Chapter 25

chapter twenty-five The next attack comes from behind. It's a hug attack, courtesy, June Del Toro. She's tackling me, flipping over me, flopping on to the floor Yea, a kindof-sortof victory. "Is that what you call that?" I ask.

第二十五章下一次攻击来自后面。 这是拥抱攻击，谢谢，琼·德尔·托罗。 她抓住我，从我身上翻过来，倒在地板上是啊，一种胜利。 “你是这么说的吗？”我问。

June sits up, half giggling. "Hey, better than a kinda- sorta defeat. I mean, we lived, Evie fled, Ghazt is toast, and now we have thousands of monsters who are willing to fight!" She's right about all of that, and I'm definitely happy, but... "It also sounds like Thrull is gonna try to get some information out of Ghazt. To do something. Which seems... not great?" "Shh," June says. "Just let me have this. Let all of us have this. Including you." "The mayor declares this a day of partying!" Johnny Steve shouts. He's waving a two-liter bottle of grape soda and foam is flying everywhere. That gets me giggling right along with June. "Johnny Steve, your campaign manager is in one hundred percent agreement," June says. "Now, where are Dirk and Quint? I wanna get the actual, non–Victory Geyser party started now." And I realize I have no idea. They should be here, celebrating with us, right now. That's how we always end these adventures! Why aren't they? A voice suddenly speaks up—tired and raspy. "Quint's conjurer's cane... Something..." It's Yursl, slowly shuffling toward us. She looks near collapse. "Something went wrong..." The blood drains from June's face. "What?"

琼坐起来，咯咯地笑着。 “嘿，总比有点——有点失败好。 我的意思是，我们活了下来，伊维逃走了，加兹特完蛋了，现在我们有成千上万的怪物愿意战斗！”她说的都是对的，我当然很开心，但是…… “听起来Thrull也想从Ghazt那里得到一些信息。 做点什么。这似乎…… 不伟大吗?”“嘘，”琼说。 “就给我这个吧。让我们所有人都拥有它。 包括你。”“市长宣布今天是派对日！”约翰尼·史蒂夫喊道。 他挥舞着一瓶两升的葡萄汽水泡沫到处乱飞。 这让我和琼一起傻笑。 “约翰尼·史蒂夫，你的竞选经理百分之百同意，”琼说。 “喂，德克和昆特在哪儿？” 我想现在就开始真正的，非胜利间歇泉派对。” 我意识到我不知道。 他们现在应该在这里，和我们一起庆祝。 我们总是这样结束冒险的！为什么不呢？ 一个声音突然说话了——疲惫而刺耳。 “昆特的魔法杖…… 的东西……”是尤尔丝，慢慢地向我们走来。 她看起来快要垮了。“出了什么问题……” 血从琼的脸上流了出来。 “什么?”

My heart starts pounding hard and my legs feel weak —too weak to stand, so I'm grateful when June rises, helping me up, leading me outside, to the rear of the mall, the place Quint and Dirk were last headed. But when I see what's there, I'm ready to sit down again. We're staring at a smoldering hole in the earth. Lying in the hole is the rear half of the Bone Howler. It has been perfectly sliced in two. The front half of its body? It's not there. Just... gone. And so are Quint and Dirk. I sink to the ground. I look around, desperate to see Quint pop out from behind a rock, yelling "Gotcha!" Or Dirk leaping up, laughing, saying, "Look how scared they were!"

我的心开始剧烈地跳动，我的腿感到无力——无力到站不起来，所以我很感激琼站起来，扶我起来，带我走到商场的后面，昆特和德克最后去的地方。 但当我看到那里的东西时，我准备再坐下来。 我们正盯着地球上一个阴燃的洞。 躺在洞里的是骨吼的后半部分。 它被完美地切成了两半。 它身体的前半部分？ 它不在那里。只是…一去不复返了。 昆特和德克也一样。 我倒在地上。我环顾四周，急切地想看到昆特从岩石后面跳出来，大喊“抓到你了！”或者德克跳起来，笑着说：“看看他们有多害怕！”

But that doesn't happen. I don't see my friends. I don't see Thrull or his army or any of that. I do see Evie, though. In the far distance, on my BoomKart. She's speeding away—off to who knows where... I look up at June, hoping she'll have something reassuring to say. She doesn't. She looks too gut- punched to say anything. She just takes my hand. And we stay there, waiting for our friends to come back. We stay there for a long time.

但这不会发生。我看不到我的朋友。 我没看到斯拉尔和他的军队什么的。 不过我确实看到了伊薇。在遥远的地方，在我的BoomKart上。 她疾驰而去，谁知道去了哪里…… 我抬头看着琼，希望她能说些安慰的话。 她不喜欢。她看起来筋疲力尽，说不出话来。 她只是握着我的手。我们呆在那里，等着我们的朋友回来。 我们在那里呆了很长时间。

TO BE CONTINUED IN SPRING 2022!

将在2022年春季继续！