(CNN) -- The four New York Times staffers recently held captive for about a week by pro-Moammar Gadhafi troops made it out of Libya alive. 

However, they're unsure if their driver, Mohammed, did. And the experience is forcing the seasoned war journalists to reconsider how they look at the world. 

"We probably should have died those first 12 hours, given, you know, the intensity of the firefight and the positions we were in," Anthony Shadid told Anderson Cooper on CNN's "AC360." 

But when Shadid and his colleagues Lynsey Addario, Stephen Farrell and Tyler Hicks emerged unscathed from the firefight, they fled right into the arms of their soon-to-be captors, who were manning a government checkpoint. 

Mohammed got out of their vehicle at the checkpoint. 

The journalists, who were blindfolded soon thereafter, aren't sure if they ever saw him again, but suspect the worst. 

Addario recalled, "I looked over, and I saw our car, and one of the doors was open, and there was a guy taking out stuff and putting it on the sidewalk. And I looked down and next to the driver's side was a man, face down with one arm outstretched, and he clearly wasn't moving. And my initial thought was, 'It's Mohammed.' But I don't -- I didn't see his face, and it's hard to say, because we don't know. You know, there was so much chaos after the car was stopped." 

Hicks said Mohammed was about 21 years old and a great driver. 

"We've been checking the jails, the hospitals, morgues, everything," Hicks said. "And still, nothing has come forward. And you know, this is all weighing very heavily on all of us... We feel this huge responsibility." 
What was the name of the driver in the story?
their driver, Mohammed