Chapter 2

chapter two As soon as we're through the door, we start searching for cover. Quint silently points to a row of shelves filled with bowling shoes. Getting there is a claustrophobic nightmare— kinda feels like Best Buy on Black Friday. We're forcefully pushing ourselves through the zombie horde, trying to reach our safe place. But we're lucky—the zombies leave us alone. The horde is morphing from a huge mushed-up mash to one organized line. They are drawn by something we don't see or hear—and they're shuffling away from the entrance and toward the old arcade and snack bar room. When the last zombie has turned the corner, I realize that this whole place is emptier than I expected—by a lot. And most important —no sign of Evie or Ghazt. Ghazt was scared of the Slicer last time, so all I gotta do is show it to him again—and he'll

第二章我们一进门，就开始寻找掩体。 昆特默默地指着一排摆满保龄球鞋的架子。 到达那里是一场幽闭恐怖的噩梦——有点像黑色星期五的百思买。 我们在僵尸群中奋力前行，试图到达安全的地方。 但我们很幸运，僵尸们放过了我们。 部落正在从一个巨大的糊状物变成一个有组织的队伍。 他们被某种我们看不见或听不到的东西吸引着——他们慢慢地离开入口，向旧拱廊和小吃店走去。 当最后一个僵尸转过拐角时，我意识到这整个地方比我想象的要空很多。 最重要的是，没有伊薇或加斯特的踪迹。 加斯特上次害怕切片机，所以我只要再给他看一次，他就会

vamoose! But first we gotta find him. "Guys, it's quiet," I say. "Too quiet." Dirk shoots me a confused look. I see sweat pouring off his face in fat droplets. Quiet. Don't you guys hear that? People like mumbling, talking? Ah, no. Dirk frowns, getting sweatier, then quickly says, "Oh OK me neither just wanted to make sure." "Guys!" Quint says in a whisper. He's using an old selfie stick with a mirror to peek around

匆匆离开!但首先我们得找到他。 “伙计们，这里很安静，”我说。 “太安静了。”德克困惑地看了我一眼。 我看到汗水从他脸上滴下来。 安静。你们没听到吗？ 人们喜欢喃喃自语，说话？ 啊,没有。德克皱起眉头，汗流浃背，然后很快地说：“哦，好吧，我也不想确定。” “男人!”昆特低声说。 他用一根带镜子的旧自拍杆四处张望

the corner. "The zombies all went into the arcade. But there are ZOMBIE GUARDS at the doors!" I scooch over and glance in the mirror. I see four zombies, standing watch, wearing hooded robes.... Those robes—I realize they're just like the ones we saw in Evie's book. She's drafting these zombies into her Cabal of the Cosmic!

角落里。僵尸们都进了游戏厅。 但是门口有僵尸守卫！”我晃了晃身子，看了看镜子。 我看到四个僵尸，站在那里，穿着兜帽长袍.... 那些袍子，我意识到它们就像我们在艾薇的书里看到的一样。 她在把这些僵尸拉进她的宇宙阴谋集团！

OLD-TIMEY MEMBERS OF THE CABAL OF THE COSMIC! WAY BACK IN THE DAY. The Cabal of the Cosmic was a group of crazy-pants people from the olden days who were obsessed with bad dudes like .e...c. the Ancient, Destructor of Worlds. Evie found their old book, full of information and instructions. (It's OK, though—we stole the book from her and now we have our own guide to .e...c.'s world of cosmic horror.) "Guys," I whisper, nodding toward the arcade snackbar, "I think that's Ghazt's real home base." "A villainous lair inside a villainous lair?" June asks. "How many villainous lairs does one interdimensional rat monster need?" Quint responds, "The answer, it seems, is two." "If we're gonna sneak in and crash their evil party," I say, "we need to blend in like undercover super spies."

宇宙阴谋集团的老成员！很久以前的事了。 宇宙秘社是一群来自旧时代的疯子，他们痴迷于像e…c这样的坏人。 远古世界的毁灭者。 伊薇找到了他们的旧书，里面全是信息和说明。 (不过没关系——我们从她那里偷了书，现在我们有了自己的旅行指南……宇宙恐怖的世界。)“伙计们，”我小声说，朝街机小吃店点了点头，“我想那才是Ghazt真正的大本营。” “邪恶巢穴里的邪恶巢穴？”6月问道。 “一个跨次元鼠怪需要多少个邪恶的巢穴？”昆特回答说：“答案似乎是两个。” “如果我们想溜进去搅乱他们的邪恶派对，”我说，“我们得像卧底超级间谍一样混进去。”

I lock eyes with June—and she gets it, right away. We gotta take out these guards, triple- ninja-style, and steal their dirty duds. June nudges Quint. He pulls a whiffle ball box from his action-geek bag. But inside is no ordinary whiffle ball. Inside is the— Whiffle Meatball Guaranteed to get ANY zombie's attention! Rotten ham, mule worms, Jelly beans. "I'll roll," Quint says. "And I'll take 'em out," June adds. With that, it's meatball away. Quint bowls it toward the arcade. It rolls past the blue-cloaked

我和琼对视，她马上就明白了。 我们得干掉这些守卫，三个忍者式的，然后偷走他们的脏衣服。 琼推了推昆特。他从他的动作怪咖包里拿出一个whiffle ball盒子。 但里面可不是普通的旋转球。 里面是- Whiffle肉丸保证得到任何僵尸的注意！腐烂的火腿，骡子虫，软糖。 “我来，”昆特说。“我会把它们拿出来的，”琼补充道。 有了这个，就可以做肉丸了。 昆特把球扔向拱廊。 它滚过蓝斗篷

zombie guards.... They look around, sniffing, then a moment later— Ma gro he. The guards stagger after the ball, hunched over, bony fingers grabbing and scraping. One finally collapses onto the ball, like it's trying to recover a fumble in the end zone. All four of them begin gnawing at the thing—sucking on the whiffle meatball. Bingo. A very gross bingo. June smiles. "I got this next part..." she says, and lifts her torn zombie sleeve to reveal

僵尸守卫……他们四处看了看，嗅了嗅，过了一会儿——“妈呀！” 卫兵们踉踉跄跄地追着球，弯着腰，瘦骨嶙峋的手指抓来抓去。 一只终于倒在了球上，就像它试图弥补在达阵区失球一样。 他们四个都开始啃那东西——吮吸着肉丸子。 宾果。一个非常恶心的宾果游戏。 6月微笑。“我有下一部分……” 她说着，撩起她那撕裂的衣袖露出来