Past Regrets Chapter 9

Tyler watched his father being swept away for only one second. It took a second more for Tyler to spring in to action and dive in to the cold water after Bo.

From his vantage point, Ty could see that Bo was trying to keep his head above water, but between the current and the sharp rocks he kept banging in to, it just seemed to be a losing battle, and not only that, Ty knew that if he couldn't reach Bo soon, they both would be swept over the fast approaching waterfall.

Not caring how achy and slightly confused he felt inside, Tyler grit his teeth and dove under the water, working with the current so it practically shot him over towards Bo.

Finally after several seconds, Tyler brought his head up and gulped in a lot of air before he looked around for Bo.

He spotted the Duke boy just beyond arm's reach.

"Dad…m'coming, keep…keep yer head above water!" Tyler said as he kicked as hard as he could.

Reaching out, Tyler brushed then grabbed on to Bo's drenched yellow shirt and used that to pull him the last crucial inches forward before he locked on to Bo's arm.

"I got'cha!" Tyler said with relief as he now had a new objective. Look for a fallen tree, or a good, strong branch, strong enough that Bo could grab a hold of and pull himself out of the current, and hopefully out of the river.

"Tyler." Bo said in between coughs and gasps for breath. Raising a hand out of the water, Bo gestured towards a newly fallen tree by the side of the stream. Upon a visual inspection, Tyler guessed that the roots had corroded away over time and the tree had just toppled over fairly recently.

Already pretty exhausted from trying to keep them both afloat, Tyler managed to turn himself and Bo towards the tree, and more importantly the low branch sticking out over the water.

Propelling himself as fast as he could, Tyler managed to get them in line with the tree so all they had to do was wait for the current to carry them to it, which it did within seconds.

Quickly, Tyler forced Bo's arms forward and held on to the man as he clutched at the branch.

But just as Bo was putting his full weight on the branch, it snapped, sending them both back down in to the water, and the current.

The bad part was, Tyler had already lost his hold on Bo a few seconds before the limb had snapped, so he was already a little ways ahead of Bo as they headed for the waterfall.

Tyler, for his part tried to swim against the current and reach the shore, but by then the current was far to strong.

With one final gasp of air, Tyler managed to look behind him at his father before he was swept over the edge.

Bo followed a scant six seconds later and joined his son at the rocky bottom of the waterfall.

DOHDOHDOHDOHDOHDOHDOHDOHDOHDOHDOHDOHDOHDOHDOHDOH

Luke was getting very worried about Bo. He should have been back by now, even if he hadn't caught up with the kid.

From the very beginning of the chase, from the moment Bo had shouted out, Luke had know that Tyler had been caught trying to escape.

Luke had bolted outside in time to see Bo give chase and follow the boy straight out of the Duke farmland.

Now, nearly an hour and a half later, Luke had a feeling that something had gone wrong, that one or both of them were in deep trouble.

'I should go look for them. But didn't Bo say not to worry?' Luke thought as he rose up from the couch.

'Yes, no, yes, no, yes, no…yes…no!' Luke kept telling himself. It was a battle of wills going on, with Luke's gut telling him to go looking, and his head telling him to stay put and wait.

Knowing Bo's almost reliability to get in trouble, Luke's gut finally won out.

Walking outside, Luke headed over to Dixie, since it could go places the General couldn't.

He slipped inside the jeep, started it up, and then went in search of Bo and Tyler.

DOHDOHDOHDOHDOHDOHDOHDOHDOHDOHDOHDOHDOHDOHDOHDOH

Meanwhile, about a half mile from the waterfall, in the shallow waters floated two bodies.

Slowly the waters carried them down until they both washed up on shore, a few inches from each other.

By then Bo had woken up. The first thing he noticed was that he was not moving, the second thing he noticed was that he was more or less out of the water.

Rising up on his elbows, Bo looked down at himself and saw that his legs were still in the water.

'Funny, I don't feel the water at all.' Bo thought as he tried to move his legs out of the water.

But when he tried to move his legs, nothing happened. They didn't move one single inch.

Starting to panic, Bo tried again and again with the same results.

'Oh no…no! I can't be…' He thought to himself.

He didn't want to accept the fact that he was paralyzed, especially not now!

Remembering that there had been someone else with him, Bo looked to the right and saw the body of a boy laying just 12 inches away.

Scooting over on his hands, Bo managed to reach Tyler's side and gently shake his shoulder.

"Tyler, wake up. We need to get home." Bo said.

When Tyler didn't move or make any sound whatsoever, Bo began to get a little dismayed and frightened at the whole situation.

With a trembling hand, Bo shook Tyler's shoulder again.

"Come on Ty, please wake up. We gotta get home." Bo repeated.

Still Tyler didn't move or speak.

Finally with tears running down his face, Bo lowered his head and started to really bawl his eyes out because he thought that his son was dead, and that it had been his fault.

"BO!...TYLER!"

Bo raised his head and blinked past the tears as he looked up the ridge, trying to figure out who had spoken.

"BO! WHERE ARE YA?!"

"LUKE! M'DOWN HERE! WE NEED HELP!" Bo yelled back, finally recognizing the voice of his older cousin.

When Bo saw the face of his cousin, he was never more happy in his life.

With a forced smile on his face, Bo watched as Luke came down the small ridge and rushed over to his side.

"Are you alright?" He asked.

"No, I can't move my legs, but ya gotta help Tyler." Bo said as he, once again, touched Tyler's shoulder.

Reaching over, Luke checked for a pulse and gave a sigh of relief when he felt one.

"Is…is he alive?" Bo asked.

Luke nodded his head. "Yeah he's alive. Listen, I'm gonna take him up and get him to Dixie, then I'm gonna come back for you. Then I'll take you both to the hospital." He said.

Bo nodded his head in agreement before he watched as Luke carefully picked Tyler up and carried him up the ridge to the jeep.