1269_UgliesFreeBook

UGLIES 153
And so beautiful. She could see why people used to live out
in nature, even if there weren’t any party towers or mansions.
Or even dorms.
The thought of home, however, reminded Tally how
much her sore muscles would love a hot bath. She imagined
a giant bathtub, like they had in New Pretty Town,
with whirlpool jets and a big packet of massage bubbles
dissolving in it. She wondered if the water purifier could
boil enough water to fill a tub, in the unlikely event that she
found one. How did they bathe in the Smoke? Tally wondered
what she’d smell like when she arrived, after days
without a bath. Was there soap in the survival kit?
Shampoo? There certainly weren’t any towels. Tally had
never realized how much stuff she’d needed before.
The second break in the track came up after another
hour: a crumbling bridge over a river that snaked down
from the mountains.
Tally came to a controlled stop and peered over the
edge. The drop wasn’t as bad as the first chasm, but it was
still deep enough to be deadly. Too wide to jump. Hiking
around it would take forever. The river gorge stretched
away, with no easy way down in sight.
“At the second make the worst mistake,” she murmured.
Some clue. Anything she did right now would be a mistake.
Her brain was too tired to handle this, and the board
was short on power, anyway.