‘Maybe we can use our own towline, if it stretches that far. Our EV might be able to drag theirs back out of whatever hole it’s stuck in.’

She gave me an appraising look. ‘Smart boy,’ she said approvingly, and leaned over the microphone. ‘You hear any of that, Rozalia?’

‘I did,’ the other woman said, her voice crackling. ‘Frankly, anything’s worth a try. I can see you too, through on the other side. You’re going to have to reverse your EV first, so you can pull once the line’s attached.’

The ground shook, and I glanced at the rear-view screen in time to see a building collapse into the spreading pool of fire behind us.

Nadia tapped a button next to the microphone and leaned back.

‘Do we have enough time?’ I asked. ‘That lava’s not moving that fast, but it’ll still catch up with us before long.’

‘Well,’ said Nadia, ‘it’s either this or we all try and walk out of here.’

Nadia reversed the EV until it was facing back the way it had come – and towards the approaching lava flow. The rear end, and the winch mounted there, she moved as close to the collapsed rubble and girders as she could.

There are, I think fewer sights more terrifying than what I saw, looking through that windscreen at the molten rock slowly oozing towards me. A thick dark crust was constantly forming on top of the flow before breaking open, as hotter rock pushed its way out. The first vault was wide enough to contain a lot of lava. But, even considering its slow accumulation, I doubted we had more than maybe ten or fifteen minutes before it swallowed our EV.

In the meantime, the three from the other EV made their way through the connecting corridor to join us, moving ponderously in their pressure suits, and helped Nadia unspool the cable from our rear-mounted winch. I followed them as they carried it back to their vehicle, and I gazed up at the concrete cap built into the roof of the connecting corridor.