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Ruin

They didn’t leave the cave until the next ht, eyes scanning the sky for a fleet of hovercars suddenly rising above the trees But they hadn’t heard any sound of a search all night Maybe now that the S the last few runaasn’t worth the trouble

David’s hoverboard had spent the night hidden in the cave, and hadn’t had any sunlight for a whole day now, but it had just enough charge to get them back up the mountain They rode to the river Tally’s stomach ru she needed ater Her mouth was so dry, she could hardly talk

David knelt at the bank and dipped his head under the icy water Tally shivered at the sight Without a blanket or shoes, she’d frozen in the cave all night long, even huddled in David’s ar colder than thebreeze

"What if the Set food?"

"You said they put prisoners in the rabbit pen? Where’d the rabbits go?"

"All over"

"Exactly They should be everywhere by now And they aren’t hard to catch"

She gri as we cook thehed "Of course"

"I’ve never actually started a fire," she admitted

"Don’t worry You’re a natural" He stepped onto his board and held out his hand

Riding double was solad she ith David and not just anyone She stood in front of hi, her arotiated the turns without words, Tally shifting her weight gradually, waiting for David to follow her lead As they slowly got the hang of it, their bodies began tothe board down the fa as they went slowly, but Tally kept her ears open for sounds of pursuit If a hovercar appeared, a full-speed escape was going to be tricky

They s before they saw it

Fros had the look of a burned-out cah Nothing moved in the compound, except a few pieces of paper stirred by the wind

"Looks like it burned all night," Tally said

David nodded, speechless Tally grasped his hand, wondering what it was like to see your childhood ho ruin

"I’o down I need to see if my parents" He sed the words

Tally searched for signs of anyone re in the Sht be a few Specials in hiding, waiting for stragglers to reappear "We should wait"

"I can’t My parents’ house is on the other side of the ridge Maybe the Specials didn’t see it"

"If they missed it, Maddy and Az will still be there"

"But what if they ran?"

"Then we’ll find theht ourselves"

David sighed "All right"

Tally held his hand tight They unfolded the hoverboard and waited as the sun cli below Occasionally, the embers of the fires flared to life in the breeze, the last standing colu into ash

A few anied for food, and Tally watched in silent horror as a stray rabbit was taken by a wolf, the short struggle leaving only a patch of blood and fur This as left of nature, raw and wild, only hours after the So down?" David asked after an hour

"No," Tally said "But I never will be"

They approached slowly, ready to turn and fly if any Specials appeared But when they reached the edge of town, Tally felt her anxiety turn to so worse: a horrible certainty that no one reone, replaced by nothing but charred wreckage

At the rabbit pen, footprints shohere groups of Sates, a whole community turned into cattle A few rabbits still hopped around on the dirt

"Well, at least on’t starve," David said

"I guess not," Tally said, although the sight of the Ser She wondered how David always hts, no matter what horrors were in front of him "Hey, what’s that?"

At one corner of the pen, just outside the fence, clusters of little shapes lay on the ground