"Did you let go? Even for a moment?"
"I… I don't know, sir." But her eyes are downcast.
I glare at Jean. "Didn't you see anything?"
"We're all tired, Paul," she snaps. "Can barely focus on whoever's in front of us. Don't start-"
"For Christ's sake! We've lost another one!"
The shout fades to silence. Pale faces stare at me, angry and frightened.
I can say nothing to them. He must have slipped down one of the narrows. Saw something, or thought he did. Heard something, or thought he did. And now he's gone.
Let's go.
Further on up, the narrow begins to twist and turn. Like we're riding a snake that's realised we're there and is trying to shake us off.
It bends cruelly, sharply, pinching almost too narrow to climb through at all.
And for one boy, it is.
Toby Thwaites. His panicked scream explodes like a bomb. "
Mr Forrester!"
I stumble to a halt. Turn back.
"I'm stuck! I'm stuck!"
Toby, halfway down the line, is wedged solid. Stuck behind him, Jean and the three little ones. Leaving me with the two girls, Lisa Fowler and Jane Routledge.
Jean and I stare at each other, past Toby's shoulder.
We try everything we can to move him, but it's no go.
"Don't leave me," sobs Toby. He's fifteen years old. "Don't leave me."
"We won't, Toby," I promise him. "We won't."
But we all know it's a lie.
So we wait, and eventually he falls asleep.
"What do we do?" whispers Jean.
"Have to try and go around," I say dully. "Meet up again. We can't stay."
No. We have to keep going. Have to try and find a way out. Even though we know now we never will.
Jean reaches through and clasps my hand.
"Good luck," I say. We know we'll never see each other again.
And we don't.
I watch Jean and the kids go back down the narrow, back the way they came, into the dark, and gone.
"Come on," I say to the girls.
The narrow straightens out again soon enough after that. It's done what it set out to do. We all hope we'll be out of earshot before Toby wakes up and starts screaming at us to come back.
We aren't.
Further down, the voices start.
First one is Laura Rodgers. "Mr Forrester? Mr Forrester?" Crying, desperately. "Please.
Please."
We keep walking.
"Help! Help! Hello?
Hello?" I know that voice. It's Jeff Tomlinson.
"Can anyone hear us?" A stripped, hysterical scream: I think it's Mike Rawlins.
"Paul? Paul? Are you there?" It's Jean. I shout her name. She shouts mine. But she only gets further away.
Until she's gone.
The last set of batteries for the last of the torches. I'm stumbling, shuffling. So are Jane and Lisa. We press close, link hands; I lead them on. My left hand holds Lisa's right; her left holds Jane's.
"Listen." It's Jane. Her voice is a croak. "Can you hear it?"
"Hear what?" asks Lisa.
"Water. Listen."
Yes. It's there. Trickling. I realise how swollen my mouth and tongue are. How dry.
"Keep going," I manage.
The trickling seems to get louder and louder.
"Keep g-"
There's suddenly less weight on my left hand. I turn. Lisa stares back at me, then looks round to stare down an empty narrow. A few yards behind us, the sound of water echoes from a hole in the wall.
We go to it. A narrow, extending for maybe five yards, then branching off into three new ones.
"Jane? Jane!"
But there's no reply.
Walking on. So tired. Sounds of things moving in the darkness beyond. Big things. Heavy things. A hissing sound, close by. Lisa gasps, clutches my arm. A grunt from behind us. We walk faster.
Water, trickling.
At last, too tired to keep on. We need a place to stop, but the endless narrows-there's nowhere.
But at last, the narrow opens out. Only briefly, two new ones beyond, but it's a small chamber.
We lie down. I curl up; Lisa huddles against my back.
I sleep. No dreams. I wake once; I hear Lisa, crying. "Mum?" she calls. Her voice cracks with terror and relief. "Mum? Mum, is that you? Where are you?"
I should wake up and stop her. But I'm so, so tired. I go back to sleep.
I wake up alone.
I've been walking a long time now.
The beam of the torch is faint and flickery. I don't have the Geiger counter anymore. I don't know when or where I left it behind.
Voices. All around me. Calling my name. Pleading. Praying. Damning me.
Jean.
Lisa
Jane
Danny
Laura
Toby, poor Toby,
The little ones
Jean.
The torch goes out.
I shake and rattle and bang it, but it's good and dead this time. At last, I let it fall.
The darkness is total.
I walk into it, hands in front of me.
Dreading what they might touch.
Can barely walk now. So tired. So hungry. So thirsty. Oh. God.
Plod. Plod. Stumble. Shuffle.
Hit a wall. Ow. Feel at it. Push myself clear. Arms out to either side, then in front. To the sides again. And out front. And so on. And on.
Something stings my eyes. What…?
Light. It's light. It's been so long since I saw it.
Where is it?
Up ahead. I can see it now. There's a bend in the narrow. I stumble towards it. An exit, at last?
I round the corner. And stop.
Anya steps out; she is in silhouette and her outline looks thinner than I remember, but it's her. "Hi, Paul."
A noise comes out of my throat. I want to believe this, but-
"Paul?" She takes a step forward; a slow, dragging step. I stumble backwards. "Darling?"
I backpedal faster. Then, with a horrible crack, my ankle goes as a lump of rock gives underfoot. I fall down, crying out.
"Sh. Baby. Sh." She's holding out her arms. "It's alright."
I cover my face as her dragging footsteps approach. "It's alright."
I pray for death to reach me before her.
But it doesn't.
Honorable Mentions
Allan, Nina
– "Ryman's Suitcase,"
A Thread of Truth.
Allen, Mike
– "deathmask,"
Helix: A Speculative Fiction Quarterly, winter.
Avery, Simon
– "101 Ways to Leave Paris,"
Crimewave, Now You See Me 10.
Barron, Laird
– "The Occultation,"
Clockwork Phoenix.
Bear, Elizabeth and Monette, Sarah
– "Boojum,"
Fast Ships, Black Sails.
Bestwick, Simon
– "The School House," (novella)
Houses on the Borderland.
Bird, Allyson
– "The Bone Grinder,"
Bull Running for Girls.
Block, Lawrence
– "Keller the Dogkiller,"
EQMM, May.
Bobet, Leah
– "Bell, Book, and Candle,"
Clockwork Phoenix.
Bulkin, Nadia
– "Intertropical Convergence Zone,"
ChiZine 37.
Campbell, Ramsey
– "Double Room,"
The New Uncanny.
Campbell, Ramsey
– "The Long Way," PS Publishing chapbook.
Cowdrey, Albert E.
– "The Overseer," (novella)
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, March.
Dowling, Terry
– "The Fooly,"
Dreaming Again.
Duffy, Steve
– "The Oram County Whoosit,"
Shades of Darkness.
Emshwiller, Carol
– "Wilmer or Wesley,"
Asimov's Science Fiction, August.
Ferris, Joshua