Tally had never ridden a hoverboard barefoot before. YoungSmokies had all kinds of competitions, carrying weights orriding double, but no one was ever that stupid.
She almost fell off on the first turn, zooming down anew path they’d spiked with scrap metal only a few daysbefore. The moment the board banked, her dirty feet skiddedacross the surface, spinning her halfway around. Herarms flailed wildly, but somehow Tally kept her footing,shooting across the compound and over the rabbit pen.
A ragged cheer rose up below as the captives belowsaw her fly past and realized that someone was making anescape. Tally was too busy staying on board to glancedown.
Regaining her balance, Tally realized she wasn’t wearingcrash bracelets. Any fall would be for real. Her toes grippedthe board, and she vowed to take the next turn more slowly.
If the sky had been cloudy this morning, the sun wouldn’thave burned the dew off Croy’s board yet. She’d be lying ina crumpled heap in the pen, probably with a broken neck.
It was lucky she, like most young Smokies, slept with herbelly sensor on.
Already, the whine of hovercars taking off came frombehind.
Tally knew only two ways out of the Smoke by hoverboard.
Instinctively, she headed for the railroad tracks whereshe worked every day. The valley dropped behind her, andshe managed to make the tight turn onto the white-waterstream without falling off. With no knapsack and her heavycrash bracelets missing, Tally felt practically naked.
Croy’s board wasn’t as fast as hers, and it didn’t knowher style. Riding it was like breaking in new shoes—whilerunning for your life.
Over the water, spray struck her face, hands, and feet.
Tally knelt, grasping the edge of the board with wet hands,flying as low as she dared. Down here, the spray mightmake it even harder to ride, but the barrier of the trees kepther invisible. She dared a glance backward. No hovercarshad appeared yet.
As she shot down the winding stream, swerving throughthe familiar hard turns, Tally thought of all the times she andDavid and Shay had raced each other to the work site. Shewondered where David was. Back in camp, bound and readyto be taken to a city he’d never seen before? Would he havehis face filed down and replaced by a pretty mask, his brainturned into whatever mush the authorities decided would beacceptable for a former renegade raised in the wild?
314 Scott WesterfeldShe shook her head, forcing the image from her mind.
David hadn’t been among the captured resistors. If he’dbeen caught, he definitely would have put up a fight. Hemust have escaped.
The roar of a hovercar passed overhead, the shock waveof its passage almost throwing Tally from the board. A fewseconds later, she knew it had spotted her, its screamingturn echoing through the forest as it cut back to the river.
Shadows passed over Tally, and she glanced up to seetwo hovercars following her, their blades shimmering asbright as knives in the midmorning sun. The hovercarscould go anywhere, but Tally was limited by her magneticlifters. She was trapped on the route to the railroad.
Tally remembered her first ride out to Dr. Cable’s office,the violent agility of the hovercar with its cruel prettydriver. In a straight line, they were much faster than anyboard. Her only advantage was that she knew this pathbackward and forward.
Fortunately, it was hardly a straight line.
Tally gripped the board with both hands and jumpedfrom the river to the ridge line. The cars disappeared intothe distance, overshooting as she skimmed the iron vein.
But Tally was out in the open now, the plains spreading outbelow her as huge as ever.
She noticed fleetingly that it was a perfect day, not acloud in the sky.
Tally lay almost flat to cut down wind resistance,UGLIES 315coaxing every ounce of speed from Croy’s board. It didn&r............