Chapter 22

chapter twenty-two Aqua City is massive. It's, like, truly a city: a city of wave pools, waterslides, log flumes, and lazy rivers. As we enter the park, we discover the slides are glowing green. The whole place is covered in the all-natural vine-killing substance we now refer to as Ultra-Slime. Not just covered—the place is half-sunk. In some spots, I bet it's deeper than ol' Blargus. The green goo is flowing down the slides, running through the wading pools, spilling across walkways, dripping from the snack shacks—it's EVERYWHERE. "Werbert wasn't kidding," I say. "There's a lot of Ultra-Slime here." "That's good news!" June chirps. "The skeleton army can't follow us. They touch that slime, and..." June makes a sizzle sound. "But bad news, too," Dirk adds. "The BoomKarts. We'll have to leave 'em here."

第二十二章水城很大。 它就像一座真正的城市：一个拥有波浪池、滑水道、原木水槽和慵懒河流的城市。 当我们进入公园时，我们发现滑梯发出绿光。 整个地方都覆盖着一种纯天然的杀死葡萄树的物质，我们现在称之为超黏液。 不仅仅是被覆盖了，这个地方已经半沉了。 在某些地方，我打赌它比老Blargus更深。 绿色的粘稠物从滑梯上流下，穿过浅水池，溢出人行道，从小吃棚里滴下来——到处都是。 “Werbert不是在开玩笑，”我说。 “这里有很多超黏液。” “这是个好消息！”6月啾啾。 “骷髅军不能跟着我们。 他们碰了那黏液，就……” 六月发出嘶嘶声。 “但也有坏消息，”德克补充道。 “BoomKarts。我们只好把他们留在这儿了。”

"Perhaps not..." Quint says. He's stepping out of his BoomKart and eyeing our surroundings. He scoops up a handful of slime —and, after watching it slowly drip through his fingers, announces: "I have a solution!" Then, looking back in the direction of the skeleton soldiers: "But we will need to work quickly." And we do. We finish just as the skeletons are streaming into the park. Dozens of mindless bone-baddies climb over turnstiles, scramble across awnings, and squeeze through rusted fences. "Gotta hurry, gang," I say. "Ready!" Quint calls out. I grin, impressed. Our BoomKarts are now rafts—each one mounted atop one of the inflatable donut floaties used for the lazy river. My zombies retrieve four shovels from a nearby supply shed, to be used like paddles. "Push 'em!" Dirk says, and we each shove our rafts down into the slime. We leap on, just seconds before the army reaches us. Thousands of skeletons come to a sudden sliding, skidding

“也许不是……”五度音说。 他从他的布姆卡丁车里出来，打量着我们周围的环境。 他舀起一把黏液，看着它慢慢地从手指间滴落，然后宣布：“我有办法了！”然后，回头看了看骷髅兵的方向：“但是我们需要赶快行动。” 我们确实做到了。我们结束的时候，骷髅正源源不断地涌入公园。 几十个没有头脑的骨头坏蛋爬过旋转门，爬过遮阳篷，挤过生锈的栅栏。 “得快点了，伙计们，”我说。 “准备好了!”昆特喊道。我咧嘴一笑，印象深刻。 我们的BoomKarts现在变成了木筏——每个木筏都安装在一个充气的甜甜圈浮标上，用来在慵懒的河上漂流。 我的僵尸们从附近的补给棚里拿了四把铲子，当作桨来用。 “把它们!”德克说，于是我们各自把木筏塞进了泥里。 我们跳上去，就在军队到达之前几秒钟。 成千上万的骷髅突然滑倒，滑倒

halt—so sharp and fast that I can almost hear their bones screeching against the asphalt. The point where the Ultra-Slime washes up on the walkway is like the shore of a beach—and they can't go in. The skeletons in the rear don't get the message right away, and they slam into the mass, sending the front line of skeletons tumbling into the slime. Even as they sink and sizzle, the slime-soaked skeletons are reaching for us, bone-fingers clawing. But they've lost—for the moment....

我几乎能听到它们的骨头撞击柏油路的尖叫声。 超级黏液被冲到人行道上的地方就像海滩的海岸一样，他们不能进去。 后面的骷髅没有马上得到这个信息，它们猛击人群，把前线的骷髅撞到泥里。 即使在它们下沉和嘶嘶作响的时候，这些沾满黏液的骨架也在向我们伸出手来，用骨头手指抓着我们。 但他们输了——暂时是....

Soon, we're floating down a lazy river of Ultra-Slime, deeper into Aqua City. "So how do we find this slime-secreting creature thing, anyway?" Dirk asks. "Good question," June says. "Like, where is all this slime coming from?" Just then, we turn the corner—and we see it: the Double Trouble Dynamo waterslide—the

很快，我们就会沿着一条慵懒的超黏液河漂流，深入水城。 “那么，我们怎样才能找到这种分泌粘液的生物呢？”德克问道。 “问得好，”琼说。 “比如，这些黏液是从哪里来的？”就在这时，我们拐了个弯，看到了：双故障发电机水滑梯

biggest waterslide in the world. Slime pours down it. "It's coming from there," I say. "No question. Now kick up your feet, and let the lazy river take us there...." After all, this makeshift lazy river is our best mode of transport, and at the moment, it's only going one way. Besides, with the skeleton army unable to follow, we've got time—for once. Our rafts drift slowly through Aqua City's main drag. The place is less like a water park and more like a full-blown metropolis—a metropolis that was abandoned and left to rot. Every single day, this place was filled with thousands of families, slipping and sliding and soaking up sun. Now it looks like a neon-green nightmare. We pass entrances to cracked, dented slides. Snack shops filled with melted ice pops and rotten hot dogs. Gift shops with broken windows and caved-in roofs. Plush sharks— Aqua City's goofy mascot—float upside down in the slime.

世界上最大的滑水道。 粘液倾泻而下。“它是从那里来的，”我说。 “没有问题。现在把你的脚踢起来，让这条懒懒的河把我们带到那里....” 毕竟，这条临时慵懒的河流是我们最好的交通方式，而且目前，它只有一个方向。 再说了，骷髅军没法跟上，我们还有时间，就这一次。 我们的木筏慢慢地漂过水城的主要街道。 这个地方不太像一个水上乐园，而更像一个成熟的大都市——一个被遗弃、任其腐烂的大都市。 每一天，这个地方都挤满了成千上万的家庭，他们滑着滑着，沐浴着阳光。 现在它看起来像一个霓虹灯绿色的噩梦。 我们经过裂缝、凹陷的滑梯入口。 小吃店里摆满了融化的冰棍和腐烂的热狗。 橱窗破碎，屋顶塌陷的礼品店。 毛绒鲨鱼——水城的愚蠢吉祥物——倒挂在泥里。

As we float downriver, I notice that one of the snack shacks has been ripped from the ground and now lies on its side. There are jagged holes in the shack's roof, each the size of a manhole cover. Even though the rest of the place is in shambles, that is different. Like it was done intentionally. Trying to lighten the mood, I say, "Hey, um. Question. Is it true that some pools have a special chemical in them that'll turn the water around you a bright red color if you pee in them?" Dirk says, "One hundred percent true," at the exact same moment June says, "Absolutely not." Quint just chuckles. "That urban legend is older than .e...c....." Suddenly, the river curves, and we pick up speed. Behind me, I hear Alfred groan. I wonder if zombies get that stomach-flip feeling when they go down a steep dip or if that's just us living folks. "Hang on!" Dirk shouts as the slime river drops, carrying us around a collapsed

当我们顺流而下时，我注意到其中一个小吃摊被从地上扯了下来，现在倒在地上。 小屋的屋顶上有参差不齐的洞，每个洞都有井盖那么大。 尽管其他地方一片狼藉，但这是不一样的。 好像是故意的。 为了缓和气氛，我说：“嘿，嗯。 的问题。有些池塘里有一种特殊的化学物质，如果你在里面撒尿，周围的水就会变成鲜红色，这是真的吗？”德克说：“百分之百正确。”与此同时，琼说：“绝对不是。” 昆特只是笑了笑。“这个都市传说比……c.....还要古老。” 突然，河流转弯了，我们加快了速度。 我听到阿尔弗雷德在我身后呻吟。 我在想，僵尸们下陡坡时会不会有那种反胃的感觉，还是只有我们活人才会有这种感觉。 “等等!”德克喊道，黏液流着，带着我们四处走动