Chapter 18

chapter eighteen We tumble down a long, curving tube—slimy and slick—until finally, we're dumped out. The ground is squishy and— Oh. Hold up. This is no ground— I'm face-to-face, nose-to-nose, with a bloated husk of evil. evil, half-dissected monster. My hands push against the soft, fleshy coldness, and I start to tumble off the table, again crying out, "EVIL HALF—" Dirk catches me before I hit the ground, throwing a hand over my mouth, silencing me. "Everyone alive?" Dirk asks. My friends have landed all around me. I'm the only one unlucky enough to have been dumped out on a cut-up monster.

我们顺着一条又长又弯的管子滚下去——又黏又滑——直到最后，我们被扔了出去。 地面很软，而且。 举起。这不是地面——我和一个臃肿的恶魔面对面，鼻子对鼻子。 邪恶的，半解剖的怪物。 我的手推着那柔软的、肉质的冰冷，我开始从桌子上滚下来，又一次叫道：“邪恶的半——”德克在我摔倒之前抓住了我，用一只手捂住我的嘴，让我闭嘴。 “每个人都活着吗?”德克问道。 我的朋友们都降落在我周围。 我是唯一一个倒霉的人被一个被肢解的怪物抛弃了。

"Not everyone..." I say as the full extent of where we are slowly begins to dawn on me... No wonder Skaelka didn't want to come back here, I think. Monster bodies lie on tables; arms and tails and foot-long tongues dangle over the sides. Other monster corpses float inside glowing tube chambers, their limbs bobbing beside their bodies. Vials, syringes, and saws are scattered about. Monster parts are piled in a corner—a meat heap. The air is humid; everything feels moist. And the stench doesn't just make my eyes water—it makes my pupils burn.

“不是每个人都……”我说，当我慢慢开始明白我们所处的全部情况时…… 我想，怪不得斯卡卡不想回来了。 怪物的尸体躺在桌子上；手臂、尾巴和一英尺长的舌头悬在两侧。 其他的怪物尸体漂浮在发光的管腔里，它们的四肢在身体旁边摆动。 小瓶、注射器和锯子到处都是。 怪物的部分被堆在一个角落里——一个肉堆。 空气潮湿；所有东西都摸起来潮湿。 恶臭不仅会让我流泪，还会让我的瞳孔灼烧。

"It's like a morgue combined with the mad Scientist's laboratory. A morgade. "It's OK! Everyone can relax!" June calls happily. She's on one knee, backpack open. "The Fortress Breaker is A-OK." "June—" I start. She shakes her head. "Nope. This is one room I will not read." "Dirk, come look at this..." Quint says, eyeing a wall. "I think it's him! From Skaelka's memories."

“它就像一个停尸房和疯狂科学家的实验室。 morgade。“没关系!大家都可以放松了！”琼高兴地叫道。 她单膝跪地，打开背包。 “堡垒破坏者很好。” “六月——”我开始说。她摇了摇头。 “不。这是一个我不会读的房间。” “德克，快来看这个……” 昆特盯着一堵墙说。 “我想是他！”从斯卡卡的记忆中。”

It's a wall of pictures. All of rack saww under the heading Employee of the month. "Enough gawkin'," Dirk says. "That guy's bad news. And now that we know where we gotta get to— let's get to it. Pronto." Uh-oh. Dirk's saying stuff like "pronto"—that means there's no arguing with him. Not that I'd argue anyway. I'll be happy to leave this place behind—and hopefully bury all memory of it in that corner of my brain saved for nightmares and really embarrassing memories, like that time I tried to slide down the railing at school and ended up just splitting my pants and my underwear.

这是一面墙的照片。所有的锯架都被评为月度最佳员工。 “够了，”德克说。 “那家伙是个坏消息。既然我们知道我们要去哪里，那就开始吧。 Pronto。”哦。德克说的是“快”之类的话——这意味着你不能和他争论。 反正我也不想争辩。 我很高兴离开这个地方——希望把所有关于它的记忆都埋在我大脑的角落里，留给噩梦和真正尴尬的回忆，比如有一次我试图从学校的栏杆上滑下来，结果裤子和内裤都裂了。

We start toward the door—but Dirk holds up two fingers, halting us. He peeks his head out, gazing down the hallway beyond. I stick my head out, too—then quickly yank it back. Two long, spindly monsters—wearing long robes, almost like nurses' gowns—are hurrying toward the morgueatory. "OK, we need another way out of here," I say quickly. "Isn't one," Dirk says. "First thing I checked. Just that door." Which means we need the next best thing: a place to hide. Tool cabinet? Too small. Floaty tube? Can't breathe underwater. Underground? I'm not a gopher. There's nowhere to hide, except, maybe— The meat heap, I think. A rotting, fetid lump of monster parts is piled into a mound at the rear of the room. Most of them unrecognizable as more than—shudder—leftovers... At the front of the heap is a bulging, round monster husk—which I quickly dub Fly Guy. It's got a head like a fly that was dunked in candle wax, complete with dozens of softball-sized eyes. A long gash splits its rippled belly down the middle. "Fly Guy," I mutter. "Has to be the Fly Guy." "Absolutely not—" Quint starts, but then we hear the nurses chittering back and forth. They're close.

我们朝门口走去，但德克伸出两根手指，拦住了我们。 他探出头来，凝视着远处的走廊。 我也把头伸出来，然后迅速地缩回来。 两个又长又细的怪物——穿着长长的长袍，几乎像护士服一样——正匆匆向停尸房走去。 “好吧，我们需要另一条路出去。”我赶紧说。 “不是一个，”德克说。“我首先检查的是。 就那扇门。”也就是说我们还需要一个藏身之处。 工具柜吗?太小了。吃水浅的管? 不能在水下呼吸。地下吗? 我不是地鼠。这里无处可藏，除了-我想应该是肉堆。 一堆腐烂的、发臭的怪物器官堆在房间后面的一个土堆里。 他们中的大多数人都认不出来了，只不过是寒碜的残羹剩饭…… 在这堆东西的前面，是一个鼓鼓囊囊的圆形怪物外壳——我很快就给它起了个绰号，叫“飞人”。 它的头像一只浸泡在蜡烛蜡里的苍蝇，还有几十只垒球大小的眼睛。 一条长长的口子把它波纹状的腹部从中间切开。 “飞人，”我喃喃地说。“一定是飞人。” “绝对不行——”昆特开始说，但接着我们听到护士们来回地叽叽喳喳。 他们接近。

June's quick to get her hands dirty—dashing toward the meat mound, grabbing hold of Fly Guy, and heaving. And then... yep—no stopping this now, we're doing this, we're climbing into the husk of a dead and bloated fly monster. could be worse. How it could still be alive. The nurses enter just as we yank the Fly-Guy's eyeball-covered skin flap shut...

琼很快就把她的手弄脏了——冲向肉堆，抓住苍蝇盖伊，然后用力。 然后……是的，现在不能停止，我们要这么做，我们要爬进一个死去的臃肿的苍蝇怪物的外壳里。 还可能更糟。它怎么可能还活着。 护士们进来的时候，我们把苍蝇人覆盖着眼球的皮肤拉上……