Tunnels 02, Deeper

the large tunnel. Her voice was snatched away by the wind, making it difficult for the boys to hear her.
    "Sorry?" Will asked, cupping a hand behind his ear.
    "I said, you go that way!" she yelled, already backing toward a side tunnel. Apparently she wasn't going with them.
    The boys looked at her questioningly, their faces anxious.

    * * * * *

    Sarah was close -- so close she could almost smell them herself, despite the jets of sulfurous steam.
    The Hunter was well and truly in his element -- this was what he'd been bred for. The scent was so fresh here that he was in a crazed rush to get to his quarry. Strings of milky saliva hung from his muzzle, and his ears twitched as he kept his head to the ground. His body was a blur of scrabbling legs, which slewed mud in their wake as he raced up the seam. He was literally pulling Sarah behind him, and it was all she could do to keep hold of the cat. As he paused to clear his nostrils of mud with rapid piglike snorts, she called out to him.
    "Bartleby, where's your master?"
    Although he didn't need the slightest encouragement, she called to him once more, goading him on in a crooning voice.
    "Where's Cal, then? Where's Cal?"
    With a flying start, he shot off again at full tilt, taking her by surprise. She slithered along on her stomach and shouted at him to ease off for a full fifty feet before he finally slowed long enough for her to get up on all fours again
    "When will I learn to keep my big mouth shut?" she mumbled, blinking through her mud mask.
    After she'd seen the flying lizards on the wing, knowing full well what had disturbed them, she and Bartleby had sped along the remaining stretch of beach to the cavern wall. Then, on the rocks, he'd soon picked up the trail that led to the seam, raising his head and loosing a victorious, deep-pitched meow.
    Now, as they made good headway up the seam, she spotted tracks the group had left -- the odd palm print told her that there was someone else with Will and Cal, someone who was smaller. A child? She wondered.

     

47

    The wind didn't let up as it swept down the main passage, funneled sometimes by the narrower stretches into a gale, which pushed so hard at the boys' backs that it helped them along. After the heat and steam they'd endured in the seam, it was a welcome change, although the air itself still felt warm on their faces.
    The roof ran high above them, and all the surfaces they could see were smooth, as if they'd been scoured by the wind-borne grit that even now compelled the boys to keep their heads tucked down, lest any particles catch them in the eye.
    After Elliott had left them to their own devices, they'd started out at a brisk pace. But as time passed and she didn't reappear, the boys began to lose their sense of purpose, ambling along lackadaisically.
    Before she'd gone, she had explained that they were to stay on the main track while she scouted the route up ahead for what she called "Listening Posts." Chester and Cal seemed to accept her explanation, but Will was distrustful.
    "I don't understand... Why do you need to go off on your own?" he'd asked her, studying her eyes carefully. "I thought you said the Limiters were way behind us?"
    Elliott hadn't answered immediately, quickly looking away from him and cocking her head, as if she could pick out some sound over the wail of the wind. She listened for a second before turning back to him. "These soldiers know the lay of the land nearly as well as Drake and I do. As Drake did ," she corrected herself with a wince. "They could be anywhere. You don't take anything for granted."
    "You're saying they could be lying in wait for us?" Chester asked, glancing around the passage uneasily. "So we might wander straight into a trap?"
    "Yes. So let me do what I do best," Elliott had replied.
    Now that they were without her as a guide, Chester took the front position with Will and Cal following closely behind. They felt extremely vulnerable without their catlike protector to watch over them.
    While the relentless gale helped keep them cool, it also dehydrated them, and there were no objections when Will proposed they stop for a break. They leaned against the passage wall, gratefully sipping water from their canteens.
    Neither Will nor Chester made any effort to speak. Cal, with his bad leg, had his own problems to deal with and was similarly silent.
    Will glanced at the other two boys. He knew he was not alone in wondering if Elliott had deserted them. He believed she