1269_UgliesFreeBook

200 Scott Westerfeld
Some even died, they said at school. That was one of the
reasons they’d come up with the operation. No one got the
disease anymore, since everyone knew at sixteen they’d
turn beautiful. In fact, most people pigged out just before
they turned, knowing it would all be sucked away.
Tally stared at the picture and shivered. Why go back
to this?
“Spooky, huh?” Shay turned away. “I’ll see if the Boss is
ready yet.”
Before she disappeared around a corner, Tally noticed
how skinny Shay was. Not diseased skinny, just ugly
skinny—she’d never eaten much. Tally wondered if, here in
the Smoke, Shay’s undereating would get worse and worse,
until she wound up starving herself.
Tally fingered the pendant. This was her chance. Might
as well get it over with now.
These people had forgotten what the old world was
really like. Sure, they were having a great time camping out
and playing hide-and-seek, and living out here was a great
trick on the cities. But somehow they’d forgotten that the
Rusties had been insane, almost destroying the world in a
million different ways. This starving almost-pretty was only
one of them. Why go back to that?
They were already cutting down trees here.
Tally popped open the heart pendant, looking down
into the little glowing aperture where the laser waited to
read her eye-print. She brought it closer, her hand shaking.