‘Might be safer if you both lowered me,’ Eddie suggested.
‘Don’t worry,’ said Larry. ‘I won’t drop you.’
‘That’s what you said when I was six, and I’ve still got the dent in my head!’
‘God, you have one butterfingers moment, and nobody ever lets you forget it . . .’
Nina had already settled the issue by dropping to the tier below. No sign of Sophia beyond the dark opening in the wall, not that she had expected her to hang around. ‘It’s clear. Come on.’
She reached up to hold Eddie’s legs as his father eased him down as far as he could. ‘You got him?’ Larry called.
‘Yeah. Ready?’ she asked Eddie. He nodded. ‘Okay, let him go!’
Larry released his hold. Even with Nina’s support, it was still a heavy landing. Eddie gasped in pain as his wounded leg hit the ground. ‘Oh God, I’m sorry!’ she cried.
‘Not – your fault,’ Eddie said, grimacing. ‘Fucking Stikes! If I had an asbestos fishing rod I’d haul him back up just so I could kick him off again.’
‘You might not need the rod to reach him in a few minutes,’ Nina warned him as she took another look over the temple’s side. Though it was still hundreds of feet below, the lava was visibly rising. ‘Larry, come on!’
The elder Chase dropped down with a grunt as Nina and Eddie entered the lava tube. It was smaller and steeper than the one through which they had entered, the air within as choking as a poisonous sauna. But it was their only hope of survival. Eddie recovered his torch from a pocket and shone it ahead. The tunnel wormed away into darkness. ‘Can’t tell how long it is,’ he said.
‘It goes up, that’s the main thing,’ Nina replied. ‘How fast can you move?’
‘Faster than that fucking lava, I hope.’ He set off in a limping half-walk, half-run, Nina supporting him by his uninjured arm. Larry caught up and they hurried along the passage, which shuddered around them. Ominous crunching sounds came from the walls and ceiling, dust and grit dropping from newly formed cracks.
‘This whole place is going to come down!’ said Larry between coughs. ‘We’ll never make it.’
‘Oi!’ snapped Eddie. ‘Less of that – we will bloody make it. Know why? ’Cause I’m not having my niece go to three funerals on the same day!’
Abashed, Larry picked up the pace. Nina looked ahead. ‘I can see daylight!’
‘And I can see stuff falling in front of it,’ said Eddie in alarm. Larger pieces of rubble were dropping from the ceiling. ‘Both of you, run! Go on, get out!’
‘We’re not leaving you,’ said Nina – at the same moment as Larry. They exchanged looks, then carried Eddie between them towards the oval of light ahead.
A loud boom echoed up the tunnel as part of the ceiling caved in. There was a sharp crackling noise like the opening of a gigantic zipper – and suddenly they were inundated by dust as a gash split open along the length of the roof. ‘Oh, fuck!’ yelled Eddie, the pain in his leg forgotten as he broke into a panicked run. ‘Go, go, go!’
Nina and Larry didn’t need to be prompted. All three charged for the exit. More ground-shaking thumps like a pursuing giant’s footfalls came from behind as the entire tunnel collapsed section by section, displaced air shrieking past. A rock hit Nina hard on one shoulder, but she kept running for the light.
They reached it – and found nothing under their feet as they burst from the tunnel.
It opened on to a steep slope near the volcano’s summit, another landslide having torn away the barricade the Atlanteans had built to block it. Flailing and wailing, the trio arced through the air amidst flying debris before hitting the ground. Larry immediately tripped, Eddie managing a few loping steps before he too stumbled. Nina lasted longest, but even she couldn’t keep her balance on the treacherous surface. They rolled down the hillside before finally slithering to a stop on a shallower ledge.
Nina groaned as a dozen new bruises made themselves known. She sat up and discovered that her camera had caused at least one of them. Its lens had broken off, black dust trickling out of the body. She looked round at a moan from nearby. ‘Larry?’
He lay on his back, one hand over another cut on his head. ‘I’m – I’m all right,’ he mumbled. ‘But I think I’ll just stay here for a while.’ The