Alice turned off the engine near the gate and let her blue Daihatsu coast quietly into the reserve. The tyres made a faint scrunching sound on the gravel as the car rolled to a stop. There was no one else about.
The caravan’s windows were closed, the awning zipped up tight. They weren’t back from their walk yet. Good. But they might return at any time. Fantail Falls was several hours south, and they’d left early. The walk ran along a coastal track that started just beyond the crater. The bare, blasted ground would make it easy to see them returning. She kept one eye out as she moved across the campground to the patch of bush where Eric said they’d seen the mice.
‘Hello ...?’ She cleared her throat and addressed the trees and ferns. ‘Hello visitors. My name is Alice. Welcome to Earth!’
A faint breeze stirred the undergrowth.
‘Look, we don’t have much time. The others could be back at any moment. I know what they tried to do to you and what happened to your ship, and I know what this looks like,’ she held up the birdcage she was carrying, ‘but you have to trust me. I’m a friend and I really want to help.’
She set the cage behind some ferns at the edge of a clearing.
‘I don’t think the others know you survived the explosion yet, but when they find out, they’re going to start searching for you. Thoroughly. They’ve probably got all sorts of radar and stuff, so we have to get you away from here. Then we can work out what to do next.’
She crumbled half a muesli bar in front of the open cage door, put the rest inside and backed away.
‘There’s food and water and a place to rest in here. I think you’ll find it very comfortable. And safe.’
There was a cardboard box on one side of the cage. She’d lined it with cotton wool and straw.
‘There must be all sorts of hazards out there for mice — and that’s without Albert and the children.’ She glanced back across the waste ground. ‘But I expect you’ll want to think about it first. Discuss it amongst yourselves. Please do. But please hurry too. I can only give you half an hour. I’ll keep watch while you decide. If I see the others coming back, I’ll try to delay them.
‘When I return, I’ll take the cage with me. If you’re inside, I’ll take you to safety. If you’re not, I’ll assume that you have other plans. OK?’
There was no reply from the bush, not even a bird call.
‘OK,’ Alice said to herself and headed off.
* * *
A rush of air, choking dust, and Norman Smith were Coral’s last impressions. For a moment, she thought she was dead. She railed against the thought of being buried with him sprawled on top of her. What would future archaeologists think? Then he stirred and coughed and rolled aside. Coral struggled to her feet.
Ahead of them, lit by his own torch, Ludokrus was shaking off dust and grit. He looked dazed. ‘What happen?’
‘I’ll tell you what happened,’ Norman said. ‘You came rushing in here like an idiot, she followed you, then the Sentinels set off a landslide.’
Coral recalled a shove from behind, driving her forward, away from the crashing debris. ‘Does that mean ... you just saved my life?’
‘Yeah, whatever,’ Norman said, striding off into the darkness. ‘Not that it’ll make much difference now.’
Ludokrus played his torch over the jumble of rocks behind them. The first five metres of the mineshaft was gone.
‘What do you mean it won’t make much difference?’ Coral called.
‘Do you see any other way out?’ Norman’s voice echoed back.
They followed him down the shaft, catching up with him at the far end, adding their torch beams to the light of his.
‘See? I told you there was nothing here.’
‘But—’
‘And don’t forget, I still have this.’ He held up the receiver. ‘If Tim was anywhere nearby it would have picked him up.’
‘But we heard—’
‘Recordings,’ Norman said.
‘What?’
‘Do you still not get it? The Sentinels played recordings of Alkemy and Tim to lure us in here. Then they set off that landslide.’
‘Recordings?’ Coral said. ‘But that must mean—’
‘Yeah, obviously. They’ve already got the others.’
* * *
A metal grille blocked the end of the passage. Solid steel. Thick vertical bars ten centimetres apart. Too narrow to squeeze through. Like the bars on a prison cell.
‘Just like the others,’ Tim said, giving it a shake. It didn’t budge.
‘That make three in row,’ Alkemy said. ‘Maybe fourth time is lucky.’
‘I hope so.’
They sloshed their way back to the junction then headed off down the rightmost passage, the only one still unexplored.
It began like all the others, curving and snaking, seemingly at random. The tunnels were monotonous and the pinkish half-light made him feel sleepy, but the source of it was interesting. It came from strands behind the glassy surface of the walls. They seemed too random and organic to be light fittings. Tim guessed they were some sort of alien glowworm.
Up ahead, Alkemy paused at the next bend and let out a sigh.
‘Don’t tell me. Another grille.’
She shook her head and stood staring as he came up behind her.
‘Oh wow!’
The tunnel opened out into a cathedral-sized cleft in the rock where jagged sloping walls rose to a point high above them. The filament-worms had colonised the entire space, clustering so densely near the top that it seemed as though it was lit by a ribbon of light. The rough walls shimmered and glowed. Except for a U-shaped channel etched into the floor — a continuation of the passage they were standing in — the formation looked entirely natural.
They stood entranced, staring up at the magical light show.
‘Is beautiful,’ Alkemy said.
Tim looked about in wonder as they moved slowly through it. ‘To think, this is buried under that barren valley. Amazing!’
‘The little worm go everywhere except for here.’ Alkemy stopped at a seam of whitish-yellow crystals different from the surrounding rocks. The U-shaped channel skirted round it too, doubling back on itself to avoid it, leaving a drab grey island in a wilderness of pink. Tim picked at the outcrop as they passed and broke off a couple of pieces. It was dry and crumbled easily. He wondered what it was.
They followed the channel to the other side of the fissure. There the circular tunnel began again. Five minutes later, they came to a Y-junction. The passage to the left was barred — Tim tested the grille, but it was fixed solid — and they moved on. After another bend, they found an unusually straight section that ended at yet another grille.
Tim stopped and slumped against the curved wall. ‘That’s it. This really is a dead-end. There’s no way out of here.’
‘The Sentinel must pass,’ Alkemy said.
‘Yeah, but they must carry remote controls or something.’
Alkemy pressed on, seeing it through to the bitter end. He watched her test the grille then turn to one side and examine a section of the wall that was lost in shadow. That was unusual. Everywhere else the light was boringly uniform. He roused himself and sloshed after her.
‘Must be fresh,’ she said, taking out her torch. ‘The glow-strands do not grow here yet.’
This section of tunnel had been widened and there was a trough cut in the floor filled with a milky-looking liquid. Tim knelt and touched a finger to the cloudy surface. It had a consistency like custard and gave off a faint vinegary smell. He rubbed a little between his thumb and forefinger. It felt slimy and unpleasant and stuck to his skin, and after a few seconds he felt it burning. The pain grew sharply and he spun round and doused his fingers in the water in the bottom of the tunnel. He ran them back and forth till the stinging subsided, then took out his hand and studied the tips of his fingers. The skin was red and tender.
‘Wonder what that is,’ he said. ‘Like some sort of acid. Maybe we could use it to eat through the bars.’
He looked up to find Alkemy staring past him, her face frozen in shock.
Following the direction of her gaze, he saw a Sentinel watching them, its bulk filling the tunnel they’d just passed through.
‘Where the hell did that come from?’ he said, then remembered the Y-junction further back.
A movement to his right caught his attention. He turned to find a second Sentinel pressed against the grille at the end of the straight section of tunnel. As he watched, it pressed harder. The metal bars made indentations in its slimy surface. Then all at once it oozed around and through them, reforming on the other side before slithering straight towards them.