Tunnels 03, Freefall

rattled. "They had pills in them. At least they did until Martha sneaked them out of the trunks and buried them by the cavern wall. She buried them so I wouldn't find them." He glowered at Martha, who remained staring at her feet, then he suddenly clapped a hand to his forehead. "Of course, the stethoscope!" he cried. "It's recent, too, like the pills! Tam was trying to tell me! He told me to listen to my heart. He meant the stethoscope!"
    Chester was on his feet now, eyeing his friend with alarm. "Jesus, what are you saying, Will? Have you completely lost it? How can Tam have spoken to you? He's been dead for months."
    "Forget it -- that's not important," Wills said, his voice more controlled, although husky with anger. "What's important is antibiotics that we could have used on Elliott. And she hid them from us, Chester," Will said, facing the woman. "Why did you do that, Martha?"
    She remained silent, her head bowed.
    "Martha?" Chester mumbled, "Is this true?"
    Martha shuffled unsteadily to the chair at the head of the table and sank into it. She said nothing for a moment, sliding her thumb repeatedly in the palm of her other hand. When she spoke, her voice was barely audible.
    "When Nathaniel came back with... with cracked ribs... and the fever set in, he got worse and worse--"
    "Yeah, we know all that," Will interrupted, no longer able to feel much sympathy for the woman.
    "I told you he found a metal ship. It's about eight days away in the furthest of the Seven Sisters. While he..." she said, her voice petering out.
    "Yes," Will pressed her.
    "While he could still speak, he gave me directions so I could fetch some apothecaries' supplies from it."
    Will and Chester exchanged glances.
    "You mean medicines," Will said.
    "Yes, medicines," she confirmed timidly. "But it's a long journey and I strayed off track. I also lost some of the medicines when the Brights attacked. They nest by the ship and I only just made it out of there."
    "Brights?" Chester mouthed silently at Will, who just jerked his head in response.
    "Go on," Will urged her.
    "Nathaniel was dead by the time I came back," Martha sighed. "But even if I had been in time for him, I couldn't tell what the medicines do, or how to use them."
    "Yeah, but maybe Chester and I can," Will said sharply. "And you still haven't explained why you lied to us, Martha."
    "Because... because I didn't want you to get hurt. I couldn't lose either of you, not like I did Nathaniel. I couldn't go through that again," Martha croaked, on the verge of tears.
    Will pointed in the direction of Elliott's room. "In there, our friend is fighting for her life, and your lies might very well have killed her," he said, then he addressed Chester. "Okay, this is what we're going to do -- we're leaving right now for the metal ship ." He went over to where Martha had left her crossbow and snatched it up.
    Martha had seen what he'd done from the corner of her eye. The act in itself was significant enough -- he didn't need to add anything. She sighed. "I'm sorry, Will," she said. "I won't let you down again."
    "Chester, why don't you get Elliott ready," Will suggested. "Martha, I want you to pack up all the food you've got in the place."
    "I need to pick some Aniseed Fire from my garden," she said, rising slowly to her feet, then going to the front door. The boys watched her as she stopped halfway down the garden path and began to harvest her plants. As she lopped their stems, the vivid blue glow the Aniseed Fire emitted was instantly dulled, slowly fading away to nothing.
    "That was awful," Chester said. "But I can't believe she lied to us."
    They continued to watch the rather forlorn and lonely figure as she bent over her plants, dressed in her threadbare apron and her red, straggling hair flopping over her face.
    "Just a sad old lady," Will murmured. He pulled his shoulders back as if trying to put the whole episode behind him. "Why don't you try to read what was in the bottles," he said. "I'll get our kit ready, then we're making tracks."
    "And Rebecca?" Chester asked. "What do we do with her?"
    "Count me in -- I'd love to help," Rebecca said as she mounted the steps of the front porch and entered the room. Will immediately looked down at her ankles and saw that she'd removed her leg irons. "You know I'm really good at organizing things, don't you, Will?" she added gently.
    Shaking his head in disbelief, Will took a moment to answer. "So... so you could have escaped whenever you wanted. But