"Larry Niven & Steve Barnes - Dreampark" - читать интересную книгу автора (Niven Larry)

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A woman whispered fearfully to her husband. "Charley, something's happening."
"She's right, you know," said Ollie. "We're seeing more bones than before. A lot more. And
something else . . . there isn't so much mud and barnacles on these old cars."
Gwen almost stepped off the green path, trying to get close enough to check for herself. "I don't
know, Ollie. . ."
Now he was getting excited. "Look, there are more scavengers, too." This was readily apparent.
Fish darted into heaps of rubble more frequently now. A pair of small sharks cruised through the
area.
They passed another skeleton, but, disturbingly, not all of the clothing had been torn away, and
there were strands of meat on the bones. Tiny fish fought over them, clustering like carrion
crows.
A pleasure launch had smashed through the window of a jewelry store, and it was surrounded by a
mass of wriggling fish. There were no barnacles on it at all.
The recorded narrator had noticed nothing. It blathered on:
"Despite, or perhaps due to, the grotesqueries found in these waters, they are a favorite location
for scuba divers and singlesubs. . ." But nobody was listening. An undercurrent of startled wonder
ran through the group, as stones began to shift apparently of their own accord.
"Look!" someone screamed, the scream followed by other fearful, delighted outbursts. A skeletal
hand probed out from under a stone, pushed it off with a swirl of suddenly muddied waters. The
skeleton stood up, teeth grinning from a skull half-covered with peeling skin, and bent over,
dusting the silt off its bones.
"Over there!"
Two waterlogged corpses floundered from within a shattered bank, looked around as if orienting
themselves, and began lumbering toward the green path. They passed a flooded dance hall where
death had come in mid-Hustle, and there were additional laughing shrieks as the disco dead boogied
to life.
The water swarmed with scavengers of all sizes, and now full-sized sharks were making their
appearance. A shark attacked one of the walking dead. The green-faced zombie still had meat on its
bones. It flailed away ineffectually as the carnivore ripped off an arm.
Now, all around them, the water was clouded dark with blood where fish and animated corpse
battled. Here, a dozen "dead" struggled with a shark, finally tore it apart and devoured it.
There, half a dozen sharks made a thrashing sphere around one of the zombies.
There was much good-natured shivering in the line, but it was infused with laughter-until the
beefy redhead stepped off the strip. There was a shiny metallic object half-buried in the sand,
and she was stretching out to reach it. Somehow she overbalanced and took that one step.
Immediately, a flashing dark shape swooped, and a shark had her by the leg. Her face distorted
horribly as a scream ripped out of her throat. The shark tried to carry her away, but now a zombie
had her by the other leg. It pulled, its face lit by a hungry grin. There was a short tug-of-war,
and the redhead lost.
"I'm gonna be sick," Ollie moaned. He looked at Gwen's smile and was alarmed. "My God, you really
are sick!" She nodded happily.
It was near chaos. No one else stepped off the strip, but zombies and sharks darted toward the
group, again and again. They were getting in each other's way.
Another scream from the rear as a teenaged boy threw himself flat. A great shark skimmed just over
him. The boy huddled, afraid to get up. The walking dead were converging on the green strip. . .
and when Ollie looked down, the green glow had faded almost to the color of the mud. He chose not
to mention it to Gwen. The others saw nothing but sharks and zombies converging, reaching for
them.