Tunnels 03, Freefall

of those creatures has been assimilated into our religious iconography, and has remained ingrained deep within our culture." He chuckled. "So Gabriel and Peter on either side of the Pearly Gates could actually be inspired by giant carnivorous insects."
    "Or arachnids," Will said.
    "Or arachnids," Dr. Burrows conceded, then didn't speak for a few seconds.
    "Look, Will, there's a lot I don't know about what's gone on. I mean it was a bolt out of the blue when I found out your sister was a Styx. And also that you're a Colonist. I really had no idea. And then that Rebecca had an identical twin -- well, good God!" He blew through his lips. "And maybe I'm not thinking straight because you're here... because you followed me underground when you should be back at home with your mother."
    "Except she's not my mother," Will mumbled, but Dr. Burrows either didn't catch the comment or chose to ignore it as he went on.
    "Exactly how you got all the way down here with Chester... well, I haven't the foggiest how you managed it. I never in a million years wanted you to be put in danger like this. You've probably had a tough time of it, just like I have, and I was wrong to say what I did back there. It was rash of me -- I made a snap judgment, without being in possession of all the facts."
    Will raised his head to look at his father, then gave him a single nod in acknowledgment. It was the closest Will was going to get to an apology, unless his father had changed dramatically in the past six months. In any case, Will wasn't going to bear a grudge, not when there were more pressing matters to deal with right now, such as trying to stay alive. "Things don't look great, Dad," he said. "We've got next to no food or water, and I haven't the faintest idea if this tunnel leads anywhere, and even if it does, which way we should go."
    "I'm afraid I'm not going to be of much help there," Dr. Burrows said. "I was brought here through miles of tunnels by Reb-- the Styx girl you called Rebecca Two, and the soldier. Couldn't find my way back to the Pore in a month of Sundays."
    "We're stuffed then," Will concluded.
    "Totally," Dr. Burrows agreed, but he didn't sound in the least downhearted. "So let's get ourselves unstuffed. On your feet, Will, there's no point in hanging around here." He came over to Will and gave his shoulder a squeeze. The Burrows family had never been very demonstrative or tactile in their emotions, so this small gesture was significant to Will.
    "Sure, Dad," he said, suddenly filled with optimism. This is how he imagined it would be with his father -- the two of them facing impossible situations and working together to overcome them. He immediately set about repacking his rucksack, and they began along the tunnel.
    The quickly found it wasn't so much a tunnel as an inclined seam, some forty meters across at its widest point. Then as they came to a small offshoot tunnel on their left, Will insisted they explore it. He was hoping it might meet up with the passage where Martha and the others had been heading. Will had gone no more than twenty meters into it when he spotted movements. Dark shapes were scuttling across the walls and roof, and wispy lengths of what could have been pieces of broken spider webs waved slowly in the breeze.
    "Spider-monkeys," Will warned his father in a whisper. These were smaller and obviously much younger versions , but Will wasn't going to take any chances. He took out the couple of sprigs of Aniseed Fire and the lighter he had ready in his pocket. As it was all he had, he refrained from lighting the Aniseed Fire, and the creatures didn't seem to be following as Will and his father backed out of the passage.
    "I reckon that lot were baby spiders -- that must by why they didn't go for us," Will said. As they returned to the inclined seam, he told his father how he'd seen these smaller spiders clinging to the Bright's abdomen when it had attacked him and Martha in the conning tower.
    "So either these smaller spiders are a subspecies of the larger ones, and maybe parasites on the Brights... or perhaps they are just infants, and eventually metamorphose into the flying creatures," Dr. Burrows speculated. "Like caterpillars into butterflies."
    "Yes," Will said, catching on to what his father was saying. "And these passages could be where the baby spiders grow up?" He looked around warily. "We could be on the nursery slopes?"
    "Quite right," Dr. Burrows confirmed. "This could very well be where all the