"Sure. You must be pretty important. I didn't get it all. But they say the controllers checked up on you after.... I'll explain later."
The hall ended in a dim room piled high with plasmolite packing boxes in great disarray. The boy chose a box and lifted a lid.
"Follow me. It's a passage."
"Where to?"
"No time now. Down here."
The passage, which seemed to be constructed of plasmolite boxes, seemed somehow lit by daylight, although Craig could not actually see the source of the light.
The tunnel ended in broad afternoon daylight. As he climbed out he saw a large clearing surrounded by ruins.
"We're just inside the old city," the boy said. "We're safe now—unless those controllers are willing to take more chances than I think."
"Wait a minute, son. You said 'old city.' You mean that this is a part of pre-war Los Angeles?"
"Well, sure."