1269_UgliesFreeBook

UGLIES 351
clouds were bright pink, the grass an unearthly green, and
the ocean darker than Tally had ever seen it, marked only
by the foam crests of waves and a peppering of driftwood
driven into the sea by the wind. They rode all day to make
up for lost time, in a state of shock, amazed that the world
could still exist after the storm.
Then the railway turned inland, and a few nights later
they reached the Rusty Ruins.
The ruins looked smaller, as if the spires had shrunk since
Tally had left them behind more than a month before,
headed to the Smoke with nothing but Shay’s note and a
knapsack full of SpagBol. As she and David passed through
the dark streets, the ghosts of the Rusties no longer seemed
to threaten from the windows.
“The first time I came here at night, this place really
scared me,” she said.
David nodded. “It’s kind of creepy how well preserved
it is. Of all the ruins I’ve seen, it looks the most recent.”
“They sprayed it with something to keep it up for
school trips.” And that was her city in a nutshell, Tally realized.
Nothing left to itself. Everything turned into a bribe,
a warning, or a lesson.
They stowed most of their gear in a collapsed building
far from the center, a crumbling place that even truant
uglies would probably avoid, packing only water purifiers,
a flashlight, and a few food packets. David had never been