Tunnels 03, Freefall

Elliott whispered into Will's ear, as she scrutinized the ground. Then Will and Elliott crept along by the foot of the escarpment, every so often clambering over rock falls where the face had crumbled away. They occasionally came across passages which penetrated into the escarpment, but these were nothing more than narrow corridors, overrun with tangles of thick undergrowth. Elliott didn't bother to go down these to investigate as she could see the tracks continued straight past them.
    Eventually they came to another opening in the escarpment. It was wider than the others, a passage some twenty meters across with vertical sides of white rock. Even Will could tell that someone had gone down it, pushing their way through the dense vegetation leaving footprints behind them as they went.
    "Stay close," Elliott had said to Will before they started in. He had no intention of doing anything but that.
    As the tracks continued into the passage, Elliott was reading the ground, finding broken blades of grass and the odd shrub that had been trodden down.
    They followed around a gentle curve in the passage, and then Elliott waved Will down. They both lowered onto their chests. She touched her ear lobe -- an instruction for Will to listen. He wasn't sure to start with, but he thought he might have heard a voice.
    A girl's voice.
    Elliott began to snake forward very slowly, making sure there was nothing in her path. A snapping twig might give their presence away.
    Coming to a halt, she held still for several seconds, then turned her head to Will. She pointed to her eye, then patted the ground beside her. Once Will was level with her, he sought out what she'd spotted.
    The passage widened out into a larger, roughly circular space, some forty meters or so in diameter. Its sides were as steep and the same height as the rest of the escarpment. From what Will could see, it resembled a cove in a coastal cliff, and the passage he and Elliott had come down appeared to be the only way in or out. There was a sprawling mass of parched vegetation hanging down the side walls, and everything in the circular area also appeared to be rather desiccated. Will guessed this might be because the space, with its white walls, was acting like a sun trap. It certainly felt far warmer there than back in the acacia wood.
    The Will did see something, but it was completely out of place. Near the center of the circular area, there was some type of structure -- a small hut with a number of holes in them, as if they had rusted through.
    Corrugated metal , Will thought to himself. What the hell's that doing here?
    Then above the sound of the cicadas he heard, quite plainly, one of the Rebecca twins. It was nasal -- she was speaking in the Styx tongue.
    If Will's heart had been beating fast before, it was beating so rapidly now that his pulse in his ears sounded as loud as a ten-gun salute, on repeat.
    Then, as he moved his head around and tried to get a better view through the vegetation, he located where her voice was coming from. He saw the Rebecca twin's profile as she sat on something slightly raised, maybe a boulder, not far from the hut.
    As he was watching, she jiggled her leg, and he heard a gentle splash. Then there was a bigger splash, and the second twin rose up into view, just in front of the first Rebecca. She was dripping wet, her long black hair loose and hanging around her face. She swept it back with a hand, scattering drops of water which sparkled in the intense sunlight. Were they swimming or washing in some kind of pool? Will couldn't believe how relaxed they both appeared -- but then they hadn't the smallest inkling that he'd also made it through to this inner world. They'd lowered their guard because they believed there was no threat here. But where was the Limiter?
    He continued to watch them as the second Rebecca sank back out of view and, he assumed, into the water. Although she was out of sight, they were still talking. He heard a few vague words. They were in English. As the rays from the overhead sun drenched the scene before him and the odd bird twittered, he was transported back to past summers at his home in Highfield. His bedroom had overlooked the small rear garden where Rebecca would often spread a towel on the lawn and sunbathe, while he had to hide himself away from the rays because of his lack of pigmentation. On these days, days when he wasn't off digging somewhere and he lay on his bed and read, her voice drifted up to his