Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5 Ben grabbed Harry. He crawled across the floor toward the door, dragging Harry along with him. He pushed against the door. But it was stuck. It was wedged against the cracked, broken floor. Now what? They were trapped! Panic churned Ben's insides. They couldn't stay here! But where could they go? His body was frozen. His heart pounded. His mind swirled so that it was impossible to think. Was this how Dad had felt, when he knew his F-16 was going to crash?

本一把抓住哈利。 他拖着哈利穿过地板朝门口爬去。 他推着门。 但它被卡住了。它被楔在破裂的地板上。 现在怎么办呢?他们被困住了!恐慌搅动着本的内心。 他们不能呆在这里!但他们能去哪里呢? 他的身体被冻住了。他的心怦怦直跳。 他的脑子乱转，根本无法思考。 当爸爸知道他的F-16要坠毁的时候，他也是这样想的吗?

Dad had only recently told Ben the story of the crash. They'd been at the basketball court across from their house. Normally, Dad didn't tell stories about being at war. But something about the thump, thump, thump of the basketball had loosened Dad up, got him talking. He'd described what had happened when the engine exploded, when the lights on the cockpit console had flashed like a video game gone haywire. He was twenty-five thousand feet in the air, rocketing through the sky at five hundred miles per hour. Any minute, the entire plane could burst into flames. His only chance was to eject, to pull the big yellow lever that would explode him out of the plane and send him shooting through the endless sky. The roof of the cockpit — the canopy — was made of clear plastic, and was designed to pop off when the eject lever was pulled. A small explosive under Dad's seat would blast the entire seat into the air. Two parachutes would open — the first to

爸爸最近才把车祸的事告诉本。 他们在他们家对面的篮球场。 通常，爸爸不讲打仗的故事。 但是篮球砰、砰、砰的一声让爸爸放松了下来，他开始说话了。 他描述了引擎爆炸时发生的事情，当时驾驶舱控制台上的灯光闪烁，就像电子游戏失控一样。 他在2.5万英尺的高空，以每小时500英里的速度在天空中飞驰。 整架飞机随时都可能起火。 他唯一的机会就是弹射，拉动那根黄色的大杠杆，把他从飞机上炸开，让他飞向无边无际的天空。 驾驶舱的顶篷是由透明塑料制成的，当弹射杆被拉动时，顶篷就会弹开。 爸爸座位下面的一个小炸弹会把整个座位炸飞。 两个降落伞会打开，第一个打开

yank Dad upright, the second to float him down to Earth. But what if the canopy didn't open and Dad crushed his head? What if the parachutes failed and he fell like a rock straight into the ground? Dad had heard stories about ejections that went horribly wrong. Plenty of pilots had died, or were so badly hurt that they never walked again. These were terrifying thoughts. But Dad had been trained for these life-and-death moments — to fly through enemy fire, to land on an aircraft carrier in a thunderstorm, to avoid a missile aimed straight for the belly of his jet. "The fear is always there," Dad had told Ben, bouncing the ball and lining up at the free-throw line. "But you can't let it take over." He'd eyed the basket and taken a shot. "You have to choose: live or die. If you let yourself panic, you're finished." Swish.

把爸爸拉起来，第二个把他吊到地上。 但是如果天篷打不开，爸爸撞坏了他的头怎么办? 如果降落伞坏了，他像石头一样直接掉到地上怎么办? 爸爸听过一些关于喷射的故事，这些故事非常糟糕。 许多飞行员已经死亡，或者受了重伤，再也不能行走。 这些都是可怕的想法。 但是爸爸已经接受过生死时刻的训练——飞过敌人的炮火，在雷雨天气降落在航空母舰上，避开直接瞄准他的飞机腹部的导弹。 “恐惧总是存在的，”爸爸告诉本，弹起球，站在罚球线前。 “但你不能让它占据主导。” 他盯着篮筐，投了一球。 “你必须做出选择:生或死。 如果你让自己恐慌，你就完蛋了。” 时髦的。

Now Ben remembered what Dad had said to him next. "What you learn in training is to close your eyes," Dad had said. "You breathe deep. You breathe, and breathe, and breathe. And somehow your mind clears so you can do what you need to do." Ben closed his eyes now. It was hard to fill his lungs — his chest felt as if it was wrapped tight in rubber bands. But he kept thinking of Dad's words: Breathe. Breathe. Breathe. And somehow his mind stopped swirling. His body relaxed. And then, almost without thinking, Ben grabbed Harry. He dragged him back toward the bed, which had strong metal legs.

现在本想起了爸爸接下来对他说的话。 “你在训练中学到的就是闭上眼睛，”爸爸说。 “你深呼吸。你呼吸，呼吸，再呼吸。 不知怎的，你的头脑就清醒了，这样你就可以做你需要做的事情了。” 本闭上了眼睛。很难填满他的肺——他的胸部感觉好像被橡皮筋紧紧地包裹着。 但他一直想着爸爸的话:呼吸。 呼吸。呼吸。不知怎么的，他的思绪停止了旋转。 他的身体放松了。然后，本几乎不假思索地抓住了哈利。 他把他拖回床前，床上有结实的金属腿。

Ben pushed Harry underneath, and then scrambled in after him. "Wait!" Harry screamed. "Nya!" The cat was in the middle of the room, frozen in shock. Harry tried to crawl out, but Ben gripped on to his ankle, pulling Harry back in. "Get her!" Harry screamed at Ben. Ben slid out from under the bed and crawled on his elbows after Nya. He caught her by the tail. She howled and scratched at him, but he managed to pull her back so that Harry could grab her. Ben had barely made it under the bed when the room seemed to explode. And the ceiling came crashing down.

本把哈利推到下面，然后跟着他爬了进去。 “等等!”哈利尖叫。“那!”那只猫站在房间中央，吓呆了。 哈利想爬出去，但本抓住他的脚踝，把哈利拉了回去。 “让她!”哈利朝本尖叫。 本从床底下溜出来，用胳膊肘跟着妮雅爬。 他抓住了她的尾巴。 她又嚎叫又抓他，但他总算把她拉了回来，好让哈利抓住她。 本刚钻到床底下，房间就好像要爆炸了。 天花板轰然倒塌。