She made good time that night.
The track zoomed along beneath her, tracing slow arcsaround hills, crossing rivers on crumbling bridges, alwaysheaded toward the sea. Twice it took her through otherRusty ruins, smaller towns further along in their disintegration.
Only a few twisted shapes of metal remained, risingabove the trees like skeletal fingers grasping at the air.
Burned-out groundcars were everywhere, choking thestreets out of town, twisted together in the collisions of theRusties’ last panic.
Near the center of one ruined town, she discoveredwhat the long, flat roller coaster was all about. In a nest oftracks tangled up like a huge circuit board, she found a fewrotting roller-coaster cars, huge rolling containers full ofRusty stuff, unidentifiable piles of rust and plastic. Tallyremembered now that Rusty cities weren’t self-sufficient,and were always trading with one another, when theyweren’t fighting over who had more stuff. They must haveused the flat roller coaster to move trade from town to town.
As the sky began to grow light, Tally heard the soundof the sea in the distance, a faint roar coming from acrossthe horizon. She could smell salt in the air, which broughtback memories of going to the ocean with Ellie and Sol asa littlie.
“Cold is the sea and watch for breaks,” Shay’s note read.
Soon, Tally would be able to see the waves breaking on theshore. Maybe she was close to the next clue.
Tally wondered how much time she’d made up withher new hoverboard. She increased its speed, wrapping herdorm jacket around herself in the predawn chill. The trackwas slowly climbing now, cutting through formations ofchalky rock. She remembered white cliffs towering over theocean, swarming with seabirds nesting in high caves.
Those camping trips with Sol and Ellie felt as if they’dhappened a hundred years ago. She wondered if there wassome operation that could make her back into a littlieagain, forever.
Suddenly, a gap opened up in front of Tally, spanned bya crumbling bridge. An instant later she saw that the bridgedidn’t make it all the way across, and there was no river fullof metal deposits beneath it to catch her. Just a precipitousdrop to the sea.
Tally spun her board sideways into a skid. Her kneesbent under the force of braking, her grippy shoes squealingas they slipped across the riding surface, her body turningalmost parallel to the ground.
148 Scott WesterfeldBut the ground was gone.
A deep chasm opened up under her, a fissure cut intothe cliffs by the sea. Boiling waves crashed into the narrowchannel, their whitecaps glowing in the darkness, theirhungry roars reaching her ears. The board’s metal-detectorlights flickered out one by one as Tally left the splinteredend of the iron bridge behind.
She felt the board lose purchase, slipping downward.
A thought flashed through her mind: If she jumpednow, she could make a grab for the end of the brokenbridge. But then the hoverboard would tumble into thechasm behind her, leaving her stranded.
The board finally halted in its slide out into midair, butTally was still descending. The last fingers of the crumblingbridge were above her now, out of reach. The board incheddownward, metal-detector lights flickering off one by oneas the magnets lost their grip. She was too heavy. Tallyslipped off the knapsack, ready to hurl it down. But howcould she survive without it? Her only choice would be toreturn to the city for more supplies, which would lose twomore 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 amoment she neither rose nor fell. Then the board started toslip downward again. . . .
Tally thrust her hands into the pockets of her jacketand spread her arms, making a sail to catch the wind. AUGLIES 149stronger gust struck, lifting her slightly, taking some weightoff the board, and one of the metal-detector lights flickeredstronger.
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 brokenend of the bridge. She coaxed it carefully back over the cliff’sedge, a huge shiver passing through her body as the boardpassed 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 whenShay’s note said to be careful?
Tally collapsed onto the ground, suddenly dizzy andtired. Her mind replayed the chasm opening up, the wavesbelow smashing indifferently against the jagged rocks. Shecould have been down there, battered again and again untilthere was nothing left.
This was the wild, she reminded herself. Mistakes hadserious consequences.
Even before Tally’s heart had stopped pounding, her stomachgrowled.
She reached into her knapsack for the water purifier,which she’d filled at the last river, and emptied the mucktrap.
A spoonful of brown sludge that it had filtered fromthe water glopped out. “Eww,” she said, opening the top topeer in. It looked clear, and smelled like water.
150 Scott WesterfeldShe took a much needed drink, but saved most to makedinner, or breakfast, whatever it was. Tally planned to domost of her traveling at night, letting the hoverboardrecharge in sunlight, wasting no time.
Reaching into the waterproof bag, she pulled out a foodpacket at random. “‘SpagBol,’” she read from the label, andshrugged. Unwrapped, it looked and felt like a finger-sizeknot of dried yar............