THE RUSTY RUINS

A few blank windows stared down on them in silence fromthe husks of the giant buildings. Any glass had long sinceshattered, any wood had rotted, and nothing remained butmetal frames, mortar, and stone crumbling in the grip ofinvading vegetation. Looking down at the black, emptydoorways, Tally’s skin crawled with the thought of descendingto peer into one.
The two friends slid between the ruined buildings, ridinghigh and silent as if not to disturb the ghosts of the deadcity. Below them the streets were full of burned-out carssqueezed together between the looming walls. Whateverhad destroyed this city, the people had tried to escape it.
Tally remembered from her last school trip to the ruins thattheir cars couldn’t hover. They just rolled along on rubberwheels. The Rusties had been stuck down in these streetslike a horde of rats trapped in a burning maze.
“Uh, Shay, you’re pretty sure our boards aren’t suddenlygoing to conk out, right?” she called softly.
“Don’t worry. Whoever built this city loved to wastemetal. They aren’t called the Rusty Ruins because some guycalled Rusty discovered them.”
Tally had to agree. Every building sported jagged spursof metal sticking from its broken walls, like bones juttingfrom a long-dead animal. She remembered that the Rustiesdidn’t use hoverstruts; every building was squat, crude, andmassive, and needed a steel skeleton to keep it from fallingdown.
And some of them were so huge. The Rusties didn’t puttheir factories underground, and they all worked togetherlike bees in a hive instead of at home. The smallest ruinhere was bigger than the biggest dorm in Uglyville, biggereven than Garbo Mansion.
Seeing them now, at night, the ruins felt much morereal to Tally. On school trips, the teachers always made theRusties out to be so stupid. You almost couldn’t believepeople lived like this, burning trees to clear land, burningoil for heat and power, setting the atmosphere on fire withtheir weapons. But in the moonlight she could imaginepeople scrambling over flaming cars to escape the crumblingcity, panicking in their flight from this untenable pileof metal and stone.
Shay’s voice pulled Tally from her reverie. “Come on, Iwant to show you something.”
Shay cruised to the edge of the buildings, then out overthe trees.
“Are you sure we can—”
62 Scott Westerfeld“Look down.”
Below, Tally saw metal glinting through the trees.
“The ruins are much bigger than they let on,” Shay said.
“They just keep that part of the city standing for schooltrips and museum stuff. But it goes on forever.”
“With lots of metal?”
“Yeah. Tons. Don’t worry, I’ve flown all over the place.”
Tally swallowed, keeping an eye out for signs of ruinbelow, glad that Shay was moving at a nice, slow speed.
A shape emerged from the forest, a long spine that rose and felllike a frozen wave. It led away from them, off into the darkness.
“Here it is.”
“Okay, but what is it?” Tally asked.
“It’s called a roller coaster. Remember, I told you I’dshow you one.”
“It’s pretty. But what’s it for?”
“For having fun.”
“No way.”
“Yeah, way. Apparently, the Rusties did have some fun.
It’s like a track. They would stick ground cars to it and goas fast as they could. Up, down, around in circles. Likehoverboarding, without hovering. And they made it out ofsome really unrusty kind of steel—for safety, I guess.”
Tally frowned. She’d only imagined the Rusties workingin the giant stone hives and struggling to escape on thatlast, horrible day. Not having fun.
UGLIES 63“Let’s do it,” Shay said. “Let’s roller coaster.”
“How?”
“On your board.” Shay turned to Tally and said seriously,“But you’ve got to go fast. It’s dangerous unless you’rereally moving.”
“Why?”
“You’ll see.”
Shay turned away and sped down the roller coaster, flyingjust above the track. Tally sighed and leaned hard afterher. At least the thing was metal.
It also turned out to be a great ride. It was like a hoverboardcourse made solid, complete with tight, bankedturns, sharp climbs followed by long drops, even loops thattook Tally upside down, her crash bracelets activating tokeep her on board. It was amazing what good shape it wasin. The Rusties must have built it out of something special,just as Shay had said.
The track went much higher than a hoverboard couldgo on its own. On the roller coaster, hoverboarding reallywas like being a bird.
It wound around in a wide, slow arc, circling backtoward where they’d started. The final approach began witha huge climb.
“Take this part fast!” Shay shouted over her shoulder asshe zoomed ahead.
Tally followed at top speed, rocketing up the spindlytrack. She could see the ruins in the distance: broken, black64 Scott Westerfeldspires against the trees. And behind them, a moonlit glimmerthat might have been the sea. This was really high!
She heard a scream of pleasure as she reached the top.
Shay had disappeared. Tally leaned forward to speed up.
Suddenly, the board dropped out from under her. Itsimply fell away from her feet, leaving her flying throughmidair. The track below her had disappeared.
Tally clenched her fists, waiting for the crash braceletsto kick in and haul her up by her wrists. But they hadbecome as useless as the board, just heavy strips of steeldragging her toward the ground. “Shay!” she screamed asshe fell into blackness.
Then Tally saw the framework of the roller coasterahead. Only a short segment was missing.
Suddenly, the crash bracelets pulled her upward, andshe felt the solid surface of the hoverboard coming up fromunder her feet. Her momentum had carried her to the otherside of the gap! The board must have sailed along with her,just below her feet for those terrifying seconds of free fall.
She found herself cruising down the track, to where Shaywas waiting at the bottom. “You’re insane!” she shouted.
“Pretty cool, huh?”
“No!” Tally yelled. “Why didn’t you tell me it was broken?”
Shay shrugged. “More fun that way?”
“More fun?” Her heart was beating fast, her visionstrangely clear. She was full of anger and relief and . . . joy.
“Well, kind of. But you suck!”
UGLIES 65Tally stepped from the board and walked across thegrass on rubbery legs. She found a broken stone big enoughto sit on, and lowered herself shakily onto it.
Shay jumped off her board. “Hey, sorry.”
“That was horrible, Shay. I was falling.”
“Not for long. Like, five seconds. I thought you saidyou’d bungee jumped off a building.”
Tally glared at Shay. “Yeah, I did, but I knew I wasn’tgoing to splat.”
“True. But, you see, the first time someone showed methe roller coaster, they didn’t tell me about the gap. And Ithought it was pretty cool, finding out that way. Best time’sthe first time. I wanted you to feel it too.”
“You thought falling was cool?”
“Well, maybe at first I was pretty angry. Yeah, I definitelywas.” Shay smiled broadly. “But I got over it.”
“Give me a second on that one, Skinny.”
“Take your time.”
Tally’s breathing slowed, and her heart graduallystopped trying to beat its way out of her chest. But herbrain stayed as clear as it had for those seconds of free fall,and she found herself wondering who had found the rollercoaster first, and how many other uglies had come heresince. “Shay, who showed you all this? ““Friends, older than me. Uglies like us, who try to figureout how stuff works. And how to trick it.”
Tally looked up at the ancient, serpentine shape of the66 Scott Westerfeldroller coaster, the vines crawling up its framework. “I wonderhow long uglies have been coming here.”
“Probably a long time. You pass along stuff. You know,one person figures out how to trick their board, the nextfinds the rapids, the next makes it to the ruins.”
“Then somebody gets brave enough to jump the gap inthe roller coaster.” Tally swallowed. “Or jumps it accidentally.”
Shay nodded. “But they all get turned pretty in the end.”
“Happy ending,” Tally said.
Shay shrugged.
“How do you know it’s called a ‘roller coaster,’ anyway?
Did you look it up somewhere?”
“No,” Shay said. “Someone told me.”
“But how’d they know?”
“This guy knows a lot of stuff. Tricks, stuff about theruins. He’s really cool.”
Something about Shay’s voice made Tally turn and takeher hand. “But he’s pretty now, I guess.”
Shay pulled away and bit a fingernail. “No. He’s not.”
“But I thought all your friends—”
“Tally, will you make me a promise? A real promise.”
“Sure, I guess. What kind of promise?”
“You can never tell anyone what I’m about to show you.”
“It doesn’t involve free fall, does it?”
“No.”
“Okay. I swear.” Tally held up her hand with the scarshe and Peris had made. “I’ll never tell anyone.”
UGLIES 67Shay looked into her eyes for a moment, searchinghard, then nodded. “All right. There’s someone I want youto meet. Tonight.”
“Tonight? But we won’t get back into town until—”
“He’s not in town.” Shay smiled. “He’s out here.”