Chapter 6

Chapter Six I'm majorly annoyed with myself. I never should have let the Helidrone be used in the games. Rover loved chasing the thing, and I hate the thought of it lying busted somewhere.

我对自己很恼火。 我就不该让直升机出现在比赛中。 罗孚喜欢追那东西，我讨厌它躺在某个地方。

I'm hiking down a hill, past a crumpled old shed, when I spot the Helidrone. And I realize it may be lost forever.... From where I'm standing, I see that it crash- landed inside Big Al's Junk Palace. Big Al's is a sprawling junkyard with twenty-foot walls covered in barbed wire. Hundreds of zombies surround the place. Undead moaning and the thick scent of decomposing skin float up toward me. There'll be no retrieving my Helidrone—not right now, at least... I lift my head to the heavens and utter a short memorial for my flying friend. "You may be gone, Helidrone, but you are not forgotten. You were a first-class gizmo. A blue-ribbon gadget. You will be missed—but with any luck, you will not be missed for long. I will attempt to retrieve you, Helidrone." I spit on the ground, then use my sneaker to rub the saliva into the dirt—because that seems like a kind of cool and theatrical thing to do after delivering a totally killer memorial speech. I take the long way home. My path leads me through the eerie old playground outside the

我徒步下山，经过一间破旧的小屋，这时我看到了直升机。 我意识到它可能永远失去.... 从我站的地方，我看到它坠毁在大阿尔的垃圾宫殿里。 大人工智能是一个庞大的垃圾场，有20英尺高的围墙，上面覆盖着铁丝网。 成百上千的僵尸包围了这个地方。 不死生物的呻吟和腐烂皮肤的浓重气味向我飘来。 我的直升机是拿不回来了——至少现在不行…… 我向天抬起头，为我的飞行朋友念了一句简短的悼词。 “你也许走了，heliddrone，但你没有被遗忘。 你是一流的小发明。 一个蓝丝带小玩意。你会被想念——但幸运的话，你不会被想念太久。 我会试着去救你，直升机。” 我在地上吐了口唾沫，然后用我的运动鞋把唾沫擦进泥土里——因为在发表了一场杀手级的纪念演讲后，这样做似乎有点酷，有点戏剧性。 我走很远的路回家。我的路引导我穿过外面的一个令人毛骨悚然的旧操场

crumbling remains of the town preschool. It's super run-down and unsettling. Basically, it looked like a post-apocalyptic playground before the world went post-apocalyptic. Rusty swings blow gently in the wind, and paint-chipped seesaws jut out of the ground like prehistoric skeletons. And then it gets a whole lot creepier... The stench of the beast hits me like a basketball to the face. You know the embarrassing face-hit you get in gym class when you're not paying attention

摇摇欲坠的小镇学前班遗迹。 它超级破旧，令人不安。 基本上，在世界进入后世界末日之前，它看起来就像一个后世界末日的游乐场。 生锈的秋千在风中轻轻摆动，油漆脱落的跷跷板像史前的骷髅一样伸出地面。 然后就变得更恐怖了… 野兽的恶臭就像打在我脸上的篮球。 你知道你在体育课上不专心时被打脸的尴尬场面吧

and you just get straight whammed and you try to shrug it off like it's no biggie but secretly you're like, oh-man-my-nose-the-pain-it-hurts-in-a-superawful- way. It's one of those. And worst of all: I know this smell. The tremendous beast Blarg stunk of it. The monstrous fiend Thrull reeked of it. It is the odor of evil. And the King Wretch oozes the foul odor. It seems to swirl off him. I didn't smell it at the fire station—probably because my nostrils were stuffed with blood. The monster's head bobs, lowering, and his eyes narrow as he focuses on me. I don't mean to, I don't want to, but I look into his eyes. Soda bubbles in my brain again. The King Wretch is, like, gazing into my insides. I can't move. I'm locked in. Inside my brain. I feel something like a tornado of terrible energy whirl past me. Through me. I hear a very distant BOOM, and then everything is altered....

你只是直接受到打击，你试着耸耸肩，好像没什么大不了的，但私底下你会说，哦，天哪，我的鼻子疼得很厉害。 这是其中之一。最糟糕的是，我知道这种味道。 巨大的野兽Blarg散发着恶臭。 可怕的恶魔萨鲁散发着恶臭。 那是邪恶的气味。可怜虫王散发着恶臭。 它似乎从他身上飘散了。 我在消防站没闻到——可能是因为我的鼻孔里塞满了血。 怪物的头耷拉下来，眼睛眯着盯着我。 我不是故意的，我也不想，但我看着他的眼睛。 汽水又在我脑子里冒泡了。 可怜虫王好像在盯着我的内心。 我动不了了。我被锁在里面了。 在我的大脑里。我感到一阵可怕的能量龙卷风从我身边呼啸而过。 通过我。我听到一声非常遥远的轰鸣声，然后一切都改变了....

I'm in a sort of dream. But this feels realer than any dream I've ever dreamed. It's like watching myself, like I'm on the outside, and I'm looking in. And suddenly, I'm not at the playground anymore. I'm in Wakefield Town Square, and everything is different. The world is not back to normal, no, but it's better. The sky is bluer

我好像在做梦。但这比我做过的任何梦都要真实。 就像看着我自己，就像我在外面，我在看里面。 突然间，我就不在操场上了。 我在维克菲尔德镇广场，一切都变了。 世界并没有恢复正常，但已经变得更好了。 天空更蓝了

than-blue and the sun is warm on my skin. Big, beautiful plants grow. I feel alive. My entire body is buzzing, warm. I feel safe. I feel untouchable. Invincible. I come to the tree house. Looking up, I see that the tree is taller, thicker, and the tree house is now a tremendously huge sort of tree castle. Rooms and rooms on top of rooms, connected —a fortress fit for a king. But who is the king? I grip the ladder, and I climb. My friends are inside. Waiting for me. June, Dirk, Quint, and Rover. Rover leaps up onto me, but he doesn't knock me back—it's like I'm strong enough to hold him. Like we're equals. My friends have huge, wide smiles on their faces, and their eyes glow with happiness. And in the center, between them—a huge seat. A seat like... a throne.

比蓝色更蓝，阳光温暖地照在我的皮肤上。 又大又漂亮的植物在生长。 我觉得自己还活着。我的整个身体嗡嗡作响，温暖。 我觉得很安全。我觉得自己遥不可及。 不可战胜的。我来到树屋。 我抬头一看，那棵树长得更高、更粗了，树屋现在变成了一座巨大无比的树堡。 一间又一间的房间相连，就像一座国王的堡垒。 但是谁是国王呢？我抓住梯子，往上爬。 我的朋友们在里面。等着我。 琼，德克，昆特和罗孚。 罗孚跳到我身上，但他没有把我撞回去——好像我足够强壮，可以抱住他。 好像我们是平等的。我的朋友们脸上挂着大大的笑容，眼睛里闪烁着幸福的光芒。 在他们中间，有一个巨大的座位。 一个像……一个宝座。