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The Side You Despise

Thunder ca fiercely and fast, forcing its way into her head and chest It see the surface of the river shimmer with every thud

Tally crouched low in the water, sinking to her neck just before the machine appeared

It ca up dust in a dozen separate windstorer than a hovercar, and a hundred tinets, it beat the air into sub in the sun

When the e churned the water, sending out circular waves as if so across the surface Tally saw people inside, looking down at her canets fighting to keep it on the ground Her knapsack disappeared in the dust, and she saw clothing, the sleeping bag, and packets of SpagBol scattering in the machine’s wake

Tally sank lower into the frantic water, struck by the thought that she would be left here, naked and alone, with nothing She was already half frozen

But the machine dipped forward, just like a hoverboard, andas quickly as it had appeared, leaving her ears pounding and the river’s surface boiling

Tally crept out shivering Her body felt ice cold, her fingers barely able to clench into a fist Sheclothes to her body, putting the sun could dry her She sat and wrapped her ar fearfully at the red horizon every few seconds

The dae was less than she’d feared The hoverboard’s operation light was green, and her knapsack, dusty but unhar packets, Tally found that she had lost only two But the sleeping bag was shredded So had chopped it to pieces

Tally sed There was nothing left of the bag bigger than a handkerchief What if she had been in it when the machine had come?

She folded the hoverboard quickly and packed everything away The board was ready to go ale machine’s windstorm had dried it off

"Thanks a lot," Tally said as she stepped on, leaning forward as the sun began to set She was anxious to leave the campsite behind her as quickly as possible, in case they ca ined when her teachers had described Rusty contraptions: a portable tornado crashing along, destroying everything in its path Tally had read about aircraft that shattered s as they flew past, arh a house

But the Rusties had been gone a long tih to rebuild their insanedarkness, her eyes peeled for any signs of the next clue - "Four days later take the side you despise" - and for whatever other surprises the night 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 of the branches was clearly larger, the other more like a broad stream A "tributary," she reer one

Probably she should just stay on thefor just three days, and her hoverboard was a lot faster than most Maybe it was time for the next clue

"Four days later take the side you despise," Tally ht from the moon, which was almost full now Which river did she despise? Or which one would Shaythink she despised? They both looked pretty ordinary to her She squinted into the distance Maybe one led toward soht

But waiting wouldin the cold and dark without a sleeping bag

Tally reht not be about this junction Maybe she should just stay on the big river until so more obvious came up Why would Shay call the two rivers "sides," anyway? If she’d meant this junction, wouldn’t it be "take the direction you despise"?

"The side you despise," Tally ers went to her face When she had showed Shay her pretty morphos, Tally hadher left side - that she had always hated the right side of her face Which was exactly the sort of thing that Shay would re her to take a right?

Branching to the right was the smaller river, the tributary The mountains were closer in that direction