1269_UgliesFreeBook

UGLIES 219
panicked mind Tally realized she’d held on to it all that time.
“I shouldn’t have told you all this.”
“No, David, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to get all hyperventilated.”
“It’s my fault. You just got here, and I dumped all this
on you.”
“But I do want you to . . .”—she fought saying it, but
lost—“to trust me. To tell me this stuff. I do take it seriously.”
That much was true.
“Sure, Tally. But maybe that’s enough for now. We should
get back.” He turned and crawled toward the sunlight.
As she followed, Tally thought of what David had said
about the boulders. However massive, they were ready to
topple if you pushed them the wrong way. Ready to crush you.
She felt the pendant swinging from her neck, a tiny but
insistent pull. Dr. Cable would be impatient by now, waiting
for the signal. But David’s revelation had suddenly made
everything much more complicated. The Smoke wasn’t just a
hideout for assorted runaways, she realized now. It was a real
town, a city in its own right. If Tally activated the tracker, it
wouldn’t just mean the end of Shay’s big adventure. It would
be David’s home taken from him, his whole life stripped away.
Tally felt the weight of the mountain pressing down
upon her, and found that she was still struggling to breathe
as she pulled herself out into the sunlight.