Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7 "It was Wednesday, April third, 1974," Dr. Gage began. "My eleventh birthday. I got a brand-new bike, and after school all I wanted to do was ride around town to show it off." Dr. Gage grew up in a small Alabama town called Jasper, with his parents and two little sisters. "Beautiful place. Quiet and friendly. A little like Joplin." The day was hot and very humid, not unusual for Alabama in the springtime. There were

第七章“那是1974年4月3日星期三。” 计开始了。“我十一岁生日。 我得到了一辆崭新的自行车，放学后我只想骑着它在城里到处炫耀。” 盖奇博士和他的父母以及两个小妹妹一起在阿拉巴马州一个叫贾斯珀的小镇长大。 “美丽的地方。安静而友好。 有点像乔普林。”那天又热又潮湿，这在春天的阿拉巴马州并不罕见。 有

thunderstorms forecast all around the South, up into Ohio. That wasn't so unusual, either. But there was nothing usual about these storms. They were supercells. While Dr. Gage was happily riding his bike along the peaceful streets of Jasper, storms were already unleashing tornadoes for hundreds of miles in every direction. Boom! A tornado touched down in Cleveland, Tennessee, destroying the entire downtown. Boom! Another took aim at Xenia, Ohio, wiping out a neighborhood of brick houses, destroying a high school, and killing thirty-two people. Boom, boom, boom! Tornadoes struck in Kentucky, Indiana, and Georgia. At five fifteen, the skies in Jasper grew suddenly dark, and it began to pour. "I figured it was just a thunderstorm. I was more worried about my bike getting rusty than

南部地区将出现雷暴天气，一直到俄亥俄州。 这也没什么不寻常的。 但这些风暴一点也不寻常。 它们是超级细胞。而博士。 盖奇愉快地骑着自行车沿着贾斯珀宁静的街道行驶，暴风雨已经在各个方向掀起了数百英里的龙卷风。 繁荣!一场龙卷风袭击了田纳西州的克利夫兰，摧毁了整个市中心。 繁荣!另一起袭击的目标是俄亥俄州的Xenia，摧毁了一个砖房社区，摧毁了一所高中，造成32人死亡。 砰，砰，砰!龙卷风袭击了肯塔基州、印第安纳州和佐治亚州。 5点15分，贾斯帕的天空突然变暗，下起了倾盆大雨。 “我以为只是雷雨。 我更担心我的自行车会生锈，而不是

anything else." The town had no tornado siren, so Dr. Gage had no way of knowing that a massive, rain-wrapped tornado was heading right for him. "I pulled to the side of the road to wait out the storm. I waited there under a tree, thinking about the cake my mother was making for me. It started to hail, huge stones that pounded down. My ears started to pop like crazy. I didn't know that was a sign that a tornado was coming. The air pressure is so low inside a tornado that the sudden change in pressure makes your ears pop, like when you're in an airplane." Dex had never heard that. "And then there was a sound, like nothing I'd ever heard before. Most people say that a tornado sounds like a speeding freight train. But every tornado sounds different. This one was roaring and hissing, like some kind of snake. Stuff started flying through the air — leaves, branches, and

别的。”镇上没有龙卷风警报，所以。 盖奇不知道一场巨大的、被雨水包裹的龙卷风正朝他袭来。 “我把车停在路边，等着暴风雨过去。 我在树下等着，想着妈妈给我做的蛋糕。 天下起了冰雹，巨大的石块轰隆隆地落下来。 我的耳朵开始疯狂地爆响。 我不知道那是龙卷风即将来临的信号。 龙卷风内部的气压非常低，气压的突然变化会让你的耳朵发胀，就像你在飞机上一样。” 德克斯从来没听说过。然后有一种声音，我以前从来没有听到过。 大多数人说龙卷风的声音听起来像一列高速行驶的货运火车。 但每次龙卷风的声音都不一样。 这只像蛇一样咆哮嘶嘶。 东西开始在空中乱飞——树叶，树枝，还有

roof shingles. That's when I realized what was happening." "What did you do?" Dex asked. "There was a big ditch right at the side of the road. I dove in and wedged myself under the root of a huge tree, held on for dear life. I got pummeled pretty badly. A tractor came flying out of the sky, and crashed down about ten feet from me. The tree I had been standing under was ripped out of the ground. My arm got sliced by a hunk of steel pipe that hit me at one hundred fifty miles per hour." Dex shuddered. "But I was incredibly lucky," Dr. Gage said. "I made it. And so did my parents and my sisters. They rode out the storm in our basement. The house was pretty much destroyed. But we felt blessed. Twenty-three people in our town were killed, including two of my friends." It turned out that the EF-3 tornado that hit Jasper was part of what would become known as

屋顶瓦。那时我才意识到发生了什么。” “你做了什么?”敏捷问道。 “就在路边有一条大水沟。 我一头扎进去，把自己塞到一棵大树的树根下，拼命地抓住它。 我被打得很惨。 一辆拖拉机从空中飞了出来，在离我大约十英尺的地方坠毁了。 我一直站在下面的那棵树被连根拔起。 我的胳膊被一根以每小时150英里的速度击中的钢管划破了。” 敏捷战栗。“但我非常幸运。” 计说。“我做到了。我的父母和姐妹们也一样。 他们在我们的地下室里度过了暴风雨。 房子几乎被毁了。 但我们感到很幸福。我们镇上有23人被杀，包括我的两个朋友。” 事实证明，袭击贾斯珀的EF-3龙卷风是后来被称为

the Super Outbreak of 1974. Over twenty-four hours, 148 tornadoes touched down in thirteen states. By the time the skies had cleared, more than 330 people were dead. "You'd think that after that, I'd stay as far away from tornadoes as I could. But I decided to learn everything about them. I became obsessed. The more we know about tornadoes, the better we will be able to predict when and where they'll hit. You know, last month, there was another super outbreak of tornadoes, all across the South. That's where Jimmy and Sara got caught. It was as bad as the one in 1974 — we lost three hundred twentyone people. So we haven't made much progress, Dex. We need a much better early warning system so that people aren't caught by surprise." Something in Dr. Gage's voice — a steely edge — reminded Dex of Jeremy, how he sounded when he talked about his missions. They were alike, Dex realized. Both were trying to make the world safer. But both were risking their lives.

1974年的大爆发 在24小时内，有148个龙卷风在13个州登陆。 等到天空放晴时，已有330多人死亡。 “你可能会认为，在那之后，我会尽可能远离龙卷风。 但我决定了解他们的一切。 我被迷住了。我们对龙卷风了解得越多，我们就能更好地预测它们袭击的时间和地点。 你知道吗，上个月，又爆发了一场超级龙卷风，席卷了整个南方。 吉米和莎拉就是在那里被抓的。 它和1974年的那次一样糟糕，我们损失了321人。 我们还没取得什么进展，德克斯。 我们需要一个更好的早期预警系统，这样人们才不会措手不及。” 盖奇博士的声音中有某种东西——一种钢铁般的尖锐——让德克斯想起了杰里米，他在谈论自己的任务时的声音。 他们长得很像，德克斯意识到。 他们都在努力让世界更安全。 但两人都在冒着生命危险。

Both were hunting killers. Dex wanted to know more about what had happened to Dr. Gage that day. But just then Dr. Gage pointed out the window at a whirl of thick gray clouds rushing in from the west. "There it is!" he exclaimed. It was their storm. The chase was on.

两人都是狩猎杀手。 德克斯想知道更多的事情。 那天盖奇。但就在这时。 盖奇指着窗外，一团厚厚的灰云从西边滚滚而来。 “在那儿!”他叫道。 这是他们的风暴。追逐开始了。