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"It sounds like your code alot her killed," David said, and Shay’s face fell He turned to Tally
"Hardly anyone ever makes the trip alone Not their first time out of the city"
"I’d been out of the city before" Tally put her arly "I was fine It was just a bunch of pretty flowers to me, and I started with teeks of food"
"Why did you steal all SpagBol?" Croy asked "You hter
Tally tried to sBols a day for nine days I could hardly story"
They nodded They all knew about hard traveling, and hard work, too, apparently Tally had already noticed how much everyone had consuet the not-eating disease She had cleaned her heaping plate
"Well, I’lad you made it," David said He reached across and touched the scratches on Tally’s face softly "Looks like you hadus"
Tally sed and shrugged, hoping she looked ed David "I knew you’d think Tally esorounds, and they hurried to finish their food
"What’s that?" she asked
David grinned "That’s back to work"
"You’re co with us," Shay said "Don’t worry, it won’t kill you"
On the way to work, Shay explained , flat roller coasters called railroads Some stretched across the entire continent, one s the land But unlike most ruins, the railroads were actually useful, and not just for hoverboarding They were the main source of metal for the Smokies
David had discovered a new railroad track a year or so earlier It didn’t run anywhere useful, so he had drawn up a plan to plunder it for metal and build more hoverpaths in and around the valley Shay had been working on the project since she’d come to the Smoke ten days before
Six of them took their boards up and out the other side of the valley, down a streae filled with iron ore From there, Tally finally understood how far up thethe coast The whole continent seemed to be spread out before thee rasslands, and the shih the li like an encroaching 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 everyone to keep theined all those people let loose in the countryside below, cutting down trees and killing things for food, crashing across the landscape like some risen Rusty machine
Still, she wouldn’t have traded anything for thisdown at the plains spread out below Tally had spent the last four years staring at the skyline of New Pretty Town, thinking it was the ht in the world, but she didn’t think so anymore
Lower down and halfway around the mountain, another river crossed David’s railroad track The route there froe of veins of iron, rivers, and dry creek beds, but they’d never had to leave their boards Walking wouldn’t be an option, Shay explained, when they came back loaded with heavy roith vines and stunted trees, every wooden cross-tie in the grip of a dozen tentacles of vegetation The forest had been hacked away in patches surrounding a few rasp
"How are we going to get any of this out?" Tally asked She kicked at a gnarled root, feeling puny against the strength of the wild
"Watch this," Shay said She pulled a tool froth pole that telescoped out alht Shay twisted one end, and four short struts unfolded from the other like the ribs of an umbrella "It’s called a powerjack, and it can "
Shay 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’s feet slipped backward, but she leaned her weight into the pole, keeping it wedged under the cross-tie Slowly, the ancient wood began to rise, tearing free fro the rail that lay across it Tally saw the struts of the powerjack unfolding underneath the tie, gradually forcing it up, the rail above beginning to pull free of its rinned up at her "I told you"
"Letout her hand, eyes wide
Shay laughed and pulled another powerjack from her backpack "Take that tie there, while I keep this one up"
The powerjack was heavier than it looked, but its controls were simple Tally pulled it open and jammed it under the tie that Shay had indicated She turned the handle slowly, until the jack started to shudder in her hands
The wood began to shift, the stresses of round, and Tally could feel their coh the soles of her shoes, like a distant earthquake ruan to bend, pulling free of vegetation and the rusty spikes that had held it down for centuries Finally, the jack had opened to its full extent, the rail still only half-free froled to pull their jacks out
"Having fun?" Shay asked, wiping sweat fro "Don’t just stand there, let’s finish the job"