by: Marty Chrisman

Luke moved out of the clearing and back into the relative safety of the trees. It was dark enough that he knew it would be hard to see him in the heavily shadowed woods. He was exhausted but he couldn’t take any time to rest. He had to either think of a plan or stay ahead of whoever was following him. But he also knew that he couldn’t go much further.

Farther back on the trail, Rusty had finally figured that Luke must have doubled back on him. And he also figured that he might have tried to head back to the Duke farm, so Rusty had started searching in that direction. He was furious and determined to find Luke and finish him off once and for all.

A thin smile tugged at the corners of his mouth as he came into a small clearing and saw Luke’s body lying face down on the ground. Drawing his knife, he slowly walked towards the fallen Duke. Although he still carried his gun, he wanted to finish Luke off with the knife, he wanted to see his eyes as he plunged the knife into his heart. When he reached Luke’s body, he kicked him in his injured side with the toe of his boot but didn’t get any response. To on the safe side, he kicked him again, harder this time. When Luke still didn’t move, Rusty laid his gun down on the ground and reached for Luke’s shoulder to roll him over onto his back.

Suddenly, without any warning, Luke rolled over on his own and shoved Rusty to the ground, straddling him and punching him several times in the face with his fist. Caught off guard, Rusty was too surprised to fight back at first, but then he swung the knife at Luke again this time slicing a gash in his right arm. Luke ignored the new injury and kept punching him fueled by adrenaline and his own rage.

Luke pressed his forearm down across Rusty’s throat putting his full weight against the other man’s throat. Realizing that he was suddenly fighting for his life, Rusty punched Luke as hard as he could in his injured side but Luke still didn’t let up. Unnoticed by either man, Bo and Jesse followed by Cooter had come out of the woods behind them.

Bo took in the sight in front of him in one glance and ran towards his older cousin, yelling his name, followed closely by Cooter and Uncle Jesse. When Bo reached Luke’s side, he grabbed his cousin’s arm trying to get him to break his choke hold on Rusty’s throat but Luke refused to stop. He didn’t even seem to be aware of Bo’s presence or hear him yelling his name.

“Come on, Luke!” Bo yelled, grabbing Luke’s arm again “Let up! You’re gonna kill him!”

By that time, Jesse and Cooter had reached them. Cooter and Jesse both grabbed Luke from behind and pulled him backwards. It took both of them to finally pull Luke off of Rusty, who immediately started coughing as he struggled to regain his breath. Bo grabbed his arm and roughly pulled him to his feet, glancing anxiously at his older cousin who had collapsed in Uncle Jesse’s arms. Luke was breathing heavily and his eyes were closed but at least he was alive. Cooter pulled his portable CB out of his jacket pocket and quickly called for Rosco and an ambulance.

Enos arrived at the same time as the ambulance and took custody of Rusty. Luke  opened his eyes as the paramedics lifted him out of Uncle Jesse’s arms and  put him on the stretcher. As they loaded him into the back of the ambulance, Bo climbed in beside him and held his hand on the way to the Tri-County Hospital. Jesse told Bo that he would meet them at the hospital.

At the hospital, Bo had to wait in the waiting room while a doctor looked at Luke. He was soon joined by Cooter, Jesse, Daisy, and some other friends who had been helping in the search for Luke. It wasn’t long before Doc Applebee came out to find them.

“How’s Luke?” Jesse asked anxiously

“He’ll be fine. It took 12 stitches to close the gash in his shoulder, sixteen to close the one in his side and 6 in his forearm, but luckily the knife missed all the vital parts.” Doc told them “He did lose a lot of blood and I gave him 2 pints to build his blood volume back up. I wanna keep him here for a couple of days just as a precaution to make sure those wounds don’t get infected. But, he should be good as new in a week or so.”

“Thanks Doc.” Jesse said gratefully “Can we see him?”

“Of course. He’s in room 216, third door on the left just down the hall.” Doc told them “He might be a little groggy….I gave him something for the pain.”

The rest of the Duke family along with Cooter went down the hall to Luke’s room. He was propped up in bed with two pillows behind his back and dressed in a hospital gown.   He grinned when he saw his family. “Hey…” he said softly

“Doc says you can go home in a couple of days.” Jesse told him “And you’ll be good as new in a week or so.”

“I know. He told me.”

“Rosco said to tell ya that they got Jamie and Rusty both in jail and that Jamie confessed to everything.” Cooter told him. He grinned and dug a set of keys out of his pocket, tossing them to Bo “By the way, the keys to The General. He’s ready to come home. He misses ya….”

They all laughed. It looked like things were finally back to normal in Hazzard County. At least for now.

THE END