Part I
Is it not good to make society full
of beautiful people?
—Yang Yuan, quoted in The New York Times
NEW PRETTY TOWN
The early summer sky was the color of cat vomit.
Of course, Tally thought, you’d have to feed your catonly salmon-flavored cat food for a while, to get the pinksright. The scudding clouds did look a bit fishy, rippled intoscales by a high-altitude wind. As the light faded, deep bluegaps of night peered through like an upside-down ocean,bottomless and cold.
Any other summer, a sunset like this would have beenbeautiful. But nothing had been beautiful since Peris turnedpretty. Losing your best friend sucks, even if it’s only forthree months and two days.
Tally Youngblood was waiting for darkness.
She could see New Pretty Town through her open window.
The party towers were already lit up, and snakes ofburning torches marked flickering pathways through thepleasure gardens. A few hot-air balloons pulled at theirtethers against the darkening pink sky, their passengersshooting safety fireworks at other balloons and passingparasailers. Laughter and music skipped across the waterlike rocks thrown with just the right spin, their edges justas sharp against Tally’s nerves.
Around the outskirts of the city, cut off from town bythe black oval of the river, everything was in darkness.
Everyone ugly was in bed by now.
Tally took off her interface ring and said, “Good night.”
“Sweet dreams, Tally,” said the room.
She chewed up a toothbrush pill, punched her pillows,and shoved an old portable heater—one that producedabout as much warmth as a sleeping, Tally-size humanbeing—under the covers.
Then she crawled out the window.
Outside, with the night finally turning coal black aboveher head, Tally instantly felt better. Maybe this was a stupidplan, but anything was better than another night awake inbed feeling sorry for herself. On the familiar leafy pathdown to the water’s edge, it was easy to imagine Peris stealingsilently behind her, stifling laughter, ready for a night ofspying on the new pretties. Together. She and Peris had figuredout how to trick the house minder back when theywere twelve, when the three-month difference in their agesseemed like it would never matter.
“Best friends for life,” Tally muttered, fingering the tinyscar on her right palm.
The water glistened through the trees, and she couldhear the wavelets of a passing river skimmer’s wake slappingat the shore. She ducked, hiding in the reeds. Summer wasalways the best time for spying expeditions. The grass washigh, it was never cold, and you didn’t have to stay awakethrough school the next day.
Of course, Peris could sleep as late as he wanted now.
Just one of the advantages of being pretty.
The old bridge stretched massively across the water, itshuge iron frame as black as the sky. It had been built solong ago that it held up its own weight, without any supportfrom hoverstruts. A million years from now, when therest of the city had crumbled, the bridge would probablyremain like a fossilized bone.
Unlike the other bridges into New Pretty Town, the oldbridge couldn’t talk—or report trespassers, more importantly.
But even silent, the bridge had always seemed verywise to Tally, as quietly knowing as some ancient tree.
Her eyes were fully adjusted to the darkness now, andit took only seconds to find the fishing line tied to its usualrock. She yanked it, and heard the splash of the rope tumblingfrom where it had been hidden among the bridge supports.
She kept pulling until the invisible fishing lineturned into wet, knotted cord. The other end was still tiedto the iron framework of the bridge. Tally pulled the ropetaut and lashed it to the usual tree.
She had to duck into the grass once more as anotherriver skimmer passed. The people dancing on its deck didn’tspot the rope stretched from bridge to shore. They never did.
New pretties were always having too much fun to notice littlethings out of place.
When the skimmer’s lights had faded, Tally tested therope with her whole weight. One time it had pulled loosefrom the tree, and both she and Peris had swung downward,then up and out over the middle of the river beforefalling off, tumbling into the cold water. She smiled at thememory, realizing she would rather be on that expedition—soaking wet in the cold with Peris—than dry and warmtonight, but alone.
Hanging upside down, hands and knees clutching theknots along the rope, Tally pulled herself up into the darkframework of the bridge, then stole through its iron skeletonand across to New Pretty Town.
She knew where Peris lived from the one message he hadbothered to send since turning pretty. Peris hadn’t given anaddress, but Tally knew the trick for decoding the randomlookingnumbers at the bottom of a ping. They led to someplacecalled Garbo Mansion in the hilly part of town.
Getting there was going to be tricky. In their expeditions,Tally and Peris had always stuck to the waterfront,where vegetation and the dark backdrop of Uglyville madeit easy to hide. But now Tally was headed into the center ofthe island, where floats and revelers populated the brightstreets all night. Brand-new pretties like Peris always livedwhere the fun was most frantic.
6 Scott WesterfeldUGLIES 7Tally had memorized the map, but if she made onewrong turn, she was toast. Without her interface ring, shewas invisible to vehicles. They’d just run her down like shewas nothing.
Of course, Tally was nothing here.
Worse, she was ugly. But she hoped Peris wouldn’t seeit that way. Wouldn’t see her that way.
Tally had no idea what would happen if she got caught.
This wasn’t like being busted for “forgetting” her ring, skippingclasses, or tricking the house into playing her musiclouder than allowed. Everyone did that kind of stuff, andeveryone got busted for it. But she and Peris had alwaysbeen very careful about not getting caught on these expeditions.
Crossing the river was serious business.
It was too late to worry now, though. What could theydo to her, anyway? In three months she’d be a pretty herself.
Tally crept along the river until she reached a pleasuregarden, and slipped into the darkness beneath a row ofweeping willows. Under their cover she made her wayalongside a path lit by little guttering flames.
A pretty couple wandered down the path. Tally froze,but they were clueless, too busy staring into each other’seyes to see her crouching in the darkness. Tally silentlywatched them pass, getting that warm feeling she alwaysgot from looking at a pretty face. Even when she and Perisused to spy on them from the shadows, giggling at all thestupid things the pretties said and did, they couldn’t resiststaring. There was something magic in their large and perfecteyes, something that made you want to pay attention towhatever they said, to protect them from any danger, tomake them happy. They were so . . . pretty.
The two disappeared around the next bend, and Tallyshook her head to clear the mushy thoughts away. She wasn’there to gawk. She was an infiltrator, a sneak, an ugly. And shehad a mission.
The garden stretched up into town, winding like a blackriver through the bright party towers and houses. After a fewmore minutes of creeping, she startled a couple hiddenamong the trees (it was a pleasure garden, after all), but in thedarkness they couldn’t see her face, and only teased her as shemumbled an apology and slipped away. She hadn’t seen toomuch of them, either, just a tangle of perfect legs and arms.
Finally, the garden ended, a few blocks from wherePeris lived.
Tally peered out from behind a curtain of hanging vines.
This was farther than she and Peris had ever been together,and as far as her planning had taken her. There was no wayto hide herself in the busy, well-lit streets. She put her fingersup to her face, felt the wide nose and thin lips, the toohighforehead and tangled mass of frizzy hair. One step outof the underbrush and she’d be spotted. Her face seemedto burn as the light touched it. What was she doing here?
She should be back in the darkness of Uglyville, awaitingher turn.
8 S cott WesterfeldBut she had to see Peris, had to talk to him. She wasn’tquite sure why, exactly, except that she was sick of imagining athousand conversations with him every night before she fellasleep. They’d spent every day together since they were littlies,and now . . . nothing. Maybe if they could just talk for a fewminutes, her brain would stop talking to imaginary Peris.
Three minutes might be enough to hold her for three months.
Tally looked up and down the street, checking for sideyards to slink through, dark doorways to hide in. She feltlike a rock climber facing a sheer cliff, searching for cracksand handholds.
The traffic began to clear a little, and she waited, rubbingthe scar on her right palm. Finally, Tally sighed andwhispered, “Best friends forever,” and took a step forwardinto the light.
An explosion of sound came from her right, and sheleaped back into the darkness, stumbling among the vines,coming down hard on her knees in the soft earth, certainfor a few seconds that she’d been caught.
But the cacophony organized itself into a throbbingrhythm. It was a drum machine making its lumbering waydown the street. Wide as a house, it shimmered with themovement of its dozens of mechanical arms, bashing awayat every size of drum. Behind it trailed a growing bunch ofrevelers, dancing along with the beat, drinking and throwingtheir empty bottles to shatter against the huge, imperviousmachine.
UGLIES 9Tally smiled. The revelers were wearing masks.
The machine was lobbing the masks out the back, tryingto coax more followers into the impromptu parade:
devil faces and horrible clowns, green monsters and grayaliens with big oval eyes, cats and dogs and cows, faces withcrooked smiles or huge noses.
The procession passed slowly, and Tally pulled herselfback into the vegetation. A few of the revelers passed closeenough that the sickly sweetness from their bottles filledher nose. A minute later, when the machine had trundledhalf a block farther, Tally jumped out and snatched up adiscarded mask from the street. The plastic was soft in herhand, still warm from having been stamped into shapeinside the machine a few seconds before.
Before she pressed it against her face, Tally realized thatit was the same color as the cat-vomit pink of the sunset,with a long snout and two pink little ears. Smart adhesiveflexed against her skin as the mask settled onto her face.
Tally pushed her way through the drunken dancers,out the other side of the procession, and ran down a sidestreet toward Garbo Mansion, wearing the face of a pig.

BEST FRIENDS FOREVER
Garbo Mansion was fat, bright, and loud.
It filled the space between a pair of party towers, asquat teapot between two slender glasses of champagne.
Each of the towers rested on a single column no wider thanan elevator. Higher up they swelled to five stories of circularbalconies, crowded with new pretties. Tally climbed thehill toward the trio of buildings, trying to take in the viewthrough the eyeholes of her mask.
Someone jumped, or was thrown, from one of thetowers, screaming and flailing his arms. Tally gulped, forcingherself to watch all the way down, until the guy wascaught by his bungee jacket a few seconds before splatting.
He hover-bounced in the harness a few times, laughing,before being deposited softly on the ground, close enoughto Tally that she could hear nervous hiccups breaking uphis giggles. He’d been as scared as Tally.
She shivered, though jumping was hardly any moredangerous than standing here beneath the looming towers.
The bungee jacket used the same lifters as the hoverstrutsthat held the spindly structures up. If all the pretty toyssomehow stopped working, just about everything in NewPretty Town would come tumbling down.
The mansion was full of brand-new pretties—the worstkind, Peris always used to say. They lived like uglies, a hundredor so together in a big dorm. But this dorm didn’t haveany rules. Unless the rules were Act Stupid, Have Fun, andMake Noise.
A bunch of girls in ball gowns were on the roof,screaming at the top of their lungs, balancing on the edgeand shooting safety fireworks at people on the ground. Aball of orange flame bounced next to Tally, cool as anautumn wind, driving away the darkness around her.
“Hey, there’s a pig down there!” someone screamedfrom above. They all laughed, and Tally quickened herstride toward the wide-open door of the mansion. Shepushed inside, ignoring the surprised looks of two prettieson their way out.
It was all one big party, just like they always promisedit would be. People were dressed up tonight, in gownsand in black suits with long coattails. Everyone seemed tofind her pig mask pretty funny. They pointed andlaughed, and Tally kept moving, not giving them time todo anything else. Of course, everyone was always laughinghere. Unlike an ugly party, there’d never be any fights,or even arguments.
12 Scott WesterfeldShe pushed from room to room, trying to distinguishfaces without being distracted by those big pretty eyes, oroverwhelmed by the feeling that she didn’t belong. Tally feltuglier every second she spent there. Being laughed at byeveryone she met wasn’t helping much. But it was betterthan what they’d do if they saw her real face.
Tally wondered if she would even recognize Peris.
She’d only seen him once since the operation, and that wascoming out of the hospital, before the swelling had subsided.
But she knew his face so well. Despite what Perisalways used to say, pretties didn’t really all look exactly thesame. On their expeditions, she and Peris had sometimesspotted pretties who looked familiar, like uglies they’dknown. Sort of like a brother or sister—an older, more confident,much prettier brother or sister. One you’d be jealousof your whole life, if you’d been born a hundred years ago.
Peris couldn’t have changed that much.
“Have you seen the piggy?”
“The what?”
“There’s a piggy on the loose!”
The giggling voices were from the floor below. Tallypaused and listened. She was all alone here on the stairs.
Apparently, pretties preferred the elevators.
“How dare she come to our party dressed like a piggy!
This is white tie!”
“She’s got the wrong party.”
UGLIES 13“She’s got no manners, looking that way!”
Tally swallowed. The mask wasn’t much better than herown face. The joke was wearing thin.
She bounded up the stairs, leaving the voices behind.
Maybe they’d forget about her if she just kept moving.
There were only two more floors of Garbo Mansion to go,and then the roof. Peris had to be here somewhere.
Unless he was out on the back lawn, or up in a balloon,or a party tower. Or in a pleasure garden somewhere, withsomeone. Tally shook away that last image and ran downthe hall, ignoring the same jokes about her mask, riskingglances into the rooms one by one.
Nothing but surprised looks and pointed fingers, andpretty faces. But none of them rang a bell. Peris wasn’t anywhere.
“Here, piggy, piggy! Hey, there she is!”
Tally bolted up to the top floor, taking two stairs at atime. Her hard breathing had heated up the inside of themask, her forehead sweating, the adhesive crawling as it triedto stay attached. They were following her now, a group ofthem, laughing and stumbling over one another up the stairs.
There wasn’t any time to search this floor. Tally glancedup and down the hall. No one up here, anyway. The doorswere all closed. Maybe a few pretties were actually gettingtheir beauty sleep.
If she went up to the roof to check for Peris, she’d betrapped.
14 Scott Westerfeld“Here, piggy, piggy!”
Time to run. Tally dashed toward the elevator, skiddingto a halt inside. “Ground floor!” she ordered.
She waited, peering down the hall anxiously, pantinginto the hot plastic of her mask. “Ground floor!” sherepeated. “Close door!”
Nothing happened.
She sighed, closing her eyes. Without an interface ring,she was nobody. The elevator wouldn’t listen.
Tally knew how to trick an elevator, but it took timeand a penknife. She had neither. The first of her pursuersemerged from the stairway, stumbling into the hall.
She threw herself backward against the elevator’s sidewall, standing on tiptoe and trying to flatten herself so theycouldn’t see her. More came up, huffing and puffing liketypical out-of-shape pretties. Tally could watch them in themirror at the back of the elevator.
Which meant they could also see her if they thought tolook this way.
“Where’d the piggy go?”
“Here, piggy!”
“The roof, maybe?”
Someone stepped quietly into the elevator, lookingback at the search party in bemusement. When he saw her,he jumped. “Goodness, you scared me!” He blinked hislong lashes, regarding her masked face, then looked downat his own tailcoat. “Oh, dear. Wasn’t this party white tie?”
UGLIES 15Tally’s breath caught, her mouth went dry. “Peris?” shewhispered.
He looked at her closely. “Do I . . .”
She started to reach out, but remembered to press backflat against the wall. Her muscles were screaming fromstanding on tiptoe. “It’s me, Peris.”
“Here, piggy, piggy!”
He turned toward the voice down the hall, raised hiseyebrows, then looked back at her. “Close door. Hold,” hesaid quickly.
The door slid shut, and Tally stumbled forward. Shepulled off her mask to see him better. It was Peris: his voice,his brown eyes, the way his forehead crinkled when he wasconfused.
But he was so pretty now.
At school, they explained how it affected you. It didn’tmatter if you knew about evolution or not—it worked anyway.
On everyone.
There was a certain kind of beauty, a prettiness thateveryone could see. Big eyes and full lips like a kid’s;smooth, clear skin; symmetrical features; and a thousandother little clues. Somewhere in the backs of their minds,people were always looking for these markers. No onecould help seeing them, no matter how they were broughtup. A million years of evolution had made it part of thehuman brain.
The big eyes and lips said: I’m young and vulnerable, I16 Scott Westerfeldcan’t hurt you, and you want to protect me. And the rest said:
I’m healthy, I won’t make you sick. And no matter how youfelt about a pretty, there was a part of you that thought: If wehad kids, they’d be healthy too. I want this pretty person. . . .
It was biology, they said at school. Like your heart beating,you couldn’t help believing all these things, not whenyou saw a face like this. A pretty face.
A face like Peris’s.
“It’s me,” Tally said.
Peris took a step back, his eyebrows rising. He lookeddown at her clothes.
Tally realized she was wearing her baggy black expeditionoutfit, muddy from crawling up ropes and through gardens,from falling among the vines. Peris’s suit was deepblack velvet, his shirt, vest, and tie all glowing white.
She pulled away. “Oh, sorry. I won’t get you muddy.”
“What are you doing here, Tally?”
“I just—,” she sputtered. Now that she was facing him,she didn’t know what to say. All the imagined conversationshad melted away into his big, sweet eyes. “I had to know ifwe were still . . .”
Tally held out her right hand, the scarred palm facingup, sweaty dirt tracing the lines on it.
Peris sighed. He wasn’t looking at her hand, or into hereyes. Not into her squinty, narrow-set, indifferently browneyes. Nobody eyes. “Yeah,” he said. “But, I mean—couldn’tyou have waited, Squint?”
UGLIES 17Her ugly nickname sounded strange coming from apretty. Of course, it would be even weirder to call himNose, as she used to about a hundred times a day. She swallowed.
“Why didn’t you write me?”
“I tried. But it just felt bogus. I’m so different now.”
“But we’re . . .” She pointed at her scar.
“Take a look, Tally.” He held out his own hand.
The skin of his palm was smooth and unblemished. Itwas a hand that said: I don’t have to work very hard, and I’mtoo clever to have accidents.
The scar that they had made together was gone.
“They took it away.”
“Of course they did, Squint. All my skin’s new.”
Tally blinked. She hadn’t thought of that.
He shook his head. “You’re such a kid still.”
“Elevator requested,” said the elevator. “Up or down?”
Tally jumped at the machine voice.
“Hold, please,” Peris said calmly.
Tally swallowed and closed her hand into a fist. “Butthey didn’t change your blood. We shared that, no matterwhat.”
Peris finally looked directly at her face, not flinching asshe had feared he would. He smiled beautifully. “No, theydidn’t. New skin, big deal. And in three months we canlaugh about this. Unless . . .”
“Unless what?” She looked up into his big brown eyes,so full of concern.
18 Scott Westerfeld“Just promise me that you won’t do any more stupidtricks,” Peris said. “Like coming here. Something that’ll getyou into trouble. I want to see you pretty.”
“Of course.”
“So promise me.”
Peris was only three months older than Tally, but, droppingher eyes to the floor, she felt like a littlie again. “Allright, I promise. Nothing stupid. And they won’t catch metonight, either.”
“Okay, get your mask and . . .” His voice trailed off.
She turned her gaze to where it had fallen. Discarded,the plastic mask had recycled itself, turning into pink dust,which the carpet in the elevator was already filtering away.
The two stared at each other in silence.
“Elevator requested,” the machine insisted. “Up or down?”
“Peris, I promise they won’t catch me. No pretty canrun as fast as me. Just take me down to the—”
Peris shook his head. “Up, please. Roof.”
The elevator moved.
“Up? Peris, how am I going to—”
“Straight out the door, in a big rack—bungee jackets.
There’s a whole bunch in case of a fire.”
“You mean jump?” Tally swallowed. Her stomach did abackflip as the elevator came to a halt.
Peris shrugged. “I do it all the time, Squint.” He winked.
“You’ll love it.”
His expression made his pretty face glow even more,UGLIES 19and Tally leaped forward to wrap her arms around him. Hestill felt the same, at least, maybe a bit taller and thinner. Buthe was warm and solid, and still Peris.
“Tally!”
She stumbled back as the doors opened. She’d left mudall over his white vest. “Oh, no! I’m—”
“Just go!”
His distress just made Tally want to hug him again. Shewanted to stay and clean Peris up, make sure he lookedperfect for the party. She reached out a hand. “I—”
“Go!”
“But we’re best friends, right?”
He sighed, dabbing at a brown stain. “Sure, forever. Inthree months.”
She turned and ran, the doors closing behind her.
At first no one noticed her on the roof. They were all lookingdown. It was dark except for the occasional flare of asafety sparkler.
Tally found the rack of bungee jackets and pulled atone. It was clipped to the rack. Her fingers fumbled, lookingfor a clasp. She wished she had her interface ring to giveher instructions.
Then she saw the button: PRESS IN CASE OF FIRE.
“Oh, crap,” she said.
Her shadow jumped and jittered. Two pretties werecoming toward her, carrying sparklers.
20 Scott Westerfeld“Who’s that? What’s she wearing?”
“Hey, you! This party is white tie!”
“Look at her face. . . .”
“Oh, crap,” Tally repeated.
And pressed the button.
An ear-shattering siren split the air, and the bungeejacket seemed to jump from the rack into her hand. She slidinto the harness, turning to face the two pretties. Theyleaped back as if she’d transformed into a werewolf. Onedropped the sparkler, and it extinguished itself instantly.
“Fire drill,” Tally said, and ran toward the edge of theroof.
Once she had the jacket around her shoulders, thestrap and zippers seemed to wind around her like snakesuntil the plastic was snug around her waist and thighs. Agreen light flashed on the collar, right where she couldn’thelp but see it.
“Good jacket,” she said.
It wasn’t smart enough to answer, apparently.
The pretties playing on the roof had all gone silent andwere milling around, wondering if there really was a fire.
They pointed at her, and Tally heard the word “ugly” ontheir lips.
What was worse in New Pretty Town, she wondered?
Your mansion burning down, or an ugly crashing yourparty?
Tally reached the edge of the roof, vaulted up onto theUGLIES 21rail, and teetered for a moment. Below her, pretties werestarting to spill out of Garbo Mansion onto the lawn anddown the hill. They were looking back up, searching forsmoke or flames. All they saw was her.
It was a long way down, and Tally’s stomach alreadyseemed to be in free fall. But she was thrilled, too. Theshrieking siren, the crowd gazing up at her, the lights ofNew Pretty Town all spread out below like a million candles.
Tally took a deep breath and bent her knees, readyingherself to jump.
For a split second, she wondered if the jacket wouldwork since she wasn’t wearing an interface ring. Would ithover-bounce for a nobody? Or would she just splat?
But she had promised Peris she wouldn’t get caught.
And the jacket was for emergencies, and there was a greenlight on. . . .
“Heads up!” Tally shouted.
And jumped.
SHAY
The siren faded behind her. It seemed like forever—or onlyseconds—that Tally fell, the gaping faces below becominglarger and larger.
The ground hurtled toward her, a space opening in thepanicking crowd where she was going to hit. For a fewmoments it was just like a flying dream, silent and wonderful.
Then reality jerked at her shoulders and thighs, thewebbing of the jacket cutting viciously into her. She wastaller than pretty standard, she knew; the jacket probablywasn’t expecting this much weight.
Tally somersaulted in the air, turning headfirst for a fewterrifying moments, her face passing low enough to spot adiscarded bottle cap in the grass. Then she found herselfshooting upward again, completing the circle, so that thesky wheeled above her, then over and downward again,more crowd parting in front.
Perfect. She had pushed off hard enough that she wasbouncing down the hill away from Garbo Mansion, the jacketcarrying her toward the darkness and safety of the gardens.
Tally spun head over heels twice more, and then the jacketlowered her to the grass. She pulled randomly at straps untilthe garment made a hissing sound and dropped to the ground.
Her dizziness took a moment to clear as she tried tosort up from down.
“Isn’t she . . . ugly?” someone asked from the edge ofthe crowd.
The black shapes of two firefighting hovercars zoomedpast overhead, red lights flashing and sirens piercing her ears.
“Great idea, Peris,” she muttered. “A false alarm.” Shewould really be in trouble if they caught her now. She’dnever even heard of anyone doing anything this bad.
Tally ran toward the garden.
The darkness below the willows was comforting.
Down here, halfway to the river, Tally could barely tellthere was a full-scale fire alert in the middle of town. Butshe could see that a search was underway. More hovercarswere in the air than usual, and the river seemed to be lit upextra bright. Maybe that was just a coincidence.
But probably not.
Tally made her way carefully through the trees. It waslater than she and Peris had ever stayed over in New PrettyTown. The pleasure gardens were more crowded, especiallythe dark parts. And now that the excitement of her escapehad worn off, Tally was beginning to realize how stupid thewhole idea had been.
24 Scott WesterfeldOf course Peris didn’t have the scar anymore. The two ofthem had only used a penknife when they’d cut themselvesand held hands. The doctors used much sharper and biggerknives in the operation. They rubbed you raw, and you grewall new skin, perfect and clear. The old marks of accidents andbad food and childhood illnesses all washed away. A clean start.
But Tally had ruined Peris’s starting over—showing uplike some pesky littlie who’s not wanted, and leaving him withthe bad taste of ugly in his mouth, not to mention coveredwith mud. She hoped he had another vest to change into.
At least Peris hadn’t seemed too angry. He’d said they’dbe best friends again, once she was pretty. But the way he’dlooked at her face . . . maybe that was why they separateduglies from pretties. It must be horrible to see an ugly facewhen you’re surrounded by such beautiful people all thetime. What if she’d ruined everything tonight, and Periswould always see her like this—squinty eyes and frizzyhair—even after she had the operation?
A hovercar passed overhead, and Tally ducked. She wasprobably going to get caught tonight, and never be turnedpretty at all.
She deserved it for being so stupid.
Tally reminded herself of her promise to Peris. She wasnot going to get caught; she had to become pretty for him.
A light flashed in the corner of her vision. Tally crouchedand peered through the hanging willow leaves.
A safety warden was in the park. She was a middleUGLIES 25pretty, not a new one. In the firelight, the handsome featuresof the second operation were obvious: broad shouldersand a firm jaw, a sharp nose and high cheekbones. Thewoman carried the same unquestionable authority as Tally’steachers back in Uglyville.
Tally swallowed. New pretties had their own wardens.
There was only one reason why a middle pretty would behere in New Pretty Town: The wardens were looking forsomeone, and they were serious about finding him or her.
The woman flashed her light at a couple on a bench, illuminatingthem for the split second it took to confirm that theywere pretty. The couple jumped, but the warden chuckled andapologized. Tally could hear her low, sure voice, and saw thenew pretties relax. Everything had to be okay if she said it was.
Tally felt herself wanting to give up, to throw herself onthe wise mercy of the warden. If she just explained, thewarden would understand and fix everything. Middle prettiesalways knew what to do.
But she had promised Peris.
Tally pulled back into the darkness, trying to ignorethe horrible feeling that she was a spy, a sneak, for notsurrendering to the woman’s authority. She moved throughthe brush as fast as she could.
Close to the river, Tally heard a noise in front of her. A darkform was outlined in river lights before her. Not a couple, alone figure in the dark.
26 Scott WesterfeldIt had to be a warden, waiting for her in the brush.
Tally hardly dared breathe. She had frozen in midcrawl,her weight all poised on one knee and one muddy hand.
The warden hadn’t seen her yet. If Tally waited long enough,maybe the warden would move on.
She waited, motionless, for endless minutes. The figuredidn’t budge. They must know that the gardens were theonly dark way in and out of New Pretty Town.
Tally’s arm started to shake, the muscles complainingabout staying frozen for so long. But she didn’t dare let herweight settle onto the other arm. The snap of a single twigwould give her away.
She held herself still, until all her muscles were screaming.
Maybe the warden was just a trick of the light. Maybethis was all in her imagination.
Tally blinked, trying to make the figure disappear.
But it was still there, clearly outlined by the ripplinglights of the river.
A twig popped under her knee—Tally’s aching muscleshad finally betrayed her. But the figure still didn’t move. Heor she must have heard. . . .
The warden was being kind, waiting for her to give herselfup. Letting her surrender. The teachers did that at school,sometimes. Made you realize that you couldn’t escape, untilyou confessed everything.
Tally cleared her throat. A small, pathetic sound. “I’msorry,” she said.
UGLIES 27The figure let out a sigh. “Oh, phew. Hey, that’s okay. Imust have scared you, too.” The girl leaned forward, grimacingas if she was also sore from remaining still so long.
Her face caught the light.
She was ugly too.
Her name was Shay. She had long dark hair in pigtails, andher eyes were too wide apart. Her lips were full enough, butshe was even skinnier than a new pretty. She’d come overto New Pretty Town on her own expedition, and had beenhiding here by the river for an hour. “I’ve never seen anythinglike this,” she whispered. “There’s wardens and hovercarseverywhere!”
Tally cleared her throat. “I think it’s my fault.”
Shay looked dubious. “How’d you manage that?”
“Well, I was up in the middle of town, at a party.”
“You crashed a party? That’s crazy!” Shay said, thenlowered her voice back to a whisper. “Crazy, but awesome.
How’d you get in?”
“I was wearing a mask.”
“Wow. A pretty mask?”
“Uh, more like a pig mask. It’s a long story.”
Shay blinked. “A pig mask. Okay. So let me guess,someone blew your house down?”
“Huh? No. I was about to get caught, so I kind of . . .
set off a fire alarm.”
“Nice trick!”
28 Scott WesterfeldTally smiled. It was actually a pretty good story, nowthat she had someone to tell it to. “And I was trapped up onthe roof, so I grabbed a bungee jacket and jumped off. Ihover-bounced halfway here.”
“No way!”
“Well, part of the way here, anyhow.”
“Pretty awesome.” Shay smiled, then her face went serious.
She bit at one of her fingernails, which was one ofthose bad habits that the operation cured. “So, Tally, wereyou at this party . . . to see someone?”
It was Tally’s turn to be impressed. “How’d you figurethat out?”
Shay sighed, looking down at her ragged nails. “I’ve gotfriends too, over here. I mean, they were friends. SometimesI spy on them.” She looked up. “I was always the youngest,you know? And now—”
“You’re all alone.”
Shay nodded. “It’s sounds like you did more than spy,though.”
“Yeah. I kind of said hello.”
“Wow, that’s crazy. Your boyfriend or something?”
Tally shook her head. Peris had gone with other girls,and Tally had dealt with it and tried to do the same, buttheir friendship had always been the main thing in boththeir lives. Not anymore, apparently.
“If he’d been my boyfriend, I don’t think I could havedone it, you know? I wouldn’t have wanted him to see myUGLIES 2930 Scott Westerfeldface. But because we’re friends, I thought maybe . . .”
“Yeah. So how’d it go?”
Tally thought for a second, looking out at the ripplingwater. Peris had been so pretty, and grown-up looking,and he’d said they’d be friends again. Once Tally waspretty too . . . “Basically, it sucked,” she said.
“Thought so.”
“Except getting away. That part was very cool.”
“Sounds like it.” Tally heard the smile in Shay’s voice.
“Very tricky.”
They were silent for a moment as a hovercar wentover.
“But you know, we haven’t totally gotten away yet,”
Shay said. “Next time you’re going to pull a fire alarm, letme know ahead of time.”
“Sorry about getting you trapped here.”
Shay looked at her and frowned. “Not that. I just meantif I’m going to have to do the running-away part, I might aswell get in on the fun.”
Tally laughed softly. “Okay. Next time, I’ll let you know.”
“Please do.” Shay scanned the river. “Looks a littleclearer now. Where’s your board?”
“My what?”
Shay pulled a hoverboard from under a bush. “You’vegot a board, right? What’d you do, swim over?”
“No, I . . . hey, wait. How’d you get a hoverboard totake you across the river?” Anything that flew had mindersall over it.
Shay laughed. “That’s the oldest trick in the book. Ifigured you’d know all about it.”
Tally shrugged. “I don’t board much.”
“Well, this one’ll take both of us.”
“Wait, shhh.”
Another hovercar had come into view, cruising downthe river just above the height of the bridges.
Tally waited for a count of ten after it had passed beforeshe spoke. “I don’t think it’s a good idea, flying back.”
“So how did you get over?”
“Follow me.” Tally rose from her crouch onto handsand knees, and crawled a bit ahead. She looked back. “Canyou carry that thing?”
“Sure. It doesn’t weigh much.” Shay snapped her fingers,and the hoverboard drifted upward. “Actually, it doesn’tweigh anything, unless I tell it to.”
“That’s handy.”
Shay started to crawl, the board bouncing along behindher like a littlie’s balloon. Tally couldn’t see any string,though. “So, where’re we going?” Shay asked.
“I know a bridge.”
“But it’ll tattle.”
“Not this one. It’s an old friend.”
WIPE OUT
Tally fell off. Again.
The spill didn’t hurt so much, this time. The momenther feet slipped off the hoverboard, she’d relaxed, the wayShay kept telling her to. Spinning out wasn’t much worsethan having your dad swing you around by the wrists whenyou were little.
If your dad happened to be a superhuman freak andwas trying to pull your arms out of their sockets.
But the momentum had to go somewhere, Shay hadexplained. And around in circles was better than into a tree.
Here in Cleopatra Park there were plenty of those.
After a few rotations, Tally found herself being loweredto the grass by her wrists, dizzy but in one piece.
Shay cruised up, banking her hoverboard to an elegantstop as if she’d been born on one.
“That looked a little better.”
“It didn’t feel any better.” Tally pulled off one crashbracelet and rubbed her wrist. It was turning red, and herfingers felt weak.
The bracelet was heavy and solid in her hand. Crashbracelets had to have metal inside, because they worked onmagnets, the way the boards did. Whenever Tally’s feetslipped, the bracelets got all hovery and caught her fall, likesome friendly giant plucking her from danger and swingingher to a halt.
By her wrists. Again.
Tally pulled the other bracelet off and rubbed.
“Don’t give up. You almost made it!”
Tally’s board cruised back on its own, nuzzling at herankles like an apologetic dog. She crossed her arms andrubbed her shoulders. “I almost got snapped in two, youmean.”
“Never happens. I’ve spilled more times than a glass ofmilk on a roller coaster.”
“On a what?”
“Never mind. Come on, one more try.”
Tally sighed. It wasn’t just her wrists. Her knees achedfrom banking hard, whipping through turns so quickly thather body seemed to weigh a ton. Shay called that “highgravity,” which happened every time a fast-moving objectchanged direction.
“Hoverboarding looks so fun, like being a bird. Butactually doing it is hard work.”
Shay shrugged. “Being a bird’s probably hard work too.
Flapping your wings all day, you know?”
“Maybe. Does it get any better?”
UGLIES 33“For birds? I don’t know. On a board? Definitely.”
“I hope so.” Tally pulled her bracelets on and steppedonto the hoverboard. It bobbed a little as it adjusted to herweight, like the bounce of a diving board.
“Check your belly sensor.”
Tally touched her belly ring, where Shay had clippedthe little sensor. It told the board where Tally’s center ofgravity was, and which way she was facing. The sensor evenread her stomach muscles, which, it turned out, hoverboardersalways clenched in anticipation of turns. Theboard was smart enough to gradually learn how her bodymoved. The more Tally rode, the more it would keep itselfunder her feet.
Of course, Tally had to learn too. Shay kept saying thatif your feet weren’t in the right place, the smartest board inthe world couldn’t keep you on. The riding surface was allknobbly for traction, but it was amazing how easy it was toslip off.
The board was oval-shaped, about half as long as Tallywas tall, and black with the silver spots of a cheetah—the onlyanimal in the world that could run faster than a hoverboardcould fly. It was Shay’s first board, and she’d never recycyledit. Until today, it had hung on the wall above her bed.
Tally snapped her fingers, bent her knees as she roseinto the air, then leaned forward to pick up speed.
Shay cruised along just above her, staying a littlebehind.
34 Scott WesterfeldThe trees started to rush by, whipping Tally’s arms withthe sharp stings of evergreen needles. The board wouldn’tlet her crash into anything solid, but it didn’t get too concernedabout twigs.
“Extend your arms. Keep your feet apart!” Shay yelledfor the thousandth time. Tally nervously scooted her leftfoot forward.
At the end of the park, Tally leaned to her right, and theboard pulled into a long, steep turn. She bent her knees,growing heavy as she cut back toward where they’d started.
Now Tally was rushing toward the slalom flags, crouchingas she drew closer. She could feel the wind drying herlips, lifting her ponytail up.
“Oh, boy,” she whispered.
The board raced past the first flag, and she leaned hardright, her arms all the way out now for balance.
“Switch!” cried Shay. Tally twisted her body to bring theboard under her and across, cutting around the next flag.
Once it was past, she twisted again.
But her feet were too close together. Not again! Hershoes slipped across the surface of the board. “No!” shecried, clenching her toes, cupping the air with her palms,anything to keep herself on board. Her right shoe slidtoward the board’s edge until her toes were silhouettedagainst the trees.
The trees! She was almost sideways, her body parallelwith the ground.
UGLIES 35The slalom flag zoomed past, and suddenly, it was over.
The board swung back under Tally as her course straightenedout again.
She’d made the turn!
Tally spun to face Shay. “I did it!” she cried.
And fell.
Confused by her spin, the board had tried to execute aturn, and dumped her. Tally relaxed as her arms jerkedstraight and the world spun around her. She was laughingas she descended to the grass, dangling by her bracelets.
Shay was also laughing. “Almost did it.”
“No! I got around the flags. You saw!”
“Okay, okay. You made it.” Shay laughed, stepping offonto the grass. “But don’t dance around like that afterward.
It’s not cool, Squint.”
Tally stuck out her tongue. In the last week, Tally hadlearned that Shay only used her ugly nickname as a putdown.
Shay insisted they call each other by their realnames most of the time, which Tally had quickly gottenused to. She liked it, actually. Nobody but Sol and Ellie—her parents—and a few stuck-up teachers had ever calledher “Tally” before.
“Whatever you say, Skinny. That was great.”
Tally collapsed on the grass. Her whole body ached,every muscle exhausted. “Thanks for the lesson. Flying’sthe best.”
Shay sat down close by. “Never bored on a hoverboard.”
36 Scott Westerfeld“This is the best I’ve felt since . . .” Tally didn’t say hisname. She looked up into the sky, which was a gloriousblue. A perfect sky. They hadn’t gotten started until lateafternoon. Above, a few high clouds were already showinghints of pink, even though sunset was hours off.
“Yeah,” Shay agreed. “Me too. I was getting sick ofhanging out alone.”
“So how long you got?”
Shay answered instantly. “Two months and twenty-sixdays.”
Tally was stunned for a moment. “Are you sure?”
“’Course I’m sure.”
Tally felt a big, slow smile roll across her face, and shefell back onto the grass, laughing. “You’ve got to be kidding.
We’ve got the same birthday!”
“No way.”
“Yeah, way. It’s perfect. We’ll both turn pretty together!”
Shay was silent for a moment. “Yeah, I guess.”
“September ninth, right?”
Shay nodded.
“That is so cool. I mean, I don’t think I could stand tolose another friend. You know? We don’t have to worryabout one of us abandoning the other. Not for a single day.”
Shay sat up straight, her smile gone. “I wouldn’t dothat, anyway.”
Tally blinked. “I didn’t say you would, but . . .”
“But what?”
UGLIES 37“But when you turn, you go over to New Pretty Town.”
“So? Pretties are allowed to come back over here, youknow. Or write.”
Tally snorted. “But they don’t.”
“I would.” Shay looked out over the river at the spiresof the party towers, placing a thumbnail firmly between herteeth.
“So would I, Shay. I’d come see you.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah. Really.”
Shay shrugged, and lay back down to stare up at theclouds. “Okay. But you’re not the first person to make thatpromise, you know.”
“Yeah, I do know.”
They were silent for a moment. Clouds rolled slowlyacross the sun, and the air grew cool. Tally thought of Peris,and tried to remember the way he used to look back whenhe was Nose. Somehow, she couldn’t recall his ugly faceanymore. As if those few minutes of seeing him pretty hadwiped out a lifetime of memories. All she could see nowwas pretty Peris, those eyes, that smile.
“I wonder why they never come back,” Shay said. “Justto visit.”
Tally swallowed. “Because we’re so ugly, Skinny, that’swhy.”
FACING THE FUTURE
“Here’s option two.” Tally touched her interface ring, andthe wallscreen changed.
This Tally was sleek, with ultrahigh cheekbones, deepgreen catlike eyes, and a wide mouth that curled into aknowing smile.
“That’s, uh, pretty different.”
“Yeah. I doubt it’s even legal.” Tally tweaked the eyeshapeparameters, pulling the arch of the eyebrows downalmost to normal. Some cities allowed exotic operations—for new pretties only—but the authorities here were notoriouslyconservative. She doubted a doctor would give thismorpho a second glance, but it was fun to push the softwareto its limits. “You think I look too scary?”
“No. You look like a real pussycat.” Shay giggled.
“Unfortunately, I mean that in the literal, dead-mouse-eatingsense.”
“Okay, moving right along.”
The next Tally was a much more standard morphologicalmodel, with almond-shaped brown eyes, straightblack hair with long bangs, the dark lips set to maximumfullness.
“Pretty generic, Tally.”
“Oh, come on! I worked on this one for a long time. Ithink I’d look great this way. There’s a whole Cleopatrathing going on.”
“You know,” Shay said, “I read that the real Cleopatrawasn’t even that great-looking. She seduced everyone withhow clever she was.”
“Yeah, right. And you’ve seen a picture of her?”
“They didn’t have cameras back then, Squint.”
“Duh. So how do you know she was ugly?”
“Because that’s what historians wrote at the time.”
Tally shrugged. “She was probably a classic pretty andthey didn’t even know it. Back then, they had weird ideasabout beauty. They didn’t know about biology.”
“Lucky them.” Shay stared out the window.
“So, if you think all my faces are so crappy, why don’tyou show me some of yours?” Tally cleared the wallscreenand leaned back on the bed.
“I can’t.”
“You can dish it out, but you can’t take it, huh?”
“No, I mean I just can’t. I never made one.”
Tally’s jaw dropped. Everyone made morphos, even littlies,too young for their facial structure to have set. It wasa great waste of a day, figuring out all the different ways youcould look when you finally became pretty.
40 Scott Westerfeld“Not even one?”
“Maybe when I was little. But my friends and I stoppeddoing that kind of stuff a long time ago.”
“Well.” Tally sat up. “We should fix that right now.”
“I’d rather go hoverboarding.” Shay tugged anxiouslyunder her shirt. Tally figured that Shay slept with her bellysensor on, hoverboarding in her dreams.
“Later, Shay. I can’t believe you don’t have a singlemorph. Please.”
“It’s stupid. The doctors pretty much do what theywant, no matter what you tell them.”
“I know, but it’s fun.”
Shay made a big point of rolling her eyes, but finallynodded. She dragged herself off the bed and plopped downin front of the wallscreen, pulling her hair back from her face.
Tally snorted. “So you have done this before.”
“Like I said, when I was a littlie.”
“Sure.” Tally turned her interface ring to bring up amenu on the wallscreen, and blinked her way through a setof eyemouse choices. The screen’s camera flickered withlaser light, and a green grid sprang up on Shay’s face, a fieldof tiny squares imposed across the shape of her cheekbones,nose, lips, and forehead.
Seconds later, two faces appeared on the screen. Both ofthem were Shay, but there were obvious differences: Onelooked wild, slightly angry; the other had a slightly distantexpression, like someone having a daydream.
UGLIES 41“It’s weird how that works, isn’t it?” Tally said. “Liketwo different people.”
Shay nodded. “Creepy.”
Ugly faces were always asymmetrical; neither halflooked exactly like the other. So the first thing the morphosoftware did was take each side of your face and double it,like holding a mirror right down the middle, creating twoexamples of perfect symmetry. Already, both of the symmetricalShays looked better than the original.
“So, Shay, which do you think is your good side?”
“Why do I have to be symmetrical? I’d rather have aface with two different sides.”
Tally groaned. “That’s a sign of childhood stress. No onewants to look at that.”
“Gee, I wouldn’t want to look stressed,” Shay snorted,and pointed at the wilder-looking face. “Okay, whatever.
The right one’s better, don’t you think?”
“I hate my right side. I always start with the left.”
“Yeah, well, I happen to like my right side. Lookstougher.”
“Okay. You’re the boss.”
Tally blinked, and the right-side face filled the screen.
“First, the basics.” The software took over: The eyesgradually grew, reducing the size of the nose between them,Shay’s cheekbones moved upward, and her lips became atiny bit fuller (they were already almost pretty-sized). Everyblemish disappeared, her skin turning flawlessly smooth.
42 Scott WesterfeldThe skull moved subtly under the features, the angle of herforehead tilting back, her chin becoming more defined, herjaw stronger.
When it was done, Tally whistled. “Wow, that’s prettygood already.”
“Great,” Shay groaned. “I totally look like every othernew pretty in the world.”
“Well, sure, we just got started. How about some hairon you?” Tally blinked through menus quickly, picking astyle at random.
When the wallscreen changed, Shay fell over on thefloor in a fit of giggles. The high hairdo towered over herthin face like dunce cap, the white-blond hair utterly incongruouswith her olive skin.
Tally could hardly manage to speak through her ownlaughter. “Okay, maybe not that.” She flipped through morestyles, settling on basic hair, dark and short. “Let’s get theface right first.”
She tweaked the eyebrows, making their arch moredramatic, and added roundness to the cheeks. Shay wasstill too skinny, even after the morpho software had pulledher toward the average.
“And maybe a bit lighter?” Tally took the shade of theskin closer to baseline.
“Hey, Squint,” Shay said. “Whose face is this, anyway?”
“Just playing,” Tally said. “You want to take a shot?”
“No, I want to go hoverboarding.”
UGLIES 43“Sure, great. But first let’s get this right.”
“What do you mean ‘get it right,’ Tally? Maybe I thinkmy face is already right!”
“Yeah, it’s great.” Tally rolled her eyes. “For an ugly.”
Shay scowled. “What, can’t you stand me? Do you needto get some picture into your head so you can imagine itinstead of my face?”
“Shay! Come on. It’s just for fun.”
“Making ourselves feel ugly is not fun.”
“We are ugly!”
“This whole game is just designed to make us hateourselves.”
Tally groaned and flopped back onto her bed, glaringup at the ceiling. Shay could be so weird sometimes. Shealways had a chip on her shoulder about the operation, likesomeone was making her turn sixteen. “Right, and thingswere so great back when everyone was ugly. Or did youmiss that day in school?”
“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Shay recited. “Everyone judgedeveryone else based on their appearance. People who weretaller got better jobs, and people even voted for some politiciansjust because they weren’t quite as ugly as everybodyelse. Blah, blah, blah.”
“Yeah, and people killed one another over stuff likehaving different skin color.” Tally shook her head. Nomatter how many times they repeated it at school, she’dnever really quite believed that one. “So what if people look44 Scott Westerfeldmore alike now? It’s the only way to make people equal.”
“How about making them smarter?”
Tally laughed. “Fat chance. Anyway, it’s just to see whatyou and I will look like in only . . . two months and fifteendays.”
“Can’t we just wait until then?”
Tally closed her eyes, sighing. “Sometimes I don’t thinkI can.”
“Well, tough luck.” She felt Shay’s weight on the bedand a light punch on her arm. “Hey, might as well make thebest of it. Can we go hoverboarding now? Please?”
Tally opened her eyes and saw that her friend was smiling.
“Okay: hoverboard.” She sat up and glanced at thescreen. Even without much work, Shay’s face was alreadywelcoming, vulnerable, healthy . . . pretty. “Don’t you thinkyou’re beautiful?”
Shay didn’t look, just shrugged. “That’s not me. It’ssome committee’s idea of me.”
Tally smiled and hugged her.
“It will be you, though. Really you. Soon.”
PRETTY BORING
“I think you’re ready.”
Tally cruised to a stop—right foot down, left foot up,bend the knees.
“Ready for what?”
Shay drifted slowly past, letting the breeze tug heralong. They were as high up and far out as hoverboardswould go, just above treetop level, at the edge of town. Itwas amazing how quickly Tally had gotten used to being uphigh, with nothing but a board and bracelets between herand a long fall.
The view from up here was fantastic. Behind them thespires of New Pretty Town rose from the center of town,and around them was the greenbelt, a swath of forest thatseparated the middle and the late pretties from the youngsters.
Older generations of pretties lived out in the suburbs,hidden by the hills, in rows of big houses separated bystrips of private garden for their littlies to play in.
Shay smiled. “Ready for a night ride.”
“Oh. Look, I don’t know if I want to cross the riveragain,” Tally said, remembering her promise to Peris. Sheand Shay had shown each other a lot of tricks over the lastthree weeks, but they hadn’t been back into New PrettyTown since the night they’d met. “Until we get turned, ofcourse. After last time, the wardens are probably all—”
“I wasn’t talking about New Pretty Town,” Shay interrupted.
“That place is boring, anyway. We’d have to sneakaround all night.”
“Okay. You mean just board around Uglyville.”
Shay shook her head, still coasting gradually away onthe breeze.
Tally shifted her weight on the board uncomfortably.
“Where else is there?”
Shay put her hands in her pockets and spread her arms,turning her dorm’s team jacket into a sail. The breeze pulledher farther away from Tally. By reflex, Tally tipped her toesforward so that her board would keep up.
“Well, there’s out there.” Shay nodded at the open landbefore them.
“The suburbs? That’s dullsville.”
“Not the burbs. Past them.” Shay slid her feet in oppositedirections, to the very edges of the board. Her skirt caught thecool evening wind, which tugged her away even faster. She wasdrifting toward the outer edge of the greenbelt. Off-limits.
Tally planted her feet and dipped the board, and pulledup next to her friend. “What do you mean? Outside the citycompletely?”
UGLIES 47“Yeah.”
“That’s crazy. There’s nothing out there.”
“There’s plenty out there. Real trees, hundreds of yearsold. Mountains. And the ruins. Ever been there?”
Tally blinked. “Of course.”
“I don’t mean on a school trip, Tally. You ever beenthere at night?”
Tally brought her board to a sharp halt. The Rusty Ruinswere the remains of an old city, a hulking reminder of backwhen there’d been way too many people, and everyone wasincredibly stupid. And ugly. “No way. Don’t tell me you have.”
Shay nodded.
Tally’s mouth dropped open. “That’s impossible.”
“You think you’re the only one who knows goodtricks?”
“Well, maybe I believe you,” Tally said. Shay had thatlook on her face, the one Tally had learned to watch out for.
“But what if we get busted?”
Shay laughed. “Tally, there’s nothing out there, like youjust said. Nothing and no one to bust us.”
“Do hoverboards even work out there? Does anything?”
“Special ones do, if you know how to trick them, andwhere to ride. And getting past the burbs is easy. You takethe river the whole way. Farther upstream it’s white water,too rough for skimmers.”
Tally’s mouth dropped open again. “You really havedone this before.”
48 Scott WesterfeldA gust of wind billowed in Shay’s jacket, and she slidfarther away, still smiling. Tally had to lean her board intomotion again to stay within earshot. A treetop brushed herankles as the ground below them started to rise.
“It’ll be really fun,” Shay called.
“Sounds too risky.”
“Come on. I’ve been wanting to show you this since wemet. Since you told me you crashed a pretty party—andpulled a fire alarm!”
Tally swallowed, wishing she’d told the whole truthabout that night—about how it had all just sort of happened.
Shay seemed to think she was the world’s biggestdaredevil now. “Well, I mean, that alarm thing was partly anaccident. Kind of.”
“Yeah, sure.”
“I mean, maybe we should wait. It’s only a couple ofmonths now.”
“Oh, that’s right,” Shay said. “A couple of months andwe’ll be stuck inside the river. Pretty and boring.”
Tally snorted. “I don’t think it’s exactly boring, Shay.”
“Doing what you’re supposed to do is always boring. Ican’t imagine anything worse than being required to have fun.”
“I can,” Tally said quietly. “Never having any.”
“Listen, Tally, these two months are our last chance todo anything really cool. To be ourselves. Once we turn, it’snew pretty, middle pretty, late pretty.” Shay dropped herarms, and her board stopped drifting. “Then dead pretty.”
UGLIES 49“Better than dead ugly,” Tally said.
Shay shrugged and opened her jacket into a sail again.
They weren’t far from the edge of the greenbelt now. SoonShay would get a warning. Then her board would tattle.
“Besides,” Tally argued, “just because we get the operationdoesn’t mean we can’t do stuff like this.”
“But pretties never do, Tally. Never.”
Tally sighed, tipping her feet again to follow. “Maybethat’s because they have better stuff to do than kid tricks.
Maybe partying in town is better than hanging out in abunch of old ruins.”
Shay’s eyes flashed. “Or maybe when they do theoperation—when they grind and stretch your bones to theright shape, peel off your face and rub all your skin away,and stick in plastic cheekbones so you look like everybodyelse—maybe after going through all that you justaren’t very interesting anymore.”
Tally flinched. She’d never heard the operationdescribed that way. Even in bio class, where they went intothe details, it didn’t sound that bad. “Come on, we won’teven know it’s happening. You just have pretty dreams thewhole time.”
“Yeah, sure.”
A voice came into Tally’s head: “Warning, restrictedarea.” The wind was turning cold as the sun dropped.
“Come on, Shay, let’s go back down. It’s almost dinner.”
Shay smiled and shook her head, and pulled off her50 Scott Westerfeldinterface ring. Now she wouldn’t hear the warnings. “Let’sgo tonight. You can ride almost as well as me now.”
“Shay.”
“Do this with me. I’ll show you a roller coaster.”
“What’s a—”
“Second warning. Restricted area.”
Tally stopped her board. “If you keep going, Shay, you’llget busted and we won’t be doing anything tonight.”
Shay shrugged as the wind tugged her farther away.
“I just want to show you something that’s my idea offun, Tally. Before we go all pretty and only get to haveeverybody else’s idea of fun.”
Tally shook her head, wanting to say that Shay hadalready taught her how to hoverboard, the coolest thingshe’d ever learned. In less than a month she’d come to feellike they were best friends. Almost like when she’d metPeris as a littlie, and they’d known instantly they’d betogether forever. “Shay . . .”
“Please?”
Tally sighed. “Okay.”
Shay dropped her arms and dipped her toes to bringthe board to a halt. “Really? Tonight?”
“Sure. Rusty Ruins it is.”
Tally told herself to relax. It wasn’t that big a deal, really. Shebroke rules all the time, and everyone went to the ruins once ayear on school trips. It couldn’t be dangerous or anything.
Shay zoomed back from the edge of the belt, swoopingUGLIES 51up beside Tally to put her arm around her. “Wait until yousee the river.”
“You said it’s got white water?”
“Yeah.”
“Which is what?”
Shay smiled. “It’s water. But much, much better.”


RAPIDS
“Good night.”
“Sleep tight,” replied the room.
Tally pulled on a jacket, clipped her sensor to her bellyring, and opened the window. The air was still, the river soflat that she could make out every detail of the city skylinemirrored in it. It looked like the pretties were having somesort of event. She could hear the roar of a huge crowdacross the water, a thousand cheers rising and fallingtogether. The party towers were dark under the almost fullmoon, and the fireworks all shimmering hues of blue,climbing so high that they exploded in silence.
The city had never looked so far away.
“I’ll see you soon, Peris,” she said quietly.
The roof tiles were slick with a late evening rain. Tallyclimbed carefully to the corner of the dorm where it wasbrushed by an old sycamore tree. The handholds in itsbranches felt solid and familiar, and she descended quicklyinto the darkness behind a recycler.
When she’d cleared the dormitory grounds, Tallylooked back. The pattern of shadows that led away from thedorm seemed so convenient, almost intentional. As if uglieswere supposed to sneak out every once in a while.
Tally shook her head. She was starting to think likeShay.
They met at the dam, where the river split in two to encircleNew Pretty Town. Tonight, there weren’t any river skimmersout to disturb the darkness, and Shay was practicingmoves on her board when Tally walked up.
“Should you be doing that here in town?” Tally calledover the roar of water rushing through the dam’s gates.
Shay danced, shifting her weight back and forth on thefloating board, dodging imaginary obstacles. “I was justmaking sure it worked. In case you were worried.”
Tally looked at her own board. Shay had tricked thesafety governor so it wouldn’t tattle when they flew at night,or crossed the boundary out of town. Tally wasn’t so muchworried about it squealing on them as whether it would flyat all. Or let her fly into a tree. But Shay’s board seemed tobe hovering just fine.
“I boarded all the way here, and nobody’s come to getme,” Shay said.
Tally dropped her board to the ground. “Thanks formaking sure. I didn’t mean to be so wimpy about this.”
“You weren’t.”
“Yeah, I was. I should tell you something. That night,54 Scott Westerfeldwhen you met me, I kind of promised my friend Peris Iwouldn’t take any big risks. You know, in case I really gotin trouble, and they got really mad.”
“Who cares if they get mad? You’re almost sixteen.”
“But what if they get mad enough that they won’t makeme pretty?”
Shay stopped bouncing. “I’ve never heard of that happening.”
“I guess I haven’t either. But maybe they wouldn’t tell usif it had. Anyway, Peris made me promise to take it easy.”
“Tally, do you think maybe he just said that so youwouldn’t come around again?”
“Huh?”
“Maybe he made you promise to take it easy so youwouldn’t bother him anymore. To make you afraid to go toNew Pretty Town again.”
Tally tried to answer, but her throat was dry.
“Listen, if you don’t want to come, that’s fine,” Shaysaid. “I mean it, Squint. But we’re not going to get caught.
And if we do, I’ll take the blame.” She laughed. “I’ll tellthem I kidnapped you.”
Tally stepped onto her board and snapped her fingers.
When she reached Shay’s eye level she said, “I’m coming. Isaid I would.”
Shay smiled and took Tally’s hand for a second, squeezing.
“Great. It’s going to be fun. Not new pretty fun—thereal kind. Put these on.”
UGLIES 55“What are they? Night vision?”
“Nope. Goggles. You’re going to love the white water.”
They hit the rapids ten minutes later.
Tally had lived her whole life within sight of the river.
Slow-moving and dignified, it defined the city, marking theboundary between worlds. But she’d never realized that afew kilometers upstream from the dam, the stately band ofsilver became a snarling monster.
The churning water really was white. It crashed overrocks and through narrow channels, catapulted up intomoonlit sprays, split apart, rejoined, and dropped downinto boiling cauldrons at the bottom of steep falls.
Shay was skimming just above the torrent, so low thatshe lifted a wake every time she banked. Tally followed atwhat she guessed was a safe distance, hoping her trickedupboard was still reluctant to crash into the darknesscloakedrocks and tree branches. The forest to either sidewas a black void full of wild and ancient trees, nothing likethe generic carbon-dioxide suckers that decorated the city.
The moonlit clouds above glowed through their brancheslike a ceiling of pearl.
Every time Shay screamed, Tally knew she was about tofollow her friend through a wall of spray leaping up fromthe maelstrom. Some shone like white lace curtains in themoonlight, but others struck unexpectedly from the darkness.
Tally also found herself crashing through the arcs of56 Scott Westerfeldcold water rising from Shay’s board when it dipped orbanked, but at least she knew when a turn was coming.
The first few minutes were sheer terror, her teethclenched so hard that her jaw ached, her toes curled upinside her special new grippy shoes, her arms and even fingersspread wide for balance. But gradually Tally grewaccustomed to the darkness, the roar of water below, theunexpected slap of cold spray against her face. It waswilder, and faster, and farther than she’d ever flown before.
The river wound into the dark forest, cutting its serpentineroute into the unknown.
Finally, Shay waved her hands and pulled up, the backof her board dipping low into the water. Tally climbed toavoid the wake, spinning her board in a tight circle to bringit to a smooth halt.
“Are we there?”
“Not quite. But look.” Shay pointed back the waythey’d come.
Tally gasped as she took in the view. The distant citywas a bright coin nestled in darkness, the fireworks of NewPretty Town the barest cold-blue shimmer. They must haveclimbed a long way up; Tally could see patches of moonlightrolling slowly across the low hills around the city,pushed along by the light wind that barely tugged at theclouds.
She’d never been beyond the city limits at night, hadnever seen it lit up like this from afar.
UGLIES 57Tally pulled off her spattered goggles and took a deepbreath. The air was full of sharp smells, evergreen sap andwildflowers, the electric smell of churning water.
“Nice, huh?”
“Yeah,” Tally panted. “Much better than sneakingaround New Pretty Town.”
Shay grinned happily. “I’m really glad you think so. I’vebeen wanting to come out here so bad, but not alone. Youknow?”
Tally looked at the surrounding forest, trying to peerinto the black spaces between the trees. This was really thewild, where anything could be hidden, not a place forhuman beings. She shivered at the thought of being therealone. “Where to now?”
“Now we walk.”
“Walk?”
Shay eased her board to the shore and stepped off.
“Yeah, there’s a vein of iron about half a kilometer that way.
But nothing between here and there.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Tally, hoverboards work on magnetic levitation, right?
So there’s got to be some kind of metal around or they don’thover.”
“I guess so. But in town—”
“In town, there’s a steel grid built into the ground, nomatter where you go. Out here, you have to be careful.”
“What happens if your board can’t hover anymore?”
58 Scott Westerfeld“It falls down. And your crash bracelets don’t workeither.”
“Oh.” Tally stepped from her board and held it underone arm. All her muscles were sore from the wild ride here.
It was good to be on solid ground. The rocks felt reassuringlythe-opposite-of-hovery under her shakey legs.
After a few minutes’ walking, though, the board startedto grow heavy. By the time the noise of the river had fadedto a dull roar behind them, it felt like a plank of oak underher arm.
“I didn’t know these things weighed so much.”
“Yeah, this is what a board weighs when it’s not hovering.
Out here, you find out that the city fools you abouthow things really work.”
The sky was getting cloudier, and in the darkness thecold seemed more intense. Tally hoisted the board up to geta better grip, wondering if it was going to rain. She wasalready wet enough from the rapids. “I kind of like beingfooled about some things.”
After a long scramble through the rocks, Shay broke thesilence. “This way. There’s a natural vein of iron underground.
You can feel it in your crash bracelets.”
Tally held out one hand and frowned, unconvinced.
But after another minute she felt a faint tugging in herbracelet, like a ghost pulling her forward. Her board startedto lighten, and soon she and Shay had hopped on again,UGLIES 59coasting over a ridge and down into a dark valley.
Onboard, Tally found the breath to ask a question thathad been bugging her. “So if hoverboards need metal, howdo they work on the river?”
“Panning for gold.”
“What?”
“Rivers come from springs, which come from insidemountains. The water brings up minerals from inside theearth. So there’s always metals at the bottom of rivers.”
“Right. Like when people used to pan for gold?”
“Yeah, exactly. But, actually, boards prefer iron. All thatglitters is not hovery.”
Tally frowned. Shay sometimes talked in a mysteriousway, like she was quoting the lyrics of some band no oneelse listened to.
She almost asked, but Shay came to a sudden halt andpointed downward.
The clouds were breaking, and moonlight shot throughthem to fall across the floor of the valley. Hulking towersrose up, casting jagged shadows, their human-made shapesobvious against the plain of treetops rippling in the wind.
The Rusty Ruins.
THE RUSTY RUINS
A few blank windows stared down on them in silence fromthe husks of the giant buildings. Any glass had long sinceshattered, any wood had rotted, and nothing remained butmetal frames, mortar, and stone crumbling in the grip ofinvading vegetation. Looking down at the black, emptydoorways, Tally’s skin crawled with the thought of descendingto peer into one.
The two friends slid between the ruined buildings, ridinghigh and silent as if not to disturb the ghosts of the deadcity. Below them the streets were full of burned-out carssqueezed together between the looming walls. Whateverhad destroyed this city, the people had tried to escape it.
Tally remembered from her last school trip to the ruins thattheir cars couldn’t hover. They just rolled along on rubberwheels. The Rusties had been stuck down in these streetslike a horde of rats trapped in a burning maze.
“Uh, Shay, you’re pretty sure our boards aren’t suddenlygoing to conk out, right?” she called softly.
“Don’t worry. Whoever built this city loved to wastemetal. They aren’t called the Rusty Ruins because some guycalled Rusty discovered them.”
Tally had to agree. Every building sported jagged spursof metal sticking from its broken walls, like bones juttingfrom a long-dead animal. She remembered that the Rustiesdidn’t use hoverstruts; every building was squat, crude, andmassive, and needed a steel skeleton to keep it from fallingdown.
And some of them were so huge. The Rusties didn’t puttheir factories underground, and they all worked togetherlike bees in a hive instead of at home. The smallest ruinhere was bigger than the biggest dorm in Uglyville, biggereven than Garbo Mansion.
Seeing them now, at night, the ruins felt much morereal to Tally. On school trips, the teachers always made theRusties out to be so stupid. You almost couldn’t believepeople lived like this, burning trees to clear land, burningoil for heat and power, setting the atmosphere on fire withtheir weapons. But in the moonlight she could imaginepeople scrambling over flaming cars to escape the crumblingcity, panicking in their flight from this untenable pileof metal and stone.
Shay’s voice pulled Tally from her reverie. “Come on, Iwant to show you something.”
Shay cruised to the edge of the buildings, then out overthe trees.
“Are you sure we can—”
62 Scott Westerfeld“Look down.”
Below, Tally saw metal glinting through the trees.
“The ruins are much bigger than they let on,” Shay said.
“They just keep that part of the city standing for schooltrips and museum stuff. But it goes on forever.”
“With lots of metal?”
“Yeah. Tons. Don’t worry, I’ve flown all over the place.”
Tally swallowed, keeping an eye out for signs of ruinbelow, glad that Shay was moving at a nice, slow speed.
A shape emerged from the forest, a long spine that rose and felllike a frozen wave. It led away from them, off into the darkness.
“Here it is.”
“Okay, but what is it?” Tally asked.
“It’s called a roller coaster. Remember, I told you I’dshow you one.”
“It’s pretty. But what’s it for?”
“For having fun.”
“No way.”
“Yeah, way. Apparently, the Rusties did have some fun.
It’s like a track. They would stick ground cars to it and goas fast as they could. Up, down, around in circles. Likehoverboarding, without hovering. And they made it out ofsome really unrusty kind of steel—for safety, I guess.”
Tally frowned. She’d only imagined the Rusties workingin the giant stone hives and struggling to escape on thatlast, horrible day. Not having fun.
UGLIES 63“Let’s do it,” Shay said. “Let’s roller coaster.”
“How?”
“On your board.” Shay turned to Tally and said seriously,“But you’ve got to go fast. It’s dangerous unless you’rereally moving.”
“Why?”
“You’ll see.”
Shay turned away and sped down the roller coaster, flyingjust above the track. Tally sighed and leaned hard afterher. At least the thing was metal.
It also turned out to be a great ride. It was like a hoverboardcourse made solid, complete with tight, bankedturns, sharp climbs followed by long drops, even loops thattook Tally upside down, her crash bracelets activating tokeep her on board. It was amazing what good shape it wasin. The Rusties must have built it out of something special,just as Shay had said.
The track went much higher than a hoverboard couldgo on its own. On the roller coaster, hoverboarding reallywas like being a bird.
It wound around in a wide, slow arc, circling backtoward where they’d started. The final approach began witha huge climb.
“Take this part fast!” Shay shouted over her shoulder asshe zoomed ahead.
Tally followed at top speed, rocketing up the spindlytrack. She could see the ruins in the distance: broken, black64 Scott Westerfeldspires against the trees. And behind them, a moonlit glimmerthat might have been the sea. This was really high!
She heard a scream of pleasure as she reached the top.
Shay had disappeared. Tally leaned forward to speed up.
Suddenly, the board dropped out from under her. Itsimply fell away from her feet, leaving her flying throughmidair. The track below her had disappeared.
Tally clenched her fists, waiting for the crash braceletsto kick in and haul her up by her wrists. But they hadbecome as useless as the board, just heavy strips of steeldragging her toward the ground. “Shay!” she screamed asshe fell into blackness.
Then Tally saw the framework of the roller coasterahead. Only a short segment was missing.
Suddenly, the crash bracelets pulled her upward, andshe felt the solid surface of the hoverboard coming up fromunder her feet. Her momentum had carried her to the otherside of the gap! The board must have sailed along with her,just below her feet for those terrifying seconds of free fall.
She found herself cruising down the track, to where Shaywas waiting at the bottom. “You’re insane!” she shouted.
“Pretty cool, huh?”
“No!” Tally yelled. “Why didn’t you tell me it was broken?”
Shay shrugged. “More fun that way?”
“More fun?” Her heart was beating fast, her visionstrangely clear. She was full of anger and relief and . . . joy.
“Well, kind of. But you suck!”
UGLIES 65Tally stepped from the board and walked across thegrass on rubbery legs. She found a broken stone big enoughto sit on, and lowered herself shakily onto it.
Shay jumped off her board. “Hey, sorry.”
“That was horrible, Shay. I was falling.”
“Not for long. Like, five seconds. I thought you saidyou’d bungee jumped off a building.”
Tally glared at Shay. “Yeah, I did, but I knew I wasn’tgoing to splat.”
“True. But, you see, the first time someone showed methe roller coaster, they didn’t tell me about the gap. And Ithought it was pretty cool, finding out that way. Best time’sthe first time. I wanted you to feel it too.”
“You thought falling was cool?”
“Well, maybe at first I was pretty angry. Yeah, I definitelywas.” Shay smiled broadly. “But I got over it.”
“Give me a second on that one, Skinny.”
“Take your time.”
Tally’s breathing slowed, and her heart graduallystopped trying to beat its way out of her chest. But herbrain stayed as clear as it had for those seconds of free fall,and she found herself wondering who had found the rollercoaster first, and how many other uglies had come heresince. “Shay, who showed you all this? ““Friends, older than me. Uglies like us, who try to figureout how stuff works. And how to trick it.”
Tally looked up at the ancient, serpentine shape of the66 Scott Westerfeldroller coaster, the vines crawling up its framework. “I wonderhow long uglies have been coming here.”
“Probably a long time. You pass along stuff. You know,one person figures out how to trick their board, the nextfinds the rapids, the next makes it to the ruins.”
“Then somebody gets brave enough to jump the gap inthe roller coaster.” Tally swallowed. “Or jumps it accidentally.”
Shay nodded. “But they all get turned pretty in the end.”
“Happy ending,” Tally said.
Shay shrugged.
“How do you know it’s called a ‘roller coaster,’ anyway?
Did you look it up somewhere?”
“No,” Shay said. “Someone told me.”
“But how’d they know?”
“This guy knows a lot of stuff. Tricks, stuff about theruins. He’s really cool.”
Something about Shay’s voice made Tally turn and takeher hand. “But he’s pretty now, I guess.”
Shay pulled away and bit a fingernail. “No. He’s not.”
“But I thought all your friends—”
“Tally, will you make me a promise? A real promise.”
“Sure, I guess. What kind of promise?”
“You can never tell anyone what I’m about to show you.”
“It doesn’t involve free fall, does it?”
“No.”
“Okay. I swear.” Tally held up her hand with the scarshe and Peris had made. “I’ll never tell anyone.”
UGLIES 67Shay looked into her eyes for a moment, searchinghard, then nodded. “All right. There’s someone I want youto meet. Tonight.”
“Tonight? But we won’t get back into town until—”
“He’s not in town.” Shay smiled. “He’s out here.”
WAITING FOR DAVID
“This is a joke, right?”
Shay didn’t answer. They were back in the heart of theruins, in the shadow of the tallest building around. She wasstaring up at it with a puzzled expression on her face. “Ithink I remember how to do this,” she said.
“Do what?”
“Get up there. Yeah, here it is.”
Shay eased her board forward, ducking to pass througha gap in the crumbling wall.
“Shay?”
“Don’t worry. I’ve done this before.”
“I think I already had my initiation for tonight, Shay.”
Tally wasn’t in the mood for another one of Shay’s jokes.
She was tired, and it was a long way back to town. And shehad cleanup duty tomorrow at her dorm. Just because itwas summer didn’t mean she could sleep all day.
But Tally followed Shay through the gap. Arguingwould probably take longer.
They rose straight into the air, the boards using themetal skeleton of the building to climb. It was creepy beinginside, looking out of the empty windows at the raggedshapes of other buildings. Like being a Rusty ghost watchingas its city crumbled over the centuries.
The roof was missing, and they emerged to a spectacularview. The clouds had all disappeared, and moonlightbrought the ruins into sharp relief, the buildings like rowsof broken teeth. Tally saw that it really had been the oceanshe’d glimpsed from the roller coaster. From up here, thewater shone like a pale band of silver in the moonlight.
Shay pulled something from her shoulder pack andtore it in half.
The world burst into flame.
“Ow! Blind me, why don’t you!” Tally cried, coveringher eyes.
“Oh, yeah. Sorry.” Shay held the safety sparkler at arm’slength. It crackled to full strength in the silence of the ruins,casting flickering shadows through the interior of the ruin.
Shay’s face looked monstrous in the glare, and sparksfloated downward to be lost in the depths of the wreckedbuilding.
Finally, the sparkler ran out. Tally blinked, trying toclear the spots from before her eyes. Her night vision ruined,she could hardly see anything except the moon in the sky.
She swallowed, realizing that the sparkler would havebeen seen from anywhere in the valley. Maybe even out tosea. “Shay, was that a signal?”
70 Scott Westerfeld“Yeah, it was.”
Tally looked down. The dark buildings below werefilled with phantom flickers of light, echoes of the sparklerburned into her eyes. Suddenly very aware of how blindshe was, Tally felt a drop of cold sweat creep down herspine. “Who are we meeting, anyway?”
“His name’s David.”
“David? That’s a weird name.” It sounded made up, toTally. She decided again that this was all a joke. “So he’s justgoing to show up here? This guy doesn’t really live in theruins, does he?”
“No. He lives pretty far away. But he might be close by.
He comes here sometimes.”
“You mean, he’s from another city?”
Shay looked at her, but Tally couldn’t read her expressionin the darkness. “Something like that.”
Shay returned her gaze to the horizon, as if looking fora signal in answer to her own. Tally wrapped herself in herjacket. Standing still, she began to realize how cold it hadbecome. She wondered how late it was. Without her interfacering, she couldn’t just ask.
The almost full moon was descending in the sky, so ithad to be past midnight, Tally remembered from astronomy.
That was one thing about being outside the city: Itmade all that nature stuff they taught in school seem a lotmore useful. She remembered now how rainwater fell onthe mountains, and soaked into the ground before bubblingUGLIES 71up full of minerals. Then it made its way back to the sea,cutting rivers and canyons into the earth over the centuries.
If you lived out here, you could ride your hoverboard alongthe rivers, like in the really old days before the Rusties,when the not-as-crazy pre-Rusties traveled around in smallboats made from trees.
Her night vision gradually returned, and she scannedthe horizon. Would there really be another flare out there,answering Shay’s? Tally hoped not. She’d never met anyonefrom another city. She knew from school that in some citiesthey spoke other languages, or didn’t turn pretty until theywere eighteen, and other weird stuff like that. “Shay, maybewe should head home.”
“Let’s wait a while longer.”
Tally bit her lip. “Look, maybe this David isn’t aroundtonight.”
“Yeah, maybe. Probably. But I was hoping he’d be here.”
She turned to face Tally. “It would be really cool if you methim. He’s . . . different.”
“Sounds like it.”
“I’m not making this up, you know.”
“Hey, I believe you,” Tally said, although with Shay, shewas never totally sure.
Shay turned back to the horizon, chewing on a fingernail.
“Okay, I guess he’s not around. We can go, if you want.”
“It’s just that it’s really late, and a long way back. AndI’ve got cleanup tomorrow.”
72 Scott WesterfeldShay nodded. “Me too.”
“Thanks for showing me all this, Shay. It was all reallyincredible. But I think one more cool thing would kill me.”
Shay laughed. “The roller coaster didn’t kill you.”
“Just about.”
“Forgive me for that yet?”
“I’ll let you know, Skinny.”
Shay laughed. “Okay. But remember not to tell anyoneabout David.”
“Hey, I promised. You can trust me, Shay. Really.”
“All right. I do trust you, Tally.” She bent her knees, andher board started to descend.
Tally took one last look around, taking in the ruinssplayed out below them, the dark woods, the pearly strip ofriver stretching toward the glowing sea. She wondered ifthere was anyone out there, really, or if David was just somestory that uglies made up to scare one another.
But Shay didn’t seem scared. She seemed genuinely disappointedthat no one had answered her signal, as if meetingDavid would have been even better than showing offthe rapids, the ruins, and the roller coaster.
Whether he was real or not, Tally thought, David wasvery real to Shay.
They left through the gap in the wall and flew to the outskirtsof the ruins, then followed the vein of iron up out ofthe valley. At the ridge, the boards started to stutter, andUGLIES 73they stepped off. Tired as Tally was, carrying the boarddidn’t seem so impossible this time. She had stopped thinkingof it as a toy, like a littlie’s balloon. The hoverboard hadbecome something more solid, something that obeyed itsown rules, and that could be dangerous, too.
Tally figured that Shay was right about one thing: Beingin the city all the time made everything fake, in a way. Likethe buildings and bridges held up by hoverstruts, or jumpingoff a rooftop with a bungee jacket on, nothing was quitereal there. She was glad Shay had taken her out to the ruins.
If nothing else, the mess left by the Rusties proved thatthings could go terribly wrong if you weren’t careful.
Close to the river the boards lightened up, and the twoof them jumped on gratefully.
Shay groaned as they got their footing. “I don’t knowabout you, but I’m not taking another step tonight.”
“That’s for sure.”
Shay leaned forward and eased her board out onto theriver, wrapping her dorm jacket around her shouldersagainst the spray of the rapids. Tally turned to take one lastlook back. With the clouds gone, she could just see theruins from here.
She blinked. There seemed to be the barest flicker comingfrom over where the roller coaster had been. Maybe itwas just a trick of the light, a reflection of moonlight fromsome exposed piece of unrusted metal. “Shay?” she saidsoftly.
74 Scott Westerfeld“You coming or what?” Shay shouted over the roar ofthe river.
Tally blinked again, but couldn’t make out the flickeranymore. In any case, they were too far away. Mentioning itto Shay would only make her anxious to go back. Therewas no way Tally was making the hike again.
And it probably was nothing.
Tally took a deep breath and shouted, “Come on,Skinny. Race you!” She urged her board onto the river, cuttinginto the cold spray and for a moment leaving a laughingShay behind.
FIGHT
“Look at them all. What dorks.”
“Did we ever look like that?”
“Probably. But just because we were dorks doesn’t meanthey’re not.”
Tally nodded, trying to remember what being twelvewas like, what the dorm had looked like on her first daythere. She remembered how intimidating the building hadseemed. Much bigger than Sol and Ellie’s house, of course,and bigger than the huts that littlies went to school in, oneteacher and ten students to each one.
Now the dorm seemed so small and claustrophobic.
Painfully childish, with its bright colors and padded stairs.
So boring during the day and easy to escape at night.
The new uglies all stuck together in a tight group,afraid to stray too far from their guide. Their ugly little facespeered up at the dorm’s four-story height, their eyes full ofwonder and terror.
Shay pulled her head back in through the window.
“This is going to be so fun.”
“It’ll be one orientation they won’t forget.”
Summer was over in two weeks. The population ofTally’s dorm had been steadily dropping for the last year asseniors turned sixteen. It was almost time for a new batchto take their place. Tally watched the last few uglies maketheir way inside, gawky and nervous, unkempt and uncoordinated.
Twelve was definitely the turning point, whenyou changed from a cute littlie into an oversize, undereducatedugly.
It was a stage of life she was glad to be leaving behind.
“You sure this thing is going to work?” Shay asked.
Tally smiled. It wasn’t often that Shay was the cautiousone. She pointed at the collar of the bungee jacket. “You seethat little green light? That means it’s working. It’s for emergencies,so it’s always ready to go.”
Shay’s hand slipped under the jacket to pull at her bellysensor, which meant she was nervous. “What if it knowsthere’s no real emergency?”
“It’s not that smart. You fall, it catches you. No tricksnecessary.”
Shay shrugged and put it on.
They’d borrowed the jacket from the art school, thetallest building in Uglyville. It was a spare from the basement,and they hadn’t even had to trick the rack to get it free. Tallydefinitely didn’t want to get caught messing around with firealarms, in case the wardens connected her to a certain incidentin New Pretty Town back at the beginning of summer.
UGLIES 77Shay pulled an oversize basketball jersey over thebungee jacket. It was in her dorm’s colors, and none of theteachers here knew her face very well. “How’s that look?”
“Like you’ve gained weight. It suits you.”
Shay scowled. She hated being called Stick Insect, or Pig-Eyes, or any of the other things uglies called one another.
Shay sometimes claimed that she didn’t care if she ever gotthe operation. It was crazy talk, of course. Shay wasn’t exactlya freak, but she was hardly a natural-born pretty. There’d onlybeen about ten of those in all of history, after all. “Do youwant to do the jump, Squint?”
“I have both been there and done that, Shay, before I evenmet you. And you’re the one who had this brilliant idea.”
Shay’s scowl faded into a smile. “It is brilliant, isn’t it?”
“They’ll never know what hit them.”
They waited until the new uglies were in the library, scatteredaround the worktables to watch some orientationvideo. Shay and Tally lay on their stomachs on the top floorof the stacks, where the dusty old paper books were stored,peering through the guardrails down at the group. Theywaited for the tour leader to quiet the chattering uglies.
“This is almost too easy,” Shay said, penciling a pair offat, black eyebrows over her own.
“Easy for you. You’ll be out the door before anyoneknows what’s happened. I’ve got to make it all the waydown the stairs.”
78 Scott Westerfeld“So what, Tally? What are they going to do if we getcaught?”
Tally shrugged. “True.” But she pulled on her mousybrown wig anyway.
Over the summer, as the last few seniors turned sixteenand pretty, the tricks had grown worse and worse. Butnobody ever seemed to get punished, and Tally’s promise toPeris seemed ages ago. Once she was pretty, nothing she’ddone in this last month would matter. She was anxious toleave it all behind, but not without a big finish.
Thinking of Peris, Tally stuck on a big plastic nose. They’draided the drama room at Shay’s dorm the night before andwere loaded with disguises. “Ready?” she asked. Then shegiggled at the nasal twang the fake nose gave her voice.
“Hang on.” Shay grabbed a big, fat book from the shelf.
“Okay, showtime.”
They stood up.
“Give me that book!” Tally shouted at Shay. “It’s mine!”
She heard the uglies below fall silent, and had to resistlooking down to see their upturned faces.
“No way, Pignose! I checked it out first.”
“Are you kidding, Fattie? You can’t even read!”
“Oh, yeah? Well, read this!”
Shay swung the book at Tally, who ducked. Shesnatched it away and swung back, catching Shay solidly onher upraised forearms. Shay rolled back at the impact, spinningover the railing.
UGLIES 79Tally leaned forward, watching wide-eyed as Shaytumbled down toward the library’s main floor, three storiesbelow. The new uglies screamed in unison, scattering awayfrom the flailing body plummeting toward them.
A second later the bungee jacket activated, and Shaybobbed back up in midair, laughing maniacally at the topof her lungs. Tally waited another moment, watching theuglies’ horror dissolve into confusion as Shay bouncedagain, then righted herself on one of the tables and headedfor the door.
Tally dropped the book and dashed for the stairs, leapinga flight at a time until she reached the back exit of the dorm.
“Oh, that was perfect!”
“Did you see their faces?”
“Not actually,” Shay said. “I was kind of busy watchingthe floor coming at me.”
“Yeah, I remember that from jumping off the roof. Itdoes catch your attention.”
“Speaking of faces, love the nose.”
Tally giggled, pulling it off. “Yeah, no point in beinguglier than usual.”
Shay’s face clouded. She wiped off an eyebrow, thenlooked up sharply. “You’re not ugly.”
“Oh, come on, Shay.”
“No, I mean it.” She reached out and touched Tally’sreal nose. “Your profile is great.”
80 Scott Westerfeld“Don’t be weird, Shay. I’m an ugly, you’re an ugly. Wewill be for two more weeks. It’s no big deal or anything.”
She laughed. “You, for example, have one giant eyebrowand one tiny one.”
Shay looked away, stripping off the rest of her disguisein silence.
They were hidden in the changing rooms beside thesandy beach, where they’d left their interface rings and aspare set of clothes. If anyone asked, they’d say they wereswimming the whole time. Swimming was a great trick. Ithid your body-heat signature, involved changing clothes,and was a perfect excuse for not wearing your interfacering. The river washed away all crimes.
A minute later they splashed out into the water, sinkingthe disguises. The bungee jacket would go back to the artschool basement that night.
“I’m serious, Tally,” Shay said once they were out in thewater. “Your nose isn’t ugly. I like your eyes, too.”
“My eyes? Now you’re totally crazy. They’re way tooclose together.”
“Who says?”
“Biology says.”
Shay splashed a handful of water at her. “You don’tbelieve all that crap, do you—that there’s only one way tolook, and everyone’s programmed to agree on it?”
“It’s not about believing, Shay. You just know it. You’veseen pretties. They look . . . wonderful.”
UGLIES 81“They all look the same.”
“I used to think that too. But when Peris and I wouldgo into town, we’d see a lot of them, and we realized thatpretties do look different. They look like themselves. It’sjust a lot more subtle, because they’re not all freaks.”
“We’re not freaks, Tally. We’re normal. We may not begorgeous, but at least we’re not hyped-up Barbie dolls.”
“What kind of dolls?”
She looked away. “It’s something David told me about.”
“Oh, great. David again.” Tally pushed away and floatedon her back, looking up at the sky and wishing this conversationwould end. They’d been out to the ruins a fewmore times, and Shay always insisted on setting off asparkler, but David had never showed. The whole thinggave Tally the creeps, waiting around in the dead city forsome guy who didn’t seem to exist. It was great exploringout there, but Shay’s obsession with David had started tosour it for Tally.
“He’s real. I’ve met him more than once.”
“Okay, Shay, David’s real. But so is being ugly. You can’tchange it just by wishing, or by telling yourself that you’repretty. That’s why they invented the operation.”
“But it’s a trick, Tally. You’ve only seen pretty faces yourwhole life. Your parents, your teachers, everyone over sixteen.
But you weren’t born expecting that kind of beauty ineveryone, all the time. You just got programmed into thinkinganything else is ugly.”
82 Scott Westerfeld“It’s not programming, it’s just a natural reaction. Andmore important than that, it’s fair. In the old days it was allrandom—some people kind of pretty, most people ugly alltheir lives. Now everyone’s ugly . . . until they’re pretty. Nolosers.”
Shay was silent for a while, then said, “There are losers,Tally.”
Tally shivered. Everyone knew about uglies-for-life, thefew people for whom the operation wouldn’t work. Youdidn’t see them around much. They were allowed in public,but most of them preferred to hide. Who wouldn’t?
Uglies might look goofy, but at least they were young. Olduglies were really unbelievable.
“Is that it? Are you worried about the operation notworking? That’s silly, Shay. You’re no freak. In two weeksyou’ll be as pretty as anyone else.”
“I don’t want to be pretty.”
Tally sighed. This again.
“I’m sick of this city,” Shay continued. “I’m sick of therules and boundaries. The last thing I want is to becomesome empty-headed new pretty, having one big party all day.”
“Come on, Shay. They do all the same stuff we do: bungeejump, fly, play with fireworks. Only they don’t have to sneakaround.”
“They don’t have the imagination to sneak around.”
“Look, Skinny, I’m with you,” Tally said sharply. “Doingtricks is great! Okay? Breaking the rules is fun! But eventuallyUGLIES 83you’ve got to do something besides being a clever little ugly.”
“Like being a vapid, boring pretty?”
“No, like being an adult. Did you ever think that whenyou’re pretty you might not need to play tricks and messthings up? Maybe just being ugly is why uglies always fightand pick on one another, because they aren’t happy withwho they are. Well, I want to be happy, and looking like areal person is the first step.”
“I’m not afraid of looking the way I do, Tally.”
“Maybe not, but you are afraid of growing up!”
Shay didn’t say anything. Tally floated in silence, lookingup at the sky, barely able to see the clouds through heranger. She wanted to be pretty, wanted to see Peris again. Itseemed like forever since she’d talked to him, or to anyoneelse except Shay. She was sick of this whole ugly business,and just wanted it to end.
A minute later, she heard Shay swimming for shore.
LAST TRICK
It was strange, but Tally couldn’t help feeling sad. She knewshe’d miss the view from this window.
She’d spent the last four years looking out at NewPretty Town, wanting nothing more than to cross the riverand not come back. That’s probably what had tempted herthrough the window so many times, learning every trickshe could to sneak closer to the new pretties, to spy on thelife she would eventually have.
But now that the operation was only a week away, timeseemed to be moving too fast. Sometimes, Tally wished thatthey could do the operation gradually. Get her squinty eyesfixed first, then her lips, and cross the river in stages. Justso she wouldn’t have to look out the window one last timeand know she’d never see this view again.
Without Shay around, things felt incomplete, and she’dspent even more time here, sitting on her bed and staring atNew Pretty Town.
Of course, there wasn’t much else to do these days.
Everyone in the dorm was younger than Tally now, andshe’d already taught all of her best tricks to the next class.
She’d watched every movie her wallscreen knew about tentimes, all the way back to some old black-and-white ones inan English she could barely understand. There was no oneto go to concerts with, and dorm sports were boring towatch now that she didn’t know anyone on the teams. Allthe other uglies looked at her enviously, but no one sawmuch point in making friends. Probably it was better to getthe operation over with all at once. Half the time, she wishedthe doctors would just kidnap her in the middle of the nightand do it. She could imagine a lot worse things than wakingup pretty one morning. They said at school that they couldmake the operation work on fifteen-year-olds now. Waitinguntil sixteen was just a stupid old tradition.
But it was a tradition nobody questioned, except theoccasional ugly. So Tally had a week to go, alone, waiting.
Shay hadn’t talked to her since their big fight. Tally hadtried to write a ping, but working it all out on-screen justmade her angry again. And it didn’t make much sense tosort it out now. Once they were both pretty, there wouldn’tbe anything to fight about anymore. And even if Shay stillhated her, there was always Peris and all their old friends,waiting across the river for her with their big eyes and wonderfulsmiles.
Still, Tally spent a lot of time wondering what Shay wasgoing to look like pretty, her skin-and-bones body all filledout, her already full lips perfected, and the ragged finger-86 Scott Westerfeldnails gone forever. They’d probably make her eyes a moreintense shade of green. Or maybe one of the newer colors—violet, silver, or gold.
“Hey, Squint!”
Tally jumped at the whisper. She peered into the darknessand saw a form scuttling toward her across the rooftiles. A smile broke onto her face. “Shay!”
The silhouette paused for a moment.
Tally didn’t even bother to whisper. “Don’t just standthere. Come in, stupid!”
Shay crawled into the window, laughing, as Tally gatheredher into a hug, warm and joyful and solid. They steppedback, still holding each other’s hands. For a moment, Shay’sugly face looked perfect.
“It’s so great to see you.”
“You too, Tally.”
“I missed you. I wanted to—I’m so sorry about—”
“No,” Shay interrupted. “You were right. You made methink. I was going to write you, but it was all . . .” She sighed.
Tally nodded, squeezing Shay’s hands. “Yeah. Itsucked.”
They stood in silence for a moment, and Tally glancedpast her friend out the window. Suddenly, the view of NewPretty Town didn’t seem so sad. It looked bright and tempting,as if all the hesitation had drained out of her. The openwindow was exciting again. “Shay?”
“Yeah?”
UGLIES 87“Let’s go somewhere tonight. Do some major trick.”
Shay laughed. “I was kind of hoping you’d say that.”
Tally noticed the way Shay was dressed. She was wearingserious trick-wear: all black clothes, hair tied back tight,a knapsack over one shoulder. She grinned. “Already got aplan, I see. Great.”
“Yeah,” Shay said softly. “I’ve got a plan.”
She walked over to Tally’s bed, unslinging the knapsackfrom her shoulder. Her footsteps squeaked, and Tallysmiled when she saw that Shay was wearing grippy shoes.
Tally hadn’t been on a hoverboard in days. Flying alone wasall the hard work and only half the fun.
Shay dumped the contents of the knapsack out ontothe bed, and pointed. “Position-finder. Firestarter. Waterpurifier.” She picked up two shiny wads the size of sandwiches.
“These pull out into sleeping bags. And they’rereally warm inside.”
“Sleeping bags? Water purifier?” Tally exclaimed. “Thismust be some kind of awesome multiday trick. Are wegoing all the way to the sea or something?”
Shay shook her head. “Farther.”
“Uh, cool.” Tally kept her smile on her face. “But we’veonly got six days till the operation.”
“I know what day it is.” Shay opened a waterproof bagand spilled its contents alongside the rest. “Food for twoweeks—dehydrated. You just drop one of these into thepurifier and add water. Any kind of water.” She giggled.
88 Scott Westerfeld“The purifier works so well, you can even pee in it.”
Tally sat down on the bed, reading the labels on thefood packs. “Two weeks?”
“Two weeks for two people,” Shay said carefully. “Fourweeks for one.”
Tally didn’t say anything. Suddenly, she couldn’t look atthe stuff on the bed, or at Shay. She stared out the window,at New Pretty Town, where the fireworks were starting.
“But it won’t take two weeks, Tally. It’s much closer.”
A plume of red soared up in the middle of town,tendrils of fireworks drifting down like the leaves of a giantwillow tree. “What won’t take two weeks?”
“Going to where David lives.”
Tally nodded, and closed her eyes.
“It’s not like here, Tally. They don’t separate everyone,uglies from pretties, new and middle and late. And you canleave whenever you want, go anywhere you want.”
“Like where?”
“Anywhere. Ruins, the forest, the sea. And . . . younever have to get the operation.”
“You what?”
Shay sat next to her, touching Tally’s cheek with onefinger. Tally opened her eyes. “We don’t have to look likeeveryone else, Tally, and act like everyone else. We’ve got achoice. We can grow up any way we want.”
Tally swallowed. She felt like speech was impossible,but knew she had to say something. She forced words fromUGLIES 89her dry throat. “Not be pretty? That’s crazy, Shay. All thetimes you talked that way, I thought you were just beingstupid. Peris always said the same stuff.”
“I was just being stupid. But when you said I was afraidof growing up, you really made me think.”
“I made you think?”
“Made me realize how full of crap I was. Tally, I’ve gotto tell you another secret.”
Tally sighed. “Okay. I guess it can’t get any worse.”
“My older friends, the ones I used to hang out withbefore I met you? Not all of them wound up pretty.”
“What do you mean?”
“Some of them ran away, like I am. Like I want us to.”
Tally looked into Shay’s eyes, searching for some signthat this was all a joke. But the intense look on her face heldfirm. She was dead serious.
“You know someone who actually ran away?”
Shay nodded. “I was supposed to go too. We had it allplanned, about a week before the first of us turned sixteen.
We’d already stolen survival gear, and told David that wewere coming. It was all set up. That was four months ago.”
“But you didn’t . . .”
“Some of us did, but I chickened out.” Shay looked outthe window. “And I wasn’t the only one. A couple of theothers stayed and turned pretty instead. I probably wouldhave too, except I met you.”
“Me?”
90 Scott Westerfeld“All of a sudden I wasn’t alone anymore. I wasn’t afraidto go back out to the ruins, to look for David again.”
“But we never . . .” Tally blinked. “You finally foundhim, didn’t you?”
“Not until two days ago. I’ve been out every night sincewe . . . since our fight. After you said I was afraid to growup, I realized you were right. I’d chickened out once, but Ididn’t have to again.”
Shay grasped Tally’s hand, and waited until their eyeswere locked. “I want you to come, Tally.”
“No,” Tally said without thinking. Then she shook herhead. “Wait. How come you never told me any of this before?”
“I wanted to, except you would have thought I was crazy.”
“You are crazy!”
“Maybe. But not that way. That’s why I wanted you tomeet David. So you’d know that it’s all real.”
“It doesn’t seem real. I mean, what is this place you’retalking about?”
“It’s just called the Smoke. It’s not a city, and nobody’sin charge. And nobody’s pretty.”
“Sounds like a nightmare. And how do you get there,walk?”
Shay laughed. “Are you kidding? Hoverboards, likealways. There are long-distance boards that recharge onsolar, and the route’s all worked out to follow rivers andstuff. David does it all the time, as far as the ruins. He’ll takeus to the Smoke.”
UGLIES 91“But how do people live out there, Shay? Like theRusties? Burning trees for heat and burying their junkeverywhere? It’s wrong to live in nature, unless you want tolive like an animal.”
Shay shook her head and sighed. “That’s just schooltalk,Tally. They’ve still got technology. And they’re not likethe Rusties, burning trees and stuff. But they don’t put awall up between themselves and nature.”
“And everyone’s ugly.”
“Which means no one’s ugly.”
Tally managed to laugh. “Which means no one’s pretty,you mean.”
They sat in silence. Tally watched the fireworks, feelinga thousand times worse than she had before Shay hadappeared at the window.
Finally, Shay said the words Tally had been thinking.
“I’m going to lose you, aren’t I?”
“You’re the one who’s running away.”
Shay brought her fists down onto her knees. “It’s all myfault. I should’ve told you earlier. If you’d had more time toget used to the idea, maybe . . .”
“Shay, I never would have gotten used to the idea. Idon’t want to be ugly all my life. I want those perfect eyesand lips, and for everyone to look at me and gasp. And foreveryone who sees me to think Who’s that? and want to getto know me, and listen to what I say.”
“I’d rather have something to say.”
92 Scott Westerfeld“Like what? ‘I shot a wolf today and ate it’?”
Shay giggled. “People don’t eat wolves, Tally. Rabbits, Ithink, and deer.”
“Oh, gross. Thanks for the image, Shay.”
“Yeah, I think I’ll stick to vegetables and fish. But it’s notabout camping out, Tally. It’s about becoming what I wantto become. Not what some surgical committee thinks Ishould.”
“You’re still yourself on the inside, Shay. But whenyou’re pretty, people pay more attention.”
“Not everyone thinks that way.”
“Are you sure about that? That you can beat evolutionby being smart or interesting? Because if you’re wrong . . .
if you don’t come back by the time you’re twenty, the operationwon’t work as well. You’ll look wrong, forever.”
“I’m not coming back. Forever.”
Tally’s voice caught, but she forced herself to say it:
“And I’m not going.”
They said good-bye under the dam.
Shay’s long-range hoverboard was thicker, and glimmeredwith the facets of solar cells. She’d also stashed aheated jacket and hat under the bridge. Tally guessed thatwinters at the Smoke were cold and miserable.
She couldn’t believe her friend was really going.
“You can always come back. If it sucks.”
Shay shrugged. “None of my friends has.”
UGLIES 93The words gave Tally a creepy feeling. She could thinkof a lot of horrible reasons to explain why no one had comeback. “Be careful, Shay.”
“You too. You’re not going to tell anyone about this,right?”
“Never, Shay.”
“You swear? No matter what?”
Tally raised her scarred palm. “I swear.”
Shay smiled. “I know. I just had to ask again beforeI . . .” She pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to Tally.
“What’s this?” Tally opened it up and saw a scrawl ofletters. “When did you learn to write by hand?”
“We all learned while we were planning to leave. It’s agood idea if you don’t want minders sniffing your diary.
Anyway, that’s for you. I’m not supposed to leave any recordof where I’m going, so it’s in code, kind of.”
Tally frowned, reading the first line of slanted words.
“‘Take the coaster straight past the gap’?”
“Yeah. Get it? Only you could figure it out, in casesomeone finds it. You know, if you ever want to follow me.”
Tally started to say something, but couldn’t. She managedto nod.
“Just in case,” Shay said.
She jumped onto her board and snapped her fingers,securing her knapsack over both shoulders. “Good-bye,Tally.”
“Bye, Shay. I wish . . .”
94 Scott WesterfeldShay waited, bobbing just a bit in the cool Septemberwind. Tally tried to imagine her growing old, wrinkled,gradually ruined, all without ever having been truly beautiful.
Never learning how to dress properly, or how to act ata formal dance. Never having anyone look into her eyes andbe simply overwhelmed.
“I wish I could have seen what you would look like.
Pretty, I mean.”
“Guess you’ll just have to live with remembering myface this way,” Shay said.
Then she turned and her hoverboard climbed awaytoward the river, and Tally’s next words were lost on theroar of the water.
OPERATION
When the day came, Tally waited for the car alone.
Tomorrow, when the operation was all over, her parentswould be waiting outside the hospital, along with Peris andher other older friends. That was the tradition. But itseemed strange that there was no one to see her off on thisend. No one said good-bye except a few uglies passing by.
They looked so young to her now, especially the justarrivednew class, who gawked at her like she was an oldpile of dinosaur bones.
She’d always loved being independent, but now Tally feltlike the last littlie to be picked up from school, abandonedand alone. September was a crappy month to be born.
“You’re Tally, right?”
She looked up. It was a new ugly, awkwardly explodinginto unfamiliar height, tugging at his dorm uniform like itwas already too tight.
“Yeah.”
“Aren’t you the one who’s going to turn today?”
“That’s me, Shorty.”
“So how come you look so sad?”
Tally shrugged. What could this half-littlie, half-uglyunderstand, anyway? She thought about what Shay hadsaid about the operation.
Yesterday they’d taken Tally’s final measurements,rolling her all the way through an imaging tube. Should shetell this new ugly that sometime this afternoon, her bodywas going to be opened up, the bones ground down to theright shape, some of them stretched or padded, her nosecartilage and cheekbones stripped out and replaced withprogrammable plastic, skin sanded off and reseeded like asoccer field in spring? That her eyes would be laser-cut fora lifetime of perfect vision, reflective implants insertedunder the iris to add sparkling gold flecks to their indifferentbrown? Her muscles all trimmed up with a night ofelectrocize and all her baby fat sucked out for good? Teethreplaced with ceramics as strong as a suborbital aircraftwing, and as white as the dorm’s good china?
They said it didn’t hurt, except the new skin, which feltlike a killer sunburn for a couple of weeks.
As the details of the operation buzzed around in herhead, she could imagine why Shay had run away. It didseem like a lot to go through just to look a certain way. Ifonly people were smarter, evolved enough to treat everyonethe same even if they looked different. Looked ugly.
If only Tally had come up with the right argument tomake her stay.
UGLIES 97The imaginary conversations were back, but much worsethan they had been after Peris had left. A thousand timesshe’d fought with Shay in her head—long, rambling discussionsabout beauty, biology, growing up. All those times outin the ruins, Shay had made her points about uglies and pretties,the city and the outside, what was fake and what wasreal. But Tally had never once realized her friend might actuallyrun away, giving up a life of beauty, glamour, elegance. Ifonly she’d said the right thing. Anything.
Sitting here, she felt as if she’d hardly tried.
Tally looked the new ugly in the eye. “Because it allcomes down to this: Two weeks of killer sunburn is wortha lifetime of being gorgeous.”
The kid scratched his head. “Huh?”
“Something I should have said, and didn’t. That’s all.”
The hospital hovercar finally came, settling onto the schoolgrounds so lightly that it hardly disturbed the fresh-mowngrass.
The driver was a middle pretty, radiating confidenceand authority. He looked so much like Sol that Tally almostcalled her father’s name.
“Tally Youngblood?” he said.
Tally had already seen the flash of light that had readher eye-print, but she said, “Yes, that’s me,” anyway. Somethingabout the middle pretty made it hard to be flippant.
He was wisdom personified, his manner so serious and98 Scott Westerfeldformal that Tally found herself wishing she had dressed up.
“Are you ready? Not taking much.”
Her duffel bag was only half-full. Everyone knew thatnew pretties wound up recycling most of the stuff theybrought over the river, anyway. She’d have all new clothes,of course, and all the new pretty toys she wanted. All she’dreally kept was Shay’s handwritten note, hidden among abunch of random crap. “Got enough.”
“Good for you, Tally. That’s very mature.”
“That’s me, sir.”
The door closed, and the car took off.
The big hospital was on the bottom end of New PrettyTown. It was where everyone went for serious operations:
littlies, uglies, even late pretties from way out inCrumblyville coming in for life-extension treatments.
The river was sparkling under a cloudless sky, and Tallyallowed herself to be swept away by the beauty of NewPretty Town. Even without the nighttime lights and fireworks,the city’s surfaces shone with glass and metal, theunlikely spindles of party towers casting thin shadowsacross the island. It was so much more vibrant than theRusty Ruins, Tally suddenly saw. Not as dark and mysterious,perhaps, but more alive.
It was time to stop sulking about Shay. Life was goingto be one big party from now on, full of beautiful people.
Like Tally Youngblood.
UGLIES 99The hovercar descended onto one of the red Xs on thehospital roof, and Tally’s driver escorted her inside, takingher to a waiting room. An orderly looked up Tally’s name,flashed her eye again, and told her to wait.
“You’ll be okay?” the driver asked.
She looked up into his clear, soft eyes, wanting him tostay. But asking him to wait with her didn’t seem verymature. “No, I’m fine. Thanks.” He smiled and went away.
No one else was in the waiting room. Tally settled backand counted the tiles on the ceiling. As she waited, the conversationswith Shay in her head came back again, but theyweren’t so troubling here. It was too late for secondthoughts now.
Tally wished there was a window to look out onto NewPretty Town. She was so close now. She imagined tomorrownight, her first night pretty, dressed in new and wonderfulclothes (her dorm uniforms all shoved down the recycler),looking out from the top of the highest party tower shecould find. She would watch as lights-out fell across theriver, bedtime for Uglyville, and know that she still had allnight with Peris and her new friends, all the beautifulpeople she would meet.
She sighed.
Sixteen years. Finally.
Nothing happened for a long hour. Tally drummed herfingers, wondering if they always kept uglies waiting this long.
Then the man came.
100 Scott WesterfeldHe looked strange, unlike any pretty Tally had everseen. He was definitely of middle age, but whoever haddone his operation had botched it. He was beautiful, withouta doubt, but it was a terrible beauty.
Instead of wise and confident, the man looked cold,commanding, intimidating, like some regal animal of prey.
When he walked up, Tally started to ask what was goingon, but a glance from him silenced her.
She had never met an adult who affected her this way.
She always felt respect when face-to-face with a middle orlate pretty. But in the presence of this cruelly beautiful man,respect was saturated with fear.
The man said, “There’s a problem with your operation.
Come with me.”
She went.

SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES
This hovercar was larger, but not as comfortable.
The trip was much less pleasant than Tally’s first ridethat day. The strange-looking man flew with an aggressiveimpatience, dropping like a rock to cut between flightlanes, banking as steeply as a hoverboard with every turn.
Tally had never been airsick before, but now she clutchedthe seat restraints, her knuckles white and eyes fixed on thesolid ground below. She caught one last glimpse of NewPretty Town receding behind them.
They headed downriver, across Uglyville, over thegreenbelt and farther out to the transport ring, where thefactories stuck their heads aboveground. Beside a huge,misshapen hill, the car descended into a complex of rectangularbuildings, as squat as ugly dorms and painted thecolor of dried grass.
They landed with a painful bump, and the man led herinto one of the buildings, and down into a murk of yellowbrownhallways. Tally had never seen so much spacepainted in such putrid colors, as if the building weredesigned to make its occupants vaguely nauseated.
There were more people like the man.
They were all dressed in formals, raw silks in black andgray, and their faces had the same cold, hawkish look. Boththe men and women were taller than pretty standard, andmore powerfully built, their eyes as pale as an ugly’s. Therewere a few normal people as well, but they faded intoinsignificance next to the predatory forms moving gracefullythrough the halls.
Tally wondered if this was someplace where peoplewere taken when their operations went wrong, whenbeauty turned cruel. Then why was she here? She hadn’teven had the operation yet. Tally swallowed. What if theseterrible pretties had been made this way intentionally?
When they had measured her yesterday, had they determinedthat she would never fit the vulnerable, doe-eyedpretty mold? Maybe she’d already been chosen to beremade for this strange, other world.
The man stopped outside a metal door, and Tallyhalted behind him. She felt like a littlie again, jerked alongby a minder on an invisible string. All her ugly senior’sconfidence had evaporated the moment she’d seen himback at the hospital. Four years of tricks and independencegone.
The door flashed his eye and opened, and he pointedfor her to go in. Tally realized he hadn’t said a word sincecollecting her at the hospital. She took a deep breath, whichUGLIES 103made the paralyzed muscles in her chest flinch with pain,and managed to croak, “Say please.”
“Inside,” was his answer.
Tally smiled, silently declaring a small victory that shehad made him speak again, but she did as she was told.
“I’m Dr. Cable.”
“Tally Youngblood.”
Dr. Cable smiled. “Oh, I know who you are.”
The woman was a cruel pretty. Her nose was aquiline,her teeth sharp, her eyes a nonreflective gray. Her voice hadthe same slow, neutral cadence as a bedtime book. But ithardly made Tally sleepy. An edge was hidden in the voice,like a piece of metal slowly marking glass.
“You have a problem, Tally.”
“I had kind of guessed that, uh . . .” It was strange, notknowing the woman’s first name.
“Dr. Cable will do.”
Tally blinked. She’d never called anyone by their lastname in her life.
“Okay, Dr. Cable.” She cleared her throat and managedto say more, in a dry voice. “My problem right now is that Idon’t know what’s going on. So . . . why don’t you tell me?”
“What do you think’s going on, Tally?”
Tally closed her eyes, taking a rest from the sharp anglesof the woman’s face. “Well, that bungee jacket was a spare,you know, and we did put it back on the recharge pile.”
104 Scott Westerfeld“This isn’t about some ugly-trick.”
She sighed and opened her eyes. “No, I didn’t think so.”
“This is about a friend of yours. Someone missing.”
Of course. Shay’s disappearing trick had gone too far,leaving Tally to explain. “I don’t know where she is.”
Dr. Cable smiled. Only her top teeth showed when shedid. “But you do know something.”
“Who are you, anyway?” Tally blurted. “Where am I?”
“I’m Dr. Cable,” the woman said. “And this is SpecialCircumstances.”
First Dr. Cable asked her a lot of questions. “You didn’tknow Shay long, did you?”
“No. Just this summer. We were in different dorms.”
“And you didn’t know any of her friends?”
“No. They were all older than her. They’d alreadyturned.”
“Like your friend Peris?”
Tally swallowed. How much did this woman knowabout her? “Yeah. Like Peris and me.”
“But Shay’s friends didn’t wind up pretty, did they?”
Tally took a slow breath, remembering her promise toShay. She didn’t want to lie, though. Dr. Cable would knowif she did, Tally was sure. She was in enough troublealready. “Why wouldn’t they?”
“Did she tell you about her friends?”
“We didn’t talk about stuff like that. We just hung out.
UGLIES 105Because . . . it hurt being alone. We were just into playingtricks.”
“Did you know she’d been in a gang?”
Tally looked up into Dr. Cable’s eyes. They were almostas big as a normal pretty’s, but they angled upward likea wolf’s.
“A gang? How do you mean?”
“Tally, did you and Shay ever go to the Rusty Ruins?”
“Everyone does.”
“But did you ever sneak out to the ruins?”
“Yeah. A lot of people do.”
“Did you ever meet anyone there?”
Tally bit her lip. “What’s Special Circumstances?”
“Tally.” The edge in her voice was suddenly sharp asa razor blade.
“If you tell me what Special Circumstances is, I’llanswer you.”
Dr. Cable sat back. She folded her hands and nodded.
“This city is a paradise, Tally. It feeds you, educates you,keeps you safe. It makes you pretty.”
Tally couldn’t help looking up hopefully at this.
“And our city can stand a great deal of freedom, Tally.
It gives youngsters room to play tricks, to develop their creativityand independence. But occasionally bad things comefrom outside the city.”
Dr. Cable narrowed her eyes, her face becoming evenmore like a predator’s. “We exist in equilibrium with our106 Scott Westerfeldenvironment, Tally, purifying the water that we put back inthe river, recycling the biomass, and using only powerdrawn from our own solar footprint. But sometimes wecan’t purify what we take in from the outside. Sometimesthere are threats from the environment that must be faced.”
She smiled. “Sometimes there are Special Circumstances.”
“So, you guys are like minders, but for the whole city.”
Dr. Cable nodded. “Other cities sometimes pose a challenge.
And sometimes those few people who live outsidethe cities can make trouble.”
Tally’s eyes widened. Outside the cities? Shay had beentelling the truth—places like the Smoke really existed.
“It’s your turn to answer my question, Tally. Did youever meet anyone in the ruins? Someone not from this city?
Not from any city?”
Tally grinned. “No. I never did.”
Dr. Cable frowned, her eyes darting downward for asecond, checking something. When they returned to Tally,they had grown even colder. Tally smiled again, certainnow that Dr. Cable knew when she was telling the truth.
The room must be reading her heartbeat, her sweat, herpupil dilation. But Tally couldn’t tell what she didn’tknow.
The razor blade slid back into the woman’s voice.
“Don’t play games with me, Tally. Your friend Shay willnever thank you for it, because you’ll never see her again.”
UGLIES 107The thrill of her small victory disappeared, and Tallyfelt her smile fade.
“Six of her friends disappeared, Tally, all at once. Noneof them has ever been found. Another two who were meantto join them chose not to throw their lives away, however,and we discovered a little about what had happened to theothers. They didn’t run away on their own. They weretempted by someone from outside, someone who wantedto steal our cleverest little uglies. We realized that this wasa special circumstance.”
One word sent ice down Tally’s spine. Had Shay reallybeen stolen? What did Shay or any ugly really know aboutthe Smoke?
“We’ve been watching Shay since then, hoping shemight lead us to her friends.”
“So why didn’t you . . . ,” Tally blurted out. “You know,stop her!”
“Because of you, Tally.”
“Me?”
Dr. Cable’s voice softened. “We thought she had madea friend, a reason to stay here in the city. We thought she’dbe okay.”
Tally could only close her eyes and shake her head.
“But then Shay disappeared,” Dr. Cable continued. “Sheturned out to be trickier than her friends. You taught her well.”
“I did?” Tally cried. “I don’t know any more tricks thanmost uglies.”
108 Scott Westerfeld“You underestimate yourself,” Dr. Cable said.
Tally turned away from the vulpine eyes, shut out therazor-blade voice. This was not her fault. She had decidedto stay here in the city, after all. She wanted to becomepretty. She’d even tried to convince Shay.
But failed.
“It’s not my fault.”
“Help us, Tally.”
“Help you what?”
“Find her. Find them all.”
She took a deep breath. “What if they don’t want to befound?”
“What if they do? What if they were lied to?”
Tally tried to remember Shay’s face that last night, howhopeful she had been. She’d wanted to leave the city asmuch as Tally wanted to be pretty. However stupid thechoice seemed, Shay had made it with her eyes open, andhad respected Tally’s choice to stay.
Tally looked up at Dr. Cable’s cruel beauty, at the pukeyellow-brown of the walls. She remembered all the tricksSpecial Circumstances had played on her today—howthey’d kept her waiting for an hour in the hospital, waitingand thinking she would soon be pretty, the brutal flighthere, and all the cruel faces in the halls—and she decided.
“I can’t help you,” Tally said. “I made a promise.”
Dr. Cable bared her teeth. This time, it wasn’t even amockery of a smile. The woman became nothing but aUGLIES 109monster, vengeful and inhuman. “Then I’ll make you apromise too, Tally Youngblood. Until you do help us, to thevery best of your ability, you will never be pretty.”
Dr. Cable turned away.
“You can die ugly, for all I care.”
The door opened. The scary man was outside, wherehe’d been waiting all along.
UGLY FOR LIFE
They must have forewarned the minders about her return.
All the other uglies were gone, off on some unscheduledschool trip. But they hadn’t found out in time to save herstuff. When Tally reached her old room, she saw that everythinghad been recycled. Clothes, bedding, furniture, thepictures on the wallscreen—it had all reverted back toGeneric Ugly. It even looked as if somebody else had beenbriefly moved in, then out again, leaving a strange drinkcan in the fridge.
Tally sat down on the bed, too stunned to cry. She knewshe would start bawling soon, probably losing it at theworst possible time and place. Now that the encounter withDr. Cable was over, her anger and defiance were fading, andthere was nothing left to sustain her. Her stuff was gone, herfuture was gone, only the view out the window remained.
She sat and stared, having to remind herself every fewminutes that it had all really happened: the cruel pretties,the strange buildings on the edge of town, the terrible ultimatumfrom Dr. Cable. Tally felt as if some wild trick hadgone horribly wrong. A weird and horrible new reality hadopened up, devouring the world she knew and understood.
All she had left was the small duffel bag she’d packedfor the hospital. She couldn’t even remember carrying it allthe way back here. Tally pulled out the few clothes, whichshe’d shoved in at random, and found Shay’s note.
She read it, looking for clues.
Take the coaster straight past the gap,until you find one that’s long and flat.
Cold is the sea and watch for breaks.
At the second make the worst mistake.
Four days later take the side you despise,and look in the flowers for fire-bug eyes.
Once they’re found, enjoy the flight.
Then wait on the bald head until it’s light.
Hardly any of it made sense to her, only bits and pieces.
Shay had obviously meant to hide the meaning from anyoneelse reading it, using references only the two of themwould understand. Her paranoia made a lot more sensenow. Having met Dr. Cable, Tally could see why Davidwanted to keep his city—or camp, or whatever it was—asecret.
As Tally held the note, she realized that it was whatDr. Cable had wanted. The woman had been sitting acrossthe room from the letter the whole time, but they’d never112 Scott Westerfeldbothered to search her. That meant that Tally had kept Shay’ssecret, and that she still had something to bargain with.
It also meant that Special Circumstances could makemistakes.
Tally saw the other uglies come back in before lunchtime.
As they filed off the school transport, all of them cranedtheir necks to look up at her window. A few pointed beforeshe ducked back into the shadows. Minutes later Tallycould hear kids in the hall outside, growing silent as theypassed her door. A few even giggled, as new uglies alwaysdid when tried to keep quiet.
Were they laughing at her?
Her rumbling stomach reminded Tally that she hadn’teaten breakfast, or dinner the night before. You weren’t supposedto have food or water for sixteen hours before theoperation. She was starving.
But she stayed in her room until lunch was over. Shecouldn’t face a cafeteria full of uglies watching her everymove, wondering what she had done to deserve her stilluglyface. When she couldn’t stand her hunger anymore,Tally stole upstairs to the roof deck, where they put out leftoversfor whoever wanted them.
A few uglies saw her in the hall. They clammed up andstood aside as Tally passed, as if she were contagious. Whathad the minders told them? Tally wondered. That she’dpulled one too many tricks? That she was inoperable, anUGLIES 113ugly-for-life? Or just that she was a Special Circumstance?
Everywhere she went, eyes looked away, but it was themost visible she’d ever felt.
A plate was set out for her on the roof deck, sealed inplastic wrap, her name stuck to it. Someone had noticedthat she hadn’t eaten. And, of course, everyone would realizethat she was in hiding.
The sight of the plate of food, wilted and solitary, madethe suppressed tears well up in her eyes. Tally’s throatburned as if she’d swallowed something sharp, and it wasall she could do to get back to her room before she burstinto loud, jagged sobs.
When she got there, Tally found that she hadn’t forgottento bring the plate. She ate while she cried, tasting thesalt of her tears in every bite.
Her parents came by about an hour later.
Ellie swept in first, gathering Tally into a hug that emptiedher lungs and lifted her feet off the ground. “Tally, mypoor baby!”
“Now don’t injure the girl, Ellie. She’s had a tough day.”
Even without oxygen, it felt good inside the crushingembrace. Ellie always smelled just right, like a mom, andTally always felt like a littlie in her arms. Released after whatwas probably a solid minute, but still too soon, Tallystepped back, hoping that she wouldn’t cry again. Shelooked at her parents sheepishly, wondering what they114 Scott Westerfeldmust be thinking. She felt like a total failure. “I didn’t knowyou guys were coming.”
“Of course we came,” Ellie said.
Sol shook his head. “I’ve never heard of anything likethis happening. It’s ridiculous. And we’ll get to the bottomof it, don’t you worry!”
Tally felt a weight lift from her shoulders. Finally therewas someone else on her side. Her father’s middle-prettyeyes twinkled with calm certainty. There was no questionthat he would sort everything out.
“What did they tell you?” Tally asked.
Sol gestured, and Tally sat down on the bed. Ellie settledbeside her while he paced back and forth across the smallroom.
“Well, they told us about this Shay girl. Sounds likeshe’s a lot of trouble.”
“Sol!” Ellie interrupted. “The poor girl’s missing.”
“Sounds like she wants to be missing.”
Her mother pursed her lips in silence.
“It’s not her fault, Sol,” Tally said. “She just didn’t wantto turn pretty.”
“So, she’s an independent thinker. Fine. But she shouldhave had better sense than to drag someone else downwith her.”
“She didn’t drag me anywhere. I’m right here.” Tallylooked out the window at the familiar view of New PrettyTown. “Where I’ll be forever, apparently.”
UGLIES 115“Now, now,” Ellie said. “They said that once you’vehelped them find this Shay girl, everything should go aheadas normal.”
“It won’t make any difference if the operation happensa few days late. It’ll be a great story when you’re old.” Solchuckled.
Tally bit her lip. “I don’t think I can help them.”
“Well, you just do your best,” Ellie said.
“But I can’t. I mean, I promised Shay that I wouldn’t tellanyone her plans.”
They were silent for a moment.
Sol sat down, taking one of her hands in his. They feltso warm and strong, almost as wrinkled as a crumbly’s fromdays spent working in his wood shop. Tally realized that shehadn’t visited her parents since the week of summer break,when she’d mostly been anxious to get back to hanging outwith Shay full-time. But it was good to see them now.
“Tally, we all make promises when we’re little. That’spart of being an ugly—everything’s exciting and intenseand important, but you have to grow out of it. After all, youdon’t owe this girl anything. She’s done nothing but causeyou trouble.”
Ellie took her other hand. “And you’ll only be helpingher, Tally. Who knows where she is now and what’s happeningto her? I’m surprised you let her run off like that.
Don’t you know how dangerous it is out there?”
Tally found herself nodding. Looking into Sol’s and116 Scott WesterfeldEllie’s faces, everything seemed so clear. Maybe cooperatingwith Dr. Cable would really be helping Shay, and would setthings back on course for herself. But the thought of Dr.
Cable made her wince. “You should have seen these people.
The ones investigating Shay? They look like . . .”
Sol laughed. “I guess it would be a bit of a shock at yourage, Tally. But of course we old folks know all about SpecialCircumstances. They may be tough, but they’re just doingtheir jobs, you know. It’s a tough world out there.”
Tally sighed. Maybe her reluctance was just because thecruel pretties had scared her so much. “Have you ever metthem? I couldn’t believe the way they looked.”
Ellie furrowed her brow. “Well, I can’t say I’ve actuallymet one.”
Sol frowned, then broke into a laugh. “Well, youwouldn’t want to meet one, Ellie. And Tally, if you do theright thing now, you probably won’t ever meet one again.
That sort of business is something we can all do without.”
Tally looked at her father, and for a moment she sawsomething other than wisdom and confidence in hisexpression. It was almost too easy the way Sol laughed offSpecial Circumstances, dismissing everything that went onoutside the city. For the first time in her life, Tally foundherself listening to a middle pretty without being completelyreassured, a realization that made her dizzy. And shecouldn’t shake the thought that Sol knew nothing about theoutside world Shay had fled to.
UGLIES 117Maybe most people just didn’t want to know. Tally hadbeen taught all about the Rusties and early history, but atschool they never said a single thing about people livingoutside the cities right now, people like David. Until she’dmet Shay, Tally had never thought about it either.
But she couldn’t dismiss the whole thing the way herfather had.
And she had made Shay a solemn promise. Even if shewas just an ugly, a promise was a promise. “Guys, I’m goingto have to think about this.”
For a moment, an awkward silence filled the room.
She’d said something they hadn’t expected.
Then Ellie laughed and patted her hand. “Well, ofcourse you do, Tally.”
Sol nodded, back in command. “We know you’ll do theright thing.”
“Sure. But in the meantime,” Tally said, “maybe I couldcome home with you?”
Her parents shared another look of surprise.
“I mean, it’s really weird being here now. Everyoneknows that I . . . I’m not scheduled for classes anymore, soit would just be like coming home for autumn break, but alittle early.”
Sol recovered first, and patted her shoulder. “Now,Tally, don’t you think it would be even stranger for you outin Crumblyville? I mean, there’s no other kids out there thistime of year.”
118 Scott Westerfeld“You’re much better off here with the other children,darling,” Ellie added. “You’re only a few months older thansome of them. And goodness, we don’t have your roomready at all!”
“I don’t care. Nothing could be worse than this,” Tallysaid.
“Oh, just order up some more clothes, and get thatwallscreen back the way you want it,” Sol said.
“I didn’t mean the room—”
“In any case,” Ellie interrupted, “why make a fuss?
This’ll all be over in no time. Just have a nice chat withSpecial Circumstances, tell them everything, and you’ll beheaded where you really want to be.”
They all looked out the window at the towers of NewPretty Town.
“I guess so.”
“Sweetheart,” Ellie said, patting her leg, “what otherchoice do you have?”
PERIS
During the daytime, she hid in her room.
Going anywhere else was pure torture. The uglies in herown dorm treated her like a walking disease, and anyoneelse who recognized her sooner or later asked, “Why aren’tyou pretty yet?”
It was strange. She’d been an ugly for four years, but afew extra days had brought home to her exactly what theword really meant. Tally peered into her mirror all day, notingevery flaw, every deformity. Her thin lips pursed withunhappiness. Her hair grew even frizzier because she keptrunning her hands through it in frustration. A trio of zitsexploded across her forehead, as if marking the days sinceher sixteenth birthday. Her watery, too-small eyes glaredback at her, full of anger.
Only at night could she escape from the tiny room, thenervous stares, her own ugly face.
She fooled the minders and climbed out as usual, butshe didn’t feel much like any real tricks. There was no oneto visit, no one to play a prank on, and the idea of crossingthe river was too painful to consider. She had gotten a newhoverboard, and tricked it up like Shay had taught her, soat least she could fly at night.
But flying didn’t feel the same. She was alone, it wasgetting cold at night, and no matter how fast she flew, Tallywas trapped, and she knew it.
The fourth night in ugly exile she took her board up intothe greenbelt, staying at the edge of town. She whipped itback and forth past the dark columns of tree trunks, shootingthrough them at top speed, so fast that her hands and facecollected dozens of scratches from the branches blurring by.
After a few hours’ flying had worn away some of heranguish, Tally had a happy realization: This was the bestshe’d ever ridden; she was almost as good as Shay now. Neveronce did the board dump her for getting too close to a tree,and her shoes held on to its grippy surface like they wereglued there. She worked up a sweat even in the autumn chill,riding until her legs were tired, her ankles aching, her armssore from being spread out like wings guiding her throughthe dark forest. If she rode this hard all night, Tally thought,maybe tomorrow she could sleep the hideous daylight away.
She flew until exhaustion forced her home.
When she crawled back into her room at dawn, someonewas waiting there.
“Peris!”
His features burst into a radiant smile, big eyes flashingUGLIES 121beautifully in the early light. But when he looked closer, hisexpression changed. “What happened to your face, Squint?”
Tally blinked. “Haven’t you heard? They didn’t do the—”
“Not that.” Peris reached up and touched her cheek,which smarted under his fingertips. “You look like you’vebeen juggling cats all night.”
“Oh, yeah.” Tally ran her fingers through her hair, andrummaged through a drawer. She pulled a medspray out,closed her eyes, and squirted herself in the face.
“Ow!” she yelped in the few seconds before the anesthetickicked in. She sprayed her scratched hands as well.
“Just a little midnight hoverboarding.”
“A little past midnight, don’t you think?”
Out the window, the sun was just beginning to turn thetowers of New Pretty Town pink. Cat-vomit pink. She lookedat Peris, exhausted and confused. “How long have you beenhere?”
He shifted uncomfortably in her window chair. “Longenough.”
“Sorry. I didn’t know you were coming.”
He raised his eyebrows in beautiful anguish. “Of courseI came. The moment I figured out where you were, I came.”
Tally turned away, unlacing her grippy shoes as she collectedherself. She’d felt so abandoned since her birthday, ithad never occurred to her that Peris would want to see her,especially not here in Uglyville. But here he was, worried,anxious, lovely.
122 Scott Westerfeld“It’s good to see you,” she said, feeling tears come intoher eyes. They were red and puffy most of the time thesedays.
He beamed up at her. “You too.”
The thought of what she must look like was too much.
Tally collapsed onto the bed, covering her face with herhands and sobbing. Peris sat next to her and held her for awhile as she cried, then wiped her nose and sat her up.
“Look at you, Tally Youngblood.”
She shook her head. “Please don’t.”
“You’re an absolute mess.”
Peris found a brush and ran it through her hair. Shecouldn’t meet his eyes, and stared at the floor.
“So, do you always go hoverboarding in a blender?”
She shook her head, lightly touching the scratches onher face. “Just tree branches. At high speed.”
“Oh, so getting yourself killed is your next brillianttrick. I guess that would just about top your current one.”
“My current what?”
Peris rolled his eyes. “This whole trick where youhaven’t turned pretty yet. Very mysterious.”
“Yeah. Some trick.”
“When did you get modest, Squint? All my friends arefascinated.”
She turned her puffy eyes to her friend, trying to figureout if he was kidding.
“I mean, I already told everyone about you after thatUGLIES 123fire alarm thing, but they’re really dying to meet you now,”
he continued. “There’s even a rumor that Special Circumstancesis involved.”
Tally blinked. Peris was serious.
“Well, that’s true,” she said. “They’re the reason I’m stillugly.”
Peris’s big eyes widened even more. “Really? That is sobubbly!”
She sat up and frowned. “Did everyone know aboutthem but me?”
“Well, I had no idea what anyone was talking about.
Apparently, Specials are like gremlins; you blame themwhen anything weird happens. Some people think they’retotally bogus, and no one I know has actually seen aSpecial.”
Tally sighed. “Just my luck, I guess.”
“So they’re real?” Peris lowered his voice to a whisper.
“Do they really look different? You know, not pretty.”
“It’s not that they’re not pretty, Peris. But they’rereally . . .” Tally looked at him, gorgeous and hanging onevery word. It felt so perfect to be sitting next to him, talkingand touching, as if they’d never been apart. She smiled.
“They’re just not as pretty as you.”
He laughed. “You’ll have to tell me all about it. Butdon’t you dare tell anyone else. Not yet. Everyone’s going tobe so intrigued. We can throw a big party when you getyourself prettied up.”
124 Scott WesterfeldShe tried to smile. “Peris . . .”
“I know, you’re probably not supposed to talk about it.
But once you’re across the river, just drop a few hints aboutSpecial-you-know-what and you’ll get invited to all the parties!
Just make sure you take me with you.” He leanedcloser. “There’s even a rumor that all the bubbly jobs go topeople who had tricky records as kids. But that’s years fromnow. The main thing is to get you pretty already.”
“But, Peris,” she said, her stomach starting to hurt. “Idon’t think I’ll . . .”
“You’ll love it, Tally. Being pretty’s the best thing ever.
And I’ll enjoy it about a million times more once you’rethere with me.”
“I can’t.”
He frowned. “Can’t what?”
Tally looked up at Peris, clutching his hand. “You see,they want me to tattle on a friend of mine. Someone I gotto know really well. After you left.”
“Tattle? Don’t tell me this is all about some ugly-trick.”
“Sort of.”
“So, tattle away. How big a deal can it be?”
Tally turned away. “It’s important, Peris. It’s more thana trick. I made my friend a promise that I’d keep a secretfor her.”
His eyes narrowed, and for a moment he looked likethe old Peris: serious, thoughtful, even a little bit unhappy.
“Tally, you made me a promise too.”
UGLIES 125She swallowed and stared back at him. His eyes shonewith tears.
“You promised you wouldn’t do anything stupid, Tally.
That you’d be with me soon. That we’d be pretty together.”
She touched the scar on her palm, still there, eventhough Peris’s had been rubbed away. He reached over andheld her hand. “Best friends forever, Tally.”
She knew that if she looked into his eyes again, itwould be all over. One glance, and her resistance wouldevaporate. “Best friends forever?” she said.
“Forever.”
She took a deep breath and let herself stare into hiseyes. He looked so sad, so vulnerable and wounded. Soperfect. Tally imagined herself by his side, just as beautiful,spending every day doing nothing but talking and laughingand having fun.
“You’ll keep your promise, Tally?”
A shudder of exhaustion and relief went through her.
She had it now, an excuse to break her vow. She’d made thatpromise to Peris, just as real, before she’d ever met Shay.
She had known him for years, and Shay for only a fewmonths.
And Peris was right here, not out in some strangewilderness, and was looking at her with those eyes . . .
“Of course.”
“Really?” He smiled, and it was as bright as the daybreakoutside.
126 Scott Westerfeld“Yeah.” The words came out so easily. “I’ll be there assoon as I can. I promise.”
He sighed and hugged her tight, rocking her softly.
Tears rose up in her again.
Peris finally released her, and looked out at the sunny day.
“I should go.” He waved at the door. “You know, beforethe . . . thingies . . . all wake up.”
“Of course.”
“It’s almost past my bedtime, and you’ve got a big dayahead of you.”
Tally nodded. She’d never felt so exhausted. Her musclesached, and her face and hands had started stinging again. Butshe was overwhelmed with relief. This nightmare had begunthree months ago, when Peris went across the river. Andsoon it would end.
“Okay, Peris. I’ll see you soon. As soon as possible.”
He hugged her again, kissed her salty, scratched cheeks,and whispered, “Maybe in just a couple of days. I’m soexcited!”
He said good-bye and left, checking both ways down thecorridor before departing. Tally looked out the window foranother glance at Peris, and realized that a hovercar was waitingfor him below. Pretties really did get whatever they wanted.
Tally wanted nothing more than to fall asleep, but actingon her decision couldn’t wait. She knew that with Perisgone, the doubts would come back again and haunt her.
She couldn’t stand another day like this, not knowing if herUGLIES 127ugly purgatory would ever end. And she’d promised Perisshe’d be with him as soon as possible.
“I’m sorry, Shay,” Tally said quietly.
Then she picked up her interface ring from where ithad lain on the bedside table all night, and slipped it on.
“Message to Dr. Cable, or whomever,” she said to it. “I’ll dowhat you want. Just let me sleep for a while. Message over.”
Tally sighed, and let herself fall back onto the bed. Sheknew she should spray her scratches again before passingout, but the thought of moving made her whole body ache.
A few dozen scratches wouldn’t keep her from sleepingtoday. Nothing would.
Seconds later, the room spoke. “Reply from Dr. Cable:
A car will be sent for you, arriving in twenty minutes.”
“No,” she mumbled, but realized that it would be uselessto argue. Special Circumstances would come, theywould wake her up, they would take her.
Tally decided to try for a few minutes of sleep. It wouldbe better than nothing.
But for the next twenty minutes, she never once shuther eyes.
INFILTRATOR
The cruel pretties seemed even more unearthly to exhaustedeyes. Tally felt like a mouse in a cage full of hawks, justwaiting for one to swoop down and take her. The trip in thehovercar had been even more sickening this time.
She focused on the nausea eating away at her stomach,trying to forget why she was here. As Tally and her escortmade their way down the hall, she tried to pull herselftogether, tucking in her shirt and tugging at her hair.
Dr. Cable certainly didn’t look like she’d just gotten up.
Tally tried without success to imagine what a tousled Dr.
Cable would look like. Her darting, metal-gray eyes hardlyseemed as if they would ever close long enough to sleep.
“So, Tally. You’ve reconsidered.”
“Yes.”
“And you’ll answer all our questions now? Honestlyand of your own free will?”
Tally snorted. “You’re not giving me a choice.”
Dr. Cable smiled. “We always have choices, Tally. You’vemade yours.”
“Great. Thanks. Look, just ask your questions.”
“Certainly. First of all, what on earth happened to yourface?”
Tally sighed, one hand touching the scratches. “Trees.”
“Trees?” Dr. Cable raised an eyebrow. “Very well. On amore important subject, what did you and Shay talk aboutthe last time you saw her?”
Tally closed her eyes. This was it, the moment whenshe would break her vow to Shay. But a small voice in herexhausted brain reminded her that she was also keeping apromise. Now she could finally join Peris.
“She talked about going away. Running away withsomeone called David.”
“Ah, yes, the mysterious David.” Dr. Cable leanedback. “And did she say where she and David weregoing?”
“A place called the Smoke. Like a city, only smaller.
And no one was in charge there, and no one was pretty.”
“And did she say where it was?”
“No, she didn’t, not really.” Tally sighed and pulledShay’s crumpled note from her pocket. “But she left methese directions.”
Dr. Cable didn’t even look at the note. Instead, shepushed a piece of paper from her side of the desk over toTally’s. Through bleary eyes, Tally saw that it was a 3-Dcopy of the note, perfect down to the slight incisions ofShay’s labored penmanship on the paper.
130 Scott Westerfeld“We took the liberty of making a copy of that the firsttime you were here.”
Tally glared at Dr. Cable, realizing she’d been duped.
“Then why do you need me? I don’t know anything morethan what I just said. I didn’t ask her to tell me any more.
And I didn’t go with her, because I just . . . wanted . . . tobe pretty!” A lump rose in her throat, but Tally decided thatunder no circumstances—special or not—was she going tocry in front of Dr. Cable.
“I’m afraid that we find the instructions on the noterather cryptic, Tally.”
“You and me both.”
Dr. Cable’s hawk-eyes narrowed. “They seem to bedesigned to be read by someone who knows Shay quitewell. By you, perhaps.”
“Yeah, well, I get some of it. But after the first couple oflines, I’m lost.”
“I’m sure it’s very difficult. Especially after a long nightof . . . trees. I still think you can help us, however.”
Dr. Cable opened a small briefcase on the deskbetween them. Tally’s tired brain struggled to makesense of the objects in the case. A firestarter, a crumpledsleeping bag . . .
“Hey, that’s like the survival stuff that Shay had.”
“That’s right, Tally. These ranger kits go missing everyso often. Usually just about the same time that one of ouruglies disappears.”
UGLIES 131“Well, mystery solved. Shay was all ready to travel tothe Smoke with a bunch of that stuff.”
“What else did she have?”
Tally shrugged. “A hoverboard. A special one, withsolar.”
“Of course a hoverboard. What is it about those thingsand miscreants? And what did Shay plan to eat, do yousuppose?”
“She had food in packets. Dehydrated.”
“Like this?” Dr. Cable produced a silvery food pack.
“Yeah. She had enough for four weeks.” Tally took adeep breath. “Two weeks, if I’d gone along. More thanenough, she said.”
“Two weeks? Not so very far.” Dr. Cable pulled a blackknapsack from beside her desk and started to pack thevarious objects into it. “You might just make it.”
“Make it? Make what?”
“The trip. To the Smoke.”
“Me?”
“Tally, only you can understand these directions.”
“I told you: I don’t know what they mean!”
“But you will, once you’re on the journey. And ifyou’re . . . properly motivated.”
“But I already told you everything you wanted toknow. I gave you the note. You promised!”
Dr. Cable shook her head. “My promise, Tally, was thatyou wouldn’t be pretty until you helped us to the very best132 Scott Westerfeldof your ability. I have every confidence that this is withinyour ability.”
“But why me?”
“Listen carefully, Tally. Do you really think that this isthe first time we’ve been told about David? Or the Smoke?
Or found some scrawled directions about how to get there?”
Tally flinched at the razor-blade voice, turning awayfrom the anger on the woman’s cruel face. “I don’t know.”
“We’ve seen all this before. But whenever we go ourselves,we find nothing. Smoke, indeed.”
The lump had return to Tally’s throat. “So how am Isupposed to find anything?”
Dr. Cable pulled the copy of Shay’s note toward herself.
“This last line, where it says to ‘wait on the bald head,’
clearly refers to a rendezvous point. You go there, you wait.
Sooner or later, they’ll pick you up. If I send a hovercar fullof Specials, your friends will probably be a bit suspicious.”
“You mean, you want me to go alone?”
Dr. Cable took a deep breath, a disgusted look on herface. “This isn’t very complicated, Tally. You have had achange of heart. You have decided to run away, followingyour friend Shay. Just another ugly escaping the tyranny ofbeauty.”
Tally looked up at the cruel face through a prism ofgathering tears. “And then what?”
Dr. Cable pulled another object from the briefcase, anecklace with a little heart pendant. She pressed on itsUGLIES 133sides, and the heart clicked open. “Look inside.”
Tally held the tiny heart up to her eye. “I can’t see anything. . . ow!”
The pendant had flashed, blinding her for a moment.
The heart made a little beep.
“The finder will only respond to your eye-print, Tally.
Once it’s activated, we’ll be there within a few hours. Wecan travel very quickly.” Cable dropped the necklace ontothe desk. “But don’t activate it until you’re in the Smoke.
This has taken us some time to set up. I want the real thing,Tally.”
Tally blinked away the afterimage of the flash, trying toforce her exhausted brain to think. She realized now thatthis had never been simply a matter of answering questions.
They had always wanted her as a spy, an infiltrator. Shewondered just how long this had been planned. How manytimes had Special Circumstances tried to get an ugly towork for them before? “I can’t do this.”
“You can, Tally. You must. Think of it as an adventure.”
“Please. I’ve never even spent the whole night outsidethe city. Not alone.”
Dr. Cable ignored the sob that had cut through Tally’swords. “If you don’t agree right now, I’ll find someone else.
And you’ll be ugly forever.”
Tally looked up, trying to see through the tears thatwere flowing freely now, to peer past Dr. Cable’s cruel maskand find the truth. It was there in her dull, metal-gray eyes,134 Scott Westerfelda cold, terrible surety unlike anything a normal pretty couldever convey. Tally realized that the woman meant what shesaid.
Either Tally infiltrated the Smoke and betrayed Shay, orshe’d be an ugly for life.
“I have to think.”
“Your story will be that you ran away the night beforeyour birthday,” Dr. Cable said. “That means you’ve alreadygot to make up for four lost days. Any more delays, andthey won’t believe you. They’ll guess what happened. Sodecide now.”
“I can’t. I’m too tired.”
Dr. Cable pointed at the wallscreen, and an imageappeared. Like a mirror, but in close-up, it showed Tally asshe looked right now: puffy-eyed and disheveled, exhaustionand red scratches marking her face, her hair stickingout in all directions, and her expression turning horrified asshe beheld her own appearance.
“That’s you, Tally. Forever.”
“Turn it off . . .”
“Decide.”
“Okay, I’ll do it. Turn it off.”
The wallscreen went dark.
Part II
THE SMOKE
There is no excellent beauty that hath not somestrangeness in the proportion.
—Francis Bacon, Essays, Civil and Moral, “Of Beauty”
LEAVING
Tally left at midnight.
Dr. Cable had demanded that no one be told about hermission, even the dorm minders. It was fine if Peris spreadrumors—no one believed the gossip of new pretties, anyway.
But not even her parents would be officially informedthat Tally had been forced to run away. Except for her littleheart pendant, she was on her own.
She slipped out the usual way, out the window and downbehind the recycler. Her interface ring remained on the bedsidetable, and Tally carried nothing but the survival knapsackand Shay’s note. She almost forgot her belly sensor, butclipped it on just before she left. The moon was about half-fulland growing. At least she’d have some light as she traveled.
A special long-range hoverboard was waiting under thedam. It hardly moved when she stepped on. Most boardsgave a little as they adjusted to a rider’s weight, bouncinglike a diving board, but this one was absolutely firm. Shesnapped her fingers, and it rose under her, steady as concreteunder her feet.
“Not bad,” she said, then bit her lip. Since Shay had runaway ten days ago, she’d started talking to herself. Thatwasn’t a good sign. She was going to be completely alonefor at least a few days now, and the last thing she neededwas more imaginary conversations.
The board eased forward smoothly, climbing theembankment to the top of the dam. Once on the river, Tallypushed it faster, leaning forward until the river was a shiningblur beneath her feet. The board didn’t seem to have aspeed governor—no safety warning sounded. Perhaps itsonly limits were the open space in front of her, metal in theground below, and Tally’s feet staying on board.
Speed was everything if she was going to make up forthe last four days in limbo. If Tally showed up too long afterher birthday, Shay might realize that her operation hadbeen delayed. From there, she might guess that Tally wasn’tan ordinary runaway.
The river passed beneath her faster and faster, and shereached the rapids in record time. Drops of spray stung likehailstones when she hit the first falls, and Tally leaned backto slow herself a bit. Still, she was taking the rapids fasterthan she ever had before.
Tally realized that this hoverboard was no ugly toy. Itwas the real thing. On its front end a half circle of lightsglowed, giving feedback from the board’s metal detector,which constantly searched ahead to see if there was enoughiron in the ground to stay aloft. The lights stayed on solidly140 Scott Westerfeldas she climbed the rapids, and Tally hoped that Shay wasright about metal deposits being found in every river.
Otherwise, this could be a very long trip.
Of course, at this speed she wouldn’t have time to stopif the lights suddenly went out. Which would make it avery short trip.
But the lights stayed on, and Tally’s nerves weresoothed by the roar of white water, the cold slap of spray inher face, the thrill of bending her body through curve aftercurve in the moon-speckled darkness. The board wassmarter than her old one, learning her moves in a matter ofminutes. It was like graduating from a tricycle to a motorbike:
scary, but thrilling.
Tally wondered if the route to the Smoke had a lot ofrapids to ride. Maybe this really would be an adventure. Ofcourse, at the end of the journey there would only bebetrayal. Or worse, she would discover that Shay’s trust inDavid had been misplaced, which could mean . . . anything.
Probably something horrible.
She shivered, deciding not to think about that possibilityagain.
When Tally reached the turnoff, she slowed and turnedthe board around, taking a last look at the city. It shone brilliantlyin the dark valley, so distant that she could blot it outwith one hand. In the clear night air, Tally could make outindividual fireworks unfolding like bright flowers, everythingin perfect miniature. The wild around her seemed soUGLIES 141much larger, the churning river full of power, the foresthuge with the secrets hidden in its black depths.
She allowed herself a long stare at the city lights beforeshe stepped onto shore, wondering when she would see herhome again.
On the trail, Tally wondered how often she’d have to walk.
The trip up the rapids had been the fastest she had everflown, even quicker than the Special Circumstances hovercardodging through city traffic. After that rush of speed,carrying the knapsack and board felt like being turned intoa slug.
But soon enough the Rusty Ruins appeared below, andthe board’s metal detector guided Tally to the natural veinof iron. She rode it down toward the crumbling towers, hernerves growing jumpy as the ruins rose up to blot outthe half-moon. The broken buildings surrounded her, thescorched and silent cars passing below. Peering through theempty windows made her feel how alone she was, a solitarywanderer in an empty city.
“Take the coaster straight past the gap,” she said aloud,an incantation to keep away any Rusty ghosts. At least thatmuch of the note was crystal clear: The “coaster” had to bethe roller coaster.
When the towering ruins gave way to flatter ground,Tally opened up the hoverboard. Reaching the roller coaster,she took the entire circuit at full speed. Maybe “straight past142 Scott Westerfeldthe gap” was the only important part of the clue, but Tallyhad decided to treat the note like a magic spell. Leaving outany part might make the whole thing meaningless.
And it felt good to ride fast and hard again, leaving theghosts of the Rusty Ruins behind. As she whipped aroundtight turns and down steep descents, the world whirlingaround her, Tally felt like something caught in the wind,not knowing which direction the journey would ultimatelytake her.
A few seconds before she took the jump across the gap,the metal-detector lights winked out. The board droppedaway, and her stomach seemed to go with it, leaving a hollowfeeling inside. Her suspicion had proved right—at topspeed, there hadn’t been much warning.
Tally flew through the air in the silent darkness, therush of her passage the only sound. She remembered herfirst time across the gap, how angry she’d been. A few dayslater it had turned into a joke between them, typical uglystuff. But now Shay had done it again, disappearing like thetrack below, leaving Tally in free fall.
A count of five later, the lights flickered on, and thecrash bracelets steadied her as the board reactivated, risingsmoothly up under her feet with reassuring solidness. Atthe bottom of the hill the track turned, climbing into asteep corkscrew of turns. But Tally slowed and kept goingahead, murmuring, “straight past the gap.”
The ruins continued under her feet. Out here they wereUGLIES 143almost completely submerged, only a few shapeless massesrising through the grasp of vegetation. But the Rusties hadbuilt solidly, in love with their wasteful skeletons of metal.
The lights on the front of her board stayed bright.
“Until you find one that’s long and flat,” Tally said toherself. She had memorized the note backward and forward,but repeating the words hadn’t made their meaningany clearer.
“One what?” was the question. A roller coaster? A gap?
The first would be silly. Where would be the point of a long,flat roller coaster? A long, flat gap? Maybe that woulddescribe a canyon, complete with a handy river at the bottom.
But how could a canyon be flat?
Maybe “one” meant a one, like the number. Should shebe looking for something that looked like a one? But a onewas just a straight line, anyway, kind of long and flatalready. So was I, the Roman numeral for one, except for thecrossbars on top and bottom. Or the dot on the top if it wasa small i.
“Thanks for the great clue, Shay,” Tally said aloud.
Talking to herself didn’t seem like such a bad idea there in theouter ruins, where the relics of the Rusties struggled againstthe grip of creeping plants. Anything was better than ghostlysilence. She passed concrete plains, vast expanses cracked bythrusting grasses. The windows of fallen walls stared up ather, sprouting weeds as if the earth had grown eyes.
She scanned the horizon, looking for clues. There was144 Scott Westerfeldnothing long and flat that she could see. Peering down atthe ground passing below, Tally could hardly make out anythingin the weed-choked darkness. She might zoom rightpast whatever the clue referred to and not even know it,and have to retrace her path in daylight. But how wouldshe know when she’d gone too far? “Thanks, Shay,” sherepeated.
Then she spotted something on the ground, andstopped.
Through the shroud of weeds and rubble, geometricalshapes had appeared—a series of rectangles in a line. Shelowered the board and saw that below her was a track withmetal rails and wooden crossbars—like the roller coaster,but much bigger. And it went in a straight line, as far as shecould see.
“Take the coaster straight past the gap, until you findone that’s long and flat.”
This thing was a roller coaster, but long and flat.
“But what’s it for?” she wondered aloud. What fun wasa roller coaster without any turns or climbs?
She shrugged. However the Rusties got their kicks, thiswas perfect for a hoverboard. The track stretched off in twodirections, but it was easy enough to tell which one to take.
One led back the way she’d come, toward the center of theruins. The other headed outward, northward and anglingtoward the sea.
“Cold is the sea,” she quoted from the next line ofUGLIES 145Shay’s note, and wondered how far north she was going.
Tally brought the hoverboard up to speed, pleased thatshe’d found the answer. If all of Shay’s little riddles were thiseasy to solve, this whole trip was going to a breeze.
SPAGBOL
She made good time that night.
The track zoomed along beneath her, tracing slow arcsaround hills, crossing rivers on crumbling bridges, alwaysheaded toward the sea. Twice it took her through otherRusty ruins, smaller towns further along in their disintegration.
Only a few twisted shapes of metal remained, risingabove the trees like skeletal fingers grasping at the air.
Burned-out groundcars were everywhere, choking thestreets out of town, twisted together in the collisions of theRusties’ last panic.
Near the center of one ruined town, she discoveredwhat the long, flat roller coaster was all about. In a nest oftracks tangled up like a huge circuit board, she found a fewrotting roller-coaster cars, huge rolling containers full ofRusty stuff, unidentifiable piles of rust and plastic. Tallyremembered now that Rusty cities weren’t self-sufficient,and were always trading with one another, when theyweren’t fighting over who had more stuff. They must haveused the flat roller coaster to move trade from town to town.
As the sky began to grow light, Tally heard the soundof the sea in the distance, a faint roar coming from acrossthe horizon. She could smell salt in the air, which broughtback memories of going to the ocean with Ellie and Sol asa littlie.
“Cold is the sea and watch for breaks,” Shay’s note read.
Soon, Tally would be able to see the waves breaking on theshore. Maybe she was close to the next clue.
Tally wondered how much time she’d made up withher new hoverboard. She increased its speed, wrapping herdorm jacket around herself in the predawn chill. The trackwas slowly climbing now, cutting through formations ofchalky rock. She remembered white cliffs towering over theocean, swarming with seabirds nesting in high caves.
Those camping trips with Sol and Ellie felt as if they’dhappened a hundred years ago. She wondered if there wassome operation that could make her back into a littlieagain, forever.
Suddenly, a gap opened up in front of Tally, spanned bya crumbling bridge. An instant later she saw that the bridgedidn’t make it all the way across, and there was no river fullof metal deposits beneath it to catch her. Just a precipitousdrop to the sea.
Tally spun her board sideways into a skid. Her kneesbent under the force of braking, her grippy shoes squealingas they slipped across the riding surface, her body turningalmost parallel to the ground.
148 Scott WesterfeldBut the ground was gone.
A deep chasm opened up under her, a fissure cut intothe cliffs by the sea. Boiling waves crashed into the narrowchannel, their whitecaps glowing in the darkness, theirhungry roars reaching her ears. The board’s metal-detectorlights flickered out one by one as Tally left the splinteredend of the iron bridge behind.
She felt the board lose purchase, slipping downward.
A thought flashed through her mind: If she jumpednow, she could make a grab for the end of the brokenbridge. But then the hoverboard would tumble into thechasm behind her, leaving her stranded.
The board finally halted in its slide out into midair, butTally was still descending. The last fingers of the crumblingbridge were above her now, out of reach. The board incheddownward, metal-detector lights flickering off one by oneas the magnets lost their grip. She was too heavy. Tallyslipped off the knapsack, ready to hurl it down. But howcould she survive without it? Her only choice would be toreturn to the city for more supplies, which would lose twomore days. A cold wind off the ocean blew up the chasm,goose-pimpling her arms like the chill of death.
But the breeze buoyed the hoverboard, and for amoment she neither rose nor fell. Then the board started toslip downward again. . . .
Tally thrust her hands into the pockets of her jacketand spread her arms, making a sail to catch the wind. AUGLIES 149stronger gust struck, lifting her slightly, taking some weightoff the board, and one of the metal-detector lights flickeredstronger.
Like a bird with outstretched wings, she began to rise.
The lifters gradually regained purchase on the track,until the hoverboard had brought her level with the brokenend of the bridge. She coaxed it carefully back over the cliff’sedge, a huge shiver passing through her body as the boardpassed over solid ground. Tally stepped off, legs shaking.
“Cold is the sea and watch for breaks,” she said hoarsely.
How could she have been so stupid, speeding up just whenShay’s note said to be careful?
Tally collapsed onto the ground, suddenly dizzy andtired. Her mind replayed the chasm opening up, the wavesbelow smashing indifferently against the jagged rocks. Shecould have been down there, battered again and again untilthere was nothing left.
This was the wild, she reminded herself. Mistakes hadserious consequences.
Even before Tally’s heart had stopped pounding, her stomachgrowled.
She reached into her knapsack for the water purifier,which she’d filled at the last river, and emptied the mucktrap.
A spoonful of brown sludge that it had filtered fromthe water glopped out. “Eww,” she said, opening the top topeer in. It looked clear, and smelled like water.
150 Scott WesterfeldShe took a much needed drink, but saved most to makedinner, or breakfast, whatever it was. Tally planned to domost of her traveling at night, letting the hoverboardrecharge in sunlight, wasting no time.
Reaching into the waterproof bag, she pulled out a foodpacket at random. “‘SpagBol,’” she read from the label, andshrugged. Unwrapped, it looked and felt like a finger-sizeknot of dried yarn. She dropped it into the purifier, whichmade burbling noises as it came to a boil.
When Tally glanced out at the glowing horizon, hereyes opened wide. She’d never seen dawn from outside thecity before. Like most uglies, she was rarely up earlyenough, and in any case the horizon was always hiddenbehind the skyline of New Pretty Town. The sight of a realsunrise amazed her.
A band of orange and yellow ignited the sky, gloriousand unexpected, as spectacular as fireworks, but changingat a stately, barely perceptible pace. That’s how things wereout here in the wild, she was learning. Dangerous or beautiful.
Or both.
The purifier pinged. Tally opened the top and lookedinside. It was noodles with a red sauce, with small kernelsof soymeat, and it smelled delicious. She looked at the labelagain. “SpagBol . . . spaghetti Bolognese!”
She found a fork in the knapsack and ate hungrily.
With the sunrise warming her and the crash of the sea rumblingbelow, it was the best meal she’d had for ages.
UGLIES 151F F FThe hoverboard still had some charge left, so after breakfastshe decided to keep moving. She reread the first few linesof Shay’s note:
Take the coaster straight past the gap,until you find one that’s long and flat.
Cold is the sea and watch for breaks.
At the second make the worst mistake.
If “the second” meant a second broken bridge, Tallywanted to run into it in daylight. If she’d spotted the gap asplit second later, she would have ended up so muchSpagBol at the bottom of the cliffs.
But her first problem was getting across the chasm. Itwas much wider than the gap in the roller coaster, definitelytoo far to jump. Walking looked like the only way around.
She hiked inland through the scrubby grass, her legs gratefulfor a stretch after the long night on board. Soon thechasm closed, and an hour later she had hiked back up theother side.
Tally flew much slower now, eyes fixed ahead, daringonly an occasional glimpse at the view around her.
Mountains rose up on her right, tall enough that snowcapped their tops even in the early autumn chill. Tally hadalways thought of the city as huge, a whole world in itself,but the scale of everything out here was so much grander.
152 Scott WesterfeldAnd so beautiful. She could see why people used to live outin nature, even if there weren’t any party towers or mansions.
Or even dorms.
The thought of home, however, reminded Tally howmuch her sore muscles would love a hot bath. She imagineda giant bathtub, like they had in New Pretty Town,with whirlpool jets and a big packet of massage bubblesdissolving in it. She wondered if the water purifier couldboil enough water to fill a tub, in the unlikely event that shefound one. How did they bathe in the Smoke? Tally wonderedwhat she’d smell like when she arrived, after dayswithout a bath. Was there soap in the survival kit?
Shampoo? There certainly weren’t any towels. Tally hadnever realized how much stuff she’d needed before.
The second break in the track came up after anotherhour: a crumbling bridge over a river that snaked downfrom the mountains.
Tally came to a controlled stop and peered over theedge. The drop wasn’t as bad as the first chasm, but it wasstill deep enough to be deadly. Too wide to jump. Hikingaround it would take forever. The river gorge stretchedaway, with no easy way down in sight.
“At the second make the worst mistake,” she murmured.
Some clue. Anything she did right now would be a mistake.
Her brain was too tired to handle this, and the boardwas short on power, anyway.
UGLIES 153Midmorning, it was time to sleep.
But first she had to unfold the hoverboard. The Specialwho’d instructed her had explained that it needed as muchsurface area in the sun as possible while it recharged. Shepulled the release tabs, and it came apart. It opened like abook in her hands, becoming two hoverboards, then eachof those opened up, and then those, unfolding like a stringof paper dolls. Finally, Tally had eight hoverboards connectedside-to-side, twice as wide as she was tall, no thickerthan a stiff sheet of paper. The whole thing fluttered in thestiff ocean breeze like a giant kite, though the board’s magnetskept it from blowing away.
Tally laid it flat, stretched out in the sun, where itsmetallic surface turned jet black as it drank in solar energy.
In a few hours it would be charged up and ready to rideagain. She just hoped it would go back together as easily asit had pulled apart.
Tally pulled out her sleeping bag, yanked it out of itspack, and wriggled inside, still in her clothes. “Pajamas,”
she added to her list of things she missed about the city.
She made a pillow of her jacket, struggled out of hershirt, and covered her head with it. She could already feel ahint of burn on her nose, and realized she had forgotten tostick on a sunblock patch after daybreak. Perfect. A littlered and flaking skin should go quite nicely with thescratches on her ugly face.
Sleep didn’t come. The day was getting warm, and it154 Scott Westerfeldfelt weird lying there in the open. The cries of seabirds rangin her head. Tally sighed and sat up. Maybe if she had alittle more to eat.
She pulled out food packets one by one. The labelsread:
SpagBolSpagBolSpagBolSpagBolSpagBol . . .
Tally counted forty-one more packets, enough for threeSpagBols a day for two weeks. She leaned back and closedher eyes, suddenly exhausted. “Thank you, Dr. Cable.”
A few minutes later, Tally was asleep.

THE WORST MISTAKE
She was flying, skimming the ground with no track underher, not even a hoverboard, keeping herself aloft by sheerwillpower and the wind in her outspread jacket. She skirtedthe edge of a massive cliff that overlooked a huge, blackocean. A flock of seabirds pursued her, their wild screamsbeating at her ears like Dr. Cable’s razor-edged voice.
Suddenly, the stony cliffs beneath her cracked and fissured.
A huge rift opened up, the ocean rushing in with aroar that drowned the seabirds’ cries. She found herself tumblingthrough the air, falling down toward the black water.
The ocean swallowed her, filling her lungs, freezing herheart so that she couldn’t cry out. . . .
“No!” Tally shouted, sitting bolt upright.
A cold wind off the sea struck her face, clearing herhead. Tally looked around, realizing that she was up on thecliffs, tangled in her sleeping bag. Tired, hungry, and desperateto pee, but not falling into oblivion.
She took a deep breath. The seabirds still cried aroundher, but in the distance.
That last dream had been only one of many fallingnightmares.
Night was coming, the sun setting over the ocean, turningthe water bloodred. Tally pulled her shirt and jacket onbefore daring to emerge from the sleeping bag. The temperatureseemed to be dropping by the minute, the lightfading before her eyes. She hurried to get ready to go.
The hoverboard was the tricky part. Its unfolded surfacehad gotten wet, covered with a fine layer of oceanspray and dew. Tally tried to wipe it off with her jacketsleeve, but there was too much water and not enoughjacket. The wet board folded up easily enough, but it felttoo heavy when she was done, as if the water was stilltrapped between the layers. The board’s operation lightturned yellow, and Tally looked closely. The sides of theboard were gradually oozing the water away. “Fine. Givesme time to eat.”
Tally pulled out a packet of SpagBol, then realized thather purifier was empty. The only ready source of water wasat the bottom of the cliff, and there was no way down. Shewrung out her wet jacket, which produced a few goodsquooshes, then scraped off handfuls of the water oozingfrom the board until the purifier was half-full. The result wasa dense, overspiced SpagBol that required lots of chewing.
By the time she was done with the unhappy meal, theboard’s light had turned green.
“Okay, ready to go,” Tally said to herself. But where?
UGLIES 157She stood still, pondering, one foot on the board and oneon the ground.
Shay’s note read, “At the second make the worstmistake.”
Making a mistake shouldn’t be that hard. But what wasthe worst mistake? She’d almost killed herself once todayalready.
Tally remembered her dream. Falling into the gorgewould count as a pretty bad mistake. She stepped onto theboard and edged it to the crumbling end of the bridge,looking down to where the river met the sea far below.
If she climbed down, her only possible path would beto follow the river upstream. Maybe that’s what the cluemeant. But the steep cliff showed no obvious path, not evena handhold.
Of course, a vein of iron in the cliff might carry her downsafely. Her eyes scanned the walls of the gorge, searching forthe reddish color of iron. A few spots looked promising, butin the growing darkness, she couldn’t be certain.
“Great.” Tally realized that she’d slept too long. Waitingfor dawn would be twelve hours lost, and she didn’t haveany more water.
The only other option was to hike upriver atop the cliff.
But it might be days before she reached a place to climbdown. And how would she see it at night?
She had to make up time, not blunder around in the dark.
Tally swallowed, coming to a decision. There had to be158 Scott Westerfelda way down on her board. Maybe she was making a mistake,but that’s what the clue called for. She edged the boardoff the bridge until it began to lose purchase. It slippeddown the cliffside, descending faster as it left the metal ofthe track behind.
Tally’s eye searched desperately for any sign of iron inthe cliff. She eased the board forward, bringing it closer tothe wall of stone, but saw nothing. A few of the board’smetal-detector lights flickered out. Any lower, and she wasgoing to fall.
This wasn’t going to work. Tally snapped her fingers.
The board slowed for a second, trying to climb, but thenshivered and continued to descend.
Too late.
Tally spread her jacket, but the air in the gorge was still.
She spotted a rusty-looking streak in the wall of stone andcoaxed the board closer, but it turned out to be just a slimysmear of lichen. The board slipped downward faster andfaster, the metal-detector lights flickering out one by one.
Finally, the board went dead.
Tally realized that this mistake might be her last.
She fell like a rock, down toward the crashing waves.
Just like in the dream, her voice felt choked by a freezinghand, as if her lungs were already filled with water. Theboard tumbled below her, spinning like a falling leaf.
Tally closed her eyes, waiting for the shattering impactof cold water.
UGLIES 159Suddenly, something grabbed her by the wrists andyanked her up cruelly, spinning her in the air. Her shouldersscreamed with pain, and she spun once all the wayaround like a gymnast on the rings.
Tally opened her eyes and blinked. She was being loweredonto the hoverboard, which waited rock-steady justabove the water.
“What the . . . ?” she wondered aloud. Then, as her feetcame to rest, Tally realized what had happened.
The river had caught her. It had been dumping metaldeposits there for centuries, or however long rivers lasted,and the board’s magnets had found purchase just in time.
“Saved, more or less,” Tally muttered. She rubbed hershoulders, which ached from being caught by the crashbracelets, and wondered how far you had to fall before thebracelets would rip your arms out of their sockets.
But she’d made it down. The river stretched out in frontof her, winding its way into the snowcapped mountains.
Tally shivered in the ocean breeze and pulled her soggyjacket tighter around her.
“‘Four days later take the side you despise,’” she quotedShay’s note. “Four days. Might as well get started.”
After her first sunburn, Tally stuck a sunblock patch ontoher skin every morning at dawn. But even with only a fewhours in the sun each day, her already brown arms graduallydeepened in color.
160 Scott WesterfeldSpagBol never again tasted as good as it had that firsttime on the cliffs. Tally’s meals ranged from decent to odious.
The worst were SpagBol breakfasts, around sunset,when the mere thought of more noodles made her neverwant to eat again. She almost wished she would run out ofthe stuff and be forced to either catch a fish and cook it, orsimply starve, losing her ugly-fat the hard way.
What Tally really dreaded was running out of toiletpaper. Her only roll was already half-gone, and she rationedit strictly now, counting the sheets. And every day, shesmelled a little worse.
On the third day up the river, she decided to takea bath.
Tally awoke, an hour before sunset as usual, feelingsticky inside the sleeping bag. She’d washed her clothesthat morning and left them to dry on a rock. The thoughtof getting into clean clothes with dirty skin made her fleshcrawl.
The water in the river was fast-moving, and left almostnothing in the muck-trap of the purifier, which meant itwas clean. It was icy cold, though, probably fed by meltingsnow in the approaching mountains. Tally prayed it wouldbe slightly less freezing late in the day, after the sun had hada chance to warm it up.
The survival kit did have soap, it turned out—a fewdisposable packets tucked into a corner of the knapsack.
Tally clenched one in her hand as she stood at the edge ofUGLIES 161the river, wearing nothing but the sensor clipped to herbelly ring, shivering in the cool breeze.
“Here we go,” she said, trying to keep her teeth fromchattering.
She put one foot in and jumped back from the icystreak of agony that shot into her leg. Apparently, therewould be no easing slowly into the water. She had to take arunning jump.
Tally walked along the riverbank, searching for a goodplace to leap in, slowly gathering her courage. She realizedshe’d never been naked outside before. In the city, everywhereoutdoors was public, but she hadn’t seen anotherhuman face for days. The world seemed to belong to her.
Even in the cool air, the sun felt wonderful on her skin.
She clenched her teeth and faced the river. Standinghere pondering the wild wasn’t going to get her clean. Justa few steps and a leap, and gravity would do the rest.
She counted down from five, then counted down fromten, neither of which worked. Then she realized that shewas getting cold just standing there.
Finally, Tally jumped.
The freezing water closed like a fist around her. It paralyzedevery muscle, turning her hands into shivering claws.
For a moment, Tally wondered how she would make itback to shore. Maybe she would just expire here, slippingunder the icy water forever.
She took a deep, shuddering breath, reminding herself162 Scott Westerfeldthat the people before the Rusties must have taken baths infreezing streams all the time. Tally clenched her teeth tostop them chattering, and dipped her head under the waterand out, whipping wet hair onto her back.
A few moments later an unlikely kernel of warmthignited in her stomach, as if the icy water had activatedsome secret reserve of energy within her body. Her eyesopened wide, and she found herself whooping with excitement.
The mountains, towering above her after threenights’ travel inland, seemed suddenly crystal clear, theirsnowy peaks catching the last rays of the setting sun. Tally’sheart pounded fiercely, her blood spreading unexpectedwarmth throughout her body.
But the burst of energy was burning quickly. Shefumbled the soap packet open, squishing it between herfingers, across her skin, and into her hair. Another dunkingand she was ready to get out.
Looking back at the shore, Tally realized that she’dbeen carried away from her camp by the river’s current. Sheswam a few strokes upstream, then trudged toward therocky shore.
Waist-high in the water, already shivering from thebreeze on her wet body, Tally heard something that madeher heart freeze.
Something was coming. Something big.
THE SIDE YOU DESPISE
Thunder came from the sky, like a giant drum beatingfiercely and fast, forcing its way into her head and chest. Itseemed to rattle the whole horizon, making the surface ofthe river shimmer with every thud.
Tally crouched low in the water, sinking to her neckjust before the machine appeared.
It came from the direction of the mountains, flying lowand kicking up dust in a dozen separate windstorms in itswake. It was much bigger than a hovercar, and a hundredtimes louder. Apparently without magnets, it beat the airinto submission with a half-invisible disk shimmering inthe sun.
When the machine reached the river, it banked into aturn. Its passage churned the water, sending out circularwaves as if some huge stone were skimming across the surface.
Tally saw people inside, looking down at her camp.
The unfolded hoverboard pitched in the windstorm, itsmagnets fighting to keep it on the ground. Her knapsackdisappeared in the dust, and she saw clothing, the sleepingbag, and packets of SpagBol scattering in the machine’swake.
Tally sank lower into the frantic water, struck by thethought that she would be left here, naked and alone, withnothing. She was already half frozen.
But the machine dipped forward, just like a hoverboard,and moved on. It headed toward the sea, vanishingas quickly as it had appeared, leaving her ears poundingand the river’s surface boiling.
Tally crept out shivering. Her body felt ice cold, her fingersbarely able to clench into a fist. She made her way backto her camp, grasping clothes to her body, putting them onbefore the setting sun could dry her. She sat and wrappedher arms around herself until the shaking stopped, glancingfearfully at the red horizon every few seconds.
The damage was less than she’d feared. The hoverboard’soperation light was green, and her knapsack, dustybut unharmed. After a search for SpagBol and a count of theremaining packets, Tally found that she had lost only two.
But the sleeping bag was shredded. Something hadchopped it to pieces.
Tally swallowed. There was nothing left of the bag biggerthan a handkerchief. What if she had been in it whenthe machine had come?
She folded the hoverboard quickly and packed everythingaway. The board was ready to go almost instantly. Atleast the strange machine’s windstorm had dried it off.
UGLIES 165“Thanks a lot,” Tally said as she stepped on, leaning forwardas the sun began to set. She was anxious to leave thecampsite behind her as quickly as possible, in case theycame back.
But who were they? The flying machine had been justlike what Tally imagined when her teachers had describedRusty contraptions: a portable tornado crashing along,destroying everything in its path. Tally had read about aircraftthat shattered windows as they flew past, armored warvehicles that could drive straight through a house.
But the Rusties had been gone a long time. Who wouldbe stupid enough to rebuild their insane machines?
Tally rode into the growing darkness, her eyes peeledfor any signs of the next clue—“Four days later take theside you despise”—and for whatever other surprises thenight would bring.
One thing was certain now: She wasn’t alone out here.
Later that night, the river branched in two.
Tally cruised to a halt, surveying the junction. One ofthe branches was clearly larger, the other more like a broadstream. A “tributary,” she remembered, was the name for asmall river that fed into a larger one.
Probably she should just stay on the main river. Butshe’d been traveling for just three days, and her hoverboardwas a lot faster than most. Maybe it was time for thenext clue.
166 Scott Westerfeld“Four days later take the side you despise,” Tally muttered.
She peered at the two rivers in the light from the moon,which was almost full now. Which river did she despise? Orwhich one would Shay think she despised? They bothlooked pretty ordinary to her. She squinted into the distance.
Maybe one led toward something despicable thatwould be visible in daylight.
But waiting would mean losing a night’s travel, andsleeping in the cold and dark without a sleeping bag.
Tally reminded herself that the clue might not beabout this junction. Maybe she should just stay on the bigriver until something more obvious came up. Why wouldShay call the two rivers “sides,” anyway? If she’d meantthis junction, wouldn’t it be “take the direction youdespise”?
“The side you despise,” Tally mumbled, rememberingsomething.
Her fingers went to her face. When she had showedShay her pretty morphos, Tally had mentioned how shealways started by doubling her left side—that she hadalways hated the right side of her face. Which was exactlythe sort of thing that Shay would remember.
Was this Shay’s way of telling her to take a right?
Branching to the right was the smaller river, the tributary.
The mountains were closer in that direction. Maybeshe was drawing near the Smoke.
She stared at the two rivers in the darkness, one big andUGLIES 167one small, and remembered Shay saying that pretty symmetrywas silly, because she’d rather have a face with twodifferent sides.
Tally hadn’t realized it at the time, but that had been animportant conversation for Shay, the first time she hadtalked about wanting to stay ugly. If only Tally had noticedat the time, maybe she could have talked Shay out of runningaway. And they’d both be in a party tower right now,together and pretty.
“Right it is.” Tally sighed, and eased her board onto thesmaller river.
By the time the sun rose, Tally knew she had made the rightchoice.
As the tributary climbed its way into the mountains,the fields around her filled with flowers. Soon the brilliantwhite bonnets were as thick as grass, driving every othercolor from the landscape. In the dawn light, it was as if theearth were glowing from within.
“‘And look in the flowers for fire-bug eyes,’” Tally saidto herself, wondering if she should get off the board. Maybethere was some kind of bug with fiery eyes she should belooking for.
She drifted to shore and stepped off.
The flowers came right up to the edge of the water.
Tally knelt to inspect one closely. The five long white petalscurved delicately up from the stem and around its mouth,168 Scott Westerfeldwhich contained just a hint of yellow deep inside. One ofthe petals below the mouth was longer, arching downalmost to the ground. Motion caught her eye, and she spotteda small bird hovering among the flowers, flitting fromone to the next to alight on the longest petal, thrusting itsbeak into one after another.
“They’re so beautiful,” she said. And there were so manyof them. She wanted to lie down in the flowers and sleep.
But she couldn’t see anything that might be “fire-bugeyes.” Tally stood, scanning the horizon. Nothing met hergaze but hills, blinding white with flowers, and the glimmeringriver climbing up into the mountains. It all lookedso peaceful, a different world from the one that the flyingmachine had shattered last night.
She stepped back on the board and continued, slowernow as she looked carefully for whatever might fit Shay’sclue, remembering to stick on a sunblock patch as the sunrose higher.
The river climbed higher into the hills. From up there, Tallysaw bare stretches among the flowers, expanses of dry,sandy earth. The patchy landscape was a strange sight, likea beautiful painting that someone had taken sandpaper to.
She got off her board several times to inspect the flowers,looking for insects or anything else that might matchthe words “fire-bug eyes.” But as the day wore on, nothingmade sense.
UGLIES 169By the time noon approached the tributary was graduallygrowing smaller. Sooner or later, she would reach itssource, a mountain spring or melting snowdrift, and thenshe’d have to walk. Tired after the long night, she decidedto make camp.
Her eyes scanned the sky, wondering if any more of theRusty flying machines were around. The idea of anotherone crashing into her in her sleep terrified her. Who knewwhat the people inside the thing wanted? If she hadn’t beenhidden in the water the night before, what would they havedone with her?
One thing was certain: The shiny solar cells of thehoverboard would be obvious from the air. Tally checkedthe charge; more than half remained thanks to her slowspeed and the bright sun now overhead. She unfoldedthe hoverboard, but only halfway, and hid it among thetallest flowers she could find. Then she hiked to the topof a nearby hill. From up there Tally could keep her eyeon the hoverboard, and hear and see anything approachingfrom the air. She decided to repack her knapsackbefore she went to sleep, so she could bolt at a moment’snotice.
It was the best she could do.
After a mildly revolting packet of SpagBol, Tally curledup in a spot where the white flowers were tall enough tohide her. The breeze stirred their long stalks, and shadowsdanced on her closed eyelids.
170 Scott WesterfeldTally felt strangely exposed without her sleeping bag,lying there in her clothes, but the warm sun and the longnight’s travel put her quickly to sleep.
When she awoke, the world was on fire.
FIRESTORM
At first there was a sound like a roaring wind in herdreams.
Then a tearing noise filled the air, the crackle of drybrush inflamed, and the smell of smoke swept over Tally,bringing her suddenly and completely awake.
Billowing clouds of smoke surrounded her, blotting outthe sky. A ragged wall of flame moved through the flowers,giving off a wave of blistering heat. She grabbed her knapsackand stumbled down the hill away from the fire.
Tally had no idea in which direction the river lay.
Nothing was visible through the dense clouds. Her lungsfought for air in the foul brown smoke.
Then she spotted a few rays from the setting sunbreaching the billows, and she oriented herself. The riverwas back toward the flame, on the other side of the hill.
Tally retraced her path to the top of the hill and peereddown through the smoke. The fire was growing stronger.
Fingers of it shot up the hill, leaping from one beautifulflower to another, leaving them scorched and black. Tallycaught the glimmer of the river through the smoke, but theheat pushed her back.
She stumbled down the other side again, coughing andspitting, one thought in her mind: Was her hoverboardalready engulfed in flames?
Tally had to get to the river. The water was the onlyplace safe from the rampaging fire. If she couldn’t go overthe hill, maybe she could go around.
She descended the slope at full tilt. There were a fewspots burning on this side, but nothing like the gallopingflame behind her. She reached level ground and made herway around the base of the hill, crouching low to theground to duck under the smoke.
Halfway around, she reached a blackened patch wherethe fire had already passed. The brittle stems of flowerscrunched under her shoes, and the heat coming off thescorched earth stung her eyes.
Her footsteps ignited with flame as she ran through theblackened flowers, like stabbing a poker into a slumberingfire. She felt her eyes drying, her face blistering.
Moments later, Tally spotted the river. The firestretched in an unbroken wall across the opposite shore, aroaring wind pressing at its back and sending embers flyingacross to alight on the near side. A rolling billow of smokesurged toward her, choking and blinding her until itpassed.
When her eyes could open again, Tally spotted theUGLIES 173shiny solar surface of her hoverboard. She ran toward it,ignoring the burning flowers in her path.
The board seemed untouched by the flame, protected bygood luck and the layer of dew it collected every nightfall.
She quickly folded the board and stepped onto it, notwaiting for the yellow light to turn green. The heat hadmostly dried it already, and it rose into the air at her command.
Tally took the board over the river, just above thewater, and skimmed her way upstream, looking for a breakin the wall of fire to her left.
Her grippy shoes were ruined, their soles cracked likesunbaked mud, so she flew slowly, scooping up handfuls ofwater to soothe her burning face and arms.
A noise thundered to life on Tally’s left, unmistakableeven above the roar of the fire. She and the board werecaught in a sudden wind, shoved back toward the othershore. Tally leaned hard against it and stuck a foot into thewater to slow the board. She clung tightly with both hands,desperately fighting being thrown into the river.
The smoke suddenly cleared, and a familiar shapeloomed out of the darkness. It was the flying machine, itsthundering beat now obvious above the raging fire. Sparksjumped across the river as the machine’s windstorm stirredthe fire to a new intensity.
What were they doing? she wondered. Didn’t they realizethey were spreading the fire?
Her question was answered a moment later when a174 Scott Westerfeldgout of flame shot from the machine, squirting across theriver to ignite another patch of flowers.
They had set the fire, and were driving it on in everyway they could.
The flying machine thundered closer, and she glimpsedan inhuman face staring at her from the pilot seat. Sheturned her board to fly away, but the machine lifted up intothe air, passing right over her, and suddenly the wind wastoo great.
Tally pitched off and into the water. Her crash braceletscaught for a moment, holding her up above the waves, butthen the wind caught the hoverboard, much lighter withouther on it, and spun it away like a leaf.
She sank into the deep water in the middle of the river,knapsack and all.
It was cool and quiet under the waves.
For a few endless moments, Tally felt only relief to haveescaped the searing wind, the thundering machine, the blisteringheat of the firestorm. But the weight of the crashbracelets and knapsack pulled her down fast, and panicwelled up in her pounding chest.
She thrashed in the water, climbing up toward theflickering lights of the surface. Her wet clothes and geardragged at her, but just as her lungs were about to burst,she broke the surface into the maelstrom. Tally gulped afew breaths of smoky air, then was slapped in the faceUGLIES 175by a wave. She coughed and sputtered, struggling to stayafloat.
A shadow passed over her, blacking out the sky. Thenher hand struck something—a familiar grippy surface. . . .
Her hoverboard had come back to her! Just the way italways did when she spilled. The crash bracelets lifted herup until she could grab on to it, her fingers clinging to itsknobbly surface as she gasped for air.
A high-pitched whine came from the nearby shore.
Tally blinked away water from her eyes and saw that theRusty machine had landed. Figures were jumping from themachine, spraying white foam at the ground as theycrashed through the burning flowers and into the river.
They were headed for her.
She struggled to climb onto the board.
“Wait!” the nearest figured called.
Tally rose shakily to her feet, trying to keep steady onthe wet surface of the board. Her hard-baked shoes wereslippery, and her sodden knapsack seemed to weigh a ton.
As she leaned forward, a gloved hand reached up to grabthe front of the board. A face came up from the water, wearingsome sort of mask. Huge eyes stared up at her.
She stomped at the hand, crunching the fingers. Theyslipped off, but her weight was thrown too far forward, andthe board tipped its nose into the water.
Tally tumbled into the river again.
Hands grabbed at her, pulling her away from the hover-176 Scott Westerfeldboard. She was hoisted out of the water and onto a broadshoulder. She caught glimpses of masked faces: huge, inhumaneyes staring at her unblinkingly.
Bug eyes.

BUG EYES
They pulled her to the shore and out of the water, haulingher to the flying machine.
Tally’s lungs felt full of water and smoke. She couldhardly take a breath without a wracking cough shaking herwhole body.
“Put her down!”
“Where the hell did she come from?”
“Give her some oh-two.”
They flopped Tally onto her back on the ground, whichwas thick with the white foam. The one who’d carried herpulled off his bug-eyed mask, and Tally blinked.
He was a pretty. A new pretty, every bit as beautiful asPeris.
The man plunged the mask over her face. Tally foughtweakly for a moment, but then cold, pure air surged intoher lungs. Her head grew light as she gratefully sucked itdown.
He pulled the mask off. “Not too much. You’ll hyperventilate.”
She tried to speak but could only cough.
“It’s getting bad,” another figure said. “Jenks wants totake her back up.”
“Jenks can wait.”
Tally cleared her throat. “My board.”
The man smiled beautifully and glanced up. “It’sheaded over. Hey! Somebody stick that thing to the chopper!
What’s your name, kid?”
“Tally.” Cough.
“Well, Tally, are you ready to move? The fire won’t wait.”
She cleared her throat and coughed again. “I guess so.”
“Okay, come on.” The man helped her up and pulledher toward the machine. She found herself pushed inside,where the noise was much less, crowded into the back withthree others in bug-eyed masks. A door slammed shut.
The machine rumbled, and then Tally felt it lift fromthe ground. “My board!”
“Relax, kid. We got it.” The woman pulled her mask off.
She was another young pretty.
Tally wondered if these were the people in the clue.
The “fire-bug eyes.” Was she supposed to be looking forthem?
“Is she going to make it?” a voice popped through thecabin.
“She’ll live, Jenks. Make the usual detour, and work thefire a little on the way home.”
Tally looked down as the machine climbed. Their flightUGLIES 179followed the course of the river, and she saw the firesspreading across to the other shore, driven by the wind ofits passage. Occasionally, the craft would shoot out a goutof flame.
She looked at the faces of the crew. For new pretties,they seemed so determined, so focused on their task. Buttheir actions were madness. “What are you guys doing?”
she said.
“A little burning.”
“I can see that. But why?”
“To save the world, kid. But hey, we’re real sorry aboutyour getting in the way.”
They called themselves rangers.
The one who’d pulled her from the river was calledTonk. They all spoke with an accent, and came from a cityTally had never heard of.
“It’s not too far from here,” Tonk said. “But we rangersspend most of our time out in the wild. The fire helicoptersare based in the mountains.”
“The fire whats?”
“Helicopters. That’s what you’re sitting in.”
She looked around at the rattling machine, and shoutedover the noise, “It’s so Rusty!”
“Yeah. Vintage stuff, a few pieces of it are almost twohundred years old. We copy the parts as they wear out.”
“But why?”
180 Scott Westerfeld“You can fly it anywhere, with or without a magneticgrid. And it’s the perfect thing for spreading fires. TheRusties sure knew how to make a mess.”
Tally shook her head. “And you spread fires because . . .”
He smiled and lifted one of her shoes, pulling a crushedbut unburned flower from the sole. “Because of phragmipediumpanthera,” he said.
“Excuse me?”
“This flower used to be one of the rarest plants in theworld. A white tiger orchid. In Rusty days, a single bulbwas worth more than a house.”
“A house? But there’s zillions of them.”
“You noticed?” He held up the flower, staring into itsdelicate mouth. “About three hundred years ago, someRusty figured a way to engineer the species to adapt towider conditions. She messed with the genes to make thempropagate more easily.”
“Why?”
“The usual. To trade them for lots of stuff. But she succeededa little too well. Look down.”
Tally peered out the window. The machine had gainedaltitude and left the firestorm behind. Below were endlessfields of white, interrupted only by a few barren patches.
“Looks like she did a good job. So what? They’re nice.”
“One of the most beautiful plants in the world. But toosuccessful. They turned into the ultimate weed. What wecall a monoculture. They crowd out every other species,UGLIES 181choke trees and grass, and nothing eats them except onespecies of hummingbird, which feeds on their nectar. Butthe hummingbirds nest in trees.”
“There aren’t any trees down there,” Tally said. “Just theorchids.”
“Exactly. That’s what monoculture means: Everythingthe same. After enough orchids build up in an area, therearen’t enough hummingbirds to pollinate them. You know,to spread the seeds.”
“Yeah,” Tally said. “I know about the birds and the bees.”
“Sure you do, kid. So the orchids eventually die out,victims of their own success, leaving a wasteland behind.
Biological zero. We rangers try to keep them from spreading.
We’ve tried poison, engineered diseases, predators totarget the hummingbirds . . . but fire is the only thing thatreally works.” He turned the orchid over in his hand andheld up a firestarter, letting the flame lick into its mouth.
“Have to be careful, you know?”
Tally noticed the other rangers were cleaning theirboots and uniforms, searching for any trace of the flowersamong the mud and foam. She looked down at the endlesswhite. “And you’ve been doing this for . . .”
“Almost three hundred years. The Rusties started thejob, after they figured out what they’d done. But we’ll neverwin. All we can hope to do is contain the weed.”
Tally sat back, shaking her head, coughing once more.
The flowers were so beautiful, so delicate and unthreaten-182 Scott Westerfelding, but they choked everything around them.
The ranger leaned forward, handing her his canteen.
She took it and drank gratefully.
“You’re headed to the Smoke, aren’t you?”
Tally swallowed some water the wrong way and sputtered.
“Yeah. How’d you know?”
“Come on. An ugly waiting around in the flowers witha hoverboard and a survival kit?”
“Oh, yeah.” Tally remembered the clue: “Look in theflowers for fire-bug eyes.” They must have seen ugliesbefore.
“We help the Smokies out, and they help us out,” Tonksaid. “They’re crazy, if you ask me—living rough and stayingugly. But they know more about the wild than most citypretties. It’s kind of admirable, really.”
“Yeah,” she said. “I guess so.”
He frowned. “You guess so? But you’re headed there.
Aren’t you sure?”
Tally realized that this was where the lies started. Shecould hardly tell the rangers the truth: that she was a spy,an infiltrator. “Of course I’m sure.”
“Well, we’ll be setting you down soon.”
“In the Smoke?”
He frowned again. “Don’t you know? The location’s a bigsecret. Smokies don’t trust pretties. Not even us rangers. We’lltake you to the usual spot, and you know the rest, right?”
She nodded. “Sure. Just testing you.”
UGLIES 183F F FThe helicopter landed in a swirl of dust, the white flowersbending in a wide circle around the touchdown spot.
“Thanks for the ride,” Tally said.
“Good luck,” Tonk said. “Hope you like the Smoke.”
“Me too.”
“But if you change your mind, Tally, we’re always lookingfor volunteers in the rangers.”
Tally frowned. “What’s a volunteer?”
The ranger smiled. “That’s when you pick your own job.”
“Oh, right.” Tally had heard you could do that in somecities. “Maybe. In the meantime, keep up the good work.
Speaking of which, you’re not setting any fires around here,are you?”
The rangers laughed, and Tonk said, “We just work theedges of the infestation, to keep the flowers from spreading.
This spot is right smack in the middle. No hope left.”
Tally looked around. There wasn’t a glimpse of anycolor but white as far as she could see. The sun had set anhour ago, but the orchids glowed like ghosts in the moonlight.
Now that she knew what they were, the sight chilledTally. What had he called it? Biological zero.
“Great.”
She jumped out of the helicopter and yanked her hoverboardfrom the magnetic rack next to the door. She backedaway, careful to crouch as the rangers had warned her to.
The machine whined back to life, and she peered upward184 Scott Westerfeldinto the shimmering disk. Tonk had explained that a pair ofthin blades, spinning so quickly that you couldn’t see them,carried the craft through the air. She wondered if he’d beenkidding. It just looked like a typical force field to her.
The wind grew crazed again as the machine reared up,and she held on to her board tightly, waving until the aircraftdisappeared into the dark sky. She sighed.
Alone again.
Looking around, she wondered how she could find theSmokies in this featureless desert of orchids.
“Then wait on the bald head until it’s light,” was the lastline of Shay’s note. Tally scanned the horizon, and a relievedsmile broke onto her face.
A tall, round hill rose up not far away. It must havebeen one of the places where the engineered flowers hadfirst taken root. The top half of the hill was dying, nothingleft but bare soil, ruined by the orchids.
The cleared area looked just like a bald head.
She reached the bald hilltop in a few hours.
Her hoverboard was useless there, but the hiking waseasy in the new shoes the rangers had given her, her own soburned that they had fallen apart in the helicopter. Tonkhad also filled her purifier with water.
The ride in the helicopter had begun to dry out Tally’sclothing, and the hike had done the rest. Her knapsack hadsurvived the dunking, even the SpagBol remaining dry inUGLIES 185its waterproof bag. The only thing lost to the river wasShay’s note, reduced to a soggy wad of paper in her pocket.
But she had almost made it. As she looked out from thehilltop, Tally realized that, except for the burn blisters onher hands and feet, some bruises on her knees, and a fewlocks of hair that had gone up in smoke, she had prettymuch survived. As long as the Smokies knew where to findher, and believed her story that she was an ugly coming tojoin them, and didn’t figure out that she was actually a spy,then everything was just great.
She waited on the hill, exhausted but unable to sleep,wondering if she could really do what Dr. Cable wanted. Thependant around her neck had also survived the ordeal. Tallydoubted a little water would have ruined the device, but shewouldn’t know until she reached the Smoke and activated it.
She hoped for a moment that the pendant wouldn’twork. Maybe one of the bumps along the way had brokenits little eye-reader and it would never send its messageback to Dr. Cable. But that was hardly worth hoping for.
Without the pendant, Tally was stuck out here in the wildforever. Ugly for life.
Her only way home was to betray her friend.
LIES
A couple of hours after dawn, they came and got her.
Tally saw them hiking through the orchids, four figurescarrying hoverboards and dressed all in white. Broad whitehats in a dappled pattern hid their heads, and she realizedthat if they ducked down into the flowers, they would practicallydisappear.
These people went to a lot of trouble to stay hidden.
As the party drew close, she recognized Shay’s pigtailsbobbing under one of the hats and waved frantically. Tallyhad planned to take the note literally and wait on the hilltop,but at the sight of her friend, she grabbed her boardand dashed down to meet them.
Infiltrator or not, Tally couldn’t wait to see Shay.
The tall, lanky form broke from the others and rantoward her, and the two embraced, laughing.
“It is you! I knew it was!”
“Of course it is, Shay. I couldn’t stand missing you.”
Which was pretty much true.
Shay couldn’t stop smiling. “When we spotted thehelicopter last night, most people said it had to be anothergroup. They said you’d taken too long, and that I shouldgive up.”
Tally tried to smile back, wondering if she hadn’t madeup enough time. She could hardly admit starting four daysafter her sixteenth birthday.
“I kind of got turned around. Could your note havebeen any more obscure?”
“Oh.” Shay’s face fell. “I thought you’d understand it.”
Unable to bear Shay blaming herself, Tally shook herhead. “Actually, the note was okay. I’m just a moron. Andthe biggest problem was when I got to the flowers. Therangers didn’t see me at first, and I almost got roasted.”
Shay’s eyes widened as she took in Tally’s scratched andsunburned face, the blisters on her hands, and her patchy,scorched hair. “Oh, Tally! You look like you went through awar zone.”
“Just about.”
The other three uglies walked up. They stood back abit, one boy holding a device in the air. “She’s carryinga bug,” he said.
Tally’s heart froze. “A what?”
Shay gently took Tally’s board from her and handed itto the boy. He swept his device across it, nodded, andpulled one of the stabilizer fins off. “Here it is.”
“They sometimes put trackers on the long-rangeboards,” Shay said. “Trying to find the Smoke.”
188 Scott Westerfeld“Oh, I’m really . . . I didn’t know. I swear!”
“Relax, Tally,” the boy said. “It’s not your fault. Shay’sboard had one too. That’s why we meet you newbies downhere.” He held up the bug. “We’ll take it away in some randomdirection and stick it on a migrating bird. See how theSpecials like South America.” The Smokies all laughed.
He stepped closer and swept the device up and downher body. Tally flinched when it passed close to the pendant.
But he smiled. “It’s okay. You’re clean.”
Tally sighed with relief. Of course, she hadn’t activatedthe pendant yet, so his device couldn’t detect it. The otherbug was just Dr. Cable’s way of misleading the Smokies,getting them to drop their guard. Tally herself was the realdanger.
Shay stepped up next to the boy, taking his hand inhers. “Tally, this is David.”
The boy smiled again. He was an ugly, but he had a nicesmile. And his face held a kind of confidence that Tally hadnever seen in an ugly before. Maybe he was a few yearsolder than she was. Tally had never watched anyone maturenaturally past age sixteen. She wondered how much ofbeing ugly was just an awkward age.
Of course, David was hardly a pretty. His smile wascrooked, and his forehead too high. But, uglies or not, itwas good to see Shay, David—all of them. Except for acouple of stunned hours with the rangers, she hadn’t seenhuman faces in what seemed like years.
UGLIES 189F F F“So, what’ve you got?”
“Huh?”
Croy was one of the other uglies who’d come to meether. He also looked older than sixteen, but it didn’t suit himlike it did David. Some people needed the operation morethan others. He reached out a hand for her knapsack.
“Oh, thanks.” Her shoulders were sore from beingstrapped to the thing for the last week.
He pulled it open as they hiked, looking inside.
“Purifier. Position-finder.” Croy pulled out the waterproofbag and opened it. “SpagBol! Yum!”
Tally groaned. “You can have it.”
His eyes widened. “I can?”
Shay pulled the knapsack away from him. “No, you can’t.”
“Listen, I’ve eaten that stuff three times a day for thepast . . . what seems like forever,” Tally said.
“Yeah, but dehydrated food’s hard to get in the Smoke,”
Shay explained. “You should save it to trade.”
“Trade?” Tally frowned. “What do you mean?” In thecity, uglies might trade chores or stuff they’d stolen, buttrade food?
Shay laughed. “You’ll get used to the idea. In theSmoke, things don’t just come out of the wall. You’ve got tohang on to the stuff you brought with you. Don’t go givingit away to anyone who asks.” Shay glared at Croy, wholooked down sheepishly.
190 Scott Westerfeld“I was going to give her something for it,” he insisted.
“Sure you were,” David said.
Tally noticed his hand on Shay’s shoulder, touching hersoftly as they hiked. She remembered the way Shay hadalways talked about David, kind of dreamily. Maybe itwasn’t just the promise of freedom that had brought herfriend here.
They reached the edge of the flowers, a dense growthof trees and brush that started at the foot of a toweringmountain.
“How do you keep the orchids from spreading?” Tallyasked.
David’s eyes lit up, as if this was his favorite subject.
“This old-growth forest stops them. It’s been around forcenturies, probably even before the Rusties.”
“It’s got lots and lots of species,” Shay said. “So it’sstrong enough to keep out the weed.” She looked at Davidfor approval.
“The rest of this land used to be farms or grazing pasture,”
he continued, gesturing back at the expanse of whitebehind them. “The Rusties had already broken its backbefore the weed arrived.”
A few minutes into the forest, Tally realized why theorchids were no match for it. The tangled brush and thicktrees were knotted together into an impassable wall oneither side. Even on the narrow path, she was constantlyshoving past branches and twigs, tripping over roots andUGLIES 191rocks. She’d never seen any woodlands this raw and inhospitable.
Vines dotted with cruel thorns ran through thesemidarkness like barbed wire. “You guys live in here?”
Shay laughed. “Don’t worry. We’ve got a ways to go.
We’re just making sure you weren’t followed. The Smoke’smuch higher, where the trees aren’t so intense. But thecreek’s coming up. We’ll be on board soon.”
“Good,” Tally said. Her feet were already chafing in thenew shoes. But they were warmer than her destroyed grippies,she realized, and were better for hiking. She wonderedwhat would have happened if the rangers hadn’t given themto her. How did you get new shoes in the Smoke? Tradesomeone all your food? Make them yourself? She lookeddown at the feet ahead of her, David’s, and saw that hisshoes did look handmade, like a couple of pieces of leathercrudely sewn together. Strangely, though, he moved gracefullythrough the undergrowth, silent and sure while therest of them crashed along like elephants.
The very idea of making a pair of shoes by hand boggledher mind.
It didn’t matter, Tally reminded herself, taking a deepbreath. Once in the Smoke, she could activate the pendantand be home within a day, maybe within hours. All the foodand clothes she would ever need, hers for the asking. Herface pretty at long last, and Peris and all their old friendsaround her.
Finally, this nightmare would be over.
192 Scott WesterfeldF F FSoon, the sound of running water filled the forest, and theyreached a small clearing. David pulled his device out again,pointing it back toward the path. “Still nothing.” Hegrinned at Tally. “Congratulations, you’re one of us now.”
Shay giggled and hugged Tally again as the others readiedtheir boards. “I still can’t believe you came. I thought I’dmessed everything up, waiting so long to tell you aboutrunning away. And I was so stupid, getting into a fightinstead of just telling you what I was going to do.”
Tally shook her head. “You’d said everything already, Ijust wasn’t listening. Once I realized you were serious, Ineeded a chance to think about it. It just took me awhile . . . every minute, until the last night before my birthday.”
She took a deep breath, wondering why she wassaying all this, lying to Shay when she didn’t really have to.
She should just shut up, get to the Smoke, and get it overwith. But Tally found herself continuing. “Then I realizedI’d never see you again if I didn’t come. And I’d alwayswonder.”
That last part was true, at least.
As they boarded higher up into the mountain the creekwidened, cutting an archway of trees into the dense forest.
The gnarled, smaller trees became taller pines, the undergrowththinning, the brook breaking into occasional rapids.
Shay cried out as she rode through the spray of churningwhite water.
UGLIES 193“I’ve been dying to show you this! And the really goodrapids are on the other side.”
Eventually, they left the creek, following a vein of ironover a ridge. From the top, they looked down into a smallvalley that was mostly clear of forest.
Shay held Tally’s hand. “There it is. Home.”
The Smoke lay below them.
THE MODEL
The Smoke really was smoky.
Open fires dotted the valley, surrounded by smallgroups of people. The scents of wood smoke and cookingdrifted up to Tally, smells that made her think of campingand outdoor parties. In addition to the smoke there was amorning mist in the air, a white finger creeping down intothe valley from a bank of clouds nestled against the mountainhigher up. A few solar panels glimmered feebly, gatheringwhat sun was reflected from the mist. Garden plotswere planted in random spots between the buildings,twenty or so one-story structures made from long planks ofwood. There was wood everywhere: in fences; as cookingspits; laid down in walkways over muddy patches; and inbig stacks by the fires. Tally wondered where they hadfound so much wood.
Then she saw the stumps at the edges of the settlement,and gasped. “Trees . . . ,” she whispered in horror. “You cutdown trees.”
Shay squeezed her hand. “Only in this valley. It seemsweird at first, but it’s the way the pre-Rusties lived too, youknow? And we’re planting more on the other side of themountain, pushing into the orchids.”
“Okay,” Tally said doubtfully. She saw a team of ugliesmoving a felled tree, pushing it along on a pair of hoverboards.
“There’s a grid?”
Shay nodded happily. “Just in places. We pulled up abunch of metal from a railroad, like the track you came upthe coast on. We’ve laid out a few hoverpaths through theSmoke, and eventually we’ll do the whole valley. I’ve beenworking on that project. We bury a piece of junk every fewpaces. Like everything here, it’s tougher than you’d think.
You wouldn’t believe how much a knapsack full of steelweighs.”
David and the others were already headed down, glidingsingle file between two rows of rocks painted a glowingorange. “That’s the hoverpath?” Tally asked.
“Yeah. Come on, I’ll take you down to the library.
You’ve got to meet the Boss.”
The Boss wasn’t really in charge here, Shay explained. Hejust acted like it, especially to newbies. But he was in commandof the library, the largest of the buildings in the settlement’scentral square.
The familiar smell of dusty books overwhelmed Tally atthe library door, and as she looked around, she realized thatbooks were pretty much all the library had. No big air-196 Scott Westerfeldscreen, not even private workscreens. Just mismatcheddesks and chairs and rows and rows of bookshelves.
Shay led her to the center of it all, where a round kioskwas inhabited by a small figure talking on an old-fashionedhandphone. As they drew closer, Tally felt her heart startingto pound. She’d been dreading what she was about to see.
The Boss was an old ugly. Tally had spotted a few froma distance on the way in, but had managed to turn her eyesaway. But here was the wrinkled, veined, discolored, shuffling,horrific truth, right before her eyes. His milky eyesglared at them as he berated whoever was on the phone, ina rattling voice and waving one claw at them to go away.
Shay giggled and pulled her toward the shelves. “He’llget to us eventually. There’s something I want to showyou first.”
“That poor man . . .”
“The Boss? Pretty wild, huh? He’s, like, forty! Wait untilyou talk to him.”
Tally swallowed, trying to erase the image of his saggingfeatures from her mind. These people were insane to toleratethat, to want it. “But his face . . . ,” Tally said.
“That’s nothing. Check these out.” Shay sat her down ata table, turned to a shelf, and pulled out a handful ofvolumes in protective covers. She plonked them in frontof Tally.
“Books on paper? What about them?”
“Not books. They’re called ‘magazines,’” Shay said. SheUGLIES 197opened one and pointed. Its strangely glossy pages werecovered with pictures. Of people.
Uglies.
Tally’s eyes widened as Shay turned the pages, pointingand giggling. She’d never seen so many wildly differentfaces before. Mouths and eyes and noses of every imaginableshape, all combined insanely on people of every age.
And the bodies. Some were grotesquely fat, or weirdly overmuscled,or uncomfortably thin, and almost all of them hadwrong, ugly proportions. But instead of being ashamed oftheir deformities, the people were laughing and kissing andposing, as if all the pictures had been taken at some hugeparty. “Who are these freaks?”
“They aren’t freaks,” Shay said. “The weird thing is,these are famous people.”
“Famous for what? Being hideous?”
“No. They’re sports stars, actors, artists. The men withstringy hair are musicians, I think. The really ugly ones arepoliticians, and someone told me the fatties are mostlycomedians.”
“That’s funny, as in strange,” Tally said. “So this is whatpeople looked like before the first pretty? How could anyonestand to open their eyes?”
“Yeah. It’s scary at first. But the weird thing is, if youkeep looking at them, you kind of get used to it.”
Shay turned to a full-page picture of a woman wearingonly some kind of formfitting underwear, like a lacy swimsuit.
198 Scott Westerfeld“What the . . . ,” Tally said.
“Yeah.”
The woman looked like she was starving, her ribsthrusting out from her sides, her legs so thin that Tally wonderedhow they didn’t snap under her weight. Her elbowsand pelvic bones looked sharp as needles. But there shewas, smiling and proudly baring her body, as if she’d justhad the operation and didn’t realize they’d sucked out waytoo much fat. The funny thing was, her face was closer tobeing pretty than any of the rest. She had the big eyes,smooth skin, and small nose, but her cheekbones were tootight, the skull practically visible beneath her flesh. “Whaton earth is she?”
“A model.”
“Which is what?”
“Kind of like a professional pretty. I guess when everyoneelse is ugly, being pretty is sort of, like, your job.”
“And she’s in her underwear because . . . ?” Tally began,and then a memory flashed into her mind. “She’s got thatdisease! The one the teachers always told us about.”
“Probably. I always thought they made that up toscare us.”
Back in the days before the operation, Tally remembered,a lot of people, especially young girls, became soashamed at being fat that they stopped eating. They’d loseweight too quickly, and some would get stuck and wouldkeep losing weight until they wound up like this “model.”
UGLIES 199Some even died, they said at school. That was one of thereasons they’d come up with the operation. No one got thedisease anymore, since everyone knew at sixteen they’dturn beautiful. In fact, most people pigged out just beforethey turned, knowing it would all be sucked away.
Tally stared at the picture and shivered. Why go backto this?
“Spooky, huh?” Shay turned away. “I’ll see if the Boss isready yet.”
Before she disappeared around a corner, Tally noticedhow skinny Shay was. Not diseased skinny, just uglyskinny—she’d never eaten much. Tally wondered if, here inthe Smoke, Shay’s undereating would get worse and worse,until she wound up starving herself.
Tally fingered the pendant. This was her chance. Mightas well get it over with now.
These people had forgotten what the old world wasreally like. Sure, they were having a great time camping outand playing hide-and-seek, and living out here was a greattrick on the cities. But somehow they’d forgotten that theRusties had been insane, almost destroying the world in amillion different ways. This starving almost-pretty was onlyone of them. Why go back to that?
They were already cutting down trees here.
Tally popped open the heart pendant, looking downinto the little glowing aperture where the laser waited toread her eye-print. She brought it closer, her hand shaking.
200 Scott WesterfeldIt was foolish to wait. This would only get harder.
And what choice did she have?
“Tally? He’s almost—”
Tally snapped closed the pendant and shoved it intoher shirt.
Shay smiled slyly. “I noticed that before. What gives?”
“What do you mean?”
“Oh, come on. You never wore anything like thatbefore. I leave you alone for two weeks and you get allromantic?”
Tally swallowed, looking down at the silver heart.
“I mean, it’s a really nice necklace. Beautiful. But whogave it to you, Tally?”
Tally found she couldn’t bring herself to lie. “Someone.
Just someone.”
Shay rolled her eyes. “Last-minute fling, huh? I alwaysthought you were saving yourself for Peris.”
“It’s not like that. It’s . . .”
Why not tell her? Tally asked herself. She’d figure it outwhen the Specials came roaring in, anyway. If she knew,Shay could at least prepare herself before this fantasy worldcame tumbling down. “I have to tell you something.”
“Sure.”
“My coming here is kind of . . . the thing is, when Iwent to get my—”
“What are you doing?”
Tally jumped at the craggy voice. It was like an old,UGLIES 201broken version of Dr. Cable’s, a rusty razor blade drawnacross her nerves.
“Those magazines are over three centuries old, andyou’re not wearing gloves!” The Boss shuffled over to whereTally was sitting, producing white cotton gloves and pullingthem on. He reached around her to close the one she wasreading.
“Your fingers are covered with very nasty acids, younglady. You’ll rot away these magazines if you’re not careful.
Before you go nosing around in the collection, you cometo me!”
“Sorry, Boss,” Shay said. “My fault.”
“I don’t doubt it,” he snapped, reshelving the magazineswith elegant, careful movements at odds with his harshwords. “Now, young lady, I suppose you’re here for a workassignment.”
“Work?” Tally said.
They both looked down at her puzzled expression, andShay burst into laughter.
WORK
The Smokies all had lunch together, just like at an uglydorm.
The long tables had clearly been cut from the hearts oftrees. They showed knots and whorls, and wavy tracks ofgrain ran down their entire length. They were rough andbeautiful, but Tally couldn’t get over the thought that thetrees had been taken alive.
She was glad when Shay and David took her outside tothe cooking fire, where a group of younger uglies hung out.
It was a relief to get away from the felled trees, and from thedisturbing older uglies. Out here, at least, any of theSmokies could pass as a senior. Tally didn’t have muchexperience in judging an ugly’s age, but she turned out tobe more or less right. Two had just arrived from anothercity, and weren’t even sixteen yet. The other three—Croy,Ryde, and Astrix—were friends of Shay’s, from the groupthat had run away together back before Tally and Shay hadfirst met.
Here in the Smoke only five months, Shay’s friendsalready had a hint of David’s self-assurance. Somehow, theycarried the authority of middle pretties without the firmjaw, the subtly lined eyes, or the elegant clothing. Theyspent lunch talking about projects they were up to. A canalto bring a branch of the creek closer to the Smoke; new patternsfor the sheep wool their sweaters were made from; anew latrine. (Tally wondered what a “latrine” was.) Theyseemed so serious, as if their lives were a really complicatedtrick that had to be planned and replanned every day.
The food was serious too, and was piled on their platesin serious quantities. It was heavier than Tally was used to,the tastes too rich, like whenever her food history classtried to cook their own meals. But the strawberries weresweet without sugar, and although it seemed weird to eat itplain, the Smokies’ bread had its own flavor without anythingadded. Of course, Tally would have happily devouredanything that wasn’t SpagBol.
She didn’t ask what was in the stew, though. Thethought of dead trees was enough to deal with in one day.
As they emptied their plates, Shay’s friends startedpumping Tally for news from the city. Dorm sports results,soap opera story lines, city politics. Had she heard of anyoneelse running away? Tally answered their questions asbest she could. No one tried to hide their homesickness.
Their faces looked years younger as they remembered oldfriends and old tricks.
Then Astrix asked about her journey here to the Smoke.
204 Scott Westerfeld“It was pretty easy, really. Once I got the hang of Shay’sdirections.”
“Not that easy. Took you what, ten days?” David asked.
“You left the night before our birthday, right?” Shay said.
“Stroke of midnight,” Tally said. “Nine days . . . anda half.”
Croy frowned. “It took a while for the rangers to findyou, didn’t it?”
“I guess so. And they almost roasted me when they did.
They were doing a huge burn that got out of control.”
“Really? Whoa.” Shay’s friends looked impressed.
“My board almost burned. I had to save it and jump inthe river.”
“Is that what happened to your face?” Ryde asked.
Tally touched the peeling skin on her nose. “Well, that’skind of . . .” Sunburn, she almost said. But the others’ faceswere rapt. She’d been alone so long, Tally found herselfenjoying being the center of attention.
“The flames were all around me,” she said. “My shoesmelted crossing this big patch of burning flowers.”
Shay whistled. “Incredible.”
“That’s weird. The rangers usually keep an eye out forus,” David said.
“Well, I guess they missed me.” Tally decided not to gointo the fact that she’d intentionally hidden her hoverboard.
“Anyway, I was in the river, and I’d never even seena helicopter—except for the day before—and this thingUGLIES 205came thundering out of the smoke, driving the fire towardme. And of course I had no idea the rangers were the goodguys. I thought they were Rusty pyromaniacs risen fromthe grave!”
Everyone laughed, and Tally felt herself enjoying thewarmth of the group’s attention. It was like telling everyoneat dorm about a really successful trick, but much better,because she really had survived a life-or-death situation.
David and Shay were hanging on to every word. Tally wasglad she hadn’t activated the pendant yet. She could hardlysit here enjoying the Smokies’ admiration if she’d justbetrayed them all. She decided to wait until tonight, whenshe was alone, to do what she had to.
“That must have been creepy,” David said, his voicepulling her away from uncomfortable thoughts, “beingalone in the orchids for all those days, just waiting.”
She shrugged. “I thought they were kind of pretty. Ididn’t know about the whole superweed thing.”
David frowned at Shay. “Didn’t you tell her anything inyour note?”
Shay flushed. “You told me not to write anything thatwould give the Smoke away, so I put it in code, sort of.”
“It sounds like your code almost got her killed,” Davidsaid, and Shay’s face fell. He turned to Tally. “Hardly anyoneever makes the trip alone. Not their first time out of the city.”
“I’d been out of the city before.” Tally put her arm aroundShay’s shoulder comfortingly. “I was fine. It was just a bunch206 Scott Westerfeldof pretty flowers to me, and I started with two weeks of food.”
“Why did you steal all SpagBol?” Croy asked. “Youmust love the stuff.” The others joined in his laughter.
Tally tried to smile. “I didn’t even notice when I pinchedit. Three SpagBols a day for nine days. I could hardly stomachthe stuff after day two, but you get so hungry.”
They nodded. They all knew about hard traveling, andhard work, too, apparently. Tally had already noticed howmuch everyone had consumed for lunch. Maybe Shay wasn’tso likely to get the not-eating disease. She had cleaned herheaping plate.
“Well, I’m glad you made it,” David said. He reachedacross and touched the scratches on Tally’s face softly.
“Looks like you had more adventures than you’re telling us.”
Tally swallowed and shrugged, hoping she looked modest.
Shay smiled and hugged David. “I knew you’d thinkTally was awesome.”
A bell rang across the grounds, and they hurried tofinish their food.
“What’s that?” she asked.
David grinned. “That’s back to work.”
“You’re coming with us,” Shay said. “Don’t worry, itwon’t kill you.”
On the way to work, Shay explained more about the long,flat roller coasters called railroads. Some stretched acrossthe entire continent, one small part of the Rusty legacy stillUGLIES 207scarring the land. But unlike most ruins, the railroads wereactually useful, and not just for hoverboarding. They werethe main source of metal for the Smokies.
David had discovered a new railroad track a year or soearlier. It didn’t run anywhere useful, so he had drawn upa plan to plunder it for metal and build more hoverpaths inand around the valley. Shay had been working on the projectsince she’d come to the Smoke ten days before.
Six of them took their boards up and out the other sideof the valley, down a stream churning with white water, andalong a razor-sharp ridge filled with iron ore. From there,Tally finally understood how far up the mountain she’dcome since leaving the coast. The whole continent seemedto be spread out before them. A thin bank of clouds belowthe ridge mirrored the heavier layer overhead, but forests,grasslands, and the shimmering arcs of rivers were visiblethrough the misty veil. The sea of white orchids could stillbe glimpsed from this side of the mountain, glowing like anencroaching 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 everyoneto keep them trapped there.”
Tally nodded, but she imagined all those people let loosein the countryside below, cutting down trees and killingthings for food, crashing across the landscape like some risenRusty machine.
208 Scott WesterfeldStill, she wouldn’t have traded anything for thismoment, standing there and looking down at the plainsspread out below. Tally had spent the last four years staringat the skyline of New Pretty Town, thinking it was the mostbeautiful sight in the world, but she didn’t think so anymore.
Lower down and halfway around the mountain, anotherriver crossed David’s railroad track. The route there fromthe Smoke twisted in all directions, taking advantage ofveins of iron, rivers, and dry creek beds, but they’d neverhad to leave their boards. Walking wouldn’t be an option,Shay explained, when they came back loaded with heavymetal.
The track was overgrown with vines and stunted trees,every wooden cross-tie in the grip of a dozen tentacles ofvegetation. The forest had been hacked away in patchessurrounding a few missing segments of rail, but it held therest firmly in its grasp.
“How are we going to get any of this out?” Tally asked.
She kicked at a gnarled root, feeling puny against thestrength of the wild.
“Watch this,” Shay said. She pulled a tool from herbackpack, an arm-length pole that telescoped out almost toTally’s height. Shay twisted one end, and four short strutsunfolded from the other like the ribs of an umbrella. “It’scalled a powerjack, and it can move just about anything.”
UGLIES 209Shay twisted the handle again, and the ribs retracted.
Then she thrust one end of the jack under a cross-tie.
With another twist of her wrist, the pole began to shudder,and a groaning sound came from the wood. Shay’sfeet slipped backward, but she leaned her weight into thepole, keeping it wedged under the cross-tie. Slowly, theancient wood began to rise, tearing free from plants andearth, bending the rail that lay across it. Tally saw thestruts of the powerjack unfolding underneath the tie,gradually forcing it up, the rail above beginning to pullfree of its moorings.
Shay grinned up at her. “I told you.”
“Let me try,” Tally said, holding out her hand, eyeswide.
Shay laughed and pulled another powerjack from herbackpack. “Take that tie there, while I keep this one up.”
The powerjack was heavier than it looked, but its controlswere simple. Tally pulled it open and jammed it underthe tie that Shay had indicated. She turned the handleslowly, until the jack started to shudder in her hands.
The wood began to shift, the stresses of metal andearth twisting in her hands. Vines tore from the ground,and Tally could feel their complaints through the soles ofher shoes, like a distant earthquake rumbling. A metalshriek filled the air as the rail began to bend, pulling freeof vegetation and the rusty spikes that had held it down forcenturies. Finally, the jack had opened to its full extent, the210 Scott Westerfeldrail still only half-free from its ancient bonds. She and Shaystruggled to pull their jacks out.
“Having fun?” Shay asked, wiping sweat from her brow.
Tally nodded, grinning. “Don’t just stand there, let’s finishthe job.”
DAVID
A few hours later, a pile of scrap metal stood in one cornerof the clearing. Each segment of rail took an hour to getfree, and required all six of them to carry. The railroad tiessat in another pile; at least all the Smokies’ wood didn’tcome from live trees. Tally couldn’t believe how much theyhad salvaged, literally tearing the track from the forest’sgrasp.
She also couldn’t believe her hands. They were red andraw, screaming with pain and covered with blisters.
“Looks pretty bad,” David said, glancing over Tally’sshoulder as she stared at them in amazement.
“Feels pretty bad,” she said. “But I didn’t notice untiljust now.”
David laughed. “Hard work’s a good distraction. Butmaybe you should take a break. I was just about to scout upthe line for another spot to salvage. Want to come?”
“Sure,” she said gratefully. The thought of picking upthe powerjack again made her hands throb.
Leaving the others at the clearing, they hoverboardedup and over the gnarled trees, following the barely visibletrack below into dense 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 patchwork 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 shuddered. He couldn’t be wearing a bunch ofdead animals. They weren’t savages here. And she had toadmit that the coat fit him well, the leather following theline of his shoulders like an old friend. And it fended 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 plunge straight into themountain, disappearing into a pile of boulders.
“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 collapsed sometimeafter the Rusty 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, flattened 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 prying rails up.”
“They look pretty solid.”
“Oh, yeah? Check this out,” David said. He stepped offhis board onto a boulder, and deftly 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 belly.
She crawled inside, the cool weight of the rocks settlingover her.
A light flicked 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 pointed the flashlight down through achink between where they sat. Tally squinted 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 tingled, her eyes picking out thedark fissures 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 glimmer 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 crumble.”
“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 looming 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 infiltrator. 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, blistered 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 runaway, Tally.”
“I don’t understand.”
“My parents were runaways, 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 tenuous, 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 stunning 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 assorted runaways, she realized now. It was a realtown, a city in its own right. If Tally activated 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.
HEARTTHROB
Around the fire at dinner that night, Tally told the story ofhow she’d hidden in the river when the rangers’ helicopterfirst appeared. She had everyone wide-eyed again. Apparently,she’d had one of the more exciting journeys to theSmoke.
“Can you imagine? I’m naked and crouching down inthe water, and this Rusty machine is destroying my camp!”
“Why didn’t they land?” Astrix asked. “Didn’t they seeyour stuff?”
“I thought they did.”
“The rangers only pick up uglies in the white flowers,”
David explained. “That’s the rendezvous spot we tell runawaysto use. They can’t just pick up anyone, or they mightaccidentally bring a spy here.”
“I guess you wouldn’t want that,” Tally said softly.
“Still, they should be more careful with those helicopters,”
Shay said. “Someone’s going to get chopped to piecesone day.”
“Tell me about it. The wind almost took my hoverboardaway,” Tally said. “It lifted my sleeping bag right off theground and up into the blades. It was totally shredded.”
She was pleased by the amazement on the faces of heraudience.
“So where’d you sleep?” Croy asked.
“It wasn’t that bad. It was only for—” Tally stopped herselfjust in time. She’d spent one night without the sleepingbag, but in her cover story she’d spent four days in theorchids. “It was warm enough.”
“You’d better get a new one before bedtime,” Davidsaid. “It’s a lot colder up here than down in the weeds.”
“I’ll take her over to the trading post,” Shay said. “It’s likea requisition center, Tally. Only when you get something,you have to leave something else behind as payment.”
Tally shifted uncomfortably in her seat. She still hadn’tgotten used to the idea that you had to pay for things here.
“All I’ve got is SpagBol.”
Shay smiled. “That’s perfect to trade with. We can’tmake dehydrated food here, except fruit, and traveling withregular food is a total pain. SpagBol’s good as gold.”
After dinner, Shay took her to a large hut near the center oftown. The shelves were full of things made in the Smoke,along with a few objects that had come from the cities. Thecity-made stuff was mostly shabby and worn, repairedagain and again, but the handmade things fascinated Tally.
She ran her still-raw fingers across the clay pots andwooden tools, amazed at how each had its own texture andUGLIES 221weight. Everything seemed so heavy and . . . serious.
An older ugly was running the place, but he wasn’t asscary as the Boss. He brought out woolen gear and a few silverysleeping bags. The blankets, scarves, and gloves werebeautiful, in subdued colors and simple patterns, but Shayinsisted that Tally get a city-made sleeping bag. “Muchlighter, and it squishes up small. Much better for when wego exploring.”
“Of course,” Tally said, trying to smile. “That’ll be great.”
She wound up trading twelve packets of SpagBol foranother sleeping bag, and six for a handmade sweater,which left her with eight. She couldn’t believe that thesweater, brown with bands of pale red and green highlights,cost half as much as the sleeping bag, which was threadbareand patched.
“You’re just lucky you didn’t lose your water purifier,”
Shay said as they walked home. “Those things are impossibleto trade for.”
Tally’s eyes widened. “What happens if they break?”
“Well, they say you can drink water from the streamswithout purifying it.”
“You’re kidding.”
“Nope. A lot of the older Smokies do,” Shay said. “Evenif they’ve got a purifier, they don’t bother.”
“Yuck.”
Shay giggled. “Yeah, no kidding. But hey, you canalways use mine.”
222 Scott WesterfeldTally put a hand on Shay’s shoulder. “Same goes for mine.”
Shay’s pace slowed. “Tally?”
“Yeah?”
“You were going to say something to me, back in thelibrary, before the Boss started yelling at you.”
Tally’s stomach sank. She pulled away, her fingers automaticallygoing to the pendant at her neck.
“Yeah,” Shay said. “About that necklace.”
Tally nodded, but didn’t know how to start. She stillhadn’t activated the pendant, and since her conversationwith David, she wasn’t sure she could. Maybe if she returnedto the city in a month, starving and empty-handed, Dr.
Cable would take mercy on her.
But what if the woman kept her promise, and Tallynever got the operation? In twenty-something years, shewould be lined and wrinkled, as ugly as the Boss, an outcast.
And if she stayed here in the Smoke, she’d be sleepingin an old sleeping bag and dreading the day her water purifierbroke down.
She was so tired of lying to everyone. “I haven’t toldyou everything,” she started.
“I know. But I think I’ve got it figured out.”
Tally looked at her friend, afraid to speak.
“I mean, it’s pretty obvious, right? You’re all upsetbecause you broke your promise to me. You didn’t keep theSmoke a secret.”
Tally’s mouth fell open.
UGLIES 223Shay smiled, taking her hand. “As you got closer toyour birthday, you decided you wanted to run away. But inthe meantime, you met someone. Someone important. Thesame someone who gave you that heart necklace. So youbroke your promise to me. You told that someone whereyou were going.”
“Um, kind of,” Tally managed.
Shay giggled. “I knew it. That’s why you’ve been allnervous. You want to be here, but you also wish you weresomewhere else. With someone else. And before you ranaway, you left directions, a copy of my note, in case yournew heartthrob wants to join us. Am I right or am I right?”
Tally bit her lip. Shay’s face glowed in the moonlight,obviously thrilled with herself for figuring out Tally’s bigsecret. “Uh, you’re partly right.”
“Oh, Tally.” Shay grabbed both her shoulders. “Don’tyou see that it’s okay? I mean, I did the same thing.”
Tally frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone I was coming here.
David made me promise I wouldn’t even tell you.”
“Why?”
Shay nodded. “He hadn’t met you, and wasn’t sure if hecould trust you. Normally, runaways only recruit oldfriends, people they’ve tricked with for years. But I’d onlyknown you since the beginning of summer. And I neveronce mentioned the Smoke to you until the day before Ileft. I was never brave enough, in case you said no.”
224 Scott Westerfeld“So you weren’t supposed to tell me?”
“No way. So when you actually showed up, it madeeveryone nervous. They don’t know whether they can trustyou. Even David’s been acting weird around me.”
“Shay, I’m so sorry.”
“It’s not your fault!” Shay shook her head vigorously.
“It’s mine. I screwed everything up. But so what? Once theyget to know you, they’ll think you’re really cool.”
“Yeah,” Tally said softly. “Everyone’s been really nice.”
She wished she had activated the pendant the momentshe’d gotten there. In only one day she’d begun to realizethat it wasn’t just Shay’s dream she’d be betraying. Hundredsof people had made a life in the Smoke.
“And I’m sure your someone will be cool too,” Shaysaid. “I can’t wait till we’re all together.”
“I don’t know if . . . that’s going to happen.” There hadto be some other way out of this situation. Maybe if shewent to another city . . . or found the rangers again and toldthem that she wanted to volunteer, they’d make her pretty.
But she hardly knew anything about their city, except thatshe didn’t know anyone there. . . .
Shay shrugged. “Maybe not. But I wasn’t sure you’dcome either.” She squeezed Tally’s hand. “I’m really gladyou did, though.”
Tally tried to smile. “Even though I got you into trouble?”
“It’s not such a big deal. I think everyone’s way tooparanoid around here. They spend all this time disguisingUGLIES 225the place so satellites can’t see it, and they mask the handphonetransmissions so they won’t be intercepted. And allthe secrecy about runaways is way overdone. And dangerous.
Just think—if you hadn’t been smart enough to figureout my directions, you could be halfway to Alaska bynow!”
“I don’t know, Shay. Maybe they know what they’redoing. The city authorities can be pretty tough.”
Shay laughed. “Don’t tell me you believe in SpecialCircumstances.”
“I . . .” Tally closed her eyes. “I just think that theSmokies have to be careful.”
“Okay, sure. I’m not saying we should advertise. But ifpeople like you and me want to come out here and live differently,why shouldn’t we? I mean, no one has the right totell us we have to be pretty, right?”
“Maybe they’re just worried because we’re kids. Youknow?”
“That’s the problem with the cities, Tally. Everyone’s akid, pampered and dependent and pretty. Just like they sayin school: Big-eyed means vulnerable. Well, like you oncetold me, you have to grow up sometime.”
Tally nodded. “I know what you mean, how the uglieshere are more grown up. You can see it in their faces.”
Shay pulled Tally to a stop and looked at her closely fora second. “You feel guilty, don’t you?”
Tally looked back into Shay’s eyes, speechless for a226 Scott Westerfeldmoment. She suddenly felt naked in the cold night air, as ifShay could see straight through her lies.
“What?” she managed.
“Guilty. Not just that you told your someone about theSmoke, but that they might actually come. Now that you’veseen the Smoke, you’re not sure if that was such a goodidea.” Shay sighed. “I know it seems weird at first, and it’s alot of hard work. But I think you’ll eventually like it.”
Tally looked down, feeling tears welling into her eyes.
“It’s not that. Well, maybe it is. I just don’t know if Ican . . .” Her throat felt too full to speak. If she said anotherword, she’d have to tell Shay the truth: that she was a spy,a traitor sent there to destroy everything around them.
And that Shay was the fool who had led her there.
“Hey, it’s okay.” Shay gathered Tally in her arms, rockingher gently as Tally began to cry. “I’m sorry. I didn’t meanto unload everything on you at once. But I’ve felt kind ofdistant from you since you got here. It feels like you’re notsure you want to look at me.”
“I should tell you everything.”
“Shhh.” Tally felt Shay’s fingers stroking her hair. “I’mjust glad you’re here.”
Tally let herself cry, burying her face in the scratchywool sleeve of her new sweater, feeling Shay’s warmthagainst her, and feeling awful about every gesture of kindnessfrom her friend.
With half her mind, Tally was actually glad she’d comeUGLIES 227and seen all this. She could have lived her whole life in thecity and never seen this much of the world. With the otherhalf, Tally still wished she had activated the pendant themoment she’d arrived in the Smoke. It would have been somuch easier that way.
But there was no way back in time now. She had todecide whether to betray the Smoke or not, completelyunderstanding what it would do to Shay, to David, to everyonehere.
“It’s okay, Tally,” Shay murmured. “You’ll be okay.”
SUSPICION
As the days passed, Tally fell into the routines of the Smoke.
There was something comforting about the exhaustionof hard work. All her life, Tally had been troubled byinsomnia, lying awake most nights thinking about argumentsshe’d had, or wanted to have, or things she shouldhave done differently. But here in the Smoke her mind shutoff the moment her head hit the pillow, which wasn’t evena pillow, just her new sweater stuffed into a cotton bag.
Tally still didn’t know how long she was going to staythere. She hadn’t come to a decision about whether to activatethe pendant, but she knew that thinking about it all thetime would drive her crazy. So she decided to put it out ofher mind. One day she might wake up and realize that shecouldn’t stand to live her entire life as an ugly, no matterwho it hurt or what it cost . . . but for the moment, Dr.
Cable could wait.
Forgetting her troubles was easy in the Smoke. Life wasmuch more intense than in the city. She bathed in a river socold that she had to jump in screaming, and she ate foodpulled from the fire hot enough to burn her tongue, whichcity food never did. Of course, she missed shampoo thatdidn’t sting her eyes, and flush toilets (she’d learned to herhorror what “latrines” were), and mostly medspray. Buthowever blistered her hands became, Tally felt strongerthan ever before. She could work all day at the railroad site,then race David and Shay home on hoverboards, her backpackfull of more scrap metal than she could have lifted amonth before. She learned from David how to repair herclothes with a needle and thread, how to tell raptors fromtheir prey, and even how to clean fish, which turned out tobe not nearly as bad as cutting them up in bio class.
The physical beauty of the Smoke also cleared her mindof worries. Every day seemed to change the mountain, thesky, and the surrounding valleys, making them spectacularin a completely new way. Nature, at least, didn’t need anoperation to be beautiful. It just was.
One morning on the way to the railroad track, David pulledhis board up alongside Tally’s. He rode silently for a while,taking the familiar turns with his usual grace. Over the lasttwo weeks, she’d learned that his jacket was actually madeof leather, real dead animals, but she’d gradually gottenused to the idea. The Smokies hunted, but they were likethe rangers, killing only species that didn’t belong in thispart of the world or that had gotten out of control thanksto the Rusties’ meddling. With its random patches, the230 Scott Westerfeldjacket would probably look silly on anyone else. But itsuited David, somehow, as if growing up here in the wildallowed him to fuse with the animals that had donated theirskins to his clothes. And it probably didn’t hurt that he hadactually made the jacket himself.
He spoke up suddenly. “I’ve got a present for you.”
“A present? Really?”
By now, Tally understood that nothing in the Smokeever lost its value. Nothing was discarded or given awayjust because it was old or broken. Everything was repaired,refitted, and recycled, and if one Smokey couldn’t put it touse, it was traded to another. Few things were given awaylightly.
“Yeah, really.” David angled closer and handed her asmall bundle.
She unwrapped it, following the familiar route downthe stream almost without looking. It was a pair of gloves,handmade in light brown leather.
She shoved the bright, city-made wrapping paper intoher pocket, then pulled the gloves onto her blistered hands.
“Thanks! They fit perfectly.”
He nodded. “I made them when I was about your age.
They’re a little small for me these days.”
Tally smiled, wishing she could hug him. When theyspread their arms to take a hard turn, she held his hand fora second.
Flexing her fingers, Tally found that the gloves wereUGLIES 231soft and pliant, the palms worn pale from years of use.
White lines across the finger joints revealed how they hadfitted David’s hands. “They’re wonderful.”
“Come on,” David said. “It’s not like they’re magic oranything.”
“No, but they’ve got . . . something.” History, Tally realized.
In the city, she’d owned lots of things—practicallyanything she wanted came out of the wall. But city thingswere disposable and replaceable, as interchangeable as theT-shirt, jacket, and skirt combinations of dorm uniforms.
Here, in the Smoke, objects grew old, carrying their historieswith them in dings and scratches and tatters.
David chuckled at her and sped up, joining Shay at thefront of the pack.
When they got to the railroad site, David announced thatthey had to clear more track, using vibrasaws to cut throughthe vegetation that had grown up around the metal rails.
“What about the trees?” Croy asked.
“What about them?”
“Do we have to chop them down?” Tally asked.
David shrugged. “Scrub trees like this aren’t good formuch. But we won’t waste them. We’ll take them back tothe Smoke for burning.”
“Burning?” Tally said. The Smokies usually only cutdown trees from the valley, not the rest of the mountain.
These trees had been growing there for decades, and David232 Scott Westerfeldwanted to use them just to cook a meal? She looked at Shayfor support, but her friend’s expression was carefully neutral.
She probably agreed, but didn’t want to argue withDavid in front of everyone about how to run his project.
“Yes, burning,” he said. “And after we’ve salvaged thetrack, we’ll replant. Put a row of useful trees where the railroadused to be.”
The five others looked at him silently. He spun a saw inhis hand, anxious to get started, but aware he didn’t havetheir full support yet.
“You know, David,” Croy said. “These trees aren’t useless.
They protect the underbrush from sunlight, whichkeeps the soil from eroding.”
“Okay, you win. Instead of planting some other kind oftree, we’ll let the forest take back the land. All the crappyscrub and underbrush you want.”
“But do we have to clear-cut them?” Astrix asked.
David took a slow breath. “Clear-cutting” was the wordfor what the Rusties had done to the old forests: fellingevery tree, killing every living thing, turning entire countriesinto grazing land. Whole rain forests had been consumed,reduced from millions of interlocking species to abunch of cows eating grass, a vast web of life traded forcheap hamburgers.
“Look, we’re not clear-cutting. All we’re doing is pullingout the garbage that the Rusties left behind,” David said. “Itjust takes a little surgery to do it.”
UGLIES 233“We could chop around the trees,” Tally said. “Only cutinto them where we need to. Like you said: surgery.”
“Okay, fine.” He chuckled. “Let’s see what you thinkof these trees after you’ve had to hack a few out of theground.”
He was right.
The vibrasaw purred through heavy vines, parted tangledunderbrush like a comb through wet hair, and sliced cleanlythrough metal when the odd misstroke brought the cuttingedge down onto the track. But when its teeth met the gnarledroots and twisted branches of the scrub trees, it was a differentstory.
Tally grimaced as her saw bounced across the hardwood again, spitting bits of bark at her face, its low humtransformed into a protesting howl. She struggled to forcethe edge down into the tough old branch. One more cutand this section of track would be clear.
“Going good. You almost got it, Tally.”
She noticed that Croy stood well back, poised to jumpif the saw somehow slipped from her hands. She could seenow why David had wanted to chop the scrub trees intopieces. It would have been a lot easier than reachingthrough the tangle of roots and branches, trying to bringthe vibrasaw to bear against a precise spot.
“Stupid trees,” Tally muttered, gritting her teeth as sheplunged the blade down again.
234 Scott WesterfeldFinally, the saw found purchase in the wood, letting outa high-pitched scream as it bit into the branch. Then itslipped through, free for a second before it thrust, spittingand screeching, into the dirt below.
“Yeah!” Tally stepped back, lifting her goggles, the sawpowering down in her hands.
Croy stepped forward and kicked the section of branchaway from the track. “Perfect surgical slice, Doctor,” he said.
“I think I’m getting the hang of this,” Tally said, wipingher brow.
It was almost noon, and the sun was beating down intothe clearing mercilessly. She pulled off her sweater, realizingthat the morning chill was long gone. “You were rightabout the trees giving shade.”
“You said it,” Croy said. “Nice sweater, by the way.”
She smiled. Along with her new gloves, it was herprized possession. “Thanks.”
“What did it cost you?”
“Six SpagBols.”
“A little pricey. Pretty, though.” Croy caught her eye.
“Tally, remember that first day you got here? When I kindof grabbed your knapsack? I really wouldn’t have takenyour stuff. Not without giving you something for it. Youjust surprised me when you said I could have everything.”
“Sure, no problem,” she said. Now that she’d workedwith Croy, he seemed like a nice enough guy. She’d ratherhave been teamed up with David or Shay, but those twoUGLIES 235were cutting together today. And it was probably time shegot to know some of the other Smokies better.
“And you got a new sleeping bag, too, I hope.”
“Yeah. Twelve SpagBols.”
“Must be almost out of trade.”
She nodded. “Only eight left.”
“Not bad. Still, I bet you didn’t realize on your way herethat you were eating your future wealth.”
Tally laughed. They crouched under the partly cut tree,pulling handfuls of cut vines from around the track.
“If I’d known how valuable food packets were, I probablywouldn’t have eaten so many, starving or not. I don’teven like it anymore. The worst was SpagBol for breakfast.”
“Sounds good to me.” Croy chuckled. “This sectionlook clear to you?”
“Sure. Let’s start on the next one.” She handed himthe saw.
Croy did the easy part first, attacking the underbrushwith the humming saw. “So, Tally, there’s one thing that’skind of confusing.”
“What’s that?”
The saw glanced off metal, sending up a smattering ofsparks.
“The first day you were here, you said you left the citywith two weeks of food.”
“Yeah.”
“If it took you nine days to get here, you should only236 Scott Westerfeldhave had five days of food left. Maybe fifteen packets altogether.
But I remember on that first day, when I looked intoyour bag, I was, like, ‘She’s got tons!’”
Tally swallowed, trying not to show any expression.
“And it turns out I was right. Twelve plus six plus eightis . . . twenty-six?”
“Yeah, I guess.”
He nodded, working the saw carefully beneath a lowbranch. “I thought so. But you left the city before your birthday,right?”
Tally thought fast. “Sure. But I guess I didn’t really eatthree meals every day, Croy. Like I said, I was pretty sick ofSpagBol after a while.”
“Seems like you didn’t eat much at all, for such along trip.”
Tally struggled to do the math in her head, to figure outwhat sort of numbers would add up. She remembered whatShay had said that first night: Some Smokies were suspiciousof her, worried that she might be a spy. Tally hadthought they all accepted her by now. Apparently not.
She took a deep breath, trying to keep the fear out ofher voice. “Look, Croy, let me tell you something. A secret.”
“What’s that?”
“I probably left the city with more than just two weeks’
worth of food. I never really counted.”
“But you kept saying—”
“Yeah, I might have exaggerated a little, just to makeUGLIES 237the trip sound more interesting, you know? Like I couldhave run out of food when the rangers didn’t turn up. Butyou’re right, I always had plenty.”
“Sure.” He looked up at her, smiling gently. “I thoughtmaybe so. Your trip did sound a little bit too . . . interestingto be true.”
“But most of what I said was—”
“Of course.” The saw whined to a stop in his hand. “I’msure most of it was. Question is, how much?”
Tally met his piercing eyes, struggling to think of whatto say. It was nothing but a few extra food packets, hardlyproof that she was a spy. She should just laugh it off. But thefact that he was dead right silenced her.
“You want the saw for a while?” he said mildly.
“Clearing this up is hard work.”
Since they were clearing brush, there was no load of metalto take back at midday, so the railroad crew had broughttheir lunch out with them: potato soup, and bread withsalty olives dotted through it. Tally was glad when Shaytook her lunch away from the rest of the group, to the edgeof the dense forest. She followed, settling next to her friendin the dappled light. “I need to talk to you, Shay.”
Shay, not looking at her, sighed softly as she tore herbread into pieces. “Yeah, I guess you do.”
“Oh. Did he talk to you, too?”
Shay shook her head. “He didn’t have to say anything.”
238 Scott WesterfeldTally frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I mean it’s obvious. Ever since you got here. I shouldhave seen it right away.”
“I never—” Tally started, but her voice betrayed her.
“What are you saying? You think Croy’s right?”
Shay sighed. “I’m just saying that—” She stopped andturned to face Tally. “Croy? What about Croy?”
“He was talking to me before lunch, and he noticed mysweater and asked if I got a sleeping bag. And he figured thatafter nine days getting here I had too much SpagBol left.”
“You had too much what?” Shay’s expression was one oftotal confusion. “What on earth are you talking about?”
“Remember when I got here? I told everyone that . . .”
Tally trailed off, for the first time noticing Shay’s eyes. Theywere lined with red, as if she hadn’t slept. “Wait a second,what did you think I was talking about?”
Shay held out a hand, fingers splayed. “This.”
“What?”
“Hold out yours.”
Tally opened one hand, making a mirror image ofShay’s.
“Same size,” Shay said. She turned both her palms up.
“Same blisters, too.”
Tally looked down and blinked. If anything, Shay’shands were in worse shape, red and dry and cracked withthe ragged edges of burst blisters. Shay always worked sohard, diving in first, always taking the hardest jobs.
UGLIES 239Tally’s fingers went to the gloves tucked into her belt.
“Shay, I’m sure David didn’t mean to—”
“I’m sure he did. People always think long and hardabout gifts in the Smoke.”
Tally bit her lip. It was true. She pulled the gloves fromher belt. “You should take them.”
“I. Don’t. Want. Them.”
Tally sat back, stunned. First Croy, now this.
“No, I guess you don’t.” She dropped the gloves. “But Shay,shouldn’t you talk to David before you go nuts about this?”
Shay chewed at a fingernail, shaking her head. “Hedoesn’t talk to me that much anymore. Not since youshowed up. Not about anything important. He’s got stuff onhis mind, he says.”
“Oh.” Tally gritted her teeth. “I never . . . I mean, I likeDavid, but . . .”
“It’s not your fault, okay? I know that.” Shay reachedout and gave Tally’s heart-shaped pendant a little flick. “Andbesides, maybe your mysterious someone will show up,and it won’t matter anyway.”
Tally nodded. True enough, once the Specials got here,Shay’s romantic life would be the least of anyone’s worries.
“Have you even mentioned that to David? It seems likeit might be an issue.”
“No. I haven’t.”
“Why not?”
“It just never came up.”
240 Scott WesterfeldShay’s mouth tightened. “That’s convenient.”
Tally let out a groan. “But Shay, you said it yourself: Iwasn’t supposed to be giving out directions to the Smoke. Ifeel really bad about the whole thing. I’m not going to goadvertising it.”
“Except by wearing that thing around your neck.
Which didn’t do much good, though, since apparentlyDavid didn’t notice it.”
Tally sighed. “Or maybe he doesn’t care, because this isall just in your . . .” She couldn’t finish. It wasn’t just inShay’s head; she could see it now, and feel it too. WhenDavid showed her the railway cave, and told her his secretabout his parents, he had trusted her, even when heshouldn’t have. And now this present. Could it really bejust Shay overreacting?
In a quiet part of her mind, Tally realized that shehoped it wasn’t.
She took a deep breath, expelling the thought. “Shay,what do you want me to do?”
“Just tell him.”
“Tell him what?”
“About why you wear that heart. About your mysterioussomeone.”
Too late, Tally felt the expression on her face.
Shay nodded. “You don’t want to, do you? That’s prettyclear.”
“No, I will. Really.”
UGLIES 241“Sure you will.” Shay turned away, pulling a hunk ofbread from her soup and taking a vicious bite.
“I will.” Tally touched her friend’s shoulder, and insteadof pulling away, Shay turned back to her, her expressionalmost hopeful.
Tally swallowed. “I’ll tell him everything, I promise.”
BRAVERY
That night at dinner, she ate alone.
Now that she’d spent a day cutting trees herself, thewooden table in the dining hall no longer horrified her. Thegrain of the wood felt reassuringly solid, and tracing itswhorls with her eyes was easier than thinking.
For the first time, Tally noticed the sameness of thefood. Bread again, stew again. A couple of days ago, Shayhad explained that the plump meat in the stew was rabbit.
Not soy-based, like the dehydrated meat in her SpagBol,but real animals from the overcrowded pen on the edge ofthe Smoke. The thought of rabbits being killed, skinned,and cooked suited her mood. Like the rest of her day, thismeal tasted brutal and serious.
Shay hadn’t talked to her after lunch, and Tally had noidea what to say to Croy, so she’d worked the rest of the dayin silence. Dr. Cable’s pendant seemed to grow heavier andheavier, wound around her neck as tightly as the vines,brush, and roots grasping the railroad tracks. It felt as ifeveryone in the Smoke could see what the necklace reallywas: a symbol of her treachery.
Tally wondered if she could ever stay there now. Croysuspected what she was, and it seemed like it would be onlya matter of time before everyone else knew. All day long aterrible thought had kept crossing her mind: Maybe theSmoke was where she really belonged, but she’d lost herchance by going there as a spy.
And now Tally had come between David and Shay.
Without even trying, she’d shafted her best friend. Likewalking poison, she killed everything.
She thought of the orchids spreading across the plainsbelow, choking the life out of other plants, out of the soilitself, selfish and unstoppable. Tally Youngblood was aweed. And, unlike the orchids, she wasn’t even a pretty one.
Just as she finished eating, David sat down across fromher. “Hey.”
“Hi.” She managed to smile. Despite everything, it wasa relief to see him. Eating alone had reminded her of thedays after her birthday, trapped as an ugly when everyoneknew she should be pretty. Today was the first time she’dfelt like an ugly since coming to the Smoke.
David reached across and took her hand. “Tally, I’msorry.”
“You’re sorry?”
He turned her palm up to reveal her freshly blisteredfingers.
244 Scott Westerfeld“I noticed you didn’t wear the gloves. Not after you hadlunch with Shay. It wasn’t hard to guess why.”
“Oh, yeah. It’s not that I didn’t like them. I just couldn’t.”
“Sure, I know. This is all my fault.” He looked aroundthe crowded hall. “Can we get out of here? I’ve got somethingto tell you.”
Tally nodded, feeling the cold pendant against her neckand remembering her promise to Shay. “Yeah. I’ve gotsomething to tell you, too.”
They walked through the Smoke, past cook fires beingextinguished with shovelfuls of dirt; windows coming alightwith candles and electric bulbs; and a handful of younguglies pursuing an escaped chicken. They climbed the ridgefrom which Tally had first looked down on the settlement,and David led her along it to a cool, flat outcrop of stonewhere a view opened up between the trees. As always, Tallynoticed how graceful David was, how he seemed to knowevery step of the path intimately. Not even pretties, whosebodies were perfectly balanced, designed for elegance inevery kind of clothing, moved with such effortless control.
Tally deliberately turned her eyes away from him. Inthe valley below, the orchids glowed with pale malevolencein the moonlight, a frozen sea against the dark shore of theforest.
David started talking first. “Did you know you’re thefirst runaway to come here all alone?”
UGLIES 245“Really?”
He nodded, still staring down at the white expanse offlowers. “Most of the time, I bring them in.”
Tally remembered Shay, the last night they’d seen eachother in the city, saying that the mysterious David wouldtake her to the Smoke. Back then Tally had hardly believedthere was such a person. Now, sitting next to her, Davidseemed very real. He took the world more seriously thanany other ugly she’d ever met—more seriously, in fact, thanmiddle pretties like her parents. In a funny way, his eyesheld the same intensity that the cruel pretties’ had, thoughwithout their coldness.
“My mother used to in the old days,” he said. “But nowshe’s too old.”
Tally swallowed. They always explained in schoolabout how uglies who didn’t have the operations eventuallybecame infirm. “Oh, I’m so sorry. How old is she, anyway?”
He laughed. “She’s plenty fit, but uglies have an easiertime trusting someone like me, someone their own age.”
“Oh, of course.” Tally remembered her reaction to theBoss that first day. Only a couple of weeks later she was muchmore used to all the different kinds of faces that age created.
“Sometimes, a few uglies will make it on their own, followingcoded directions like you did. But it’s always beenthree or four in a group. No one’s ever come all alone.”
“You must think I’m an idiot.”
“Not at all.” He took her hand. “I think it was really brave.”
246 Scott WesterfeldShe shrugged. “It wasn’t that bad a trip, really.”
“It’s not the traveling that takes courage, Tally. I’vedone much longer trips on my own. It’s leaving home.” Hetraced a line on her sore hand with a finger. “I can’t imaginehaving to walk away from the Smoke, away fromeverything I’ve ever known, realizing I’d probably nevercome back.”
Tally swallowed. It hadn’t been easy. Of course, shehadn’t really had a choice.
“But you left your city, the only place you’d ever lived,all alone,” David continued. “You hadn’t even met a Smokey,someone to convince you firsthand that it was a real place.
You did it all on trust, because your friend asked you. I guessthat’s why I feel I can trust you.”
Tally looked out at the weeds, feeling worse with everyword David said. If he only knew the real reason she wasthere.
“When Shay first told me you were coming, I was reallyangry at her.”
“Because I might have given the Smoke away?”
“Partly. And partly because it’s really dangerous for acity-bred sixteen-year-old to cross hundreds of miles alone.
But mostly I thought it was a wasted risk, because youprobably wouldn’t even make it out of your dorm window.”
He looked up at her, squeezing her hand softly. “I wasamazed when I saw you running down that hill.”
Tally smiled. “I was a pretty sorry sight that day.”
UGLIES 247“You were so scratched up, your hair and clothes allsinged from that fire, but you had the biggest smile on yourface.” David’s face seemed to glow in the soft moonlight.
Tally closed her eyes and shook her head. Great. Shewas going to get an award for bravery when she shouldreally be kicked out of the Smoke for treachery.
“You don’t look quite so happy now, though,” he saidsoftly.
“Not everyone thinks it’s great that I came here.”
He laughed. “Yeah, Croy told me about his big revelation.”
“He did?” She opened her eyes.
“Don’t listen to him. From the moment you got here, hewas suspicious about your coming alone. He thought youmust have had help along the way. City help. But I told himhe was crazy.”
“Thanks.”
He shrugged. “When you and Shay saw each other, youwere so happy. I could tell that you’d really missed her.”
“Yeah. I was worried about her.”
“Of course you were. And you were brave enough tocome looking yourself, even if it meant walking away fromeverything you’d ever known, alone. You didn’t really comebecause you wanted to live in the Smoke, did you?”
“Um . . . what do you mean?”
“You came to see if Shay was all right.”
Tally looked into David’s eyes. Even if he was com-248 Scott Westerfeldpletely wrong about her, it felt good to bask in his words.
Up until now, the whole day had been tainted by suspicionand doubt, but David’s face shone with admiration for whatshe had done. A feeling spread through her, a warmth thatpushed away the cold wind cutting across the ridge.
Then Tally trembled inside, realizing what the feelingwas. It was that same warmth she’d felt talking to Peris afterhis operation, or when teachers looked at her withapproval. It was not a feeling she’d ever gotten from an uglybefore. Without large, perfectly shaped eyes, their facescouldn’t make you feel that way. But the moonlight and thesetting, or maybe just the words he was saying, had somehowturned David into a pretty. Just for a moment.
But the magic was all based on lies. She didn’t deservethe look in David’s eyes.
She turned to face the ocean of weeds again. “I bet Shaywishes she’d never told me about the Smoke.”
“Maybe right now. Maybe for a while,” David said. “Butnot forever.”
“But you and she . . .”
“She and I.” He sighed. “Shay changes her mind prettyquickly, you know.”
“What do you mean?”
“The first time she wanted to come to the Smoke wasback in spring. When Croy and the others came.”
“She told me. She chickened out, right?”
David nodded. “I always figured she would. She justUGLIES 249wanted to run away because her friends were. If she stayedin the city, she’d be left all alone.”
Tally thought of her friendless days after Peris’s operation.
“Yeah. I know that feeling.”
“But she never showed up that night. Which happens.
I was really surprised to see her in the ruins a few weeksago, suddenly convinced she wanted to leave the city forever.
And she was already talking about bringing a friend,even though she hadn’t said a word to you yet.” He shookhis head. “I almost told her to just forget about it, to stay inthe city and become pretty.”
She took a deep breath. Everything would have been somuch easier if David had done exactly that. Tally would bepretty right now, high up in a party tower with Peris andShay and a bunch of new friends at this very moment. Butthe image in her mind didn’t give Tally the thrill it usuallydid; it just fell flat, like a song she’d heard too many times.
David squeezed her hand. “I’m glad I didn’t.”
Something made Tally say, “Me too.” The words amazedher, because somehow they felt true. She looked at Davidclosely, and the feeling was still there. She could see that hisforehead was too high, that a small scar cut a white strokethrough his eyebrow. And his smile was pretty crooked,really. But it was as if something had changed inside Tally’shead, something that had turned his face pretty to her. Thewarmth of his body cut the autumn chill, and she movedcloser.
250 Scott Westerfeld“Shay’s tried hard to make up for chickening out thatfirst time, and for giving you directions when she promisedme she wouldn’t,” he said. “Now she’s decided the Smoke isthe greatest place in the world. And that I’m the best personin the world for bringing her here.”
“She really likes you, David.”
“And I really like her. But she’s just not . . .”
“Not what?”
“Not serious. Not you.”
Tally turned away, her head swimming. She knew shehad to keep her promise now, or she never would. Her fingerswent to the pendant. “David . . .”
“Yeah, I noticed that necklace. After your smile, it wasthe second thing I noticed about you.”
“You know someone gave it to me.”
“That’s what I figured.”
“And I . . . I told them about the Smoke.”
He nodded. “I figured that, too.”
“You’re not mad at me?”
He shrugged. “You never promised me anything. I hadn’teven met you.”
“But you still . . .” David was gazing into her eyes, hisface glowing again. Tally looked away, trying to drown heruncanny pretty feelings in the sea of white weeds.
David sighed softly. “You left a lot of things behindwhen you came here—your parents, your city, your wholelife. And you are starting to like the Smoke, I can tell. YouUGLIES 251get what we’re doing here in a way that most runawaysdon’t.”
“I like the way it feels here. But I might not . . . stay.”
He smiled. “I know. Listen, I’m not rushing you. Maybewhoever gave you that heart is coming, maybe not. Maybeyou’ll go back to them. But in the meantime, could you dosomething for me?”
“Sure. I mean, what?”
He stood, offering her his hand. “I’d like you to meetmy parents.”
THE SECRET
They descended the ridge on the far side, down a steep,narrow path. David led her quickly in the darkness, findingfooting on the almost invisible trail without hesitation. Itwas all Tally could do to keep up.
The whole day had been one shock after another, andnow to top it all off she was going to meet David’s parents.
That was the last thing she’d expected after showing himher pendant and telling him she hadn’t kept the Smoke asecret. His reactions were different from those of anyoneshe’d ever met before. Maybe it was because he’d grown upout here, away from the customs of the city. Or maybe hewas just . . . different.
They left the familiar ridge line far behind, and themountain rose steeply to one side.
“Your parents don’t live in the Smoke?”
“No. It’s too dangerous.”
“Dangerous how?”
“It’s part of what I was telling you your first day here, inthe railroad cave.”
“About your secret? How you were raised in the wild?”
David stopped for a moment, turning back to face herin the darkness. “There’s more to it than that.”
“What?”
“I’ll let them tell you. Come on.”
A few minutes later, a small square filled with faint lightappeared, hovering in the darkness of the mountainside.
Tally saw that it was a window, a light inside glowing deepred through a closed curtain. The house seemed halfburied, as if it had been wedged into the mountain.
When they were still a stone’s throw away, Davidstopped. “Don’t want to surprise them. They can be jumpy,”
he said, then shouted, “Hello!”
A moment later a doorway opened, letting out a shaftof light.
“David?” a woman’s voice called. The door openedwider until the light spilled across them. “Az, it’s David.”
As they drew closer, Tally saw that she was an old ugly.
Tally couldn’t tell if she was younger or older than theBoss, but she certainly wasn’t as terrifying to look at. Hereyes flashed liked a pretty’s, and the lines of her face disappearedinto a welcoming smile as she gathered her soninto a hug.
“Hi, Mom.”
“And you must be Tally.”
“Nice to meet you.” She wondered if she should shakehands or something. In the city, you never spent much time254 Scott Westerfeldwith other uglies’ parents, except when you hung out atfriends’ houses during school breaks.
The house was much warmer than the bunkhouse, andthe timber floors weren’t nearly as rough, as if David’s parentshad lived there so long, their feet had worn themsmooth. The house somehow felt more solid than anybuilding in the Smoke. It was really cut into the mountain,she saw now. One of the walls was exposed stone, glisteningwith some kind of transparent sealant.
“Nice to meet you, too, Tally,” David’s mother said. Tallywondered what her name was. David always referred tothem as “Mom” and “Dad,” words Tally hadn’t used for Soland Ellie since she was a littlie.
A man appeared, shaking David’s hand before turningto her. “Good to meet you, Tally.”
She blinked, her breath catching, for a moment unableto speak. David and his father somehow looked . . .
alike.
It didn’t make any sense. There had to be more thanthirty years between them, if his father really had been adoctor when David was born. But their jaws, foreheads,even their slightly lopsided smiles were all so similar.
“Tally?” David said.
“Sorry. You just . . . you look the same!”
David’s parents burst into laughter, and Tally felt herface turning red.
“We get that a lot,” his father said. “You city kids alwaysUGLIES 255find it a shock. But you know about genetics, don’t you?”
“Sure. I know all about genes. I knew two sisters,uglies, who looked almost the same. But parents and children?
That’s just weird.”
David’s mother forced a serious expression onto herface, but the smile stayed in her eyes. “The features that wetake from our parents are the things that make us different.
A big nose, thin lips, high forehead—all the things that theoperation takes away.”
“The preference toward the mean,” his dad said.
Tally nodded, remembering school lessons. The overallaverage of human facial characteristics was the primarytemplate for the operation. “Sure. Average-looking featuresare one of the things people look for in a face.”
“But families pass on nonaverage looks. Like our bignoses.” The man tweaked his son’s nose, and David rolledhis eyes. Tally realized that David’s nose was much biggerthan any pretty’s. Why hadn’t she noticed that beforenow?
“That’s one of the things you give up, when you becomepretty. The family nose,” his mother said. “Az? Why don’tyou turn up the heat.”
Tally realized that she was still shivering, but not fromthe cold outside. This was all so weird. She couldn’t getover the similarity between David and his father. “That’sokay. It’s lovely in here, uh . . .”
“Maddy,” the woman said. “Shall we all sit down?”
256 Scott WesterfeldF F FAz and Maddy apparently had been expecting them. In thefront room of the house, four antique cups were set out onlittle saucers. Soon a kettle began to whistle softly on anelectric heater, and Az poured the boiling water into anantique pot, releasing a floral scent into the room.
Tally looked around her. The house was unlike anyother in the Smoke. It was like a standard crumbly home,filled with impractical objects. A marble statuette stood inone corner, and rich rugs had been hung on the walls, lendingtheir colors to the light in the room, softening the edgesof everything. Maddy and Az must have brought a lot ofthings from the city when they ran away. And, unlike uglies,who had only their dorm uniforms and other disposablepossessions, the two had actually spent half a lifetime collectingthings before escaping the city.
Tally remembered growing up surrounded by Sol’swoodwork, abstract shapes fashioned from fallen branchesshe would collect from parks as a littlie. Maybe David’schildhood hadn’t been completely different from her own.
“This all looks so familiar,” she said.
“David hasn’t told you?” Maddy said. “Az and I comefrom the same city as you. If we’d stayed, we might havebeen the ones to turn you pretty.”
“Oh, I guess so,” Tally murmured. If they’d stayed inthe city, there would have been no Smoke, and Shay neverwould have run away.
UGLIES 257“David says that you made it all the way here on yourown,” Maddy said.
She nodded. “I was following a friend of mine. She leftme directions.”
“And you decided to come alone? Couldn’t you wait forDavid to come around again?”
“There wasn’t time to wait,” David explained. “She leftthe night before her sixteenth birthday.”
“That’s leaving things until the last minute,” Az said.
“But very dramatic,” Maddy said approvingly.
“Actually, I didn’t have much choice. I hadn’t evenheard of the Smoke until Shay, my friend, told me she wasleaving. That was about a week before my birthday.”
“Shay? I don’t believe we’ve met her,” Az said.
Tally looked at David, who shrugged. He had neverbrought Shay here? She wondered for a moment what hadreally gone on between David and Shay.
“You certainly made up your mind quickly, then,”
Maddy said.
Tally brought her mind back to the present. “I had to. Ionly had one chance.”
“Spoken like a true Smokey,” Az said, pouring a darkliquid from the kettle into the cups. “Tea?”
“Uh, please.” Tally accepted a saucer and felt the scaldingheat through the thin, white material of the cup. Realizingthat this was one of those Smokey concoctions that burnedyour tongue, she sipped carefully. Her face twisted at the258 Scott Westerfeldbitter taste. “Ah. I mean . . . sorry. I’ve never had tea before,actually.”
Az’s eyes widened. “Really? But it was very popularback when we lived there.”
“I’ve heard of it. But it’s more of a crumbly drink. Um,I mean, mostly only late pretties drink it.” Tally willed herselfnot to blush.
Maddy laughed. “Well, we’re pretty crumbly, so I guessit’s okay for us.”
“Speak for yourself, my dear.”
“Try this,” David said. He dropped a white cube intoTally’s tea. The next time she drank, a sweetness had spreadthrough it, cutting the bitterness. It was possible to sip thestuff now without grimacing.
“David’s told you a little about us, I suppose,” Maddy said.
“Well, he said you ran away a long time ago. Before hewas born.”
“Oh, did he?” Az said. The expression on his face wasexactly like David’s when a member of the railroad crew didsomething thoughtless and dangerous with a vibrasaw.
“I didn’t tell her everything, Dad,” David said. “Just thatI grew up in the wild.”
“You left the rest to us?” Az said a bit stiffly. “Very goodof you.”
David held his father’s gaze. “Tally came here to makesure her friend was okay. All the way here alone. But shemight not want to stay.”
UGLIES 259“We don’t force anyone to live here,” Maddy said.
“That’s not what I mean,” David said. “I think she shouldknow, before she decides about going back to the city.”
Tally looked from David to his parents, quietly amazed.
The way they communicated was so strange, not like uglies andcrumblies at all. It was more like uglies arguing. Like equals.
“I should know what?” she asked softly.
They all looked at her, Maddy and Az measuring herwith their eyes.
“The big secret,” Az said, “the one that made us runaway almost twenty years ago.”
“One we usually keep to ourselves,” Maddy said evenly,her eyes on David.
“Tally deserves to know,” David said, his eyes lockedwith his mother’s. “She’ll understand how important it is.”
“She’s a kid. A city kid.”
“She made it here alone, with only a bunch of gibberishdirections to guide her.”
Maddy scowled. “You’ve never even been to a city,David. You have no idea how coddled they are. They spendtheir whole lives in a bubble.”
“She survived alone for nine days, Mom. Made itthrough a brush fire.”
“Please, you two,” Az interjected. “She is sitting righthere. Aren’t you, Tally?”
“Yeah, I am,” Tally said quietly. “And I wish you’d tellme what you’re talking about.”
260 Scott Westerfeld“I’m sorry, Tally,” Maddy said. “But this secret is veryimportant. And very dangerous.”
Tally nodded her head, looking down at the floor.
“Everything out here is dangerous.”
They were all silent for a moment. All Tally heard wasthe tinkle of Az stirring his tea.
“See?” David said finally. “She understands. You cantrust her. She deserves to know the truth.”
“Everyone does,” Maddy said quietly. “Eventually.”
“Well,” Az said, then paused to sip his tea. “I supposewe’ll have to tell you, Tally.”
“Tell me what?”
David took a deep breath. “The truth about beingpretty.”
PRETTY MINDS
“We were doctors,” Az began.
“Cosmetic surgeons, to be precise,” Maddy said. “We’veboth performed the operation hundreds of times. Andwhen we met, I had just been named to the Committee forMorphological Standards.”
Tally’s eyes widened. “The Pretty Committee?”
Maddy smiled at the nickname. “We were preparing fora Morphological Congress. That’s when all the cities sharedata on the operation.”
Tally nodded. Cities worked very hard to stay independentof one another, but the Pretty Committee was aglobal institution that made sure pretties were all more orless the same. It would ruin the whole point of the operationif the people from one city wound up prettier thaneveryone else.
Like most uglies, Tally had often indulged the fantasythat one day she might be on the Committee, and helpdecide what the next generation would look like. In school,of course, they always managed to make it sound reallyboring, all graphs and averages and measuring people’spupils when they looked at different faces.
“At the same time, I was doing some independentresearch on anesthesia,” Az said. “Trying to make the operationsafer.”
“Safer?” Tally asked.
“A few people still die each year, as with any surgery,”
he said. “From being unconscious so long, more than anythingelse.”
Tally bit her lip. She’d never heard that. “Oh.”
“I found that there were complications from the anestheticused in the operation. Tiny lesions in the brain.
Barely visible, even with the best machines.”
Tally decided to risk sounding stupid. “What’s alesion?”
“Basically it’s a bunch of cells that don’t look right,” Azsaid. “Like a wound, or a cancer, or just something thatdoesn’t belong there.”
“But you couldn’t just say that,” David said. He rolledhis eyes toward Tally. “Doctors.”
Maddy ignored her son. “When Az showed me hisresults, I started investigating. The local committee hadmillions of scans in its database. Not the stuff they put inmedical textbooks, but raw data from pretties all over theworld. The lesions turned up everywhere.”
Tally frowned. “You mean, people were sick?”
“They didn’t seem to be. And the lesions weren’tUGLIES 263cancerous, because they didn’t spread. Almost everyonehad them, and they were always in exactly the same place.”
She pointed to a spot on the top of her head.
“A bit to the left, dear,” Az said, dropping a white cubeinto his tea.
Maddy obliged him, then continued. “Most importantly,almost everyone all over the world had these lesions.
If they were a health hazard, ninety-nine percent of thepopulation would show some kind of symptoms.”
“But they weren’t natural?” Tally asked.
“No. Only post-ops—pretties, I mean—had them,” Azsaid. “No uglies did. They were definitely a result of theoperation.”
Tally shifted in her chair. The thought of a weird littlemystery in everyone’s brain made her queasy. “Did you findout what caused them?”
Maddy sighed. “In one sense, we did. Az and I lookedvery closely at all the negatives—that is, the few prettieswho didn’t have the lesions—and tried to figure out whythey were different. What made them immune to thelesions? We ruled out blood type, gender, physical size,intelligence factors, genetic markers—nothing seemed toaccount for the negatives. They weren’t any different fromeveryone else.”
“Until we discovered an odd coincidence,” Az said.
“Their jobs,” Maddy said.
“Jobs?”
264 Scott Westerfeld“Every negative worked in the same sort of profession,”
Az said. “Firefighters, wardens, doctors, politicians, andanyone who worked for Special Circumstances. Everyonewith those jobs didn’t have the lesions; all the other prettiesdid.”
“So you guys were okay?”
Az nodded. “We tested ourselves, and we were negative.”
“Otherwise, we wouldn’t be sitting here,” Maddy saidquietly.
“What do you mean?”
David spoke up. “The lesions aren’t an accident, Tally.
They’re part of the operation, just like all the bone sculptingand skin scraping. It’s part of the way being prettychanges you.”
“But you said not everyone has them.”
Maddy nodded. “In some pretties, they disappear, orare intentionally cured—in those whose professionsrequire them to react quickly, like working in an emergencyroom, or putting out a fire. Those who deal withconflict and danger.”
“People who face challenges,” David said.
Tally let out a slow breath, remembering her trip to theSmoke. “What about rangers?”
Az nodded. “I believe I had a few rangers in my database.
All negatives.”
Tally remembered the look on the faces of the rangerswho had saved her. They had an unfamiliar confidence andUGLIES 265surety, like David’s, completely different from the new prettiesshe and Peris had always made fun of.
Peris . . .
Tally swallowed, tasting something more bitter thantea in the back of her throat. She tried to remember howPeris had acted when she’d crashed the Garbo Mansionparty. She’d been so ashamed of her own face, it was hardto remember anything specific about Peris. He’d lookedso different and, if anything, he seemed older, moremature.
But in some way, they hadn’t connected . . . it was as ifhe’d become a different person. Was it only because sincehis operation they had lived in different worlds? Or had itbeen something more? She tried to imagine Peris copingout here in the Smoke, working with his hands and makinghis own clothes. The old, ugly Peris would have enjoyed thechallenge. But what about pretty Peris?
Her head felt light, as if the house were in an elevatorheading swiftly downward.
“What do the lesions do?” she asked.
“We don’t know exactly,” Az said.
“But we’ve got some pretty good ideas,” David said.
“Just suspicions,” Maddy said. Az looked uncomfortablydown into his tea.
“You were suspicious enough to run away,” Tally said.
“We had no choice,” Maddy said. “Not long after ourdiscovery, Special Circumstances paid a visit. They took our266 Scott Westerfelddata and told us not to look any further or we’d lose ourlicenses. It was either run away, or forget everything we’dfound.”
“And it wasn’t something we could forget,” Az said.
Tally turned to David. He sat beside his mother, grimfaced,his cup of tea untouched before him. His parentswere still reluctant to say everything they suspected. Butshe could tell that David saw no need for caution. “What doyou think?” she asked him.
“Well, you know all about how the Rusties lived, right?”
he said. “War and crime and all that?”
“Of course. They were crazy. They almost destroyed theworld.”
“And that convinced people to pull the cities backfrom the wild, to leave nature alone,” David recited. “Andnow everybody is happy, because everyone looks thesame: They’re all pretty. No more Rusties, no more war.
Right?”
“Yeah. In school, they say it’s all really complicated, butthat’s basically the story.”
He smiled grimly. “Maybe it’s not so complicated.
Maybe the reason war and all that other stuff went away isthat there are no more controversies, no disagreements, nopeople demanding change. Just masses of smiling pretties,and a few people left to run things.”
Tally remembered crossing the river to New PrettyTown, watching them have their endless fun. She and PerisUGLIES 267used to boast they’d never wind up so idiotic, so shallow.
But when she’d seen him . . . “Becoming pretty doesn’t justchange the way you look,” she said.
“No,” David said. “It changes the way you think.”
BURNING BRIDGES
They stayed up late into the night, talking with Az andMaddy about their discoveries, their escape into the wild,and the founding of the Smoke. Finally, Tally had to askthe question that had been on her mind since she’d firstseen them.
“So how did you two change yourselves back? I mean,you were pretty, and now you’re . . .”
“Ugly?” Az smiled. “That part was simple. We’re expertsin the physical part of the operation. When surgeons sculpta pretty face, we use a special kind of smart plastic to shapethe bones. When we change new pretties to middle or late,we add a trigger chemical to that plastic, and it becomessofter, like clay.”
“Eww,” Tally said, imagining her face suddenly softeningso she could squish it around to a different shape.
“With daily doses of this trigger chemical, the plasticwill gradually melt away and be absorbed into the body.
Your face goes back to where it started. More or less.”
Tally’s eyebrows rose. “More or less?”
“We can only approximate the places where bone wasshaved away. And we can’t make big changes, like someone’sheight, without surgery. Maddy and I have all the noncosmeticbenefits of the operation: impervious teeth, perfectvision, disease resistance. But we look pretty close to theway we would have without the operation. As far as the fatthat was sucked out”—he patted his stomach—“that provesvery easy to replace.”
“But why? Why would you want to be ugly? You weredoctors, so there was nothing wrong with your brains,right?”
“Our minds are fine,” Maddy answered. “But wewanted to start a community of people who didn’t have thelesions, people who were free of pretty thinking. It was theonly way to see what difference the lesions really made.
That meant we had to gather a group of uglies. Youngpeople, recruited from the cities.”
Tally nodded. “So you had to become ugly too.
Otherwise, who’d trust you?”
“We refined the trigger chemical, created a once-a-daypill. Over a few months, our old faces came back.” Maddylooked at her husband with a twinkle in her eye. “It was afascinating process, actually.”
“It must have been,” Tally said. “What about thelesions? Can you create a pill that cures them?”
They were both silent for a moment, then Maddyshook her head. “We didn’t find any answers before Special270 Scott WesterfeldCircumstances showed up. Az and I are not brain specialists.
We’ve worked on the question for twenty years withoutsuccess. But here in the Smoke we’ve seen the differencethat staying ugly makes.”
“I’ve seen that myself,” Tally said, thinking of the differencesbetween Peris and David.
Az raised an eyebrow. “You catch on pretty fast, then.”
“But we know there’s a cure,” David said.
“How?”
“There has to be,” Maddy said. “Our data showed thateveryone has the lesions after their first operation. So whensomeone winds up in a challenging line of work, the authoritiessomehow cure them. The lesions are removed secretly,maybe even fixed with a pill like the bone plastic, and thebrain returns to normal. There must be a simple cure.”
“You’ll find it one day,” David said quietly.
“We don’t have the right equipment,” Maddy said, sighing.
“We don’t even have a pretty human subject to study.”
“But hang on,” Tally said. “You used to live in a city fullof pretties. When you became doctors, your lesions wentaway. Didn’t you notice that you were changing?”
Maddy shrugged. “Of course we did. We were learninghow the human body worked, and how to face the hugeresponsibility of saving lives. But it didn’t feel as if ourbrains were changing. It felt like growing up.”
“Oh. But when you looked around at everyone else,how come you didn’t notice they were . . . brain damaged?”
UGLIES 271Az smiled. “We didn’t have much to compare our fellowcitizens with, only a few colleagues who seemed differentfrom most people. More engaged. But that was hardly asurprise. History would indicate that the majority of peoplehave always been sheep. Before the operation, there werewars and mass hatred and clear-cutting. Whatever theselesions make us, it isn’t a far cry from the way humanity wasin the Rusty era. These days we’re just a bit . . . easier tomanage.”
“Having the lesions is normal now,” Maddy said. “We’reall used to the effects.”
Tally took a deep breath, remembering Sol and Ellie’svisit. Her parents had been so sure of themselves, and yetin a way so clueless. But they’d always seemed that way:
wise and confident, and at the same time disconnectedfrom whatever ugly, real-life problems Tally was having.
Was that pretty brain damage? Tally had always thoughtthat was just how parents were supposed to be.
For that matter, shallow and self-centered was howbrand-new pretties were supposed to be. As an uglyPeris had made fun of them—but he hadn’t waited amoment to join in the fun. No one ever did. So howcould you tell how much was the operation and howmuch was just people going along with the way thingshad always been?
Only by making a whole new world, which is just whatMaddy and Az had begun to do.
272 Scott WesterfeldTally wondered which had come first: the operation orthe lesions? Was becoming pretty just the bait to get everyoneunder the knife? Or were the lesions merely a finishingtouch on being pretty? Perhaps the logical conclusion ofeveryone looking the same was everyone thinking thesame.
She leaned back in her chair. Her eyes were blurry, andher stomach clenched whenever she thought about Peris,her parents, and every other pretty she’d ever met. How differentwere they? she wondered. How did it feel to bepretty? What was it really like behind those big eyes andexquisite features?
“You look tired,” David said.
She laughed softly. It seemed like weeks since she andDavid had arrived there. A few hours of conversation hadchanged her world. “Maybe a little.”
“I guess we’d better go, Mom.”
“Of course, David. It’s late, and Tally has a lot to digest.”
Maddy and Az stood, and David helped Tally up fromthe chair. She said good-bye to them in a daze, flinchinginside when she recognized the expression in their oldand ugly faces: They felt sorry for her. Sad that she’d hadto learn the truth, sad that they’d been the ones to tellher. After twenty years, maybe they’d gotten used to theidea, but they still understood that it was a horrible factto learn.
Ninety-nine percent of humanity had had somethingUGLIES 273done to their brains, and only a few people in the worldknew exactly what.
“You see why I wanted you to meet my parents?”
“Yeah, I guess I do.”
Tally and David were in the darkness, climbing theridge back toward the Smoke, the sky full of stars now thatthe moon had set.
“You might have gone back to the city not knowing.”
Tally shivered, realizing how close she had come somany times. In the library, she’d actually opened the pendant,almost holding it to her eye. And if she had, theSpecials would have arrived within hours.
“I couldn’t stand that,” David said.
“But some uglies must go back, right?”
“Sure. They get bored with camping out, and we can’tmake them stay.”
“You let them go? When they don’t even know what theoperation really means?”
David stopped and took hold of Tally’s shoulder,anguish on his face. “Neither do we. And what if we toldeveryone what we suspect? Most of them wouldn’t believeus, but others would go charging back to the city to rescuetheir friends. And eventually, the cities would find out whatwe were saying, and would do everything in their power tohunt us down.”
They already are, Tally said to herself. She wondered274 Scott Westerfeldhow many other spies the Specials had blackmailed intolooking for the Smoke, how many times they’d come closeto finding it. She wanted to tell David what they were up to,but how? She couldn’t explain that she had come here as aspy, or David would never trust her again.
She sighed. That would be the perfect way to stop herselffrom coming between him and Shay.
“You don’t look very happy.”
Tally tried to smile. David had shared his biggest secretwith her; she should tell him hers. But she wasn’t braveenough to say the words. “It’s been a long night. That’s all.”
He smiled back. “Don’t worry, it won’t last forever.”
Tally wondered how long it was until dawn. In a fewhours she’d be eating breakfast alongside Shay and Croy,and everyone else she had almost betrayed, almost condemnedto the operation. She flinched at the thought.
“Hey,” David said, lifting her chin with his palm. “Youdid great tonight. I think my parents were impressed.”
“Huh? With me?”
“Of course, Tally. You understood immediately whatthis all means. Most people can’t believe it at first. They saythe authorities would never be so cruel.”
She smiled grimly. “Don’t worry, I believe it.”
“Exactly. I’ve seen a lot of city kids come through here.
You’re different from the rest of them. You can see the worldclearly, even if you did grow up spoiled. That’s why I had totell you. That’s why . . .”
UGLIES 275Tally looked into his eyes and saw that his face was glowingagain—touching her in that pretty way she’d felt before.
“That’s why you’re beautiful, Tally.”
The words made her dizzy for a moment, like thefalling feeling of looking into a new pretty’s eyes. “Me?”
“Yes.”
She laughed, shaking her head clear. “What, with mythin lips and my eyes too close together?”
“Tally . . .”
“And my frizzy hair and squashed-down nose?”
“Don’t say that.” His fingers brushed her cheeks where thescratches were almost healed, and ran fleetingly across her lips.
She knew how callused his fingertips were, as hard and roughas wood. But somehow their caress felt soft and tentative.
“That’s the worst thing they do to you, to any of you.
Whatever those brain lesions are all about, the worst damageis done before they even pick up the knife: You’re allbrainwashed into believing you’re ugly.”
“We are. Everyone is.”
“So you think I’m ugly?”
She looked away. “It’s a pointless question. It’s not aboutindividuals.”
“Yes it is, Tally. Absolutely.”
“I mean, no one can really be . . . you see, biologically,there’re certain things we all—” The words choked off. “Youreally think I’m beautiful?”
“Yes.”
276 Scott Westerfeld“More beautiful than Shay?”
They both stood silent, their mouths gaping. The questionhad popped out of Tally before she could think. Howhad she uttered something so horrible?
“I’m sorry.”
David shrugged, turned away. “It’s a fair question.
Yes, I do.”
“Do what?”
“I think you’re more beautiful than Shay.” He said it somatter-of-factly, as if talking about the weather.
Tally’s eyes closed, every bit of exhaustion from the longday crashing into her at once. She saw Shay’s face—toothin, eyes too far apart—and an awful feeling welled upinside her. The warmth she’d felt from David was crushedby it.
Every day of her life she’d insulted other uglies andhad been insulted in return. Fattie, Pig-Eyes, Boney, Zits,Freak—all the names uglies called one another, eagerly andwithout reserve. But equally, without exception, so that noone felt shut out by some irrelevant mischance of birth.
And no one was considered to be even remotely beautiful,privileged because of a random twist in their genes. Thatwas why they’d made everyone pretty in the first place.
This was not fair.
“Don’t say that. Please.”
“You asked me.”
She opened her eyes. “But it’s horrible! It’s wrong.”
UGLIES 277“Listen, Tally. That’s not what’s important to me. What’sinside you matters a lot more.”
“But first you see my face. You react to symmetry, skintone, the shape of my eyes. And you decide what’s insideme, based on all your reactions. You’re programmed to!”
“I’m not programmed. I didn’t grow up in a city.”
“It’s not just culture, it’s evolution!”
He shrugged in defeat, the anger draining from hisvoice. “Maybe some of it is.” He chuckled tiredly. “But youknow what first got me interested in you?”
Tally took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. “What?”
“The scratches on your face.”
She blinked. “The what?”
“These scratches.” He softly touched her cheek again.
She shook away the electric feeling his fingers leftbehind. “That’s nuts. Imperfect skin is a sign of a poorimmune system.”
David laughed. “It was a sign that you’d been in anadventure, Tally, that you’d bashed your way across thewild to get here. To me, it was a sign that you had a goodstory to tell.”
Her outrage faded. “A good story?” Tally shook herhead, a laugh building inside her. “Actually, my face gotscratched up back in the city, hoverboarding through sometrees. At high speed. Some adventure, huh?”
“It does tell a story, though. As I thought the firsttime I saw you—you take risks.” His fingers wound into a278 Scott Westerfeldlock of her singed hair. “You’re still taking risks.”
“I guess so.” Standing here in the darkness with Davidfelt like a risk, like everything was about to change again.
He still had the look in his eye, the pretty look.
Maybe he really could see past her ugly face. Maybewhat was inside her did matter to him more than anythingelse.
Tally stepped onto a fist-size stone on the path andfound an uneasy balance on it. They were eye to eye now.
She swallowed. “You really think I’m beautiful.”
“Yes. What you do, the way you think, makes youbeautiful.”
A strange thought crossed her mind, and Tally said, “I’dhate it if you got the operation.” She couldn’t believe shewas saying it. “Even if they didn’t do your brain, I mean.”
“Gee, thanks.” His smile shone in the darkness.
“I don’t want you to look like everyone else.”
“I thought that was the point of being pretty.”
“I did too.” She touched his eyebrow where the line ofwhite cut through it. “So how’d you get that scar?”
“An adventure. A good story. I’ll tell you sometime.”
“You promise?”
“I promise.”
“Good.” She leaned forward, her weight pressing intohim, and as her feet gradually slipped down the stone,their lips met. His arms wrapped around her and pulledher closer. His body was warm in the predawn cold, andUGLIES 279formed something solid and certain in Tally’s shaken reality.
She held on tightly, amazed at how intense the kiss became.
A moment later, she pulled away to take a breath,thinking for just a second how odd this was. Uglies did kisseach other, and a lot more, but it always felt as if nothingcounted until you were a pretty.
But this counted.
She pulled David toward her again, her fingers digginginto the leather of his jacket. The cold, her aching muscles,the awful thing she had just learned, all of it just made thisfeeling stronger.
Then one of his hands touched the back of her neck,traced the slender chain there, down to the cold, hard metalof the pendant.
She stiffened, and their lips parted.
“What about this?” he said.
She enclosed the metal heart in her fist, her other armstill wrapped around him. There was no way she could tellDavid about Dr. Cable now. He would pull away, maybeforever. The pendant was still between them.
Suddenly, Tally knew what to do. It was perfect. “Comewith me.”
“Where?”
“To the Smoke. I have to show you something.”
She pulled him up the slope, scrambling until theyreached the top of ridge.
“Are you okay?” he asked, panting. “I didn’t mean to—”
280 Scott Westerfeld“I’m great.” She smiled broadly at him, then peereddown on the Smoke. A single campfire burned near thecenter of town, where the night-watch gathered to warm upevery hour or so. “Come on.”
Suddenly, it seemed important to get there fast, beforeher certainty faded, before the warm feeling inside hercould give way to doubt. She scrambled down between thepainted stones of the hoverboard path, David struggling tokeep up. When her feet reached level ground, she ran,heedless of the dark and silent huts on either side, seeingonly the firelight ahead. Her speed was effortless, likehoverboarding on an open straightaway.
Tally ran until she reached the fire, skidding to a haltagainst its cushion of heat and smoke. She reached up tounclasp the pendant’s chain.
“Tally?” David ran up panting, confusion on his face.
He tried breathlessly to say more.
“No,” she said. “Just watch.”
The pendant swung by its chain in her fist, sparklingred in the firelight. Tally focused all her doubts on it, all herfear of discovery, her terror at Dr. Cable’s threats. Sheclutched the pendant, squeezing the unyielding metal untilher muscles ached, as if forcing into her own mind thealmost unthinkable fact that she might really remain anugly for life. But somehow not ugly at all.
She opened her hand and threw the necklace into thecenter of the fire.
UGLIES 281It landed on a crackling log, the metal heart burningblack for a moment, then gradually turning yellow andwhite in the heat. Finally, a small pop came from it, as ifsomething trapped inside had exploded, and it slid fromthe log and disappeared among the flames.
She turned to David, her vision spotted with sinuousshapes from staring into the fire. He coughed at the smoke.
“Wow. That was dramatic.”
Tally suddenly felt foolish. “Yeah, I guess so.”
He moved closer. “You really meant that. Whoever gaveit to you—”
“Doesn’t matter anymore.”
“What if they come?”
“No one’s coming. I’m sure of it.”
David smiled and gathered Tally into a hug, pulling heraway from the edge of the fire. “Well, Tally Youngblood,you certainly know how to make a point. You know, Iwould have believed you if you just told me—”
“No, I had to do it like this. I had to burn it. To knowfor sure.”
He kissed her forehead and laughed. “You’re beautiful.”
“When you say that, I almost . . . ,” she whispered.
Suddenly, a wave of exhaustion struck Tally, as if herlast bit of energy had gone into the fire with the pendant.
She was tired from the wild run here, from the long nightwith Maddy and Az, from a hard day’s work. And tomorrowshe would have to face Shay again, and explain what had282 Scott Westerfeldhappened between her and David. Of course, the momentShay saw that the pendant was gone from around Tally’sneck, she would know.
But at least she’d never know the real truth. The pendantwas charred beyond recognition, its true purpose hidden forever.
Tally slumped into David’s arms, closing her eyes. Theimage of the glowing heart was burned into her vision.
She was free. Dr. Cable would never come here now,and no one could ever take her away from David or theSmoke, or do to Tally’s brain whatever the operation did topretties’. She was no longer an infiltrator. She finallybelonged here.
Tally found herself crying.
David silently walked her to the bunkhouse. At thedoor, he leaned forward to kiss her, but she pulled awayand shook her head. Shay was just inside. Tally would haveto talk to her tomorrow. It wouldn’t be easy, but Tally knewshe could face anything now.
David nodded, kissed his finger, and traced one of theremaining scratches on her cheek. “See you tomorrow,” hewhispered.
“Where are you going?”
“For a walk. I need to think.”
“Don’t you ever sleep?”
“Not tonight.” He smiled.
Tally kissed his hand and slipped inside, where shekicked off her shoes and crawled into bed with her clothesUGLIES 283on, falling asleep in seconds, as if the weight of the worldhad lifted from her shoulders.
The next morning she awoke to chaos, the sounds of running,shouting, and the scream of machines invading herdreams. Out the bunkhouse window, the sky was full ofhovercars.
Special Circumstances had arrived.
Part III
INTO THE FIRE
Beauty is that Medusa’s headWhich men go armed to seek and sever.
It is most deadly when most dead,And dead will stare and sting forever.
—Archibald MacLeish, “Beauty”
INVASION
Tally turned from the window and saw nothing but emptybeds. She was alone in the bunkhouse.
She shook her head, foggy from sleep and disbelief. Theground rumbled beneath her bare feet, and the bunkhouseshuddered around her. Suddenly, the plastic in one of thewindows shattered, and the muffled cacophony from outsiderushed in to batter her ears. The entire building shookas if it would collapse.
Where was everyone? Had they already fled the Smoke,leaving her there to face this invasion alone?
Tally ran for the door and threw it open. Before her, ahovercar was landing, blinding her for a moment with aface full of dust. She recognized the machine’s cruel linesfrom the Special Circumstances car that had first taken herto see Dr. Cable. But this one was equipped with four shimmeringblades—one each where the wheels of a groundcarwould be—a cross between a normal hovercar and therangers’ helicopter.
It could travel anywhere, Tally realized, inside a city orout in the wild. She remembered Dr. Cable’s words: We’ll bethere in a few hours. Tally forced the thought from her head.
This attack couldn’t have anything to do with her.
The hovercar struck the dusty ground with a thud.
This was no time to stand there wondering. She turnedand ran.
The camp was a chaos of smoke and running figures.
Cooking fires had been blown from their pits, and scatteredembers burned everywhere. Two of the encampment’s bigbuildings were ablaze. Chickens and rabbits scamperedunderfoot, dust and ashes coiled in rampant whirlwinds.
Dozens of Smokies ran about, some trying to put out thefires, some trying to escape, some simply panicking.
Through everything else, the forms of cruel prettiesmoved. Their gray uniforms passed like fleeting shadowsthrough the confusion. Graceful and unhurried, as ifunaware of the chaos around them, they set about subduingthe panicking Smokies. They moved in a blur, withoutany weapons that Tally could see, leaving everyone in theirwake lying on the ground, bound and dazed.
They were superhumanly fast and strong. The Specialoperation had given them more than just terrible faces.
Near the mess hall, about two dozen Smokies weremaking a stand, holding off a handful of Specials with axesand makeshift clubs. Tally made her way toward the fight,and the incongruous smells of breakfast reached herthrough the choking haze of smoke. Her stomach growled.
288 Scott WesterfeldTally realized that she had slept through the breakfastcall, too exhausted to wake up with everyone else. TheSpecials must have waited until most of the Smokies weregathered in the mess hall before launching their invasion.
Of course. They wanted to capture as many Smokies aspossible in a single stroke.
The Specials weren’t attacking the large group at themess hall. They waited patiently in a ring around thebuilding while their numbers increased, more hovercarslanding every minute. If anyone tried to get past the cordon,they reacted swiftly, disarming and incapacitatingwhoever dared to run. But most of the Smokies were tooshocked to resist, paralyzed by the terrible faces of theiropponents. Even here, most people had never seen a cruelpretty.
Tally pinned herself against a building, trying to disappearnext to a stack of firewood. She shielded her eyesfrom the dust storm, searching for an escape route. Therewas no way to get into the center of the Smoke, where herhoverboard lay on the broad roof of the trading post, chargingin the sun. The forest was the only way out.
A stretch of uncleared trees lay at the closest edge oftown, only a twenty-second dash away. But a Special stoodbetween her and the border of dense trees and brush, waitingto intercept any stray Smokies. The woman’s eyesscanned the approach to the forest, her head moving fromside to side in a weirdly regular motion, like someoneUGLIES 289watching a slow-motion tennis match without muchinterest.
Tally crept closer, staying pressed against the building.
A hovercar passed overhead, blowing a maelstrom of dustand loose wood chips into her eyes.
When she could see again, Tally found an aging uglycrouching next to her, against the wall.
“Hey!” he hissed.
She recognized the sagging features, the bitter expression.
It was the Boss.
“Young lady, we have a problem.” His harsh voice cutthrough the cacophony of the attack.
She glanced in the direction of the waiting Special.
“Yeah, I know.”
Another hovercar roared over them, and he pulled heraround the corner of the building and down behind a drumthat collected rainwater from the gutters.
“You noticed her too?” He grinned, showing a missingtooth. “Maybe if we both run at once, one of us might makeit. If the other puts up a fight.”
Tally swallowed. “I guess.” She peered out at the Special,who stood as calmly as a crumbly waiting for a pleasureferry. “But they’re pretty fast.”
“That depends.” He dropped the duffel bag from hisshoulder. “There’re two things I keep ready for emergencies.”
The Boss unzipped the bag and pulled out a plasticcontainer big enough for a sandwich. “This is one.” He290 Scott Westerfeldpopped open one corner of the top, and a puff of dust roseup. A second later, a wave of fire rushed into Tally’s head.
She covered her face, eyes watering, and tried to cough upthe finger of flame that had crawled down her throat.
“Not bad, eh?” the Boss chuckled. “That’s pure habaneropepper, dried and ground down to dust. Not too badin beans, but hell in your eyes.”
Tally blinked away her tears and managed to speak.
“Are you nuts?”
“The other thing is this bag, which contains a representativesample of two hundred years of Rusty-era visualculture. Priceless and irreplaceable artifacts. So which doyou want?”
“Huh?”
“Do you want the habanero pepper or the bag of magazines?
Do you want to get caught while taking out ourSpecial friend? Or save a precious piece of human heritagefrom these barbarians?”
Tally coughed once more. “I guess . . . I want toescape.”
The Boss smiled. “Good. I’m sick of running. Sick oflosing my hair too, and being short-sighted. I’ve done mybit, and you look pretty fast.”
He handed her the duffel bag. It was heavy, but Tallyhad grown stronger since she’d come to the Smoke. Magazineswere nothing compared with scrap metal.
She thought of the first day she had arrived there,UGLIES 291seeing a magazine for the first time in the library, realizingwith horror what humanity had once looked like. The pictureshad made her sick that first day, and now here she wasready to save them.
“Here’s the plan,” the Boss said. “I’ll go first, and whenthat Special grabs me, I’ll give her a face full of pepper.
You run straight and fast and don’t look back. Got that?”
“Yeah.”
“With any luck, we both might make it. Though Iwouldn’t mind a face-lift. Ready?”
Tally pulled the bag farther up on her shoulder.
“Let’s go.”
“One . . . two . . .” The Boss paused. “Oh, dear. There’sa problem, young lady.”
“What?”
“You haven’t got any shoes.”
Tally looked down. In her confusion, she had stumbledbarefoot out of the bunkhouse. The packed dirt of theSmoke compound was easy enough to walk on, but in theforest . . .
“You won’t make it ten meters, kid.”
The Boss pulled the duffel bag away from her andhanded her the plastic container. “Now get going.”
“But I . . . ,” Tally said. “I don’t want to go back tothe city.”
“Yes, young lady, and I wouldn’t mind getting somedecent dental work. But we all have to make sacrifices.
292 Scott WesterfeldStarting now!” On the last word, he shoved her out frombehind the drum.
Tally stumbled forward, utterly exposed in the middle ofthe street. The roar of a hovercar seemed to pass right overher head, and she instinctively ducked, dashing toward thecover of the forest.
The Special cocked her head toward Tally, calmlyfolded her arms, and frowned like a teacher spotting littliesplaying where they shouldn’t.
Tally wondered if the pepper would do anything to thewoman. If it affected the Special like it had Tally, she mightstill make it into the forest. Even if she was supposed to bethe bait. Even if she had no shoes.
Even if it turned out David had already been caughtand she’d never see him again . . .
The thought unleashed a sudden torrent of anger insideher, and she ran straight at the woman, the containerclenched in both hands.
A smile broke out on the Special’s cruel features.
A split second before they collided, the Special seemedto disappear, slipping out of sight like a coin in a magician’shand. In her next stride Tally felt something hard connectwith her shin, and pain shot up her leg. Her body tumbledforward, hands reaching out to break her fall, the containerslipping from her grasp.
She hit the ground hard, skidding on her palms. Asshe rolled through the dirt, Tally glimpsed the SpecialUGLIES 293crouching behind her. The woman had simply ducked,invisibly fast, and Tally had tripped over her like some awkwardlittlie in a brawl.
Shaking her head and spitting the dirt out of her mouth,Tally spotted the container just out of reach. She scrambledtoward it, but a staggering weight crashed down on her, drivingher face-first into the ground. She felt her wrists pulledback and bound, hard plastic cuffs cutting into her flesh.
She struggled, but couldn’t move.
Then the awful weight lifted, and a nudge from a bootflipped her over effortlessly. The Special stood over her,smiling coldly, holding the container. “Now, now, ugly,” thecruel pretty said. “You just calm down. We don’t want tohurt you. But we will if we have to.”
Tally started to speak, but her jaw clenched with pain.
It had plowed into the ground when she’d fallen.
“What’s so important about this?” the Special asked,shaking the container and trying to peer through its translucentplastic.
Out of the corner of her eye, Tally saw the Boss makinghis way toward the forest. His run was slow and tortured,the duffel bag too heavy for him.
“Open it and see,” Tally spat painfully.
“I will,” she said, still smiling. “But first things first.”
She turned her attention toward the Boss, and her posturesuddenly transformed into something animal, crouchedand coiled like a cat ready to spring.
294 Scott WesterfeldTally rolled back onto her shoulders, thrashing outwildly with both feet. Her kick connected with the container,and it popped open, a puff of brownish-green dustspraying out over the Special.
For a second, a disbelieving expression spread over thewoman’s face. She made a gagging noise, her whole bodyshuddering. Then her eyes and fists clamped shut, and shescreamed.
The sound wasn’t human. It cut into Tally’s ears like avibrasaw striking metal, and every muscle in her bodyfought to get free of the handcuffs, her instincts demandingthat she cover her ears. With another wild kick, she rolledherself over and stumbled to her feet, staggering in thedirection of the forest.
A tickle grew in Tally’s throat as the pepper dust dispersedon the wind. She coughed as she ran, eyes wateringand stinging until she was half-blind. With her hands tiedbehind her, Tally lurched into the brush off-balance, tumblingto the ground as her bare feet caught on something inthe dense vegetation.
She struggled forward, trying to drag herself out ofsight.
Blinking away tears, she saw that the Special’s inhumanscream had been some kind of alarm. Three more of thecruel pretties had responded. One led the pepper-coveredSpecial away at arm’s length, and the others approached theforest.
UGLIES 295Tally froze, the brush barely concealing her.
Then she felt a tickle in her throat, a slowly growingirritation. Tally held her breath, closing her eyes. But herchest began to shudder, her body twitching, demanding toexpel traces of the pepper from her lungs.
She had to cough.
Tally swallowed again and again, hoping spit could putout the fire in her throat. Her lungs demanded oxygen, butshe didn’t dare breathe. One of the Specials was only astone’s throw away, scanning the forest with slow back-andforthsweeps of his head, his eyes searching the dense treesrelentlessly.
Gradually, painfully, the flames seemed to expire inTally’s chest, the cough dying a quiet death inside her. Sherelaxed, finally letting out her breath.
Over the thunder of hovercars and crackle of burningbuildings and sounds of battle, the Special somehow heardher soft exhalation. His head turned swiftly, eyes narrowing,and in what seemed like a single motion he was by her side,a hand on the back of her neck. “You’re a tricky one,” he said.
She tried to answer, but wound up coughing savagelyinstead, and he forced her face down in the dirt before shecould manage another breath.
THE RABBIT PEN
They marched her to the rabbit pen, where about fortyhandcuffed Smokies sat inside the wire fence. A dozen or soSpecials stood in a cordon around them, watching theircaptives with empty expressions. By the entrance to thecompound a few rabbits hopped aimlessly, too addled bytheir sudden freedom to make a break for it.
The Special who had captured Tally took her to the endfarthest from the gate, where a handful of Smokies withbloody noses and black eyes were clustered.
“Armed resistor,” he said to the two cruel pretties whoguarded this end of the pen, and shoved her down to theground among the others.
She stumbled and fell onto her back, where her weightstretched the cuffs painfully across her wrists. When shestruggled to turn over, a foot planted itself into her backand pushed her up. For a moment, she thought the shoebelonged to a Special, but it was one of the other Smokies,helping her up the only way he could. She managed to situp cross-legged.
The wounded Smokies around her smiled grimly, noddingencouragement.
“Tally,” someone hissed.
She struggled to turn toward the voice. It was Croy, a cutover his eye bleeding down onto his cheek, one side of hisface covered with dirt. He scooted himself a bit closer. “Youresisted?” he said. “Huh. Guess I was wrong about you.”
Tally could only cough. Traces of the burning pepperseemed stuck in her lungs, like the embers of a fire thatwouldn’t go out. Tears still streamed from her eyes.
“I noticed you slept through breakfast call this morning,”
he said. “Then when the Specials came, I figured you’dpicked an awfully convenient time to disappear.”
She shook her head, forced words through the cindersin her throat. “I was out late with David. That’s all.”
Speaking made her sore jaw ache.
Croy frowned. “I haven’t seen him all morning.”
“Really?” She blinked away tears. “Maybe he got away.”
“I doubt anyone did.” Croy jutted his chin toward thegate of the pen. A large group of Smokies was on its way,guarded by a squad of Specials. Among them, Tally recognizedfaces from those who’d made a stand at the mess hall.
“They’re just mopping up now,” he said.
“Have you seen Shay?”
Croy shrugged. “She was at breakfast when theyattacked, but I lost track of her.”
“What about the Boss?”
298 Scott WesterfeldCroy looked around. “No.”
“I think he got away. He and I made a run together.”
A dark smile crossed Croy’s face. “That’s funny. Healways said he wouldn’t mind getting captured. Somethingabout a face-lift.”
Tally managed to smile. But then she thought about thebrain lesions that went along with becoming pretty, and ashiver passed through her body. She wondered how manyof these captives knew what was really going to happento them.
“Yeah, the Boss was going to give himself up, to help meget away, but I couldn’t have made it through the forest.”
“Why not?”
She wriggled her toes. “No shoes.”
Croy raised an eyebrow. “You picked the wrong day tosleep late.”
“I guess so.”
Outside the overcrowded rabbit pen, the new arrivalswere being organized into groups. A pair of Specials movedthrough the pen, flashing a reader into the bound Smokies’
eyes, taking them outside one by one.
“They must be separating everyone by city,” Croy said.
“Why?”
“To take us home,” he said coldly.
“Home,” she repeated. Just last night, that word hadchanged its meaning in her mind. And now home wasdestroyed. It lay around her in ruins, burning and captured.
UGLIES 299She scanned the captives, looking for Shay and David.
The familiar faces in the crowd were haggard, dirty, crumpledby shock and defeat, but Tally realized that she no longerthought of them as ugly. It was the cold expressions of theSpecials, beautiful though they were, that seemed horrific toher now.
A disturbance caught her eye. Three of the invaderswere carrying a struggling figure, bound hand and foot,through the pen. They marched straight to the resistors’
corner and dumped her onto the ground.
It was Shay.
“Watch this one.”
The two Specials guarding them glanced at the stillwrithing figure. “Armed resistor?” one asked.
There was a pause. Tally saw that one of the Specialshad a bruise marring his pretty face.
“Unarmed. But dangerous.”
The three left their captive behind, their cruel gracemarked with a touch of hurry.
“Shay!” Croy hissed.
Shay rolled herself over. Her face was red, her lips puffyand bleeding. She spat, saliva trailing from her mouth to abloodred glob on the dusty ground.
“Croy,” she managed with a thick tongue.
Then her eyes fell on Tally.
“You!”
“Uh, Shay . . . ,” Croy began.
300 Scott Westerfeld“You did this!” Her whole body writhed like a snake inits death throes. “Stealing my boyfriend wasn’t enough? Youhad to betray the whole Smoke!”
Tally closed her eyes and shook her head. It couldn’t betrue. She had destroyed the pendant. The fire had consumedit.
“Shay!” Croy said. “Calm down. Look at her. She foughtthem.”
“Are you blind, Croy? Look around you! She did this!”
Tally took a deep breath and forced herself to look atShay. Her friend’s eyes burned with hatred.
“Shay, I swear to you, I didn’t. I never . . .” Her voicefaltered.
“Who else could have led them here?”
“I don’t know.”
“We can’t blame each other, Shay,” Croy said. “It could’vebeen anything. A satellite image. A scouting mission.”
“A spy.”
“Will you look at her, Shay?” Croy cried. “She’s tied up,like us. She resisted!”
Shay slammed her eyes shut and shook her head.
The two Specials with the eye-reader had reached theresistors’ corner of the pen. One stood back while the otherstepped forward warily. “We don’t want to hurt you,” sheannounced. “But we will if we have to.”
The cruel pretty grabbed Croy’s chin and flashed thereader in his eye. She looked at its readout.
UGLIES 301“Another one of ours,” she said.
The other Special raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t know wehad so many runaways.”
The two hauled Croy to his feet and marched himtoward the largest group of Smokies outside. Tally bit herlip. Croy was one of Shay’s old friends, so these twoSpecials were from her own city. Maybe all the invaderswere.
It had to be a coincidence. This couldn’t be her fault.
She’d seen the pendant burn!
“So you’ve got Croy on your side too now, I see,” Shayhissed.
Tears began to fill Tally’s eyes, but not from the pepperthis time. “Look at me, Shay!”
“He suspected you from the beginning. But I told himevery time, ‘No, Tally’s my friend. She’d never do anythingto hurt me.’”
“Shay, I’m not lying.”
“How did you change Croy’s mind, Tally? The sameway you changed David’s?”
“Shay, I never meant for that to happen.”
“So where were you two last night?”
Tally swallowed, trying to hold her voice steady. “Justtalking. I told him about my necklace.”
“That took all night? Or did you just decide to makeyour move before the Specials came? One last game withhim. With me.”
302 Scott WesterfeldTally lowered her head. “Shay . . .”
A hand grabbed her chin and forced it up. She blinked,and a dazzling red light flashed.
The Special looked at the device closely. “Hey, it’s her.”
Tally shook her head. “No.”
The other Special looked at the readout, nodding confirmation.
“Tally Youngblood?”
She didn’t answer. They lifted her to her feet and dustedher off.
“Come with us. Dr. Cable wants to see you immediately.”
“I knew it,” Shay hissed.
“No!”
They pulled Tally toward the gate of the pen. Shetwisted her head around to look back, trying to think ofwords that would explain.
Shay glared up at her from the ground, bloody teethgritted, her eyes falling to Tally’s bound wrists. A secondlater, Tally felt the pressure release, and her hands poppedapart. The Specials had cut her handcuffs.
“No,” she said softly.
One of the Specials squeezed her shoulder. “Don’tworry, Tally, we’ll have you home in no time.”
The other chimed in. “We’ve been looking for thisbunch for years.”
“Yeah, good work.”
IN CASE OF DAMAGE
They took her to the library. It had been transformed into aheadquarters for the invasion, the long tables filled withportable workscreens manned by Specials, its usual quietreplaced by a buzz of clipped exchanges and commands.
The razor voices of the cruel pretties set Tally’s teeth on edge.
Dr. Cable waited at one of the long tables. Reading anold magazine, she seemed almost relaxed, at a remove fromthe activity around her.
“Ah, Tally.” She bared her teeth in an attempt at a smile.
“Nice to see you. Sit down.”
Tally wondered what was behind the doctor’s greeting.
The Specials had treated Tally like an accomplice. Hadsome signal from the pendant reached them before she haddestroyed it?
In any case, her only chance of escape was to playalong. She pulled out a chair and sat down.
“Goodness. Look at you,” Dr. Cable said. “For someonewho wants to be a pretty, you’re always such a sight.”
“I’ve had a rough morning.”
“You seem to have been in a scrape.”
Tally shrugged. “I was just trying to get out of the way.”
“Indeed.” Dr. Cable placed the magazine facedown on thetable. “That’s something you don’t seem to be very good at.”
Tally coughed twice, the last bit of pepper leaving herlungs. “I guess not.”
Dr. Cable glanced at her workscreen. “I see we had youamong the resistors?”
“Some of the Smokies already suspected me. So when Iheard you guys coming, I tried to get out of town. I didn’twant to be around when everyone realized what was happening.
In case they got mad at me.”
“Self-preservation. Well, at least you’re good at something.”
“I didn’t ask to come here.”
“No, and you took your time, too.” Dr. Cable leanedback, making a steeple of her long, thin fingers. “How longhave you been here exactly?”
Tally forced herself to cough again, wondering if shedared lie. Her voice, still harsh and uneven from inhalingthe pepper, wasn’t likely to give her away. And although Dr.
Cable’s office back in the city might be one big lie detector,this table and chair were solid wood, without any tricksinside.
But Tally hedged. “Not that long.”
“You didn’t get here as quickly as I’d hoped.”
“I almost didn’t make it at all. And when I did, it wasUGLIES 305ages after my birthday. That’s why they suspected me.”
Dr. Cable shook her head. “I suppose I should havebeen worried about you, out in the wild all alone. PoorTally.”
“Thanks for your concern.”
“I’m sure you would have used the pendant if you’dgotten into any real trouble. Self-preservation being yourone skill.”
Tally sneered. “Unless I’d fallen off a cliff. Which almosthappened.”
“We still would have come for you. If the pendant hadbeen damaged, it would have sent a signal automatically.”
The words sunk in slowly: If the pendant had been damaged. . . Tally gripped the edge of the table, trying not toshow any emotion.
Dr. Cable narrowed her eyes. She might not havemachines to read Tally’s voice and heartbeat and sweat,but her own perceptions were alert. She’d chosen thosewords to provoke a reaction. “Speaking of which, whereis it?”
Tally’s fingers went to her neck. Of course, Dr. Cablehad noticed the pendant’s absence immediately. Her questionshad been leading to this moment. Tally’s brain racedfor an answer. The handcuffs were off. She had to get out ofthere, to the trading post. Hopefully, her hoverboard stilllay on the roof, unfolded and charging in the morning sun.
“I hid it,” she said. “I was scared.”
306 Scott Westerfeld“Scared of what?”
“Last night, after I was sure this really was the Smoke,I activated the pendant. But they have this thing that detectsbugs. They found the one on my board—the one you putthere without telling me.”
Dr. Cable smiled, spreading her hands helplessly.
“That almost blew the whole thing,” Tally continued.
“So after I activated the pendant, I got scared they’d knowa transmission had been sent. I hid it, in case they camelooking.”
“I see. A certain amount of intelligence sometimesaccompanies a strong sense of self-preservation. I’m gladyou decided to help us.”
“Like I had a choice?”
“You always had a choice, Tally. But you made the rightchoice. You decided to come here and find your friend, tosave her from a life of being ugly. You should be happyabout that.”
“I’m thrilled.”
“So pugnacious, you uglies. Well, you’ll be growingup soon.”
A chill went down Tally’s spine at the words. To Dr.
Cable, “growing up” meant having your brain changed.
“There’s just one more thing you have to do for me,Tally. Do you mind getting the pendant from where you’vehidden it? I don’t like to leave loose ends lying around.”
Tally smiled. “I’d be happy to.”
UGLIES 307“This officer will accompany you.” Dr. Cable lifted afinger, and a Special appeared at her side. “And just to keepyou safe from your Smokey friends, we’ll make it look likeyou’ve been a brave resistor.”
The Special pulled Tally’s hands together behind herback, and she felt plastic bite into her wrists again.
She took a breath, her pulse pounding in her head,then forced herself to say, “Whatever.”
“This way.”
Tally led the Special toward the trading post, taking inthe situation. The Smoke had been beaten into silence.
Fires were left to burn freely. Some were already exhausted,clouds of smoke still rising from the blackened wood andswirling through the camp.
A few faces turned to look up with suspicion at Tally.
She was the only Smokey still walking around. Everyoneelse was on the ground, handcuffed and under guard, mostof them gathered near the rabbit pen.
She tried to give those who saw her a grim smile, hopingthey noticed that she was handcuffed just like theywere.
When they reached the trading post, Tally looked up. “Ihid it on the roof.”
The Special eyed the building suspiciously. “All right,then,” he said. “You wait here. Sit down and don’t stand up.”
She shrugged, kneeling carefully.
308 Scott WesterfeldThe Special swung himself onto the roof with an easethat made Tally shiver. How was she going to overcome thiscruel pretty? Even if her hands weren’t tied, he was bigger,stronger, faster.
A moment later, his head stuck out over the edge.
“Where is it?”
“Under the rapchuck.”
“The what?”
“The rapchuck. You know, the old-fashioned thingiewhere the roofline connects with the abbersnatch.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“It’s Smokey slang, I guess. Let me show you.”
A fleeting expression crossed the Special’s impassiveface—annoyance mixed with suspicion. But he leapeddown again and stacked a couple of crates. He jumped ontothem and pulled Tally up, sitting her on the edge of the roofas if she weighed nothing. “You touch one of those hoverboards,I’ll put you on your face,” he threatened casually.
“There’re hoverboards up here?”
He leaped past her and hauled her onto the roof.
“Find it.”
“No problem.” She walked gingerly up the slanted roof,exaggerating the difficulty of balancing without her hands.
The solar cells of the recharging hoverboards were blindinglybright in the sun. Tally’s board lay too far away, on theother side of the roof, and it was unfolded into eight sections.
Folding it back up would take a solid minute. ButUGLIES 309Tally saw one nearby, Croy’s maybe, that had only beenunfolded once. Its light was green. One kick to close it andthe board would be ready to fly.
But Tally couldn’t fly with her hands bound. She’d falloff on the first turn.
She took a deep breath, ignoring the part of her brainthat saw only the distance to the ground. As long as theSpecial was as fast and strong as he seemed . . .
“I’m wearing a bungee jacket,” she lied to herself.
“Nothing can possibly happen.”
Tally let her bare feet trip, and tumbled down the slope.
The rough shingles battered Tally’s knees and elbows as sherolled, letting out a cry of pain. She fought to stay on the roof,her feet scrambling against the wood to slow herself down.
Just as she reached the edge, an iron grip fastened ontoher shoulder. She rolled off into space, the ground loomingbelow. But Tally jerked to a halt, her arm wrenching in itssocket, and she heard the Special’s razor voice curse.
She swung for a moment, her fall arrested, then theyboth started to slip.
She could hear the Special’s fingers and feet scrabblingfor purchase. However strong he might be, there was nothingfor him to hold on to. Tally was going to fall.
But at least she was going to take him with her.
Then a grunt came from the Special, and Tally felt herselfbeing pulled up in a mighty heave. She was thrownback onto the roof, and a shadow passed over her. Some-310 Scott Westerfeldthing hit the ground below. The Special had thrown himselfoff the roof to save her!
She rolled up into a crouch, stood, and lifted half ofCroy’s hoverboard with one foot, flipping it closed. A noisecame from the edge of the roof, and Tally stepped awayfrom Croy’s board.
The Special’s fingers appeared, then his body swunginto view. He was completely unhurt.
“Are you okay?” she asked. “Wow. You guys are strong.
Thanks for saving me.”
He looked at her coolly. “Just get what we came for.
And try not to kill yourself.”
“Okay.” Tally turned, managed to get a foot tangled ona shingle, and teetered again. The Special had her in hisarms in a second. Finally, she heard real anger in his voice.
“You uglies are so . . . incompetent!”
“Well, maybe if you could—”
Even before it was out of her mouth, she felt the pressureon her wrists disappear. She brought her hands aroundin front, rubbing her shoulders. “Ow. Thanks.”
“Listen,” he said, the razors in his cruel voice sharperthan ever, “I don’t want to hurt you, but—”
“You will if you have to.” Tally smiled. He was standingin exactly the right place.
“Just get whatever Dr. Cable wants. And don’t you daretouch one of those hoverboards.”
“Don’t worry, I don’t have to,” she said, and snappedUGLIES 311the fingers of both hands as loudly as she could.
Croy’s hoverboard jumped into the air, knocking theSpecial’s feet out from under him. The man rolled off theroof again, and Tally leaped onto the board.

RUN
Tally had never ridden a hoverboard barefoot before. YoungSmokies had all kinds of competitions, carrying weights orriding double, but no one was ever that stupid.
She almost fell off on the first turn, zooming down anew path they’d spiked with scrap metal only a few daysbefore. The moment the board banked, her dirty feet skiddedacross the surface, spinning her halfway around. Herarms flailed wildly, but somehow Tally kept her footing,shooting across the compound and over the rabbit pen.
A ragged cheer rose up below as the captives belowsaw her fly past and realized that someone was making anescape. Tally was too busy staying on board to glancedown.
Regaining her balance, Tally realized she wasn’t wearingcrash bracelets. Any fall would be for real. Her toes grippedthe board, and she vowed to take the next turn more slowly.
If the sky had been cloudy this morning, the sun wouldn’thave burned the dew off Croy’s board yet. She’d be lying ina crumpled heap in the pen, probably with a broken neck.
It was lucky she, like most young Smokies, slept with herbelly sensor on.
Already, the whine of hovercars taking off came frombehind.
Tally knew only two ways out of the Smoke by hoverboard.
Instinctively, she headed for the railroad tracks whereshe worked every day. The valley dropped behind her, andshe managed to make the tight turn onto the white-waterstream without falling off. With no knapsack and her heavycrash bracelets missing, Tally felt practically naked.
Croy’s board wasn’t as fast as hers, and it didn’t knowher style. Riding it was like breaking in new shoes—whilerunning for your life.
Over the water, spray struck her face, hands, and feet.
Tally knelt, grasping the edge of the board with wet hands,flying as low as she dared. Down here, the spray mightmake it even harder to ride, but the barrier of the trees kepther invisible. She dared a glance backward. No hovercarshad appeared yet.
As she shot down the winding stream, swerving throughthe familiar hard turns, Tally thought of all the times she andDavid and Shay had raced each other to the work site. Shewondered where David was. Back in camp, bound and readyto be taken to a city he’d never seen before? Would he havehis face filed down and replaced by a pretty mask, his brainturned into whatever mush the authorities decided would beacceptable for a former renegade raised in the wild?
314 Scott WesterfeldShe shook her head, forcing the image from her mind.
David hadn’t been among the captured resistors. If he’dbeen caught, he definitely would have put up a fight. Hemust have escaped.
The roar of a hovercar passed overhead, the shock waveof its passage almost throwing Tally from the board. A fewseconds later, she knew it had spotted her, its screamingturn echoing through the forest as it cut back to the river.
Shadows passed over Tally, and she glanced up to seetwo hovercars following her, their blades shimmering asbright as knives in the midmorning sun. The hovercarscould go anywhere, but Tally was limited by her magneticlifters. 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 prettydriver. In a straight line, they were much faster than anyboard. Her only advantage was that she knew this pathbackward and forward.
Fortunately, it was hardly a straight line.
Tally gripped the board with both hands and jumpedfrom the river to the ridge line. The cars disappeared intothe distance, overshooting as she skimmed the iron vein.
But Tally was out in the open now, the plains spreading outbelow her as huge as ever.
She noticed fleetingly that it was a perfect day, not acloud in the sky.
Tally lay almost flat to cut down wind resistance,UGLIES 315coaxing every ounce of speed from Croy’s board. It didn’tlook like she’d make it to the next cover before the two carshad swung around.
She wondered how they planned to capture her. Use astunner? Throw a net? Simply bowl her over with theirshock waves? At this speed and without crash bracelets,anything that knocked Tally off the board would kill her.
Maybe that was just fine with them.
The scream of their blades came from her right, louderand louder.
Just before the sound reached her, Tally dragged herselfinto a full hoverskid, her momentum crushing her downinto the board. The two hovercars shot past ahead, missingby a mile, but the wind of their passage spun her around incircles. The board flipped over and then back upright, Tallyhanging on with both arms as the world spun wildlyaround her.
She regained control and urged it forward again, bringingit back to full speed before the hovercars could turnback around. The Specials might be faster, but her hoverboardwas more maneuverable.
As the next turn drew near, the hovercars were headedstraight for her, moving slower now, their pilots realizingthat at top speed they would overshoot her every time.
Let them try to fly below tree level, though.
Now riding on her knees, gripping the board with bothhands, Tally twisted into the next turn, dropping to skim316 Scott Westerfeldjust above the cracked dirt of the dry creek bed. She heardthe whine of the hovercars steadily build.
They were tracking her too easily, probably using herbody heat to pick her out among the trees, like the mindersback home. Tally remembered the little portable heatershe’d used to sneak out of the dorm so many times. If onlyshe had it now.
Then Tally remembered the caves that David hadshown her on her first day in the Smoke. Under the coldstones of the mountain, her body heat would disappear.
She ignored the sound of her pursuers, shooting downthe creek bed and across a spur of ore, then onto the riverthat led to the railroad. She careened along above the water,and the hovercars stayed above tree height, patiently waitingfor her to run out of cover.
As the turnoff to the railroad approached, Tallyincreased her speed, skimming the water as fast as shedared. She took the turn at full skid and hurtled down thetrack.
The cars swept away down the river. The Specials mighthave expected her to turn off on another river, but thesudden appearance of an old railroad track had surprisedthem. If she could make it to the mountain before the hovercarscompleted their slow turns, she would be safe.
Just in time, Tally remembered the spot where they hadpulled up the track for scrap metal, and angled her boardfor a stomach-wrenching moment of freefall, soaring overUGLIES 317the gap in a high arc. The lifters found metal again, andthirty seconds later she came to a skidding halt at the endof the line.
Tally jumped from the hoverboard, turned it around,and gave it a shove back toward the river. Without hercrash bracelets to pull it back, the board would drift alongthe 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, andstart their search back there.
Tally crawled up the boulders and into the cave, scramblingback into the darkness. She pulled herself as far as shecould go, hoping that the tons of stone overhead would beenough to hide her from the Specials. When the tiny apertureof light at the mouth of the cave had shrunk to the sizeof an eye, Tally dropped to the stone, panting, her handsstill shaking from the flight, telling herself again and againthat she’d made it.
But what had she made it to? She had no shoes, nohoverboard, no friends, not even a water purifier or a packetof SpagBol. No home to go back to.
Tally was completely alone. “I’m so dead,” she saidaloud.
A voice came out of the dark.
“Tally? Is that you?”
AMAZING
Hands grasped Tally’s shoulders in the darkness.
“You made it!” It was David’s voice.
In her surprise, Tally couldn’t speak, but pulled himclose, burying her face in his chest.
“Who else is with you?”
She shook her head.
“Oh,” David whispered. Then his grip tightened as thecave shuddered around them. The roar of a hovercarpassed slowly overhead, and Tally imagined the Specials’
machines searching every crevice in the rock for signs oftheir prey.
Had she led them to David? That would be perfect, herfinal betrayal.
The low rumble of pursuit passed over them again, andDavid pulled her deeper into the blackness, down a long,twisting path that grew colder and darker. A stillness settledaround her, damp and chill, and Tally imagined again thetrainload of dead Rusties buried among the stones.
They waited in silence for what seemed like hours,holding each other, not daring to speak until long after thesounds of the cars had faded.
Finally David whispered, “What’s happening back atthe Smoke?
“The Specials came this morning.”
“I know. I saw.” He held her tighter. “I couldn’t sleep, soI took my board up the mountain to watch the sunrise.
They went right over me, twenty hovercars at once comingacross the ridge. But what’s happening now?”
“They put everyone in the rabbit pen, separating usinto groups. Croy said they’re going to take us all back toour cities.”
“Croy? Who else did you see?”
“Shay, a couple of her friends. The Boss might havemade it out. He and I made a break together.”
“What about my parents?”
“I don’t know.” She was glad for the darkness. The fearin David’s voice was painful enough. His parents hadfounded the Smoke, and they knew the secret of the operation.
Whatever punishment awaited the other Smokies, itwould be a hundred times worse for them.
“I can’t believe it finally happened,” he said softly.
Tally tried to think of something comforting to say. Allshe could see in the darkness was Dr. Cable’s mockingsmile.
“How did you get away?” he asked.
She pulled his hands to feel her wrists, where the320 Scott Westerfeldplastic bracelets of the handcuffs remained. “I cut throughthese, got up onto the roof of the trading post, and stoleCroy’s hoverboard.”
“With Specials guarding you?”
She bit her lip, saying nothing.
“That’s amazing. My mother says they’re superhuman.
Their second operation augments all their muscles andrewires their nervous system. And they’re so scary-looking,a lot of people just panic the first time they see one.” Heheld her tighter. “But I should have known you wouldescape.”
Tally closed her eyes, which made no difference in theutter darkness. She wished they could stay in there forever,never having to face what was outside. “It was just goodluck.”
Tally was amazed that she was lying again, already. Ifshe had only told the truth about herself in the first place,the Smokies would have known what to do with the pendant.
They could have attached it to some migratory bird,and Dr. Cable would be on her way to South Americainstead of in the library overseeing the destruction of theSmoke.
But Tally knew she couldn’t tell the truth, not now.
David would never trust her again, not after she’d destroyedhis home, his family. She’d already lost Peris, Shay, and hernew home. She couldn’t bear to lose David as well.
And what good would a confession do now? DavidUGLIES 321would be left alone, and so would she, when they mostneeded each other.
His hands ran across her face. “You still amaze me,Tally.”
She felt herself shudder, the words twisting in her likea knife.
In that moment, Tally made a deal with herself.
Eventually she would have to tell David what she hadunwittingly done. Not now, but someday. When she’d madethings better, fixed part of what she had destroyed, maybethen he would understand. “We’ll go after them,” she said.
“Rescue them.”
“Who? My parents?”
“They came from my city, right? So that’s where they’lltake them. And Shay and Croy, too. We’ll rescue them all.”
David laughed bitterly. “Us two? Against a bunch ofSpecials?”
“They won’t expect us.”
“But how will we find them? I’ve never been inside a city,but I hear they’re pretty big. More than a million people.”
Tally took a slow breath, once again remembering herfirst trip out to Dr. Cable’s office. The low, dirt-coloredbuildings at the edge of the city, past the greenbelt andamong the factories. The huge, misshapen hill nearby. “Iknow where they’ll be.”
“You what?” David pulled away from their embrace.
“I’ve been there. Special Circumstances headquarters.”
322 Scott WesterfeldThere was a moment of silence. “I thought they weresecret. Most of the kids who come out here don’t evenbelieve in them.”
She went on, quietly horrified that another lie was cominginto her head with such ease. “A while ago I pulled areally bad trick, the kind that gets you special attention.”
She rested her head against David again, glad that shecouldn’t see his trusting expression. “I snuck into NewPretty Town. That’s where you live right after the operation,having fun all the time.”
“I’ve heard of it. And uglies aren’t allowed in, right?”
“Yeah. It’s a pretty serious trick. Anyway, I wore thismask and crashed a party. They almost caught me, so Igrabbed a bungee jacket.”
“Which is?”
“Like a hoverboard, but you wear it. It was invented forescaping tall buildings in a fire, but new pretties use it mostlyfor goofing around. So I grabbed one, pulled a fire alarm, andjumped off the roof. It freaked a lot of people out.”
“Right. Shay told me the whole story on our way to theSmoke, saying you were the coolest ugly in the world,” hesaid. “But all I was thinking was that things must be reallyboring in the city.”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
“But you got caught? Shay didn’t mention that.”
The lie took form as she spoke, pulling on as manystrands of truth as it could reach. “Yeah, I thought I’d gottenUGLIES 323away, but they found my DNA or something. A few dayslater they took me to Special Circumstances, introduced meto this scary woman. I think she was in charge there. It wasthe first time I’d ever seen Specials.”
“Are they really that bad up close?”
She nodded in the dark. “They’re beautiful, absolutely.
But in a cruel, horrible way. The first time’s the worst. Theyonly wanted to scare me, though. They warned me I’d be inbig trouble if I ever got caught again. Or if I ever told anyone.
That’s why I never mentioned it to Shay.”
“That explains a lot.”
“About what?”
“About you. You always seemed to know how dangerousit was here in the Smoke. Somehow, you understoodwhat the cities were really like, even before my parents toldyou the truth about the operation. You were the only runawayI ever met who really got it.”
Tally nodded. That much was true. “I get it.”
“And you still want to go back there for my parents andShay? To risk getting caught? To risk your mind?”
A sob broke in her voice. “I have to.” To make it upto you.
David held her tighter, tried to kiss her. She had to turnher face away, tears finally coming.
“Tally, you are amazing.”
RUIN
They didn’t leave the cave until the next morning.
Tally squinted in the dawn light, eyes scanning the skyfor a fleet of hovercars suddenly rising above the trees. Butthey hadn’t heard any sound of a search all night. Maybenow that the Smoke was destroyed, catching the last fewrunaways wasn’t worth the trouble.
David’s hoverboard had spent the night hidden in thecave, and hadn’t had any sunlight for a whole day now, butit had just enough charge to get them back up the mountain.
They rode to the river. Tally’s stomach rumbled after awhole day without food, but the first thing she needed waswater. Her mouth was so dry, she could hardly talk.
David knelt at the bank and dipped his head under theicy water. Tally shivered at the sight. Without a blanket orshoes, she’d frozen in the cave all night long, even huddledin David’s arms. She needed warm food in her before shecould face anything colder than the morning breeze.
“What if the Smoke’s still occupied?” she asked. “Wherewill we get food?”
“You said they put prisoners in the rabbit pen? Where’dthe rabbits go?”
“All over.”
“Exactly. They should be everywhere by now. And theyaren’t hard to catch.”
She grimaced. “Well, okay. As long as we cook them.”
David laughed. “Of course.”
“I’ve never actually started a fire,” she admitted.
“Don’t worry. You’re a natural.” He stepped onto hisboard and held out his hand.
Riding double was something Tally had never donebefore, and she found herself glad she was with David andnot just anyone. She stood in front of him, bodies touching,her arms out, his hands around her waist. They negotiatedthe turns without words, Tally shifting her weight gradually,waiting for David to follow her lead. As they slowly got thehang of it, their bodies began to move together, threadingthe board down the familiar path as one.
It worked, as long as they went slowly, but Tally kepther ears open for sounds of pursuit. If a hovercar appeared,a full-speed escape was going to be tricky.
They smelled the Smoke long before they saw it.
From high up the mountain, the buildings had the look ofa burned-out campfire, smoking, crumbling, blackenedthrough and through. Nothing moved in the compound,except a few pieces of paper stirred by the wind.
326 Scott Westerfeld“Looks like it burned all night,” Tally said.
David nodded, speechless. Tally grasped his hand,wondering what it was like to see your childhood homereduced to a smoking ruin.
“I’m so sorry, David,” she said.
“We have to go down. I need to see if my parents . . .”
He swallowed the words.
Tally searched for signs of anyone remaining in theSmoke. It seemed entirely deserted, but there might be afew Specials in hiding, waiting for stragglers to reappear.
“We should wait.”
“I can’t. My parents’ house is on the other side of theridge. Maybe the Specials didn’t see it.”
“If they missed it, Maddy and Az will still be there.”
“But what if they ran?”
“Then we’ll find them. In the meantime, let’s not getcaught ourselves.”
David sighed. “All right.”
Tally held his hand tight. They unfolded the hoverboardand waited as the sun climbed, watching for anysign of a human being below. Occasionally, the embersof the fires flared to life in the breeze, the last standingcolumns of wood collapsing one by one, crumblinginto ash.
A few animals rummaged for food, and Tally watchedin silent horror as a stray rabbit was taken by a wolf, theshort struggle leaving only a patch of blood and fur. ThisUGLIES 327was what was left of nature, raw and wild, only hours afterthe Smoke had fallen.
“Ready to go down?” David asked after an hour.
“No,” Tally said. “But I never will be.”
They approached slowly, ready to turn and fly if anySpecials appeared. But when they reached the edge of town,Tally felt her anxiety turn to something worse: a horriblecertainty that no one remained there.
Her home was gone, replaced by nothing but charredwreckage.
At the rabbit pen, footprints showed where groups ofSmokies had been moved in and out through the gates, awhole community turned into cattle. A few rabbits stillhopped around on the dirt.
“Well, at least we won’t starve,” David said.
“I guess not,” Tally said, although the sight of theSmoke had stilled her hunger. She wondered how Davidalways managed to think practical thoughts, no matterwhat horrors were in front of him. “Hey, what’s that?”
At one corner of the pen, just outside the fence, clustersof little shapes lay on the ground.
They edged the board closer, David squinting througha drifting wall of smoke. “It looks like . . . shoes.”
Tally blinked. He was right. She lowered the board andjumped off, running to the spot.
Tally looked around in amazement. Around her were328 Scott Westerfeldscattered twenty or so pairs of shoes, in all sizes. She fell toher knees to look closer. The laces were still tied, as if theshoes had been kicked off by people whose hands werebound behind them. . . .
“Croy recognized me,” she murmured.
“What?”
Tally turned to David. “When I escaped, I flew rightover the pen. Croy must have seen it was me. He knew Ididn’t have shoes. We joked about it.”
She imagined the Smokies, helplessly awaiting theirfate, making one last gesture of defiance. Croy would havekicked his own shoes off, then whispered to whomever hecould: “Tally’s free, and barefoot.” They’d left her with ascore of pairs to pick from, the only way they could helpthe one Smokey they’d seen escape.
“They knew I’d come back here.” Her voice faltered.
What they didn’t know was who had betrayed them.
She picked a pair that looked about the right size,with grippy soles for hoverboarding, and pulled them on.
They fit, even better than the ones the rangers had givenher.
Jumping back on the board, Tally had to hide thepained expression on her face. This is what it would be likefrom now on. Every gesture of kindness from her victimswould only make her feel worse. “Okay, let’s go.”
The hoverpath wound through the smoking camp, overwhat streets remained between the charred ruins. BesideUGLIES 329a long building, now little more than a ridge of blackenedrubble, David pulled the board to a halt.
“I was afraid of this.”
Tally tried to picture what had stood there. Her knowledgeof the Smoke had evaporated, the familiar streetsreduced to an unrecognizable sprawl of ash and embers.
Then she saw a few blackened pages fluttering in thewind. The library.
“They didn’t take the books out before they . . . ,” shecried. “But why?”
“They don’t want people to know what it was likebefore the operation. They want to keep you hating yourselves.
Otherwise, it’s too easy to get used to ugly faces, normalfaces.”
Tally turned around to look into David’s eyes. “Some ofthem, anyway.”
He smiled sadly.
Then a thought crossed her mind. “The Boss was runningaway with some old magazines. Maybe he escaped.”
“On foot?” David sounded dubious.
“I hope so.” She leaned, and the board slid toward theedge of town.
A blotch of pepper still marked the ground where shehad fought the Special. Tally jumped off, trying to rememberexactly where the Boss had escaped into the forest.
“If he got away, he must be long gone,” David said.
Tally pushed her way into the brush, looking for signs330 Scott Westerfeldof a struggle. The morning sun was streaming through theleaves, and a trail of broken bushes cut into the forest. TheBoss had been none too graceful, leaving a path like acharging elephant.
She found the duffel bag half-hidden, shoved under amoss-covered fallen tree. Zipping it open, Tally saw that themagazines were still there, each one lovingly wrapped in itsown plastic cover. She slung the bag over her shoulder, gladto have salvaged something from the library, a small victoryover Dr. Cable.
A moment later, she found the Boss.
He lay on his back, his head turned at an angle thatTally instantly knew was utterly wrong. His fingers wereclenched, the nails bloody from clawing at someone. Hemust have fought to distract them, maybe to keep themfrom finding the duffel bag. Or maybe for Tally’s sake, havingseen that she’d reached the forest too.
She remembered what the Specials had said to hermore than once: We don’t want to hurt you, but we will if wehave to.
They’d been serious. They always were.
She stumbled back out of the forest, stunned, the bagstill hanging from her shoulder.
“You found something?” David asked.
She didn’t answer.
He saw the expression on her face and jumped downfrom the board. “What happened?”
UGLIES 331“They caught him. They killed him.”
David looked at her, his mouth open. He took a slowbreath. “Come on, Tally. We have to go.”
She blinked. The sunlight seemed wrong, twisted outof shape, like the Boss’s neck. As if the world had becomehorribly distorted while she was among the trees. “Where?”
she murmured.
“We have to go to my parents’ house.”
MADDY AND AZ
David took the board over the ridge so fast that Tallythought she would tumble off. She sank her fingertips intoDavid’s jacket to steady herself, thankful for the new shoes’
grippy soles. “Listen, David. The Boss fought them, that’swhy they killed him.”
“My parents would fight too.”
She bit her lip and focused her whole mind on stayingon board. When they reached the closest approach of thehoverpath to his parents’ house, David jumped off anddashed down the slope.
Tally realized that the board still wasn’t fully charged,and took a moment to unfold it before following, in nohurry to discover what the Specials had done to Maddy andAz. But when she thought of David finding his parents onhis own, Tally ran after him.
It took her long minutes to find the path in the densebrush. Two nights ago they had come in the dark, and froma different direction. She listened for David, but couldn’thear anything. But then the wind shifted, and the smell ofsmoke came through the trees.
Burning the house hadn’t been easy.
Set into the mountain, the stone walls and roof hadprovided no fuel for the fire. But the attackers had evidentlythrown something inside that had contained its own fuel.
The windows were blown outward, glass littering the grassin front of the house, nothing left of the door but a fewcharred scraps swinging on their hinges in the breeze.
David stood in front, unable to cross the threshold.
“Stay here,” Tally said.
She stepped through the doorway, but the air overpoweredher for the first moments. Morning light slanted in,picking out floating particles of ash. They swirled aroundTally, little spiral galaxies set in motion by her passage.
The blackened floorboards crumbled under her feet,burned away to bare stone in some places. But some thingshad survived the fire. She remembered the marble statuettefrom her visit, and one of the rugs hanging on the wallremained mysteriously untouched. In the parlor, a fewteacups stood out white against the charred furniture. Tallypicked one up, realizing that if these cups had survived, ahuman body would leave more than traces.
She swallowed. If David’s parents had been here, whateverwas left of them would be easy to find.
Deeper into the house, in a small kitchen, city-made potsand pans hung from the ceiling, their warped, blackened334 Scott Westerfeldmetal still shining through in a few spots. Tally noted a bagof flour, and a few pieces of dried fruit somehow made herempty stomach growl.
The bedroom was last.
The stone ceiling was low and angled, the paint crackedand blackened from the heat of a raging fire. Tally felt theheat still rising from the bed, the straw mattress and thickquilts fuel for the conflagration.
But Az and Maddy had not been there. There was nothingin the room that could have been human remains. Tallysighed with relief and made her way back outside, recheckingevery room.
She shook her head as she stepped through the door.
“Either the Specials took them, or they got away.”
David nodded and pushed past her. Tally collapsed onthe ground and coughed, her lungs finally protestingagainst the smoke and dust particles she had inhaled. Herhands and arms were black with soot, she realized.
When David came out, he held a long knife. “Hold outyour hands.”
“What?”
“The handcuffs. I can’t stand them.”
She nodded and held out her hands. He carefullythreaded the blade between flesh and plastic, working itback and forth to saw the cuffs.
A solid minute later, he pulled the knife away in frustration.
“It’s not working.”
UGLIES 335Tally looked closer. The plastic had hardly beenmarked. She hadn’t seen how the Special had snipped herhandcuffs in two behind her, but it had only taken amoment. Perhaps they’d used a chemical trigger.
“Maybe it’s some kind of aircraft plastic,” she said.
“Some of that stuff is stronger than steel.”
David frowned. “So how did you get them apart?”
Tally opened her mouth, but nothing came out. Shecould hardly tell him that the Specials had released herthemselves.
“And why do you have two cuffs on each wrist, anyway?”
She looked down dumbly, remembering that they’dhandcuffed her first when she was captured, then again infront of Dr. Cable, before taking her to look for the pendant.
“I don’t know,” Tally managed. “I guess they double-cuffedus. But breaking out was easy. I cut them on a sharp rock.”
“That doesn’t make sense.” David looked at the knife.
“Dad always said this was the most useful thing he’d everbrought from the city. It’s all high-tech alloys and monofilaments.”
She shrugged. “Maybe the part that joined the cuffs wasmade out of different stuff.”
He shook his head, not quite accepting her story.
Finally, he shrugged. “Oh well, we’ll just have to live withthem. But one thing’s for sure: My parents didn’t get away.”
“How do you know?”
He held up the knife. “If he’d had any warning, my dad336 Scott Westerfeldnever would have left without this. The Specials must havesurprised them completely.”
“Oh. I’m sorry, David.”
“At least they’re alive.”
He looked into her eyes, and Tally saw that his panichad faded. “So, Tally, do you still want to go after them?”
“Yes, of course.”
David smiled. “Good.” He sat next to her, looking backat the house and shaking his head. “It’s funny, Mom alwayswarned me that this would happen. They tried to prepareme the whole time I was growing up. And for a long while Ibelieved them. But after all those years, I started to wonder.
Maybe my parents were just being paranoid. Maybe, likerunaways always said, Special Circumstances wasn’t real.”
Tally nodded silently, not trusting herself to speak.
“And now that it’s happened, it seems even less real.”
“I’m sorry, David.” But he could never know how sorry.
Not until she’d helped save his parents, at least. “Don’tworry, we’ll find them.”
“One stop to make first.”
“Where?”
“As I said, my parents were ready for this, ever sincethey founded the Smoke. They made preparations.”
“Like making sure you could take care of yourself,” shesaid, touching the soft leather of his handmade jacket.
He smiled at her, rubbing soot from her cheek with onefinger. “They did a lot more than that. Come with me.”
UGLIES 337F F FIn a cave near the house, the opening so small that Tallyhad to crawl inside on her belly, David showed her thecache of gear his parents had tended for twenty years.
There were water purifiers, direction finders, lightweightclothes, and sleeping bags—by Smokey standards,an absolute fortune in survival equipment. The four hoverboardshad old-fashioned styling, but they were fitted withthe same features as the one Dr. Cable had supplied Tallywith for the trip to the Smoke, and there was a package ofspare belly sensors, sealed against moisture. Everything wasof the highest quality.
“Wow, they did plan ahead.”
“Always,” he said. He picked up a flashlight and testedits beam against the stone. “Every time I came here to checkon all this stuff, I would imagine this moment. A milliontimes I planned exactly what I would need. It’s almost likeI imagined it so much that it had to happen.”
“It’s not your fault, David.”
“If I’d been here—”
“You’d be in a Special Circumstances hovercar rightnow, handcuffed, not likely to rescue anyone.”
“Yeah, and instead, I’m here.” He looked at her. “But atleast you are too. You’re the one thing I never imagined, allthose times. An unexpected ally.”
She managed to smile.
He pulled out a big waterproof bag. “I’m starving.”
338 Scott WesterfeldTally nodded, and her head swam for a moment. Shehadn’t eaten since dinner two nights before.
David rummaged through the bag. “Plenty of instantfood. Let’s see: VegiRice, CurryNoods, SwedeBalls, Pad-Thai . . . any favorites?”
Tally took a deep breath. Back to the wild.
“Anything but SpagBol.”
THE OIL PLAGUE
Tally and David left at sunset.
Each of them rode two hoverboards. Pressed togetherlike a sandwich, the paired boards could carry twice asmuch weight, most of it in saddlebags slung on the underside.
They packed everything useful they could find, alongwith the magazines the Boss had saved. Whatever happened,there would be no point in returning to the Smoke.
Tally took the river down the mountain carefully, theextra weight swaying below her like a ball and chain aroundboth ankles. At least she was wearing crash bracelets again.
Their journey would follow a path very different fromthe one Tally had taken there. That route had been designedto be easy to follow, and had included a helicopter ride withthe rangers. This one wouldn’t be as direct. Overloaded asthey were, Tally and David couldn’t manage even short distanceson foot. Every inch of the journey had to be overhoverable land and water, no matter how far it took themout of their way. And after the invasion, they would be givingany cities a wide berth.
Fortunately, David had made the journey to and fromTally’s city dozens of times, alone and with inexperienceduglies in tow. He knew the rivers and rails, the ruins andnatural veins of ore, and dozens of escape routes he’ddevised in case he was ever pursued by city authorities.
“Ten days,” he announced when they started. “If weride all night and stay low during the day.”
“Sounds good,” Tally said, but she wondered if thatwould be soon enough to save anyone from the operation.
Around midnight the first night of travel, they left thebrook that led down to the bald-headed hill, and followeda dry creek bed through the white flowers. It took them tothe edge of a vast desert.
“How do we get through that?”
David pointed at dark shapes rising up from the sand,a row of them receding into the distance. “Those used to betowers, connected by steel cables.”
“What for?”
“They carried electricity from a wind farm to one of theold cities.”
Tally frowned. “I didn’t know the Rusties used windpower.”
“They weren’t all crazy. Just most of them.” Heshrugged. “You’ve got to remember, we’re mostlydescended from Rusties, and we’re still using their basictechnology. Some of them must have had the right idea.”
The cables still lay buried in the desert, protected byUGLIES 341the shifting sands and a near-total absence of rainfall. Inspots, they had broken or rusted through, so Tally andDavid had to ride carefully, eyes glued to the boards’ metaldetectors. When they reached a gap they couldn’t jump,they would unroll a long piece of cable David carried, thenwalk the boards along it, guiding them like reluctant donkeysacross some narrow footbridge before rolling it upagain.
Tally had never seen a real desert before. She’d beentaught in school that they were full of life, but this one waslike the deserts she’d imagined as a littlie—featurelesshumps stretching into the distance, one after another.
Nothing moved but slow snakes of sand borne by thewind.
She only knew the name of one big desert on the continent.
“Is this the Mojave?”
David shook his head. “This isn’t nearly that big, andit isn’t natural. We’re standing where the white weedstarted.”
Tally whistled. The sand seemed to go forever. “What adisaster.”
“Once the undergrowth was gone, replaced by theorchids, there was nothing to hold the good soil down. Itblew away, and all that’s left is sand.”
“Will it ever be anything but desert?”
“Sure, in a thousand years or so. Maybe by then someonewill have found a way to stop the weed from coming342 Scott Westerfeldback. If we haven’t, the process will just start all overagain.”
They reached a Rusty city around daybreak, a cluster ofunremarkable buildings stranded on the sea of sand.
The desert had invaded over the centuries, dunes flowingthrough the streets like water, but the buildings were inbetter shape than other ruins Tally had seen. Sand woreaway the edges of things, but it didn’t tear them down ashungrily as rain and vegetation.
Neither of them was tired yet, but they couldn’t travelduring the day; the desert offered no protection from thesun, nor any concealment from the air. They camped in thesecond floor of a low factory building that still had most ofits roof. Ancient machines, each as big as a hovercar, stoodsilent around them.
“What was this place?” Tally asked.
“I think they made newspapers here,” David said.
“Like books, but you threw them away and got a new oneevery day.”
“You’re kidding.”
“Not at all. And you thought we wasted trees in theSmoke!”
Tally found a patch of sun shining through where theroof had collapsed, and unfolded the hoverboards torecharge. David pulled out two packets of EggSal.
“Will we make it out of the desert tonight?” she asked,UGLIES 343watching David coax their last few drops of bottled waterinto the purifiers.
“No problem. We’ll hit the next river before midnight.”
She remembered something that Shay had said a longtime ago, the first time she’d shown Tally her survival gear.
“Can you really pee in a purifier? And then drink it, Imean?”
“Yeah. I’ve done it.”
Tally grimaced and looked out the window. “Okay, Ishouldn’t have asked.”
He came up behind her, laughing softly, placing hishands on her shoulders. “It’s amazing what people will doto survive,” he said.
She sighed. “I know.”
The window overlooked a side street, partly protectedfrom the encroaching desert. A few burned-out groundcarsstood half-buried, their blackened frames stark against thewhite sand.
She rubbed the handcuff bracelets still encircling herwrists. “The Rusties sure wanted to survive. Every ruin I’veseen, those cars are always all over, trying to get out. Butthey never seem to make it.”
“A few of them did. But not in cars.”
Tally leaned back into his reassuring warmth. Themorning sun was hours away from burning off the chill ofthe desert.
“It’s funny. At school, they never talk much about how344 Scott Westerfeldit happened—the last panic, when the Rusty world fellapart. They shrug and say that all their mistakes just keptadding up, until it all collapsed like a house of cards.”
“That’s only partly true. The Boss had some old booksabout it.”
“What did they say?”
“Well, the Rusties did live in a house of cards, butsomeone gave it a pretty big shove. No one ever found outwho. Maybe it was a Rusty weapon that got out of control.
Maybe it was people in some poor country who didn’t likethe way the Rusties ran things. Maybe it was just an accident,like the flowers, or some lone scientist who wanted tomess things up.”
“But what happened?”
“A bug got loose, but it didn’t infect people. It infectedpetroleum.”
“Oil got infected?”
He nodded. “Oil is organic, made from old plants anddinosaurs and stuff. Somebody made a bacterium that ateit. The spores spread through the air, and when they landedin petroleum, processed or crude, they sprouted. Like amold or something. It changed the chemical composition ofthe oil. Have you ever seen phosphorus?”
“It’s an element, right?”
“Yeah. And it catches fire on contact with air.”
Tally nodded. She remembered playing with the stuff inchem class, wearing goggles and talking about all the tricksUGLIES 345you could do with it. But no one ever thought of a trick thatwouldn’t kill someone.
“Oil infected by this bacterium was just as unstable asphosphorus. It exploded on contact with oxygen. And as itburned, the spores were released in the smoke, and spreadon the wind. Until the spores got to the next car, or airplane,or oil well, and started growing again.”
“Wow. And they used oil for everything, right?”
David nodded. “Like those cars down there. They musthave been infected as they tried to get out of town.”
“Why didn’t they just walk?”
“Stupid, I guess.”
Tally shivered again, but not from the cold. It was hardto think of the Rusties as actual people, rather than as justan idiotic, dangerous, and sometimes comic force of history.
But there were human beings down there, whatever was leftof them after a couple of hundred years, still sitting in theirblackened cars, as if still trying to escape their fate.
“I wonder why they don’t tell us that in history class.
They usually love any story that makes the Rusties soundpathetic.”
David lowered his voice. “Maybe they didn’t want youto realize that every civilization has its weakness. There’salways one thing we depend on. And if someone takes itaway, all that’s left is some story in a history class.”
“Not us,” she said. “Renewable energy, sustainableresources, a fixed population.”
346 Scott WesterfeldThe two purifiers pinged, and David left her to get them.
“It doesn’t have to be about economics,” he said, bringingthe food over. “The weakness could be an idea.”
She turned to take her EggSal, cupping its warmth inher hands, and saw how serious he looked. “So, David, isthat one of the things you thought about all those years,when you imagined the Smoke being invaded? Did youever wonder what would turn the cities into history?”
He smiled and took a big bite.
“It gets clearer every day.”
FAMILIAR SIGHTS
They reached the edge of the desert the next night, onschedule, then followed a river for three days, all the way tothe sea. It took them still farther north, and the Octoberchill turned as cold as any winter Tally had ever felt. Davidunpacked city-made arctic gear of shiny silver Mylar, whichTally wore over her handmade sweater, her only possessionleft from the Smoke. She was glad she’d dropped off tosleep in it the night before the Specials had invaded, so ithadn’t been lost that day like everything else.
The nights spent on board seemed to pass quickly. Onthis journey, there were none of Shay’s cryptic clues topuzzle through, no brush fires to escape, and no antiqueRusty machines descending to scare her to death. Theworld seemed to be empty except for the occasional ruins,as if Tally and David were the last people alive.
They augmented their diet with fish caught from theriver, and Tally roasted a rabbit on a fire she’d built herself.
She watched David repair his leather clothes and decidedshe would never be able to manage a needle and threadwell. He taught her how to tell time and direction from thestars, and she showed him how to open the expert softwarein the boards to optimize them for night travel.
At the sea they turned south, heading down the northernreaches of the same coastal railway that Tally had followedon her way to the Smoke. David said it had oncestretched unbroken all the way back to Tally’s home cityand beyond. But now there were large gaps in the track,and new cities built on the sea, so they had to travel inlandmore than once. But David knew the rivers, the spurs of therailroad, and the other metal paths the Rusties had leftbehind, so they made good time toward their goal.
Only the weather stopped them. After a few days’ traveldown the coast, a dark and threatening mountain of cloudsappeared over the ocean. At first, the storm seemed reluctantto come ashore, building up its nerve over a slowtwenty-four hours, the air pressure changing in a way thatmade the hoverboards jittery to ride. The storm gave plentyof warning, but when it finally arrived, it was much worsethan Tally had imagined weather could be.
She’d never faced the full force of a hurricane, exceptfrom within the solid structures of her inland city. It wasanother lesson in nature’s savage power.
For three days Tally and David huddled in a plastic tentin the shelter of a rock outcrop, burning chemical glowsticksfor heat and light, hoping the magnets in the hoverboardswouldn’t bring down a lightning strike. For the firstUGLIES 349hours, the drama of the storm kept them fascinated,amazed at its power, wondering when the next peal ofthunder would shake the cliffs. Then the driving rainbecame simply monotonous, and they spent a whole daytalking to each other about anything and everything, butespecially their childhoods, until Tally was sure that sheunderstood David better than anyone she’d ever known.
On their third day trapped in the tent they had a terriblefight—Tally could never remember about what—thatended when David stormed out and stood alone in the icywind for a solid hour. When he finally returned, it took himhours to stop shivering, even wrapped in her arms. “We’retaking too long,” he finally said.
Tally squeezed tighter. It took time to prepare subjectsfor the operation, especially if they were older than sixteen.
But Dr. Cable wouldn’t wait forever to turn David’s parents.
Every day the storm delayed them, there was a greater chancethat Maddy and Az had already gone under the knife. ForShay, the perfect age for turning, the odds were even worse.
“We’ll get there, don’t worry. They measured me everyweek for a year before I was supposed to turn. It takes timeto do it right.”
A shudder passed through his body.
“Tally, what if they don’t bother to do it right?”
The storm ended the next morning, and they emerged tofind that the world’s colors had been transformed. The350 Scott Westerfeldclouds were bright pink, the grass an unearthly green, andthe ocean darker than Tally had ever seen it, marked onlyby the foam crests of waves and a peppering of driftwooddriven into the sea by the wind. They rode all day to makeup for lost time, in a state of shock, amazed that the worldcould still exist after the storm.
Then the railway turned inland, and a few nights laterthey reached the Rusty Ruins.
The ruins looked smaller, as if the spires had shrunk sinceTally had left them behind more than a month before,headed to the Smoke with nothing but Shay’s note and aknapsack full of SpagBol. As she and David passed throughthe dark streets, the ghosts of the Rusties no longer seemedto threaten from the windows.
“The first time I came here at night, this place reallyscared me,” she said.
David nodded. “It’s kind of creepy how well preservedit is. Of all the ruins I’ve seen, it looks the most recent.”
“They sprayed it with something to keep it up forschool trips.” And that was her city in a nutshell, Tally realized.
Nothing left to itself. Everything turned into a bribe,a warning, or a lesson.
They stowed most of their gear in a collapsed buildingfar from the center, a crumbling place that even truantuglies would probably avoid, packing only water purifiers,a flashlight, and a few food packets. David had never beenUGLIES 351any closer to the city than the ruins, so Tally took the leadfor once, following the vein of iron that Shay had shownher months before.
“Do you think we’ll ever be friends again?” she asked asthey hiked toward the river, lugging their boards for thefirst time the entire trip.
“You and Shay? Of course.”
“Even after . . . you and me?”
“Once we’ve rescued her from the Specials, I figureshe’ll forgive you for just about anything.”
Tally was silent. Shay had already guessed that Tallyhad betrayed the Smoke. She doubted anything would evermake up for that.
Once they reached the river, they shot down the whitewater at top speed, glad to be finally free of the heavysaddlebags. With the spray hitting her face, the roar ofwater all around her, Tally could almost imagine this wasone of her expeditions, back when she was a carefree citykid and not a . . .
What was she now? No longer a spy, and she couldn’tcall herself a Smokey anymore. Hardly a pretty, but shedidn’t feel like an ugly, either. She was nothing in particular.
But at least she had a purpose.
The city came into view.
“There it is,” she called to David over the churningwater. “But you’ve seen cities before, right?”
“I’ve been this close to a few. But not much closer.”
352 Scott WesterfeldTally gazed down at the familiar skyline, the slendertrails of fireworks silhouetting the party towers and mansions.
She felt a pang of something like homesickness, butmuch worse. The sight of New Pretty Town had once filledher with longing. Now the skyline was like a vacant shell,all its promises gone. Like David, she had lost her home.
But unlike the Smoke, her city still existed, right in front ofher eyes—but emptied of everything it had once meant.
“We’ve got a few hours before sunrise,” she said. “Wantto take a look at Special Circumstances?”
“The sooner the better,” David said.
Tally nodded, her eyes tracing the familiar patterns oflight and darkness surrounding the city. There was time tomake it there and back before daybreak.
“Let’s go.”
They followed the river as far as the ring of trees and brushthat separated Uglyville from the suburbs. The greenbeltwas the best place to travel without being seen, and a goodride as well.
“Don’t go so fast!” David hissed from behind as shewhipped through the trees.
She slowed down. “You don’t have to whisper. No onecomes here at night. It’s ugly territory, and they’re all in bed,unless they’re tricking.”
“Okay,” he said. “But shouldn’t we be more carefulabout hoverpaths?”
UGLIES 353“Hoverpaths? David, hoverboards work everywhere inthe city. There’s a metal grid under the whole thing.”
“Oh, right.”
Tally smiled. She had been so used to living in David’sworld, it was good to be explaining things to him for once.
“What’s the matter,” she taunted, “can’t keep up?”
David grinned. “Try me.”
Tally turned and shot ahead, cutting a zigzag pathbetween the tall poplars, letting her reflexes guide her.
She remembered her two hovercar rides to SpecialCircumstances. They’d flown across the greenbelt on the farside of town, then out to the transport ring, the industrialzone between the middle-pretty suburbs and outerCrumblyville. The hard part would be getting across theburbs, a risky place to have an ugly face. Luckily, middlepretties went to bed early. Most of them, anyway.
She raced David halfway around the greenbelt, until thelights of the big hospital sat directly across the river fromthem. Tally remembered that first terrible morning, yankedaway from the promised operation, flown out to be interrogated,her future pulled out from under her. She made agrim face, realizing that this time she was actually going outlooking for Special Circumstances.
A tingle passed through her as they left the greenbelt. Aminuscule part of Tally still expected her interface ring towarn her that she was leaving Uglyville. How had she wornthat stupid thing for sixteen years? It had seemed such a354 Scott Westerfeldpart of her back then, but now the idea of being trackedand monitored and advised every minute of the dayrepelled Tally.
“Stick close,” she said to David. “This is the part whereyou should whisper.”
As a littlie, Tally had lived in the middle-pretty burbswith Sol and Ellie. But back then her world had beenpathetically tiny: a few parks, the path to littlie school, onecorner of the greenbelt where she would sneak in to spy onuglies. Like the Rusty Ruins, the neat row houses and gardensseemed much smaller to her now, an endless village ofdollhouses.
They skimmed the rooftops, crouching low. If anybodywas awake, going for a late-night run or walking a dog, theywouldn’t be looking up, hopefully. Their boards barely ahand’s breadth above the housetops, the patterns of shinglespassed underneath hypnotically. All they encountered werenesting birds and a few cats, who flew or scrambled out oftheir way in surprise.
The burbs ended suddenly, a last band of parks fadinginto the transport ring, where underground factories stucktheir heads aboveground and cargo trucks drove concreteroads all day and night. Tally lofted her board and gainedspeed.
“Tally!” David hissed. “They’ll see us!”
“Relax. Those trucks are automatic. Nobody comes outhere, especially at night.”
UGLIES 355He stared down at the lumbering vehicles nervously.
“Look, they don’t even have headlights.” She pointeddown at a giant road-train passing below, the only lightcoming from it a dim red flicker from underneath, the navigationlaser reading the bar codes painted onto the road.
They rode on, David still anxious at the sight of movingvehicles below.
Soon, a familiar landmark rose above the industrialwasteland.
“See that hill? Special Circumstances is just below it.
We’ll climb up top and take a look.”
The hill was too steep to put a factory on, and apparentlytoo big and solid to flatten with explosives andbulldozers, so it stood out on the flat plain like a lopsidedpyramid, steep on one side and sloping on the other,covered with scrub and brown grass. They skimmed up thesloping side, dodging a few boulders and hardscrabbletrees, until they reached the top.
From this height, Tally could see all the way back toNew Pretty Town, the glowing disk of the island about asbig as a dinner plate. The outer city was in darkness, andbelow her, the low, brown buildings of Special Circumstanceswere lit only with the harsh glare of security lights.
“Down there,” she said, her voice falling to a whisper.
“Doesn’t look like much.”
“Most of it’s underground. I don’t know how far downit goes.”
356 Scott WesterfeldThey stared at the cluster of buildings in silence. Fromup here, Tally could see the perimeter wire clearly, stretchingaround the buildings in an almost perfect square. Thatmeant serious security. There weren’t many barriers in thecity—not that you could see, anyway. If you weren’t supposedto be someplace, your interface ring just politelywarned you to move along.
“That fence looks low enough to fly over.”
Tally shook her head. “It’s not a fence, it’s a sensor wire.
You get within twenty meters of it and the Specials willknow you’re there. Same goes if you touch the groundinside it.”
“Twenty meters? Too high to clear on boards. So whatdo we do, knock on the gate?”
“There’s no gate that I can see. I went in and out by hovercar.”
David drummed his fingers on his board. “What aboutstealing one?”
“A hovercar?” Tally whistled. “That’d be a pretty goodtrick. I knew uglies who used to go joyriding, but not inSpecial Circumstances hovercars.”
“It’s too bad we can’t just jump down.”
Tally narrowed her eyes. “Jump?”
“From here. Get on our hoverboards back at the bottomof the hill, zoom up at maximum speed, then jump off fromabout this spot. We’d probably hit that big building deadcenter.”
UGLIES 357“Dead is right. We’d splat.”
“Yeah, I guess. Even with crash bracelets, our armswould probably yank out of their sockets after a fall likethat. We’d need parachutes.”
Tally looked down, plotting trajectories from the hilltop,shushing David when he started to speak again, thewheels of her brain spinning. She remembered the party atGarbo Mansion, which seemed like years ago.
Finally, she allowed herself to smile.
“Not parachutes, David. Bungee jackets.”
ACCOMPLICES
“There’s enough time, if we hurry.”
“Enough time to what?”
“To drop by the Uglyville art school. They have bungeejackets in the basement. A whole rack of spares.”
David took a deep breath. “Okay.”
“You’re not scared, are you?”
“I’m not . . .” He grimaced. “It’s just that I’ve never seenthis many people before.”
“People? We haven’t seen anyone.”
“Yeah, but all those houses on the way here. I keepthinking of people living in every single one, all crowdedtogether like that.”
Tally laughed. “You think the burbs are crowded? Waituntil we get to Uglyville.”
They headed back, taking the rooftops at top speed. Thesky was pitch-black, but by now Tally could read the starswell enough to know that the first notes of dawn were onlya couple of hours away.
Reaching the greenbelt, they turned back the way they’dcome, neither of them speaking, concentrating instead onnavigating through the trees. This arc of the belt broughtthem through Cleopatra Park, where Tally threaded theslalom poles for old times’ sake. Her instincts twitched asthey passed the path down to her old dorm. For a split second,it felt as if she could make the turnoff, climb in throughher window, and go to bed.
Soon, the jumbled spires of the Uglyville art school roseup, and Tally brought the two of them to a halt.
This part was easy. It seemed like a million years agothat Tally and Shay had borrowed one of the school’sbungee jackets for their final trick, Shay’s leap onto the newuglies in the dorm library. Tally retraced her steps to theexact window they’d jimmied, a dirty, forgotten pane ofglass concealed behind decorative bushes, and found that itwas still unlocked.
Tally shook her head. This sort of burglary had seemedso daring two months before. Back then, the library stuntwas the wildest prank she and Shay could dream up. Nowshe saw tricks for what they were: a way for uglies to blowoff steam until they reached sixteen, nothing but a meaninglessdistraction until their mutinous natures were erasedby adulthood, and the operation.
“Give me the flashlight. And wait here.”
She slipped in, found the rack of spares, grabbed twobungee jackets, and was out in less than a minute. When360 Scott Westerfeldshe pulled herself out of the window, she found David staringat her with wide eyes. “What?” she asked.
“You’re just so . . . good at all this. So confident. Itmakes me nervous just being inside city limits.”
She grinned. “This is no big deal. Everyone does it.”
Still, Tally was happy to impress David with her burglaryskills. In the last few weeks he’d taught her how tobuild a fire, scale a fish, pitch a tent, and read a contourmap. It was nice to be the competent one for a change.
They crept back to the greenbelt and reached the riverbefore the sky had even shown a sliver of pink. Zoomingpast the white water and onto the vein of ore, they sightedthe ruins just as the sky was beginning to change.
On the hike down, Tally asked, “Tomorrow night, then?”
“No point in waiting.”
“No.” And there was every reason to attempt the rescuesoon. It had been more than two weeks since the invasionof the Smoke.
David cleared his throat. “So, how many Specials doyou think will be in there?”
“When I was there, a lot. But that was during the day. Iassume they have to sleep sometime.”
“So it’ll be empty at night.”
“I doubt that. But maybe just a few guards.” She didn’tsay more. Even one Special would be more than a matchfor a pair of uglies. No amount of surprise would makeup for the cruel pretties’ superior strength and reflexes.
UGLIES 361“We’ll just have to make sure they don’t see us.”
“Sure. Or hope they’ve got something else to do thatnight.”
Tally trudged ahead, exhaustion taking over now thatthey were safely out of the city, her confidence ebbing withevery step. They’d traveled all this way without thinkingvery hard about the task ahead of them. Rescuing peoplefrom Special Circumstances wasn’t just another ugly-trick,like stealing a bungee jacket or sneaking up the river. It wasserious business.
And although Croy, Shay, Maddy, and Az were probablyall prisoners in those horrible underground buildings, therewas always the possibility that the Smokies had been takensomewhere else. And even if they hadn’t, Tally had no ideaexactly where they’d be inside the warren of puke-brownhallways.
“I just wish we had some help,” she said softly.
David’s hand settled on her shoulder, bringing her to ahalt. “Maybe we do.”
She looked at him questioningly, then followed his gazedown toward the ruins. At the top of the highest spire, thelast few flickers of a safety sparkler were sputtering out.
There were uglies down there.
“They’re looking for me,” he said.
“So what do we do?”
“Is there any other way back to the city?” David asked.
“No. They’ll come hiking right up this path.”
362 Scott Westerfeld“Then we wait.”
Tally squinted, peering at the ruins. The sparkler hadfaded, and nothing was visible in the dawn light just startingto spill across the sky. Whoever was down there hadwaited until the last possible minute to head for home.
Of course, if they were looking for David, these uglieswere potential runaways. Rebellious seniors, not that worriedabout missing breakfast.
She turned to David. “So, I guess uglies are still lookingfor you. And not just here.”
“Of course,” he said. “The rumors will go on for generations,in cities all over, whether I’m around or not. Lightinga sparkler doesn’t usually get an answer, so it’ll be a longtime before even the uglies I’ve met figure out I’m notshowing up. And most of them already don’t even think theSmoke—”
His voice caught, and Tally took his hand. For amoment he’d forgotten that the Smoke didn’t, in fact, existanymore.
They waited in silence, until the sound of scramblingfeet came across the rocks. It sounded like three or souglies, talking in low tones as if still wary of the ghosts ofthe Rusty ruins.
“Watch this,” David whispered, pulling a flashlightfrom his pocket. He stood and pointed the light up at hisown face, switching it on.
“Looking for me?” he said in a loud, commanding voice.
UGLIES 363The three uglies froze, wide-eyed and open-mouthed.
Then the boy dropped his board, and it crashed onto thestones beside him, breaking their paralysis.
“Who are you?” one of the girls managed.
“I’m David.”
“Oh. You mean you’re . . .”
“Real?” He switched off the light and grinned. “Yeah, Iget that question a lot.”
Their names were Sussy, An, and Dex, and they had beencoming to the ruins for a month now. They’d heard rumorsabout the Smoke for years, since an ugly in their dorm hadrun away.
“I’d just moved to Uglyville,” Sussy said, “and Ho was asenior. When he disappeared, everyone had these crazytheories about where he’d gone.”
“Ho?” David nodded. “I remember him. He stayed for afew months, then changed his mind and came back. Bynow, he’s a pretty.”
“But he really made it? To the Smoke?” An asked.
“Yeah. I took him there.”
“Wow. So it’s real.” An shared an excited look with hertwo friends. “We want to see it too.”
David opened his mouth, then closed it. His eyes driftedaway to one side.
“You can’t,” Tally spoke up. “Not right now.”
“Why not?” Dex asked.
364 Scott WesterfeldTally paused. The truth, that the Smoke had beendestroyed by an armed invasion, seemed too far-fetched. Afew months ago, she wouldn’t have believed what her owncity was capable of. And if she admitted that the Smoke wasgone, the rumor would make its way down through generationsof uglies. Dr. Cable’s work would be complete, even ifa few rescued Smokies somehow managed to create anothercommunity in the wild. “Well,” she started, “every so oftenthe Smoke has to move, to stay secret. Right now, it doesn’treally exist. Everyone’s scattered, so we’re not recruiting.”
“The whole place moves?” Dex said. “Whoa.”
An frowned. “Hang on. If you’re not recruiting, thenwhy are you here?”
“To do a trick,” Tally said. “A really big one. Maybe youcould help us. And then when the Smoke is back on its feet,you’ll be the first to know.”
“You want us to help? Like an initiation?” Dex asked.
“No,” David said firmly. “We don’t make anyone doanything to get into the Smoke. But if you do want to help,Tally and I would appreciate it.”
“We just need a diversion,” Tally said.
“Sounds like fun,” An said. She looked at the others,and they waggled their heads.
Up for anything, Tally thought, just like she used to beherself. They were definitely seniors, less than a year behindher, but she was amazed at how young they seemed.
David stared at Tally along with the others, waiting forUGLIES 365the rest of her idea. She had to come up with a diversionright away. A good one. Something that would intrigue theSpecials enough to investigate.
Something that would make Dr. Cable herself takenotice.
“Well, you’ll need a lot of sparklers.”
“No problem.”
“And you know how to get into New Pretty Town,right?”
“New Pretty Town?” An looked at her friends. “But don’tthe bridges report everyone who crosses the river?”
Tally smiled, always happy to teach someone a newtrick.
OVER THE EDGE
The two waited all day in the Rusty Ruins, patches of sunlightcrawling across the floor through the crumbling roof,like slow searchlights marking the hours. It took Tally agesto get to sleep, imagining the leap from the hilltop downinto uncertainty. Finally she passed out, too tired to dream.
Awakening at dusk, she found that David had alreadypacked two knapsacks with everything they might needduring the rescue. They hoverboarded to the edge of theruins, riding two sandwiched hoverboards each. Hopefully,they would need the extra boards when they emerged fromSpecial Circumstances, escapees in tow.
Eating breakfast by the river, Tally took time to appreciateher SwedeBalls. If they got caught tonight, at least shewould never have dehydrated food again. Sometimes Tallyfelt she could almost accept brain damage if it meant a lifewithout reconstituted noodles.
As darkness fell, Tally and David reached the whitewater, and they passed through the greenbelt at the verymoment the lights winked off in Uglyville. By midnight,they were atop the hill overlooking Special Circumstances.
Tally pulled out her binoculars and trained theminward, toward New Pretty Town, where the party towerswere just coming alight.
David blew into his hands, his breath visible in theOctober chill. “You really think they’ll do it?”
“Why not?” she said, watching the dark spaces of thecity’s largest pleasure garden. “They seemed into it.”
“Yeah, but aren’t they taking a big risk? I mean, theyjust met us.”
She shrugged. “An ugly lives for tricks. Haven’t youever done something just because a mysterious strangerintrigued you?”
“I gave my gloves to one once. But it got me into allkinds of trouble.”
She lowered the binoculars and saw that David wassmiling. “You don’t look as nervous tonight,” she said.
“I’m glad we’re finally here, finally ready to do something.
And after those three kids agreed to help us, I feel like . . .”
“Like this might actually work?”
“No, something better.” He looked down at the SpecialCircumstances compound. “They were so ready to help,just to make trouble, just to play a trick. At first, it killed meto hear you act like the Smoke still existed. But if there areenough uglies like them, maybe it will again.”
“Of course it will,” she said softly.
David shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not. But even if we368 Scott Westerfeldblow it tonight, and both wind up under the knife, at leastsomeone will still keep fighting. Making trouble, you know?”
“I hope it’s us, making trouble,” Tally said.
“Me too.” He drew Tally closer, and kissed her. Whenhe released her, Tally took a deep breath and closed hereyes. It felt better to kiss him, more real, now that she wasabout to begin undoing the damage she had done.
“Look,” David said.
In the dark spaces of New Pretty Town, something washappening.
She raised her binoculars.
A shimmering line cut its way across the black expanseof the pleasure garden, like a bright fissure opening in theearth. Then more lines appeared, one by one, tremulousarcs and circles sweeping through the darkness. The varioussegments seemed to sparkle into existence in randomorder, but they eventually formed letters, and words.
Finally, the whole glittering thing was finished, someparts of it newly sprung to life, the first few lines alreadystarting to fade as the sparklers exhausted themselves. Butfor a few moments, Tally could read the whole thing, evenwithout her binoculars. From Uglyville, it must have beenhuge, visible to anyone staring longingly out their window.
It said: THE SMOKE LIVES.
As Tally watched it fade, breaking down into randomlines and arcs again as the sparklers extinguished, she wonderedif the words were really true.
UGLIES 369“There they go,” David said.
Below them, a large circular opening had appeared in thelargest building’s roof, and three hovercars rose up throughthe gap in quick succession, screaming toward the city. Tallyhoped that An, Dex, and Sussy had followed her advice andwere long gone from New Pretty Town. “Ready?” she said.
In answer, David tightened the straps of his bungeejacket and jumped onto his boards.
They rode down the hill, turned around, and started back up.
For the tenth time, Tally checked the light on the collarof her jacket. It was still green, and she could see David’slight bobbing along beside her. No excuses now.
They gained speed as they climbed toward the dark sky,the entire hill like a giant ramp before them. The windpushed Tally’s hair back, and she blinked as bugs pingedagainst her face. She slid carefully toward the front of thepaired boards, the toes of one grippy shoe sticking out pastthe riding surface.
Then the horizon seemed to slip away in front of her,and Tally crouched, ready to jump.
The ground disappeared.
Tally pushed off with all her strength, forcing her hoverboardsdown the steep side of the hill, where they wouldbring themselves to a halt. She and David had switched offtheir crash bracelets—they didn’t want the boards followingthem over the wire. Not yet.
370 Scott WesterfeldTally soared into midair, still climbing for a few moreseconds. The outer city lay below her, a vast patchwork oflight and dark. She spread her arms and legs.
At the peak of her arc, the silence seemed to overwhelmeverything—her stomach-churning weightlessness, the mixof excitement and fear rushing through her, the windagainst her face. Tally tore her eyes from the silently waitingearth and dared a glance at David. Hardly an arm’slength away, he was looking back at her, his face alight.
She grinned at him and turned back to see that theground was approaching now, the speed of her fall buildingslowly. As she’d calculated, they were coming down right inthe middle of the wire. Tally began to anticipate the sickeningjolt of her bungee jacket pulling her up.
For long moments nothing happened, except theground getting closer, and Tally wondered again if bungeejackets could handle a fall from this distance. A hundredversions of what a hard landing would feel like managed tosqueeze into her head. Of course, it probably wouldn’t feellike anything.
Ever again.
The ground grew closer and closer, until Tally wascertain something had gone wrong. Then, with sudden violence,the straps of the jacket came alive, cutting cruellyinto her thighs and shoulders, crushing the air from herlungs, the pressure building as if a huge rubber band werewrapped around her, trying to bring her to a halt. The bareUGLIES 371dirt of the compound rushed up toward her, looking flatand packed and hard, the jacket fighting her momentumdesperately now, crushing her like a fist in its grasp.
Finally, the invisible rubber band stretching toward itsbreaking point, she slowed to a shuddering halt withinreach of the ground, pulling her hands back to keep fromtouching it, her eyeballs straining forward as if theywanted to pop out of her skull.
Then her fall reversed, and she pulled back upward,hover-bouncing head over heels, sky and horizon spinningaround her like a playground ride. Tally had no idea whereDavid was—or where up and down were, for that matter.
This jump was ten times her plunge off Garbo Mansion.
How many bounces would it take to come to a stop?
Now she was falling again, the dirt of the compoundreplaced by a building below her. One foot almost toucheddown onto the roof, but Tally was pulled up again, still barrelingforward with the momentum of her leap off the hill.
She managed to orient herself, sorting out up and downjust in time to see the edge of the roof coming toward her.
She was overshooting the building. . . .
Flailing in the grasp of the jacket, flying helplesslyupward and then down again, she passed the roof’s edge.
But her outstretched hand caught a rain gutter, bringingTally to a sudden halt. “Phew,” she said, looking down.
The building wasn’t very tall, and Tally would bouncein her jacket if she fell, but the moment her feet touched the372 Scott Westerfeldground, the wire would sound an alarm. She gripped therain gutter with both hands.
But the bungee jacket, satisfied that her fall hadstopped, was shutting itself down, gradually returning herto normal weight. She struggled to pull herself up onto theroof, but the heavy knapsack full of rescue equipmentdragged her downward. It was like trying to do a pull-upwearing lead shoes.
She hung there, out of ideas, waiting to fall.
Footsteps came toward her along the roof, and a faceappeared. David.
“Having trouble?”
She grunted an answer, and he reached over, grabbinga strap of the knapsack. The weight mercifully lifted fromher shoulders, and Tally pulled herself over the edge.
David sat back onto the roof, shaking his head. “So,Tally, you used to do that for fun?”
“Not every day.”
“Didn’t think so. Can we rest for a minute?”
She scanned the rooftop. No one coming, no alarmsringing. Apparently, the wire wasn’t built to sense them upthere. Tally smiled.
“Sure. Take two minutes, if you want. It looks like theSpecials weren’t expecting anyone to jump out of the sky.”
INSIDE
The roof of Special Circumstances had looked flat andfeatureless from way up on top of the hill. But standing onit, Tally could see air vents, antennae, maintenance hatchways,and of course the big circular door that the hovercarshad come through, now closed. It was a wonder neither shenor David had cracked their heads hover-bouncing across it.
“So how do we get in?” David asked.
“We should start with this.” She pointed toward thehovercar door.
“Don’t you think they’ll notice if we come through thereand we’re not a hovercar?”
“Agreed. But what if we jam the door? If any moreSpecials show up, we don’t want to make it easy for themto come in after us.”
“Good idea.” David searched through his knapsack,bringing out what looked like a tube of hair gel. Hesqueezed out white goo along the edges of the door, carefulnot to let any touch his fingers.
“What’s that?”
UGLIES 375“Glue. The nano kind. You can stick your shoes to theceiling with this stuff and hang upside down.”
Tally’s eyes widened. She’d heard rumors of tricks youcould play with nanotech glue, but uglies weren’t allowedto requisition it. “Tell me you haven’t done that.”
He smiled. “I had to leave them up there. Waste of goodshoes. So how do we get down?”
Tally pulled a powerjack from her pack and pointed.
“We take the elevator.”
The big metal box sticking up from the roof looked likea storage shed, but the double doors and eye-reader gave itaway. Tally squinted, making sure the reader didn’t flashher, and worked her powerjack between the doors. Theycrumpled like foil.
Through the doors, a dark shaft dropped away tonothingness. Tally clicked her tongue, and the echoes indicatedthat it was a long way down. She glanced at her collarlight. Still green.
Tally turned to David. “Wait for me to whistle.”
She stepped off into thin air.
Falling down the shaft was much scarier than leaping offGarbo Mansion, or even flying into space from the hilltop.
The darkness offered no clue how deep the shaft was, andit felt to Tally as if she might fall forever.
She sensed the walls rushing past, and wondered if shewas drifting toward one side as she fell, about to crashagainst it. She imagined herself bouncing from one wall toanother all the way down, coming to a soft landing alreadybroken and bleeding.
Tally kept her arms close to her sides.
At least she was sure the jacket would work in here.
Elevators used the same magnetic lifters as any other hovercraft,so there was always a solid metal plate at the bottom.
After a long count of five, the jacket gripped Tally. Shebounced twice, straight up and down, then settled onto ahard surface and found herself in silence and absoluteblackness. Stretching out her hands, she felt the four wallsaround her. Nothing suggested the inside of closed doors.
Her fingers came away greasy.
Tally peered upward. A tiny shaft of light shone above,and she could just make out David’s face peering down. Shepursed her lips to whistle, but stopped.
A muffled sound came from below her feet. Someonetalking.
She crouched, trying to grasp the words. But all Tallycould hear was the razor sound of a cruel pretty’s voice. Themocking tone reminded her of Dr. Cable.
Without warning, the floor dropped out from underher. Tally struggled to keep her footing. When the elevatorstopped again, one of her ankles twisted painfully underher weight, but she managed not to fall.
The sound below her faded. One thing was certainnow: The complex wasn’t empty.
376 Scott WesterfeldTally lifted her head and whistled, then huddled in onecorner of the shaft, hands covering her head, counting.
Five seconds later, a pair of feet dangled next to her,then jerked back up, the beam of David’s flashlight swingingaround drunkenly. Gradually, he settled beside her.
“Wow. It’s dark down here.”
“Shhh,” she hissed.
He nodded, sweeping the flashlight around the shaft.
Just above them, it fell on the inside of closed doors. Ofcourse. Standing on the elevator’s roof, they were midwaybetween floors.
Tally interlaced her fingers, locking her hands togetherto give David a boost up to where he could wedge thepowerjack between the doors. They crumpled open with ametal screech that set her hair on end. He pulled himselfthrough, then extended his hand back down to her. Tallygrabbed it and pulled, her grippy shoes squeaking on thewalls of the elevator shaft like a herd of panicked mice.
Everything was making too much noise.
The hallway was dark. Tally tried to convince herselfthat no one had heard them yet. Maybe this whole floor wasempty at night.
She pulled out her own flashlight, pointing it at thedoors as they walked down the hall. Small brown labelsmarked each of them.
“Radiology. Neurology. Magnetic Imaging,” she readsoftly. “Operating Theater Two.”
UGLIES 377She looked at David. He shrugged and gave the door apush. It opened.
“I guess when you’re in an underground bunker, there’sno point in locking up,” he said softly. “After you.”
Tally crept inside. The room was big, the walls linedwith dark and silent machines. An operating tank stoodin the middle, the liquid drained out of it, tubes and electrodeshanging loosely in a puddle at the bottom. Ametal table glistened with the cruel shapes of knives andvibrasaws.
“This looks like photos Mom showed me,” David said.
“They do the operation here.”
Tally nodded. Doctors only put you in a tank if theywere doing major surgery.
“Maybe this is where they make Specials special,” shesaid. The thought didn’t cheer her up.
They returned to the hall. A few doors later, they founda room labeled MORGUE.
“Do you . . . ,” she started to ask.
David shook his head. “No.”
They searched the rest of the floor. Basically, it was asmall, well-equipped hospital. There were no torture chambersor prison cells. And no Smokies.
“Where to now?”
“Well,” Tally said. “If you were the evil Dr. Cable, wherewould you put your prisoners.”
“The evil who?”
378 Scott Westerfeld“Oh. That’s her name, the woman who runs this place.
I remember from when I got busted.”
David frowned, and Tally wondered if she’d said toomuch.
Then he shrugged. “I guess I’d put them in the dungeon.”
“Okay. Down, then.”
They found a set of fire stairs that led down, but they endedafter only one flight. Apparently, they had reached the bottomfloor of Special Circumstances.
“Careful,” Tally whispered. “Before, I heard people gettingout of the elevator below me. They must be somewheredown here.”
This floor was lit by a soft glowstrip running down themiddle of the hallway. A cold finger crept down Tally’s spineas she read the labels on the doors.
“Interrogation Room One. Interrogation Room Two.
Isolation Room One,” she whispered, her flashlight flickeringacross the words like an anxious firefly. “Disorientation RoomOne. Oh, David, they must be down here somewhere.”
He nodded, and pushed one of the doors softly, but itdidn’t budge. He ran his fingers around the edge, searchingfor a place where the powerjack could get purchase.
“Don’t let the eye-reader flash you,” Tally warned softly.
She pointed at the little camera by the door. “If it thinksit sees an eye, it’ll read your iris and check with the bigcomputer.”
UGLIES 379“It won’t have any record of me.”
“And that will freak it out totally. Just don’t get tooclose. It’s automatic.”
“Okay,” David said, nodding. “These doors are toosmooth, anyway. No place to fit a jack in. Let’s keep looking.”
Farther down the hall, a label caught Tally’s eye. “Long-Term Detention,” she whispered. The door had a longexpanse of blank wall on either side, as if the room behindit was bigger than the others. She put her ear to it, listeningfor any hint of sound.
She heard a familiar voice. It was coming closer.
“David!” she hissed, pulling away from the door and throwingherself against the wall. David looked around franticallyfor a place to hide. Both of them were in plain view.
The door slid open, and Dr. Cable’s malevolent voicepoured out.
“You’re simply not trying hard enough. You just have toconvince her that—”
“Dr. Cable,” Tally said.
The woman spun to face Tally, her hawklike featurestwisted in surprise.
“I’d like to give myself up.”
“Tally Youngblood? How—”
From behind, David’s powerjack thudded against theside of Dr. Cable’s head, and she slumped to the floor.
“Is she . . . ,” David stammered. His face was white.
Tally knelt and turned Dr. Cable’s head to inspect the380 Scott Westerfeldwound. No blood, but she was out cold. No matter howformidable cruel pretties were, surprise still had its advantages.
“She’ll be okay.”
“Dr. Cable? What’s going—”
Tally turned toward the voice, her eyes taking in theyoung woman before her.
She was tall and elegant, every feature perfection. Hereyes—deep and soulful, flecked with copper and gold—widened with a troubled look. Her generous lips partedwordlessly, and she raised one graceful hand. Tally’s heartalmost stopped at the beauty of her confusion.
Then recognition filled the woman’s face, her broadsmile illuminating the darkness, and Tally felt herself smilingin return. It felt good to make this woman happy.
“Tally! It is you.”
It was Shay. She was pretty.
RESCUE
“Shay . . .”
“You made it!” Shay’s stunning smile faded as shelooked down at the crumpled form of Dr. Cable. “What’swith her?”
Tally blinked, awed by the transformation of her friend.
Shay’s beauty seemed to snuff out everything inside Tally;her fear, surprise, and excitement fled, leaving nothing butamazement. “You . . . turned.”
“Duh,” she said. “David! You’re both okay!”
“Uh, hi.” His voice was dry, his hands shaking as theygripped the powerjack. “We need your help, Shay.”
“Yeah, I guess you do.” She looked down at Dr. Cableagain and sighed. “You guys still know how to maketrouble, I see.”
Tally averted her eyes from Shay’s beauty, trying tofocus her thoughts. “Where’s everyone else? David’s parents?
Croy?”
“Right in here.” Shay gestured over one shoulder. “Alllocked up. Dr. C has been totally bogus to us.”
UGLIES 383“Keep her here,” David said. He pushed past Shay andthrough the door. Tally saw a row of small doors inside thelong room, each with a tiny window set in it.
Shay beamed at her. “I’m so glad you’re all right, Tally.
The thought of you all alone in the wild . . . of course, youweren’t alone, were you?”
Meeting Shay’s eyes, Tally was overwhelmed all overagain. “What did they do to you?”
Shay smiled. “Besides the obvious?”
“Yeah. I mean, no.” Tally shook her head, not knowinghow to ask Shay if she was brain damaged. “Are any of therest of them . . .”
“Pretty? No. I got to be first, because I made the mosttrouble. You should have seen me kicking and biting.” Shaychuckled.
“They forced you.”
“Yeah, Dr. C can be a major pain. It’s kind of a relief,though.”
Tally swallowed. “A relief . . .”
“Yeah, I hated this place. The only reason I’m here isthat Dr. C wanted me to come by and talk to the Smokies.”
“You live in New Pretty Town,” Tally said softly. Shetried to see past the beauty, to find whatever was behindShay’s wide, perfect eyes.
“Yeah. I just came from the best party.”
Tally finally heard how slurred Shay’s words were. Shewas drunk. Maybe that was why she was acting so strangely.
But she had called the others “the Smokies.” She wasn’tone of them anymore.
“You go to parties, Shay? While everyone here islocked up?”
“Well, I guess so,” Shay said defensively. “I mean, they’llall get out once they turn. Once Cable gets over her stupidpower trip.” She looked at the unconscious form on thefloor and shook her head. “She’s going to be in a bad moodtomorrow, though. Thanks to you two.”
The sound of complaining metal came from the detentionroom. Tally heard more voices.
“Of course, sounds like no one’ll be around to see it,”
Shay said. “So how are you two doing, anyway?”
Tally opened her mouth, closed it, then managed toanswer. “We’re . . . good.”
“That’s great. Listen, sorry I was such a pain about allthat. You know what uglies are like.” Shay laughed. “Well,of course you do!”
“So you don’t hate me?”
“Don’t be silly, Tally!”
“I’m glad to hear that.” Of course, Shay’s blessing wasmeaningless. It wasn’t forgiveness, just brain damage.
“You did me a big favor, getting me out of that Smokeplace.”
“You can’t really believe that, Shay.”
“What do you mean?”
“How could you change your mind so quickly?”
384 Scott WesterfeldShay laughed. “It took exactly one hot shower tochange my mind.” She reached out and touched Tally’s hair,tangled and knotted from two weeks of camping out andriding all day. “Speaking of showers, you are a total mess.”
Tally blinked. Hot tears were forcing themselves intoher eyes. Shay had wanted so much to keep her own face,to live on her own terms outside the city. But that desire hadbeen extinguished.
“I didn’t mean to . . . betray you,” she said softly.
Shay glanced over her shoulder, then turned back andsmiled. “He doesn’t know that you were working forDr. C, does he? Don’t worry, Tally,” she whispered, puttingone elegant finger to her lips. “Your ugly little secret is safewith me.”
Tally swallowed, wondering if Shay had found out thewhole story. Maybe Dr. Cable had told them all what she’ddone.
A buzzing sound came from beside Dr. Cable. On thework tablet she had been carrying, a request light blinkedwith an incoming call.
Tally picked up the tablet and handed it to Shay. “Talkto them!”
Shay winked, pushed a button, and said, “Hey, it’s me,Shay. No, I’m sorry, Dr. Cable’s busy. Doing what? Well, it’scomplicated . . .” She muted the device. “Shouldn’t you berescuing people or something, Tally? That is the point ofthis little trick, right?”
UGLIES 385“You’ll stay here?”
“Duh. This looks bubbly. Just because I’m pretty doesn’tmean I’m totally boring.”
Tally brushed past her and into the room. Two doorshad been ripped open, David’s mother and another Smokeyfreed. The two were dressed in orange jumpsuits, withstunned and sleepy looks on their faces. David was workinganother door, his powerjack thrust into a small slot atfloor level.
Tally saw Croy’s face peering wide-eyed through one ofthe tiny windows, and planted her powerjack under hisdoor. It whined to life, and the thick metal screeched asit bent upward. “David, they know something’s up!” shecalled.
“Okay. We’re almost done here.”
Her jack had wrenched a small gap in the metal, not bigenough. Tally reset the tool, and the metal groaned again.
Her days of pulling up railroad ties soon paid off, the jacktearing a hole the size of a doggy door.
Croy’s arms appeared, then his head, his jumpsuit rippingon jagged spurs of metal as he wriggled. Maddygrabbed his hands and pulled him through. “That’s everyonewho’s left,” she said. “Let’s go.”
“What about Dad!” David cried.
“We can’t help him.” Maddy ran into the hall.
Tally and David shared an anxious look, and followed.
Maddy was dashing down the hall toward the elevator,386 Scott Westerfelddragging Shay by the wrist behind her. Shay stabbed thetablet’s talk button and said, “Wait a second, I think she’sjust coming back now. Hold please.” She giggled andmuted the device again.
“Bring Cable!” Maddy called. “We need her!”
“Mom!” David ran after her.
Tally looked at Croy, then down at Dr. Cable’s crumpledform. Croy nodded, and they each took a wrist, draggingthe woman along the slick floor at a trot, Tally’s grippyshoes squealing.
When the party reached the elevator, Maddy grabbedDr. Cable by the collar and pulled her up to the eye-reader.
The woman groaned once, softly. Maddy carefully priedopen one of her eyes, and the elevator pinged, its doors slidingopen.
Maddy tugged off the doctor’s interface ring anddropped her to the floor, then pulled Shay inside. Tally andthe other Smokies followed, but David stood his ground.
“Mom, where’s Dad?”
“We can’t help him.” Maddy yanked the tablet awayfrom Shay and cracked it against the wall, then pulledDavid in against his protests. The doors closed, and the elevatorasked, “Which floor?”
“Roof,” Maddy said, the interface ring still in her hand.
The elevator began to move, Tally’s ears complaining at theswift ascent.
“What’s our escape plan?” Maddy snapped. The glazedUGLIES 387look was completely gone from her eyes, as if she’d gone tosleep last night expecting to be rescued this morning.
“Uh, hoverboards,” Tally managed to answer. “Four ofthem.” Realizing that she hadn’t done so yet, Tally adjustedher crash bracelets to call them in.
“Oh, cool!” Shay said. “You know, I haven’t been boardingsince I left the Smoke?”
“There’s seven of us,” Maddy said. “Tally, you take Shay.
Astrix and Ryde, double up. Croy, you go alone and throwthem off the track. David, I’ll ride with you.”
“Mom . . . ,” David pleaded, “if he’s pretty, can’t youcure him? Or at least try?”
“Your father’s not pretty, David,” she answered softly.
“He’s dead.”

GETAWAY
“Give me a knife.” Maddy held out her hand, ignoring theshocked look on her son’s face.
Tally scrambled through her knapsack. She passed hermultiknife to Maddy, who pulled out a short blade and cuta piece from the arm of her jumpsuit. When the elevatorreached roof level, its doors slid halfway open and groanedto a halt, revealing the uneven hole Tally had torn to gainentry. They slipped through one by one and ran for the edgeof the roof.
A hundred meters away, Tally saw the hoverboardscruising across the compound, called by her crashbracelets. Alarms were ringing all around them now. If bysome magic the Specials hadn’t noticed the escape so far,the riderless boards had tripped the wire.
Tally spun around, looking for David. He was stumblingalong at the back of the group, half in a daze. Shecaught him by his shoulders. “I’m so sorry.”
He shook his head. Not at her, not at anything in particular.
390 Scott Westerfeld“I don’t know what to do, Tally.”
She took his hand. “We have to run. That’s all we cando right now. Follow your mother.”
He looked into her eyes, his face wild. “Okay.” Hestarted to say more, but the words were drowned out by anoise like huge fingernails scraping metal. The hovercardoor was fighting against the nanotech glue, setting thewhole roof shuddering.
Maddy, last out of the elevator, had jimmied its dooropen with a powerjack. Its voice kept repeating, “Elevatorrequested.”
But there were other ways onto the roof. Maddy turnedto David. “Glue down those hatches so they can’t get out.”
His gaze cleared for a moment, and he nodded.
“I’ll get the boards,” Tally said, turning to dash for theedge of the roof. When she reached it, she jumped intospace, hoping her bungee jacket still had some charge.
After one bounce, Tally was on the ground running. Theboards sensed her crash bracelets and sped toward her.
“Tally! Look out!”
She looked over her shoulder at Croy’s shout. A squadof Specials was headed toward her across the compound, anopen door behind them at ground level. They ran inhumanlyfast, covering the ground with long, loping strides.
The boards nudged her calves from behind, like dogsready to play. Tally leaped up, teetering for a moment withone foot on each pair of sandwiched boards. She’d neverheard of anyone riding four boards at once. But the closestcruel pretty was only a few strides away.
Tally snapped her fingers and rose swiftly into the air.
The Special jumped, amazingly high, the fingers of oneoutstretched hand just brushing the front edge of theboards. The contact set them wobbling beneath Tally. It waslike standing on a trampoline while someone else jumpedon it. The other Specials watched from the ground below,waiting for her to fall.
But Tally regained her balance and leaned forward,heading back toward the building. The boards picked upspeed, and seconds later Tally leaped off onto the roof,kicking one pair of hoverboards to Croy. He pulled themapart while she separated the other two.
“Go now,” Maddy said. “Take this.”
She handed Tally a swatch of orange fabric, a small bitof circuitry visible on one side. Tally noticed that Maddyhad cut pieces from the forearms of all the jumpsuits.
“There’s a tracker in that cloth,” Maddy said. “drop itsomewhere to throw them off.”
Tally nodded, looking around for David. He was runningtoward them, his face set into a grim mask, the tube ofglue crushed and empty in his hand. “David—,” she started.
“Go!” Maddy shouted, pushing Shay onto the boardbehind Tally.
“Um, no crash bracelets?” Shay said, her feet unsteady.
“This is not my first party tonight, you know.”
UGLIES 391“I know. Hold on,” Tally said, and shot away from theroof.
The two of them teetered for a moment, almost losingtheir balance. But Tally steadied herself, feeling Shay’s armswrap tightly around her waist.
“Whoa, Tally! Slow down!”
“Just hang on.”
Tally leaned into a turn, sickened by the sluggishness ofthe board. Not only was it carrying two, but Shay’s wobblymoves were freaking it out.
“Don’t you remember how to ride?”
“Sure!” Shay said. “Just a little rusty, Squint. Plus a littletoo much to drink tonight.”
“Just don’t fall off. It’ll hurt.”
“Hey! I didn’t ask to be rescued!”
“No, I guess you didn’t.” Tally looked down as theysoared over Crumblyville, skipping the greenbelt to headstraight back toward the river. If Shay hit the ground at thisspeed, she’d be worse than hurt. She’d be dead.
Like David’s father. Tally wondered how he’d died. Hadhe tried to escape the Specials, like the Boss? Or had Dr.
Cable done something to him? One thought stuck in hermind: However it had happened, it was her fault.
“Shay, if you fall off, take me with you.”
“What?”
“Just hold on to me and don’t let go, no matter what.
I’m wearing a bungee jacket and bracelets. We should392 Scott Westerfeldbounce.” Probably. Unless the jacket pulled her one wayand the bracelets the other. Or Tally’s and Shay’s combinedweight was too much for the lifters.
“So give me the bracelets, silly.”
Tally shook her head. “No time to stop.”
“Guess not. Our Special friends are going to be royallypissed.” Shay clung tighter.
They were almost at the river, with no sign of pursuitbehind them. The nanotech glue must have beenputting up quite a fight. But Special Circumstances hadother hovercars—the three they’d seen leave earlier, atleast—and regular wardens had them too.
Tally wondered if Special Circumstances would call forhelp from the wardens, or whether they’d keep the wholesituation a secret. What would the wardens think of theunderground prison? Did the regular city governmentknow what the Specials had done to the Smoke, or to Az?
Water flashed below her, and Tally dropped the swatchof orange cloth as they turned. It fluttered away, downtoward the river. The current would take it back toward thecity, in the opposite direction of their escape route.
Tally and David had agreed to rendezvous upriver, along way past the ruins, where he had found a cave yearsbefore. Because its entrance was covered by a waterfall, itwould shelter them from heat sensors. From there, theycould hike back to the ruins to retrieve the rest of theirequipment, and then . . .
UGLIES 393Rebuild the Smoke? Seven of them? With Shay as theirhonorary pretty? Tally realized that they hadn’t made plansbeyond tonight. The future hadn’t seemed real until now.
Of course, they still might all be caught.
“You think it’s true?” Shay shouted. “What Maddy said?”
Tally dared a glance back at Shay. Her pretty face lookedworried.
“I mean, Az was fine when I visited a few days ago,”
Shay said. “I thought they were going to make him pretty.
Not kill him.”
“I don’t know.” It was hardly something Maddy wouldlie about. But maybe she was mistaken.
Tally leaned forward, skimming the river low and fast,trying to leave the cold feeling in her stomach behind.
Spray struck their faces as they hit the white water. Shayhad started to ride properly, leaning with the slow arcs ofthe river’s bends. “Hey, I remember this!” she shouted.
“Do you remember anything else from before youroperation?” Tally yelled over the roar of water.
Shay ducked behind Tally as they struck a wall of spray.
“Of course, silly.”
“You hated me. Because I stole David from you. BecauseI betrayed the Smoke. Remember?”
Shay was silent for a moment, only the roar of whitewater and the rushing wind around them. Finally, sheleaned closer, her voice thoughtful in Tally’s ear. “Yeah, Iknow what you mean. But that was all ugly stuff. Crazy love394 Scott Westerfeldand jealousy and needing to rebel against the city. Everykid’s like that. But you grow up, you know?”
“You grew up because of an operation? Doesn’t thatstrike you as weird?”
“It wasn’t because of the operation.”
“Then why?”
“It was just good to come home, Tally. It made me realizehow crazy the whole Smoke thing was.”
“What happened to biting and kicking?”
“Well, it took a few days to sink in, you know.”
“Before or after you became pretty?”
Shay went silent again. Tally wondered if you could talksomebody out of their brain damage.
She pulled a position-finder from her pocket. The coordinatesfor the cave were still half an hour away. A glanceover her shoulder didn’t reveal any hovercars, not yet. If allfour boards took different routes to the river, and all ofthem dropped their trackers in different places, the Specialswere going to have a confusing night.
There were also Dex, Sussy, and An, who’d promised totell every tricky ugly they knew to go for a ride tonight. Thegreenbelt would be crowded.
Tally wondered how many uglies had seen the burningletters in New Pretty Town, how many of them knew whatthe Smoke was, or were coming up with their own storiesto explain the mysterious message. What new legends hadshe and David created with their little diversion?
UGLIES 395When they reached a calmer part of the river, Shayspoke up again. “So, Tally?”
“Yeah?”
“Why do you want me to hate you?”
“I don’t want you to hate me, Shay.” Tally sighed. “Ormaybe I do. I betrayed you, and I feel horrible about it.”
“The Smoke wasn’t going to last forever, Tally. Whetheryou turned us in or not.”
“I didn’t turn you in!” Tally cried. “Not on purpose,anyway. And the whole thing with David was just an accident.
I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
“Of course not. You’re just confused.”
“I’m confused?” Tally groaned. “You’re the one who . . .”
She trailed off. How could Shay not understand that she’dbeen changed by the operation? Not just been given apretty face, but also a . . . pretty mind. Nothing else couldexplain how quickly she’d changed, abandoning the rest ofthem for parties and hot showers, leaving her friendsbehind, just as Peris had so many months ago.
“Do you love him?” Shay asked.
“David? I, uh . . . maybe.”
“That’s sweet.”
“It’s not sweet. It’s real!”
“Then why are you ashamed of it?”
“I’m not . . . ,” Tally sputtered. She lost concentrationfor a moment, and the back of the board dipped low, sendinga sheet of water up behind them. Shay whooped and396 Scott Westerfeldheld tighter. Tally gritted her teeth and took them a bithigher.
When Shay had stopped laughing, she said, “And youthink I’m confused?”
“Listen, Shay, there’s one thing I’m not confused about.
I didn’t want to betray the Smoke. I was blackmailed intogoing there as a spy, and when I sent for the Specials, it wasan accident, really. But I’m sorry, Shay. I’m sorry I ruinedyour dream.” Tally felt herself crying, the tears driven backwardby the wind. The trees rushed past in the darkness fora while.
“I’m just glad you two made it back to civilization,”
Shay said softly, holding on tight. “And I’m not sorry aboutwhat happened. If that makes you feel any better.”
Tally thought of the lesions on Shay’s brain, the tinycancers or wounds or whatever they were, that she didn’teven know she had. They were in there somewhere, changingher friend’s thoughts, warping her feelings, gnawing atthe roots of who she was. Making her forgive Tally.
“Thanks, Shay. But no, it doesn’t.”
NIGHT ALONE
Tally and Shay made it to the cave first.
Croy arrived a few minutes later, without warning, heand his board hurtling through the waterfall in a suddenexplosion of splashing and cursing. He tumbled into thedarkness, his body rolling across the stone floor with aseries of sickening thuds.
Tally scrambled from the back of the cave, a flashlightin one hand.
Croy shook his head and groaned. “I lost them.”
Tally looked at the entrance of the cave, the sheet ofwater a solid curtain against the night. “I hope so. Where’severybody else?”
“Don’t know. Maddy told us all to go different ways.
Since I was flying solo, I went all the way around thegreenbelt first to get them off track.” He laid his headback, still panting. A position-finder fell from one of hishands.
“Wow. You went fast.”
“You’re telling me. No crash bracelets.”
UGLIES 399“Been there. At least you had shoes on,” Tally said. “Didanyone chase you?”
He nodded. “I held on to my tracker as long as I could.
Got most of the Specials to follow me. But there were awhole bunch of hoverboard riders in the belt. You know,city kids. The Specials kept getting us confused.”
Tally smiled. Dex, An, and Sussy had done theirwork well.
“Are David and Maddy okay?”
“I wouldn’t know about okay,” he said softly. “But theygot off right after you, and it didn’t look like anyone wasfollowing them. Maddy said they were heading straight forthe ruins. We’re supposed to meet them there tomorrownight.”
“Tomorrow?” Tally said.
“Maddy wanted to be alone with David for a while, youknow?”
Tally nodded, but her heart wrenched inside her. Davidneeded her. At least, she hoped he did. The thought of himdealing with Az’s death without her made the icy feeling inher stomach drop a few more degrees.
Of course, Maddy was there. Az had been her husband,after all, and Tally had only met the man once. But still.
She sighed. Tally tried to remember the last wordsshe’d said to David, and wished they’d been more comforting.
There hadn’t even been time to hold him. Since theinvasion of the Smoke, Tally hadn’t been separated fromDavid for longer than that hour in the storm, and now shewouldn’t see him for a whole day.
“Maybe I should go to the ruins. I could hike out theretonight.”
“Don’t be crazy,” Croy said. “The Specials are still outlooking.”
“But just in case they need anything . . .”
“Maddy said to tell you no.”
Astrix and Ryde showed up a half hour later, coming intothe cave more gracefully than Croy, but with their own storiesof running from hovercars. The pursuit had been confused,the Specials overwhelmed by everything that hadhappened that night.
“They never even got close,” Astrix said.
Ryde shook his head. “They were all over the place.”
“It’s like we won a battle, you know?” Croy said. “Webeat them in their own city. Made them look like fools.”
“Maybe we don’t have to hide in the wild anymore,”
Ryde said. “It could be like when we were uglies, playingtricks. But telling the whole city the truth.”
“And if we get caught, Tally can come and rescue us!”
Croy shouted.
Tally tried to smile at their cheers, but knew shewouldn’t feel good about anything until she saw Davidagain. Not until tomorrow night. She felt exiled, shut outfrom the one thing that really mattered.
400 Scott WesterfeldShay had fallen asleep in a small crevice after complainingabout the dampness and her hair, asking whenthey were going to take her home. Tally crawled back towhere her friend lay and snuggled up next to her, trying toforget the damage that had been done to Shay’s mind. Atleast Shay’s new body wasn’t as painfully skinny; she feltsoft and warm in the damp cold of the cave. Cradled againsther, Tally managed to stop shivering.
But it was a long time before she fell asleep.
She woke up to the smell of PadThai.
Croy had found the food packets and purifier in herknapsack and was making food with water from the fall,apparently trying to placate Shay.
“A little escape was one thing, but I didn’t know youguys were going to drag me all the way out here. I’mthrough with this whole rebellion thing, I’ve got a wickedhangover, and I really need to wash my hair.”
“There’s a waterfall right there,” Croy said.
“But it’s cold! I’m so over this camping-out bogusness.”
Tally crawled out into the big part of the cave, everymuscle stiff, every rock she’d slept on imprinted on her.
Through the curtain of the waterfall, dusk was falling. Shewondered if she’d ever be able to sleep at night again.
Shay was squatting on a rock, digging into the PadThai,complaining that it wasn’t spicy enough. Bedraggled, indirty party clothes, her hair stuck to her face, she was stillUGLIES 401stunning. Ryde and Astrix watched her silently, a bitawestruck by her looks. They were two of Shay’s old friendswho’d run away to the Smoke the time she’d chickened out,so it must have been months since they’d seen a pretty face.
Everyone seemed willing to let her go on complaining.
One thing about being pretty, people put up with yourannoying habits.
“Morning,” said Croy. “SwedeBalls or VegiRice?”
“Whatever’s faster.” Tally stretched her muscles. Shewanted to get to the ruins as soon as possible.
When darkness fell, Tally and Croy crept out from behindthe waterfall. There was no sign of Specials in the sky. Shedoubted anyone was searching this far out. Forty minutesfrom the city on a fast board was a long way.
They gave the all-clear, and everyone rode fartherupriver, to a place where the river’s course twisted closer tothe ruins. A long hike followed, the four uglies sharing theload of boards and supplies. Shay had stopped complaining,settling into a pouty, hungover silence. The walkseemed easy for her. Her wiry fitness from hard work at theSmoke hadn’t faded in two weeks, and the operation actuallyfirmed up a new pretty’s muscles, at least for a while.
Although Shay announced once that she wanted to gohome, heading back on her own didn’t seem to haveentered her mind.
Tally wondered what they were going to do with her.
402 Scott WesterfeldShe knew there was no simple fix. Maddy and Az hadworked for twenty years to no avail. But they couldn’t leaveShay like this.
Of course, the moment she was cured, her hatred forTally would return.
Which was worse: a friend with brain damage, or onewho despised you?
They reached the edge of the ruins after midnight, andboarded down to the abandoned building where Tally andDavid had camped.
David was waiting outside.
He looked exhausted, the dark lines under his eyes visibleeven in starlight. But he embraced Tally the momentshe stepped from the board, his arms tight around her, andshe hugged him back hard. “Are you okay?” she whispered,then felt idiotic. What was he supposed to say to that? “Oh,David, of course you’re not. I’m sorry, I—”
“Shhh. I know.” He pulled away and smiled.
Relief flowed through Tally, and she squeezed David’shands, confirming the realness of him. “I missed you,”
she said.
“Me too.” He kissed her.
“You two are just so cute,” Shay said, combing her hairwith her fingers after the windy ride.
“Hi, Shay.” David gave her a tired smile. “You guys lookhungry.”
UGLIES 403“Only if you have any non-bogus food,” Shay said.
“Afraid not. Three kinds of reconstituted curry.”
Shay groaned and pushed past him into the crumblingbuilding. His eyes followed her, but without any of the awestill in Ryde’s and Astrix’s faces. It was as if David didn’t seeher beauty.
He turned back. “We finally got some luck.”
Tally looked into his lined, fatigued face. “Really?”
“We got that tablet working, the one Dr. Cable wascarrying. Mom was yanking the phone part out so theycouldn’t track us through it, and she got it to display Cable’swork data.”
“About what?”
“All her notes on making pretties into Specials. Not justthe physical part”—he pulled her closer—“but also how thebrain lesions work. It’s everything my parents weren’t toldwhen they were doctors!”
Tally swallowed. “Shay . . .”
He nodded. “Mom thinks she can find a cure.”
HIPPOCRATIC OATH
They stayed at the edge of the Rusty Ruins.
Occasionally, hovercars would pass over the crumblingcity, threading a slow search pattern across the sky. But theSmokies were old hands at hiding from satellites and aircraft.
They placed red herrings across the ruins—chemicalglowsticks that gave off human-size pockets of heat—andcovered the windows of their building with sheets of blackMylar. And of course the ruins were very large; findingseven people in what had once been a city of millions wasno simple matter.
Every night, Tally watched the influence of the “NewSmoke” grow. A lot of uglies had seen the burning messageon the night of the escape, or had heard about it, and thenightly pilgrimages out to the ruins slowly increased, untilsparklers wavered atop high buildings from midnight untildawn. Tally, Ryde, Croy, and Astrix made contact with thecity uglies, starting new rumors, teaching new tricks, andoffering glimpses of the ancient magazines the Boss had salvagedfrom the Smoke. If they doubted the existence of406 Scott WesterfeldSpecial Circumstances, Tally showed them the plastic handcuffbracelets still encircling her wrists, and invited them totry to cut the cuffs off.
One new legend towered above all the rest. Maddy haddecided that the brain lesions couldn’t be kept a secret anymore;every ugly had the right to know what the operationreally entailed. Tally and the others spread the rumoramong their city friends: Not just your face was changed bythe knife. Your personality—the real you inside—was theprice of beauty.
Of course, not every ugly believed such an outrageoustale, but a few did. And some sneaked across to New PrettyTown in the dead of night to talk to their older friends faceto-face, and decided for themselves.
The Specials sometimes tried to crash the party, settingtraps for the New Smokies, but someone always gave awarning, and no hovercar could ever catch a board amongwinding streets and rubble. The New Smokies learned thenooks and crannies of the ruins as if they’d been born there,until they could disappear in a heartbeat.
Maddy worked on the brain cure, using materials salvagedfrom the ruins or brought by city uglies willing toborrow from hospitals and chem classes. She withdrewfrom the rest of them, except for David. She seemedparticularly cool to Tally, who felt guilty for every momentshe spent with David, now that his mother was alone. Noneof them ever talked about Az’s death.
UGLIES 407Shay stayed with them, complaining about the food,the ruins, her hair and clothes, and having to look at all theugly faces around her. But she never seemed bitter, onlyperpetually annoyed. After the first few days she didn’t eventalk about leaving. Perhaps the brain damage made her pliant,or the fact that she hadn’t lived in New Pretty Town forlong. She still remembered them all as friends. Tally sometimeswondered if Shay secretly enjoyed having the onlypretty face in their little rebellion. Certainly, she didn’t doany more work than she would have in the city; Ryde andAstrix obeyed her every command.
David helped his mother, searching the ruins for salvage,and taught wilderness survival tricks to any ugly whowanted to learn. But in the two weeks after his father’sdeath, Tally found herself missing the days when it hadbeen just the two of them.
Twenty days after the rescue, Maddy announced thatshe had found a cure.
“Shay, I want to explain this to you carefully.”
“Sure, Maddy.”
“When you had the operation, they did something toyour brain.”
Shay smiled. “Yeah, right.” She looked across at Tally,wearing a familiar expression. “That’s what Tally keeps tellingme. But you guys don’t understand.”
Maddy folded her hands. “What do you mean?”
“I like the way I look,” Shay insisted. “I’m happier inthis body. You want to talk about brain damage? Look atyou all, running around these ruins playing commando.
You’re all full of schemes and rebellions, crazy with fearand paranoia, even jealousy.” Her eyes skipped back andforth between Tally and Maddy. “That’s what being uglydoes.”
“And how do you feel, Shay?” Maddy asked calmly.
“I feel bubbly. It’s nice not being all raging with hormones.
Of course, it kind of sucks being out here instead ofin the city.”
“No one’s keeping you here, Shay. Why haven’t you left?”
Shay shrugged. “I don’t know. . . . I’m worried aboutyou guys, I guess. It’s dangerous out here, and messing withSpecials isn’t a good idea. You should know that by now,Maddy.”
Tally took a sharp breath, but Maddy’s expression didn’tchange. “And you’re going to protect us from them?” sheasked calmly.
Shay shrugged. “I just feel bad about Tally. If I hadn’ttold her about the Smoke, she’d be pretty right now insteadof living in this dump. And I figure eventually she’ll decideto grow up. We’ll go back together.”
“You don’t seem to want to decide for yourself.”
“Decide what?” Shay rolled her eyes, looking at Tally toconfirm what a bore this was. The two of them had plowedthrough this conversation a dozen times before, until Tally408 Scott Westerfeldhad realized there was no convincing Shay that her personalityhad changed. To Shay, her new attitude was simply theresult of growing up, moving on, leaving all the overheatedemotions of ugliness behind.
“You weren’t always this way, Shay,” David said.
“No, I used to be ugly.”
Maddy smiled gently. “These pills won’t change the wayyou look. They’ll only affect your brain, undoing what Dr.
Cable did to the way your mind works. Then you candecide for yourself how you want to look.”
“Decide? After you’ve messed with my brain?”
“Shay!” Tally said, forgetting her promise to remainsilent. “We’re not the ones messing with your brain!”
“Tally,” David said softly.
“That’s right, I’m the one who’s crazy.” Shay’s voice tookon the tone of her daily round of complaining. “Not youguys, who live in a broken-down building on the edge of adead city, slowly turning into freaks when you could bebeautiful. Yeah, I’m crazy all right . . . for trying to help you!”
Tally sat back and crossed her arms, silenced by Shay’swords. Whenever they had this conversation, realitybecame a little unhinged, as if she and the other NewSmokies might really be the insane ones. It felt like Tally’shorrible first days in the Smoke, when she hadn’t knownwhose side she was on.
“How are you helping us, Shay?” Maddy asked calmly.
“I’m trying to get you to understand.”
UGLIES 409“Just like you did when Dr. Cable used to bring you bymy cell?”
Shay’s eyes narrowed, confusion clouding her face, as ifher memories of the underground prison didn’t fit in withthe rest of her pretty worldview.
“I know Dr. C was horrible to you,” she said. “TheSpecials are psychos—just look at them. But that doesn’tmean you have to spend your whole lives running away.
That’s what I’m saying. Once you turn, Specials won’t messwith you.”
“Why not?”
“Because you won’t make trouble anymore.”
“Why not?”
“Because you’ll be happy!” Shay took a couple of deepbreaths, and her usual calm returned. She smiled, beautifulagain. “Like me.”
Maddy picked up the pills on the table in front of her.
“You won’t take these willingly?”
“No way. You said they’re not even safe.”
“I said there was a small chance something could gowrong.”
Shay laughed. “You must think I’m nuts. And even ifthose pills work, look what they’re supposed to do. Fromwhat I can tell, ‘cured’ means being a jealous, self-important,whiny little ugly-brain. It means thinking you’ve got all theanswers.” She crossed her arms. “In a lot of ways, you andDr. Cable are alike. You’re both convinced you’ve personally410 Scott Westerfeldgot to change the world. Well, I don’t need that. And I don’tneed those.”
“Okay, then.” Maddy picked up the pills and put themin her pocket. “That’s all I have to say.”
“What do you mean?” Tally asked.
David squeezed her hand. “That’s all we can do, Tally.”
“What? You said we could cure her.”
Maddy shook her head. “Only if she wants to be cured.
These are experimental, Tally. We can’t give them to someoneagainst her will. Not when we don’t know if they’llwork.”
“But her mind . . . she’s got the lesions!”
“Hello,” Shay called. “She is sitting right here.”
“Sorry, Shay,” Maddy said mildly. “Tally?”
Maddy pulled aside the Mylar barrier, stepping outonto what the New Smokies called the balcony. It was reallyjust part of the top floor of the building, where the roof hadentirely collapsed, leaving sweeping views of the ruins.
Tally followed. Behind her, Shay was already talkingabout what was for dinner. David came out a moment later.
“So, we give her the pills secretly, right?” Tally whispered.
“No,” Maddy said firmly. “We can’t. I’m not going to domedical experiments on unwilling subjects.”
“Medical experiments?” Tally swallowed.
David took her hand. “You can’t know for sure howsomething like this will work. It’s only a one-percent chance,but it could screw up her brain forever.”
UGLIES 411“It’s already screwed up.”
“But she’s happy, Tally.” David shook his head. “And shecan make decisions for herself.”
Tally pulled her hand away, staring out over the city. Asparkler was already showing on the tall spire, uglies cometo gossip and trade. “Why did we even have to ask? Theydidn’t get her permission when they did this to her!”
“That’s the difference between us and them,” Maddysaid. “After Az and I found out what the operation reallymeant, we realized we’d been party to something horrible.
People had had their minds changed without their knowledge.
As doctors, we took an ancient oath never to do anythinglike that.”
Tally looked into Maddy’s face. “But if you weren’tgoing to help Shay, why did you bother finding a cure?”
“If we knew the treatment would work safely, then wecould give it to Shay and see how she felt about it later. Butto test it, we need a willing subject.”
“Where are we ever going to find one? Anyone who’spretty is going to say no.”
“Maybe for right now, Tally. But if we keep makinginroads into the city, we might find a pretty who wants out.”
“But we know Shay’s crazy.”
“She’s not crazy,” Maddy said. “Her arguments makesense, in fact. She’s happy as she is, and doesn’t want to takea deadly risk.”
“But she’s not really herself. We have to change her back.”
412 Scott Westerfeld“Az died because someone thought like that,” Maddysaid grimly.
“What?”
David put his arm around her. “My father . . .” Hecleared his throat, and Tally waited in silence. Finally hewould tell her how Az had died.
He took a slow breath before continuing. “Dr. Cablewanted to turn them all, but she was worried that Mom andDad might talk about the brain lesions, even after theoperation, because they’d been focused on them for solong.” David’s voice trembled, but it was soft and careful, asif he didn’t dare put any emotion into the words. “Dr. Cablewas already working on ways to change memories, a way oferasing the Smoke forever from people’s minds. When theytook my father for the operation, he never came back.”
“That’s awful,” Tally whispered. She gathered him intoa hug.
“Az was the victim of a medical experiment, Tally,”
Maddy said. “I can’t do the same thing to Shay. Otherwise,she’d be right about me and Dr. Cable.”
“But Shay ran away. She didn’t want to become pretty.”
“She doesn’t want to be experimented on, either.”
Tally closed her eyes. Through the Mylar shade, she couldhear Shay telling Ryde about the hairbrush she’d made. Fordays she’d proudly shown the little brush, made of splintersof wood shoved into a lump of clay, to anyone who wouldlisten. As if it were the most important thing she’d ever done.
UGLIES 413They had risked everything to rescue her. But they hadnothing to show for it. Shay would never be the same.
And it was all Tally’s fault. She’d come to the Smoke,and had brought the Specials, leaving Shay an emptyheadedpretty, and Az dead.
She took a deep breath. “Okay, you’ve got a willingsubject.”
“What do you mean, Tally?”
“Me.”
CONFESSIONS
“What?” David said.
“Your taking the pills won’t prove anything, Tally,”
Maddy said. “You don’t have the lesions.”
“But I will have them. I’ll go back to the city and getcaught, and Dr. Cable will give me the operation. In a fewweeks, you come and get me. Give me the cure. You’ve gotyour subject.”
The three of them stood there in silence. The words hadpoured out of Tally of their own accord. She could hardlybelieve she’d uttered them.
“Tally . . .” David shook his head. “That’s crazy.”
“It’s not crazy. You need a willing subject. Someone whoagrees before they become pretty that they want to be cured,experimental or not. It’s the only way.”
“You can’t give yourself up!” David cried.
Tally turned toward Maddy. “You said you’re ninetyninepercent sure these pills will work, right?”
“Yes. But the one percent could leave you a vegetable,Tally.”
416 Scott Westerfeld“One percent? Compared to breaking into SpecialCircumstances, that’s a breeze.”
“Tally, stop it.” David took her shoulders. “It’s too dangerous.”
“Dangerous? David, you can get across into New PrettyTown no problem. City uglies do it all the time. Just grabme out of my mansion and stick me on a board. I’ll comewith you, just like Shay did. Then you cure me.”
“What if the Specials decide to change your memory?
Like they did my father’s?”
“They won’t,” Maddy said.
David stared at his mother in surprise.
“They didn’t bother with Shay. She remembers theSmoke just fine. Az and I were the only ones they were worriedabout. Because we’d been focused on the brain lesionsfor half our lives, they figured we’d never shut up aboutthem, even as pretties.”
“Mom!” David cried. “Tally’s not going anywhere.”
“And besides,” Maddy continued, “Dr. Cable wouldn’tdo anything to hurt Tally.”
“Stop talking like this is going to happen!”
Tally looked into Maddy’s eyes. The woman nodded.
She knew.
“David,” Tally said. “I have to do this.”
“Why?”
“Because of Shay. It’s the only way that Maddy will cureher. Right?”
Maddy nodded.
“You don’t have to save Shay,” David said slowly andevenly. “You’ve done enough for her. You followed her tothe Smoke, rescued her from Special Circumstances!”
“Yeah, I’ve done a lot for her.” Tally took a breath. “I’mthe reason she’s like this, pretty and brainless.”
David shook his head. “What are you talking about?”
She turned to him, taking his hand. “David, I didn’t cometo the Smoke just to make sure Shay was okay. I came to bringher back to the city.” She sighed. “I came to betray her.”
Tally had imagined telling her secret to David so manytimes, rehearsing this speech to herself almost every night,that she could hardly believe this wasn’t just another nightmarein which the truth was forced from her. But as thereality of the moment sank in, she found the words spillingout in a torrent.
“I was a spy for Dr. Cable. That’s how I knew whereSpecial Circumstances was. That’s why the Specials came tothe Smoke. I brought a tracker with me, ““You’re not making any sense,” David said. “You foughtwhen they came. You escaped. You helped rescue mymother . . .”
“I’d changed my mind. And I never meant to activate thetracker, honestly. I wanted to live in the Smoke. But the nightbefore the invasion, after I found out about the lesions . . .”
She closed her eyes. “After we kissed, I accidentally set it off.”
“What?”
UGLIES 417“My locket. I didn’t mean to. I wanted to destroy it. ButI’m the one who brought the Specials to the Smoke, David.
I’m the reason why Shay is pretty. It’s my fault your father’sdead.”
“You’re making this up! I’m not going to let you—”
“David,” Maddy said sharply, silencing her son, “she’snot lying.”
Tally opened her eyes. Maddy was looking at her sadly.
“Dr. Cable told me everything about how she manipulatedyou, Tally. I didn’t believe her at first, but the night yourescued us, she’d just brought Shay down to confirm it.”
Tally nodded. “Shay knew I was a traitor, at the end.”
“She still knows,” Maddy said. “But it doesn’t matter toher anymore. That’s why Tally has to do this.”
“You’re both crazy!” David shouted. “Look, Mom, justget off your high horse and give Shay the pills.” He reachedout his hand. “I’ll do it for you.”
“David, I won’t let you turn yourself into a monster.
And Tally’s made her choice.”
David looked at them both, unable to believe any of it.
Finally, he found words. “You were a spy?”
“Yes. At first.”
He shook his head.
“Son.” Maddy stepped forward, trying to hold him.
“No!” He turned and ran, tearing the Mylar shade downand leaving the others inside speechless; even Shay wasshocked into silence.
418 Scott WesterfeldBefore Tally could follow, Maddy took her arm in a firmgrip. “You should go to the city now.”
“Tonight? But—”
“Otherwise, you’ll talk yourself out of it. Or David will.”
Tally pulled away. “I have to say good-bye to him.”
“You have to go.”
Tally stared at Maddy and slowly realized the truth.
Although the woman’s gaze held more sadness than anger,there was something cold in her eyes. David might notblame her for Az’s death, but Maddy did.
“Thank you,” Tally said softly, forcing herself to holdMaddy’s gaze.
“For what?”
“For not telling him. For letting me do it myself.”
Maddy shook her head, managing a smile. “Davidneeded you these last two weeks.”
Tally swallowed and stepped away, looking at the city.
“He still needs me.”
“Tally—”
“I’ll go tonight, all right? But I know that David will bethe one who brings me back.”
DOWN THE RIVER
Before leaving, Tally wrote a letter to herself.
It was Maddy’s idea, to put her consent in writing. Thatway, even as a pretty, unable to comprehend why she wouldever want her brain fixed, Tally could at least read her ownwords and know what was about to happen.
“Whatever makes you feel better,” Tally said. “As longas you cure me, no matter what I say. Don’t leave me likeShay.”
“I’ll cure you, Tally. I promise. I just need written consent.”
Maddy handed her a pen and a small, precious pieceof paper.
“I never learned penmanship,” Tally said. “They don’trequire it anymore.”
Maddy shook her head sadly and said, “Okay. You dictate,and I’ll write it.”
“Not you. Shay can write it for me. She took a class,back when she was trying to get to the Smoke.” Tallyremembered the scrawl of Shay’s directions to the Smoke,clumsy but readable.
UGLIES 421F F FThe letter didn’t take long. Shay giggled at Tally’s heartfeltwords, but she wrote them down as directed. There wassomething earnest in the way she put stylus to paper, like alittlie learning how to read.
When they were finished, David still hadn’t come back.
He’d taken one of the hoverboards in the direction of theruins. As she put away her things, Tally kept glancing at thewindow, hoping he would return.
But Maddy was probably right. If Tally saw him again,she would just talk herself out of this. Or maybe Davidwould stop her.
Or worse, maybe he wouldn’t.
But no matter what David said now, he would alwaysremember what she had done, the lives she had cost withher secrets. This was the only way Tally could be certainthat he had forgiven her. If he came to rescue her, shewould know.
“So, let’s get moving,” Shay said when they were done.
“Shay, I’m not going to be gone forever. I’d rather you . . .”
“Come on. I’m sick of this place.”
Tally bit her lip. What was the point of giving herself upif Shay was coming too? Of course, they could alwayssnatch her away again as well. Once the cure was proven towork, they could give it to anyone. Or everyone.
“The only reason I’ve been hanging around this dumpis to try to get you to come back,” Shay said, then loweredher voice. “You know, it’s my fault you’re not already pretty.
I messed up everything by running away. I owe you.”
“Oh, Shay.” Tally’s head began to spin. She closed hereyes.
“Maddy always says I can go anytime. You don’t wantme to go back all alone, do you?”
Tally tried to imagine Shay hiking to the river alone.
“No, I guess not.” She looked at her friend’s face and saw aspark in her eyes, something real ignited by the idea ofgoing on a trip with Tally.
“Please! We’ll have a blast in New Pretty Town.”
Tally spread her hands. “Okay. I guess I can’t stop you.”
They rode together on one hoverboard. Croy came along onanother, to take the boards back when they reached thecity’s edge.
He didn’t talk the whole way down. The other NewSmokies had all heard the fight outside, and finally knewwhat Tally had done. It must have been worse for Croy. Hehad suspected, and she’d lied to him face-to-face. He wasprobably wishing he’d stopped Tally himself before she’dhad a chance to betray them all.
When they reached the greenbelt, though, he forcedhimself to look at her. “What did they do to you, anyway?
To make you do something like that?”
“They said I couldn’t turn, until I’d found Shay.”
He looked away, staring at the lights of New Pretty422 Scott WesterfeldTown, bright in the clear cold of a November night. “Soyou’re finally getting your wish.”
“Yeah. I guess.”
“Tally’s going to be pretty!” Shay said.
Croy ignored her and looked at Tally again. “Thanks forrescuing me, though. That was some trick you guys pulledoff. I hope that . . .” He shrugged, and shook his head. “Seeyou later.”
“I hope so.”
Croy stuck the boards together and headed back upthe river.
“This is going to be the best!” Shay said. “I can’t wait foryou to meet all my new friends. And you can finally introduceme to Peris.”
“Sure.”
They walked down toward Uglyville until they foundthemselves in Cleopatra Park. The earth was hard underneaththeir feet in the late autumn chill, and they huddledclose against the cold. Tally wore her Smoke-made sweater.
She’d wanted Maddy to keep it for her, but she’d left hermicrofiber jacket behind instead. City-made clothes weretoo valuable to waste on someone going back to civilization.
“You see, I was already getting popular,” Shay was saying.
“Having a criminal past is the only way into the reallygood parties. I mean, no one wants to hear about whatclasses you took in ugly school.” She giggled.
UGLIES 423“We should be a hit, then.”
“Duh. When we tell everyone about your kidnappingme right out of Special Circumstances headquarters? Andhow I talked you into escaping from that band of freaks?
But we’re going to have to tone it down, Squint. No one’sever going to believe the truth!”
“No, you’re right about that.”
Tally thought of the letter she’d left with Maddy. Wouldshe even believe the truth in a few weeks’ time? How wouldthe words of a fugitive, desperate, tragic ugly look throughpretty eyes?
For that matter, what was David going to look like aftershe’d been surrounded by new pretty faces twenty-fourhours a day? Would she really believe all that stuff aboutugliness again, or would she remember how someone couldbe beautiful even without surgery? Tally tried to pictureDavid’s face, but it hurt to think of how long it would bebefore she saw him again.
She wondered how long it would take after the operation,before she would stop missing David. It might be afew days before the lesions completely took hold of her,Maddy had warned. But that didn’t mean it was her ownmind, changing itself.
Maybe if she decided to go on missing him, no matterwhat, Tally could keep her mind from changing. Unlikemost people, she knew about the lesions. Maybe she couldbeat them.
424 Scott WesterfeldA dark shape passed overhead, a warden’s hovercar,and Tally instinctively froze. The city uglies had said therewere more patrols out these days. The regular authoritieshad finally noticed that things were changing.
The hovercar halted, then settled softly onto the earthnext to them. A door slid open, and a blinding light poppedon. “All right, you kids . . . oh, sorry, miss.”
The light was on Shay’s face. Then it flicked acrossto Tally.
“What are you two . . . ?” The warden’s voice stumbled.
Didn’t this beat everything? A pretty and an ugly taking astroll together. The warden came closer, confusion all overhis middle-pretty face.
Tally smiled. At least she was causing trouble to the end.
“I’m Tally Youngblood,” she said. “Make me pretty.”

The End