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 ............