Tunnels 05 - Spiral

book in his lap. He didn’t look at her, pretending to be immersed in the story.
    Stephanie regarded him for a moment. He’d lost a lot of weight in the months they’d been in the cottage. And although there were some spectacular views from the cliffs where they were in Pembrokeshire, he never ventured out. The old Chester would have liked it there, probably going for long walks along the coastal paths.
    But not now. He didn’t want to talk to her or anyone else. There was no interest in anything any longer. He just wanted to be left alone with his grief.
    Stephanie turned and went back into the kitchen, where her grandfather was gutting the first of the rabbits.

    On the very top of the pyramid, deep in the jungle, Will was facing where he knew the city of New Germania lay.
    “I don’t ever want to go back there. Never again,” he said. “It was awful.”
    Elliott stepped beside him. “Don’t say that — we might need to fetch some more supplies.”
    But she, too, didn’t sound very happy about the prospect of a second expedition to collect canned foods and clothes from the silent shops. Together they’d walked the flyblown, deserted streets, the stench of the dead in their nostrils everywhere they went.
    “We have all we need right here,” Will insisted, lowering his gaze to their old base in the giant tree, where they were living again.
    A flock of bright blue parrots had gathered in the low branches beside it. They came every day, hoping for some scraps of food. Or maybe it was because not just all the humans and the Styx had been wiped out by the virus, but most of the mammalian species in the inner world, too, and they were simply seeking the company of other living beings.
    One of the parrots cawed noisily, as if it was complaining about having to wait for some leftovers.
    “I saw one of the bushmen this morning,” Will said.
    Elliott looked at him. With all the other predators eliminated from the inner world, the strange race of humanoids with their woody skin was the only thing that could pose a threat to them.
    “It wasn’t far from the spring. I was stepping over what I thought was a log on the ground, when I saw it had eyes. So it looks like they’re all dead, too.” Will sighed. “It’s just us and the birds and the fish left.”
    Elliott nodded. “Speaking of fish, guess what we’re having for lunch.”
    “Er . . . fish?” Will said, playing along with her.
    “No. Mangoes,” she replied, laughing as he made a face. She fell silent for a moment. “You were looking for the Doc again, weren’t you?”
    Will believed that the Limiters had dumped his father’s body in the jungle somewhere close by, and was determined to find it. He and Elliott had already buried Colonel Bismarck and what was left of Sweeney’s body beside the spring.
    Without being aware he was doing it, Will turned to glance at the place on the top of the pyramid where his father had been gunned down by Rebecca Two.
    “Yes, I was,” Will confessed. “Even if Dad wasn’t who I thought he was, he has a right to a proper burial. I owe him that.”
    “And what about you?” Elliott asked suddenly. “What if, all those years ago in Highfield, the Styx used their Dark Light on you, and turned you into someone else . . . someone that I fell in love with?”
    “What?” Will said quickly, turning to her.
    “You heard,” she said softly, putting her arms around him.
    And he did the same, holding her tight.

“E mma, I’m sorry it didn’t work out for you,” Rebecca Two said, holding the door open for the long-limbed girl with tawny hair.
    “So am I,” Emma replied, the regret evident in her eyes.
    An hour earlier she’d been in the sauna with Alex, the heat turned up as a Darklit human was thrown at her feet. It had been the masseur who had worked at the health farm, a choice specimen with his highly muscled body.
    But, despite the proximity to Alex, Emma hadn’t changed. She’d experienced the shooting pains across her shoulders and the gagging sensation in her throat where her as-yet-undeveloped egg tube nestled, but that had been it.
    She hadn’t been induced because, quite simply, she wasn’t ready for the Phase yet.
    “Don’t be a stranger,” Rebecca Two said as Emma made her way to the waiting car. The girl was crestfallen and didn’t answer, just took her seat in the vehicle. She’d go back to the elite girls’ private school as if nothing had happened, and neither would her Topsoiler