Tunnels 02, Deeper

Cal back, won't you, Sarah?" her mother said, a hard, steely edge creeping into her voice. "You are going to save him -- promise me that."
    "If it's the last thing I do," Sarah whispered, and she turned to stare into the hearth.
    This moment of meeting her mother again, of which she'd dreamed so many times for so long, had been desecrated by Will's duplicity. The depth of her mother's conviction that he was responsible banished any reservations she'd had. After a span of twelve long years, Sarah's strongest connection with her mother was their overwhelming need for vengeance.
    They listened to the crackle of the fire. There was nothing to be said, and neither felt like talking anymore, consumed by the pure hatred they shared for Will.

    * * * * *

    Outside the house, Rebecca watched the horses champing impatiently and rattling their harnesses as they shook their heads. She was leaning against the door of the second carriage, in which Joe Waites sat nervously, hemmed in by several Styx. He stared at Rebecca through the small carriage window, his face taut and strained, a sheen of unhealthy sweat on his forehead.
    A Styx appeared at the door of the Jerome house. It was the same Styx who'd been sitting next to Sarah for the coach journey to the Colony and, unbeknownst to her and her mother, had stolen in through the back of the house so he could monitor their conversation from the hallway.
    He raised his head high to Rebecca. She nodded back once in acknowledgment.
    "Is that good?" Joe Waites asked quickly, edging closer to the carriage window.
    "Sit down!" Rebecca hissed with all the vehemence of a disturbed viper.
    "But, my wife, my daughters?" he said hoarsely, his eyes pathetic in their desperation. "Do I get them back now?"
    "Maybe. If you're a good little Colonist and continue to do as you're told," Rebecca sneered at him. Then, in the clicking, nasal language of the Styx, she addressed his escort in the carriage: "After we're finished here, put him in with his family. We'll deal with them all together when the job's done."
    Joe Waites watched apprehensively as the Styx by his side acknowledged Rebecca, then gave her a sardonic grin.
    Rebecca strolled back to the first coach, swaying her hips in a way that she'd seen precocious teenage girls do when she'd been Topsoil. It was her victory walk; she was reveling in her success. It was so close now, she could almost taste it, her mouth filling with a gush of sticky saliva. Her father would be so proud of her. She'd taken two problems, two strands, and was setting one against the other. The best outcome would be if they neutralized each other, but even if one remained at the end of the play, she could snuff it out so easily. Ah, the elegance!
    She came alongside the first carriage, where the old Styx sat.
    "Progress?" he asked.
    "She's swallowing it, hook, line and sinker."
    "Excellent," the old Styx said to her. "And what about the loose end?" he queried, tilting his head at the carriage behind.
    Rebecca smiled that gentle smile she had used to such effect on Sarah.
    "When Sarah's safely on the Miners' Train, we'll shred Waites and his family and spread them over the fields in the West Cavern. Compost for the pennybun crops."
    Sniffing, she made a face as if she'd smelled something distasteful. "And the same for that useless old crone in there," she added, jabbing her thumb toward the Jerome house.
    She chuckled as the old Styx nodded approvingly.

     

17

    "Food... no doubt about it... it's food," Cal said, tilting back his head and flaring his nostrils with a heavy inhalation.
    "Food?" Chester reacted immediately.
    "Nah, can't smell a thing." Will looked at his feet as they dawdled along, not really knowing where they were going, or why. All they knew was that they had been following the canal for miles and had not yet come across anything that even vaguely resembled a track.
    "I got us fresh water, in the old Styx house, didn't I? Now I'm going to find us some fresh supplies," Cal declared with his usual cockiness.
    "We've still got some left," Will replied. "Shouldn't we be heading for that light ahead or finding a road or something, not going where there might be Colonists? I say we should try and get down to the next level, where my dad's probably already gone."
    "Exactly!" Chester agreed. "Especially if this wasted place is going to make us glow in the dark."
    "Now," Will said, " that would be really useful."
    "Don't be daft." Chester grinned at his