Tunnels 06 - Terminal

seeing a ghost. The Hunter sniffed inquisitively at him, then put his snout down and began to scamper around the room. The animal was clearly detecting all sorts of new and interesting Topsoil smells that he hadn’t encountered before.
    ‘Not quite,’ Mrs Burrows said, as she entered the room with the First Officer in tow. ‘But it is one of his kittens.’
    ‘Kitten? He’s huge!’ Will said, beaming at his mother. He was delighted to see her after what felt so long.
    ‘And how’s my son doing?’ Mrs Burrows came over to Will and gave him a hug. ‘Jiggs said you’re mending well after your op.’
    ‘Yes, we hear you’ve had the battle of your lives up here,’ the First Officer said, taking Will’s hand in his huge ham of a fist and shaking it.
    Bartleby Kitten, or just Bartleby, as the First Officer called him because it was easier, immediately took to Will and climbed up on his bed. The Hunter obviously wanted to play, as he rolled on his back and began to cuff Will with his oversized paws.
    ‘God, it really could be Bartleby,’ Will said. ‘He looks identical.’ The cat had noticed the translucent tubes poking out from under Will’s blanket and was chewing on one of them. ‘No, not that!’ Will told the cat quickly, trying to push him away.
    Mrs Burrows ushered the kitten off the bed, then began to chat to Will, telling him about how she and the First Officer were spending all their time up in Highfield, where many of the Colonists were helping with a clean-up operation, and where many of them had already chosen to relocate. ‘The ironic thing is that – in a roundabout way – the prophecieswritten in the Book of Catastrophes have come true,’ Mrs Burrows told Will. ‘The Colonists have got the surface to themselves again. There’s an empty town just waiting for those who want to go Topsoil. Because there’s nobody left alive in Highfield.’
    ‘Nobody at all? They’re all dead?’ Will asked quietly.
    There was a knock at the door and Parry entered.
    ‘You’re looking better, my lad,’ he said, before asking Mrs Burrows and the First Officer if they would mind giving him some time to speak alone with Will.
    ‘They’ve set up a makeshift canteen on the ground floor,’ Parry suggested. ‘If you ask at reception, they’ll tell you where it is.’
    ‘Don’t worry, I think I can find it,’ Mrs Burrows replied, tapping her nose as she winked at Will. She and the First Officer shuffled out, leaving Bartleby asleep on Will’s bed, his legs in the air.
    ‘Jiggs told me that you’re Prime Minister now,’ Will said, giving Parry a smile. ‘Does that mean I have to call you sir or something?’
    Parry raised his eyebrows. ‘Hardly – and when did you ever show me any respect anyway?’ He gave a shrug. ‘Besides, I’m only PM for just as long as it takes them to find someone from the old Cabinet to do the job.’
    Parry glanced through the window as another helicopter came into land. ‘The emergency aid is starting to arrive from the international community now that the risk has been removed,’ he said.
    ‘Has it, though?’ Will asked. ‘Is it true that not a single Styx has been left Topsoil, or anyone who had any Styx blood in them, like Elliott?’
    Parry’s expression turned sad and for a second he looked away. ‘Yes, it’s true. There’s not one of them left, so I suppose we won in the end, but we lost some good people in the process,’ he said. ‘Elliott, of course, but also Eddie and his team.’ Parry sighed. ‘And then there’s what happened to Chester …’
    ‘And Drake … I’m so sorry about Drake,’ Will said quietly, as he realised he needed to say something about Parry’s son to him. And Will also didn’t feel strong enough yet to think about the loss of his friend.
    ‘Thank you.’ Parry nodded, then fixed him with a stare. ‘Will, unfortunately I’m not just here to see how you are. I also need to debrief you. There are still some gaps in what we know, and I need to hear your version of events.’
    ‘That does sound official,’ Will said.
    ‘I’m afraid it is, and I’ll need a full statement from you in due course. You see there’s actually an international inquiry under way, not least because several of the world nations are accusing us of unauthorised subterranean atomic testing. They’re suggesting that’s why a tremor was felt around the world, and also where the Armagi, apparently a mutant species that was created due to