Tunnels 03, Freefall

this is going to work, anyway," Will informed Chester as the blue touchpaper refused to light. "Ah, I've got it," he announced as the flame finally took.
    He and Chester crawled back from the rocket, watching in expectation.
    With a whoosh, the rocket blasted off, but before it had gone any distance it veered sharply towards the side of the Pore. The shelf over their heads made it impossible for them to see how far it had gone. There was a bang, then the vaguest suggestion of a red glow around the Pore.
    "Useless!" Will exclaimed. "I hope we do better with this one."
    He managed to light it almost straight away, and it shot up into the darkness, climbing higher and higher so that the boys had to crane their heads back to follow its progress.
    It was just like watching a rocket soar into the night sky on the Earth's surface. It had gone many hundreds of meters when it went off with a thunderclap bang, and livid colors cut into the pitch black. Red, white and blue starbursts appeared one after the other, affording the boys brief glimpses of the sides of the Pore way up above, the stark flashes of light revealing what could have been many more fungal outcrops projecting from its walls. As the veil of darkness returned to swamp everything, the echoes from the explosion ebbed for several seconds, then all the boys could hear was the occasional howl of the wind and the soft pattering of water again.
    Will flipped down the lens on his headset and turned to Chester. The boy looked crestfallen, as if the bright moment of excitement had brought home how incredibly far down in the Earth they were, and just how serious their situation was. Will patted him on the shoulder. "Come on, you never know... somebody up there might have seen it."

    * * * * *

    Alerted by the first rocket, the Rebecca twins were slowly making their way to the edge of the small fungal shelf on which they'd landed. Dressed identically in the dun-colored camouflage jackets of the Limiters, the only thing to differentiate them was that one was hobbling and being helped along by the other as they went.
    "Fireworks?" the lame twin said, and they both came to a stop on the lip of the ledge. They peered up into the darkness, trying to see more. A minute later the second rocket exploded not far above their heads.
    "Yes, fireworks," the lame twin concluded. For a few moments they both listened, staring up into the Pore for any further activity. There was nothing. "There's only one person stupid enough to do that."
    "Yes, th ubtle... really th ubtle," the other twin agreed. "Our dear brother has th ent u th an invitation, and he'll live to regret it."
    They laughed, but then the lame twin swung round to her sister, all trace of merriment vanishing from her face.
    "You sound bloody ridiculous! What's wrong with you?" she said, without a trace of sympathy in her voice. "You're lisping."
    Her sister immediately touched her mouth. "Think I've broken th ome teeth."
    "Take your hand away and let me see," the lame sister ordered, shining the lantern into her sister's face. "Yes, your upper incisors have snapped off," she observed impassively.
    Her sister ran a finger over the two stumps. "I must've knocked them on the way down," she said in annoyance. "I'll get them th een to when we're Topsoil again."
    " If ," the lame twin said poignantly. "And what's up with your arm?"
    "I think it's been pulled out of its th ocket. You need to fix it."
    "No problem. Let me get this out of the way first," she said. She took the scythe from her sister, who was holding it in the arm that hung limply by her side. For a moment the lame twin contemplated the evil-looking weapon; some fifteen centimeters in length, its highly polished surface was slick with fungus oil, so that the light reflecting from it had a grayish hue. Quite unexpectedly, she put the blade to her lips and kissed it.
    "You little darling," she said affectionately, showing her gratitude to the weapon, which was the only reason she and her sister weren't still plummeting down the Pore. The lisping twin had managed to lash out with it as they had been falling. Although they had been going so fast the scythe had sliced clean through the fungus, it had been enough to deflect their course towards the outcrop below.
    The quick-thinking maneuver had saved them, but it was not without its cost -- the lisping girl's arm had had to bear not just her weight but her sister's too, so the force on it had been considerable.
    But the lame