Tunnels 03, Freefall

around you. Haven't you realized where we are? We made it... we're actually inside the planet. We're inside planet Earth!"
    Will didn't answer straight away, angling his head to catch the golden light filtering down from above. "But... no... that's sunlight up there," he said falteringly.
    "Yes, Will, it's sunlight, but not from our sun," Dr. Burrows said. "That ancient race knew a thing or two -- they found a way through here, and we've followed in their footsteps. We made it through, just like they did. We've bloody done it!"
    Will frowned deeply as something struck him. "Dad... when we drifted off the side and into the middle of the void, I thought Bartleby had done it -- I thought he'd pushed us off." Dr. Burrows held his son's gaze as he continued. "But it wasn't him at all, was it? It was you."
    As Elliott mumbled in her sleep, Dr. Burrows touched his finger to his lips. "Shhh -- not so loud, Will."
    But Will wasn't about to be silenced. "You were making darned sure we couldn't get back. And when you were firing my Sten, you didn't know where you were taking us, did you? You had no idea if we'd make it here, or if we'd just die somewhere in that horrific place?"
    "No, no idea at all," his father admitted. "It was a shot in the dark." He looked very pleased with himself at his unintentional pun, and repeated it again. "A total shot in the dark."
    "You--!" Will growled, appalled that his father had been so ready to risk their lives, and then could be so casual about it.
    "You're quite right to feel like that, Will, but just look at what we've achieved," Dr. Burrows said softly, glancing again at Elliott. "And I'd advise you to keep mum about all this, because now's the time we need to pull together, and get ourselves to the top. If you rock the boat with young Ellie over there, it isn't going to help us any."
    "She's called Elliott, and you're a bloody wacko. You could have killed us with your crazy ideas," Will accused him.
    "Well, I didn't, did I?" Dr. Burrows retorted. "And if we'd just hung around at the bottom of the void, how long do you think we'd have lasted?" He raised his eyes towards the light. "Look, Will, when we get to the top and there's nothing there but some solar-swept barren desert, then you can congratulate yourself for being right... as we all die from starvation and get lethal skin cancers." He nodded to himself. "Like Icarus, we will have flown too close to the sun."
    Will didn't know how to respond to this. Dr. Burrows turned everything on its head, so that if Will was right, then it sounded as though they were all doomed. Will lay back on the scree, and when Elliott finally woke up he didn't tell her what his father had confessed. Besides, what difference did it make now?"

    * * * * *

    Still roped together, they climbed further up the interior of the giant crater, and the air became warmer and the light grew brighter. The crater wall was inclined at approximately forty degrees, but despite this the going hadn't been too arduous at first because they were still relatively weightless. However, as they rose higher, the increase in gravity pulled them down, making them feel like they were dragging themselves through molasses. The vegetation also became more abundant, which didn't help matters either. They were forced to dispense with the climbing rope because it kept getting hung up on the larger trees, but then there were frequent and rather frightening occasions when one of them lost their footing and began to tumble pell-mell down the inside of the crater wall. The trick was to spread one's limbs and grab at the nearest shrub or tree to stop oneself from falling further.
    As the light grew in intensity, Elliott was clearly having problems as she groped her way up the incline. It was very different to the cat-like nimbleness she usually exhibited, but Will wasn't overly surprised. She'd never experienced anything like these levels of illumination before, and he just hoped she'd be able to adjust to it.
    Then they encountered a stretch where nothing grew and the incline was covered with a dark brown residue which coated all the rocks and saturated the soil.
    "Some sort of oil slick?" Will asked his father. He looked ahead, trying to work out where it had come from.
    Dr. Burrows rubbed the glutinous dark substance between his fingers, then took a sniff at it. "Yes, in a way. I think it's bitumen," he decided.
    "What -- same as the stuff they use on roads?" Will said, not liking the sound of