Tunnels 03, Freefall

arachnids are born -- their breeding grounds -- then they spread out through the rest of the tunnel system as they hunt for food."
    Twenty minutes of trudging up the incline brought them to another side passage, but again they discovered it was occupied by the smaller spiders.
    "How are we ever going to meet up with the others?" Will asked.
    "I don't know. I suppose we just carry on up the main haul instead," Dr. Burrows said, trying to sound positive about the situation.
    "But one of these might take us through to Martha and Chester," Will responded, wondering how much of a risk the smaller spider-monkeys really were. In the end he decided it wasn't worth blundering into one of the fully-grown ones or, worse still, a Bright, so they just stuck to the seam itself, climbing higher and higher.
    They swapped stories as they went. Will began to tell his father how he and Chester found his tunnel in the basement and how, by re-excavating it, they had eventually entered the Colony and been arrested. He spoke about the meeting with his biological father and brother, the moment he'd learnt that he'd been born in the Colony himself.
    "Rebecca told me that," Dr. Burrows said. At times Will found it painful to relate what had happened, occasionally lapsing into silence until he felt he was able to resume again. He talked about the Styx and how brutal they were.
    "I never saw that side of them," Dr. Burrows said categorically. "They didn't treat me badly. They let me go where I wanted. In fact, my worst experiences were at the hands of the Colonists, particularly in the Rookeries where I got a nasty beating from the thugs living in there. If the Styx are sometimes harsh, then it's probably for the good of the Colony with those sorts of malcontents around."
    "Harsh? Oh, get real, Dad!" Will said, raising his voice in exasperation. "The Styx are evil... they're murderers and torturers! Didn't you see what they were doing to the Coprolites and the renegades in the Deeps? They were killing them by the dozen."
    "No, I didn't. How do you know it was the Styx, and not simply a breakaway band of renegades? By all accounts they're a pretty lawless bunch."
    Will just shook his head.
    "You have to respect other cultures, and never attempt to judge them by your own values," Dr. Burrows said. "And don't forget you're the outsider -- it's their world you crashed into, uninvited. If they've treated you badly, then all I can say is you must have done something to offend them."
    Dr. Burrows' pronouncements rendered Will momentarily speechless. He made a series of 'pfuu' sounds, as if he was spitting feathers. "OFFEND THEM?" he managed to get out, in a furious croak, when he was finally able to speak again. "OFFEND THEM?" He took a deep breath to calm himself. "You're being a complete arse, Dad. Haven't you listened to a thing I've been telling you?"
    "Take it easy, Will," Dr. Burrows urged. "The way you're behaving is typical of all those times you rowed with your sister, and you'd suddenly flip your lid."
    "She wasn't my sister," Will countered angrily.
    But Dr. Burrows wanted to make his point. "You were always at each other's throats, constantly squabbling. Nothing changes, does it?"
    Will realized that it was futile trying to reason with his father, and decided the only way to convince him was to tell him the rest of the story. He related all the events in the Deeps while his father listened intently.
    "Deadly viruses, shootings and a mother you'd never known. That all makes for one hell of a tale," Dr. Burrows said, assuming his son had finished. But Will wasn't quite finished yet.
    "Dad, something's been bugging me ever since you left."
    "What's that?" Dr. Burrows said.
    "That night back in Highfield when you rushed out of the sitting room -- what were you arguing about with Mum?" he asked.
    "I tried to tell her what I was planning to do, but she didn't want to know... she was glued to something on the goggle box. Your mother's not an easy person at the best of times, and I have to confess my patience was wearing thin."
    "So what happened? Did you tell her where you were going?" Will asked.
    "Yes I did, as far as I knew myself. The only way I could get her attention was to switch the television off, so she'd listen to me. Then she really let fly on me."
    "You switched the telly off," Will said, then whistled expansively. That was one thing you never did to Mrs. Burrows. It was rather akin to breaking the first commandment in the Burrows'