Robin got to Standedge just as the sun disappeared. He crossed the bridge so he was on the opposite side to the Visitor Centre and, without thinking, hopped the fence into the field that ran parallel. He turned his flashlight on and looked around, making his way across the field.
Sally and whoever had Sally were in the disused railway tunnel. And the only way to get inside would be the hole. He had a long walk ahead of him. There was a baa behind him, and he turned to see that inexplicably the sheep had followed him.
“Shoo,” he said.
They looked at each other and took more steps toward him.
He cursed at them and then turned his back on them, walking across the field and cresting another waist-high fence emerging from the trees that lined the field.
His feet crunched on gravel and he looked up to see that he was standing next to the Marsden entrance of the disused railway tunnel. It looked almost identical to the Diggle end, with the entire thing fenced off, a camera looking down at him and a concrete floor running along the fence.
He pointed his torch through to the tunnel but saw nothing in the immediate vicinity. He walked across the tunnel and started to crunch through the undergrowth that ran alongside it.
Another baa came out.
He whirled around, unreasonably angry. The two sheep were standing in front of the tunnel, looking through the fence. “Please, just go home. Go back to The Red Door.” The sheep looked at him blankly. “Go back to The Red Door. The. Red. Door.” And then he caught himself. “Jesus Christ, I’m talking to sheep.”
One of the sheep responded by taking a hoof and patting the fence. It squealed open.
Robin was taken aback. He crunched out of the undergrowth and up to the sheep. The fence’s padlock was lying on the ground, and there was a mound of something—dead leaves and wheat and other things. The sheep bent down and ate some.
That’s why the sheep had been following. Sally had been scattering food along the path. “Just in case I didn’t get the message, huh?” Robin said, and the sheep baa’d in agreement. “Who do you think she has more faith in?” he asked them.
The sheep looked at him. They all knew the answer.
Robin patted the sheep, stepping through the fence into the railway tunnel, shutting it tight so they couldn’t follow. They gave out their call again, and Robin nodded before turning into the tunnel and walking into darkness.