A fan depiction of Will's underground base, with Chester in the chair
Will Burrows creates an underground base, since he loves archaeology and digging. It is located on the Forty Pits site in Highfield, England. Besides being a place to relax and work on digging, Will finds that the base led to a brick crypt. After leaving with Chester to find Will's father, the base is abandoned until Sarah Jerome used it as a refuge base in the next book.
In the series[]
The base is first shown in Tunnels. WIll invites Chester to visit, since this was the first time that he had a friend interested in his digging. The two get together in the base many times. One day, the two find a strange brick tomb structure down one of the base's two tunnels. A pressure buildup causes the two to escape. Chester comes back to find the the tunnel was blocked up (by the Colonists) so they can't go back in. When the two find the tunnel under Will's house, they try to salvage as much timber from the base as possible for the new tunnel. The base is then abandoned as the boys start their new adventure.
Will's base appears again, in Deeper. Sarah Jerome finds Bartleby, who leads her to the base. He is attracted to the scent of Will's hoodie, which is still there. As she explores, the decaying base partially collapses due to the lack of shoring. She stays there until Joe Waites and some Styx find her, and after much convincing, take her back to the Colony.
Description[]
Will's base was built on an old lot that has many pits and scrap parts. A metal lid conceals the ladder which takes you down into the base. After climbing down the ladder about 10 feet, it opens up into a massive cavern. 2 chairs and a portable cooler with drinks are in this room. 2 tunnels branch off in opposite directions from the cavern. One leads to nowhere, as Will did not finish it. The other leads into the brick tomb. Wooden shoring props the tunnels up.
The brick tomb is octagon-like and rises up like a dome. Each brick has the name of a man who presumably helped build the Colony.