Tunnels 02, Deeper

few steps and fall. At that very moment Elliott seized him by his arm and whisked him away. Then she was running, running and pulling him behind her, so fast he could barely stay on his feet. They'd covered a couple of hundred yards before she heaved him into one of the side rooms.
    "Cover your ears!" she screamed.
    A bone-shaking explosion erupted immediately. The blast knocked them both off their feet. A fireball and chunks of flying concrete hurled down the corridor past the doorway. Elliott must have primed some charges as she'd moved off. Before the debris had a chance to settle, she picked herself up and yanked Cal back out into a swirling storm of dust. Little patches of fire sizzled and spluttered in the puddles of water on the ground.
    As they dashed through thick eddies of choking smoke, a tall shape loomed before them. Elliott shoved Cal out of the way and dropped to one knee. She worked the bolt. The Limiter was coming straight for her, his gun up. She didn't hesitate. She squeezed the trigger. The muzzle of her rifle spat, the flare illuminating the Limiter's surprised face. The shot hit him square in the neck. His head whipped forward onto his chest as he disappeared from sight, back into the billowing dust. Elliott was already up.
    "Go!" she howled at Cal, pointing down the corridor.
    Another dark shadow plunged at them. The rifle still at her hip, Elliott pulled the trigger. There was dull click.
    "Oh, God!" Cal shouted, seeing the look of deadly intent on the Styx's face turn to one of triumph. The man thought he had them cold.
    Cal raised his walking stick pathetically before him as if he was going to use it to beat him off. But in the blink of an eye, Elliott had dropped her rifle and grabbed Cal's hand, thrusting the stove guns he was holding in the direction of the Limiter. She pulled at the trigger mechanisms.
    Cal felt the recoil and the intense heat as both guns blasted at point-blank range.
    He couldn't look at the result. The man hadn't even screamed. Cal was rooted to the spot, his sweating, shaking hand still clenching the smoking cylinders.
    As Elliott yanked something from her rucksack, she yelled at him. But Cal was almost dumb with fear. She slapped him with such force his teeth rattled. It shocked him back into action, just as she slung a charge into the corridor where he thought they were about to go. How were they going to get away if she closed off their escape route?
    "Take cover, you idiot!" she bawled, kicking him across the passage. He fell into a doorway on the opposite side.
    The explosion was smaller this time, and they immediately sprinted through the section of corridor where it had gone off. Cal tripped on something soft -- he knew it was a body -- and was grateful the dust shrouded everything from sight as he blundered through.
    It was as if time had collapsed to nothing. Seconds did not exist. And Cal's body, not his mind, dictated his actions, making him flee. He had to escape -- that was the only thing that mattered. Basic instinct had taken control of him.
    Before he knew it, they were back in the operating theater with the gruesome ceramic plinth in the center. Elliott hurled a cylindrical charge behind them. They had only gone halfway through the adjoining L-shaped room when the shock wave from the blast caught up.
    Horror of horrors, it shattered many of the specimen jars, cracking them open. Their contents slopped out like dead fish as the air filled with the sharp tang of formaldehyde. He glimpsed the semi-dissected head skedaddling across the floor by his feet, its half-mouth grinning crookedly at him. Its demi-tongue sticking out mischievously. Cal leaped over it as he followed Elliott out of the room, and they tore through the ensuing corridors. They took a succession of left turns and then a right -- although the dust and smoke weren't nearly as thick here, Elliott halted abruptly and frantically looked around.
    "No, no, no!" she ranted.
    "What?" he puffed, hanging on to her.
    "NO! Wrong way! Back... go to go back! "
    They hurriedly retraced their way around several corners, then Elliott paused to glance down a side corridor. Cal could see the anxiety in her eyes.
    "It has to be that way," she muttered uncertainly. "God, I hope it--"
    "Are you sure?" he interrupted urgently. "I don't recognize..."
    She pushed open a door. He was following so closely behind that as she stopped he crashed into her.
    Cal blinked and shielded his face. They were bathed in