1269_UgliesFreeBook

208 Scott Westerfeld
scarring the land. But unlike most ruins, the railroads were
actually useful, and not just for hoverboarding. They were
the main source of metal for the Smokies.
David had discovered a new railroad track a year or so
earlier. It didn’t run anywhere useful, so he had drawn up
a plan to plunder it for metal and build more hoverpaths in
and around the valley. Shay had been working on the project
since she’d come to the Smoke ten days before.
Six of them took their boards up and out the other side
of the valley, down a stream churning with white water, and
along a razor-sharp ridge filled with iron ore. From there,
Tally finally understood how far up the mountain she’d
come since leaving the coast. The whole continent seemed
to be spread out before them. A thin bank of clouds below
the ridge mirrored the heavier layer overhead, but forests,
grasslands, and the shimmering arcs of rivers were visible
through the misty veil. The sea of white orchids could still
be glimpsed from this side of the mountain, glowing like an
encroaching desert in the sun.
“Everything’s so big,” Tally murmured.
“That’s what you can never tell from inside,” Shay said.
“How small the city is. How small they have to make everyone
to keep them trapped there.”
Tally nodded, but she imagined all those people let loose
in the countryside below, cutting down trees and killing
things for food, crashing across the landscape like some risen
Rusty machine.