"Nephilim - 03 - The Revealing" - читать интересную книгу автора (Marzulli L A)

"Hey, sweetie, how you doin'," Lizzie called back. "You goin' out?" Nora asked.
"Yeah, I need some things. Can't remember the last time I ate."
Nora set her pillowcase down and opened it. "Want some of this stuff?" She took out several of the canned foods. Lizzie's face lit up.
"You gonna let me have 'em?"
"I got plenty. You go 'head and take 'em." And she slid the cans over to her on the concrete walkway.
Lizzie set down a weather-worn shopping bag from Nord-5troms, stuffed with useless miscellaneous items. Nora looked at Lizzie's swollen dirty feet tucked into bedroom slippers. The heels were bloodied, and several toes showed through the fabric.
"How you feelin', Lizzie?"
Lizzie slowly bent over and examined one of the cans.
"Oh, yams, I love 'em," she said, and her smile revealed missing teeth and blackened gums. Lizzie picked the other can up and looked at the label.
"Green beans . . ." She looked at Nora with a dreamy expression. "When I was a little girl, Pappy would make a gar-den in the summer and plant corn an' tomatoes an' squash an' green beans, just like this. I'd go out in the evening an' pick a handful an' just stand there at the edge of the garden, staring at the sun as it was going down behind the trees at the end of the field. I'd look right into it as I shelled them beans and chewed 'ern. My momma would see me starin' at the sun and she'd yell from the porch, `Lizzie, you gonna go blind if you keep doin' that."' Lizzie stopped a moment and began to laugh, which evolved into a wheezing cough. She clutched her hand to her chest, spat on the tracks, then continued, "I'd yell back, `It's all right, Momma, sun's not so bright, I'm goin' to be fine."
Nora waited for the woman to go on with the story, but she saw moisture gather in the corner of her eyes.
"You gonna cook those beans and eat 'em as soon as you get home and that's gonna make you feel better, Lizzie," Nora offered. "I'll walk you back."
Lizzie sighed and picked up her bag, and the two women started to walk down the tunnel.
"You shouldn't stay down here, Nora," Lizzie said, after they had walked a ways. "This place isn't for you. You can make a go of it up there if you want to."
Nora looked at the woman but remained silent.
"I'm all used up and broken down, and I ain't got no place to go, but you, you're still young enough to make it all happen for you. Just have to stay away from the pimps and drugs, that's all. Either one of 'em will wreck your life, and I should know because that's why I'm here."
"You did that stuff ... with the pimps and all?"
Lizzie nodded. "I came here right out of high school. I was tired of the little town in West Virginia I grew up in. Didn't know beans about the big city. Wasn't too long before I ran out of money and got down and out. The next thing I knew, some man offered me money for . . ." She paused a moment. "You know, the first time was hard and I cried after. But after a while I got used to it. Then came the drugs. But, Nora, you gotta know that it takes your soul right out of your body. That's what all of it does. It makes you empty and ashamed and you need more of the drugs to keep you goin'. And then one day you wake up and the men don't want you no more because you're old. Pretty soon the money's gone and so has ten years of your life. I bounced aroun' for a while. Did a waitress job. Parked cars, worked in a grocery store. But I didn't stay too long at any of 'em, and one thing led to another. A person has to sleep somewhere . . . so here I am. But, Nora, you don't have to be like me. Better get out now while you can. You know Big Jim?"
Nora nodded, thinking of a huge black man that lived in the tunnel below the Condos.
"He ain't been out for years now. Says he don't ever want to again. He's given up on goin' back to the world of the light. He wants the darkness and that's the end of it for him. That's what happens when you stay down here too long, Nora."
"But you go out, Lizzie," Nora reminded the older woman.
"Only when I has to. And it happens less and less." She had another coughing fit and spat on the tracks again. "You gotta promise me, Nora, that you're gonna get out of here."
Nora was silent.
"Promise of Lizzie."
Nora still didn't answer and the two walked a while in silence. The sound of Lizzie's shuffling feet, amplified by the tunnel, sounded like a snow shovel scraping on a driveway.
"Let's have a smokie," Lizzie said, and without waiting for an answer she stopped and leaned against the tunnel wall. The woman fished into her Nordstroms bag and took out a smaller, greasy brown bag. She opened it and pulled out a package of tobacco and some rolling papers. Holding one of the papers in one hand, she sprinkled the tobacco so that it filled the paper evenly. Then she rolled it between the thumb and index fingers of both hands and finally sealed it with a lick of her tongue. She handed it to Nora, who took it, and she repeated the process. Then she reached into the greasy bag again and brought out some wooden matches. She struck one on the wall of the tunnel, lit her cigarette, and then lit Nora's.
The women started walking again.
Nora took a puff but didn't inhale. She didn't like the taste but didn't want to seem ungrateful to Lizzie. She knew that mole people used cigarettes as a barter system, and this was Lizzie's way of making the score somewhat even for the cans of food that Nora had given her.
The end of Lizzie's cigarette glowed as the woman inhaled deeply. "These things are gonna kill me. I just know it," she said. "But maybe that ain't such a bad thing."
Before Nora could answer, they heard a loud moaning coming from ahead of them.
"What's that?" Nora asked.
"Sounds like somebody's hurt," Lizzie answered.
"Might be a trick or something," Nora suggested.
They heard the moaning again, and then afterward a whimper.
"Sounds like he's scared." Lizzie said.
"Think you know who it is?" Nora asked, knowing that Lizzie knew just about everybody in the tunnels.
"Can't make it out just yet. Let's get closer and see."
The women walked toward where they thought the sound was coming from.
"Who's up there?" Lizzie called out, when they reached the place where they thought they had heard the sound. It was a shelf notched into the wall and was used as a connection place for the hundreds of wires and pipes that ran through the tunnel system.
"Someone's under a blanket there," Lizzie said, as they reached the spot. "Hey, you all right?" she called.
They waited a moment and then from under the blanket they heard another whimper followed by a thin raspy voice. "Lizzie?"
"I think it's Rastaman," Lizzie said to Nora. "Rastaman? That you?" Lizzie called out.
The blanket began to move and a head with hair matted into dark dreadlocks appeared. "Ya, Lizzie, it's me, Rastaman." He sat up and pulled the blanket over himself.
"What happened to you?" Lizzie asked, as she delved into her bag and produced a candle, which she set on the ledge. Nora pulled out her lighter and lit it, then blinked her eyes a few times to get used to the light. She looked up at Rastaman. He was a tall, thin-as-a-rail black man from Jamaica who was addicted to heroin. In recent months he had become sick, and Nora and the others had speculated that he might have got-ten AIDS from using infected needles.
Rastaman rocked back and forth on his haunches. "Some-tin' got to me, mon, down there. Burn my face half off." He nodded his head in the direction below him, indicating that whatever had happened had been in one of the lower tunnels.
"His face," Nora said. "It's all red."
Lizzie picked up the candle and held it out in front of her. "Yeah, criminey, he's burnt or something," Lizzie agreed.
"Some kin' of monster did dis to me." He groaned again.
"You better come with us to the Condos," Lizzie suggested. "The Mayor needs to know about this. It might not be safe for any of us until we know who did this."
Nora agreed. "Yeah, Rastaman, the Mayor will know what to do. He'll protect you."