Tunnels 03, Freefall

himself in his thoughts.
    Several hours into the journey, Elliott held up a bunched fist -- the sign they should stop immediately. Will failed to notice this for a few paces, causing Elliott to make a hissing noise to get his attention. Frowning, he turned to her.
    "What is it?"
    Taking her rifle from her shoulder, she gestured towards Bartleby.
    Will looked at the cat, who had slunk low to the ground, his spindly tail stuck straight out behind him. As he'd been trained to do in the Colony, the cat did seem to be pointing as if he'd sniffed something out.
    Will nodded. "It's probably just some animal he doesn't know. A Heffalump or a Woozle," he chuckled.
    But Elliott was deadly serious. "Don't want him running off -- I'm going to put a lead on him," she whispered to Will. Removing her Bergen, she took a length of rope from it, which she passed around Bartleby's neck and knotted. "And get you Sten ready," she ordered.
    Will scanned the jungle floor ahead. So thick was the foliage above, only the odd finger of sunlight made its way through. In between the gargantuan tree trunks, these laser-bright beams of light stretched as far as the eye could see, shifting slightly and sometimes flickering out altogether when the wind blew hard and the branches above came together. It all looked so unthreatening and innocent. But then again, Elliott had glimpsed some type of large feline predator, which Dr. Burrows had become terribly excited about because, from the description the girl had given, he thought it could be a saber-tooth tiger. And Will knew that he might be becoming a little too complacent in a world where anything was possible. So with a reluctant sigh, he swung the Sten off his shoulder, checked the magazine was full, then cocked it.
    "This way," Elliott whispered, allowing Bartleby to pull her forward.
    "Hey, hold on a minute," Will objected. "You mean you actually want to follow the trail? Why don't we just forget it and continue towards the river?"
    But Elliott was adamant. "No, we should check for ourselves what it is. We have to find out all we can about this place if we don't want any surprises."
    "Okay, anything you say," Will replied, pursing his lips unhappily. The feel of the loaded weapon in his hands already seemed to belong to a different time, a time that he was grateful was behind him. And nothing on Earth -- or inside Earth, he thought wryly to himself -- would induce him to go back to those fear-filled days.
    As Bartleby snuffled away at the leaves, the trail seemed to avoid the vertical beams of light, where flies and insects buzzed languidly. Soon they were hearing a symphony of bird calls, and the chirping of cicadas also seemed to be growing louder.
    "Do you know this area?" will asked Elliott.
    She started because he hadn't bothered to lower his voice, and in response she gave a disgruntled shake of her head. Whether this meant she hadn't been there before, or that she was annoyed that he wasn't being quiet enough, he had no idea, but he suspected it was the latter.
    Fine, if you want to play soldiers ... Will thought to himself. Stealth mode, it is . Crouching low, he began to emulate the way Elliott was treading lightly on the dry leaves underfoot.
    Before long, they were spotting tracts of sunlight on the ground up ahead, which meant they must be coming to the end of the thicker tree cover. This was confirmed as they reached this brighter area. Here the trees were acacias, covered with large thorns and with swollen pods dangling from their branches. These trees were far shorter than the giant trees of the jungle, and their canopies less developed -- it wasn't all that different in feel from Topsoil woodland.
    Will glanced up at the blinding white sky and then, as he lowered his eyes, they fell on a sheer cliff face up ahead.
    "We're not going to climb that, are we?" he grumbled to Elliott.
    They both stopped to take in the escarpment, which was of white stone and around forty meters high. On the top of the cliff, the jungle appeared to resume its prolific growth.
    Elliott was assessing the escarpment through the trees. "It seems to go on for some way," she observed, looking to their left and then their right.
    Will immediately knew they must be at some sort of fault line, where there'd been a fracture in the crust. He still wasn't used to the idea that the Earth had two crusts -- an outer one he'd spent most of his life on, and an inner one, like the white flesh in a coconut. He and his