Tunnels 04, Closer Read Free

becoming louder, as if she was annoyed with him, or the situation she now found herself in.
    While her behavior was a general source of irritation for Chester, every so often another side to her would reveal itself. With very little warning, she would lose her temper and become thoroughly nasty. Chester found that he was really quite frightened on these occasions.
    "I don't know," he answered as civilly as he could manage, "but if Will said it's here, then it's here somewhere."
    They were checking between the single-story buildings, crude concrete structures. All of which lacked any glass in their windows. There was nothing to explain what the buildings had been used for -- they were unmarked except for numbers stenciled on them in white paint. There was something about the buildings that made Chester shiver. He wondered if at some time in the past soldiers had been billeted in them, living down here in the dark and the isolation. But now the buildings were empty except for rubble and pieces of twisted metal.
    As Martha began to breathe even more heavily, the prelude for another grumble, Chester's light fell on the opening he'd been searching for.
    "Aha! This is it!" he announced quickly, hoping it would silence the woman. "They had both regarded the passage that Will had opened up by removing a number of breeze blocks.
    "Yes," Martha said, without emotion.
    Chester got the sense she was disappointed. Raising her crossbow as if she expected trouble, she climbed through first. Chester didn't follow right away, shaking his head before going after her. On the other side, he found her feet were swilling through foul-smelling water, the stench becoming even more pronounced as their movement stirred it up.
    "Meh!" he scowled, consoling himself that at least he wasn't able to smell Martha any longer. He caught sight of some half-submerged wooden planking, then several rusty oil drums. One of these drums was empty and floating on its side. As the water around it was disturbed, it was knocking against the wall and making a hollow metallic sound, like a bell being rung far out at sea.
    But there was another sound -- a steady tap tap . Chester spotted an empty Diet Coke can bumping against the oil drum. He stared at it, transfixed by its red and silver markings - so clear and clean and modern -- and his spirits soared. The Coke can was unmistakably from the surface, and to him it represented something from his own world. Chester wondered if perhaps Will had discarded it here when he and Dr. Burrows had come back to this underground harbor, just prior to making their return journey down to the fallout shelter. He liked the idea that it was a connection to his friend.
    Martha noticed Chester had stopped to stare at the can, and grunted at him to get a move on. It meant nothing to her. They passed through a doorway and into the room beyond, which was lined with lockers. Exactly where Will had said it would be, they found the ladder in a small adjoining room that would allow them to climb the short distance to the surface. Martha tested a few of the treads set into the concrete wall, then, moving sluggishly, she began up it.
    Am I really, there? I can't believe it! Chester thought, as Martha led the way to the light. Although he was shielding his eyes, the brilliance of the sky was too much for him, and he tumbled blindly out of the hatch. He dropped on to all fours, crawling behind a clump of brambles where Martha had already installed herself. They both remained hidden there as, little by little, Chester's sight adjusted to the daylight. Conditions weren't even that bright -- it was late on a dreary afternoon, the sky crowded with clouds.
    "Here we are then, my dearie," Martha said conversationally.
    If the was Chester's big moment, the moment he returned home from deep within the Earth, after more months than he cared to remember and after everything he'd had to endure, then it was a crashing anticlimax. To say the least.
    "The land of