Chapter 12

chapter twelve My eyes snap open. I'm awakened by an earthquake, or something like one. Could be a stampede of Mack Trucks. Possibly an elephant tap dance routine. "WHAT'S HAPPENING?" Dirk shouts. I roll over and spot him on the floor, trying to squirm out of his sleeping bag. "Shake loud...?" Quint mutters, still half- asleep. "C'mon!" June says, springing out of bed. In moments, we're awake and dressed. During the Monster Apocalypse, you sorta get used to throwing on a pair of jeans at a second's notice. We're like modern-day minutemen, minus the muskets, wigs, and weird obsession with tea. June shimmies open the door and we stagger outside. Greeting us is the single largest moving object any of us has ever seen....

第十二章我的眼睛突然睁开。 我被地震或类似地震的东西吵醒了。 可能是麦克卡车的踩踏事件。 可能是大象踢踏舞。 “发生了什么?”德克喊道。 我翻了个身，发现他躺在地板上，想从睡袋里爬出来。 “摇声……?”昆特嘟囔着，仍然半睡半醒。 “来吧!”琼说着，从床上跳了起来。 一会儿，我们就醒了，穿好衣服。 在怪物启示录期间，你已经习惯了一秒钟就穿上牛仔裤。 我们就像现代的民兵，只不过没有火枪、假发和对茶的奇怪迷恋。 琼摇摇晃晃地打开门，我们摇摇晃晃地走了出去。 迎接我们的是我们所见过的最大的移动物体....

In the moonlight, all I can make out is a massive form rumbling toward us. No, "massive" is underselling it. This is leviathan- level large. "Wait," Quint says, rubbing his eyes. "Is that...?" "It is!" I say. "It can't be, but it is. It's a mall!" June says, "Not just a mall. THE Mall. That's the Millennium Super Mall, biggest mall in the hemisphere!" As the thing's crumbling path brings it into full view, Dirk says, "Biggest mall in the hemisphere is ridin' a centipede-looking monster. Great."

在月光下，我只能看到一个巨大的物体向我们隆隆而来。 不，“大规模”是在贬低它。 这是利维坦级别的大。 “等等，”昆特揉着眼睛说。 “那是……?”“这是!”我说。 “不可能，但确实是这样。这是商场！”琼说：“不仅仅是购物中心。 购物中心。那是千禧超级购物中心，西半球最大的购物中心！”当这个东西摇摇欲坠的路径把它展现在人们的视野中时，德克说：“这个半球最大的商场正骑着一个蜈蚣状的怪物。 好了。”

"Colossal centipede," I add. "Combined with a slug or a snail or something...." "Mollusks," Quint says. "Slugs and snails are both mollusks." "So does that make this big thing a... MALLusk?" June asks. "Oh, June, dude..." I say. "Nice. So nice." Dirk is stomping back to Big Mama. "Yeah, well—your 'Mallusk' is about to mush us into a fine paste. Let's move!"

“大蜈蚣。”我又说。 “与鼻涕虫或蜗牛或其他东西结合起来....” “软体动物，”昆特说。“鼻涕虫和蜗牛都是软体动物。” “所以这是不是让这件大事…… MALLusk ?”6月问道。“哦，琼，老兄……” 我说。“好了。太好了。”德克又回到了妈妈身边。 “是啊，好吧，你的‘Mallusk’就要把我们糊弄成糊状了。 让我们动起来!”

We rush back into Big Mama—and it's chaos. Outside, the ground is splitting as the creature approaches. Inside, the metal floor is twisting and windows are bursting from their frames! "Hang on!" Dirk barks from up front. "We're gettin' out of here!" I hear a door pop open. Outside, I spot— "My zombies!" The vibrations must have popped open their trailer door—now they're staggering around outside. I reach for my Slicer while Big Mama sputters forward unsteadily. "Wait, guys! Not yet!" I shout. "I have to get my squad! I ne-eeee- ee—" Suddenly, the ground rolls, Big Mama lurches, and I'm flung out the door! My stomach flips. I realize the ground has been split into two. I'm separated from my friends, being carried off. It's like I'm on an iceberg that's drifting out to sea. In moments, Big Mama is hundreds of feet away. And the chasm is only growing wider.

我们冲回“大妈妈”那里，一片混乱。 外面，随着生物的靠近，地面裂开了。 在里面，金属地板扭曲着，窗户从框架上破裂了！“等等!”德克在前面叫。 “我们要离开这里！”我听到一扇门砰地开了。 在外面，我发现了——“我的僵尸！”震动一定把他们的拖车门打开了——现在他们在外面摇摇晃晃地走着。 我伸手去拿切片机，而“大妈妈”却摇摇晃晃地向前冲去。 “等等,伙计们!没有!”我喊。 “我得去找我的小队！”我——噫——噫——”突然，地面滚了起来，大妈妈踉跄了一下，我被甩出了门！我的胃翻腾。 我意识到地面已经一分为二了。 我和朋友们走散了，被带走了。 就像我在一座漂向大海的冰山上。 不一会儿，“大妈妈”就在几百英尺之外。 而且鸿沟只会越来越大。

Then I can no longer see Big Mama at all. I only see the massive Mallusk charging over and through the ground like a freight train that's jumped the tracks.... CRUUNSSHH-GRRRRRMM! No way I can reach my buddies now—and I won't be able to until the mall passes. But I've got my Slicer, so I search, scanning for any sign of my squad. With the chasm behind us, there's

那我就再也见不到大妈妈了。 我只看到巨大的马洛斯克像一列脱轨的货运火车一样在地面上冲过，.... CRUUNSSHH-GRRRRRMM !我现在不可能联系上我的朋友们，直到购物中心过去了我才能联系上他们。 但我有切片机，所以我搜索，扫描我的小队的任何迹象。 在我们身后的峡谷里，有

really only one place they could have gone: forward. So I go forward. And as I make my way down a cracked, torn-up street, I think, It's way too early for this. Far behind me, the roar of the Mega Mallusk continues. It's foggy and I can barely see anything. But there's a strange glow up ahead, so I decide to follow that—thinking it might have attracted the zombies like moths. After a few hundred feet, I cross a moss- covered interstate and discover an old roadside motel. A rusted sign reads: THE C'MON INN. The moon bathes it all in a strange blue glow. "Like this place wasn't creepy enough," I say under my breath. "Thanks a lot, moon." Interdimensional foliage grows wild across the parking lot. Cars, skewered by some strange species of rigid and razor-sharp vine, are suspended in the air. A VW Bug rests, upside down, in the gnarled crook of a tree that radiates a fiery red.

实际上他们只能去一个地方：前进。 所以我继续前进。当我走在一条破碎的街道上时，我想，现在做这个还为时过早。 在我身后很远的地方，巨型Mallusk的轰鸣声还在继续。 雾很大，我几乎什么也看不见。 但前方有一种奇怪的光芒，所以我决定跟着它走——我想它可能像飞蛾一样吸引了僵尸。 走了几百英尺后，我穿过长满青苔的州际公路，发现了一家古老的路边汽车旅馆。 一块锈迹斑斑的牌子上写着：C’mon INN。 月亮把它沐浴在一种奇怪的蓝色光芒中。 “好像这地方还不够恐怖似的，”我压低声音说。 “谢谢你，月亮。”跨次元的树叶在停车场上疯长。 汽车被一些奇怪的、坚硬的、锋利的藤蔓串在一起，悬在空中。 一辆大众甲壳虫（VW Bug）倒立在一棵散发着火红光芒的多节树干上。