She also couldn’t believe her hands. They were red andraw, screaming with pain and covered with blisters6.
“Looks pretty bad,” David said, glancing over Tally’sshoulder as she stared at them in amazement7.
“Feels pretty bad,” she said. “But I didn’t notice untiljust now.”
David laughed. “Hard work’s a good distraction8. Butmaybe you should take a break. I was just about to scout9 upthe line for another spot to salvage3. Want to come?”
“Sure,” she said gratefully. The thought of picking upthe powerjack again made her hands throb10.
Leaving the others at the clearing, they hoverboardedup and over the gnarled trees, following the barely visibletrack below into dense11 forest. David rode low in the canopy,gracefully avoiding branches and vines as if this were afamiliar slalom course. Tally noticed that, like his shoes, hisclothes were all handmade. City clothing only used seamsand stitching for decoration, but David’s jacket seemed tobe cut together from a dozen patches of leather, all differentshades and shapes. Its patchwork12 appearance reminded herof Frankenstein’s monster, which led to a terrible thought.
What if it were made of real leather, like in the oldendays? Skins.
She shuddered13. He couldn’t be wearing a bunch ofdead animals. They weren’t savages14 here. And she had toadmit that the coat fit him well, the leather following theline of his shoulders like an old friend. And it fended15 off thewhips of branches better than her microfiber dorm jacket.
David slowed as they came into a clearing, and Tally sawthat they had reached a wall of solid rock. “That’s weird,” shesaid. The railroad track seemed to plunge16 straight into themountain, disappearing into a pile of boulders18.
“The Rusties were serious about straight lines,” Davidsaid. “When they built rails, they didn’t like to go aroundstuff.”
“So they just went through?”
David nodded. “Yeah. This used to be a tunnel, cutright into the mountain. It must have collapsed19 sometimeafter the Rusty20 panic.”
UGLIES 213“Do you think there was anyone . . . inside? When ithappened, I mean.”
“Probably not. But you never know. There could be awhole trainload of Rusty skeletons in there.”
Tally swallowed, trying to imagine whatever was inthere, flattened21 and buried for centuries in the dark.
“The forest’s a lot clearer around here,” David said.
“Easier to work through. I’m just worried about these boulderscollapsing if we start prying22 rails up.”
“They look pretty solid.”
“Oh, yeah? Check this out,” David said. He stepped offhis board onto a boulder17, and deftly23 climbed to a spot thatlay shadowed in the setting sun.
Tally angled her board closer and jumped onto a largerock next to David. When her eyes adjusted to the darkness,she saw that a long space extended back between theboulders. David crawled inside, his feet disappearing intothe darkness.
“Come on,” his voice called.
“Um, there isn’t really a trainload of dead Rusties inthere, right?”
“Not that I’ve found. But today might be our lucky day.”
Tally rolled her eyes and lowered herself onto her belly24.
She crawled inside, the cool weight of the rocks settlingover her.
A light flicked25 on ahead. She could see David sitting upin a small space, a flashlight glowing in his hand. She pulled214 Scott Westerfeldherself in and took a seat next to him on a flat bit of rock.
Giant shapes were stacked above them. “So the tunnel didn’tcollapse completely.”
“Not at all. The rock cracked into pieces, some big andsome small.” David pointed26 the flashlight down through achink between where they sat. Tally squinted27 into the darknessand saw a much bigger open space below. A glint ofmetal revealed a segment of track.
“Just think. If we could get down there,” David said,“we wouldn’t have to pull up all those vines. All that trackjust waiting for us.”
“Just a hundred tons of rock in the way, is all.”
He nodded. “Yeah, but it would be worth it.” Hepointed the flashlight upward at his face, making himselfhideous. “No one’s been down there for hundreds of years.”
“Great.” Tally’s skin tingled28, her eyes picking out thedark fissures29 all around them. Maybe no human beings hadbeen there for a long time, but lots of things liked to live incool, dark caves.
“I keep thinking,” David said, “the whole thing mighttumble open if we could just move the exact right boulder. . . .”
“And not the exact wrong one, the one that makes thewhole thing crush us?”
David laughed and pointed the flashlight so that it lither face rather than his. “I thought you might say that.”
Tally peered through the darkness, trying to make outhis expression. “What do you mean?”
UGLIES 215“I can see that you’re struggling with this.”
“Struggling? With what?”
“Being here in the Smoke. You’re not sure about it all.”
Tally’s skin tingled again, but not from the thought ofsnakes or bats or long-dead Rusties. She wondered if Davidhad somehow already figured out she was a spy. “No, Iguess I’m not sure,” she said evenly.
She caught a glimmer30 of reflected light from David’seyes as he nodded. “That’s good. You take this seriously. Alot of kids come out here and think it’s all fun and games.”
“I don’t think that for a minute,” she said softly.
“I can tell. It’s not just a trick to you, like it is to mostrunaways. Even Shay, who really believes the operation iswrong, doesn’t get how deadly serious the Smoke is.”
Tally didn’t say anything.
After a long moment of silence in the dark, David continued.
“It’s dangerous out here. The cities are like theseboulders. They may seem solid, but if you start messingwith them, the whole pile could crumble33.”
“I think I know what you mean,” Tally said. Since theday she’d gone to get her operation, she’d felt the massiveweight of the city looming34 over her, and had learned firsthandhow much places like the Smoke threatened peoplelike Dr. Cable. “But I don’t really understand why they careso much about you guys.”
“It’s a long story. But part of it is . . .”
She waited for a moment before saying, “Is what?”
216 Scott Westerfeld“Well, this is a secret. I don’t usually tell people untilthey’ve been here for a while. Years. But you seem . . . seriousenough to handle it.”
“You can trust me,” Tally said, then immediately wonderedwhy. She was a spy, an infiltrator35. She was the lastperson David should trust.
“I hope I can, Tally,” he said, reaching out to her. “Feelthe palm of my hand.”
She took it, running her fingers over the flesh. It was asrough as the wood grain of the table in the dining hall, theskin along his thumb as hard and dry as leather crackingwith age. No wonder he could work all day and not complain.
“Wow. How long does it take to get calluses like that?”
“About eighteen years.”
“About . . . ?” She stopped in disbelief, then comparedthe horn of his palm with her own tender, blistered36 flesh.
Tally could feel it there, the grueling afternoon of real workshe’d put in today, but stretched across a lifetime. “But how?”
“I’m not a runaway32, Tally.”
“I don’t understand.”
“My parents were runaways31, not me.”
“Oh.” She felt stupid now, but it had never onceoccurred to her. If you could live in the Smoke, you couldraise children here too. But she hadn’t seen any littlies. Andthe whole place seemed so tenuous37, so temporary. It wouldbe like having a child on a camping trip. “How did theymanage? Without any doctors, I mean.”
UGLIES 217“They are doctors.”
“Huh. But . . . hang on. Doctors? How old were theywhen they ran away?”
“Old enough. They weren’t uglies anymore. I think it’scalled being a middle pretty?”
“Yeah, at least.” New pretties worked or studied, if theywanted to, but few people got serious about a professionuntil their middle years. “Wait. What do you mean theyweren’t uglies?”
“They weren’t. But they are now.”
Tally tried to get her mind to process his words. “Youmean, they never did the third operation? They still lookmiddle, even though they’re crumblies?”
“No, Tally. I told you: They’re doctors.”
A shock ran through her. This was more stunning38 thanthe felled trees or the cruel pretties; as overwhelming asanything she’d felt since Peris had gone away. “They reversedthe operation?”
“Yes.”
“They cut each other? Out here in the wild? To makethemselves . . .” Her throat closed on the word, as if she wasgoing to gag.
“No. They didn’t use surgery.”
Suddenly the dark cave seemed to be crushing her,squeezing the air from her chest. Tally forced herself tobreathe.
David pulled his hand away, and with a corner of her218 Scott Westerfeldpanicked 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 thison you.”
“But I do want you to . . .”—she fought saying it, butlost—“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 shouldget back.” He turned and crawled toward the sunlight.
As she followed, Tally thought of what David had saidabout the boulders. However massive, they were ready totopple if you pushed them the wrong way. Ready to crush you.
She felt the pendant swinging from her neck, a tiny butinsistent pull. Dr. Cable would be impatient by now, waitingfor the signal. But David’s revelation had suddenly madeeverything much more complicated. The Smoke wasn’t just ahideout for assorted39 runaways, she realized now. It was a realtown, a city in its own right. If Tally activated40 the tracker, itwouldn’t just mean the end of Shay’s big adventure. It wouldbe David’s home taken from him, his whole life stripped away.
Tally felt the weight of the mountain pressing downupon her, and found that she was still struggling to breatheas she pulled herself out into the sunlight.
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1
scrap
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| n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废 | |
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tally
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| n.计数器，记分，一致，测量；vt.计算，记录，使一致；vi.计算，记分，一致 | |
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salvage
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| v.救助，营救，援救；n.救助，营救 | |
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salvaged
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| （从火灾、海难等中）抢救（某物）( salvage的过去式和过去分词 )； 回收利用（某物） | |
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literally
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| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
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blisters
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| n.水疱( blister的名词复数 )；水肿；气泡 | |
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amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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distraction
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| n.精神涣散，精神不集中，消遣，娱乐 | |
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scout
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| n.童子军，侦察员；v.侦察，搜索 | |
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throb
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| v.震颤，颤动；(急速强烈地)跳动，搏动 | |
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dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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patchwork
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| n.混杂物；拼缝物 | |
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13
shuddered
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| v.战栗( shudder的过去式和过去分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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14
savages
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| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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15
fended
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| v.独立生活，照料自己( fend的过去式和过去分词 )；挡开，避开 | |
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plunge
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| v.跳入，(使)投入，(使)陷入；猛冲 | |
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boulder
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| n.巨砾；卵石，圆石 | |
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boulders
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| n.卵石( boulder的名词复数 )；巨砾；（受水或天气侵蚀而成的）巨石；漂砾 | |
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collapsed
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| adj.倒塌的 | |
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rusty
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| adj.生锈的；锈色的；荒废了的 | |
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flattened
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| [医]（水）平扁的，弄平的 | |
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prying
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| adj.爱打听的v.打听，刺探（他人的私事）( pry的现在分词 )；撬开 | |
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deftly
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| adv.灵巧地，熟练地，敏捷地 | |
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belly
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| n.肚子，腹部；(像肚子一样)鼓起的部分，膛 | |
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flicked
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| （尤指用手指或手快速地）轻击( flick的过去式和过去分词 )； （用…）轻挥； （快速地）按开关； 向…笑了一下（或瞥了一眼等） | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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squinted
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| 斜视( squint的过去式和过去分词 )； 眯着眼睛； 瞟； 从小孔或缝隙里看 | |
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tingled
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| v.有刺痛感( tingle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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fissures
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| n.狭长裂缝或裂隙( fissure的名词复数 )；裂伤；分歧；分裂v.裂开( fissure的第三人称单数 ) | |
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glimmer
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| v.发出闪烁的微光；n.微光，微弱的闪光 | |
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runaways
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| （轻而易举的）胜利( runaway的名词复数 ) | |
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runaway
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| n.逃走的人，逃亡，亡命者；adj.逃亡的，逃走的 | |
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crumble
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| vi.碎裂，崩溃；vt.弄碎，摧毁 | |
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looming
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| n.上现蜃景（光通过低层大气发生异常折射形成的一种海市蜃楼）v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的现在分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近 | |
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infiltrator
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| n.渗透者，渗入者 | |
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blistered
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| adj.水疮状的，泡状的v.（使）起水泡( blister的过去式和过去分词 )；（使表皮等）涨破，爆裂 | |
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tenuous
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| adj.细薄的，稀薄的，空洞的 | |
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stunning
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| adj.极好的；使人晕倒的 | |
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assorted
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| adj.各种各样的，各色俱备的 | |
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40
activated
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| adj. 激活的 动词activate的过去式和过去分词 | |
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