Tunnels 03, Freefall

to give them a wipe, careful not to dislodge the lenses from the twisted frame. But it didn't seem to help him see any better, and he gave up after a while. "What's wrong with me?" he was grumbling as he inspected the other tablets, discovering there were miniscule diagrams on them in addition to the writing.
    "Directions... could these be... directions?" he said, turning them this way and that. "Oh, I don't know," he exhaled, frustrated in his efforts to make any sense of them. He wrapped the tablets in a handkerchief and put them carefully in his pocket, then resumed his excavation of the skeleton. Other than a pair of very rotten leather sandals, there wasn't anything else of note.
    Getting up, he continued on his way again. As his feet stumbled over alternating stretches of fungus, bare rock and drifts of fine silt, he wondered if there were any other artifacts down there -- perhaps he would find something that would tie into the map on the tablets, if indeed it was a map of this place. As he kept his eyes open for any landmarks, he realized that the fungus might be obscuring them. Depending on how much it had grown over the intervening millennia, it might be concealing all manner of things. And he wondered if perhaps the poor soul whose skeleton he'd found was there because he or she landed at the wrong level in the Pore, and become lost. If that was the case, then Dr. Burrows was also in the wrong place, and so the map would be useless.
    He pulled up sharply as he remembered his own experience of tumbling down the Pore, and the complete and absolute terror as the darkness had opened before him and seemed to go on forever until he'd belly-flopped onto a fungal outcrop. He hadn't been badly injured, but the worst thing was that he was so ill prepared for any further exploration; his rucksack with all his food and water, his equipment and the journals he'd labored on for so long had all been left behind.
    He began to totter along the tunnel again, his stomach rumbling piteously. If it wasn't for the lower gravity, he knew he might not have sufficient strength left even to propel himself along. He'd been drinking from streams flowing down the tunnel walls, but he needed to eat something, and soon.
    Coming upon a large fissure, he looked down into it with a feeling of dread. "Always down... always down," he reminded himself, holding the luminescent orb before him in an attempt to see how deep it was. Having traveled this far into the Earth, he was damned if he was going to give up now. He was determined to search for more evidence of the ancient race, and if the skeleton was anything to go by, he might not be that far from what he sought. He did wonder at times if he'd eventually find a whole heap of skeletons, the final resting place of the misguided souls who perished in their pursuit of the 'Garden of the Second Sun' he'd learnt about in their crumbling temple.
    "Here's to a soft landing," he said, preparing himself to jump. He girded himself, then leapt into the center of the fissure, glimpsing tendrils of fungus on the walls and the different layers of rock on the way down. He landed with a splash in a small pool of water, bending his knees to absorb the impact and rolling onto his side.
    "Made it," he said, although he didn't sound particularly relieved.
    Now sopping wet, he pulled himself to his feet. It was then that he was beset by a wave of dizziness, and fell back to the ground again, unconscious.

    * * * * *

    "Dad! Dad! Dr. Burrows heard as someone dragged him from the pool. Whoever it was propped his head up and was making sure his glasses were seated properly.
    He opened his eyes and an image came into focus, then became hazy again.
    "Rebecca," he whispered feebly. "Dreaming... must be dreaming."
    "No, you're not, Dad. It's me."
    He forced his eyes to open fully, making the greatest effort to look at the person before him.
    "I must be delirious."
    "No, you're not. It's me," the Rebecca twin said again. She squeezed his hand hard. "There, see, I'm real."
    "Rebecca? What... what are you doing here?" he said, still not believing his eyes.
    "I heard you shouting," she replied.
    Then Dr. Burrows took in what she was wearing. "Limiter... Styx clothes?" He rubbed his forehead in confusion.
    "Yes, Dad, I am a Styx," she said without hesitation. "And you look like you could do with something to eat." She clicked her fingers and Dr. Burrows saw a figure step from the shadows.
    "A soldier?" Dr. Burrows