GRIMLY Hutch picked up the motionless form of his partner. With stoic determination he set out toward the cliffs again. He felt sick with what he had just done. It was made worse with the sounds of laughter echoing from the cliffs. His legs burned with the stride he had set and the extra weight on his shoulder. He was out in the open now, and he fully expected to feel his legs go out from under him with the next shot. He did not let that stop him though. He found an outcropping and slipped into it long enough to get his bearings. It was easier to concentrate now that Starsky was no longer fighting, but that did not lessen his guilt or his determination to get him to safety. He allowed his feelings to drift behind his professional instincts and training. Guilt would not get him out of here alive.

He studied the terrain. There were a few possibilities. The closest was about 100 yards in front of him. 100 very wide, very open yards. No cover. If he could make it there, it would ensure no one could sneak up on them. But then again, it would ensure that he could not sneak out either. No, he needed something near water. They could survive without food, but not without water. To his left was another possibility. He would have to cross through some higher grasses and a few trees. Their canopy formed a thick tangled mass with a multitude of leaves. It would provide some cover and maybe a source of food. Things were thick and green that way, so there had to be a source of water. It was farther away, but looked better than anything else he had seen. Hefting Starsky farther up on his shoulder, Hutch relentlessly moved on towards his goal. The laughter had stopped.

His cop's mind working overtime, Hutch catalogued the laughter as he moved. It was a male voice, deep, strong. The echo's made it impossible to determine a direction. The guy must be up high if he could see Starsky struggling with him against some hallucination. It seemed the guy sounded satisfied when Hutch finally knocked Starsky out. He had not been shot yet, and this guy had plenty of time to hit him if that was what he had wanted. So he was playing with them. He wanted Starsky out of action, but not Hutch. Why? He suspected this guy knew them. How? What was he trying to accomplish?

The cliff rose in front of him. Nothing presented itself in the way of a cave, but there were several areas where boulders had fallen. If push came to shove, he would stuff Starsky into a crevice and keep him there until nightfall. By then the drugs would have worn off and they could move under the cover of darkness.

He continued along the cliff. There. That looked good. A small depression revealed itself to be a deeper opening. It looked promising. Finding some reasonable cover nearby, Hutch lowered his partner gently to the ground. He was still out cold. Hutch checked Starsky's breathing and his eyes. Starsky's eyes rolled when he opened each of them. The pupils were equally dilated. Starsky mumbled to himself for a second, but did not look like he was coming around yet. Hutch decided to chance leaving him long enough to verify that this was indeed a cave that would suit their needs.

The opening was about 3 feet across, and it opened up into a tall, narrow chamber. He could not see very far back, but he suspected it was about 5 by maybe 15. There was no ceiling that he could see. It looked like two mountains had just fallen into each other, leaving a small gap at their base. It would do. Water did flow down here. If he was careful, he could get to a small pool just behind the fallen rocks. Hopefully it was drinkable.

Hutch returned to his partner's side and pulled him up by his shoulders. He dragged him in while scanning the surrounding cliffs. Nothing.

"STARSK? Can you hear me?" Hutch's voice asked softly. It was some hours later and the light was getting dim as twilight fell.

"Yeah, but you don't have to shout." Starsky woke with the most excruciating headache. "Can you tell me what bus hit me?"

"What do you remember?"

Starsky tried to think, but it was hard and he was disoriented. "Not much. Where are we?" Starsky tried to look around but the light was not good. He felt like his skin was crawling and he was anxious. He felt like he could not get a good breath.

"Here, drink this." Hutch handed him some water he had collected in a leaf. It wasn't much, but it was a start. "I'll get you some more if you want it." Starsky downed the "glass" and promptly felt like he was going to heave. He managed to keep it down, but barely.

"Ugh. That's enough for now. You don't have some aspirin to go with that do you?"

Hutch was relieved to hear his friends voice return to normal, although his breathing was a bit rapid. Hutch was very relieved Starsky did not remember the punch. He hated to do it, but he never would have gotten him in here if Starsky had been fighting him the whole way.

Starsky repeated his question. "Where are we?"

"We are in a cave."

"A cave? I thought we were in the sewers." Starsky scratched at his leg and looked around. "I remember a girl…?"

"Yeah, she led us here, but I have not seen her since. We were set up."

"By who?" Starsky asked ungrammatically.

"I don't know. You've been flying high the past couple of hours, otherwise all has been quiet."

"Flying, huh. Yeah, it's coming back." Starsky shuddered. "Now I know how you felt."

Hutch gave his friend a grim smile. "You were there with me buddy. You knew how it was. But this creep has only shot you up twice and in your muscle at that. I don't think you will have it bad."

Like you did. Starsky just nodded. It was beginning to make sense. The rapid breathing, the fuzzy vision, and the way his blood seemed to hurt. He had heard about it, but he had never felt so discombobulated before. It was nothing like when he had been given that poison. He did not like it. He did not know why his jaw hurt so much, but with the way he felt, he really did not care.

"What do you want to do now?" he asked Hutch.

"I've been watching for awhile now. This guy is good. I have not seen him, but I think he is still out there. He has only shot at you though, when he had ample opportunity to hit me too. You've been drugged twice now."

"Yeah? It feels like more." Starsky's head was swimming.

"Mmh." Hutch grunted in agreement. "The sun's gone down and we will need to move soon. He knows where we are."

"I'm with you."

"I think you should stay here while I look around. So far he has not wanted me, just you. I'll find a new spot and then come back to get you. You have your gun?" Hutch knew he did, but he wanted to distract his partner from the danger he was putting himself in.

"Yeah, but…"

"Good. You can defend the opening. I will throw a stone in before I come in – so don't shot me." With that, Hutch left.

Starsky struggled to figure out what just happened. He knew he did not want his partner out there without backup, but he also knew he would not want himself as backup if the positions were reversed. The walls seemed to close in on him. The lighting was nil other than the dim light from the opening. The stars were bright up here. Beautiful really. His head began to swim and he felt good again. The cop in him recognized that he was having a flashback as the drug was not fully out of his system. At least he was not seeing things.

A body blocked out what little light there was in the "door".

Starsky was not sure if he was seeing things or if someone really was there. He stayed quiet and did not move.

"If there is anyone here, please don't hurt me!" a soft voice pleaded from the door. "I need your help. Please, don't hurt me, please…"

Starsky thought of the girl standing by the cliff. The voice instinctively brought out the protective side of his nature. He hated to see girls and women hurt. "I won't hurt you."

A quick intake of breath. "Who's that?"

"David, who are you?"

"Michele…" the voice drifted lower. "Are you ok?"

"I am swimmingly fine" Starsky crooned from the darkness. Realizing what he had done, Starsky revised his statement. "Yeah, I'm ok. I just hit my head awhile back."

"You might have a concussion." Michele sounded confident, but then she seemed to realize that she was talking to a stranger in the darkness. "I need help, but I think you do too. The path was destroyed, and I think I found a way out, but I can't reach the ledge. I tried to move some rocks to stand on, but my arm is pretty sore."

"What from?"

Here, the girl paused. "I, um, I was attacked."

She was the girl he had followed.

"What happened?"

"Um, hey, do you think you could help me?"

Starsky noted the change of subject and the sound of fear in her voice, but he was feeling better now. Flying really. If he could help her get out, he could help Hutch get out too. He dropped the interrogation and climbed to his feet. "Sure…" He did not notice that he had left his gun on the floor.

She backed out into the starry night and waited for him to follow. "I need to get my friend…" he started to say as he came outside when he felt the now familiar sting in his leg. This time though, everything faded to black as his eyes rolled up in his head and he fell to the ground.

"Hutch!" He cried out weakly just before he lost consciousness.