They didn’t leave the cave until the next morning.
Tally squinted in the dawn light, eyes scanning the skyfor a fleet of hovercars suddenly rising above the trees. Butthey hadn’t heard any sound of a search all night. Maybenow that the Smoke was destroyed, catching the last fewrunaways wasn’t worth the trouble.
David’s hoverboard had spent the night hidden in thecave, and hadn’t had any sunlight for a whole day now, butit had just enough charge to get them back up the mountain.
They rode to the river. Tally’s stomach rumbled after awhole day without food, but the first thing she needed waswater. Her mouth was so dry, she could hardly talk.
David knelt at the bank and dipped his head under theicy water. Tally shivered at the sight. Without a blanket orshoes, she’d frozen in the cave all night long, even huddledin David’s arms. She needed warm food in her before shecould face anything colder than the morning breeze.
“What if the Smoke’s still occupied?” she asked. “Wherewill we get food?”
“You said they put prisoners in the rabbit pen? Where’dthe rabbits go?”
“All over.”
“Exactly. They should be everywhere by now. And theyaren’t hard to catch.”
She grimaced. “Well, okay. As long as we cook them.”
David laughed. “Of course.”
“I’ve never actually started a fire,” she admitted.
“Don’t worry. You’re a natural.” He stepped onto hisboard and held out his hand.
Riding double was something Tally had never donebefore, and she found herself glad she was with David andnot just anyone. She stood in front of him, bodies touching,her arms out, his hands around her waist. They negotiatedthe turns without words, Tally shifting her weight gradually,waiting for David to follow her lead. As they slowly got thehang of it, their bodies began to move together, threadingthe board down the familiar path as one.
It worked, as long as they went slowly, but Tally kepther ears open for sounds of pursuit. If a hovercar appeared,a full-speed escape was going to be tricky.
They smelled the Smoke long before they saw it.
From high up the mountain, the buildings had the look ofa burned-out campfire, smoking, crumbling, blackenedthrough and through. Nothing moved in the compound,except a few pieces of paper stirred by the wind.
326 Scott Westerfeld“Looks like it burned all night,” Tally said.
David nodded, speechless. Tally grasped his hand,wondering what it was like to see your childhood homereduced to a smoking ruin.
“I’m so sorry, David,” she said.
“We have to go down. I need to see if my parents . . .”
He swallowed the words.
Tally searched for signs of anyone remaining in theSmoke. It seemed entirely deserted, but there might be afew Specials in hiding, waiting for stragglers to reappear.
“We should wait.”
“I can’t. My parents’ house is on the other side of theridge. Maybe the Specials didn’t see it.”
“If they missed it, Maddy and Az will still be there.”
“But what if they ran?”
“Then we’ll find them. In the meantime, let’s not getcaught ourselves.”
David sighed. “All right.”
Tally held his hand tight. They unfolded the hoverboardand waited as the sun climbed, watching for anysign of a human being below. Occasionally, the embersof the fires flared to life in the breeze, the last standingcolumns of wood collapsing one by one, crumblinginto ash.
A few animals rummaged for food, and Tally watchedin silent horror as a stray rabbit was taken by a wolf, theshort struggle leaving only a patch of blood and fur. ThisUGLIES 327was what was left of nature, raw and wild, only hours afterthe Smoke had fallen.
“Ready to go down?” David asked after an hour.
“No,” Tally said. “But I never will be.”
They approached slowly, ready to turn and fly if anySpecials appeared. But when they reached the edge of town,Tally felt her anxiety turn to something worse: a horriblecertainty that no one remained there.
Her home was gone, replaced by nothing but charredwreckage.
At the rabbit pen, footprints showed where groups ofSmokies had been moved in and out through the gates, awhole community turned into cattle. A few rabbits stillhopped around on the dirt.
“Well, at least we won’t starve,” David said.
“I guess not,” Tally said, although the sight of theSmoke had stilled her hunger. She wondered how Davidalways managed to think practical thoughts, no matterwhat horrors were in front of him. “Hey, what’s that?”
At one corner of the pen, just outside the fence, c............