All in all, Isaac would have to say that command wasn't easy, but for different reasons than Jean.

You see, the Darcsen Corporal was outside in the gas, and you just [i]know[/i] that it was madness and death out there.  Shouts and desperate screaming, the occasional gunshot, and very probably the sound of death gagging on yellow gas that reminds you of the stuff pushing out of volcanoes...provided you ever studied any.  Isaac had not, so the thought of 'poisonous gas' didn't really occur to him, certainly not with purpose.  Britta could be said to be the same, on that point.  Still, none of that was the point.  The point was that Jean was out in it, and Isaac was ordered to basically take command of the squad and do nothing to help his friend in particular, his friend who could've died if not for these masks.  He was ordered to stand around and prepare to leave, and leave him essentially behind to catch up later.  That was not an easy thing to ask Isaac to do.

Equally, he didn't like to suddenly let Britta break off to go check on what the commotion was upstairs, but he knew that she could handle it.  I mean, come on.  [i]Machine gun[/i]...  So, when she came back down with Michael and Lucia, no automatic fire involved, he was relieved.  Of course...he also saw the [i]blood[/i]...which was LESS appealing.  It meant that he could cross off 'accidental weapons discharge' as a cause of the problem, since...they weren't exactly wounded, as far as he could tell.  All of this soon came to a head as three things happened: Number one, there were gunshots aplenty outside and [i]much closer[/i].  Number two, Luke came in - exhausted and helmetless - saying he'd gotten as many people out as he could and they had to leave NOW.  And Number Three, Jean came back in through the window as a shot rang through the room, followed by machine gun fire that had Isaac shouting for everyone to take cover, and then Jean telling them that they had to leave, NOW.

So, the urgency level of this already pretty-fucking-urgent situation just ramped up a helluva lot.

[color=f7941d]"Alright, we're leaving!  Everyone not helping Jean, follow me!  Britta, rear guard!  Wait, what're you-"[/color]

The lady Gunner had crept on over to a spot not far from Jean's cover to suddenly put up her machine gun and fire a nice left-right-left sweep of suppressing fire.  She lowered it again and looked over to Jean, smiling though she knew he could not see it.

[b][color=ed1c24]"I know I can't stay, but I want 'em to at least think twice about coming in, full steam.  Good luck, Jean."[/color][/b]

And with that, she fell into position to get make sure nobody fell behind as they headed towards the back way out, front Gunner leading and rear Gunner guarding.  Isaac spoke up as they went, saying [color=f7941d]"We're gonna go right through the buildings, no question.  Can't see anything through this fog.  Can't see if anyone wants to shoot you."[/color].  Now, they were heading outside.  As Luke had seen before, the back was as fogged with the deadly yellow stuff as the front was.  It was full of yellow smoke and signs of death and violence and also...

[color=f7941d]"Franz?!"[/color]

Dammit, had he miscounted?!  He thought Franz had been among them already, but he was [i]here[/i].  He was here and he was stabbing a man to death.  Or rather...he was stabbing a man to [i]mulch[/i].  He just kept bringing it down again and again, shouting [i]something[/i] that Isaac couldn't even make out.  It was just this loud rambling and a repeated question.  Why...why won't he answer?  He was shouting at the corpse to speak up?  Why?!  Britta was [i]right[/i]...  Franz was under as much a strain as Jean, only he wouldn't even talk about it when she was trying to help him.  Isaac had [i]never[/i] seen this before.  Never!  His hand suddenly went out and grabbed the other soldiers' wrist as his hand rose to stab again, gripping it tightly so he couldn't move it again.

[color=f7941d]"Franz!  Franz, STOP!  He's dead!  He can't hurt anybody!"[/color]

He hoped to god the man wasn't gonna flip out on him, right then and there, but he didn't know how else to get his attention.  They had to leave, get away from here as fast as they could and [i]hope[/i] that Jean, Freya, and Marathon made it.

[color=f7941d]"Fall in with the rest.  We're getting at least four blocks out of this while Jean secures our escape."[/color]