Uglies: The Rusties

Travel

     "Goodnight," Tally told her room. 

     "Sleep tight, Tally," the room replied. 

     Tally pulled off her interface ring and shoved her portable heater under her bed. She grabbed the hoverboard that Shay had given her and jumped out of her dorm window. She hit the ground, trying to avoid making too much noise. She snapped her fingers and her hoverboard rose off the ground, nudging her like a puppy. She stepped on and headed for Cleopatra Park. 

     Tally and Shay had argued over the operation the day before and Shay didn't seem to have any interest in talking to her, so Tally did the only thing she could think of doing: hoverboarding. In the middle of the night. Alone. Hoverboarding without a friend with you was all work and no fun, but she couldn't sleep and the conversations between her and Shay that she made up in her mind were buzzing around in her head, keeping her from shutting her eyes. The wind whipped her hair away from her face and stung her eyes. She went around and around the flagpoles in the park until her legs ached from gripping the board and her arms were sore from holding them out for balance. 

     Tally decided she would take a break. She wasn't ready to go back to her dorm. She was still wide awake. She hopped off of her board and walked through the empty park. It had to be way past midnight, but she didn't care. She wasn't tired. Out of the corner of her eye, Tally saw something in the shadows. She hadn't seen it from the air. She must've missed it as she sped at top speed around the flagpoles. She got back on her hoverboard and cautiously approached the strange object. She wasn't really sure exactly what to call it. A box? What was the word that the Rusties used to call a box that stored valuables? A safe? No, it wasn't a safe. It was a different word. A chest? That sounded like it. 

     The chest thing was sticking halfway out of the ground, half buried. She wondered who had put it there. Another ugly? Tally got off of her board and knelt down in front of the chest. She curiously opened it. It was full stuff. Rusty stuff. 

     There were various Rusty relics stashed away in the chest. A plastic hand gun, an odd looking thing that resembled a hand phone, some plastic bullets for the hand gun and a strange looking piece of metal. It didn't look like it belonged to any kind of Rusty infrastructure. It was... a metal statuette? Tally touched it and she felt something strange. Almost like a pulling feeling. Before Tally could open her mouth to cry out, she was sucked into darkness.