'Dr Knight are you free?' Connie approached the computers where Cal and Ethan were hastily typing away.

'No sorry Mrs Beauchamp. I have three patients at the moment- one waiting to be discharged and two being scanned.'

'Make sure you keep on top of them. Dr Hardy? What about you?'

Lily walked up and stood next to Ethan.

'I'm free Mrs Beauchamp.'

'Sorry Dr Chao but I need one of the boys- they completed some extra training last week all about rope rescues and awkward conditions. Dr Hardy?'

'I'm just finishing updating a patient's records but other than that I'm available.'

'Right. I need you to suit up. There's been an accident at Holby army base. The call has come straight to us instead of going through the ambulance control for some reason but it does sound nasty. I'm sending you in with Lofty, he also did the course.'

'Yes Mrs Beauchamp.' Ethan scuttled off to get changed leaving Cal to complain to Lily.

'It's just not fair! I always get stuck with the boring cases while he's off here, there and everywhere!'

'You can't always be superman Cal- remember?' Lily turned on her heel and walked back to reception to collect her next patient.

Lofty met Ethan in the staffroom before running to the car park and climbing into the MERIT car. It was now pouring down with rain, making visibility difficult. Lofty was driving while Ethan tried to get some more information from Connie.

'You nervous?' Lofty asked Ethan who was still fiddling with the radio in the car to try and get through to Connie.

'Not really. I've been called out several times, you get used to it. Why?'

'It doesn't seem normal. Connie wanted you or Cal because you'd been on the course. She wanted me because I'm the only nurse that went on the course. Aren't you worried that we're going to be in a tiny place that we have to hike up to? Or a dark thing, deep underground where we have to climb down to?'

'Well now I'm worried. I swear it was a miracle that I even passed the course, I get really claustro-'

The radio blared

'We have more details. A male in his mid to late thirties has fallen about twenty possibly thirty foot onto jagged rocks. Currently unconscious and inaccessible. There are medics on site but they can't get to him yet. You're more qualified than them in this style rescue. Ironically they were practising rope rescues. Oh and boys, your going into a cave.'

The radio went silent.

'Aw come on!'

'Nothing like a claustrophobic doctor and a nurse who doesn't like heights to rescue an injured soldier.'

The rest of the journey was silent. They arrived at the army camp to be met by a large amount of security who were stood in coats and umbrellas.

'Names and ID please lads.'

'Excuse me, sir, we were called to an emergency we really need to be there- we will do all the paperwork after our patient is in hospital.'

The security guard sighed and walked away from the car to unlock the gates, allowing the MERIT car to speed away. A series of soldiers guided Lofty and Ethan to the mouth of the cave where a group of soldiers were huddled together.

'Hello? I'm Dr Ethan Hardy. We were called to someone having fallen?'

'Yeah we've got a man down there. He was finishing his training exercise and got just over half way up before he fell. We can't get down to him because all our equipment is soaked and the cave is beginning to fill with water.'

'Do you know if there's anymore support coming?'

As if on cue a HART team pulled up behind them.

'Have you got dry ropes?' There wasn't any time for introductions the man in the cave had been there for at least fifteen minutes now and he hadn't made a sound. He was barely visible from the mouth of the cave.

'Here.' Ethan had a bundle of ropes thrust into his hands. Immediately he set to work securing the ropes to various anchors and then to the equipment and himself before attaching Lofty to the anchors and even more equipment with a second rope.

'Ready?' Lofty nodded and the two boys slowly belayed themselves down the cave. It was incredibly slippy- it would be easy for anyone to lose their footing.

Eventually they reached the man on the floor. He looked dead. His uniform was shredded to pieces, stained red by his blood. It looked like there wasn't a single bone in his body that wasn't broken. He was breathing. Just. Ethan and Lofty set to work immobilising him and attaching him to the spinal board and pulling it to smoother, higher ground a little way from the entrance of the cave before applying a pelvis binder and traction splints to his legs. A message came through their radio,

'How is Sargent Dean?'

Lofty and Ethan looked at each other before looking into the face of the battered man. Through the mud and blood he looked familiar. Dean. Sargent Dean. Ian. Ian who hadn't even been gone a week. Gone to rejoin the army. Lying half-dead in front of them.

'Is his name Ian?' Both boys knew it was but they could help but hope this wasn't their friend. The reply came through on the radio.

'Yes- how did you know?'

'We're his old colleagues back at Holby Hospital.'

A different voice cut through the radio

'Sorry to break up the reunion but the weather is worsening and we need to get him, and you, out. There's a chance that the cave is-'

Unstable. It was too late for the warning. The medics had been so caught up that their mess of a man was Ian that they hadn't noticed the amount of water around them. At least three inches now. They hadn't noticed the distant sound of rocks falling and bouncing off other rocks.

'Get out!' The message again came too late. The cave was already caving in. The entrance was the first to disappear, cutting off the only natural light they had. Ethan and Lofty both rushed over to Ian's head- they weren't going to lose him now. They used their bodies to shield his face from the flying dust and stones. The initial downpour of stones seemed to have stopped so Ethan and Lofty sat back to catch their breath. That's when the second rush of stones came tumbling down. The first landing on Lofty's hand. The second on Ethan's leg. The third on Ethan's chest. The fourth on Lofty's abdomen. They were trapped. They were injured. They were doomed.