by: Marty Chrisman

Bo fought his way out of the darkness clouding his mind. He moaned softly as his eyes slowly fluttered open. He cried out in pain when he tried to shift positions in his seat and felt a sharp stabbing pain in his left side which he knew meant he had probably broken some ribs. It took a few minutes for his mind to clear enough for him to remember where he was and what had happened. He heart started pounding frantically in his chest when he remembered that the plane had crashed.

His eyes quickly darted towards the pilots seat and then he quickly looked away. Benny was obviously dead. His head was twisted at an odd angle and his face was covered with blood. Suddenly, Bo remembered that Luke had been sitting in the back seat. Despite the pain in his side, he turned in his seat so he could look behind him. Luke was lying across the back seats, still out cold. His face was pale and there was a deep gash over his right eye that was bleeding freely.

“Luke!” Bo called out loudly trying to rouse his unconscious cousin “Luke, can you hear me?” When Luke didn’t respond, he tried again “Lukas Kristopher Duke!” he said loudly using Luke’s full name. “Come on, cuz….wake up!” Still no response. Bo started to get scared worried that Luke was seriously injured. “Luke, dang it! Wake up!”

He cried urgently. Tears of relief gathered in his eyes when Luke coughed softly and moved slightly. At least he wasn’t dead. Taking a deep breath, he tried again to get Luke to open his eyes “Luke, come on! Open your eyes!”

Luke’s eyes slowly opened and he struggled to focus his gaze on his cousin’s face. His lips moved forming Bo’s name but no sound came out of his mouth. “Luke, are you hurt?” Bo said, watching his cousin closely.

“My head hurts like hell….” Luke said in a weak voice “And I think I broke some ribs.”

“So did I.” Bo told him “And you must’ve hit your head, you got a pretty bad gash on your forehead.”

Luke raised his hand to touch his head and then looked at the blood on his hand with a puzzled frown. He was confused and disoriented and his whole body seemed to hurt. “How’s Benny?” he asked

“He didn’t make it.” Bo told him shaking his head

“What about the radio? Can you use it to call for help?”

Bo glanced at the control panel and shook his head “No, the whole control panels all tore up.” He looked back at his cousin and said with an edge of fear in his voice “What are we gonna do, Luke?”

“Bo, you have to stay calm…” Luke told him in a quietly soothing voice. He couldn’t afford for Bo to get hysterical right now. Luke had always been the strong one, the one who took care of and protected his two younger cousins and he automatically slipped into that role now. He knew he was seriously hurt but he also knew he couldn’t let Bo know just how badly he was injured. He knew that his younger cousin was already close to the edge. Summoning every ounce of will power that he possessed, Luke forced himself to sit upright in his seat. He bit the inside of his cheek so hard that it bled as his body screamed in protest as soon as he moved.

“You okay, Luke?” Bo asked noticing how white Luke’s face had gotten. Luke nodded his head unable to trust his voice at that moment to speak. He took several deep slow breathes to try and bring the pain down to a more manageable level. He laid his head back against the seat as a wave of dizziness swept over him. “I’m gonna try and come back there with you.” Bo told him in a determined voice.

“You be careful.” Luke told him. He didn’t try to talk him out of moving into the back seat with him. The truth was Luke needed Bo beside him right now.  “Don’t forget you’re hurt too….”

It took some doing and some maneuvering around but Bo finally managed to climb over the front seats and settled into the seat beside Luke. Luke smiled at his cousin weakly and for the first time Bo saw just how full of pain his older cousin’s eyes were. “Luke?” he said in an edgy voice

“Shhh….” Luke told him “I’ll be okay. We just need to stay in here and out of the weather till somebody finds us…”

Startled Bo looked out through the cracked windshield of the plane and saw the blizzard that was raging outside the downed aircraft. Suddenly, he realized how cold he was and he started to get scared. “Luke….what if they don’t find us?” he said looking at his cousin for reassurance and comfort just like he had always done since they were children.

“They’ll find us….” Luke told him “We just need to give ‘em some time…”