"Brian Lumley - In The Glow-Zone" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lumley Brian)

IN THE GLOW-ZONE



by




Brian Lumley


Mommy is dead.

She is dead and there is no water and no rats left. The water has turned very hard and thick now so we
canтАЩt fish. And we canтАЩt dig roots because the ground is hard too. There was cold-white when we woke
up and found Mommy dead. That was three days. She is cold and thin and stiff and still. She is dead. She
is like the rats we trap or throw stones at when they are dead. Except they are sometimes fat and she is
very thin тАж

We all cried when we saw her. She had told us she would be dead soon. When the rats were all gone
from round here before the water went hard and the cold-white she said it. She told us I am going into
town for rats I will be back soon. If I donтАЩt come back keep warm. Eat roots and rats and drink river
water. Try to find clothes in the villages тАУand keep away from men!

Before she went into town she said this will be the death of me. She meant the Green Glow. Nobody
lives in the town, it is all broken down and at night there is the Green Glow. We can see it now fading as
the sky gets bright. Mommy is sitting in the corner all stiff and cold. She has a Green Glow too now.

Before she died she said you are to eat me if you get too hungry but please bury my bones and make a
little cross to mark the place. We think she did not know what she said. We will not eat her, we would
not like that and anyway she has the Green Glow. We never ate rats with the Green Glow and we will
not eat Mommy. She once told us the Green Glow is your father, it is more your father than the rotten
bastard who ran off on me when the war started. Men are all bastardsshe told us.

When she came back from town we ate. She had small rats and one very big one she called a cat. There
were more cats she said but all mutants. This one was a very old cat from before the war. He
remembered people and went to her so she could hit him with her axeтАж The axe is ours now she is
dead.

She roasted some rats and we ate but soon she was sick. Next day her hair came out. Next day it came
out a lot and blood too. Then she said the Green Glow has got me and I will die. And she did. And three
days are gone and the rats too and the cold-white is here and we are hungry.
 Over there is smoke. It has nearly always been there. Mommy only made fires at night. She said she
knew the Woman and Her Two who made the fire. She said she had met them long ago when we were
little. The Woman was nice but Mommy was frightened of Her Two. They were not sensible they were
like animals Mommy said. They arenтАЩt like you she said they bite like rats.

The smoke is still there but it is quiet now. Before there was sometimes noise. When there was noise
Mommy said they were hunting for food the Woman and Her Two. Then she would make us hide but