Tunnels 03, Freefall

asleep.
    "How's the thinking going?" Will asked.
    "Umg... good," Dr. Burrows said drowsily. "What about the wall?"
    "It's done. There's a room on the other side."
    At Dr. Burrows' insistence, they unloaded everything from the launch, then hauled it out of the water and onto the quayside. After they'd organized what they needed to take with them, they approached the opening Will had made.
    "Be my guest, Dr. Burrows said.
    His father behind him, Will climbed through into what turned out to be a corridor filled with empty drums and some old planking. They soon came up against a sturdy metal door, two handles on one of its sides. With a combination of pulling, kicking and bad language, they managed to get both of them into the open position, then heaved on the door.
    "Not more water!" Will cried as a deluge of the most evil-smelling soupy fluid surged around them. Gasping from the stench, they waded into a room, which was around twenty meters in width, with banks of lockers on either side. At the far end there was another door, but it was so badly rusted that they eventually gave up on it. They were also beginning to feel a little light-headed from the stench.
    "Dad!" Will said, his voice muffled because he was holding his nose. He'd found out what had appeared to be a cupboard was in fact an alternative entrance. The side room was about two meters square, and there were wide rungs set into the wall. Will raced up these, and smashed his way through some rotten planks at the top.
    "Watch it!" his father shouted as pieces of timber landed on him, but Will didn't care -- he just wanted out.
    He forced his way through a bramble bush, then scrambled to his feet.
    He was in the open.
    "Topsoil," he gasped. He tottered slightly as he put his head back and took in the wide open sky above. For some reason he felt he wanted to duck -- it was just too much to take in.
    "Wonder what time of day it is? Dusk?" Dr. Burrows pondered as he straightened up beside Will. "Or dawn?" he added, his voice downbeat as he peered at the dark, cloudless sky. Will turned to him.
    "Dad! We're out! We did it!" he cried. He couldn't believe that his father wasn't over the moon. "We're home again!"
    Dr. Burrows didn't answer immediately, and when he did his voice oozed with disappointment. "It's not exactly the grand retour I had in mind, Will. After all the things I saw and all my work down there..." He pressed the ball of his foot into the long grass in front of him. "...I wanted to come back with something that would wow the world... I wanted to knock the archaeological community for six." Drawing in a breath, he held it for a few seconds. "Instead, all I've got to show is a bag of tools from the Cold War..." he said, slinging it to the ground with a clatter, "... and one of the worst haircuts in history. No, without my journal, my esteemed colleagues would just have to take my word for the whole shebang, for everything I saw... and... well... that just ain't going to happen, is it?"
    Will nodded, now understanding the reason for his father's downbeat mood. He wondered if he should broach the subject of the Styx again. His father was in for a rude awakening if he thought that he'd have a free hand to publish all his secrets, because many of those were the Styx's secrets too. They would never allow him to do it. But Will knew if he mentioned this it would most likely result in another argument with his father, and he wasn't in the mood. He was just too dog tired to get into that now.
    Instead he plucked a leaf from a small sapling and crumpled it in his hand, smelling it, smelling the greenness of it. It had been a while since he'd encountered anything remotely like it. "Where do you think we are?" he asked.
    "Well, one thing's for sure -- it's not an extinct volcano in Iceland." Dr. Burrows smirked as he shone his light around, the beam catching the foliage of the mature trees that seemed to be everywhere.
    Will took a few steps. "It might not even be England. We've come a bloody long way."
    "I sincerely doubt we've gone that far."
    In the failing light, they began to explore, pushing their way through the undergrowth.
    There seemed to be many disused buildings concentrated within a relatively small area. And what could have been a roadway ran between them, although so many bushes had encroached over the asphalt surface, it was difficult to tell it apart from the surrounding vegetation.
    The buildings were brick-built, either one or two stories high,