Interlude: Headache

 Cheryl was bored.  They'd been trudging through the chair-lined tunnel for what seemed like eternity, or at the very least fifteen minutes.  She was bored of walking, bored of all the songs on her Walkman, bored of Iris's back and bum, bored of non-chocolate Easter eggs masquerading as exquisite objets d'art on chairs.  Bored, bored, BORED!
 As the third ladder appeared out of the gloom ahead of her, Cheryl stopped her trudging and looked up to see where it went.  The rusty old metal ladder disappeared into a dark tube in the curved ceiling of the tunnel.
 "What's up there?" she asked.
 "Nothing" Iris called back.  "Come along, Cheryl."
 "There must be something" Cheryl mumbled and started to climb the ladder.
 "No good will come of it!" Iris called to Cheryl's sturdy legs as they disappeared above her.
 After a minute of climbing, a metal manhole cover blocked any further progress.  Cheryl pushed on it and the cover creaked open, daylight almost blinding her.  With a grunt, Cheryl pushed it all the way back and crawled halfway out into what appeared to be a scruffy copse surrounded by an even scruffier hedge.  Just as she was about to hawl herself all the way out, something came flying over the hedge and clonked her right in the head, cushioned slightly by her thick, bowl-cut hair.

 "Oof!" said Cheryl, her grip loosening.  And then a second object hurtled after it.  "Ow!" she said as it too made painful contact with her skull.
 Cheryl half slid, half tumbled down the ladder, the manhole cover clanging shut above her.
 "Owch" she grumbled as she landed heavily on the tunnel floor.  Then, not getting any sympathy from Iris, she struggled to her feet and lumbered after her.

 The fourth ladder appeared after another five minutes or so.  Cheryl climbed it as Iris tutted and shook her head.  At the top of the tube, Cheryl pushed open another manhole cover and was summarily hit in the head by a half-eaten banana.
 Cheryl sighed and made her way back down again.
 "I told you no good would come of it" Iris said matter-of-factly with her hands on her hips, and then she turned and strode off down the tunnel.  "Not far now."
 "Hummph" said Cheryl.