Feeling helpless, Josh can only watch his Dad in his fight. He gets more and more anxious as he knows the Browning must be running low on ammo and there is no sign of the fight ending. He sees his Dad start to struggle with grenades and it tips him over the edge.
Josh goes to jump down from the Lynx. Someone has hold of his body armour, pulling him back. Dixon has been waiting ready to intervene, expecting Josh to have a rush of blood, to go and try to help his Father.
Anger gets the better of Josh and he turns to fight off whoever is holding him.
“Let me go!” Josh growls in Dixon’s face.
“I’m sorry, Josh, I can’t. Stick to the plan, give your Dad a chance.”
Two explosions go off in quick succession.
“Stand by!” Watts shouts.
Josh and Dixon immediately end their face-off, their focus returning to the fight across the roof.
Josh sees his Dad spring up from behind the Browning to make his retreat to the Lynx.
“Yes. Dad, run!”
Rabids shoot across the roof, almost out of nowhere, cutting off the path to the Lynx, the explosions seemingly having no effect.
“Covering fire!” Dixon shouts. “Alice, get on the door gun.”
Rabids are already coming at the Lynx even before they start shooting, but more come when the firing starts.
Josh can’t focus on finding targets to shoot; he is fixed on watching his Dad run for his life. He is running away from the Lynx and it’s obvious he isn’t going to be able the reach it. There are too many Rabids between and more piling onto the roof constantly.
“Take us up, Alders,” Dixon instructs, seeing the same as Josh, knowing they are no good where they are. A higher altitude will give them a better position of attack and they will be better placed to hopefully evacuate the Captain.
As the Lynx rises steadily, Josh sees more clearly the trouble his Dad is in. There are two Rabids right behind him with more following. Josh does now aim his rifle, trying to get the lead Rabid in his sights. He doesn’t; it is too far away and moving at speed, so he has as much chance of hitting his Dad as hitting the Rabid.
“He is going for the hole; he is going into the building!” Josh shouts as he realises his Dad’s only option. “Get us over there, Alders!”
The Lynx tilts and turns, Josh’s view is cut off. He desperately moves around the hold to try and see what’s happening. He is too late; his Dad has disappeared when he gets eyes on again.
“Where’s he gone; did anybody see?” Josh shouts, panicked.
“He went into the building,” Alders confirmed over the radio. “Two targets followed him in.”
“Get me over the hole, I’m going in!”
“Negative, put us into a covering position, away from the hole,” Dixon says, overruling Josh.
“Are you fucking joking? Get me over the hole! If you want to sit up here, that’s up to you!”
“Josh you’re not thinking clearly, we need to draw them away from the hole and regroup. If we go over that hole, they will pile into it.”
“We’ve got to help him.”
“We will, Josh,” Alice interjects.
“The first thing is to stop them coming onto the roof; what explosives have we got?” Dixon asks.
“Only grenades,” Watts says, “we left the C4 by the safe. But I have an idea; we collapse the walls on the stairwell, with the door gun. Its 50-cal, it will do it and it will divert them away from the hole while we do it.”
Dixon thinks for a second, looks at Josh and then orders Alder into position.
“Watts, take the door gun. Everyone else. start clearing that roof, use grenades if we have to, just get it cleared!”
How many Rabids followed his Dad into that dark pit, Josh wonders; is it already too late to help him? No, stay positive. There is still hope. If nothing else, Dad is a fighter. Perhaps this is the reason his Dad spent so much time away in foreign lands fighting when Josh was young, becoming almost a stranger. Was it fate, to prepare him for these dire days, so he could protect Emily and save Josh from the White Tower? They say God works in mysterious ways. God or not, if anyone can survive down in that building, it is his Dad.
Alice relinquishes the door gun to Watts as Alders brings the Lynx into position. Josh has already started taking pot shots out of the hold door, his face a ball of determination and concentration.
The wind blows through the hold since Dixon slid open the opposite door. The wind brings with it rain and the smell of acrid smoke, but it means they can clear the roof from both sides of the Lynx. With Dixon and Downey on the opposite side, Alice takes a position behind Josh, raises her rifle and starts looking for targets.
The 50-cal door gun bursts into life, the noise tremendous even with the team’s headsets defending their ears. Watts aims for the bottom of the first side of the wall that protrudes up from the roof, to hold up the small roof that covers the stairwell below. The stream of 50-calibre bullets hits the breeze blocks like a chain saw cutting through wood. Watts steadily moves his aim across the whole side of the wall, cutting a line through it.
The assault has the added effect of stopping more Rabids coming onto the roof. Whether it is because the bullets go through the wall and cut the Rabids down on the stairs, or they have paused until it stops, it’s hard to know.
With the first sidewall of the structure cut, Watts instructs Alders to move around. The back wall is quickly cut through, leaving the moment of truth, cutting through the last side. The Lynx moves around and as it does, the rest of the team continues to
