Domain

The descent began and both men soon found it impossible

to maintain a regulated speed. The arm-lock Culver had on *

Dealey became too difficult to maintain; his other hand slipped from the handrail and they plunged downwards, feet striking the climbers on the stairs, so that their bodies twisted, their descent becoming completely uncontrolled. It was a frightening, helter-skelter ride towards another, unknown terror, a heart-churning rush into fresh danger.

Their fall was cushioned by the desperate figures massing around the bottom of the escalators. They landed in a flurry of arms and legs, wind knocked from them, but striking nothing hard which could cause serious damage. Culver was only slightly dazed and the flashlight was still gripped firmly in his hand.

'Dealey, where the Christ are you?' he shouted. He pulled at a hand rising from the bodies beneath him and released it when he realised it wasn't the blind man. 'Dealey!'

'Here. I'm here. Help me.'

Culver used the flashlight to pinpoint the voice's source; the emergency lighting was very limited. He found Dealey and tugged him free.

‘You okay?' he asked.

‘I’ll find out later,' came the reply. 'So long as we can both walk, that's all that matters for the moment.

We must find the eastbound tunnel.'

'It's over there.' Culver pointed the beam in that direction as though the other man could see.

"Westbound is on a lower level than this.' The flashlight was almost knocked from his hand as someone hurtled by. The congestion at the foot of the escalators was growing worse and both men fought to resist the human tide. Culver helped up one of the men who had cushioned his fall moments earlier.

He pulled the man's face close to his. "Why is everyone running from the tunnels? It's the only safe place!'

The man tried to get away from him, but Culver held on. "What is it? What's in there?'

'Something ... something in the tunnel. I couldn't see, but others did! They were cut, bleeding. They said they'd been attacked in there. Please, let me go!'

'Attacked by what?'

'I don't know!' the man screamed. 'Just let me go!' He tore himself free and was instantly swallowed up by the crowd.

Culver turned to Dealey. 'Did you hear that? Something else is in that tunnel.'

'It's mass hysteria, that's all, and it's understandable under the circumstances. Everyone's still in a state of shock.'

'He said they were bleeding.'

Td imagine there are not too many people who haven't been injured in some way. Perhaps a rat or some other creature got trodden on in there and bit back. Whoever was bitten obviously panicked the others.'

Culver wasn't convinced, but he had no intention of returning to the world above where the air would be laden with radiation-contaminated particles by now. "We'll have to fight our way through.'

'I'll do what I can to help.'

'All right. Get behind me and hold tight. I'm going to push my way in - you can put your weight behind me. Keep pushing, no matter what.'

Culver shielded his face with his arms, the torch held before him as an extra guard, and together he and Dealey forced their way through the mob like swimmers against a strong current. It was hard going and both men were soaked with sweat before they reached the outer fringes of the crowd. There they found others who had not joined the throng, those who were wary of what lay behind them, but who realized the danger from above. And then there were those who could not move: the injured, the dead.

The platform's through here,' Culver said as they reached one of the platform's entrances. He glanced back at the escalators, at the thick mass of shuffling bodies, the stairs crammed with a struggling, heaving crowd. One slip, he thought, and hundreds will be crushed. He was glad not to be among them. And then he noticed there were more pouring from the shorter staircase leading up from the westbound platform; they frantically joined the mass, their shouts mingling with those of the others. He was curious: why should the panic have spread to a totally different tunnel, the one below the eastbound?

We can't stop here, Culver. We must keep going.' Dealey was leaning against the smooth, yellow-tiled wall, his portly frame sagging, clothes in disarray. Culver pushed the disturbing thought from his mind and led the other man out onto the platform. There was no train on the track.

'D'you think there's still power in the lines?' Culver asked worriedly.

'I doubt it. Didn't you say that only the emergency lights

were on? I think the main power has been cut. Is there a train in the station?'

'No.'

Then the trains are probably stuck in the tunnels; I think we can assume the tracks are dead.'

You assume it. I'll walk between the lines.'

Take me to the tunnel entrance. To the, er, left, the east. We have to go back down the line.'

'Look, I'm not so sure. Those people seemed pretty scared of whatever was in there.'

"We've been through all that.'

'People were running from the other platform too, the one below this. How do you explain that?'

'I don't need to. We have no choice but to find the shelter.'

We could stay here. It's deep enough underground to be safe.'

'Not necessarily. It isn't sealed; there are openings, vents, all along the tunnels where radiation can penetrate.'

'Are you always so pessimistic?'

'I'm sorry, but it's pointless pretending optimism under these circumstances. From now on, we must consider the worst possibilities if we're to live.'

'How far into the tunnel is this entrance?' Culver looked towards the round arch of the dark tunnel, his brow furrowed in anxious lines.

'Eight to nine hundred yards. It won't take us long.'

'Let's get on with it then.'

The platform entrance was not far from the tunnel itself and the two men approached the black gaping hole cautiously. Culver stepped close to the platform's edge and shone the flashlight into the darkness.

'It looks clear,' he called back over his shoulder to Dealey.

'If there was anything in there the crowds probably scared it off long ago.'

'Let's hope you're right.'

Dealey had felt his way along the side wall and had caught up with Culver. 'How do your eyes feel?'

Culver asked him.

'Bloody sore, but not as bad as before. The stinging is slowly fading.'

Culver nodded and pointed the beam straight into his face.

'Can you see anything at all?'

Dealey blinked. 'No. It hurt even more for a moment, though. Did you shine the light at me?'

'Straight into the pupils. They shrank.'

'It could mean nothing.'

Yeah, keep up the pessimism. Grab my shoulder, and keep your left side against the wall; we're going down.'

The air was cool, clammy, in the tunnel, and they could see the emergency lights stretching one after the other into the blackness, their dim glow barely making an impression. It felt to Culver as if they were descending into a void, an emptiness that was itself threatening. Perhaps it was just the unnatural stillness after the turmoil above; or that he felt an unseen presence, eyes watching him from the shadows. Perhaps his nerves were just stretched to breaking point. Perhaps.

The tunnel curved slightly, the single chain of lights ahead disappearing. The dim glow from the platform behind vanished as they rounded the curve, leaving them in total isolation. Their footsteps echoed hollowly around the arched walls.

Culver noticed there were gaps in the wall to his right; he shone the beam in that direction and light reflected back from another set of tracks.

'I can see another tunnel,' he told Dealey, his voice strangely loud in the confines of the shaft.