Uglies (25 page)

“Yeah, I guess. Even with crash bracelets, our arms would probably yank out of their sockets after a fall like that. We’d need parachutes.”

Tally looked down, plotting trajectories from the hilltop, shushing David when he started to speak again, the wheels of her brain spinning. She remembered the party at Garbo Mansion, which seemed like years ago.

Finally, she allowed herself to smile.

“Not parachutes, David. Bungee jackets.”

“There’s enough time, if we hurry.”

“Enough time to what?”

“To drop by the Uglyville art school. They have bungee jackets in the basement. A whole rack of spares.”

David took a deep breath. “Okay.”

“You’re not scared, are you?”

“I’m not…” He grimaced. “It’s just that I’ve never seen this many people before.”

“People? We haven’t seen anyone.”

“Yeah, but all those houses on the way here. I keep thinking of people living in every single one, all crowded together like that.”

Tally laughed. “You think the burbs are crowded? Wait until we get to Uglyville.”

They headed back, taking the rooftops at top speed. The sky was pitch-black, but by now Tally could read the stars well enough to know that the first notes of dawn were only a couple of hours away.

Reaching the greenbelt, they turned back the way they’d come, neither of them speaking, concentrating instead on navigating through the trees. This arc of the belt brought them through Cleopatra Park, where Tally threaded the slalom poles for old times’ sake. Her instincts twitched as they passed the path down to her old dorm. For a split second, it felt as if she could make the turnoff, climb in through her window, and go to bed.

Soon, the jumbled spires of the Uglyville art school rose up, and Tally brought the two of them to a halt.

This part was easy. It seemed like a million years ago that Tally and Shay had borrowed one of the school’s bungee jackets for their final trick, Shay’s leap onto the new uglies in the dorm library. Tally retraced her steps to the exact window they’d jimmied, a dirty, forgotten pane of glass concealed behind decorative bushes, and found that it was still unlocked.

Tally shook her head. This sort of burglary had seemed so daring two months before. Back then, the library stunt was the wildest prank she and Shay could dream up. Now she saw tricks for what they were: a way for uglies to blow off steam until they reached sixteen, nothing but a meaningless distraction until their mutinous natures were erased by adulthood, and the operation.

“Give me the flashlight. And wait here.”

She slipped in, found the rack of spares, grabbed two bungee jackets, and was out in less than a minute.

When she pulled herself out of the window, she found David staring at her with wide eyes. “What?” she asked.

“You’re just so…good at all this. So confident. It makes me nervous just being inside city limits.”

She grinned. “This is no big deal. Everyone does it.”

Still, Tally was happy to impress David with her burglary skills. In the last few weeks he’d taught her how to build a fire, scale a fish, pitch a tent, and read a contour map. It was nice to be the competent one for a change.

They crept back to the greenbelt and reached the river before the sky had even shown a sliver of pink.

Zooming past the white water and onto the vein of ore, they sighted the ruins just as the sky was beginning to change.

On the hike down, Tally asked, “Tomorrow night, then?”

“No point in waiting.”

“No.” And there was every reason to attempt the rescue soon. It had been more than two weeks since the invasion of the Smoke.

David cleared his throat. “So, how many Specials do you think will be in there?”

“When I was there, a lot. But that was during the day. I assume they have to sleep sometime.”

“So it’ll be empty at night.”

“I doubt that. But maybe just a few guards.” She didn’t say more. Even one Special would be more than a match for a pair of uglies. No amount of surprise would make up for the cruel pretties’ superior strength and reflexes. “We’ll just have to make sure they don’t see us.”

“Sure. Or hope they’ve got something else to do that night.”

Tally trudged ahead, exhaustion taking over now that they were safely out of the city, her confidence ebbing with every step. They’d traveled all this way without thinking very hard about the task ahead of them. Rescuing people from Special Circumstances wasn’t just another ugly-trick, like stealing a bungee jacket or sneaking up the river. It was serious business.

And although Croy, Shay, Maddy, and Az were probably all prisoners in those horrible underground buildings, there was always the possibility that the Smokies had been taken somewhere else. And even if they hadn’t, Tally had no idea exactly where they’d be inside the warren of puke-brown hallways.

“I just wish we had some help,” she said softly.

David’s hand settled on her shoulder, bringing her to a halt. “Maybe we do.”

She looked at him questioningly, then followed his gaze down toward the ruins. At the top of the highest spire, the last few flickers of a safety sparkler were sputtering out.

There were uglies down there.

“They’re looking for me,” he said.

“So what do we do?”

“Is there any other way back to the city?” David asked.

“No. They’ll come hiking right up this path.”

“Then we wait.”

Tally squinted, peering at the ruins. The sparkler had faded, and nothing was visible in the dawn light just starting to spill across the sky. Whoever was down there had waited until the last possible minute to head for home.

Of course, if they were looking for David, these uglies were potential runaways. Rebellious seniors, not that worried about missing breakfast.

She turned to David. “So, I guess uglies are still looking for you. And not just here.”

“Of course,” he said. “The rumors will go on for generations, in cities all over, whether I’m around or not. Lighting a sparkler doesn’t usually get an answer, so it’ll be a long time before even the uglies I’ve met figure out I’m not showing up. And most of them already don’t even think the Smoke—”

His voice caught, and Tally took his hand. For a moment he’d forgotten that the Smoke didn’t, in fact, exist anymore.

They waited in silence, until the sound of scrambling feet came across the rocks. It sounded like three or so uglies, talking in low tones as if still wary of the ghosts of the Rusty ruins.

“Watch this,” David whispered, pulling a flashlight from his pocket. He stood and pointed the light up at his own face, switching it on.

“Looking for me?” he said in a loud, commanding voice.

The three uglies froze, wide-eyed and open-mouthed. Then the boy dropped his board, and it crashed onto the stones beside him, breaking their paralysis.

“Who are you?” one of the girls managed.

“I’m David.”

“Oh. You mean you’re…”

“Real?” He switched off the light and grinned. “Yeah, I get that question a lot.”

Their names were Sussy, An, and Dex, and they had been coming to the ruins for a month now. They’d heard rumors about the Smoke for years, since an ugly in their dorm had run away.

“I’d just moved to Uglyville,” Sussy said, “and Ho was a senior. When he disappeared, everyone had these crazy theories about where he’d gone.”

“Ho?” David nodded. “I remember him. He stayed for a few months, then changed his mind and came back. By now, he’s a pretty.”

“But he really made it? To the Smoke?” An asked.

“Yeah. I took him there.”

“Wow. So it’s real.” An shared an excited look with her two friends. “We want to see it too.”

David opened his mouth, then closed it. His eyes drifted away to one side.

“You can’t,” Tally spoke up. “Not right now.”

“Why not?” Dex asked.

Tally paused. The truth, that the Smoke had been destroyed by an armed invasion, seemed too far-fetched. A few months ago, she wouldn’t have believed what her own city was capable of. And if she admitted that the Smoke was gone, the rumor would make its way down through generations of uglies.

Dr. Cable’s work would be complete, even if a few rescued Smokies somehow managed to create another community in the wild. “Well,” she started, “every so often the Smoke has to move, to stay secret. Right now, it doesn’t really exist. Everyone’s scattered, so we’re not recruiting.”

“The whole place moves?” Dex said. “Whoa.”

An frowned. “Hang on. If you’re not recruiting, then why are you here?”

“To do a trick,” Tally said. “A really big one. Maybe you could help us. And then when the Smoke is back on its feet, you’ll be the first to know.”

“You want us to help? Like an initiation?” Dex asked.

“No,” David said firmly. “We don’t make anyone do anything to get into the Smoke. But if you do want to help, Tally and I would appreciate it.”

“We just need a diversion,” Tally said.

“Sounds like fun,” An said. She looked at the others, and they waggled their heads.

Up for anything, Tally thought, just like she used to be herself. They were definitely seniors, less than a year behind her, but she was amazed at how young they seemed.

David stared at Tally along with the others, waiting for the rest of her idea. She had to come up with a diversion right away. A good one. Something that would intrigue the Specials enough to investigate.

Something that would make Dr. Cable herself take notice.

“Well, you’ll need a lot of sparklers.”

“No problem.”

“And you know how to get into New Pretty Town, right?”

“New Pretty Town?” An looked at her friends. “But don’t the bridges report everyone who crosses the river?”

Tally smiled, always happy to teach someone a new trick.

The two waited all day in the Rusty Ruins, patches of sunlight crawling across the floor through the crumbling roof, like slow searchlights marking the hours. It took Tally ages to get to sleep, imagining the leap from the hilltop down into uncertainty. Finally she passed out, too tired to dream.

Awakening at dusk, she found that David had already packed two knapsacks with everything they might need during the rescue. They hoverboarded to the edge of the ruins, riding two sandwiched hoverboards each. Hopefully, they would need the extra boards when they emerged from Special Circumstances, escapees in tow.

Eating breakfast by the river, Tally took time to appreciate her SwedeBalls. If they got caught tonight, at least she would never have dehydrated food again. Sometimes Tally felt she could almost accept brain damage if it meant a life without reconstituted noodles.

As darkness fell, Tally and David reached the white water, and they passed through the greenbelt at the very moment the lights winked off in Uglyville. By midnight, they were atop the hill overlooking Special Circumstances.

Tally pulled out her binoculars and trained them inward, toward New Pretty Town, where the party towers were just coming alight.

David blew into his hands, his breath visible in the October chill. “You really think they’ll do it?”

“Why not?” she said, watching the dark spaces of the city’s largest pleasure garden. “They seemed into it.”

“Yeah, but aren’t they taking a big risk? I mean, they just met us.”

She shrugged. “An ugly lives for tricks. Haven’t you ever done something just because a mysterious stranger intrigued you?”

“I gave my gloves to one once. But it got me into all kinds of trouble.”

She lowered the binoculars and saw that David was smiling. “You don’t look as nervous tonight,” she said.

“I’m glad we’re finally here, finally ready to-do something. And after those three kids agreed to help us, I feel like…”

“Like this might actually work?”

“No, something better.” He looked down at the Special Circumstances compound. “They were so ready to help, just to make trouble, just to play a trick. At first, it killed me to hear you act like the Smoke still existed. But if there are enough uglies like them, maybe it will again.”

“Of course it will,” she said softly.

David shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not. But even if we blow it tonight, and both wind up under the knife, at least someone will still keep fighting. Making trouble, you know?”

“I hope it’s us, making trouble,” Tally said.

“Me too.” He drew Tally closer, and kissed her. When he released her, Tally took a deep breath and closed her eyes. It felt better to kiss him, more real, now that she was about to begin undoing the damage she had done.

“Look,” David said.

In the dark spaces of New Pretty Town, something was happening.

She raised her binoculars.

A shimmering line cut its way across the black expanse of the pleasure garden, like a bright fissure opening in the earth. Then more lines appeared, one by one, tremulous arcs and circles sweeping through the darkness. The various segments seemed to sparkle into existence in random order, but they eventually formed letters, and words.

Finally, the whole glittering thing was finished, some parts of it newly sprung to life, the first few lines already starting to fade as the sparklers exhausted themselves. But for a few moments, Tally could read the whole thing, even without her binoculars. From Uglyville, it must have been huge, visible to anyone staring longingly out their window. It said: THE SMOKE LIVES .

As Tally watched it fade, breaking down into random lines and arcs again as the sparklers extinguished, she wondered if the words were really true.

“There they go,” David said.

Below them, a large circular opening had appeared in the largest building’s roof, and three hovercars rose up through the gap in quick succession, screaming toward the city. Tally hoped that An, Dex, and Sussy had followed her advice and were long gone from New Pretty Town. “Ready?” she said.

In answer, David tightened the straps of his bungee jacket and jumped onto his boards.

They rode down the hill, turned around, and started back up.

For the tenth time, Tally checked the light on the collar of her jacket. It was still green, and she could see David’s light bobbing along beside her. No excuses now.

They gained speed as they climbed toward the dark sky, the entire hill like a giant ramp before them.

The wind pushed Tally’s hair back, and she blinked as bugspinged against her face. She slid carefully toward the front of the paired boards, the toes of one grippy shoe sticking out past the riding surface.

Then the horizon seemed to slip away in front of her, and Tally crouched, ready to jump.

The ground disappeared.

Tally pushed off with all her strength, forcing her hoverboards down the steep side of the hill, where they would bring themselves to a halt. She and David had switched off their crash bracelets—they didn’t want the boards following them over the wire. Not yet.

Tally soared into midair, still climbing for a few more seconds. The outer city lay below her, a vast patchwork of light and dark. She spread her arms and legs.

At the peak of her arc, the silence seemed to overwhelm everything—her stomach-churning weightlessness, the mix of excitement and fear rushing through her, the wind against her face. Tally tore

her eyes from the silently waiting earth and dared a glance at David. Hardly an arm’s length away, he was looking back at her, his face alight.

She grinned at him and turned back to see that the ground was approaching now, the speed of her fall building slowly. As she’d calculated, they were coming down right in the middle of the wire. Tally began to anticipate the sickening jolt of her bungee jacket pulling her up.

For long moments nothing happened, except the ground getting closer, and Tally wondered again if bungee jackets could handle a fall from this distance. A hundred versions of what a hard landing would feel like managed to squeeze into her head. Of course, it probably wouldn’t feel like anything.

Ever again.

The ground grew closer and closer, until Tally was certain something had gone wrong. Then, with sudden violence, the straps of the jacket came alive, cutting cruelly into her thighs and shoulders, crushing the air from her lungs, the pressure building as if a huge rubber band were wrapped around her, trying to bring her to a halt. The bare dirt of the compound rushed up toward her, looking flat and packed and hard, the jacket fighting her momentum desperately now, crushing her like a fist in its grasp.

Finally, the invisible rubber band stretching toward its breaking point, she slowed to a shuddering halt within reach of the ground, pulling her hands back to keep from touching it, her eyeballs straining forward as if they wanted to pop out of her skull.

Then her fall reversed, and she pulled back upward, hover-bouncing head over heels, sky and horizon spinning around her like a playground ride. Tally had no idea where David was—or where up and down were, for that matter. This jump was ten times her plunge off Garbo Mansion. How many bounces would it take to come to a stop?

Now she was falling again, the dirt of the compound replaced by a building below her. One foot almost touched down onto the roof, but Tally was pulled up again, still barreling forward with the momentum of her leap off the hill.

She managed to orient herself, sorting out up and down just in time to see the edge of the roof coming toward her. She was overshooting the building….

Flailing in the grasp of the jacket, flying helplessly upward and then down again, she passed the roof’s edge. But her outstretched hand caught a rain gutter, bringing Tally to a sudden halt. “Phew,” she said, looking down.

The building wasn’t very tall, and Tally would bounce in her jacket if she fell, but the moment her feet touched the ground, the wire would sound an alarm. She gripped the rain gutter with both hands.

But the bungee jacket, satisfied that her fall had stopped, was shutting itself down, gradually returning her to normal weight. She struggled to pull herself up onto the roof, but the heavy knapsack full of rescue equipment dragged her downward. It was like trying to do a pull-up wearing lead shoes.

She hung there, out of ideas, waiting to fall.

Footsteps came toward her along the roof, and a face appeared.

David.

“Having trouble?”

She grunted an answer, and he reached over, grabbing a strap of the knapsack. The weight mercifully lifted from her shoulders, and Tally pulled herself over the edge.

David sat back onto the roof, shaking his head. “So, Tally, you used to do that for fun ?”

“Not every day.”

“Didn’t think so. Can we rest for a minute?”

She scanned the rooftop. No one coming, no alarms ringing. Apparently, the wire wasn’t built to sense them up there. Tally smiled.

“Sure. Take two minutes, if you want. It looks like the Specials weren’t expecting anyone to jump out of the sky.”