Tunnels 03, Freefall

favor of leaving the seam so early. "We don't know where we're going, we don't know where we're going," he sang in a bittersweet way.
    "We never know where we--" Will was just replying when they both heard a low noise, like a murmuring, coming from somewhere up ahead.
    Will had the aerosol up in a split second, as Dr. Burrows fumbled the Browning Hi-Power out of his pocket and pointed it nervously at the darkness.
    "Hold on, Dad, can't see any creepy-crawlies," will whispered as he used the headset to scan the stretch in front of them.
    They both listened.
    It came again. It wasn't just a murmuring, it was a voice, a human voice, and Will immediately recognized who it was.
    "Sounds like Chester!" he said to his father.
    "Careful, it could be that Limiter," Dr. Burrows warned in hushed tones. "Might be a trap."
    "No, that's Chester all right," Will decided, hardly able to contain his excitement. He dropped his voice several octaves, making it as gruff and manly as he could. "Chester Rawls, is that you?" he called out.
    Silence. Then Chester replied.
    "Will?"
    "Chester!" Will burst out in his normal voice, overjoyed. "Sure is me! I'm here with Dad, and we're both okay."
    "Thank God! I knew you'd be all right! Elliott and Martha are with me, and we're all fine too. I can't see you, but you sound really close?"
    "So do you! I've got my headset working again so we'll come to you," Will proposed. "Just keep talking so we can find you."
    "Got you, loud and clear," Chester confirmed. "And did those feet in ancient times, walk upon England's...' " he began to sing, although he was so out of tune it was painful to listen to him.
    Then the strangest thing happened. As Will and Dr. Burrows moved into the labyrinthine network of passages before them, Chester's voice seemed to fade away, and there was absolutely no sign of him or the others. Flummoxed, Will and Dr. Burrows retraced their steps to the point they'd started from and, sure enough, they could hear Chester again.
    "Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war..." the boy was singing.
    "Chester, can you hear me? Stop that awful racket for a second," Will said.
    "Course I can hear you. Where've you been? We've been waiting here like a bunch of muppets, and I'm getting a sore throat!"
    Dr. Burrows suddenly spoke up. "Chester, Dr. Burrows here. I think I know the reason for this. It might be similar to the whispering galleries you sometimes find in large churches or the layout of the tunnels, maybe helped by the fungus lining them, is reflecting our voices. We might be much further apart than we think -- maybe even miles -- but our voices are being transmitted by the acoustics."
    Martha now joined the conversation, her tone rather terse. "You stay put this time -- it's our turn to find you."
    It was a good ten minutes before Chester, Elliott and then Martha stepped out from around a corner and revealed themselves.
    "Chester!" Will cried, leaping up as he saw the trio clearly through his headset.
    "That was really weird. Mushroom-powered radio! Now I've heard of everything," Chester exclaimed. But when he was close enough to see Will and Dr. Burrows' military garb and their new weaponry, he was speechless, and simply stared at them.
    "Chester, you just won't believe where we've been. We found this fallout shelter, and a river, which we took up to the surface," Will replied. "We went back to Highfield. We went home ."
    "Home?" Chester choked, almost unable to take in what Will was telling him.
    "Yeah, and Elliott, that number you kept repeating when you had the fever... I found out what it was," Will said.
    "Number?" she repeated as she tried to work out what he was talking about. Then it clicked. "The emergency number! So you saw him! Drake's alive!"
    Will nodded. "Certainly is. He was waiting for us in Highfield."
    As something detached itself from the shadows behind Chester, coming full pelt along the ground, Will yelled, "Watch out!" He gave whatever it was a full burst with the aerosol.
    Bartleby stopped in his tracks, a chaos of scrabbling legs on the fungus floor, then bolted back into the tunnel, yowling.
    "Thought it was a spider," Will said unapologetically. "So you took the traitor back in."
    "He may be a traitor, but he just led us to you," Chester replied. "Besides, you're one to talk -- you took that lying twin back in."
    "They locked eyes, their expressions dead pan, then Will said 'touche,' and they broke into laughter.
    Chester took two massive strides over