1269_UgliesFreeBook

UGLIES 315
She shook her head, forcing the image from her mind.
David hadn’t been among the captured resistors. If he’d
been caught, he definitely would have put up a fight. He
must have escaped.
The roar of a hovercar passed overhead, the shock wave
of its passage almost throwing Tally from the board. A few
seconds later, she knew it had spotted her, its screaming
turn echoing through the forest as it cut back to the river.
Shadows passed over Tally, and she glanced up to see
two hovercars following her, their blades shimmering as
bright as knives in the midmorning sun. The hovercars
could go anywhere, but Tally was limited by her magnetic
lifters. She was trapped on the route to the railroad.
Tally remembered her first ride out to Dr. Cable’s office,
the violent agility of the hovercar with its cruel pretty
driver. In a straight line, they were much faster than any
board. Her only advantage was that she knew this path
backward and forward.
Fortunately, it was hardly a straight line.
Tally gripped the board with both hands and jumped
from the river to the ridge line. The cars disappeared into
the distance, overshooting as she skimmed the iron vein.
But Tally was out in the open now, the plains spreading out
below her as huge as ever.
She noticed fleetingly that it was a perfect day, not a
cloud in the sky.
Tally lay almost flat to cut down wind resistance,