"Bradbury, Ray - The Illustrated Man" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bradbury Ray)

УThe Venusians took them all down into the sea. I hear they have a delightful way of drowning you. It takes about eight hours to drown the way they work it. Really delightful.Ф

УI bet there isnТt any food here at all.Ф Pickard laughed.

The lieutenant frowned at him, nodded at him so Simmons could see. Simmons shook his head and went back to a room at one side of the oval chamber. The kitchen was strewn with soggy loaves of bread, and meat that had grown a faint green fur. Rain came through a hundred holes in the kitchen roof.

УBrilliant.Ф The lieutenant glanced up at the holes. УI donТt suppose we can plug up all those holes and get snug here.Ф

УWithout food, sir?Ф Simmons snorted. УI notice the sun machineТs torn apart. Our best bet is to make our way to the next Sun Dome. How far is that from here?Ф

УNot far. As I recall, they built two rather close together here. Perhaps if we waited here, a rescue mission from the other mightЧЧФ

УItТs probably been here and gone already, some days ago. TheyТll send a crew to repair this place in about six months, when they get the money from Congress. I donТt think weТd better wait.Ф

УAll right then, weТll eat whatТs left of our rations and get on to the next Dome.Ф

Pickard said, УIf only the rain wouldnТt hit my head, just for a few minutes. If I could only remember what itТs like not to be bothered.Ф He put his hands on his skull and held it tight. УI remember when I was in school a bully used to sit in back of me and pinch me and pinch me and pinch me every five minutes, all day long. He did that for weeks and months. My arms were sore and black and blue all the time. And I thought IТd go crazy from being pinched. One day I must have gone a little mad from being hurt and hurt, and I turned around and took a metal trisquare I used in mechanical drawing and I almost killed that bastard. I almost cut his lousy head off. I almost took his eye out before they dragged me out of the room, and I kept yelling, СWhy donТt he leave me alone? why donТt he leave me alone?Т Brother!Ф His hands clenched the bone of his head, shaking, tightening, his eyes shut. УBut what do I do now? Who do I hit, who do I tell to lay off, stop bothering me, this damn rain, like the pinching, always on you, thatТs all you hear, thatТs all you feel!Ф

УWeТll be at the other Sun Dome by four this afternoon.Ф

УSun Dome? Look at this one! What if all the Sun Domes on Venus are gone? What then? What if there are holes in all the ceilings, and the rain coming in!Ф

УWeТll have to chance it.Ф

УIТm tired of chancing it. All I want is a roof and some quiet. I want to be alone.Ф

УThatТs only eight hours off, if you hold on.Ф

УDonТt worry, IТll hold on all right.Ф And Pickard laughed, not looking at them.

УLetТs eat,Ф said Simmons, watching him.



They set off down the coast, southward again. After four hours they had to cut inland to go around a river that was a mile wide and so swift it was not navigable by boat. They had to walk inland six miles to a place where the river boiled out of the earth, suddenly, like a mortal wound. In the rain, they walked on solid ground and returned to the sea.

УIТve got to sleep,Ф said Pickard at last. He slumped. УHavenТt slept in four weeks. Tried, but couldnТt. Sleep here.Ф

The sky was getting darker. The night of Venus was setting in and it was so completely black that it was dangerous to move. Simmons and the lieutenant fell to their knees also, and the lieutenant said, УAll right, weТll see what we can do. WeТve tried it before, but I donТt know. Sleep doesnТt seem one of the things you can get in this weather.Ф

They lay out full, propping their heads up so the water wouldnТt come to their mouths, and they closed their eyes.

The lieutenant twitched.

He did not sleep.

There were things that crawled on his skin. Things grew upon him in layers. Drops fell and touched other drops and they became streams that trickled over his body, and while these moved down his flesh, the small growths of the forest took root in his clothing. He felt the ivy cling and make a second garment over him; he felt the small flowers bud and open and petal away, and still the rain pattered on his body and on his head. In the luminous nightЧfor the vegetation glowed in the darknessЧhe could see the other two men outlined, like logs that had fallen and taken upon themselves velvet coverings of grass and flowers. The rain hit his face. He covered his face with his hands. The rain hit his neck. He turned over on his stomach in the mud, on the rubbery plants, and the rain hit his back and hit his legs.

Suddenly he leaped up and began to brush the water from himself. A thousand hands were touching him and he no longer wanted to be touched. He no longer could stand being touched. He floundered and struck something else and knew that it was Simmons, standing up in the rain, sneezing moisture, coughing and choking. And then Pickard was up, shouting, running about.