"Really?"
"Really. He was the one who met us when we arrived in the ruins. Him and Croy, camping out and watching for flares. It turns out that those two left the magazines for the city uglies to find, so they'd know the ruins were being visited again." Zane's voice had gotten dreamy, as if he was falling asleep. "At least I finally got to see him again, after chickening out all those months ago." He turned to her. "David really missed you, you know."
"I ruined his life," Tally said softly.
"You didn't do anything on purpose; David understands that now. I told him how when you'd planned to betray the Smoke, it was because the Specials threatened to keep you ugly for life."
"You told him that?" Tally let out a slow breath. "Thanks. I never really had a chance to explain why I'd come to the Smoke, how they'd forced me. Maddy made me leave the same night I confessed everything."
"Yeah. David wasn't happy with her about that. He wanted to talk to you again."
"Oh," she said. There was so much that she and David hadn't gotten straight between them. Of course, the thought of Zane and him discussing her history in great detail didn't exactly thrill Tally, but at least David knew the whole story now. She sighed. "Thanks for telling me all this. It must be weird."
"A little. But you shouldn't feel so bad. About what happened back then."
"Why not? I destroyed the Smoke, and David's father died because of me."
"Tally, everyone in the city is manipulated. The purpose of everything we're taught is to make us afraid of change. I've been trying to explain it to David, how from the day we're born, the whole place is a machine for keeping us under control."
She shook her head. "That doesn't make it right to betray your friends."
"Yeah, well, I did, long before you even met Shay. When it comes to the Smoke, I'm just as much at fault as you."
She looked at him in disbelief. "You? How?"
"Did I ever tell you how I met Dr. Cable?"
Tally looked at him, realizing that this was one conversation they'd never had a chance to finish. "No. You didn't."
"After the night that Shay and I chickened out, most of my friends were gone away to the Smoke. The dorm minders knew I was the leader, so they asked me where everyone had run off to. I played tough, and didn't say a word. So Special Circumstances came for me." His voice grew softer, as if the cuff were still around his wrist. "They took me to that headquarters of theirs out in the factory belt, same as you. I tried to be strong, but they threatened me. Said they'd make me into one of them."
"One of them? A Special?" Tally swallowed.
"Yeah. After that, being a pretty-head didn't seem so bad anymore. So I told them everything I knew. I told them that Shay had planned to run away, but also chickened out, and that's why they knew about her. And that's probably why they started watching …" His voice trailed off.
Tally blinked. "Watching me, when she and I became friends."
He nodded tiredly. "So, you see? I started the whole thing, by not leaving when I was supposed to. I'll never judge you for what happened to the Smoke, Tally. It was my fault as much as yours."
She took his hand, shaking her head. He couldn't accept blame, not after everything he'd gone through. "Zane, no. It can't be your fault. That was a long time ago." She sighed. "Maybe neither of us is to blame."
They were silent for a while, Tally's own words echoing in her head. With Zane lying here in front of her, his mind half-missing, what was the point of wallowing in old guilt — his, or hers, or anyone's? Maybe the bad blood between her and Maddy was as meaningless as the feud between Andrew's village and the outsiders. If they were all going to live together here in the New Smoke, they would have to let the past go.
Of course, things were still complicated.
Tally took a slow breath, then said, "So what do you think of David?"
Zane looked at the arched ceiling dreamily. "He's very intense. Really serious. Not as bubbly as us. You know?"
Tally smiled, and squeezed his hand. "Yeah, I do."
"And kind of … ugly."
She nodded, remembering how back in the Smoke, David had always looked at her as if she was pretty. And at times, looking at him had felt the same as looking into a pretty's face. Maybe when she'd had the real cure, those feelings would come back. Or maybe they were really gone for good, not because of any operation, but just because time had passed, and because of what she'd had with Zane.
When Zane had finally fallen asleep, Tally decided to take a bath. Fausto told her how to get to a spring on the far side of the mountain, choked with icicles at this time of year, but deep enough to submerge your whole body. "Just take a heated jacket," he said. "Or you'll freeze to death before you make it back."
Tally figured death was better than being this filthy, and she needed more than a rubdown with a wet cloth to feel clean again. She also wanted to be alone for a while, and maybe the shock from some freezing water would help her get up the nerve to talk to David.
Hoverboarding down the mountain in the crisp, late afternoon air, Tally was amazed at how clear and bright everything looked. She still found it hard to believe that she hadn't really taken the cure; she felt as bubbly as ever. Maddy had muttered something about a "placebo effect," as if believing you were cured would be enough to fix your brain. But Tally knew it was more than that.
Zane had changed her. From their very first kiss, even before he'd had the cure himself, being with him had made her bubbly. Tally wondered if she even needed the cure now, or if she could stay this way forever on her own. The thought of swallowing the same pill that had eaten away Zane's brain didn't thrill her, even with the anti-nanos as a chaser. Maybe she could skip it altogether, and rely on Zane's magic. They could help each other now, rewiring his brain at the same time Tally fought becoming pretty-minded.
They had come this far together, after all. Even before the pills, they had changed each other.
Of course, David had changed Tally too. Back in the Smoke, he'd been the one who'd convinced her to stay in the wild, even to stay ugly, giving up her future in the city Her reality had been transformed by those two weeks in the Smoke, starting…when? That first time David and she had kissed.
"How lucky is that?" Tally muttered to herself. "Sleeping Beauty with two princes."
What was she supposed to do? Choose between David and Zane? Especially now that all three of them were living together here at Fort Smokey? Somehow it didn't seem fair that she found herself in this position. Tally had barely remembered David when she'd met Zane — but she hadn't wanted to have her memories erased, after all.
"Thanks again, Dr. Cable," she said.
The water looked really cold.
Tally had easily kicked through the layer of ice on top, and was now staring down with dread into the gurgling spring. Maybe smelling bad wasn't the worst thing in the world. Spring would come in only three or four months, after all…
She shivered, turning the heat up in her borrowed jacket, then sighed and started to take off her clothes. This little bath would be very bubbly-making, at least.
Tally smeared a soap packet onto herself before jumping in, rubbing some into her hair, guessing she would last about ten seconds in the half-frozen spring. She knew she'd have to jump — no dangling of the foot or lowering herself in slowly. Only the laws of gravity would keep her going once her naked flesh hit cold water.
Tally took a breath, held it… and leaped into the spring.
The icy water crushed her like a vice, forcing the breath from her lungs, locking every muscle tight. She hugged herself with her arms, rolling into a ball in the shallow pool, but the cold seemed to cut through her flesh and straight into her bones.
Tally fought to take a breath, but managed only shallow little gasps of air, her entire body shaking as if it would break apart. With a titanic act of will she dunked her head in, erasing all sound, the rasp of her breath and gurgle of the spring replaced by the rumble of roiling water. She rubbed furio
usly at her hair with trembling hands.
When her head burst into the air again, Tally drew in great breaths and found herself laughing — everything had turned strangely clear, the world more bubbly than a cup of coffee or a glass of champagne could make it, the sensation more intense than falling toward the earth on her hoverboard. She lay there for a moment in the water, amazed at it all — the clarity of the sky and the perfection of a leafless tree nearby.
Tally remembered her first bath in a cold stream on the way to the Smoke, all those months ago. How it had shifted the way she saw the world — even before the operation had put the lesions on her brain, before she'd met David, much less Zane. Even then, her mind had started to change, realizing that nature didn't need an operation to make it beautiful, it just was.
Maybe she didn't need a handsome prince to stay awake— or an ugly one, for that matter. After all, Tally had cured herself without the pill and had made it all the way here on her own. No one else she'd ever heard of had escaped the city twice.
Maybe she'd always been bubbly, somewhere inside. It only took loving someone — or being in the wild, or maybe just a plunge into freezing water — to bring it out.
Tally was still in the pond when she heard the cry: a hoarse shout that came from the air.
She climbed out hurriedly and the wind cutting through her felt colder than the water. The towels Tally had brought were brittle in the chill air, and she was still drying herself when a hoverboard streaked into view, banking to a halt a few meters away.
David hardly seemed to register that she was naked. He jumped from the board and ran toward her, clutching something in his hand. Skidding to a halt by her pack, he waved the device across it — scanning it for bugs, she realized.
"It's not you," he said. "I knew it wasn't."
Tally was pulling on her clothes. "But you already—" "A signal just started up out of nowhere, broadcasting our location. We picked it up on the radio, but haven't localized it yet." He looked down at her pack, the relieved expression still on his face. "But you didn't bring it."
"Of course I didn't." Tally sat down to yank on her boots. Her pounding heart began to drive the cold from her body. "Don't you scan everyone who joins you?"
"Yeah. But the bug must have been dormant — it only started sending when someone activated it, or maybe it was set to go off at a certain time." His eyes scanned the horizon. "The Specials will be here soon."
She stood. "So we run."
He shook his head. "We can't go anywhere until we find it."
"Why not?" She pulled on crash bracelets.
"It's taken us months to build up the supplies we've got, Tally. We can't leave them all behind, not with all you Crims having just joined us. But we won't know what's safe to take until we figure out where the signal's coming from. It's not showing up anywhere."
Tally hoisted her pack and snapped her fingers, her board rising into the air. As she stepped on, her mind still racing from the freezing bath, she recalled something from earlier that day. "Toothache," she said.
"What?"
"Zane was in the hospital two weeks ago. It's inside him."
Tracker
They swept back up the mountain, banking hard against the high gravities of their turns. Tally stayed in the lead, positive that she was right. The doctors had made Zane unconscious for a few minutes in the hospital while they'd repaired his broken hand. They must have hidden a tracker in his teeth at the same time. Of course, regular city doctors wouldn't have done something like that on their own — it had to be the work of Special Circumstances.
The camp was bedlam when they arrived. New Smokies and Crims ran in and out of the observatory door with equipment, clothing, and food, making two piles beside Croy and Maddy, who stood waving scanners over everything wildly. Others hurriedly repacked the scanned gear, getting ready to flee once the bug was found.
Tally tipped back her hoverboard and forced it up as high as it would go, launching herself over the chaos, directly at the broken dome. When the board reached its maximum height the lifters shuddered, then firmed up as the magnets found the steel frame of the observatory. The crack in the dome was wide enough to glide through, and Tally dropped straight down through the rising smoke, jumping off next to Zane's makeshift bed.
He looked up at her with a soft smile. "Nice entrance, Tally."
She knelt beside him. "Which tooth hurts?"
"What's going on? Everyone's freaking out."
"Which tooth hurts, Zone? You have to show me."
He frowned, but stuck a trembling finger into his mouth, tenderly probing the right side. Tally pulled his hand away and opened his mouth wider, and he made a whimper of protest.
"Shush. I'll explain in a second."
Even in the dim firelight, she could see it: One tooth stood out from the others, its shade of white imperfectly matched — a rushed bit of dentistry, of course.
The signal was coming from Zane.
The wheep of a scanner booting up sounded beside her ear; David had followed her down the hole into the dome. He waved the scanner past Zane's face, and it buzzed angrily. "It's in his mouth?" David asked.
"In his tooth! Get your mother."
"But, Tally—" "Get her! You and I can't take out a tooth!"
He put a hand on her shoulder. "Neither can she. Not in a few minutes."
She stood, staring into his ugly face. "What are you saying, David?"
"Well have to leave him behind. They'll be here soon."
"No!" she shouted. "Go get her!"
David swore and turned away, running toward the door of the observatory. Tally looked down at Zane again.
"What's happening?" he asked.
"They put a tracker in you, Zane. At the hospital."
"Oh," he said, rubbing his face. "I didn't know, Tally, honest. I thought my toothache was from all this wild food."
"Of course you didn't know. You were unconscious for those minutes at the hospital, remember?"
"Are they really going to leave me?"
"I won't let them. I promise."
"I can't go back," he said weakly. "I don't want to be pretty-minded again."
Tally swallowed. If Zane was returned to the city now, the doctors would put the lesions back in, right on top of his blank new tissue. His brain would rewire around them…What chance would he have of staying bubbly?
She couldn't let this happen.
"I'll take you on my hoverboard, Zane — we'll escape on our own if we have to." Her mind raced. She'd still have to get rid of the tracker somehow. She couldn't just bash it out with a rock…Tally looked around for some sort of tool, but the New Smokies had taken everything useful outside to be scanned.
Voices came from the darkness. It was Maddy, David, and Croy. Tally saw that Maddy was carrying some sort of forceps in her hand, and her heart skipped a beat.
Maddy knelt beside Zane and forced open his mouth. He whimpered in pain again as the metal tool probed his teeth.
"Be careful," Tally pleaded softly.
"Hold this." Maddy handed her a flashlight. When Tally pointed it into Zane's mouth, the discolored tooth was obvious.
After a moment, Maddy said, "This isn't good." She released Zane's head, and he fell back onto the blankets with a groan, his eyes closing.
"Just take it out!"
"They've rooted it to the bone." She turned to Croy. "Finish packing up. We have to run."
"Do something for him!" Tally cried.
Maddy took the light from her. "Tally, it's bonded to the bone. I'd have to shatter his jaw to remove it."
"So don't take it out, just make it stop sending! Smash the tooth! He can take it!"
Maddy shook her head. "Pretty teeth are made of the same stuff they use in aircraft wings. You can't just smash them. I'd need special dental nanos to break it down." She turned the flashlight on Tally, reaching for her mouth.
Tally twisted away. "What are you doing?"
"Just making sure about
you."
"But I didn't go into the hos—," Tally began, but Maddy wrenched open her mouth. Tally growled at the back of her throat, but let the woman poke around for a moment; it was quicker than arguing. When she grunted and let go, Tally said, "Satisfied?"
"For now. But we have to leave Zane behind."
"Forget it!" Tally shouted.
"They'll be here in another ten minutes," David said.
"Less." Maddy stood.
Tally's vision swam with spots from the little flashlight. She could hardly see their faces in the firelight. Didn't they understand what Zane had gone through to get here, what he had sacrificed for the cure? "I won't leave him."
"Tally—," David began.
"It doesn't matter," Maddy interrupted. "Technically, she's still a pretty-head."
"I am not!"
"You didn't even take the right pill." Maddy put a hand on David's shoulder. "Tally's still got the lesions. Once they scan her brain, they won't even put her under the knife. They'll think she just came along for the ride."
"Mom!" David shouted. "We are not leaving her!"
"And I'm not coming," Tally said.
Maddy shook her head. "Perhaps the lesions aren't as important as we thought. Your father always suspected that being pretty-minded is simply the natural state for most people. They want to be vapid and lazy and vain" — Maddy glanced at Tally—"and selfish. It only takes a twist to lock in that part of their personalities. He always thought that some people could think their way out of it."
"Az was right," Tally said softly. "I'm cured now." David let out a pained growl. "Cured or not, Tally, you can't stay here. I don't want to lose you again! Mom! Do something!"
"You want to argue with her? Go ahead." Maddy spun on one heel and strode toward the observatory entrance. "We're leaving in two minutes," she said without turning around. "With or without you."
David and Tally were silent for a few moments. It was like when they'd first seen each other in the ruins that morning, neither knowing what to say. Though now, Tally realized, David's face no longer shocked her. Maybe the panic of the moment or the freezing bath had stripped her remaining pretty thoughts away. Or maybe it had simply taken a few hours to align her memories and dreams with the truth…
Pretties u-2 Page 24
