Chapter 7

"Dom, I need you back in the air," said String. "She couldn't have gotten too far. Maybe with the issues you had with the thermal scanner, we missed her somehow."

Hawke continued in the direction he had hoped Caitlin would have gone. He tried not to panic. In his heart, he felt that she was still out there, alive. Either way, he wasn't going to give up until he found her.

Dom took Airwolf back up. He located the signal from Hawke's hand held radio and pinpointed his location in order to keep tabs on him. Then, he scanned the area outwards from his location.

"Nothing yet String," he said. "But, I did just get a message that the rescue crew has gotten to Doc and they're moving him out now."

"Thanks, Dom," replied String. "Keep looking. If you see anything, let me know what direction to go. I think I'm going to head south. The trail to the east doesn't look passable."

Five hours went by quickly and Hawke was getting tired. He kept in constant radio contact with Dom but the longer he searched, the more hopeless it began to feel to him.

"Dom, I need to take a break," he said. "If you want to set down for awhile go ahead. I'll start back up in about thirty minutes."

"Will do," replied Dom. "String, if you want to stop, I'll understand."

"I can't Dom," he said. "I'll search all day and all night if I have to."

Hawke sat down on a large fallen tree trunk. He buried his face in his hands. He was exhausted from climbing and hiking the rough terrain and emotionally drained. His mind drifted to what Doc said about Caitlin being possibly hurt. "He touched her shoulder," he thought. "Why would he do that? Was he trying to comfort her? That should have been me. I should have been with her, not him."

Hawke tried to make sense of his own jealousy. He trusted Caitlin but an insecurity that he never realized he had made him want her to stay as far away from Doc as possible. He couldn't recall ever feeling this way before. "What the hell is wrong with me?" he thought. "I just need to find her."

Hawke picked back up on his search a half hour later. Dom radioed him and asked if he wanted to continue. "String, we got a report that a pretty bad thunder storm is headed this way. I'm not sure how much longer we'll be able to continue today."

"I'm not going to stop until I have no other choice," said Hawke. "How about doing another scan?"

Hawke continued hiking down and along the side of the mountain when the storm seemed to creep up on him. The rain was light at first but became more intense over time. Dom continued to fly over the area. Suddenly, a quick blurb on the scanner caught his eye.

"String!" he nearly yelled. "I picked up something or maybe someone just about fifty feet from you."

Hawke quickly answered, "Which direction?"

"It's just southwest of your current location," Dom replied. "I checked and the rescue crew is nowhere in sight so this just might be her."

The rainfall quickened and the lightning got more intense. Dom radioed back that he was going to have to put Airwolf down until the storm passed unless he climbed above it. They agreed he should set her down for the time being.

Hawke worked quickly to get to the area that Dom found the heat source. The ground became slick and he lost his footing several times. Picking himself up, he continued on.

"Caitlin!" he called out to her. "Caitlin? Where are you?"

There was no answer. The rain began to fall even harder. The terrain was rougher in this area. Hawke began to look for some sort of shelter. He knew Caitlin would find some way to get out of the rain.

"Caitlin!" he yelled again. "Caitlin!" There was still no answer. All he heard was the loud cracking of the lightning and the pounding of the rain on the ground. Suddenly, he lost his footing and began sliding down a small slope. The momentum caused him to tumble and lose his radio. He came to a quick stop when he hit a large boulder. At that moment, everything in Hawke's world went black.