經典科幻文學:《基本上無害 Mostly Harmless》 第16章6

She stepped back again, caught her ankle against the root of a tree and fell over backwards.

第一隻松鼠立馬跳起來蹦倒她身上，它沿着她的肚子往上竄，眼裏閃爍着冷酷的決心，拳頭裏捏着一塊溼漉漉的破布。

Instantly the first squirrel darted forward and was on top of her, advancing along her stomach with cold purpose in its eyes, and a piece of wet rag in its fist.

蘭登試着往上蹦，卻只蹦起來大約一寸高。松鼠被她嚇了一跳，反過來又把她嚇了一跳。它愣住了，小爪子透過蘭登溼透的襯衣抓住她的皮膚，然後它慢慢地，一寸一寸地往上爬；它停下來，把破布遞給她。

Random tried to jump up, but only managed to jump about an inch. The startled movement of the squirrel on her stomach startled her in return. The squirrel froze, gripping her skin through her soaking shirt with its tiny claws. Then slowly, inch by inch, it made its way up her, stopped, and proffered her the rag.

眼前的一切如此詭異，蘭登幾乎讓這東西和它亮晶晶的小眼睛催眠了。它又把破布遞給她。它不斷把布往她這邊送，不肯罷休地吱吱叫着，最後蘭登儘管緊張的要命，也只好猶猶豫豫地把破布接過來。它繼續專注地望着她的臉，眼珠子不停地打轉。她完全不知道該怎麼辦纔好。她臉上流着雨水和泥巴，肚皮上還坐着只松鼠。她用那塊破布擦了擦眼睛上的泥。

She felt almost hypnotised by the strangeness of the thing and its tiny glinting eyes. It proffered her the rag again. It pushed it at her repeatedly, screeching insistently, till at last, nervously, hesitantly, she took the thing from it. It continued to watch her intently, its eyes darting all over her face. She had no idea what to do. Rain and mud were streaming down her face and she had a squirrel sitting on her. She wiped some mud out of her eyes with the rag.

松鼠志得意滿地尖叫了一聲，一把抓過破布，從她身上跳下去，蹦蹦跳跳地跑進了漆黑的夜色裏。它跳上一棵樹，鑽進樹幹上的一個洞，舒舒服服地坐下來點了支香菸。

The squirrel shrieked triumphantly, grabbed the rag back, leapt off her, ran scampering into the dark, enclosing night, darted up into a tree, dived into a hole in the trunk, settled back and lit a cigarette.

與此同時，蘭登正視圖避開拿着紙片和橡子杯地那兩隻松鼠。她坐在地上往後蹭。

Meanwhile Random was trying to fend off the squirrel with the acorn cup full of rain and the one with the paper. She shuffled backwards on her bottom.

“不！”她喊道，“走開！”

‘No!’ she shouted. ‘Go away!’

它們被嚇得往後一躍，然後又拿着自己的禮物衝過來，絲毫不見氣餒。她朝它們揮動自己的石塊。“滾！”她吼道。

They darted back, in fright, and then darted right forward again with their gifts. She brandished her rock at them. ‘Go!’ she yelled.

松鼠們驚慌失措地原地打轉。接着其中一隻朝她猛撲過來，把橡子杯丟在她大腿上，轉身跑進了黑夜。另一隻站着抖了一會，然後把自己的紙片平平展展地放在她面前，也消失了。

The squirrels scampered round in consternation. Then one darted straight at her, dropped the acorn cup in her lap, turned and ran off into the night. The other stood quivering for a moment, then put its scrap of paper neatly down in front of her and disappeared as well.

現在剩下蘭登一個人，只不過這次還要加上些驚魂未定的哆嗦。她搖搖晃晃地站起來，撿起自己的石頭和包裹，然後遲疑片刻，把紙片也撿了起來，它已經被雨水浸透，而且殘缺不全，很難說原來究竟是什麼東西，不過看起來倒挺像是飛船上某本雜誌的碎片。

She was alone again, but trembling with confusion. She got unsteadily to her feet, picked up her rock and her parcel, then paused and picked up the scrap of paper as well. It was so soggy and dilapidated it was hard to make out what it was. It seemed just to be a fragment of an in-flight magazine.

她正努力理解這一切究竟代表着什麼意義，卻見一個男人走進了她所在的那一小片空地，他舉起一把兇巴巴的槍朝她開了火。

Just as Random was trying to understand exactly what it was that this all meant, a man walked out into the clearing in which she was standing, raised a vicious-looking gun and shot her. Arthur was thrashing around hopelessly two or three miles behind her, on the upward side of the hill.

此時，阿瑟還在她身後兩三裏遠的地方，無望地掙扎在上山的小路上。