downward, metal-detector lights flickering off one by one as the magnets lost their grip.
She was too heavy. Tally slipped off the knapsack, ready to hurl it down. But how could
she survive without it? Her only choice would be to return to the city for more supplies,
which would lose two more days. A cold wind off the ocean blew up the chasm, goose-
pimpling her arms like the chill of death.
But the breeze buoyed the hoverboard, and for a moment she neither rose nor fell. Then
the board started to slip downward again….
Tally thrust her hands into the pockets of her jacket and spread her arms, making a sail to
catch the wind. A stronger gust struck, lifting her slightly, taking some weight off the
board, and one of the metal-detector lights flickered stronger.
Like a bird with outstretched wings, she began to rise.
The lifters gradually regained purchase on the track, until the hoverboard had brought her
level with the broken end of the bridge. She coaxed it carefully back over the cliff’s edge,
a huge shiver passing through her body as the board passed over solid ground. Tally
stepped off, legs shaking.
“Cold is the sea and watch for breaks, ” she said hoarsely. How could she have been so
stupid, speeding up just when Shay’s note said to be careful?
Tally collapsed onto the ground, suddenly dizzy and tired. Her mind replayed the chasm
opening up, the waves below smashing indifferently against the jagged rocks. She could
have been down there, battered again and again until there was nothing left.
This was the wild, she reminded herself. Mistakes had serious consequences.
Even before Tally’s heart had stopped pounding, her stomach growled.
She reached into her knapsack for the water purifier, which she’d filled at the last river,
and emptied the muck-trap. A spoonful of brown sludge that it had filtered from the water
glopped out. “Eww,” she said, opening the top to peer in. It looked clear, and smelled like
water.
She took a much needed drink, but saved most to make dinner, or breakfast, whatever it
was. Tally planned to do most of her traveling at night, letting the hoverboard recharge in
sunlight, wasting no time.
Reaching into the waterproof bag, she pulled out a food packet at random. “‘SpagBol,’”
she read from the label, and shrugged. Unwrapped, it looked and felt like a finger-size
knot of dried yarn. She dropped it into the purifier, which made burbling noises as it came
to a boil.
When Tally glanced out at the glowing horizon, her eyes opened wide. She’d never seen
dawn from outside the city before. Like most uglies, she was rarely up early enough, and
in any case the horizon was always hidden behind the skyline of New Pretty Town . The
sight of a real sunrise amazed her.
A band of orange and yellow ignited the sky, glorious and unexpected, as spectacular as
fireworks, but changing at a stately, barely perceptible pace. That’s how things were out
here in the wild, she was learning. Dangerous or beautiful. Or both.
The purifier pinged . Tally opened the top and looked inside. It was noodles with a red
sauce, with small kernels of soy meat, and it smelled delicious. She looked at the label
again. “SpagBol…spaghetti Bolognese!”
She found a fork in the knapsack and ate hungrily. With the sunrise warming her and the
crash of the sea rumbling below, it was the best meal she’d had for ages.
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