Author's notes: Thanks for those who have read and those who have reviewed. Just a little crumb too finish out the weekend and because I'm evil.
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The tow truck had arrived and they had pulled the car back up onto the road. David, Warrick and Greg had also arrived and now under the portable lights the CSI's were working on processing the car.
"Looks like a portable GPS unit." Greg had found Carter's device. "Possibly it was damaged in the crash."
"Hikers use those a lot," Warrick commented. "He could have used it to get to where he left Granger."
"If the memory wasn't damaged we should be able to see where he's been." Greg put the pieces into an evidence bag. "If you want to finish up the car I'll go in and get started on this."
"Go ahead. If I need help I'll pull Nick over." Warrick gestured with a nod of his head towards the knot of men that were talking and looking at a computer.
Charlie had started looking at the search grid he had composed. The ranger's earlier words about the amount of terrain to cover were replaying in his mind as he spoke about the most likely spots. When he had finished, Nick took over.
"Charlie has put this onto a flash drive" Nick was talking to the lead ranger. "Get it downloaded and printed. I want to get started tomorrow at first light. We will have officers from the LVPD and we are putting out the word to get some volunteers who have experience in this location."
As the rangers left Nick looked sympathetically at Don and Charlie. "I know you really want to get started right away, but they are right about someone getting hurt if we tried to find him in the dark. Let me drive you two and David back into town and you can get some sleep."
"I don't know if I can." Charlie replied truthfully.
"Tomorrow will be a long day, you'll need your strength." Nick motioned for David to join them.
"He's right Charlie. If you're going to help Colby you'll need some rest." Don placed a guiding hand on Charlie's back and together they stepped towards the vehicle.
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He didn't know what was bothering him more. The incredible thirst he was experiencing, the pain in his arms, the pain in his side or the feeling of the insects that had started crawling on him. Colby had been debating this internally for a while. It had to be the thirst.
Even in the dry region of Afghanistan, Colby had always had water with him. Granted, it most often was hot and tasted of purification pills but right now he would gladly trade his paycheck for a glass of it.
He closed his eyes and tried to think of anything other than his thirst. A noise from the underbrush to his right caused his eyes to snap open. He couldn't see anything to identify the cause, but from the sounds it wasn't anything big enough to cause him trouble.
"Lucky I've spent so much time in the woods." Colby's eyes closed again as his internal conversation began again. "Haven't been camping as much as I have wanted to recently. Guess I'm getting my chance now."
It was a short time later when Colby fell into a fitful sleep. Had he been awake it was doubtful that he would have seen the dim starlight glinting off the eyes of the one that watched him.