching the billows, and she oriented herself. The riverwas back toward the flame, on the other side of the hill.
Tally retraced her path to the top of the hill and peereddown through the smoke. The fire was growing stronger.
Fingers of it shot up the hill, leaping from one beautifulflower to another, leaving them scorched and black. Tallycaught the glimmer of the river through the smoke, but theheat pushed her back.
She stumbled down the other side again, coughing andspitting, one thought in her mind: Was her hoverboardalready engulfed in flames?
Tally had to get to the river. The water was the onlyplace safe from the rampaging fire. If she couldn’t go overthe hill, maybe she could go around.
She descended the slope at full tilt. There were a fewspots burning on this side, but nothing like the gallopingflame behind her. She reached level ground and made herway around the base of the hill, crouching low to theground to duck under the smoke.
Halfway around, she reached a blackened patch wherethe fire had already passed. The brittle stems of flowerscrunched under her shoes, and the heat coming off thescorched earth stung her eyes.
Her footsteps ignited with flame as she ran through theblackened flowers, like stabbing a poker into a slumberingfire. She felt her eyes drying, her face blistering.
Moments later, Tally spotted the river. The firestretched in an unbroken wall across the opposite shore, aroaring wind pressing at its back and sending embers flyingacross to alight on the near side. A rolling billow of smokesurged toward her, choking and blinding her until itpassed.
When her eyes could open again, Tally spotted theUGLIES 173shiny solar surface of her hoverboard. She ran toward it,ignoring the burning flowers in her path.
The board seemed untouched by the flame, protected bygood luck and the layer of dew it collected every nightfall.
She quickly folded the board and stepped onto it, notwaiting for the yellow light to turn green. The heat hadmostly dried it already, and it rose into the air at her command.
Tally took the board over the river, just above thewater, and skimmed her way upstream, looking for a breakin the wall of fire to her left.
Her grippy shoes were ruined, their soles cracked likesunbaked mud, so she flew slowly, scooping up handfuls ofwater to soothe her burning face and arms.
A noise thundered to life on Tally’s left, unmistakableeven above the roar of the fire. She and the board werecaught in a sudden wind, shoved back toward the othershore. Tally leaned hard against it and stuck a foot into thewater to slow the board. She clung tightly with both hands,desperately fighting bei............