Tunnels 03, Freefall

her!" he cried.
    Chester's voice was cold and low. "Yeah, that's right. Too bloody right."
    "But--" Will began.
    "But what? You weren't in the Hold. You didn't go through what I did," he said. He jabbed his finger at the Rebecca twin. That little tramp was there when they were beating me! And she beat me, too. She was laughing like it was all some big joke." He glared at the girl. "Well, I've got a punch line I'd really like to try on her!"
    Will pulled himself up to his full height. "We can't just kill her, not here, and not like this. She might be telling the--"
    "The truth? That it wasn't her, it was all her sister?" Chester interrupted. "Come on, Will, get real. They're both exactly the same, they're both evil. What about Cal, Tam, your granny? Are you forgetting that these psychos slaughtered them? And what about all the other people they killed? She has to die."
    "I'm not going to let you do it," Will said. Releasing the magazine from the rifle and working the bolt to make sure the chamber was empty, he threw the weapon back to Chester. "Not in cold blood."
    "Why not?" Chester rasped. "You're with me on this, aren't you, Martha?"
    Martha nodded. "All the way. You need to finish her," she urged Will.
    "No," Will said, his voice breaking with the strain of the confrontation. "No. We're not like them. Killing her makes us just like them."
    Chester fixed Will with a stony glare, then spat at the Styx girl before he stomped off back inside the barricade.
    Martha stood motionless, holding her crossbow as if she was thinking about re-cocking it. "So," she said to Will, "let me get this straight. This is one of the twins you spoke about, one of the fakes who pretended to be your sister and has done everything she can to make your life a living hell... to hunt you down and kill you. And you're prepared to let her off scot-free?"
    Will ran his hand over his long white hair several times, as if he was at a complete loss as to how to answer. "I... I really don't know, but... but we should hear what she has to say."
    Martha shook her head, and smiled sourly. "Make me a promise, Will."
    "What?"
    "Let her say her bit -- and after you've heard all her lies -- you'll bring her back out here again, and finish her off yourself?"
    "I... I..." Will stuttered.
    "This is how it starts." Martha suddenly looked extremely weary, her head drooping. "The Black Heads worm their way in and before you know it, you'll wake up with one of the bastards standing over you with a knife." She took a deep breath and stared hard into Will's eyes. "I hope you know what you're doing, dearie."
    Will looked confused. "No, I don't. I really don't," he admitted. He heard the Styx girl's sobs and turned to where she lay. "Get up, Rebecca or whatever your name is. You're coming with us."
    The girl didn't move.
    "I said get up! "
    She scrambled to her feet, shaking with fear, her large frightened eyes on Will.
    "Martha?" Will said.
    "Yes," she answered, her scornful gaze burning into the pitiful Styx girl.
    "I found some leg irons in the stuff Nathaniel brought back from the galleon."
    "Now you're talking," Martha snarled, seizing Rebecca's arm and twisting it behind her back. Then she shoved her roughly through the doorway and towards the shack.
    Will paused for a moment to search the darkness outside before he shut and locked the door of the barricade.
    Unseen by him, a Limiter slipped away, his mission accomplished. He swung his makeshift spear in front of him, ready to dispatch any further spiders unlucky enough to cross his path. "Child's play," he said in a gravelly voice as he sped down the tunnel to rendezvous with his comrade. This may have been because he already knew the lie of the land as well as he knew the lattice of scars on the back of his hand, or because the spiders and the other fauna he'd encountered so far were so easily dealt with, it just wasn't true.

13

    Chester came out onto the porch holding a mug. He lowered himself into the empty chair next to Will and made a long 'humph' noise as he crossed his legs.
    "All right?" Will inquired tentatively.
    "S'pose," Chester mumbled in reply, not looking at his friend. "Will... it's..." he began, throwing him a brief glance before taking a large sip from his mug.
    "What?" Will responded, knowing only too well what was coming.
    Chester's drink was evidently much hotter than he'd been expecting, and he had to take a couple of rapid breaths to cool his mouth before he could answer. When he did,