Chapter 11

CHAPTER 11 It wasn't the word 'Run!' that frightened Flora, or the way Charlie had said it– it was the look of real terror in Charlie's eyes. 'Come on!' she cried. 'We have to go! NOW!' She ran to the door and pulled on the handle, but it was still locked. 'Dylan! Unlock the door,' she shouted. 'Not a chance!' said Dylan, pointing his phone straight at Charlie. 'Dylan!' 'No! No way am I missing this!' Charlie was desperately battling to slow his change down to give his friends time to escape. He was doing everything he could, trying to breathe slowly and remembering all the good things in his life. But as soon as he thought of any happy thoughts they blew away from him like the last leaves of autumn. The storm inside him was raging. 'Dylan, if you don't open this door we could all get very badly hurt! Please,' Flora begged.

第十一章不是“跑！”这句话吓坏了弗洛拉，或者从查理说话的方式来看——这是查理眼中真正的恐惧。 “来吧!她叫道。“我们得走了！”现在!”她跑到门口拉门把手，但门还是锁着。 “迪伦!“开门。”她喊道。 “不可能！”迪伦说着，把手机对准了查理。 “迪伦!“不!我不可能错过这个！”查理拼命地想放慢自己的变化速度，好让他的朋友有时间逃跑。 他尽他所能，试着慢慢呼吸，回忆生活中所有美好的事情。 但是当他想到任何快乐的想法时，它们就像秋天的最后一片叶子一样从他身上吹走了。 他内心的风暴正在肆虐。 “迪伦，如果你不打开这扇门，我们都会受重伤的！”“求你了。”弗洛拉恳求道。

'Yeah, nice try,' Dylan replied. Flora strode right up to Dylan and went nose to nose with him. She started speaking very quietly. 'Dylan. If you don't open this door immediately, I will be forced to punch you. And then kick you. I don't want to, but I will. And if you have any doubts that I'll do it, look into my eyes. Look deep into my eyes. Can you see it? That's right. That's your doom you see there, Dylan Van der Gruyne. NOW. OPEN. THIS. DOOR.' Dylan swallowed nervously. 'Fine!' He swung round and unlocked the door. Flora, Mohsen and Wogan charged through and started running down the corridor. But Flora stopped when she realized they weren't being followed. Dylan was still recording Charlie. Charlie's face was creased with concentration.

“是啊，不错的尝试，”迪伦回答。 弗洛拉大步走到迪伦面前，和他面对面。 她开始轻轻地说话。 ”迪伦。如果你不马上开门，我就不得不揍你了。 然后踢你。我也不想，但我会的。 如果你怀疑我是否会这么做，看着我的眼睛。 看着我的眼睛。你能看到吗？ 这是正确的。这就是你的末日，迪伦·范德格鲁恩。 现在。开放。这一点。门”。迪伦紧张地咽了口气。 “好!”他转过身去，打开了门。 弗洛拉、莫森和沃根冲了进来，开始沿着走廊跑。 但当弗洛拉意识到他们没有被跟踪时，她停了下来。 迪伦还在给查理录音。 查理的脸因专注而皱了起来。

'Dylan! You need to come with us!' shouted Flora. 'You're in terrible danger!' Dylan looked from Charlie to Flora and back to Charlie again. 'GAH, OK!' he cried, and he started running towards Flora. And the second they escaped the room, the fire in Charlie finally exploded. He felt himself torn apart, growing, every part of him stretching. He was filling the room. His expanding body smashed through the wall of the office, knocking it down like paper. He could just make out the small figures of his friends at the end of the corridor, running in terror. As he grew and grew, crushing the desk and

“迪伦!你得跟我们走！弗洛拉喊道。 “你有可怕的危险！”迪伦看看查理，看看弗洛拉，又看看查理。 “嗨,好!他叫道，开始向弗洛拉跑去。 他们逃出房间的那一刻，查理体内的火焰终于爆发了。 他感到自己被撕裂了，在成长，身体的每一部分都在伸展。 他正在填满房间。他不断膨胀的身体撞穿了办公室的墙壁，把它像纸一样撞倒了。 他只能辨认出他的朋友们在走廊尽头惊恐地奔跑着的小影。 他越长越大，把桌子压得粉碎

computer under him, he saw them turn the corner and start down the stairs. Charlie was long now, as long as the corridor, but he was still growing. He smashed through the walls of the corridor, expanding into the chamber of chickens, scattering poultry in a storm of outraged clucking. He tried his hardest to slow his growth down, desperately clinging on to distant happy memories, but the fear that he might crush his friends turned those happy thoughts to ice. Charlie didn't need a mirror to tell him what he was turning into. There was only one thing it could be. Only one thing that enormous. He was a whale.fn1 He felt his back scraping the ceiling and the floor below him buckling under his huge weight. He could feel a great tail at the end of his body, swishing slightly, some instinct driving it to swim, but with each swish it knocked into the wall, causing dust and debris to fall on to Charlie's head.

电脑在他脚下，他看见他们转过拐角，开始下楼梯。 查理现在长了，和走廊一样长，但他还在长。 他冲破了走廊的墙壁，进入了鸡窝，在一阵愤怒的咯咯声中，家禽被驱散了。 他尽了最大的努力来减缓自己的成长，拼命地抓住遥远的快乐回忆不放，但害怕他可能会碾压他的朋友，把那些快乐的想法变成了冰。 查理不需要镜子来告诉他自己变成了什么样子。 只有一种可能。 只有一件东西这么大。 他是一头鲸鱼。他感到自己的背刮着天花板，脚下的地板被他巨大的重量压得摇摇晃晃。 他能感觉到身体末端有一条巨大的尾巴，微微摆动着，某种本能驱使它游过去，但每摆动一下，尾巴就会撞到墙上，灰尘和碎片都落在查理的头上。

Charlie tried to stay as still as possible and focus on changing back to Charlie. A broken silence settled in the building. Only the sounds of plaster crumbling from the ceiling and the distant pattering of his friends' footsteps interrupted the quiet. And then there was a vast creak that Charlie felt underneath the whole length of his huge body. It could only mean one thing. Suddenly the floor beneath Charlie gave up. It could no longer take his weight. Charlie smashed through the collapsing floor and into the level below. He hurtled down, and then smashed through the floor of that level too, taking printers, pot plants and desks with him. His speed and weight took him straight through the next level too, and the one after that. Finally he crash-landed in the basement room, on a bed of crushed computer equipment– the servers that kept all of Van der Gruyne Industries' information, the same computers they had seen when they first entered the building, and which were now completely destroyed. He lay there, breathing heavily through the blowhole at the top of his head. A few chickens clucked and pecked around him, and a handful of loose feathers floated in the dusty air. He was relieved to be still again, no longer crashing through ceilings and floors, but he was desperately worried for his friends. Had they made it out safely? Or had they been horribly caught up in the destruction caused by a massive whale collapsing through the building?

查理尽量保持不动，专注于变回查理。 大楼里一片打破了的寂静。 只有天花板上灰泥碎裂的声音和远处朋友们的脚步声打破了寂静。 接着，查理感到在他那庞大的身躯下面，发出了一声巨大的咯吱声。 这只能说明一件事。 突然，查理脚下的地板塌陷了。 它再也承受不了他的重量了。 查理从坍塌的地板上冲了出来，来到下面一层。 他猛冲下来，然后把那一层的地板也撞穿了，带走了打印机、盆栽和桌子。 他的速度和体重也让他直接通过了下一关，以及下一关。 最后，他迫降在地下室的一个床上，床上堆满了破碎的计算机设备——保存着范德格鲁恩工业公司所有信息的服务器，就是他们第一次进入大楼时看到的那些电脑，现在已经完全被毁了。 他躺在那里，通过头顶的通气孔大口呼吸。 几只鸡在他周围咯咯叫着啄着，一把松散的羽毛漂浮在尘土飞扬的空气中。 他又安静下来了，不再在天花板和地板上摔来摔去，这让他松了口气，但他非常担心他的朋友们。 他们安全出来了吗？ 还是说，他们被一头巨大的鲸鱼从大楼里冲了出来，造成了可怕的破坏？

Everything I do just makes things worse for my friends, Charlie thought, his heart aching with misery. Because HE was in trouble, his friends had got themselves into this horribly dangerous adventure. Charlie just prayed they had all escaped in time– even Dylan. Whatever had happened, Charlie knew he didn't deserve friends like Flora, Mohsen and Wogan. They were too good for him, and they'd be a lot safer and happier if he just moved away from them anyway. Charlie's vast black eyes saw the destruction around him– the destruction of the building and the destruction of his dreams, and he let out a great sigh through his blowhole, and the sigh felt like an ending.

我所做的一切只会让我的朋友们的事情变得更糟，查理想，他的心因痛苦而疼痛。 因为他遇到了麻烦，他的朋友们都参加了这次可怕的危险冒险。 查理只是祈祷他们都能及时逃脱——包括迪伦。 不管发生了什么，查理知道他配不上弗洛拉、莫森和沃根这样的朋友。 他们对他来说太好了，如果他离开他们，他们会更安全，更快乐。 查理的大黑眼睛看到了他周围的毁灭——大楼的毁灭，他的梦想的毁灭，他从他的呼吸孔里深深地叹了一口气，这口气感觉像是结束了。