1269_UgliesFreeBook

UGLIES 149
But the ground was gone.
A deep chasm opened up under her, a fissure cut into
the cliffs by the sea. Boiling waves crashed into the narrow
channel, their whitecaps glowing in the darkness, their
hungry roars reaching her ears. The board’s metal-detector
lights flickered out one by one as Tally left the splintered
end of the iron bridge behind.
She felt the board lose purchase, slipping downward.
A thought flashed through her mind: If she jumped
now, she could make a grab for the end of the broken
bridge. But then the hoverboard would tumble into the
chasm behind her, leaving her stranded.
The board finally halted in its slide out into midair, but
Tally was still descending. The last fingers of the crumbling
bridge were above her now, out of reach. The board inched
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