by: Essy Jane

Bo and Luke were placed in different units of the hospital. Only family and
close friends were allowed to see Bo. He was so bad that they had to put him
in the surgical intensive care unit or SICU. Jud stayed with Bo while Cooter
stayed with Luke.

Luke was bad but not as bad. He was placed in the SU or surgical unit. Thank
goodness Luke wasn’t shot in the head. This gave doctors hope for the young
lad. But Luke had quite the broken arm. It was a miracle that the boys
lasted that long.

“Luke, if you open your eyes I’ll hire someone to cook for you,” Cooter
tried. He really wanted Luke to wake up. I’ll even pretend to like your
cooking.”

In the SICU…

The doctors approached Jud about the well being of his brother and cousin.
Jud prepared for the worst.

“I’ll go first. I was the doctor that worked on Bo. Bo is in a comma, he was
hit in the head hard. It caused bleeding in the brain. Now we fixed that
but, we’re not sure that he’ll wake up. His lung collapsed when he hit the
ground. Bo was also hit in the back. We think he may be paralyzed from the
waist down. Luckily, there are treatment centers where he could receive care
that may allow him to have full mobility,” the first doctor commented.

“Luke might be paralyzed from the waist down but he has other injuries too.
He has an lunar fracture. This rupture is located in one of his lower arm
bones. We had to place pins in his arms to keep his bone in place. We put
him in a backslab with tensors,” the second doctor remarked.

“So he’ll be okay?” Jud asked.

“Most likely. He has a great chance. His pulse is very good. He lost a lot
of blood from the wound but we are supplying him with good plasma.”

“How about Bo… what are his chances of survival?”

“If he wakes up, he has good chances. But right now they are very slim. He
lost oxygen to the brain, this can usually cause damage. We don’t know how
long he was really down,” The first doctor said.

“Thank you.” The doctors walked away leaving Jud alone. He stared
regretfully. He hated that his cousin and brother were like this. He wished
he could change what had happened.

Things weren’t working out for the Duke family one bit. The worse part was,
if they lived they would be hunted down and killed. If they didn’t live,
they would leave their family in pain.

Cooter walked in the room. “Jud, Luke’s awake!” He exclaimed. Jud’s eyes
opened as wide as saucers. He was ready to see his brother.

“Coot, stay with Bo for me,” Jud mumbled.

“No problem, buddy.”

As Jud quickly darted through the hall he came to a standstill as he reached
Luke’s room. “Hey bro, what’s up?” Luke questioned.

“Luke, I thought I was going to loose you. You know better than to scare me
like that.”

“I’m sorry Jud. I didn’t mean to get into this mess. We could’ve taken them.
If they didn’t pull a gun on Bo like that…”

“Luke! I have to tell you something.”

“What? Did the General get hit?”

“Luke, you’re paralyzed from the wait down. You were hit badly in the back.”
Luke tried to move his legs in disbelief. When he found that he couldn’t,
Luke hit the side of the bed.

“Where’s Bo?” There was an impulsive moment of deep silence. “Well? Where’s
my cousin? He probably is mad at me huh? Come on Jud, where’s Bo?”

“Bo is in intensive care. He’s worse off than you Luke. I don’t know if he’s
gonna make it.”

“You’re lying!”

“I wish I was. I want him to be well. But he’s bad Luke, very bad. I’m a
curse around here, I swear, people get hurt when I’m around.”

“Don’t say that, this wasn’t your fault. We chose to fight them off. It’s
our own fault.” The two hugged. “Now that’s my baby brother.” Jud began to
cry. He wanted his family to be back together again.

There was a knock on the door as a man walked in. He showed Luke his badge.
“Are you Luke Duke?” The police office questioned.

“Yeah, what’s it to you?”

“I’m John Mason. I work on bank robberies and such. You and your cousin were
the victims of the duel dealers. They leave the same trade mark every time.
A bullet to the back and another in the head, the results are very
unfortunate for the victims. When they told me you were one, I didn’t see
the resemblance. But I later found out that your hand was on your head.”

“What does this have to do with me?”

“Well, we found a black mask at the scene. This means that they were
unveiled.”

“So.”

“We need you to tell us if you can identify the character…”

“I can make out both of them. There friends of Bo and I. They only shot us
because we found out about them.”

“Will you tell me the names, please?”

“No.”

“You’re obstructing justice.”

“And saving Bo’s and my butts while I’m at it, you don’t seem to know what’s
at risk here. They’ll find us and kill us. I’m not an idiot. I was in the
Marines in Nam. I know what people can do.”

“If I put you into protective custody, would you considering telling me?”

“Nope that doesn’t give Bo any coverage–only witness protection for both of
us will I tell you.”

Mason scratched his head.

“Done deal, I will put you in another country. Which one would you like to
go to?”

“Canada, you send us up north to a place where we can get treatment. Then
I’ll tell you who your men are.” They shake hands. “Just one more thing, I
want Jud there too. The rest of my family can take care of themselves but
Jud needs us and we need him.”

“Fine.”