Chapter 16

Chapter 16 Amy hated crowds, but the idea of plunging into the middle of seven million dead people didn't bother her. Nellie, Dan, and she hurried down a metal staircase. They found themselves in a limestone corridor with metal pipes running overhead and dim electric lights. The warm air smelled of mildew and wet rock. "Only one exit, guys," Nellie said nervously. "If we get caught down here—" "The tunnel should branch out soon," Amy said, trying to sound more confident than she felt. The stone walls were etched with graffiti. Some looked recent, some ancient. One inscription was engraved on a marble slab right above their heads.

艾美讨厌拥挤，但一头扎进七百万死人中间的想法并没有使她烦恼。 内莉、丹和她匆匆走下金属楼梯。 他们发现自己在一个石灰岩走廊里，头顶上有金属管道，灯光昏暗。 温暖的空气中散发着霉味和潮湿的岩石味。 “只有一个出口，伙计们，”内莉紧张地说。 “如果我们被困在这里——”“隧道很快就会分叉，”艾米说，努力让自己听起来更有信心。 石墙上蚀刻着涂鸦。 有些看起来是最近的，有些是古老的。 他们头顶上方的大理石板上刻着一行碑文。

"Stop, mortals," Nellie translated. "This is the empire of death." "Cheerful," Dan muttered. They kept walking. The floor under Amy's feet was slushy gravel. Amy was still thinking about Uncle Alistair. Had he really known something about their parents, or was he just manipulating them? She tried to put it out of her mind. "Where are the bones?" Dan asked. Then they turned a corner into a large room and Dan said, "Oh." It was the creepiest place Amy had ever seen. Against the walls, human bones were stacked like firewood from the floor to above Amy's head. The remains were yellow and brown — mostly leg bones, but skulls stared out here and there like patches on a quilt. A line of skulls topped each stack. Amy walked in awed silence. The next room was the same as the first — wall after wall of moldering remains. Dim electric lights cast eerie shadows over the dead, making their empty eye sockets look even scarier. "Gross," Nellie managed. "There's, like,

“停下，凡人，”内莉翻译道。 “这是死亡帝国。” “很高兴。”丹喃喃地说。他们继续往前走。 艾米脚下的地板是湿滑的砾石。 艾米还在想着阿利斯泰尔叔叔。 他是真的了解他们的父母，还是只是在操纵他们？ 她试着不去想这件事。 “骨头在哪儿？”丹问道。 然后他们拐了个弯来到一个大房间，丹说：“哦。” 这是艾米见过的最令人毛骨悚然的地方。 靠着墙，人骨像柴火一样从地板堆到艾米头顶。 遗骸是黄色和棕色的——大部分是腿骨，但头骨像被子上的补丁一样到处可见。 每一堆的顶部都有一排头骨。 艾米怀着敬畏的心情默默地走着。 下一个房间和第一个房间一样——一面墙又一面墙都是腐烂的残骸。 昏暗的电灯在死者身上投下诡异的阴影，使他们空洞的眼窝看起来更加可怕。 “恶心，”内莉勉强说。“有,

thousands." "Millions," Amy said. "This is only one small part." "They dug all these people up?" Dan asked. "Who would want that job?" Amy didn't know, but she was amazed how the workers had made patterns with skulls in the stacks of femurs — diagonals, stripes, connect-the-dot shapes. In a weird, horrible way, it was almost beautiful. In the third room, they found a stone altar with unlit candles. "We need to find the oldest section," Amy said. "These bones are too recent. Look at the plaque. It's from 1804." She led the way. Eyeless sockets of the dead seemed to stare at them as they passed. "These are cool," Dan decided. "Maybe I could —" "No, Dan," Amy said. "You can't collect human bones." "Awww." Nellie mumbled something that sounded like a prayer in Spanish. "Why would Benjamin Franklin

成千上万。”“几百万，”艾米说。 “这只是一小部分。” “他们把这些人都挖出来了？”丹问道。 “谁会想要这份工作？”艾米不知道，但她惊讶于工人们是如何在一堆大腿骨上制作头骨图案的——对角线、条纹、连点形状。 以一种奇怪，可怕的方式，它几乎是美丽的。 在第三个房间里，他们发现了一个石头祭坛，上面放着没有点燃的蜡烛。 “我们需要找到最古老的部分，”艾米说。 “这些骨头太新了。 看看这块匾。这是1804年的作品。” 她带路。当他们经过时，死者的眼窝似乎在盯着他们。 “这些很酷，”丹觉得。 “也许我可以——”“不行，丹，”艾米说。 “你不能收集人类的骨头。” “噢。”内莉咕哝了几句西班牙语的祈祷词。 “本杰明·富兰克林为什么会

want to come down here?" "He was a scientist." Amy kept walking, reading the dates on the brass plaques. "He liked public works projects. This would've fascinated him." "Millions of dead people," Nellie said. "Real fascinating." They turned down a narrow corridor and found themselves facing a metal gate. Amy shook the bars. The gate creaked open like it hadn't been used in hundreds of years. "Are you sure we should go down there?" Nellie asked. Amy nodded. The dates were getting older. On the other hand, there were no metal pipes on the ceiling up ahead, which meant no electric lights. "Anybody got a flashlight?" she asked. "Yeah," Nellie said. "On my keychain." She pulled out her keys and handed them to Amy. There was a little push-button pin light. Not much, but better than nothing. They kept going. After a hundred feet, they emerged in a small room with only one other exit.

想下来吗？”“他是个科学家。” 艾米一边走一边看着黄铜牌匾上的日期。 “他喜欢公共工程项目。 这会让他着迷的。” “数以百万计的死人，”内莉说。 “真正的迷人。”他们拐进一条狭窄的走廊，面对着一扇金属大门。 艾米摇晃着栏杆。大门嘎吱一声开了，好像几百年没人用过似的。 “你确定我们应该下去吗？”内莉问道。 艾米点点头。日期越来越老了。 另一方面，前面的天花板上没有金属管，这意味着没有电灯。 “谁有手电筒？”她问。 “是的，”内莉说。“在我的钥匙链上。” 她拿出钥匙递给艾米。 有一个小的按钮灯。 不多，但聊胜于无。 他们继续前进。走了一百英尺后，他们来到了一个只有一个出口的小房间。

Amy shone the flashlight on an old plaque framed in skulls. "1785! These have to be the first bones put down here." The wall they were looking at was in bad shape. The bones were brown and crumbly, and some had scattered across the floor. The skulls along the top had been crushed, though the ones quilted into the wall looked fairly intact. They were done in a square pattern — nothing exciting. "Search around," Amy said. "It has to be here." Dan stuck his hands into some of the gaps in the bone wall. Nellie checked the top of the stack. Amy looked into the skulls' eye sockets with the flashlight, but she saw nothing. "It's hopeless," she said at last. "If there was anything here, another team must've found it." Dan scratched his head. Then he scratched a skull's head. "Why are they numbered?" Amy wasn't in the mood for his games. "What numbers?" "Here on the forehead." Dan tapped one of the skulls. "This guy was number three. Were they on a football team or something?" Amy leaned in closer. Dan was right. The

艾米把手电筒照在一块镶着头骨的旧牌匾上。 “1785 !这些肯定是这里发现的第一批骨头。” 他们正在看的那堵墙已经破旧不堪了。 骨头呈棕色，易碎，有些散落在地板上。 顶部的头骨已经被压碎了，尽管缝在墙上的头骨看起来相当完整。 它们都是方形的，一点也不令人兴奋。 “到处找找，”艾米说。 “它一定在这里。”丹把手伸进骨壁的一些缝隙里。 内莉检查了那堆东西的顶部。 艾米用手电筒往头骨的眼窝里看，但她什么也没看到。 “没希望了，”她最后说。 “如果这里真有什么东西，一定是别的队伍发现的。” 丹挠了挠头。然后他抓了一个骷髅头。 “他们为什么被编号？”艾米没心情看他的游戏。 “什么数字?”“额上这儿。” 丹敲了敲其中一个头骨。 “这家伙是第三名。 他们是橄榄球队还是什么的？”艾米靠得更近了。 丹是对的。的

number was very faint, but scratched into the skull's forehead, like someone had carved it with a knife, was the Roman numeral III. She examined the skull below it. XIX. A square pattern. Skulls with numbers. "Check them all. Quick!" It didn't take long. There were sixteen skulls woven into the pile of bones, done in four rows and four columns. Three of the skulls didn't have numbers. The rest did. They looked like this:

数字非常模糊，但在头骨的额头上，好像有人用刀刻过一样，是罗马数字III。 她检查了下面的头骨。 第十九。方形图案。有数字的头骨。 “全都检查一下。快!”没花多长时间。 在这堆骨头中，有十六个头骨，分成四排四列。 其中三个头骨没有编号。 其余的都是这样。它们是这样的：