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David

A few hours later, a pile of scrap et free, and required all six of them to carry The railroad ties sat in another pile; at least all the Smokies’ wood didn’t come from live trees Tally couldn’t believe howthe track frorasp

She also couldn’t believe her hands They were red and raw, screa with pain and covered with blisters

"Looks pretty bad," David said, glancing over Tally’s shoulder as she stared at them in amazement

"Feelspretty bad," she said "But I didn’t notice until just now"

David laughed "Hard work’s a good distraction But maybe you should take a break I was just about to scout up the line for another spot to salvage Want to coht of picking up the powerjack againthe others at the clearing, they hoverboarded up and over the gnarled trees, following the barely visible track below into dense forest David rode low in the canopy, gracefully avoiding branches and vines as if this were a familiar slalom course Tally noticed that, like his shoes, his clothes wereall hand for decoration, but David’s jacket seeether from a dozen patches of leather, all different shades and shapes Its patchwork appearance reminded her of Frankenstein’s ht

What if it were made ofreal leather, like in the olden days? Skins

She shuddered He couldn’t be wearing a bunch of dead anies here And she had to ad the line of his shoulders like an old friend And it fended off the whips of branches better than her microfiber dorm jacket

David slowed as they ca, and Tally saw that they had reached a wall of solid rock

"That’s weird," she said The railroad track see into a pile of boulders

"The Rusties were serious about straight lines," David said "When they built rails, they didn’t like to go around stuff"

"So they just wentthrough ?"

David nodded "Yeah This used to be a tunnel, cut right into the mountain It must have collapsed sometime after the Rusty panic"

"Do you think there was anyoneinside? When it happened, I mean"

"Probably not But you never know There could be a whole trainload of Rusty skeletons in there"

Tally sed, trying to iine whatever was in there, flattened and buried for centuries in the dark

"The forest’s a lot clearer around here," David said "Easier to work through I’ if we start prying rails up"

"They look pretty solid"

"Oh, yeah? Check this out," David said He stepped off his board onto a boulder, and deftly cli sun

Tally angled her board closer and jue rock next to David When her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she saw that a long space extended back between the boulders David crawled inside, his feet disappearing into the darkness

"Come on," his voice called

"Um, there isn’t really a trainload of dead Rusties in there, right?"

"Not that I’ve found But today ht be our lucky day"

Tally rolled her eyes and lowered herself onto her belly She crawled inside, the cool weight of the rocks settling over her

A light flicked on ahead She could see David sitting up in a s in his hand

She pulled herself in and took a seat next to him on a flat bit of rock Giant shapes were stacked above them "So the tunnel didn’t collapse completely"

"Not at all The rock cracked into pieces, soht down through a chink bethere they sat Tally squinted into the darkness and saw a et down there," David said, "ouldn’t have to pull up all those vines All that track just waiting for us"

"Just a hundred tons of rock in the way, is all"

He nodded "Yeah, but it would be worth it" He pointed the flashlight upward at his face,himself hideous "No one’s been down there for hundreds of years"

"Great" Tally’s skin tingled, her eyes picking out the dark fissures all around the tis liked to live in cool, dark caves

"I keep thinking," David said, "the whole thing ht boulder"

"And not the exact wrong one, the one that hed and pointed the flashlight so that it lit her face rather than his "I thought you h the darkness, trying to make out his expression "What do youwith this"

"Struggling? With what?"

"Being here in the Smoke You’re not sure about it all"

Tally’s skin tingled again, but not fro-dead Rusties She wondered if David had souess I’liht froood You take this seriously A lot of kids coames"