Tunnels 02, Deeper

standing there.
    "Just when I'm beginning to think he's not such a brat," Chester grumbled, shaking his head, "he goes and ruins everything."
    "Just ignore it," Will said.
    "He may look like you, but that's as far as it goes," Chester fumed. He was irked by the younger boy's behavior. "The little midget only cares about one person, and that's himself! And I know what his game is, always trying to wind me up... He eats with his mouth wide open just to..." Chester stopped in midflow as he noticed the faraway look on his friend's face. Will wasn't listening; he stared at the writing on the wall, totally absorbed by thoughts of his father.
    The boys spent the next twenty-four hours taking it easy, sometimes sleeping on the library table, sometimes roving through the large house. As Will looked around the other rooms, it made him uncomfortable to think the Styx had once lived here, even though it had been a long time ago. However, despite his searching, he didn't find any further evidence of his father and was becoming impatient to get going again -- fired up by the notion that Dr. Burrows might still be in the area and desperate to catch up with him. With every hour, Will grew more restless, until he could bear it no longer. He rallied Chester and Cal together, telling them to pack their things, and then left the library to wait out in the hallway.
    "I don't know what it is, but there's something about this place," Will said as Chester joined him by the front door. Will had opened it a fraction, and they were shining the focused beams of their lanterns at the dismal forms of the squat huts as they waited for Cal. After his outburst about Will's father, he'd been moody and uncommunicative, and both Will and Chester had largely left him to his own devices.
    "It makes me feel... feel kind of uneasy," Will continued. "It's all those little huts out there and the thought that the Styx made the Coprolites live in them, like slaves. I bet they were treated so badly."
    "The Styx are the worst type of scum," Chester said, then hissed sharply through his teeth and shook his head. "No, Will, I don't like it here, either. It's strange that..." he pondered.
    "What?"
    "Well, it's just that this building's been empty for years, maybe centuries, until your dad broke in. Just locked up, like nobody's dared to put a foot in it."
    "Yes, that's right," Will said thoughtfully.
    "Do you think people stay away because things were once so awful here?" Chester asked him.
    "Well, the bats are definitely carnivorous -- I saw them attacking an injured one -- but I don't think they're too much of a danger," Will replied.
    "Huh?" Chester said apprehensively, his face draining. " We're made of meat."
    "Yeah, but I would guess they're more interested in the insects," Will began. "Or animals that can't fight back." He shook his head. "You're right -- I'm sure it isn't just the bats that have kept people away from this place," he agreed.
    As Will had been talking, Cal had stomped sullenly through the dust, thrown down his rucksack and sat himself on top of it.
    "Yeah, the bats," he butted in sulkily. "How are we going to get past them?"
    "There's no sign of them at the moment," Will said.
    "Wonderful," Cal snarled. "So you don't have a plan at all."
    Will responded evenly, refusing to be ruffled by his brother's criticism. "Right, then: This time we dim our lights, we don't make any noise, or shout -- got that, Cal? And, as a precaution, I've got some firecrackers ready if they do come. Should scare off the freaky things." Will tugged open the side pocket of his pack, in which there were a couple of Roman candles left over from the batch he'd set off in the Eternal City.
    "That's it? That's the plan?" Cal demanded aggressively.
    "Yes," Will said, still trying to keep his cool.
    "Foolproof!" Cal grunted.
    Will gave him a look that could kill and warily pulled the door farther open.
    Cal and Chester both edged out, with Will bringing up the rear, a pair of firecrackers in one hand and a lighter poised in the other. Every so often they heard the screeches of the bats, but they came from far enough away not to cause any real alarm. The boys moved silently and quickly, using the minimum of light to show them the way. In the shadows around their feet the tiny scuttlings and scrabblings tested the limits of their resolve, their imaginations running riot with thoughts of what was there.
    They had left the gateway behind them and then backtracked a good distance