Tunnels 04, Closer

was knocking against the wall and making a hollow metallic sound, like a bell being rung far out at sea.
    But there was another sound -- a steady tap tap . Chester spotted an empty Diet Coke can bumping against the oil drum. He stared at it, transfixed by its red and silver markings - so clear and clean and modern -- and his spirits soared. The Coke can was unmistakably from the surface, and to him it represented something from his own world. Chester wondered if perhaps Will had discarded it here when he and Dr. Burrows had come back to this underground harbor, just prior to making their return journey down to the fallout shelter. He liked the idea that it was a connection to his friend.
    Martha noticed Chester had stopped to stare at the can, and grunted at him to get a move on. It meant nothing to her. They passed through a doorway and into the room beyond, which was lined with lockers. Exactly where Will had said it would be, they found the ladder in a small adjoining room that would allow them to climb the short distance to the surface. Martha tested a few of the treads set into the concrete wall, then, moving sluggishly, she began up it.
    Am I really, there? I can't believe it! Chester thought, as Martha led the way to the light. Although he was shielding his eyes, the brilliance of the sky was too much for him, and he tumbled blindly out of the hatch. He dropped on to all fours, crawling behind a clump of brambles where Martha had already installed herself. They both remained hidden there as, little by little, Chester's sight adjusted to the daylight. Conditions weren't even that bright -- it was late on a dreary afternoon, the sky crowded with clouds.
    "Here we are then, my dearie," Martha said conversationally.
    If the was Chester's big moment, the moment he returned home from deep within the Earth, after more months than he cared to remember and after everything he'd had to endure, then it was a crashing anticlimax. To say the least.
    "The land of evil Topsoilers," Martha added in a disparaging tone. Chester watched as she wound a grimy scarf around her head, leaving only a slit for her eyes. As she tried to peer at him, Chester realized that it was going to take her a good while to get used to the light.
    An idea sprang into his head.
    I could ditch her!
    She he run away? While her vision was still impaired, she'd find it difficult to catch up with him. Now's your chance , he told himself, as she gave a full-bodied sniff. The snot in her nostrils rattled, and she lifted a section of her scarf and began to squeeze each of them in turn, exactly as if she was attempting to coax the last bit of toothpaste from the tube.
    Chester recalled the moment when he, Will and Cal had first arrived at the Miners' Station in the Deeps, and he had done something similarly disgusting. Well, it had disgusted Will, anyway. It made him think again of his friend and all the times they'd had together -- good and bad -- and Chester realized he couldn't be angry with him any more. He had no idea if Will had survived the leap into the pore called Smoking Jean as he'd followed his father down it. Or indeed if Elliott had survived, as she'd chosen to go the same way.
    Chester shuddered.
    They'd all gone and perhaps they were dead and that was the last he would ever see of them.
    Or perhaps they were continuing the great adventure that he and Will had embarked on that day in the basement of the Burrows' house, when they'd set off down a tunnel. Chester realized that he'd described it in his mind as an adventure , and felt a pang that he could be missing out right now.
    He thought of the three of them doing extraordinary things... Will, Dr. Burrows and Elliott... Elliott... Elliott ... He visualized her with such clarity she could have been standing right in front of him... just as she'd been at the moment she'd drunk the fluid from the wolf's eyeball... he saw her mischievous, teasing smile as she'd turned to him and suggested he try it too. Chester had nothing but admiration for her -- she'd kept them alive with her incredible skills. But, above all else, it was that smile which persisted in his mind's eye, filling him with such a feeling of loss and exclusion.
    Chester sighed, reminding himself he head to be better off up here on the surface. He'd had more than enough brushes with death to last anyone for several lifetimes... it had to be safer up here.
    At least that was what he tried to tell himself as Martha managed to coax a grey