Chapter 1

THE LAST KIDS ON EARTH and the SKELETON ROAD

地球上最后的孩子和骷髅路

chapter one See these twelve zombies right here? I call them the Decomposing Dozen. They are the elite. The best of the best. The cream of the crop. I know they're tough—but I'm about to find out what they're really made of. That's why I'm standing on top of an old school bus, staring out at a bizarre series of bone-shattering obstacles. Tiny goo-ball Globlet is beside me, clutching a bullhorn that's twice her size. She squeaks: "ARE THE ZOMBIES READY?" A low murmur echoes in response: "Ermmmm." Globlet turns, then squeaks: "AND ARE THE UNIVERSAL WARRIORS READY?" My friends all shout back, "Yes!" I grip the Louisville Slicer and focus. My heart rate slows. The Cosmic Hand trembles. Then, with a flick of my wrist, I command the

第一章看到这十二个僵尸了吗？ 我称他们为“腐烂的一打”。 他们是精英。精英中的精英。 精华，精华我知道它们很坚硬，但我要知道它们到底是什么做的。 这就是为什么我现在站在一辆旧校车的车顶上，盯着外面一系列奇怪的障碍物。 小球球在我身边，手里拿着一个比她大一倍的扩音器。 她尖叫道：“僵尸准备好了吗？”一个低沉的杂音回应道：“嗯。” 地球球转过身来，尖声问道：“宇宙战士们准备好了吗？”我的朋友们都喊道：“是的！”我握着路易斯维尔切片机，集中注意力。 我的心率减慢了。宇宙之手在颤抖。 然后，轻轻一挥手腕，我命令

zombies forward as I shout, "ATTACK QUINT!" The zombies heed my command—and together they charge! The lumbering bodies are speeding up a ramp toward Quint. He raises his new gripper-grabber pole, which is just a long stick with pincher jaws at the end. He opens the jaws! The zombies are nearly upon him! And then... Y'know what—HOLD ON, TIME-OUT. You're probably wondering what's going on—

僵尸们向前冲，我大喊：“攻击昆特！”僵尸们听从我的命令，一起冲锋！笨重的尸体正加速驶向昆特的斜坡。 他举起了他的新抓手-抓手杆，它只是一根长棍子，末端有钳子嘴。 他张开了下巴！僵尸快追上他了！然后…… 你知道吗，等一下，暂停。 你可能想知道发生了什么

you might be curious why I'm ordering a horde of zombies to barrel headlong into my best friend. Yeah, it's time to hit you with a little recap action.... INITIATE RECAP ACTION! STUFF THAT HAPPENED AND STUFF YOU MISSED! See, for the past few months, Quint, June, Dirk, and I have all been pretty busy. June even got into a crazy adventure that ended in a showdown with a villainous monster pirate: the Boss Rifter. And June learned a lot. Like: (1) Thrull is getting stronger; (2) the Tower is gonna be catastrophic if he finishes it; and (3) there's a place where we can discover more about the Tower and its location: a mysterious Outpost. Find the Outpost, find the Tower. Problem was, the Boss Rifter got away before we could learn where this Outpost is. So, our crazed monster warrior buddy Skaelka ventured out into the wild, searching for it.

你可能会好奇我为什么要命令一大群僵尸冲进我最好的朋友的肚子里。 是的，现在是时候给你一个小小的回顾.... 启动总结行动！发生的事和错过的事！在过去的几个月里，昆特，琼，德克和我都很忙。 June甚至开始了一场疯狂的冒险，最终与一个邪恶的怪物海盗Boss Rifter摊牌。 琼学到了很多东西。比如：(1)Thrull越来越强；(2)如果他完成了塔将是灾难性的；(3)有一个地方我们可以发现更多关于塔和它的位置：一个神秘的前哨站。 找到前哨，找到高塔。 问题是，裂谷老大在我们知道前哨站在哪之前就跑了。 所以，我们疯狂的怪物战士斯卡卡冒险进入野外，寻找它。

Yep, one day, Skaelka simply saddled up onto her Carapace (it's like a monstrous hermit crab, with a car for a shell) and rode off. It's been weeks and she still hasn't returned.... And me? My life? I've been busy polishing my zombie-controlling powers. Total Jedi-like training. Our monster friend Warg has been helping me develop my skills and better understand the capabilities of the Cosmic Hand. That's what I named the sucker-covered monster-tentacle-glove-thing that is now forever wrapped around my wrist and hand.

是的，有一天，Skaelka只是骑上了她的甲壳（它就像一只巨大的寄居蟹，壳上有一辆车），骑着马离开了。 已经几个星期了，她还没有回来.... 和我吗?我的生活?我一直忙着提高我控制僵尸的能力。 完全是绝地式的训练。我们的怪物朋友瓦格一直在帮助我提高技能，更好地理解宇宙之手的能力。 这就是我给这个包裹着吸盘的怪物触手手套的东西起的名字，现在它永远缠绕在我的手腕和手上。

See, we chopped off Ghazt's tail so he wouldn't have the ability to control zombies, but we didn't anticipate Thrull stealing the tail and taking the ability for himself! But then Thrull didn't anticipate me siphoning it away from him! It was a lot of back and forth, but it amounted to me having one pretty cool suction glove Cosmic Hand thingy and—with the power of Ghazt's tail inside the Louisville Slicer

看，我们砍掉了加斯特的尾巴，这样他就不会有控制僵尸的能力，但我们没想到Thrull偷走了尾巴，把能力占为己有！但萨鲁没想到我会把它从他手里抢走！这是一段反复的过程，但最终我拥有了一个非常酷的吸力手套，宇宙之手，还有加兹特的尾巴在路易斯维尔切片机里的力量