Tunnels 02, Deeper

not... careless," he added slowly. "I mean... it's not as if his rucksack's here, or..."
    A terrified yelp from Cal yanked him from his thoughts. The boy had been lounging against a sizable boulder a little way back from the edge of the Pore, and leaped up as if he'd been stung by a bee.
    "It moved! I swear the stinking rock moved!" he shouted.
    The rock had moved, and it was still moving. Like some miracle, it had risen up on jointed legs and was rotating. As it came to a stop, they all saw the huge, vacillating antennae. The machinelike mouthparts gave a single clack.
    "Ohmygosh!" Chester shrieked.
    "Oh, do shut up!" Elliott rebuked him. "It's only a cave cow ."
    The boys watched as the insect -- Dr. Burrows gargantuan "dust mite" and one-time traveling companion -- clacked again, and then trundled cautiously forward. Bartleby scampered around its circumference, venturing forward to sniff at it and then retreating back again, as if he didn't quite know what to make of the creature.
    "Shoot it!" Chester exhorted Elliott as he shielded himself behind her, petrified. "Kill it! It's horrific!"
    "It's only a baby ," Elliott said, quite unconcerned as she went up to it and slapped its thick exoskeleton with a dull thud. "They're harmless. They graze on algae, not meat. You don't need to be..."
    Something speared on the cave cow's mouthparts silenced her. Patting the insect again, she leaned forward to retrieve it.
    It was Dr. Burrows's backpack, badly torn and turned inside out.
    Will approached her slowly and took it from her.
    His eyes said it all.
    "So this thing... this cave cow... you say it's harmless, but could it have hurt my father?"
    "Not a chance. Even the adults wouldn't harm a hair on your head, unless one of them sat on you by accident. I told you, they don't eat flesh." She put her hand over Will's as he continued to clutch the rucksack, and pulled the bag toward her face so she could sniff at the ruined canvas. "Thought so... it had food in it. That's what the cow was after."
    Will wasn't reassured as he glanced repeatedly between the stationary cave cow and the arch. His brow creased with concern.
    It didn't look good and everyone knew it.
    "Sorry, Will, but we can't hang around," Elliott said. "The sooner we get clear of here, the better."
    "No, you're right," he agreed.
    As Elliott, Chester, and Cal set off again, Will rushed around, gathering up as many of the pages as he could and stuffing them inside his jacket. Then, fearing he might be left behind, he ran to catch up with the others, the Mickey Mouse toothbrush clasped firmly in his hand.

    * * * * *

    "These... boots... are..."
    Lines of the song ran through Sarah's befogged head. She was half grunting, half gasping odd snatches from it as the Limiters on either side forced her to keep walking, each step causing the most terrible pain in her hip, as if barbed wire was being slowly twisted deep in her flesh.
    Little by little, Sarah was dying, and the Limiters knew it. So much for emergency medical attention. They didn't give a jot about her. They would probably get a pat on the back from Rebecca even if they delivered a dead body.
    But Sarah knew she had to stay conscious and was fighting the darkness that threatened to swamp her.
    "...made for walking... one of these days..."
    One of the Limiters grunted something guttural at her, but she defied him, carrying on with the song.
    "... these boots are gonna walk all over you..."
    Sarah's blood left a broken, splattered trail behind her. Quite by chance, once or twice it spilled across patches of Parchers that Elliott had sprinkled in her wake as she and the boys had fled the very same way. Brought to life by Sarah's blood, the bacteria flared with such brilliance it was as though light was blazing directly out of the very ground itself, like flashlights from the outermost circle of hell.
    But Sarah was oblivious to her shining path. She had fixed her mind, completely and absolutely, on a single, overwhelming purpose. As far as she could fathom, the Limiters were taking her in the same direction Will and Cal had gone.
    That was good and bad.
    It probably meant that further Styx were also on their trail, so her sons were in danger.
    But it also meant that she might still be able to help them. Even if it was the last thing she did.

     

51
    When he came up behind the Limiter patrol, Drake had to slow down. He swore silently. There was nothing he could do to get ahead of them.
    Chancing his luck, he