Everything was dark. Everything hurt, and everything tasted like blood. My head pounded, my arm throbbed, my jaw ached, and my back felt like it was caving in on me. It hurt to breathe; it hurt not to breathe. It hurt to move, it hurt to sit still.

It took me a long time to finally realize that the reason it was so dark was because my eyes were still closed. I forced them open. It was nearly dusk; the sun was setting.

I racked my brain to remember what had happened. There was yelling…panic…falling. My mind slowly pieced it together.

Once I had it figured out, my mind moved on to more intense things. Like the pain in my entire body.

I looked around, avoiding looking at myself. I glanced out the window, only to realize that the General had landed on his wheels, amazingly. I was still buckled in; I could feel the belt practically choking me. The windshield was completely gone, as was the back window. From what I could see from the passenger's seat, the hood was crumpled up pretty good.

I suddenly had the nerve to look myself over. I glanced down and immediately felt my stomach turn over.

My shirt was bloody, partially near my ribcage and partially from the blood dripping from my face. My right arm was a mess…such a mess that it came really close to causing me to lose my lunch.

It bled, it was twisted around, and there was a spot on the underside of my wrist, where most of the blood was coming from, where I could see an edge of my bone, plain as day.

I would have looked into a mirror to see why my head hurt so much, but all the glass had shattered in the crash.

I groaned from the agony of it all, surprised that I didn't have tears streaming down my face. But then again, how could I be sure I didn't?

Panic jolted my entire body as I quite suddenly remembered Bo. My head jerked to the left, causing more pain in my head, but I ignored it.

Bo was sprawled partially across the emergency brake. Blood soaked hair covered her face, and more blood was so plentiful that I couldn't even tell where it was coming from. I felt emotional pain as well as panic as I whispered to her, then began to scream at her.

She didn't respond.

I undid my seat belt with my left hand and searched her neck for a pulse. I was shaking so bad that I couldn't find one to save my life.

"Bo, don't do this to me…come on, hon, you've gotta be okay." I muttered this mostly to keep myself, laid-back and relaxed old Luke, calm as I remembered the CB.

I found the radio, but since we were stuck in a ditch the size of Texas without an antenna, there was no signal whatsoever. I tried calling everyone in Georgia on every darn channel there was, until finally I managed to rip the cord out completely.

Oh, gosh, this is so bad. I have to stay calm…I have to relax and think. Stop shaking Lucchese! Stop it right now! I made the mistake of looking at Bo again. If tears hadn't been flowing earlier, they were now.

I pondered for at least an hour and a half. I thought of every option under the sun. But, finally, I settled on the only one that would work. I had to find help myself.

I twisted around and faced Bo's window, reaching my left hand behind me and to on the top of my window. Then with a lot of cussing, yelling, and pulling, I was sitting on the door.

My legs gave out as I slid out of the General. I yelled when I hit the ground, and tears burned a place somewhere around my lips. I gritted my teeth and thought of the saying: "Just LeDoux It!", so I stood and looked up the hill that we'd rolled down.

It wasn't huge, but the fact that Bo had been going so fast and then lost control was what had caused us to roll so hard.

I took a deep breath and winced. It hurt to just breathe; what had I done to myself? I forced those thoughts away and looked up the hill again, the back at the General. I needed to get up to the road and flag down another car.

The problem was, Timber Top road wasn't highly populated to begin with, but at night it was dead. Nonetheless, if I could just walk back towards Hazzard, I'd probably be able to find something or someone that could help.

I walked, (limped, actually) over to the driver's side of the General. From that side I could see that the driver's door, although welded shut, was mangled inward. I looked in at Bo.

"Don't worry, cousin. I'll get help if it's the last thing I do." As I turned and started up the hill, I decided that that had been a bad choice of words.

This hill was a normal sized hill. Great for sledding, if Hazzard got snow, and not horrible to climb up. Unless, of course, if your entire body hurt if you twitched a finger

It was slow work, and it took awhile. It was completely dark by the time I was on the pavement. I turned around and drew in a breath at the sight of the General. We'd gone quite a ways away from the bottom of the hill, and since it was dark, I could barely see the orange paint job. I knew for sure that any passing vehicle would have a hard time seeing it if they were looking for it, so anyone not looking for it would bypass it simply.

I took a short rest while I decided exactly what to do. I needed to get help fast, and the only way to do that was to go slow. Bo needed help a lot more than I did, and that was saying something.

I tripped, limped, dragged, cried, and even crawled along for what seemed like days. The pain was unbearable, and worry and shock mixed along with it caused me to pause and retch for a moment.

I finally stopped and tried to calm my shaking body. As I looked around, I realized I had made it pretty far, considering my condition. I couldn't see the bend in the road where we'd crashed, and I could see the sign up ahead that we'd flown past.

There had to be something soon. Another car, a farm, a semi-truck with a flat tire would have been a relief. But as far as I could see in the distance, either direction, there were no lights.

I sniffed, held my right arm to my chest, and began the slow walk that caused my ribs to ache. I had to get help for Bo. I had no other choice. I'd get help for her or I'd die trying.

Bo was more than a cousin; more than a sister. She was my best friend, the one I could trust with anything. The one I'd been through everything with. We'd stood together with our dads when we buried Uncle Jesse. We'd snuck into the tractor pull at the fair together when we didn't have enough to get through the gate legally. We just did everything together, and if we had to do something separately, we didn't enjoy it as much.

If she weren't okay, I wouldn't be okay. Ever. That's just the way it was. She was younger than I was, sure, but that didn't make a difference most of the time. Most of the time it worked out better that way.

I'd walk to Texas if it would save her life, and she'd do the same for me.

Anyway, I continued my walk, moving along the road slower than molasses in January. The only way I kept on the road was by the sound of my boots, because I couldn't see straight from the tears and the pain in my head.

I stopped again and wiped my eyes with my left hand, then clutched my right arm again. Devastation was starting to settle in; I was never going to get to Hazzard. But I couldn't, wouldn't just give up.

Four more steps, and God himself appeared on the road ahead. Okay, not really, but this was just as welcomed.

Headlights. On as bright as they went, coming a bit slowly, but coming nonetheless. I took a few more steps, waving at them with my good arm. The car sped up a bit, and I nearly died of relief when I recognized the vehicle.

It was the Mustang that we called Sally. She was red with flames and a ragtop, but that was pulled up that night. But, from the look of the height of the driver, it was my dad in the driver's seat.

The car screeched to a stop and my dad got out quick as lightning. I threw myself at him and he caught me.

"Lucchese, what happened? Are you alright? Why are you walking? Where's Bo? What happened to the General?"

Uncle Bo once told me that he'd never seen my dad get upset until he had me, and I guess that's true.

"Daddy," I wheezed with every word. "We crashed…bad. Down the hill on Timber Top road. Bo's hurt real bad, we've gotta get an ambulance."

"Yeah, for more than one person." He held me at arms length, then pulled me to him again. He half carried me over to Sally and sat in the driver's seat with me in his lap as he reached for the CB.

Review, or I'll delay the next chapter even longer, and then do something horrible to Bo. I mean it! Review!