经典科幻文学:《基本上无害 Mostly Harmless》 第16章3

She couldn’t immediately say what it was, but they didn’t seem like sprightly healthy woods looking forward to a good spring. The trees were lolling at sickly angles and had a sort of pallid, blighted look about them. Random more than once had the worrying sensation that they were trying to reach towards her as she passed them, but it was just a trick of the way that her light caused their shadows to flicker and lurch.

她没有立刻看出问题出在哪里。树枝懒洋洋，病恹恹地垂下来，一副苍白，憔悴的模样，兰登不止一次心惊肉跳，觉得它们朝自己伸出了手，但那不过是手电筒在玩把戏，是光让它们的影子闪烁，摇曳。

Suddenly, something fell out of a tree in front of her. She leapt backwards with alarm, dropping both the torch and the box as she did so. She went down into a crouch, pulling the specially sharpened rock out of her pocket.

突然，有什么东西从树上落到了她跟前，她大吃一惊，赶紧往后跳，电筒和盒子都掉在地上。她躬身趴下，从口袋里掏出了那块特别打磨的石头。

The thing that had fallen out of the tree was moving. The torch was lying on the ground and pointing towards it, and a vast, grotesque shadow was slowly lurching through the light towards her. She could hear faint rustling and screeching noises over the steady hiss of the rain. She scrabbled on the ground for the torch, found it, and shone it directly at the creature.

从树上落下来的那东西在动。手电筒躺在地上，正好对着那东西，一个巨大，奇异的影子缓缓穿过它的光芒向他倾斜过来。在雨点规律的嘶嘶声之上，兰登能听出有东西在移动、摩擦。她在地上摸索，找到手电筒，朝它照过去。

At the same moment another dropped from a tree just a few feet away. She swung the torch wildly from one to another. She held her rock up, ready to throw.

就在这时候，几尺之外的另一棵树上又落下一个来。她狂乱地晃动手电筒，轮流照亮它们。她举起手里的石头，时刻准备扔过去。

They were quite small in fact. It was the angle of the light that had made them loom so large. Not only small, but small, furry and cuddly. And there was another, dropping from the trees. It fell through the beam of light, so she saw it quite clearly.

事实上它们个头挺小，刚才只是光线的角度不对，才扭曲了它们的体型。不仅是小，而且是小小的、毛茸茸的，让人忍不住想要抱在怀里的那种。然后又有一个从树上落下来。它下落的时候刚好穿过电筒的光束，所以她看的很清楚。

It fell neatly and precisely, turned, and then, like the other two, started slowly and purposefully to advance on Random.

它干净利落地着陆，转过身，然后像前两个一样，缓缓地、果决地朝兰登逼近过来。

She stayed rooted to the spot. She still had her rock poised and ready to throw, but was increasingly conscious of the fact that the things she had it poised and ready to throw at were squirrels. Or at least, squirrel-like things. Soft, warm, cuddly squirrel-like things advancing on her in a way she wasn’t at all certain she liked.

它钉在原地。她仍然举着石头，准备扔过去，但同时也越来越强烈地意识到，那些她举着石头准备打击的目标原来是松鼠，或者至少是松鼠一样的东西，软绵绵、暖呼呼，可爱极了的松鼠一样的东西——但它们正以一种她很难说喜欢的方式朝她步步逼近。

She shone her torch directly on the first of them. It was making aggressive, hectoring, screeching noises, and carrying in one of its little fists a small tattered piece of wet, pink rag. Random hefted her rock menacingly in her hand, but it made no impression at all on the squirrel advancing on her with its wet piece of rag.

她用手电筒照着它们中的第一个。它发出盛气凌人、虚张声势的尖厉噪音，一只小拳头里还抓着一小块湿漉漉的粉红色碎布。兰登威胁似的把石头举高些，可这招对那只拿着碎布逼过来的松鼠毫无作用。

She backed away. She didn’t know at all how to deal with this. If they had been vicious snarling slavering beasts with glistening fangs she would have pitched into them with a will, but squirrels behaving like this she couldn’t quite handle.

她往后退，第二只松鼠开始从右侧对她实行包抄，手里还拿着个杯子。一种橡子做的东西。第三只紧随其后，也在往前走。它拿着什么？一张浸水的小纸片，看着像是。

She backed away again. The second squirrel was starting to make a flanking manoeuvre round to her right. Carrying a cup. Some kind of acorn thing. The third was right behind it and making its own advance. What was it carrying? Some little scrap of soggy paper, Random thought.

她再次后退，脚踝绊在一截树根上往后跌了下去。