Tunnels 06 - Terminal

swivelled back round towards them, its head jerking in the twitchy movement reminiscent of reptiles.
    It sniffed at Elliott again. Then, for the longest time, it seemed to be just poised there, observing her and Will.
    Will couldn’t tell if Elliott’s plan was working and the creature was confused, or if it was about to lurch at them and claw them both apart. It was rather like trying to divine the emotions of a heavy statue that was about to tip over and crush you.
    Will could feel Elliott’s heart pounding against his, and her blood dripping down his face. His eye with the lens was protected, but the other one wasn’t, and some of her blood had run straight into it. It made him desperate to blink, but he couldn’t.
    Then, with another loud creak, the Armagi shot over to the wooden stairs, and disappeared up them.
    Only now did Will dare to release his breath. ‘They’ve gone,’ he whispered barely audibly, blinking his eye a few times.
    Elliott didn’t respond for a moment, then she replied equally as quietly, ‘We have to get out. Now.’
    She moved back from him, and together they tiptoed along the corridor, then down the stairs and out through the front door. Once in the open, they clambered over the low wall at the front of the house, and kept going through several more drives until they’d reached one with thick undergrowth, where they could hide and catch their breath.
    Will saw Elliott trying to move her hand and wincing at the pain. From a pocket of his coat he took out one of David’s handkerchiefs that he’d helped himself to, and gently bound her palm. Then he just held her in his arms.
    Eventually, as he began to relax, Will said, ‘Well, that was quite something.’ He blew out through his lips at the sheer understatement, his relief so great that he wanted to laugh. But he didn’t. ‘At least we know what an Armagi looks like now.’
    Elliott mumbled something, but Will didn’t catch it. ‘And I don’t know quite how you knew to do that back there – that trick with your blood,’ he added.
    She remained silent.
    ‘But thank you,’ he said.

    As Drake lay on the ground, with his eyes closed, Jiggs was scanning the distant motorway through his binoculars. ‘There are a couple of lorries on the hard shoulder … then we’ve got an army transporter, and some cars in a small pile-up … but sod all is moving.’
    As the horses grazed, one of them snorted loudly. Drake copied it, then said, ‘So if we swapped the horses for a car, we could be there in under an hour. If only those pesky Armagi didn’t have a thing for engines.’
    The horse snorted again.
    ‘That’s about it,’ Jiggs agreed. ‘If you’re finding this too much, we can drop the idea of going to London. What the hell we’re going to run into when we reach the outskirts is anyone’s guess. Wall-to-wall Armagi? Are we really going to fight our way into the centre? And for what?’
    ‘To find someone with a satphone, or where some military is holed up?’
    ‘If anyone’s actually left,’ Jiggs countered.
    ‘Someone has to be …’ Drake groaned as he sat up. One of the dressings on his head had come loose and was flapping in the breeze. He tugged it off, examining the stains on it with distaste. ‘This isn’t getting any better.’
    ‘It’s a radiation burn. It takes time to heal,’ Jiggs said.
    ‘Tell it that if it doesn’t get a move on, there won’t be any point,’ Drake said, then turned to Jiggs as something occurred to him. ‘We’ve just left Cambridgeshire and we’re in Essex now – is that right?’
    Jiggs nodded.
    ‘I’ve got a suggestion. Remember that hush-hush underground train my father took us on, that got us all the way into London? The one that the government built during the Cold War, so they could save their hides if Russia attacked?’
    ‘Yes, of course I do. It went as far as the BT Tower. I was on that train with you,’ Jiggs said with a wry smile.
    ‘Oh, yes, I forgot. The invisible man,’ Drake replied. ‘So, tell me, approximately how far is the station from here?’
    ‘Fifteen miles,’ Jiggs said. ‘But there’s no electricity so the train won’t be able to run.’
    ‘Of course not, but how about if we ride the gee-gees like the clappers over there, then use the tunnel? We can take it all the way in, on foot,’ Drake proposed. ‘Sure beats being strafed by Armagi when we hit the ’burbs.’
    Without a further word, they got back on their horses and began