1269_UgliesFreeBook

318 Scott Westerfeld
the gap in a high arc. The lifters found metal again, and
thirty seconds later she came to a skidding halt at the end
of the line.
Tally jumped from the hoverboard, turned it around,
and gave it a shove back toward the river. Without her
crash bracelets to pull it back, the board would drift along
the straight line of the railroad until it reached the break,
where it would drop to the ground.
Hopefully, the Specials would think she’d fallen off, and
start their search back there.
Tally crawled up the boulders and into the cave, scrambling
back into the darkness. She pulled herself as far as she
could go, hoping that the tons of stone overhead would be
enough to hide her from the Specials. When the tiny aperture
of light at the mouth of the cave had shrunk to the size
of an eye, Tally dropped to the stone, panting, her hands
still shaking from the flight, telling herself again and again
that she’d made it.
But what had she made it to? She had no shoes, no
hoverboard, no friends, not even a water purifier or a packet
of SpagBol. No home to go back to.
Tally was completely alone. “I’m so dead,” she said
aloud.
A voice came out of the dark.
“Tally? Is that you?”