Butterflies dance around in my stomach as I anticipate the lift opening and my children seeing me. I find myself trembling nervously. There was a point when I thought I would never see them again; in fact, there were several points and I tell myself it is only to be expected.
Eventually, the second lift pings and I step back from it. To give everyone room to get off, but also out of trepidation, my trembling increases rapidly.
Dixon and Collins disembark the lift first. Collins looks so surprised to see me, for a second I think he might actually shoot me with his raised rifle. He gathers himself quickly, gives me a nod and moves past me to cover the corridor beyond, like the consummate professional he is.
In quick succession, Emily and Stacey appear, closely followed by Catherine and Josh. Emily has her head down and doesn’t even notice me to start with, and Stacey’s concentration is taken up with Emily. Catherine and Josh behind them come to a sudden stop as soon as they see me, with looks of disbelief and bewilderment on their faces. Stunned, neither of them says a word; they stand there like statues, eyes wide, their brains trying to process who is standing in front of them.
“Dad?” Josh finally manages to utter.
Emily’s eyes come up to my face, her small face appears frightened and afraid. She cannot understand that it is me; she looks like she has seen a ghost and she even takes a step back towards Josh.
I move down to her level, onto my haunches. “It’s okay Emily, it’s me, it’s Dad.”
Her eyes start to well up, as she begins to understand that it is her Dad in front of her and not an apparition.
“Dad?” She takes a small step forward. “Dad?”
“Yes Emily, I’m here. I am not dead, I survived.” My eyes well up too and tears start to roll down my cheeks as I hold my arms out to her.
“Dad!” Emily shouts and runs into my arms.
I pull her to me, tears streaming down my face and savour having my little girl in my arms again. Emily sobs as I lift her up, her legs moving around my body as she grips hold of me tightly. I look over to Josh whose eyes are red and wet. He looks unsure, guilty, I hold my arm out to him. Josh comes over and I put my arm around him, pulling him in.
“I’m sorry dad.” He says, quietly to me.
“Don’t say that. You did what you had to do. You did what I wanted. You couldn’t have known,” I tell my son.
“But.”
“No Josh,” I cut him off. “There is no way, I’m proud of you for the decision you had to make.”
Josh pulls away and looks at me as if to double-check he isn’t dreaming.
“Forget it, son, it had to be done,” I tell him earnestly, gripping his shoulder.
He gives a small nod of acknowledgement as Catherine comes over. She puts one arm around Josh and one around me.
“You are full of surprises,” Catherine jokes, which breaks the tension slightly.
“I like to keep you on your toes,” I retort and kiss her on her forehead.
“Sorry to break up the party, but we need to move,” Dixon says.
He is right and he doesn’t know the half of it.
“Come on Stacey,” I say as we all follow Winters down the corridor. I feel a pang of guilt that I haven’t time for her now, but I will when we reach safety.
Dixon catches up to Winters and I see them talking as we go. Something tells me the evac isn’t going to be straightforward. I need to get in on that conversation and that isn’t going to be easy, what with Emily clinging onto me.
“Emily, I’m going to have to give you to Josh. I have to talk to Sergeant Dixon.” Emily makes a long grunting protest. “Josh, take your sister please.”
“Let them handle it, Dad, you’ve done enough,” Josh replies.
“Now, Josh,” I order him sternly. He has no idea and I haven’t the time to explain.
Josh relents and goes to take Emily off me as we go. Emily won’t release her grip and I have to prize her off me. She protests again but I have no choice but to ignore her.
Free of Emily, I break into a jog to catch up with the two men ahead. Skirting around Alice and Collins, I reach the backs of Winters and Dixon. They turn to look at me but don’t break their stride or stop their conversation, thinking they have the situation under control, without my input.
Unfortunately, on this occasion, they don’t know all the facts, so I have to barge my way into the situation. I put my left arm out and push my way between the two men, taking them by surprise.
“Steady on, Captain, we have things under control. You can’t keep out of it, can you?” Dixon half-jokes.
“I’m sorry, Sergeant but things are happening you aren’t aware of.”
“Like what?” Winter asks as the two men walk on either side of me.
“It looks like they are planning to stem the outbreak at Heathrow with a tactical nuclear device. It could be inbound as we speak,” I inform the two men, who both go quiet. “What is the evac plan?”
“l have cars in the loading bay, ready to go. Unfortunately, there are approximately twenty Rabids also trapped in the loading bay, which we will have to clear. One of them is Colonel Reed,” Winters says, and I look at him shocked. “I’ll tell you later,” he says.
“I will clear the loading bay,” I tell the two men.
“No fucking way, you wouldn’t stand a chance against that many,” Dixon insists.
Telling these two wily operators just to trust me isn’t going to cut it. There is no way they are going to let me go into that loading bay alone unless I tell them, so I tell them straight.
“Since I got scratched, the Rabids think I
