Chapter 10

CHAPTER 10 Was this how Papa felt when the tidal wave swept up over their village? When the churning water grabbed him and Carmen and pulled them out to sea? No, Carmen thought. Because this wave was nothing like water. It was thick and gooey. It felt alive as it rose up around her legs. Carmen had read about a kind of snake that wrapped itself around its prey, choking it to death. Now Carmen

第十章当潮水席卷他们的村庄时，爸爸的感受是这样的吗？ 当翻腾的海水把他和卡门卷到海里的时候？ 不，卡门想。因为这波根本不像水。 它又厚又粘。当它在她的腿周围升起时，感觉它是活的。 卡门在书上读到过一种蛇，它会把猎物缠住，把猎物掐死。 现在卡门

felt like a thousand snakes were wrapping themselves around her, trying to pull her down. She and Tony locked eyes. What should they do? What could they do? It became impossible to run. Each step was a battle through the thick slime. And with every blink, the molasses was rising higher. To their waists. To their chests. Carmen's clothes were soaked. The goo coated her skin. It was already hardening around her, trapping her inside a shell. The molasses was up to her chin now. Globs splashed into her mouth, sickly sweet, sharp and bitter. It made her think of rot—of old garbage left out in the sun, buzzing with flies, crawling with rats. Her stomach twisted. She was afraid she would be sick. She and Tony looked desperately around. But everyone near them was struggling, too. There

感觉就像一千条蛇把她团团围住，想把她拉下来。 她和托尼对视了一下。他们应该怎么做？ 他们能做什么呢？跑不动了。 每走一步都是在厚厚的黏液中战斗。 每一眨眼，糖蜜就升得更高。 到他们的腰。对着他们的胸膛。 卡门的衣服都湿透了。 粘稠物覆盖了她的皮肤。它已经在她周围变硬了，把她困在一个壳里。 糖蜜已经到她的下巴了。 葡萄球飞溅到她嘴里，甜得令人作呕，又酸又苦。 这使她想起了被扔在阳光下的腐烂的旧垃圾，苍蝇嗡嗡作响，老鼠爬来爬去。 她的胃一阵痉挛。她担心自己会生病。 她和托尼绝望地环顾四周。 但他们身边的每个人也都在挣扎。 有

was nobody here to help them. Carmen thought of Papa again, how he'd found that old shutter to float on. That's what they needed—a piece of wreckage to keep them from sinking. And just then Carmen saw it: something big, made of wood. It was part of a horse wagon. "Tony! Grab that!" she screamed.

没有人来帮助他们。 卡门又想起了爸爸，他是如何找到那扇旧百叶窗让自己漂浮起来的。 这就是他们所需要的——一块残骸来防止他们沉没。 就在这时，卡门看见了：一个木头做的大东西。 是一辆马车的一部分。 “托尼!抓住那个！”她尖叫道。

There was not a second to waste. It took all of Carmen's strength to propel herself forward through the muck. She pulled herself up on the wagon so half of her body was out of the molasses. Tony grabbed hold of the side. But before he could pull himself up, he lost his grip on the slime-covered wood. Carmen clung to the wagon with one hand and she reached down with the other. She managed to grab Tony's arm, and with every last bit of strength she had, she yanked him up hard. He threw his arms over a wagon wheel, locking them together. The wagon bobbed and wove in the churning molasses. Terrible sounds rose up around them—cries of fear and moans of pain, the screeching of metal. Molasses coated Carmen's face, an itching, burning, dripping mask. She and Tony huddled together, too terrified to talk. All they could do was look around in horror.

一秒钟也不能浪费了。 卡门用尽了全身的力气在淤泥中向前推进。 她把自己拉上马车，这样她的一半身体就不在糖蜜里了。 托尼抓住船舷。 但他还没来得及爬起来，就抓不住沾满黏液的木头了。 卡门一只手抓住马车，另一只手伸下去。 她设法抓住托尼的胳膊，用尽最后一点力气，使劲把他拉了起来。 他把胳膊搭在马车的轮子上，把它们锁在一起。 马车在翻腾的糖蜜中颠簸颠簸。 可怕的声音在他们周围响起——恐惧的叫声，痛苦的呻吟，金属的刺耳声。 卡门的脸上涂满了糖蜜，这是一张又痒又烫又滴的面具。 她和托尼挤在一起，害怕得说不出话来。 他们所能做的就是惊恐地环顾四周。

Now Carmen knew how Dorothy felt when she fell out of that tornado and landed in the strange land of Oz. Except that Oz was a magical land filled with bright colors and jeweled cities. This strange place was a nightmare, a wasteland of rubble covered with brown slime. The destruction reminded Carmen of the pictures she'd seen in the newspapers of the battlefields of the Great War—the cities and forests of France and Belgium turned to charred ruins. Wagons, motorcars, and parts of buildings swirled around them. And people. A man, his shoulder badly bloodied, clung to a barrel. Another man was thrashing wildly, trying to keep his head above the surface. A woman was facedown, not moving at all. How many people were trapped in this flood? Dozens? Hundreds?

现在卡门知道多萝茜从龙卷风中掉下来，落在奇异的奥兹国时的感受了。 除了奥兹是一个充满了明亮的色彩和宝石般的城市的神奇国度。 这个奇怪的地方是一场噩梦，是一片废墟，上面覆盖着棕色的黏液。 这种破坏使卡门想起了她在报纸上看到的第一次世界大战战场的照片——法国和比利时的城市和森林变成了烧焦的废墟。 马车、汽车和建筑物的一部分在他们周围旋转。 和人。一个男人，他的肩膀严重流血，紧紧抓住一个桶。 另一个人拼命地挣扎着，试图把头露出水面。 一个女人脸朝下，一动不动。 有多少人被困在这次洪水中？ 几十个?几百?

Was Tony's family safe? What about Mr. Lawrence and the kids at school? And what about Rosie? Carmen leaned harder against Tony. And that's when he screamed. "Watch out!" From nowhere, a giant piece of the tank smacked into the wagon, nearly flipping it over. Tony managed to keep his grip. But Carmen slipped off. "Carmen!" Tony's voice was the last thing she heard as the molasses swallowed her up.

托尼的家人安全吗？劳伦斯先生和学校里的孩子们怎么办？ 那罗茜呢？卡门更靠在托尼身上了。 就在这时，他尖叫起来。 “小心!”不知从什么地方冒出来，一个巨大的油罐碎片撞上了马车，几乎把它掀翻了。 托尼设法抓住了他的手。 但是卡门溜了。“卡门!”汤尼的声音是她被糖蜜吞没时最后听到的声音。