Post-Boomboom

Начало книги

And then the waters, the furious waves, came rushing in without warning and devastated the land. Between the shredded palm trees, among the remains of the great fire, on top of the carbon and the ice, a few men had found refuge—a very few, barely three or four, as could be seen when they emerged from their hiding places to trap some vermin or other and then quickly hid themselves again. Now and again the sun peeked out through the mists, but the rain continued falling uncontrollably, as it had from the start, as if it would never stop. From among spirals of smoke and soil, life, disoriented, struggled to carry on: freakish animals and bizarre plants appeared on the charred earth. One of the men, who had lost one shoe, dragged himself out of the cave and peered about. The other two out there were trailing a deformed reptile, arguing loudly about who would get to keep the prey and throwing rocks at each other. They were the one who had lost an eye and the one who had lost his hair. Somebody had lit a fire that covered the hillside with smoke. The one who had lost a shoe stopped in order to kill a new species of centipede that was sleeping atop a rock, and he ate it. Then he stretched his neck to see off into the distance.

Читать дальше →