forget the damage that had been done to Shay's mind. At least Shay's new body wasn't as painfully skinny; she felt soft and warm in the damp cold of the cave.
Cradled against her, 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 her knapsack 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 you guys were going to drag me all the way out here.
I'm through with this whole rebellion thing, I've got a wicked hangover, 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, every muscle stiff, every rock she'd slept on imprinted on her. Through the curtain of the waterfall, dusk was falling. She wondered 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, in dirty party clothes, her hair stuck to her face, she was still stunning. Ryde and Astrix watched her silently, a bit awestruck by her looks.
They were two of Shay's old friends who'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 your annoying habits.
'Morning,' said Croy. 'SwedeBalls or VegiRice?'
'Whatever's faster.' Tally stretched her muscles. She wanted to get to the ruins as soon as possible.
When darkness fell, Tally and Croy crept out from behind the waterfall. There was no sign of Specials in the sky. She doubted anyone was searching this far out. Forty minutes from the city on a fast board was a long way.
They gave the all-clear, and everyone rode farther upriver, to a place where the river's course twisted closer to the ruins. A long hike followed, the four uglies sharing the load of boards and supplies.
Shay had stopped complaining, settling into a pouty, hungover silence. The walk seemed easy for her. Her wiry fitness from hard work at the Smoke hadn't faded in two weeks, and the operation actually firmed up a new pretty's muscles, at least for a while. Although Shay announced once that she wanted to go home, heading back on her own didn't seem to have entered her mind.
Tally wondered what they were going to do with her. She knew there was no simple fix.
Maddy and Az had worked for twenty years to no avail. But they couldn't leave Shay like this.
Of course, the moment she was cured, her hatred for Tally would return.
Which was worse: a friend with brain damage, or one who despised you?
They reached the edge of the ruins after midnight, and boarded down to the abandoned building where Tally and David had camped.
David was waiting outside.
He looked exhausted, the dark lines under his eyes visible even in starlight. But he embraced Tally the moment she stepped from the board, his arms tight around her, and she 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's hands, 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 hair with her fingers after the windy ride.
'Hi, Shay.' David gave her a tired smile. 'You guys look hungry.'
'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 crumbling building. His eyes followed her, but without any of the awe still in Ryde's and Astrix's faces. It was as if David didn't see her 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 was carrying. Mom was yanking the phone part out so they couldn't track us through it, and she got it to display Cable's work data.'
'About what?'
'All her notes on making pretties into Specials. Not just the physical part'-he pulled her closer-'but also how the brain lesions work. It's everything my parents weren't told when they were doctors!'
Tally swallowed. 'Shay…'
He nodded. 'Mom thinks she can find a cure.'
They stayed at the edge of the Rusty Ruins.
Occasionally, hovercars would pass over the crumbling city, threading a slow search pattern across the sky. But the Smokies were old hands at hiding from satellites and aircraft. They placed red herrings across the ruins- chemical glowsticks that gave off human-size pockets of heat-and covered the windows of their building with sheets of black Mylar. And of course the ruins were very large; finding seven people in what had once been a city of millions was no simple matter.
Every night, Tally watched the influence of the 'New Smoke' grow. A lot of uglies had seen the burning message on the night of the escape, or had heard about it, and the nightly pilgrimages out to the ruins slowly increased, until sparklers wavered atop high buildings from midnight until dawn.
Tally, Ryde, Croy, and Astrix made contact with the city uglies, starting new rumors, teaching new tricks, and offering glimpses of the ancient magazines the Boss had salvaged from the Smoke. If they doubted the existence of Special Circumstances, Tally showed them the plastic handcuff bracelets still encircling her wrists, and invited them to try to cut the cuffs off.
One new legend towered above all the rest. Maddy had decided that the brain lesions couldn't be kept a secret anymore; every ugly had the right to know what the operation really entailed. Tally and the others spread the rumor among their city friends: Not just your face was changed by the knife. Your personality-the real you inside- was the price of beauty.
Of course, not every ugly believed such an outrageous tale, but a few did. And some sneaked across to New Pretty Town in the dead of night to talk to their older friends face-to-face, and decided for themselves.
The Specials sometimes tried to crash the party, setting traps for the New Smokies, but someone always gave a warning, and no hovercar could ever catch a board among winding streets and rubble.
The New Smokies learned the nooks 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 salvaged from the ruins or brought by city uglies willing to borrow from hospitals and chem classes. She withdrew from the rest of them, except for David. She seemed particularly cool to Tally, who felt guilty for every moment she spent with David, now that his mother was alone. None of them ever talked about Az's death.
Shay stayed with them, complaining about the food, the ruins, her hair and clothes, and having to look at all the ugly faces around her. But she never seemed bitter, only perpetually annoyed. After the first few days she didn't even talk about leaving. Perhaps the brain damage made her pliant, or the fact that she hadn't lived in New Pretty Town for long. She still remembered them all as friends.
Tally sometimes wondered if Shay secretly enjoyed having the only pretty face in their little rebellion. Certainly, she didn't do any more work than she would have in the city; Ryde and Astrix obeyed her every command.
David helped his mother, searching the ruins for salvage, and taught wilderness survival tricks to any ugly
