Tunnels 01, Tunnels

macabre silent film, he couldn't help but watch the desperation on Chester's face as he valiantly battled with the Styx. He'd somehow managed to get hold of Will's shovel and was trying to beat them off with it. But he was overpowered by their sheer numbers as they swarmed over him with the intent of devouring locusts.
    But then one face blocked out everything else as it loomed in the porthole.
    Rebecca's face. She pursed her lips sternly and shook her head at Will, as if she was telling him off. Just like she'd done for all those years in Highfield. She was saying something, but it was inaudible through the door.
    "We have to go, Will. They'll get it open," Cal said urgently. Will tore his eyes away with difficulty. She was still mouthing something at him. And with a sudden, chilling realization, he knew just what it was. Exactly what it was. She was singing to him.
    "'Sunshine'...!" he said bitterly. "'You are my sunshine!'"
    They fled down the rock passage with Bartleby bringing up the rear, and eventually came to a dome-shaped atrium with numerous passages leading off it. Everything was rounded and smoothed, as if eons of flowing water had rubbed away any sharp edges. It was dry now, every surface coated in an abrasive silt, like powdered glass.
    "We've only got one mask," Will said suddenly to Cal, as the realization hit him. He took the canvas and rubber contraption from his brother and examined it.
    "Oh, no!" Cal's face dropped. "What do we do now? We can't go back."
    "The air in the EternalCity," Will said, "what's wrong with it?"
    "Uncle Tam says there was some sort of plague. It killed off all the people..."
    "But it's not still there, is it?" Will asked quickly, dreading the answer.
    Cal nodded slowly. "Tam says it is."
    "Then you're using the mask."
    "No way!"
    In a flash, Will whipped the mask over Cal's head, muffling his protests. Cal struggled, trying to take it off, but Will wouldn't let him.
    "I mean it! You're going to wear it," Will insisted. "I'm the oldest, so I get to choose."
    At this Cal stopped resisting, his eyes peeking anxiously through the glass strip as Will made sure the hood was seated correctly on his shoulders. Then he buckled up the leather strap to secure the pipes and stubby filter around his brother's chest. He tried not to think what the implications of letting Cal have the mask might be for himself, and could only hope that the plague was yet another of the Colonist's superstitions, of which there seemed to be so many.
    Then Will slipped out the map Tam had given him from inside his boot, counted the tunnels in front of them, and pointed to the one they were to take.
    "How did the Styx girl know you?" Cal's voice was indistinct through the hood.
    "My sister," Will lowered the map and looked at him. "That was my sister" -- he spat contemptuously -- "or so I used to think."
    Cal didn't show any sign of surprise, but Will could see just how frightened he was by the way he kept glancing at the stretch of tunnel behind them. "The door won't hold them for long," his brother added, looking nervously at Will.
    "Chester...," Will began hopelessly, then fell silent.
    "There was nothing we could've done to help him. We were lucky to get out of there alive."
    "Maybe," Will said as he rechecked the map. He knew he didn't have time to think about Chester, not right now, but after all the risks he'd taken to save his friend the whole exercise had failed horribly, and he was finding it hard to focus on what to do next. He took a deep breath. "I guess we should go, then."
    And so the two boys, with the cat trailing behind, broke into a steady trot, penetrating deeper into the complex of underground tunnels that would eventually lead them to the Eternal City -- and then, Will hoped, out into the sunlight again.

     

Part Three
The EternalCity

30

    One two, one two, one, one, one two.
    As they jogged along, Will had settled into the easy rhythm he frequently used for the more strenuous bouts of digging back in Highfield. The tunnels were dry and silent; there wasn't the slightest sign that anything lived down here. And as their feet tramped over the sandy floors, not once did Will catch sight of any airborne dust or motes behind them in the beam of his light orb. It was as if their passage had gone completely unnoticed.
    But it wasn't long before he began to spot the faintest scintillations before his eyes, smears of light that materialized and then, just as abruptly, vanished from his field