The CB was about as busy as the interstate. Channel nineteen was by far the worst. It was getting late, they'd been driving all day, Bo wanted to sleep for most of the day, but nevertheless, even if they did turn the radio off, the hundreds of other rigs kept him awake. Soon they were in the rocking chair of two trucks, then four, then six.
"Hey, not to stir somethin' up, but that rig look familiar to any of y'all?" A smooth voice asked over the CB.
"Painfully familiar." Another voice replied, one that sounded higher than the moon.
Bo and Luke exchanged glances.
"You got any idea what they're talkin' about?" Bo asked.
"Not really, cousin, not really." Luke replied, reaching for the CB.
"Listen, I'd rather not talk about this now, let's just wait 'til we're at the next truck stop, yeah?" A third voice butted in, this one an Italian accent.
"Don't leave yet, y'all ain't gonna believe this." Another voice announced.
"Lay it on us, Hot Grandpa." The smooth voice replied.
Bo and Luke exchanged glances at the trucker's handle.
"That rig's license plates match up. Now, either that's the same rig or somebody's idea of a sick joke." Hot Grandpa explained.
"You know it's gotta be the same rig, it looks the same as the one that disappeared from the ranch." A rough voice argued.
There was a long pause over the radio.
"You reckon them fellers are havin' some shutter trouble?" One final, new voice asked.
"I catch your drift, Lucky." The smooth voice remarked.
Lucky?
By now, the Dukes were beginning to get a bit anxious. Bo looked over his shoulder to make sure that Jesse and Daisy were still alright. He found Jesse to be asleep, but Daisy leaned forward, listening intently.
"What're they talkin' about?" She asked.
"I… I think they're talkin' about us." Luke explained.
Bo turned back to look at him. "What makes you think that?"
Luke gestured out the driver's side window, to show a white Freightliner coming up beside them. The trucker's face was partially covered by the shadow created by his brown, straw-woven cowboy hat. His truck slowly began to move towards the Dukes'. A look of fear crossed Luke's face, and he honked the horn, trying to get the trucker to stop. However, the trucker persisted, slowly nudging their rig towards the exit.
Reluctantly, Luke complied with the man's urges and followed the three trucks in front of him up the exit ramp. The Freightliner fell back in behind them, and another conversation sparked over the CB.
"Y'all believe in ghosts?" Hot Grandpa asked quietly.
"That depends." The Italian man replied.
"Would you believe me if I told you that it's Pitbull drivin' Dreamer's rig?"
There was a moment of silence as the line of trucks pulled into the truck stop. The trucks' air brakes yelped, engines died down. Still, silence. The Dukes all held their breaths, watching as the truckers climbed out of their rigs, one by one. The six truckers began closing in on the black and orange rig.
"Daisy, Uncle Jesse, stay here." Luke ordered.
The two of them did as they were told as Bo and Luke climbed out of the cab, slamming the doors shut behind them. They circled around to the front of the truck to meet with the other drivers. Bo and Luke soon found themselves surrounded by the six, pokerfaced men.
Their leader was a tall, thin man with dirty blonde hair and straight teeth. His sideburns were kept up neatly, sitting below a worn-out baseball cap. He tried to look tough, dark sunglasses over his eyes and a toothpick hanging from his mouth, but he wasn't fooling anybody.
Around the circle, there was a hippie to his left, one shorter, heavyset man, the trucker who'd pushed them onto the exit, a small, fidgety man, and a giant who stood like a stone wall.
"Can we help you, folks?" Luke asked.
Their leader stepped forward. "Yeah, you can start by tellin' us who ya are, and where you're from."
"Well, if it makes ya feel any better, I'm Luke and this's my cousin, Bo. We're from Hazzard, Georgia."
The man took off his sunglasses, revealing two icy, blue eyes, and gestured to the Dukes' truck, turning to Bo. "Where'd you get this rig, son?"
"Friend of ours found it." Bo explained.
"Where?"
"Next county over from ours, Choctaw."
"In Georgia?"
"Yeah, in Georgia."
"You seen a GMC cabover with the name 'Pitbull' written on the door?"
"N-no sir."
"Seventy-nine Powerwagon, dark green, black burn marks all over the body, push bar and winch in front?"
"Y-yeah."
"You seen it? You know what Dreamer called it? You know its name?"
Bo hesitated for a moment. "Thunder."
The man exchanged glances with the trucker who'd forced them onto the exit. He nodded back towards the rest of the trucks in front, and the truckers all left to converse privately. Bo and Luke backed away slowly while the other drivers were occupied with their conversation. They climbed back inside their truck and started it. The Peterbilt lurched forward, and continued down the road, away from the truck stop. They never looked back to see whether or not the convoy was following after them, only focused on getting back onto the highway.
"What happened back there?" Daisy asked.
"Turns out that this rig the cars found belongs to somebody." Luke explained.
"Trouble?"
Luke shook his head. "Nah, they talked about her in the past tense. They seem to be more interested in findin' Thunder than anythin'."
"You think they know he's a Defect?"
"I don't think so. It was… weird. None of what they were doin' made a lotta sense, y'know?"
Bo looked into the rearview mirror. "Well, they ain't followin' us, that's good, right?"
Luke looked as well. "Yeah, that's good. But we are bein' followed by somebody."
Bo and Daisy leaned to look in the driver side mirror. Behind them was a dark green pick-up.
Bo gave a surprised laugh. "It's Thunder!"
"What's he doin' back here? I thought he was with the other Defects." Daisy remarked.
The valiant truck sped up, coming up alongside them in the left lane. He honked his horn twice at the Dukes.
"You know what he's sayin'?" Bo asked.
"No, but I think he means to tell us we're in the clear." Luke explained.
He then returned the two honks with the semi, and Thunder fell back. Luke sped the truck up, following the setting Sun into the West.