Tunnels 03, Freefall

and nearly all had broken windows. It was no problem for Will and his father to gain entry as all the doors were open or off their hinges. Inside the floors were speckled in paint that had peeled off from the ceilings, giving the impression they were covered in snow. Will and Dr. Burrows were exploring the first floor of one of these buildings when, in the distance, they spotted the twin headlights of a vehicle lancing through the rapidly amassing darkness.
    "I don't know who they are," Dr. Burrows whispered, "but I don't want to tangle with them. I say we get our heads down for a few hours, and check the place over first thing in the morning."
    "Sure," Will agreed, hoping his father was going to suggest just that because he was dropping on his feet. They found themselves a dry corner in one of the ground floor rooms, and slid into their sleeping bags.
    They left the luminescent orb on the floor between them, half covering it so that the light wouldn't alert anyone to their presence. Through his weary eyes, Will watched the branch of a tree that had grown in through one of the broken windows. When he finally couldn't keep his eyes open any longer, he let them slide shut, and filled his lungs with the cool air. It might have been to do with his roots in the Colony, where his real family had come from, or because he'd been underground for so long, but he found that he was incredibly sensitive to the rhythms here on the surface. And it wasn't the chirping insects or the occasional call of birds on the wing, but the silent rhythms, the rhythms of nature. He could almost feel the vegetation around him as it grew.
    But more than this, he missed the rhythms which had been so much part of his life deep in the Earth -- the almost imperceptible settling of the rock and soil, and the odors that somehow interacted with the base of the nose, that felt primal and basic and safe. Although he wouldn't have said anything about it to his father, he was already missing his subterranean existence. And with that thought fading in his mind, he drifted into a dead sleep.

    * * * * *

    Will rolled over onto his back and fluttered open his eyes.
    He cried out as the bright dawn light burnt his retinas, and he quickly jerked back into the shadows, holding his eyes. After much blinking, he slowly emerged into the light again, still shielding his face. As he wriggled out of his sleeping bag and put his boots on, he felt as though every move he made was incredibly leaden, then realized it was the effects of the gravity. Normal gravity.
    "Morning," his father said cheerfully, crunching over the broken glass as he entered the room.
    "Morning," Will replied, then yawned cavernously.
    Dr. Burrows glanced at him. "Feeling rough?"
    "Yep," Will said through another yawn.
    "You might be suffering from a form of jet lag. Subterranean lag ," Dr. Burrows said with a laugh as he lit the stove and put a pot of water on it. He checked his watch and then glanced at Will. "You've no idea how long you've slept, or what time it is, do you?" He didn't wait for his son to respond. "You do realize you've probably been operating on days of more than twenty-four hours? Your circadian rhythms will be all over the shop."
    "What do you mean?" Will asked, not because he was really interested, but because his father expected it of him.
    "In the absence of daylight, the melatonin level in the brain doesn't follow normal patterns. It should rise as the sun goes down, so you feel sleepy." Dr. Burrows reached over to pick up the luminescent orb, examining how the fluids inside had turned oil-black in the presence of the daylight. "Underground, all we've got is these. The light they emit is close to sunlight, but it's always on, and doesn't follow the night and day sequence we're used to up--"
    "Oh, Dad, can you tell me about this another time?" Will pleaded with him. "I'm really not taking it in."
    His father fell into a peeved silence, which continued as they drank their over-sweetened tea.
    "Right," Dr. Burrows began, "if you're quite ready to listen to me now."
    Will mumbled a yes.
    "We're in a disused airfield -- I'm not sure where it is, but it's definitely England -- and there seems to be a security patrol but they're not soldiers. Probably a private contractor. So, come on, pick up what we need to take with us and hide the rest of it here."
    "Why? What's the big hurry?" Will asked.
    "Because we're going to London," Dr. Burrows said.

    * * * * *

    They had a quick look