Tunnels 03, Freefall

months?"
    "Epidemic?" Will heard the man ask.
    "Any outbreak of disease, with people dying?" Dr. Burrows clarified.
    "No, nothing like that," the man replied in a considered way. "Nasty stomach bug going round, that's all."
    "Thought not," Thanks again," Dr. Burrows said. As the door swung shut behind them, he leant towards Will. "So much for a Styx plague cutting swathes through the population," he whispered theatrically, as if he was daring to mention some terrible secret.
    "I didn't say it had happened yet," Will defended himself. "And it won't if I have anything to do with it, and I have, with the phials I've got."
    "No, quite," Dr. Burrows said, without any conviction. "Still time to save the world."
    Will let his father's comments go and they sat on a wall outside the shop, enjoying their purchases. As he savored every mouthful of the crisps, washing them down with his Diet Coke, Will closed his eyes in bliss. "Never thought I'd miss the little things like this so much," he said.
    Dr. Burrows was silent as he ate his bars of chocolate. "You can say that again," he said as he swallowed down the last of them. Then he leapt off the wall. "Chocks away, old chap!" he announced exuberantly, sweeping his arm through the air. When Will just looked at him, he grinned idiotically, and added, "I'm joking, Will -- don't you get it? Chocks away -- we were on an airfield -- that's what they do with old aircraft -- take the chocks away from the wheels, and I've just eaten choccy! It's a joke."
    "Are you feeling all right, Dad?" Will asked. His father was behaving very oddly, and wasn't usually one to make jokes.
    Dr. Burrows frowned. "I think I just had a sugar hit," he admitted. "Might have overdone it."
    "I think you might have," Will said, easing himself off the wall.
    But Dr. Burrows was still buzzing and staunchly refused to investigate whether there was a bus they could catch to the nearby town. "Walk'll do us good. Forward to Fakenham," he declared bombastically, striding off through the rest of the village.
    When they finally arrived in Fakenham, hot and tired, they found it was market day there. The traders were setting out their wares on their stalls and standing around sipping tea from polystyrene cups. Dr. Burrows found the stop where the coaches departed from and scanned the timetable for the next one to London. They had a couple of hours to kill, and loitered around the main square as more and more people arrived for the market. As the area became increasingly crowded, Will felt decidedly uncomfortable. He kept looking over his shoulder, trying to check each of them. But there were just too many of them.
    "Dad," he said, flicking his thumb at a cafe up the road.
    "Why not? I'd kill for a cup of coffee," Dr. Burrows agreed. He hesitated. "Will, be careful what you eat. You saw what happened to me," he advised soberly. "We should avoid too much sugar or fat because we're simply not used to it." And despite Will's pleas to have a full English breakfast, they ordered toast and something to drink, then took a table in the corner of the cafe.
    People on other tables were glancing warily at them, not because of their olive drab army uniforms, which actually weren't that out of place in the town, but because, Will assumed, of their extremely dirty and rather odd hairstyles. Will twiddled one of his white dreadlocks between his fingers as he studied his father's spiky hair. Dr. Burrows did look like a rather time-expired punk as he sat there, engrossed in his paper. Will leant over to him. "Do you think we should do something about our hair? I reckon we might stick out a bit, and we don't want the police on our backs, do we? Don't forget we're missing as far as they're concerned."
    Dr. Burrows contemplated his son's suggestion, then nodded. "Not a bad idea, Will," he concluded. He went over to ask the lady behind the counter where the nearest barber's was, and they headed for it.

    * * * * *

    Will wasn't too sure when his father asked the barber for a short back and sides for each of them, and even less so as he watched his long hair being shorn off in the mirror. However, when they were both done, their tidy new hairstyles went quite nicely with their military clothing. The coach was on time, and they boarded it. But the journey was incredibly protracted; the coach seemed to be stopping at every town on the way, although Will and Dr. Burrows used the opportunity to catch up on their sleep. As they became stuck in