Tunnels 06 - Terminal

something hard. The jolt made them drop their Bergens and their weapons.
    It was pitch black and bitterly cold.
    Will immediately reached out for Elliott and found her on the ground beside him.
    ‘You okay?’ he asked.
    ‘Yes,’ Elliott replied, then pointed to her helmet. ‘Is it safe to take this off now?’
    ‘S’pose so. We’re going to have to, sooner or later, because the air will run out. And if we’ve got the decontamination wrong, then …’ he trailed off. He released the seal around his neck and removed the plastic helmet from his head. Elliott followed his example, and they both took their first breaths, drawing the freezing night air down into their lungs.
    ‘Brrrr,’ Elliott exhaled, her teeth already beginning to chatter.
    It hit them both right then just how unprepared they were for conditions like this after the tropical climate of the inner world. And it was exacerbated because not only were their thin plastic suits little protection against the cold, but theywere both still damp from the decontamination process.
    ‘We didn’t bring any proper clothes with us,’ Elliott realised.
    ‘We didn’t think this through,’ Will agreed.
    Their voices sounded small and there was no echo. Wherever they’d arrived, they were definitely out in the open.
    ‘At least we’re still alive! We made it!’ Will declared, as it sank in that they had survived the journey through the shimmering portal.
    Elliott was more subdued, as if she’d expected nothing less. ‘Yes, great, but where exactly are we?’ Rising to her feet, she used her rifle scope to look around. ‘Trees? All I can see are trees,’ she said. ‘And I feel really sick,’ she added with a moan, sitting back down on the ground again as she clutched her stomach.
    Will had opened up his Bergen and was rummaging through it, but stopped what he was doing as the nausea also gripped him. ‘Me too. I suddenly feel really awful,’ he said. He lowered his head, then brought it up again quickly, at the same time burping at great volume. ‘Ah, that did the trick.’ He turned to Elliott in the darkness. ‘You try it.’
    ‘What? Burp?’
    ‘Yes, go on. Must be a build-up of air, because of the change in pressure or something.’
    ‘Well … okay.’ There was a pause as she inhaled and held her breath, then she let it out in the most almighty belch – far louder than Will’s – which reverberated around the trees. ‘That is better,’ she said.
    ‘Very ladylike,’ Will chuckled, diving back into his Bergen to look for Drake’s light-intensifying lens. It had been redundant in the inner world with its constant daylight, but he’dstill carried it with him everywhere he went through force of habit.
    ‘Haven’t used this for a while. Hope it still works,’ he said, fitting the strap around his head and then hinging the lens down over his eye. As he flicked the switch on the small box that dangled by a cord from the unit, all he could see was the usual orange snowstorm before the view settled down. ‘Yes, trees – I’ve got them,’ he said, as he glanced around. ‘And is that a stream over there?’ he asked, indicating where the nettles and undergrowth parted and something glistened in the small amount of moonlight penetrating the thick cloud cover.
    But Elliott was busy peering through her scope in the opposite direction, surveying the short slope beside them as she tried to make out what lay at the top. ‘I wonder where we are?’ she asked.
    ‘It certainly doesn’t look like London. We must be in the country somewhere,’ Will said. ‘And before we freeze to death, we need to get out of this,’ he added, stamping his feet on the ground in an effort to keep himself warm.
    It was then that Elliott spotted the frosted tarmac of a path running up the incline. ‘What about up there?’ she suggested to Will.
    Gathering their equipment together, they began up the path, but Will suddenly stopped. ‘Just a moment.’ He returned to where they’d been, and had only been peering around the ground for a second or two before he stooped to pick something up. ‘I really hoped this would be here,’ he said, holding up his father’s compass.
    But then he also noticed something else about the spot they’d come through. ‘Hey, will you look at that! We made afairy ring,’ he laughed. Around him was a perfect circle, nearly six feet in diameter. Not only had the long grass been cut through by whatever force had transported