Chapter 12

CHAPTER 12 FIVE WEEKS LATER JEWISH PARTISAN CAMP LODA FOREST Max sat up in bed, his heart pounding with fear. It was the same every morning — he kept thinking he was still in that ditch. It always took him a moment to realize where he was, and that he and Zena were safe. They were in their underground sleeping hut. Six men snored around them, their rifles by their sides. Zena snuffled softly on the tiny bed of logs she shared with Max. He reached and rested his hand lightly on her arm.

第十二章五个星期后，犹太游击队洛达森林营地马克斯从床上坐起来，他的心害怕得怦怦直跳。 每天早晨都是一样的——他总觉得自己还在那条沟里。 他总是过一会儿才意识到自己身在何处，才知道他和泽娜是安全的。 他们在地下的小屋里睡觉。 六个人在他们周围打呼噜，他们的步枪放在身边。 泽娜在她和马克斯共用的小圆木床上轻轻地吸着鼻子。 他伸出手轻轻地搭在她的胳膊上。

She sat up and rubbed her eyes, smiling at him. "Today's the day," she whispered. Aunt Hannah, Lev, and Martin were due back from a mission, their first since the attack in the forest. They had gone back toward Esties, to get some supplies from Mr. Jablonski. Max followed Zena up a short ladder that led to the overhead door of the hut. He winced in pain as he hoisted himself out the door. His wound was almost healed. The purple, puckered scar was even grislier than the ones Aunt Hannah and Martin had shown them. Dr. Zelman, the partisan doctor, kept telling Max how lucky he'd been. The bullet had lodged between two of his ribs. An inch in either direction and he wouldn't have survived. Zena had told him the details of those hours after he'd been shot — how Martin had packed the wound with strips of fabric torn away from his own shirt, how he and Zena had stayed there,

她坐起来揉了揉眼睛，对他微笑。 “就是今天，”她低声说。 汉娜阿姨、列弗和马丁要完成任务回来，这是他们在森林袭击后的第一次任务。 他们回到埃斯蒂斯，从雅布伦斯基先生那里拿些补给品。 马克斯跟着泽娜上了一段通向小屋头顶门的短梯子。 他爬出门时痛得缩了一下。 他的伤口几乎愈合了。 那紫色的、皱巴巴的伤疤比汉娜姨妈和马丁给他们看的还要可怕。 党派医生泽尔曼医生不停地告诉马克斯他是多么幸运。 子弹卡在他的两根肋骨之间。 朝任何方向移动一英寸，他都不会活下来。 泽娜把他中枪后几个小时的细节都告诉了他——马丁如何用从自己衬衫上撕下来的布条包扎伤口，他和泽娜如何呆在那里，

hiding in the bushes, praying that Max would survive. Max remembered none of it. But he'd heard the story of that day and night over and over, and he could picture it all in his mind. After Martin had bandaged Max's wound, he'd hoisted him onto his back and led Zena to a large crater created by one of the bombs. He covered it with pine branches and they hid there as the soldiers swarmed around them. They stayed there for hours, until it was dark. Max was groaning in pain, and he seemed to be fading. Martin knew they needed to find a doctor as soon as possible, that he had to try to get them back to the camp. And so once again, Martin put Max onto his back. He took Zena's hand. They crept through the burning darkness, dodging behind trees when they heard footsteps. There was no way to get to the underwater bridge — it was more than a mile

躲在灌木丛里祈祷麦克斯能活下来 麦克斯什么都不记得了。 但他一遍又一遍地听着那个日夜的故事，他可以在脑海中描绘出这一切。 马丁包扎好马克斯的伤口后，把他背起来，把泽娜带到一个由炸弹造成的大坑前。 他用松枝盖住，他们就藏在那里，周围都是士兵。 他们在那里呆了几个小时，直到天黑。 马克斯痛苦地呻吟着，他似乎正在衰弱。 马丁知道他们需要尽快找到一位医生，他必须设法把他们带回营地。 于是，马丁又一次把马克斯背在背上。 他握住泽娜的手。他们蹑手蹑脚地穿过燃烧的黑暗，听到脚步声就躲到树后。 没有办法到达水下桥——它有一英里多

away. They would have to cross the swamp in the water. This was the part of the story that was hardest for Zena to tell; her blue eyes always grew shadowy with fear. The water had been freezing cold, and the knifelike swamp grasses had sliced through their clothes. Snakes slithered between their legs, and sharp-toothed creatures nipped at them. But the worst was the mud, which at times came up past Zena's waist. Once, she became stuck, and it took all of Martin's strength to pull her out. Finally it was too dangerous to keep going in the dark. They stopped in a cluster of dead trees that rose from the water like twisted skeletons. The forest glowed eerily around them, machine-gun fire pounded in the distance. And then came the most terrifying moment, when an enormous creature came floating through the water toward them.

走了。他们必须在水中穿过沼泽。 这是泽娜最难讲的部分;她的蓝眼睛总是因恐惧而蒙上阴影。 水一直很冷，像刀一样的沼泽草把他们的衣服割破了。 蛇在他们的腿间爬行，锋利的牙齿咬着他们。 但最糟糕的是泥浆，有时泥浆超过了泽娜的腰。 有一次，她被卡住了，马丁用尽了全身的力气才把她拉出来。 最后，在黑暗中继续走太危险了。 他们在一丛枯树前停了下来，这些枯树像扭曲的骷髅一样从水里冒出来。 森林在他们周围散发着恐怖的光芒，远处机枪轰鸣。 然后最可怕的时刻到来了，一个巨大的生物从水中漂向他们。

But it turned out to be Hannah and Lev, gripping a giant branch. The small group waited together until the sun came up, and then finally made it to the island. As Aunt Hannah had predicted, the camp had escaped the bombing. And within minutes, Max was in the hands of Dr. Zelman, an older partisan who had been a famous surgeon before he became a fighter. He removed the bullet, stitched the wound, and pumped Max full of medicines. Through it all, Zena refused to leave her brother's side. Over the next few days, whenever Max woke up, he saw different people staring down at him — men with tangled beards, women with short-cropped hair, all looking at him with caring, worried eyes. And always the face closest to his was Zena's Miraculously, Max was feeling better within a couple of weeks. Soon he and Zena were swept into the bustling life of the camp. His favorite times were sitting around the fire with the

但原来是汉娜和列弗，抓着一根巨大的树枝。 这一小群人一直等到太阳出来，最后终于来到了岛上。 正如汉娜姑妈所预言的那样，营地躲过了轰炸。 几分钟后，麦克斯就被送到了。 泽尔曼是一名年长的游击队员，在成为一名战士之前，他是一名著名的外科医生。 他取出子弹，缝合伤口，给马克斯灌满了药。 经历了这一切，泽娜拒绝离开她哥哥的身边。 在接下来的几天里，每当马克斯醒来，他都会看到不同的人低头盯着他——胡子缠在一起的男人，短发的女人，所有人都用关心而担忧的目光看着他。 而离他最近的脸总是泽娜的。不可思议的是，几周后，马克斯感觉好多了。 不久，他和泽娜就被卷进了营地熙熙攘攘的生活。 他最喜欢的时光就是围坐在火炉旁

partisans, listening to them talk. Mostly they talked of the rumors about the war: that the Russians had finally chased the Nazis out of their country. Now Russian soldiers were in eastern Poland, pushing the Nazis out. Hitler's troops were on the run. The partisans spoke with cautious hope about the end of the war, about returning home. But Max saw the questions in their eyes: Exactly what was left of their homes… and their families? They were all hoping that Aunt Hannah, Martin, and Lev would return with news. And sure enough, later in the morning, the guard shouted down from his treetop lookout. "They're back!" he called. Max and Zena raced to the edge of the swamp and looked out over the sunken bridge. There was Aunt Hannah, wading through the water, with Martin and Lev right behind her. And there was someone else: a man. At first, Max was sure he was dreaming.

游击队，听他们说话。 他们大多谈论关于战争的谣言:俄国人终于把纳粹赶出了他们的国家。 现在俄国士兵在波兰东部，把纳粹赶出去。 希特勒的军队四处逃窜。 游击队员们带着谨慎的希望谈论着战争的结束，谈论着回家。 但马克斯看到了他们眼中的疑问:他们的家和家人到底留下了什么? 他们都希望汉娜姨妈、马丁和列弗能带来消息。 果然，早上晚些时候，警卫从他的树顶瞭望台向下面喊道。 “他们回来了!”他喊道。 马克斯和泽娜跑到沼泽的边缘，看着沉没的桥。 汉娜姨妈在水里涉水，马丁和列弗跟在她后面。 还有另外一个人:一个男人。 起初，马克斯确信他是在做梦。