Tunnels 02, Deeper

light, stooping down while she positioned something by the rock wall. It was a stubby canister, approximately the size of a soup can and dull brown in color. Once she had anchored it to a small boulder by means of a strap, she backed away, feeding out a taut length of wire, so fine that Will and Chester could hardly see it, across the width of the tunnel. She attached this to a spur on the opposite wall and then plucked it gently: It gave a low twang. "Perfect," she whispered, returning to the canister. Lying on her front, she gently eased a small pin from it and stood up. "Set," she said quietly.
    Drake turned to Will and Chester. "We have to move farther down so Elliott can rig the second one," he ordered as he scooped up the rucksack.
    Will and Chester got slowly to their feet and lifted Cal again. By now he had begun to make strange, nonsensical noises, whines and grunts, with the odd drawled word mixed in: "hungry," or "thirsty." But neither Will nor Chester had the time nor the energy to worry about that now. They carried Cal several hundred feet, then came to a halt again as Drake stopped.
    "No, don't sit down!" he told them.
    So they remained standing as Elliott set up another "trip."
    "What do those do?" Will asked, leaning against the wall of the lava tube and puffing, as he and Chester watched Elliott repeat the process.
    "They go bang," Drake told him. 'They're charges."
    "But why do you need two?"
    "The first has a delay on the fuse. So the White Necks trigger it, walk into the second charge at about the time the first goes off, and presto, they're sealed in a section of the tunnel. Well, that's the theory, anyway."
    "Genius," Will said, impressed.
    "Actually," -- Drake leaned toward him -- "we often set two or more because the Limiters are so bloody good at spotting them."
    "Oh, right," Will mumbled, less impressed.

    * * * * *

    By Will's reckoning, they must have covered quite a few miles before they heard the charges go off in quick succession, like a pair of giant handclaps. Then, after a brief delay, they felt a burst of wind on their sweat-soaked necks. Drake didn't miss a step, continuing at a pace they found difficult to match. By now, Will was holding Cal by one of his arms while the other flailed weakly, sometimes knocking against Will's shins.
    They twisted through tube after tube, climbing and descending, sometimes squeezing through a series of tight cavities, sometimes wading through semi-submerged, echoing caverns. In these, they were forced to hoist Cal almost to shoulder height, as best they could, so his head wasn't dunked under the water.
    The boy appeared to be getting his strength back and, as it returned, he became more and more unmanageable, thrashing around in their grip. At times, it was just too much and they dropped him. On one of these occasions, both Will and Chester were too tired to care anymore as Cal hit the sodden ground with a mighty slap. He loosed off a series of garbled and guttural swear words as they were picking him up again.
    "DANG T'Y'USE FIRKS! Y'USE SNECKEN THRIPPS!"
    These unrecognizable curses, combined with Cal's ineffectual fury, were so comical that Will couldn't stop himself from chuckling. This infected Chester, who also began to laugh, causing the bizarre drawled invectives to issue from Cal at an even greater rate as he flapped wildly about. The boys' fatigue, and the sheer relief that Cal was alive, were making them both feel a little light-headed.
    "Hmm... don't think I ever been called that before," Chester said, breathing hard from the exertion. "Sneck-en-thripps?" he repeated, enunciating the words carefully.
    "I have to admit," Will snickered, "I've always thought you were a bit of a thripp."
    Both of them dissolved into hysterical laughter, and Cal, who evidently could hear everything they were saying, flailed his arms around even more furiously.
    "CRUTS Y'BISHTARDS!" he bellowed hoarsely, then went into a paroxysm of coughing.
    "Shut up!" Drake hissed from up ahead. "You'll give away our position!"
    Cal became more subdued again, not because of Drake's reprimand, but because he realized that the swearing wasn't achieving anything. Instead, he began to try to grasp hold of Will's leg to trip him up. Will's amusement turned to irritation and he shook his brother. "Cal, enough!" he snapped. "Or we'll leave you behind for the Styx."
    Finally they found they were back at the base. Since they hadn't had to go through the sump, Will realized they