"Gardner Dozois - A Cat Horror Story" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dozois Gardner)

It was time to tell stories, under the cold, watchful gaze of The Night Face.

“This I have seen,” Caeser began. “I was hunting with the tom named Bigfoot,
and we came to the place where all the grass stops, and for almost as far as you can
see, until the trees start again far away, the ground is fiat and hard and smells of
Dead Things. I warned Bigfoot that this was Ghostland, the territory of demons[3]
and monsters, but his hunting blood was up, and the hunting is good under the trees
at night, and he would not listen. And so we went out across the hard, bad-smelling
stuff. Out into Ghostland.”

Caeser looked away for a moment, out toward the far horizon, then turned his
eyes back to the People. “We walked out across Ghostland. The Dead Stuff was
cold and hard under our paws, and we could hear our claws skritch on it. The wind
carried the voices of ghosts as it whined past us. Suddenly, there was a bright light,
far away, but coming closer. Closer! I froze with fear, but, in his eagerness, Bigfoot
went on. There was a growling noise, louder and louder, like all the dogs that ever
were born, growling at once. And then there was a light, blinding me. The light! So
bright, so close, as if The Night Face had fallen from the sky down on top of me!
Then a Fast Dead Thing went by with a roar that shook the world and a blast of
wind that nearly knocked me over, and with a smell of burning. I heard Bigfoot
scream.”

Caeser paused, and the rest of the People crept a step or two closer to hear
him. “When the Fast Dead Thing was gone,” he continued, “I went back, step by
slow step, to see what had happened to Bigfoot.” Caeser paused again, significantly.
“He was dead. The Fast Dead Thing had crashed him. His guts were everywhere,
torn from his body, and his blood was all around. The middle of his body was flat,
as though it had no bones in it anymore. He was mashed into the dead black ground
of Ghostland, in a puddle of his own guts and blood. On his face was a look of fear
and horror such as I hope never to see again.”

The People shivered. After a moment, Caeser said, “Then I heard it coming
back. The Fast Dead Thing. I saw its light. It was coming back from the way it had
gone. Coming back for me. I’m not ashamed to tell you all that I ran like a kitten!
And ever since then, when I go near Ghostland, I can hear the Fast Dead Thing
hunting for me, roaring back and forth, hunting through the night to find me.”

There was an awed silence, and then a young queen named Katy said, “I hear
they can get you anywhere, the Fast Dead Things.” She looked around her
nervously: “Even inside the lair: There are some of them who can follow you right in,
and get you even when you’re inside. My mother told me that she used to get chased
by a little one that roared and whooshed and tried to pull her tail.”
 “That was just a Small Roaring Thing” a tom named Poorer said. “The
humans play with them. They’re not really dangerous — though, of course, it’s
better to stay away from them, just to be safe. But the Fast Dead Things, now —
they can kill you even when they’re asleep!”

“Nothing can kill you while it’s asleep,” Jefferson said.

Pooter bristled, then licked his foot in a slow and insulting way that might have