Читать книгу Clash of the Worlds - Ned Vizzini - Страница 26

Instead of laughing at his joke, Cordelia choked out a sob.

Eleanor, meanwhile, seemed not to have heard Brendan at all. She just sat there staring at Denver Kristoff lazily struggling to free his trapped arm. He was more of a skeleton now than the rotting monstrosity he had been when he was still alive.

“I’ve got it!” Eleanor said suddenly. “I know how to fix this!”

“How?” Brendan asked. “It’s too late to chop off my arm to slow the infection …”

“No, and that’s disgusting, Bren!” Eleanor said. “I’m talking about the bigger problem.”

“Geez, Nell,” Brendan said. “Can’t you at least pretend to be upset like Cordelia? Or say you’ll miss me?”

“We have to get Fat Jagger back home!” Eleanor said, her words rushing out in a panic. “We have to somehow fix all of this! If not, more and more creatures and bad guys from the book world are going to come into our world and eventually destroy everything!”

“So what’s your big plan then?” Cordelia asked her little sister with more edge in her voice than she’d intended.

“I’ll explain later, there’s no time right now,” Eleanor said. “Fat Jagger!”

They felt him grunt in reply as he swam.

“Can you get to the surface and open your mouth?” Eleanor shouted.

Their ears popped as Fat Jagger ascended. They heard splashing as his head broke the surface of the water. His jaw hinged open slightly. A dolphin caught in Fat Jagger’s hair dropped into the water and swam off to safety. Eleanor looked out of the giant’s mouth and saw the pink haze of the sunrise on the ocean’s horizon. They were currently headed west, out of the bay towards the open Pacific.

“Turn left slowly!” Eleanor screamed over the sound of an approaching police helicopter.

Fat Jagger spun slowly. As soon as Eleanor saw what she was looking for, she shouted for him to stop.

“Go back down and swim straight ahead!” Eleanor screamed over the roar of the nearby helicopter. “When you get to shore, climb the cliff and look for our house.”

“You remember what it looks like?” Brendan yelled. “You’ve held our house before, Jagguuhhhhhhnn …”

Brendan looked confused as he opened his mouth to speak again.

“Urhhhh,” Brendan grunted, trying desperately to get the words out of his mouth. “Urgggghh?”

“You OK, Bren?” Eleanor asked.

Brendan lifted himself up slowly and Eleanor gasped. She wasn’t sure if it was the giant’s saliva, the seawater, or something else entirely, but Brendan’s face was now a pale shade of green.

“Cordelia?” Eleanor shouted frantically. “I think Brendan just turned into a zombie!”