羊毛战记 part 4 the unraveling 52-凯发k8官网

　　52

　　i have seen the day

　　that i have worn a visor

　　and could tell a whispering tale.

　　bernard came to at the sound of shouting, his eyes burning from the smoke, his ears ringing with along-ago blast.

　　peter billings was shaking his shoulders, yelling at him, a look of fright in his wide eyes and onhis soot-stained brow. blood stained his overalls in a wide rust-colored pool.

　　“hrm?”

　　“sir! can you hear me?”

　　bernard pushed peter’s hands away and tried to sit up. he groped about his body, looking foranything bleeding or broken. his head throbbed. his hand came away from his nose wet with blood.

　　“what happened?” he groaned.

　　peter crouched by his side. bernard saw lukas standing at a distance behind the sheriff, rifle onhis shoulder, peering toward the stairwell. there was shouting in the distance, and then the patter ofgunfire.

　　“we’ve got three men dead,” peter said. “a few wounded. sims led a half dozen into thestairwell. they got it a lot worse than us. a lot worse.”

　　bernard nodded. he checked his ears, was surprised they weren’t bleeding as well. he dotted hissleeve with blood from his nose and patted peter on the arm. he nodded over his shoulder. “getlukas,” he said.

　　peter frowned but nodded. he spoke with lukas, and the young man knelt by bernard.

　　“are you okay?” lukas asked.

　　bernard nodded. “stupid,” he said. “didn’t know they’d have guns. should’ve guessed about thebombs.”

　　“take it easy.”

　　he shook his head. “shouldn’t have had you here. dumb. could have been us both—”

　　“well, it was neither of us, sir. we’ve got ’em running down the stairwell. i think it’s over.”

　　bernard patted his arm. “get me to the server,” he said. “we’ll need to report this.”

　　lukas nodded. he knew which server bernard meant. he helped bernard to his feet, an armaround his back, peter billings frowning as the two of them staggered down the smoky hallwaytogether.

　　“not good,” bernard told lukas, once they were away from the others.

　　“but we won, right?”

　　“not yet. the damage won’t be contained here. not today. you’ll have to stay below awhile.”

　　bernard grimaced and tried to walk alone. “can’t risk something happening to us both.”

　　lukas seemed unhappy about this. he entered his code into the great door, pulled out his id,wiped someone else’s blood off it and his hand, then swiped it through the reader.

　　“i understand,” he finally said.

　　bernard knew he’d picked the right man. he left lukas to close the heavy door while he made hisway to the rearmost server. he staggered once and fell against number eight, catching himself andresting a moment until the wooziness went away. lukas caught up and was pulling his copy of themaster key out of his overalls before bernard got to the back of the room.

　　bernard rested against the wall while lukas opened the server. he was still too shaken up tonotice the flashing code on the server’s front panel. his ears were too full of a false ringing to noticethe real one.

　　“what’s that mean?” lukas asked. “that noise?”

　　bernard looked at him quizzically.

　　“fire alarm?” lukas pointed up at the ceiling. bernard finally heard it as well. he stumbledtoward the back of the server as lukas opened the last lock, pushed the young man out of the way.

　　what were the chances? did they already know? bernard’s life had become unhinged in two shortdays. he reached inside the cloth pouch, grabbed the headset, and pulled it over his tender ears. hepushed the jack into the slot labeled “1” and was surprised to hear a beep. the line was ringing. hewas making a call.

　　he pulled the jack out hurriedly, canceling the call, and saw that the light above “1” wasn’tblinking; the light above “17” was.

　　bernard felt the room spin. a dead silo was calling him. a survivor? after all these years? withaccess to the servers? his hand trembled as he guided the jack into the slot. lukas was askingsomething behind him, but bernard couldn’t hear anything through the headphones.

　　“hello?” he croaked. “hello? is anyone there?”

　　“hello,” a voice said.

　　bernard adjusted his headphones. he waved for lukas to shut the fuck up. his ears were stillringing, his nose bleeding into his mouth.

　　“who is this?” he asked. “can you hear me?”

　　“i hear you,” the voice said. “is this who i think it is?”

　　“who the fuck is this?” bernard sputtered. “how do you have access to—?”

　　“you sent me out,” the voice said. “you sent me to die.”

　　bernard slumped down, his legs numb. the cord on the headphones uncoiled and nearly pulledthe cups from his head. he clutched the headphones and fought to place this voice. lukas washolding him by the armpits, keeping him from collapsing onto his back.

　　“are you there?” the voice asked. “do you know who this is?”

　　“no,” he said. but he knew. it was impossible, but he knew.

　　“you sent me to die, you fuck.”

　　“you knew the rules!” bernard cried, yelling at a ghost. “you knew!”

　　“shut up and listen, bernard. just shut the fuck up and listen to me very carefully.”

　　bernard waited. he could taste the copper of his own blood in his mouth.

　　“i’m coming for you. i’m coming home, and i’m coming to clean.”

　　the world is not thy friend nor the world’s law.

　　villain and he be many miles asunder.

　　and all these woes shall serve

　　for sweet discourses in our time to come.

　　he that is strucken blind cannot forget

　　the precious treasure of his eyesight lost.

　　one fire burns out another’s burning,

　　one pain is lessen’d by another’s anguish.

　　—the tragic historye of romeus and juliet