by: Marty Chrisman

            It was a bright summer day in Hazzard County. The birds were singing, the sun was shining and the Duke boys were tooling around in their modified stock car, The General Lee. The General was as well known in Hazzard County as the boys were. You definitely couldn’t miss it. With its bright orange paint job, the big black 01 trimmed in white on both doors and the colorful rebel flag painted on the roof with the name The General Lee painted above each door. It was the fastest car in three counties and some folks even claimed that it was half human. And the Duke boys were the best drivers around. Put either one of them behind the wheel and you didn’t have a prayer of catching them or the General Lee.

Bo had just hit Old Mountain Trail when a Hazzard County Police Cruiser pulled out from behind some trees with the siren blaring and the lights flashing.

“Dang it. There’s Roscoe.” Bo Duke said in an annoyed voice, glancing in his rear view mirror “Where the heck did he come from?” Bo was the youngest of three cousins who lived on a farm in Hazzard County with their Uncle Jessie. With his blonde hair and baby blue eyes, he had more girlfriends than he could shake a stick at. And he was having the time of his life being young and single in Hazzard County.

“Probably from that speed trap back there.” His cousin Luke told him with a thin smile. The oldest of the Duke boys, Luke had sapphire blue eyes and brown hair and the same lean muscular build as his cousin. And he was just as popular with the ladies too. The two Duke boys were considered two of the best catches in Hazzard county. But there hadn’t been a girl yet who could tie either one of them down.

“Oh, great.” Bo said “There’s Enos.” He watched as a second police car fell in behind the first one. He looked at his cousin “What are they chasing us for? We ain’t done nothing.”

“Since when does that make a difference?” Luke said glumly “Just lose ‘em, will ya?”

“You got it, Cuz.” Bo said with a grin. He didn’t need to be told a second time. He punched the accelerator and the General leaped forward with a burst of speed. Luke glanced over his shoulder, grinning as he watched the two sheriff’s cars falling behind. Suddenly, there was the unmistakable sound of a tire blowing out and the front end of the General began to shimmy and shake.

“Keep it on the road, Bo!” Luke yelled throwing out his hand to brace himself against the dashboard.

“I’m trying!” Bo yelled back, as he twisted the steering wheel frantically trying to bring the powerful car back under control. Sparks flew as the passenger’s side of the car slammed into the guard rail, then bounced back off, sending the car into a spin.

“Bo, look out!” Luke yelled as he saw the mountain looming up on his side of the car, dangerously close. Luke felt himself being thrown forward towards the dashboard. There was a brief moment of terrible pain, then nothing but darkness as the General slammed into the side of the mountain.

Roscoe P. Coltrane, the sheriff of Hazzard County, was in the lead pursuing the Duke boys. Helplessly, he watched the accident occur right in front of him. Slamming on his brakes, he jumped from his car. He knew it was bad, real bad. He may have acted like he didn’t care for the Duke boys most of the time but he didn’t want to see either one of them get hurt. And from the looks of The General Lee he just knew that they had to be hurt and hurt bad.

The General had slammed into the side of the mountain on the passenger’s side. That entire side was completely caved in. The windshield was shattered and there was also a lot of front end damage. As Roscoe ran towards the car, he could see that Bo, who had been driving as usual, was slumped over the steering wheel. It wasn’t until he got close enough to peer inside the car that he saw Luke, who was lying sideways across the front seat with his head almost in Bo’s lap. And there was blood, a lot of blood and it seemed to be everywhere. Roscoe had to grab hold of the roof of the car to steady himself as a wave of nausea swept over him. He’d seen his share of bad accidents in his twenty years as a police officer, but nothing quite as bad as this.

His deputy, Enos Strate, had climbed out of his car and was running towards the accident site. Roscoe held up his hand to try and keep him from coming any closer. He knew that Enos was a close friend of the Duke boys. He shouldn’t ought to have to see them like this. Enos ignored Roscoe’s warning and ran up to the side of the car. His face turned pale when he saw the condition that his two friends were in.

“Enos, you go and call for the ambulance and a wreaker.” Roscoe ordered “And tell ‘em we’re gonna need something to cut them out of there.” It took all Roscoe had to push his emotions aside and let his professional side take over.

“Are they alive, Sheriff?” Enos asked in a broken voice

“I don’t know.” Roscoe admitted “I’m afraid to find out…” His own ragged voice betrayed his real feelings. Suddenly, Roscoe bent over double and lost his lunch. Enos ran back to the sheriff’s cruiser and grabbed the CB calling for emergency assistance. He was careful not to give any names over the air, he didn’t want Uncle Jesse or Daisy hearing about the accident over the CB and coming to the scene. Neither one of them needed to see the boys in the condition they were in right now. Enos whispered a prayer under his breath. God, please let Bo and Luke be alright. I don’t wanna have to tell Daisy and Uncle Jesse that they’re dead. He hurried back to the wreak of the General Lee

to wait for help to arrive.

Cooter Davenport, the local mechanic in town, wasn’t far away from the scene of the accident when he heard the call for help over his CB. It sounded like a bad one. He hit the gas pedal and headed for the scene with his wreaker. He had no way of knowing since Enos hadn’t given a lot of details over the CB that the wreak involved his two closest friends. When he got within sight of the accident scene, he saw the distinctive orange paint job of the General Lee. “Oh, my god…no…” he muttered under his breath when he realized who had been in the accident. As he got closer, he saw the terrible damage that had been done to the General and he wondered if Bo and Luke were even alive. Slamming on the brakes, he ran over to Roscoe and Enos and saw the two boys still trapped inside the car. And he saw the blood, way too much blood.

Within in minutes, more emergency personnel arrived at the scene including two ambulances with trained paramedics on board and a fire engine from Capital City. Roscoe, Cooter and Enos stepped to the side to let the emergency crew take over. Two of the firemen started cutting off the driver’s side door to get to the boys. It took them almost an hour to finally get to the inside of the car. Cooter and the two police officers both watched anxiously, as the firemen and the paramedics carefully freed Bo from behind the wheel. It took almost half an hour before they finally pulled his body out of the car, placing him on backboard, before putting him on gurney. Bo was as white as the sheet on the gurney. And when one of the paramedics ripped open his shirt to check his vital signs, Cooter saw that Bo’s chest was mottled and heavily bruised. There was a huge gash on one shoulder that seemed to account for most of the blood on Bo.

Two paramedics loaded Bo into one of the ambulances and sped away with their lights and sirens blaring. At least that meant he had to still be alive. If he weren’t, there wouldn’t be any need to hurry to get him to the hospital. Cooter turned his attention back to the other emergency personal who were still working on trying to get Luke out of the car. Since Luke had been riding shotgun like he usually did and the worst of the damage was to that side of the car, Cooter knew that Luke’s condition could be a lot more serious than Bo. In his heart, Cooter was scared to death that Luke was already dead.