by: Marty Chrisman

           Bo made it to the hospital in Capital City in record time. He had radioed Uncle Jesse and Daisy to let them know that he had Luke and was on his way to the hospital. Jesse told Bo that they would meet him there. In the emergency room, Luke was rushed into one of the examining rooms and Bo was ordered to wait in the waiting room. When Jesse and Daisy arrived half an hour later, they found Bo anxiously pacing the floor, a worried look on his face.

“Uncle Jesse,” he said in an agitated voice when he saw his uncle. “They’ve had Luke in there since we got here and nobody will tell me nothing.”

“Now, Bo, just settle down.” Jesse told him “I’m sure they’ll tell us as soon as they know something.”

That was when Doc Applebee came out of the examining room and walked over to the anxious Duke family. “Luke’s in surgery so we can set his ankle. It’s broken in four places and we’re gonna have to use pins to set it, but it should heal without any problems. He has some broken ribs too.”

“That’s good” Jesse said in a relieved voice “Is there anything else?”

“He has a bad infection that’s why he’s running such a high fever. If we can’t get it under control, he could lose his leg.  Plus he’s dehydrated and one lung has collapsed. But now that we have him here in the hospital, hopefully we can get those things under control.”

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by: Marty Chrisman

Shelby’s head snapped up as she heard a sound in the distance, the sound of a car engine approaching. A feeling of relief swept over her. Help had arrived. She just hoped it wasn’t too late. Luke’s condition had grown steadily worse in the past hour. He had lost consciousness completely and his breathing was shallow and weak. When she checked his pulse it was weak too.

The door opened and Cory came in, followed by Doc Applebee, and another young man with blonde hair and baby blue eyes. He was just as handsome as Luke. Shelby stepped aside so that Doc Applebee could examine Luke and do whatever was necessary to stabilize him for the trip to the hospital.

“Shelby,” Cory said, motioning to the other man with him “This is Bo Duke, Luke’s cousin.”

“Nice to meet you, Bo.” Shelby said cordially.

“Is Luke okay?” Bo asked in a worried voice, his concern for his cousin’s well being overriding his manners. For the moment, he was so focused on Luke that he even failed to notice just how pretty Shelby was.

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by: Marty Chrisman

When Shelby got up the next morning, she immediately went to check on Luke. He was sleeping but it was not a peaceful sleep. He was moaning softly and turning his head from side to side, as if he were having a bad dream. His face was covered with sweat and he was pale, too pale. When Shelby reached out to touch is face, she discovered that he was burning up with a high fever.

Suspecting the cause of his fever, she quickly checked his injured leg. She winced when she saw that the area around the wound was red, swollen and warm to the touch. It was obviously infected. She had used some moonshine to disinfect the wound but she apparently hadn’t gotten to it in time. All she could do now was to try and keep his fever down and hope that help arrived soon. Real soon.

She went into the bathroom and returned with a cold basin of water and some washcloths. Kneeling beside the couch, she reached out and gently shook Luke’s shoulder. “Luke,” she said quietly “Can you hear me?” He moaned but did not respond and did not open his eyes. Shelby tried again raising her voice this time “Luke, wake up.” This time his eyes did open slowly but the pupils were glassy and unfocused. Gently, Shelby wet one of the cloths and used it to bath his face, all the while talking to him in a soft, soothing voice.

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by: Marty Chrisman

Luke slowly opened his eyes, letting his gaze sweep around the room, taking in the unfamiliar surroundings. A fire was burning brightly in a fireplace directly across from the sofa where he was lying. From the dark shadows in the room, he judged it to be late afternoon or early evening. His leg was still hurting badly but at least he was warm and the sofa was more comfortable than the cold ground. Someone had covered him with a quilt, so between the fire and the blanket, he had finally stopped shivering. He heard a heavy rumble of thunder and the sound of a heavy rain falling on the roof of the cabin.

“Glad to see you’re finally awake.” A woman’s voice said, startling him. He turned his head as a woman came around from the back of the sofa into his line of vision.

She was very pretty with sun streaked dark blonde hair that hung past her shoulders in soft waves. She was a petite little thing, not much over five feet tall but she had an excellent figure that any women would envy. A pair of jade green eyes looked at Luke and she smiled. “Hi, I’m Shelby. Cory’s sister.” She said introducing herself.

“Luke Duke.” Luke said, remembering his manners. His voice was still hoarse but not as much as it had been earlier.

“Cory went into town to get help but with this storm it’ll probably be late tomorrow afternoon before he gets back. You can’t get up the mountain when it storms like this cause it washes out the road. Do you feel up to eating something?”

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by: Denise Wallan

End of the Road

Night drew closer as Chet galloped his horse into the dark, hunched forward in the saddle, his right hand guiding his horse through the dark and his left hand pressed over the wound on his right side. He could feel the blood seeping through his fingers, an his energy slowly draining from his body as his blood flowed freely. Chet’s legs hugged Blue’s sides tightly an he rode hard until he came to the Atlanta border where he finally drew back on the reins an allowed his heaving mustang to walk.

Blue picked his way through the dark woods an paused to drink at a creek about a mile beyond the border into Atlanta. Chet spit some dirt from his mouth onto the ground an untied his canteen from his saddle horn and opened it to take a drink, he shook the round canteen and found it hopelessly empty. He dropped the empty container to the ground and gazed around in the dark, his hands feeling heavy an limp.

Chet attempted to roll a cigarette but his blood stained fingers were too numb and the rolling paper fell to the ground. He stuffed his tobacco pouch back into his duster pocket an drew back the side of the duster to take a look at the whole in his side. A steady flow of blood oozed from the gunshot wound, but the bullet had not passed through his back, he could feel it pressing against his battered insides.

He looked around, there was nothing out here, it was literally the middle of nowhere and as good a place as any to settle camp. Chet dropped his reins and grasped his saddle horn with both hands and stepped out of the saddle, his wounds screaming in pain an his head spinning with dizziness. He cried out an moaned, his body shivering and trembling.

His left foot caught in the stirrup and through him off balance an he stumbled to the ground. He laid on his back staring at the starry sky for a few long moments an then rolled over onto his knees and with the aid of his horse pulled himself to his feet an stood on shaky legs. Quickly he uncinched his horse an pulled his saddle off Blue’s back an allowed it to fall to the ground, the saddle buckles clanged and jingled as the heavy leather equipment clashed with the hard earth.

Chet clutched the horses mane and approached its head to slide the hackamore off an turn the horse loose. The horse walked off into the dark slowly to graze an keep watch through the night, Chet swayed an stumbled an finally knelt. He gathered a handful of broken branches and twigs in his reach an a handful of dry grass, he molded it all into the pile an struck a match. The flames ate up the dry grass an spread to the wood, an soon Chet had a healthy fire burning.

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