逃啊逃 If They Run

我在黑巷附近找到了她，这里是生意人和小偷做买卖的地方。什么都能卖，全都是偷来的。我可以把他们全部杀光。

I find her near the Black Lanes, where merchants and thieves do business. Anything is for sale. Everything is stolen. I could kill them all.

他们觉得躲在阴影里就能够藏住自己的恶行？藏得住匕首的寒光？藏得住肮脏的交易？我在这里都能闻到这破烂城市另一头的流浪汉嘴里的微光酒味。

Do they think the shadows hide their misdeeds? The gleam of their knives? The deals they make, shrouded in darkness? I can smell the shimmerwine on a beggar’s breath from across this wretched city.

我知道他们的罪过。我尝得到。

I know their crimes. I can taste them.

然后我看到了她。她正在接手一条信息，碰头的是斯宾罗男爵的人，满脸的横肉和刀疤。她把信息放进了传音管。然后他跟她低声吩咐了什么。

Then I see her. She’s taking a message from one of Baron Spindlow’s men—the lump-faced one, all scars and scowl—and placing it into a pneuma-tube. He mutters instructions to her.

我都没想到，这个家伙居然会说话，甚至还会写字。我之前只听到过他的惨叫。上次我们见面的时候，我拿了他一条腿。现在他的假肢都已经生锈了。

Who knew the dob could even speak, let alone write a message? I’ve only heard him scream. The last time we met, I took his leg. Its replacement is already rusted.

他用肥硕的手掌递过几枚银轮，她伸手接了过去。齿轮形状的硬币发出清脆的声音，带着血的味道。这痛苦从一个人传给下一个人。如果你想在这座城里得到什么东西，你有多少银轮是无关紧要的。痛苦才是这里的硬通货。

The cogs clink as they pass from the thug’s meaty hand into the girl’s. I can smell the blood on the gear-shaped coins. The pain that passes from person to person. If you want something in this city, it doesn’t matter how many cogs you have. Pain is the true currency.

我的记忆中有一个人很会这一套——手里大把的鲜血和银轮——但那个人已经不在了。

I remember a man who knew this—the blood and cogs on his hands—but that man is gone.

我嚎了一声，两个人一惊，身子一缩。我的增强体发出恶毒的绿光，连黑影也似乎在退缩。女孩看了一眼扭头就跑，但并没有往巷子深处跑。她毕竟是传音管信使，她向上快爬，钻进了黑暗里，她选的路几乎没人追得上。

I growl, and the two figures flinch in surprise. Even the shadows seem to draw back as my augments cast a sickly, green glow. The girl takes one look and flees, but not deeper into the alley. She’s a pneuma-tube runner. She clambers up, into the darkness, taking a path few can follow.

恐惧。身手很快、但又很弱。身上带着炼金男爵封章的传音管。帮众们一定会被她引出来。

Afraid. Fast, but vulnerable. Carrying a pneuma-tube with a chem-baron’s seal. The gangers will come for her.

太完美了……

She’s perfect…

我开始打猎了。

I begin the hunt.

我们飞快地奔跑，城市变成了模糊的残影，我的爪子划破烟雾，一边跳过屋顶一边寻找落脚点，紧追着传音管信使。我在城中用爪子开出了一条路，像是一道伤口，流着炼金科技的毒液，在小巷里聚成水坑。

We move so quickly, the city is a blur—my claws cutting through the smoke, scrabbling for purchase as I leap across rooftops, following the pneuma-tube runner. Carving a path so deep through the city, it seems to bleed chemtech, toxic puddles gathering in the alleys.

她一个折返，翻身跳过一台装着酊剂的推车。她几乎和我一样熟悉这座城市。她知道我想把她逼到什么地方。远离安全的庇护所，去往信使们最害怕的危险地带，只有灰霾能逃得掉。

She tries to double back, skittering beneath a cart full of tinctures. She knows the city almost as well as I do. She knows where I’m driving her. Away from sanctuary, toward a place all the runners fear, where only the Zaun Gray escapes.

我需要提醒她一下，我比黑暗之中等待她的东西更可怕。我落到她正前方，愤怒地大吼一声，顺便抓破了一根蒸汽导管。她犹豫了，但没有多久就转身往下方跑去。正是我要她前去的方向。

I need to remind her to be more afraid of me than what lies in the darkness. I land ahead of her, roaring with rage, my claws tearing a chunk out of a steam conduit. She hesitates, but only for a moment, before turning back into the depths. Where I need her to run.

她费力地爬上高墙，然后顺着滑轨滑到地面，我能听到她急促的喘息声。她正在祈祷风之女神能拯救她。或许我也应该为她祈祷。我体内的野兽想要的不只是杀戮。它要吃肉。

I can hear the gasps of effort as she scrambles up walls and slides down railings. She’s praying to the wind goddess to save her. Perhaps I should do the same. The animal inside me wants more than murder. It wants meat.

我现在就能杀了她，轻而易举。我感到爪尖正在向外伸展，渴望着血肉。我已经忘了自己为什么要留她活命，直到我逼到了更近的距离。她踉跄着翻过一个栏杆，然后回头看向我，我看到她眼里自己的倒影。

I could kill her right now. It would be so easy. I feel my claws emerging, greedy for flesh. I forget why I should spare her, until I draw closer. Close enough to see my reflection in her eyes, as she stumbles on a ledge and looks back.

她的眼中充满泪水。

Her eyes brim with tears.

这一幕……好熟悉。

It’s all so... familiar.

我慢了下来，向着黑暗嚎叫，将那个女孩继续向前方驱赶。她向下跳到了古老传音管道系统的迷宫。我继续在后面尾随，她进入了死胡同，我远远地躲在后面。

I pull back and howl into the darkness, driving the girl forward. She drops down into a maze of pipes built for the ancient pneuma system. I follow behind her, hanging back as she reaches the dead end.

这个女孩以为我要杀她。以为我的尖牙是冲着她的喉咙。但她只是诱饵。她将在这里诱出我真正的猎物。

The girl thinks I’m going to kill her. That her pale throat is the reason I bare my teeth. But she is only the bait. This is where she’ll lure out my true prey.

那些把她当作猎物的人。

Those who’d prey on her.

“哎呀呀，看看灰霾里掉出什么来了。”一个帮派成员从暗处走了出来。他和他的同伙将那个女孩团团围住，他们手中的刀刃反射着深坑中仅存的点点光芒。我认识他们身上穿的破布。灰钉帮。一个死人，过去和他们有些交情。

“Well, well. Look what fell outta the Gray,” says a ganger emerging from the darkness. He and his friends surround the girl, their blades catching what little light survives in these depths. I recognize their tattered rags. The Gray Nails. A dead man once had dealings with them.

相同的场景，不同的女孩......

There was another girl...

我赶走了回忆。我不要回忆。

I shake away the memories. I don’t want them.

“我认识你，”一名灰钉帮成员说到，她脸上穿了许多环。“你是给伯根跑腿的吧？斯宾罗手下的大炮儿。那个变态又和你说了些啥？有没有不想让我们知道的？”她笑着用匕首敲了敲传音管。

“I know you,” says one of the Nails, her face ringed by piercings. “You run for Boggin, eh? One ’a Spindlow’s mugs. What’s that krovin’ psycho got to say that he don’t want us to hear?” She pokes the pneuma-tube with her dagger and smiles.

“求求你饶了我，你不明白！”女孩一边啜泣着，一边打量着她身后的灰暗角落，想要伺机逃走。

“Please, you don’t understand!” the girl sobs, scanning the gray darkness behind her and trying to rush past.

“你也没明白，”为首的帮派成员说。“我们要找点乐子。”

“Neither do you,” the first ganger says. “We’re gonna have some fun.”

我犹豫了一下，那个恶霸从女孩手中打飞了传音管。这条信息值的银轮比他们的性命还要多。这是一张张门票，让他们离开这个悲惨的深渊，去到稍微没这么悲惨的另一个深渊。

I hesitate as the thug knocks the pneuma-tube from the girl’s hands. It’s worth more cogs than their own lives. It’s their ticket out of this miserable pit, to a slightly less miserable one.

我原打算用传音管让他们暂时分神。传音管磕到了小巷旁边的石壁上。斯宾罗的封章磕破了。

I thought the pneuma-tube would distract them for the moment I needed. It cracks against the alley stones, Spindlow’s seal broken.

我做了什么啊？

What have I done?

灰钉帮的人粗鲁地抓住了她。她无助地大叫。一阵挣扎，刀光一闪，然后…...鲜血。

The runner cries out as a Nail grabs her roughly. There’s a struggle, a flash of steel, and then...blood.

这味道点燃了我的怒火。

Its scent enrages me.

我背后的储液舱开始泵药。我失去了控制。

The chamber on my back pumps, and I am lost.

一声咆哮贯穿黑暗。

A roar fills the darkness.

“是他！嚎叫鬼！”一个灰钉帮成员刚一喊出声，我就冲进了空场，我努力将目标锁定在这个混混身上。我劈倒了他，小巷的墙上迸溅出红色的雾气。他散落在碎石路上。

“It’s him! The Howler!” a Gray Nail cries out as I race into the clearing, trying to focus on the punk. I slash into him, and the alley wall steams with red mist. He crumples to the stones.

那个女孩哪去了？我在混乱之中跟丢了她。腹背受敌。刀刃在我身上磨牙，无影的爪子，胡乱地撕咬，骨头和护甲一起断裂。

Where is the girl? I’ve lost track in the mayhem. Surrounded. Blades stabbing like clumsy teeth. Claws a metal blur. Jaws clamp down, and bones crack along with armor.

我尝到了血。还有更多的血。

I taste blood. And still there’s more.

我看到她了。一个灰钉帮的人正在她头顶上，手中举着小刀。我可以阻止他。

I see her now. One of the Nails hovers above the girl, his shiv raised. I can stop him.

但机器再次泵药，我的四肢灌注着力量。

But the machine pumps again, and my limbs surge with power.

红色的云雾在我的脑海中搅动。一切都变得模糊。一切都不记得了。

The red haze fills my mind. Everything is a blur. Everything is forgotten.

一切都是鲜血。

Everything is blood.

我不知道我有没有救下那个女孩。我不知道我是不是把她杀了。我还在撕咬着血肉，幸存的灰钉帮已经逃进了黑暗之中。

I don’t know if I saved the girl. I don’t know if I killed her. I’m still biting through flesh when the surviving Nails flee into the darkness.

我转过身，追着他们进入黑夜。我别无选择。

I turn, following them into the night. I have no choice.

他们是我要狩猎的怪物。而我也是其中一员。

They are the monsters I hunt. And I am one of them.