Tunnels 04, Closer

eye-for-an-eye, a tooth-for-a-tooth, and all that jazz," she said, then drew in a breath as if she was wildly excited about something and didn't want it to be over too soon.
    "What are you yapping on about?" Will said, struggling against the Limiters' grip and trying to get an arm free so he could deal with the girl before him.
    "I'm telling you this so you won't be surprised that I'm going to collect from you now, with interest," she went on.
    "As I said -- boring," Will muttered.
    "Knock yourself out, Coxy," she announced abruptly, then simply smiled at Will.
    He noticed someone had appeared beside her. He's seen the unnerving face before in the Deeps, with its pupil-less eyes and multiple growths. "Tom Cox?" he gasped.
    "One and the same," the distorted voice concurred. Then Cox slid toward Will, slashing a scythe down the side of the boy's bare stomach.
    It may have been a superficial wound, precisely inflicted so as not to cause too much damage to him, but the pain was still excruciating. Will screamed until his breath ran out.
    "A little taste of what's in store for you, dear brother," Rebecca One laughed, leaning in toward him. "Does it hurt? I hope so. Imagine that, but a million times worse, and you'll know what I went through when you shot me."
    The sweat was streaming down Will's face as the Limiters continued to hold him tightly. "You... you..." he began, but unable to find a word strong enough to express his hatred for her, he instead spat in his former sister's face.
    "Lively one, ain't 'e" Cox said, licking Will's blood from the highly polished blade of the scythe. Some of it ran on his blackened and cracked lips, the crimson beads sparkling in the intense sunlight. "Do you want me to cut 'is tongue out for that?" he offered.
    As she wiped Will's saliva from her face with a sleeve, Rebecca One considered this. "No, maybe later. We need him to talk to us first," she said, then beckoned to her sister to bring Dr. Burrows over.
    "Will, you're bleeding! What have they done to you?" he burst out as he was allowed to approach his son. Unlike Will, he wasn't being restrained by Limiters, but was being held at gunpoint by the second Styx girl, who was armed with a New Germanian pistol.
    Will saw his father was still hugging his journal as if his life depended on it. "I'm all right, Dad," he replied grimly.
    "Hey, bro', Rebecca Two greeted him as she stepped around Dr. Burrows. "Want to make life easier for us all and tell me what you've done with our Dominion vials? Dr. Buckwheat here knows nothing about them -- he's such a bad liar. I actually believe he's telling the truth. So does Elliott have them?"
    "Elliott who?" Will snarled back at her.
    "Why don't you give us our vials back, and we'll leave you alone with your silly old stones and the tree men, who obviously don't want you either?"
    Dr. Burrows opened his mouth as if he was about to speak, but Will interrupted him.
    "Yeah, so you'll let us go? Do you really think I'm going to swallow that? Yet another lie?" he said, rolling his eyes a the sky.
    "Okay. So we'll do it the hard way. Suits me," Rebecca One said coldly. "I'm going to enjoy every minute of this."
    Weighing the scythe in his shriveled hand, Cox edged closer to Will.
    "Not quite yet, Coxy," Rebecca One told him. "By the way, I've got some news for you. Your mate Drake tried to pull a stunt on Highfield Common. So we wiped out his whole team."
    "He's dead?" Will asked in a low voice. "No, you're just lying again."
    "Does Leatherman mean anything to you?" Rebecca One shot back, winking at Will as she let the name sink in. "And we're told there's a new addition to the Colony -- a slimmed-down cabbage."
    "Celia the Cabbage," Rebecca Two chimed in.
    "Mum?" Will said.
    "My wife?" Dr. Burrows mumbled, slow to pick up on what he was hearing. "What's happened to her?"
    "As if you care," Rebecca Two replied coldly. "We're told she attempted to resist during her interrogation. The Dark Light messed her up badly."
    "Really badly," Rebecca One tittered. "In fact, sliced cabbage would be a better description -- remember, Will, like the stuff in those gross kebabs we used to pick up from the local take-away and feed you for supper, back in the good old Highfield days."
    "Sauerkraut, even," Rebecca Two suggested as she thought of it.
    "Better keep it down," her sister advised her. "These New Geraniums might think you're talking about them."
    "New Geraniums?" Dr. Burrows asked, looking down at the parked