by: Kristy Duke

I awaken to pain swarming throughout my stiff and aching body as I hear the guard’s sharp and threatening voice ring out besides me. I sigh tiredly as my mind races through me of the long amount of time I have been locked within these horrid walls. Anger flows through me like a raging river as I think of my boys back now, I was certain that they’d have at least attempted to come to my rescue. Way over a year now and no sign of them or no hearing of them trying to break in to save me. What could be taking them so long? Do they no longer care for their Uncle? Mind them, the uncle that had taken care of them since they were babies. What could be taking them so long? Perhaps they all have enjoyed their freedom over the farm they chose to forget me.

“Damn you,” I mutter toward myself in anger at myself for allowing myself to fall into paranoia over my nephews and nieces in knowledge they would never do t hat to me, they do care for me. But where are they? Why aren’t they trying to save me? Did they kill them throughout the year? No, please no, not them. Silently I stare at the old dusty wooden wall as I pray for my family that lies in the freedom of these ugly walls that I stare at day in and day out.

Suddenly a loud cry rings out on the opposite side of the room followed by harsh wheezing. “Hey…give…me that!” opposes the wheezy breathing person across the room. But who? My thoughts rush to my youngest nephew who suffers greatly from asthma. “That’s mi. . .mine!”

“Not any more it isn’t!” I hear the guard laughs before a loud slap echos off the thin walls.

Slowly and stiffly I force myself to sit up upon the thin and torn cot that I had fallen asleep upon a while ago. Silently I take in Bryceton who remains wobbly in the corner instead of by my side as he normally sits. I sigh as I think of the harsh life he has been given, only knowing pain and hatred the five years of his life.

I gasp in surprise as I see my youngest blond haired nephew sitting on the wall across from the bed, his head staring silently at the ground. My heart aches at seeing the thick cast upon his hand up to under his elbow, his face bruised and cut up. My imagination plays wildly within me at all that he could have wen through as I watch his chest heaving in and out in his struggle for air and I notice that the guard has pocketed his inhaler.

Softly I take a deep breath as I slowly climb off the bed and walk over to where he sits and kneel silently besides him. “Bo,” I whisper my surprise and I feel Bryceton’s soft green eyes in wonderment upon us.

Slowly, Bo forces his head up to look at me and I notice the tears that streak down his bruised face. His baby blue eyes brighten up in joy at seeing me, through his joy and excitement at seeing me, I see the great pain and fear that he is filled with. “Uncle Jesse!” he exclaims jumping up to hug me and I hear him gasp in pain. Slowly he lets go before sitting back down upon the dusty dirt floor. “I’m sorry.”

“For what?” I ask as I ache to know what they did to him.
He shrugs as he lets the silence build between us. “For not knowing,” he finally responds.

“Not knowing what?” I finally ask as I realize he wasn’t going to go on, “Please tell me, explain to me.”

He looks at me with uncertainty in his eyes before glaring angrily at the guard before looking back at me. “For not knowing you was…well here,” he shrugs, “we thought. . .we thought you were dead. I mean I went home to check on you when you didn’t answer Daisy’s calls, well cause, Luke tol’ me to. And you was, ” he pauses as tears build up to roll down his cheeks, “well someone dressed to be you, was shot dead in the living room. There was a funeral and all for you.”

“It’s OK,” I sigh comforting him as I draw him in a hug as he dries his face of his cheeks of his tears. Slowly I let go of him to take him in for a long moment, “It’s not your fault, nor Luke’s. No need for an apology Bo.”

“Maybe,” Bo shrugs as he looks over at Bryceton.

“Hey Bryce,” I call out motioning him over and he slowly gets up to walk over to us, “this is one that I tol’ you about, my nephew Bo. Bo this is Bryceton.”

With that the small and frail boy throws his arms around Bo silently and Bo glances questionably at me before hugging him back. Slowly the boy lets go to sit next to Bo, glaring oddly around. “Bryceton is an autistic five year old boy,” I finally inform Bo, “sweetest thing, too bad he has to be here, to live with this!”

Bo nods in understanding as his unknown story seems to play invisibly to me in his head. I sigh wishing I could read his thoughts as more tears run down his face as his body visibly shake either out of pain or fear. “He cryin’?” Bryce says slowly and I am surprised to hear him talk, knowing how long it had taken him to get use to me to even say a word.

Bo glares at him as Bryce trails Bo’s tears with his index finger before he gently pushes Bryce’s thin arm away. “Yeah he’s crying a bit,” I answer as I put Bryce in my lap before Bo wipes them away himself, “You wanna talk about it? About what all happened?”

He looks at me then accusingly at the guard that sits there smiling evilly at Bo and my anger grows within me. “They shot Luke to get to me,” Bo finally speaks up, “after I was released from the hospital, they shot him,” he pauses again, “and Luke made me run and hide from them…guess not fast enough; again.”

His fear and worry runs into me as I stare at his trembling body as he stares at the floor, his flashbacks seem to be flooding his eyes. “Look, Luke’s tough,” I try to comfort him with failure,”he’ll make it out of it before you know it, just have confidences in him.”

“Yeah maybe,” he sighs silently as he visibly fights to stay awake as Bryceton slowly gets up from my lap. Together we watch as he goes to a small chest and takes out a large light brown teddy bear that is visibly soft and fluffy.
“You can hug this, Bo,” Bryceton smiles at him, “he helps me when I’m sad, doesn’t it work, Uncle Jesse?”

Bo glares up at me at Bryceton calling me his uncle before taking the bear for a short moment before giving it back. “No thanks, you have it,” Bo responds as silence returns to the room.
~ROSCO COLTRANE~

I sigh tiredly as I stare silently down at a couple of reports that lies ahead of me upon my old scarred and scratched desk. My mind wanders through the past year and all that it has brought upon Hazzard due to Hogg’s dirty greed for money. I pray silently that Drake will be caught soon and to be put away in order to keep harm from Hazzard, any more than what he has already committed. If only I had the courage to stop him when he had entered Hazzard, Jesse wouldn’t be dead right now and Bo as hurt as he is. If only I had stopped Hogg in his deals with him, it all wouldn’t have gotten this far. But of course, like normal, I was too chicken to stop Drake from doing anything and instead just listened to his plans and gullibly tried to believe him when he promised no one would get hurt or worse.

I glare up from my paper work as the office door is thrown open and I sigh in relief at seeing Frank Mills standing there with another man of his. Frank’s thick creamy blue eyes stares coldly at me for a long moment as his thick muscular arms lies crossed over his thick chest. “Oh Frank,” I sigh hoping that he brings good news, “I thought we would meet somewhere to talk, anywhere but here! If Hogg-”

“I don’t need your grief sheriff!” he snaps at me before glaring at the other man that stands a couple of inches taller than him with a dark brown complexion and intense dark brown eyes. “No one saw us and even if they did, I am beyond the point of caring! We need to talk, now you decide where!”

I look at him in confusement before I find the courage to speak, “Uh we could go across the street to that garage, ol’ Coot has an office up there that is barely in use.”

“Well, let’s go,” Frank says and I stiffly stand up as Hogg steps out of his office.

“Where you going Rosco?” Hogg orders tiredly.

“Out for patrol,” I answer wearily before I walk out and closing the door behind me. Following the two FBI agents down the long brightly lit hall my mind races in anxiety as I wonder what all this could be about. Walking out into the cold winter day I glare around before following them across the vacant street to Cooter’s garage where I find him working silently upon a farmer’s old truck. “Hey Cooter,” I greet him.

“Oh hi Rosco,” he smile stiffly at me as he takes in Frank and his man seriously before looking at me, “What can I do for y’all?”

“We need to a quiet place to talk, could we by chance use that office there?” I ask pointing to the windowless and closed in office that lies up the wooden stairs, “Is it empty?”

For a long moment he glares at the three of us with questioning eye before he puts down his tool. “Look these boys the FBI that’s been asking around ’bout Bo and Luke?”

“Yeah so what’s yer point Cooter?!” I snap at him.

“Look them Dukes are like family to me and if this deals with them, I want to be in it! You can use my empty office, but I want to come along if you use it,” Cooter inquires, “I may not be no FBI agent or officer of the law, but I want to help put them jackasses where they belong!”

I look at Frank who glares angrily at Cooter who stands unbudgingly against the old Ford truck. Slowly Frank nods at him and we all follow Cooter up the old wobbly sitars to where he opens the old office to find it to be occupied by an old wooden desk to our right with an old wooden chair, an holey green couch lies against the right wall while in the left corner stands a small refrigerator by a small wobbly table that holds cups and a coffee machine. Quickly, Frank takes the chair behind the desk while the officer sits down upon the couch and I hesitantly sit next to him while Cooter chooses to stand.

“What’s this about, Frank?” I order after a moment of silence.

“Well to our new comer,” Frank answers testily, “I am Sergeant FBI agent Frank Mills who is in charge of this operation, this is one of my men, FBI agent Jackson Jebel; one of my best…though we only have the best down here in Hazzard at the moment.”

“Very comforting,” I answer sarcastically, “especially when we have a killer running freely around my country. Now what is this urgent meeting about, Mills?”

“Settle down Coltrane, your snapping attitude won’t help matters any,” he resorts glaring at me with his cold and hard eyes as he rolls up the sleeves half way to his elbows to his sky blue wool sweater, “Bo was to be released from the hospital yesterday, right?”

“And he didn’t?” Cooter cuts in worriedly.

“Yes he was released, but upon exiting the hospital Luke was shot in the chest in order for the gun men to get to Bo,” Frank says matter of factly, “Bo ran and hid, but they seemed to find Bo in the caves where there was signs of a struggle before the bad guys won enough to kidnap Bo.”

“Kidnaped?” I chirp in, “That don’t make no sense what so ever after trying to kill him only weeks ago.”

“Nothing with Drake makes sense to anyone but him I guess,” Frank sighs rubbing his eyes, “we are desperately trying to find their hideout before it is too late seeing how the destination of their hideout you gave us before now lies vacant.”

“Damn,” I say silently.
“How’s Luke?” Cooter speaks up from his post.

“They think he will be fine, just missed his heart and his surgery to get the bullet out went well,” Frank answers, “When we find his hideout, we will have to move in quickly in order to get Drake out and arrested before he is able to hurt anyone else.”

“But won’t he spook? Perhaps killing Bo?” I ask frantically.’

“That is always a risk, but he could be dead now, there is no telling,” Frank answers, “Do you know anywhere else he could be?”

I shrug hopelessly as I am filled with fear for the Duke Boys as I silently think of how Bo must be feeling. “I don’t know,” I sigh.

“That is what I figured,” Frank responds looking around the room, “I have men looking and searching Hazzard as we speak and once we find it, we are moving in. I’m sorry.”

I gulp in fear before my anger kicks in, anger towards myself for not stopping Hogg from working with such an violent person to anger toward Hogg for bringing him into Hazzard to work with him. “Damn it!” Cooter yells glaring at Frank, “You ain’t the best of nothing! How can you call yourselves the best if that is the best you can do?! Bo is like a brother to me and you are just gonna let him be shot to shreds just to get your men? As if the Dukes haven’t been through enough as it is, just let the youngest get shot to death without a second thought!”

“Look we are trying our best, Cooter,” Frank sighs, ” We will try not to risk him, but there is always a risk unless we can make him escape before hand. Which is most likely won’t happen.”

“Trying your best? Not when it will get Bo shot to death, you know what that will do to Luke?” Cooter yells, “Probably not and most likely don’t care about that either!”

Frank sighs at seeing the mechanic’s anger flare in his brown eyes before glaring around the room. “Look, it won’t help to get upset at us, especially not now Cooter! We don’t even know where they’re hiding and by the time we do, he may already be dead,” Frank answers cooly, “Drake won’t stop at anything which means he’ll kill anyone at anytime for anything or nothing at all. He needs to be stopped.”

“Yeah, but Bo don’t need to go down with him!” Cooter yells.

“He may already be dead!” Frank yells in his face, “Look, we’ll let you know Cooter, but you are not to move in this matter any…this takes a professional touch or else you may be his next victim.”

“If you say so,” Cooter shrugs angrily moving the door.

“Where you going?” Frank snaps at him.

“To see Luke, is that illegal?” Cooter snaps sarcastically before slamming the door shut behind him.
~BO DUKE~

Slowly I awaken to my whole body throbbing in intense pain to find myself lying in a tight ball upon the old torn cot that lies in the right corner of the cold dirty room. Tears still sting my eyes as I stare at the dirty wall only a few inches ahead of me while Jesse silently talks to the little boy and the chair the guard sits on squeaks with his movement. My mind wanders thought to thought of the past year or so to force fear swarming through my body. I sob back more tears as I think of the cruel beating I had receive before I had blacked out from Drake, a beating I had receive after refusing to go with him. If only I had cooperated…

“Bo,” Jesse sighs walking up to me, “how you feel?”

“Leave me alone,” I sigh wishing I could disappear as my mind switches from the beating I had receive from a bat to Luke getting shot. If I hadn’t ran from him after that fight we had, I wouldn’t have seen what I saw and Luke wouldn’t have gotten shot. What if he is seriously hurt? What if he is dead? Daisy could be attending a funeral right now or soon if they killed him…killed him to get to me. If only…

Jesse sighs loudly behind me as the child climbs onto my bed and I feel both pairs of eyes upon me.

Luke Duke

The room grows silent as Frank Mills slowly closes the door behind him as he exits my room with a couple of his men. My mind races of all that Frank had to tell us to create anger and fear boiling within me. Slowly I glance over at Cooter who stands at the right side of my bed to find him glaring down at the linoleum flooring with anger flooding his dark brown eyes.

“Cooter, I need you to do me a favor,” I finally speak up and he glares at me, “a huge favor.”

“What’s that?” he questions, his voice thick with fear.

“I need you to help me escape out of this place,” I answer.

“Oh no, I can’t do that,” he says in a dreadful voice, “I can’t do that Luke, no matter how much I want to help you. That guard out there, I can’t get past him and he sure won’t let you walk out of here. I’m sorry.”

“Just distract the guy and I do the rest myself,” I answer grabbing some of my own stubbornness.

“I’m sorry, Luke,” Cooter says looking around as if he may grab some answers out of the air.

“Yeah I bet you are!” I yell feeling my temper fling as my mind races in thoughts of Bo, “If you won’t help me, Cooter, I will find my own way out of here! I will be damned if I lie here and allow them to put my cousin in risk as their plan will! I don’t care, what it takes, I will get out of here to save my cousin, my best friend! And if. . .if it’s too late, well somebody better be there to stop me from doing something I may later regret!”

“Luke-” Cooter starts to say.

“Look, I know Drake’s dangerous and so is his men…the dang FBI keep rubbing it in our faces, that is even better reason to help Bo. I ain’t about to lie here and do nothing to help my cousin…no, I will get out of here and I will search for my cousin, even if it is by myself,” I continue to allow my temper to have a hold of me, “The FBI can either help me and we can work together, or I will work by myself; but I can’t and I refuse to lie here thinking of what they are doing to my cousin while feeling guilt, fear, and anger. I will save him if it is the last thing I do, Cooter, with your help or without your help. What about it?”

“I’m in,” he sighs uncomfortably, “but I am uncomfortable with going against the FBI and what they say, especially since we know they are dangerous.”

“Well what is the FBI doing that is so great?” I ask impatiently, “Look, I know they are doing what they think is the best plan, but there has to be something else that we can do and we will do it.”

Silently he nods as he looks at the machine then back to me. “What do you want me to do?” Cooter asks.

“I want you to go out there and distract him, take him down stairs or something to give me time to change and slip out of here,” I sigh, “I am none to happy about this myself, but it is something we got to do…look, I’ll leave a note telling him what we are doing. That’ll get Frank unhappy, but oh well.”

“I’ll try,” Cooter sighs heading to the door.

For a long moment I lie staring at the ceiling listening to Cooter talk to the FBI agent that sits outside my door, praying that I will find a way out of here. Listening to them talk back and forth I grab a pen and paper that lies on the night stand and quickly write something down. Slowly I let a long breath out as I hear the agent’s chair squeak as he gets up and begins to follow Cooter down the hall. Quickly I yank the tube out of my nose and the IVs out of my arms feeling my breathing grow shallow without the tube. I sigh impatiently as I climb out of bed and rush to the closet to get some clothes Cooter had brought me and quickly put them on.

After a moment, I find myself dressed and standing nervously by the closed door before I force myself out into the brightly lit hall. Quickly I rush over to the silver door elevators and push the down button. Waiting for the doors to open I nervously look down the halls until it opens and I walk into the large elevators to be swallowed by the thick doors slamming shut. Riding down, my mind quickly races in thoughts of our next move, on what to do to save my cousin before they kill him.

~FRANK MILLS~

Silently, I stare out of the small window that lies in the back wall of the wooden cottage type building my men and I have been occupying for the past few weeks. My mind runs numbly from thought to thought of what had brought us here and all that we have ran into, all that we have learned up to this point. I stare off into the thick dense forest that lines up a few feet behind the building as small flakes of snow slowly make their way to the frozen ground. My mind concentrates stubbornly upon the young Duke boy and upon Drake who we had been looking for, for so long now. Anger and fear rush through me at the horrorfying thoughts that invade my imagination of all that Drake could be doing to the young Duke boy; anger and fear that I had never allowed myself to feel in any other case, for either victim or the enemy. Why now? What makes Bo any more different than the other victims I have come along in the past, that I had been assigned to their case?

Abruptly I am jolted from my thoughts, from my grave anger and fear by the annoying ring of my cell phone. Quickly, I pick it up and answer it on the third ring. “Sergeant Mills,” I say coldly into the phone.

“He’s gone,” I recognize the heavy male’s voice as being the guard I assigned to the older cousin, Luke’s room.

“He’s gone?” I half snarl into the phone feeling my emotions ring through me, “How can he be gone? How could they get to him with you there guarding the door?! Look -”

“Settle down sergeant,” the man half way laughs on the other line.

“Settle down? How do you expect me to settle down when we have a dangerous murderer on our hands killing off innocent civilians!” I yell into the cell phone.

“They didn’t get him sergeant, what I mean is Drake nor his men grabbed or killed Luke; at least not right now that is,” he sighs on the other end, “that mechanic in town, the family friend, uh can’t remember his name at the moment-”

“Cooter?” I question.

“Yeah that’s him,” he answers and I imagine a large smirk on his face, “anyways he came in, well he was here with you. But he came out and talked to me, a real nice guy. You know?”

“Sure why not,” I answer impatiently, “just get to the point officer!”

“Yes sir…well anyways, he offered to buy my lunch, and well, I was hungry,” he answers, “I tried to tell him no, but couldn’t. So I followed him to the café and he bought my lunch for me. When I brought my lunch and drink up to the room, Luke was gone. He left a note saying he can’t lie in the hospital while his cousin is in danger.”

“Damn it!” I yell, “You were suppose to keep heads on him! You know what will happen if he finds Drake before us…if he goes snooping around!”

“Well he says, that we can either work with him or he will search by himself,” the young officer says, clearly shook by my yelling, “Look sergeant, I already searched the grounds and had people looking too. He’s gone and so is the Cooter guy.”
“Damn it!” I yell again looking out into the woods to find a squirrel running from one tree to another, “Darryl, I want you here now! I told you to guard his room and you failed at doing so! This is a dangerous case and only the best is allowed on it…and the best don’t follow their stomachs, but by orders!”

“Look sergeant-”

“Get here NOW!” I yell hanging up to find everyone looking at me in disbelief before going back to what they are doing.

“He’s gone?” asks Sergeant Treyton Beiker who works partially with me and partially on his own, “Luke slipped out?”

“Yeah,” I sigh wearily, “Darryl allowed Cooter to talk him away from the room so the Duke could walk right out of the hospital without anyone stopping him. You believe that? Now Luke is on his own mission to help save his cousin…says we can either work with him or he will work on his own.”

“Well with that option open,” Treyton sighs running his muscular hand through his light brown hair, “I say we work with him, we can use all the help we can use.”

“Yeah I know,” I sigh watching the squirrel run up the tree, “but we can’t endanger him either, which would be doing if we worked with him.”

“He’d be endanger working by himself, more so if you ask me. At least if he works with us, then we can look out for him as well,” Treyton shrugs looking at me in concern, “besides we can use his talent, the boy is an retired Marine man with war experience…had word with his higher up officer and he had only the best to say about him. The guy has talent and we can use his talent and his smarts…one of the toughest and smartest his captain had seen and worked for. Got wounded and returned home after seven and a half years of service.”

I nod in agreement, knowing he is right. “Well I guess that is what we have to do, work with Luke,” I sigh thinking of what this will lead to, “Drake needs to be stopped, and now!”

“I know that Frank, we all know that,” Treyton falls silent for a long moment and I glance over at him to find him watching me, “I can’t believe what I am witnessing here, Frank. You actually have feelings for the family of this case, for the victims. You of all people never allowed anyone or anything of a case get to you, get personal or close to you. And now…why?”

I look at him, not knowing if I should try to cover it up or to tell the truth. “I don’t know, Trey,” I sigh tiredly, “I really don’t know why…I fear losing the young Duke boy, angry at Drake for kidnaping and hurting him. I don’t know what it is with this case…perhaps I am getting old and mushy.”

“You?” he grins, “You old and mushy? Never. We all have our cases we fall close to and let our emotions take over, this is just your case.”

“Well I don’t like it none,” I answer.
“None of us do, for falling close to the victims only bring pain and heart ache, but it happens no matter how hard you fight it,” Trey answers seriously, “I had my own cases I fell close to and the emotions just took over me, several cases.” He goes silently in thought for a long moment, “And Frank, we’ll get Drake and stop him and his men if it is the last thing we do. We all are in this with you Frank, it’s not just you who want to yank the Duke boy out of this alive and we will try our damnest to do so.”

~LUKE DUKE~

My mind races from thought to thought as I stare silently out of The General’s clean windshield in a half trance. I gasp in pain as I turn to look out through the passenger side window to find Cooter slowly tredging along from his old shack like garage. “You know I am beginning to regret doing that favor for you,” he comments as he forces himself through the passenger’s open window.

“What? You too is willing to sit by and wait for Bo’s dead body to show up somewhere?” I ask harshly feeling the pain tremble down my body, “Well, I for one refuse to sit and do nothing while they torture him! You are either with me or not with me…you better make up your mind now Cooter, for I ain’t turning back! And for your information, if you hadn’t helped me escape out of the damn hospital, I would have found my own way out!”

Besides me, I hear him take a long sigh to calm himself down before saying, “I know you would have, that is why I did help you before you tried doing something stupid to get out of there. You aren’t doing Bo no good if you wind up dead…or hurt for that matter!” for a moment he goes silent as he glances out his window at the hills that lies off in the distance, looking as if it were lost in the light white fluffy clouds. “What’s your plan, Luke? Of finding Bo? Or of rescuing him for that matter?! The feds are being this caustious for a reason and that reason being is that Drake is DANGEROUS!”

“Another reason to move in and save my cousin,” I snap as horrid pictures float in my mind of all that he could be doing to him to force my anger to escalate within me, “and as of now, I don’t know what to do or where to start; but I will think of something if it is the last thing I do.”

“It could be the last thing you…we do,” Cooter comments sourly besides me, “YOu know if Hogg would just go to being honest and stop trusting people he don’t know to do his evil works, we would never be faced with situations like this!”

“Well that just wouldn’t be Hogg if he didn’t do such things, ” I comment abuot the local commissioner, “Where all has the feds been looking for clues?”

“Uh around here is all I know, they got men in surrounding counties as well, but by the look of things he’s still in Hazzard,” Cooter responds, “so it is pretty much limited, but a matter of finding it.”

“They looked throughout Hazzard already and no clue of finding them? Where was his last hide out?” I ask seriously.
“Uh that old shack farm house and barn that use to belong to Felix Ferrera and to his wife Lucy before Lucy died and their kids placed Felix in the nursing home in town,” Cooter informs me, “On Cottonmill Road.”

“Well that is the first place we’ll check,” I smile at him.

“Frank and his boys already check, they found nothin’,” Cooter chimes in as the chilly spring air brushes against my skin to send chills racing up and down my body.

“Frank and his boys are city boys, there just might be more than what meets the eye,” I wink at him, “besides it is just a place to start at.”

We ride to the old Ferrera place in silence as my mind races from thought to though in hope that we find Bo alive. My chest swells within me at the thought of losing him to the same men that killed our uncle and I sigh thinking of a future without him, once more.

“Here we are,” Cooter breaks the silence as I park the General on the road ahead of their dirt drive way.

“Yep…keep an eye out for anything,” I say as we both climb out of the car’s open windows.

“Yes sir Mr. Luke,” Cooter laughs jokingly as we walk through the muddy grass that leads up to the wooden farm house that was once painted white. I sigh remembering how it was before I left for war, how peaceful it seemed here on their farm and so friendly.

“Knock it off, let’s go,” I scorn him as we walk up to the old wooden porch together before he walks in, leaving me outside. Silently I glance around before noticing thick tire tracks in the dirt drive way, slowly I walk painfully to the two large tracks.

“Cooter!” I finally yell out to send him running out, “Look at these tracks.”

“Yeah so…they probably already checked them out,” Cooter states, “prolly some four by four truck.”

“That too,” I smile cleverly, “but look closer to the mud to the substance on the first layer of the tracks.”

For a while we both feel the mud silently before Cooter gasps in shock. “That’s right…swamp mud,” I state, “I bet the feds didn’t take that in when checking it out. Which means, their hide out, their new one, is in or near the swamp!”

“Holy cow!” Cooter gasps, “How the -”

“I don’t know, but that is our next stop…or our next place to look at least,” I sigh standing up.

“Not without calling the FBI, Luke,” Cooter says standing up besides me, “This gang, Drake they are serious. I don’t care how much you will do to save your cousin, you won’t do it by getting yourself killed and that is exactly what will happen if you go into this alone with nothing to protect yourselves. Or ourselves with.”

“Relax Cooter, I got dynamite bow and arrows in the trunk,” I sigh walking back to the car, “but I will call the FBI and Frank…we may need some help. I ain’t dumb ya know.”

“I know,” he sighs, “but I also know that you are willing to do about anything to save Bo.”