Author: Sam

Story: On-Road-Off-Road: 2 of 3

Series: n/a

Feedback: Yes, please? Especially constructive. samwise_baggins@yahoo.co.uk

Webpage: http://www.geocities.com/samwise_baggins/index.html

Elmer Jenks was an attractive man, if not for his ever-present attitude. He had wavy black hair that was often windswept and green eyes set in a narrow face, off-setting his rather muscular, tall frame. He was a man any woman would consider a catch, if she was only going for looks. The problem was, he tended to believe he was superior to everyone else, and it showed in the way he moved and in the condescending air he always had. In fact the faults were more obvious than the favors during a race, as his helmet covered his features, but his mouth still held that sneer. His driving style, too, bespoke a man who was selfish and self-righteous. Elmer was using every nasty trick he could think up to try to bump and weave his way towards the front of the pack.

As it stood for the moment, Bo was in the lead, with Enos and Daisy a few cars behind. Luke was even further back, but Cooter, like Elmer, was pulling up quick, taking risks he probably would have been better to save for later.

It seemed his anger over Emmy-Beth was clouding what little good judgement the mechanic possessed. In fact, he took every opportunity to slam Elmer’s stockcar extremely hard, nearly pushing him into a line of trees or down a steep incline over and over. Finally Cooter pulled ahead, laughing in his near maniacal way, and it became very evident that he’d damaged the other man’s car, ripping the fender half off and causing it to stick out at a dangerous angle on the passenger side.

As if taking a cue from Cooter, anyone who tried to pass Elmer gave him a good hard sideswipe or rammed him from behind. That didn’t deter the man in the old red stockcar. He was playing just as dirty, making the race look like a fast paced demolition derby; he’d totaled two stockcars already. The way he was grinding everyone up, his car couldn’t possibly last.

Looking back briefly, Bo let out a satisfied yell, sure the man would be out of the race soon.

Surprisingly, however, Elmer and his car proved more resilient than anyone had thought. Elmer finally gave up on trading blows and, despite the low undercarriage of his stockcar and the damage it had sustained so far, managed to drive up the hillside on the left, brush and rocks scraping underneath with an eerie screeching noise. He actually was able to pull ahead of the majority of other racecars, ignoring the curses or threats thrown his way, even passing the surprised Daisy before she could use her jeep to advantage. It was insane, as Elmer was risking damaging his own car too badly to be able to finish later.

As he came even with the General, Elmer suddenly veered hard, slamming downwards into Bo’s driver side and causing the younger man to swerve to avoid locking with that ripped fender on the other vehicle. Taking advantage of the ground gain, and with several more hard slams, Elmer managed to push Bo towards the right-hand hillside. It slanted steeply down towards trees and flood-swept boulders lining a very steep, very stony ravine.

Bo saw the danger and turned shocked blue eyes towards the other driver. A plunge like that might do more than damage the General Lee... it could actually kill him! Bo fought back, trying to force Elmer up the left-hand hill, but gravity and the weight of both speeding vehicles were proving a disadvantage. He’d have to slow down; there was no choice. Glancing in his side mirror, Bo shook his head, gripping the wheel tighter. If he slowed, Cooter would slam right into him; the other man was too intent on watching Elmer to notice just how close to Bo’s rear he was, and at their speeds, Cooter’d be the one killed. Bo had to think of another way around Elmer.

That momentary distraction was all Elmer had needed. He swiftly veered into Bo’s driver’s door again, forcing the young man over the side. A couple of cars back, Daisy screamed in reaction as the General Lee seemed to take a graceful leap over rocky ground, slamming hard into the unyielding ravine. If Bo’s shocks weren’t destroyed, it would be a miracle. As it was, the General’s front end smashed hard, making it almost certain he wouldn’t be rejoining the race.

Before even sliding from the wreck, Bo grabbed his CB handset and called out, “Don’t stop! I’m fine! Just get him!”

Shock coursed through the law enforcement officer as he passed the scene of the accident. Everything in him screamed to stop and help Bo, but the message on the CB instructed otherwise. If Bo really was okay, Enos could do more trying to keep Elmer from hurting... or even killing... the other competitors in the race. First Emmy-Beth, then Bo Duke... Enos was determined to bring Elmer to justice. His eyes narrowed as he swerved around a fourth wrecked car, glancing over to see the driver waving him on. It seemed like everyone was of a single mind in that race: get Elmer Jenks before he really kills someone.

Luke’s heart stopped for a beat or two as he saw the flash of orange jump over the cliff. It started again, but on a fast, irregular beat, when he realized that there was only one orange car in the race: the General Lee. Luke had deliberately hung back in the race, avoiding Elmer in order to keep Emmy-Beth’s Mustang in good enough shape to compete all the way through; it’d have enough troubles with the off-road portion of the race without having been beaten to scrap beforehand. Now, last in line up the steep incline, Luke had a clear view of the other cars and the damage being wrought. The other two... Make that three Luke mentally corrected as he watched Enos pass a car stalled from the heavy front-end damage Elmer had inflicted on it... had at least stayed on the road. Bo had been the only one forced off the road into almost certain injury.

Hearing his cousin’s voice come over the CB nearly caused Luke’s heart to skip again. Thank the Lord almighty! Bo sounded madder than a snake, but he had said he’d be fine. That didn’t mean his cousin was unhurt, but it was enough to keep the race going. Luke slowed, anyway, and scanned the side of the cliff for Bo’s blond head. He could see the man crawling up the side, no sign of blood with the quick glance he’d gotten, so Luke sped up once more, intent on finishing that race and taking the wind out of Elmer’s sails.

The youngest Duke cousin sighed in frustration as the roar of the race passed by, everyone apparently taking him at his word. As Bo climbed painfully out of the wreckage and made his slow way back up to the road, he was madder than all get out. To have been in the lead and taken out so quickly was humiliating to say the least. He could only hope the others fared better. He limped back down the road they’d traveled, looking for the pace car and help.

Daisy was in the top six, though she wasn’t quite in the lead. She knew she could make it up once they got around the next corner, though. Then the race would be on rougher ground, not road, and a few of those fast stockcars would have to slow down to stay in control. She had to push the memory of Bo’s accident from her mind, taking to heart his assurance that he was fine. She couldn’t let Elmer near anyone else. The fact that he was in second, with Cooter in the lead, worried Daisy. She didn’t trust the man in the red car to be satisfied with simply winning; he was more likely to cause an accident by throwing some sort of obstacle in the way of the others.

As the cars rounded the curve, leaving actual roads, two more stockcars were forced to drop back, making Daisy fourth in the line up. She grinned, enjoying the feel of the wind for a second, before bringing her mind back to the problem at hand: stopping Elmer without any more injuries. The man couldn’t exactly be mentally stable; anything he did may have been geared at hurting someone else, but he apparently spared no thought to his own safety either... much like Cooter at the moment in fact.

With a frown, as sudden as her pretty smile from a moment before, the woman urged her jeep closer to the two lead cars. She watched, throat tight, as Elmer’s red car suddenly slammed into Cooter’s green one. Did she see sparks? Determination solidified as Daisy watched Elmer slam Cooter again, forcing the man further into the rougher ground.

She didn’t let the opening pass, shifting into high gear and racing to fill the gap her friend had left behind. Avoiding her opponent’s traditional distraction techniques, Daisy actually managed to pull ahead. Throwing a determined glance at Elmer just behind the Dixie, Daisy intentionally swerved every time he tried to pass. She wouldn’t let him get in any more nasty tricks on the rest of the pack leaders.

Elmer tried, again and again, to get around her. He also tried speeding up to slam into her, but the rough terrain was proving difficult for his car, especially after the amount of destruction he’d caused the undercarriage during his attack on Bo. There seemed to be no leeway as long as Daisy held the lead. With the pond and its slippery gravel edges coming up just ahead, it would be even more hazardous for the stockcar.

Somehow, Elmer managed to neutralize the jeep’s advantage on the wet gravel around the large pond, though. An incendiary flare tossed from the stockcar and landing in her jeep startled Daisy. She swerved and skidded sideways into the water before she could recover. It was all she could do to stop the jeep from going deep enough to flood the engine. Enraged, she stood and watched as Elmer actually had the nerve to wave back at her while he sped off. It was only a small comfort to see several other cars were close on his tail: Cooter followed closely by Enos with Luke in the rear of the pack. No one stopped, as they could all see she was fine.

Sighing in disgust, Daisy slid into the cold water lapping around her seat. She started working on getting the jeep out of the water so she could check on the damage any submerged rocks or debris might have caused. Hopefully she could make up the lost time before Elmer had the chance to damage anyone else.

Bo heard a car coming and looked up in surprise. This was a closed circuit race, even if it was on public roads and open ground. The pace car had already passed him by, refusing to stop and pick him up, causing Bo to have to continue limping back towards the Boar’s Nest. The car he heard, however, was coming from the opposite direction... the one behind him, where the race had gone.

Slowly, the blond turned and looked up the hill he’d left behind. Over the top came the last thing he expected to see: Daisy’s jeep. Right away Bo could tell something was wrong with the Dixie, however, besides the streaks of mud and water. The car didn’t sound right, and it kept fighting to the right; the alignment had been pretty screwed up in whatever’d happened to her. As the Dixie halted next to him, Daisy signaled with her head towards the passenger side.

“Hop in, Bo. We’re goin’ to the Boar’s Nest an’ tell Boss Hogg what’s been goin’ on.”

“He ain’t gonna do nothin’, Daisy,” Bo protested as he painfully climbed into the high jeep. “Sure as the sun goes down, Elmer’s workin’ for Boss.”

Daisy nodded in agreement to that, but grimly said, “Yeah, but he don’t want Enos hurt... and Enos was near run into the stone wall at the end of the pond road. I seen the whole thing sitting in the pond.” Daisy threw her jeep into gear and started it back down the road, fighting the misalignment the entire way back to the Boar’s Nest. Neither cousin spoke, listening closely to the still working CB, trying to hear if anyone else put out a holler for help.

As they arrived a short time later, the Dixie still valiantly fighting, even if it was against Daisy and not the race, Jesse’s pickup pulled into the parking lot. His passenger was leaning heavily against him, her hands, arms, and face heavily bandaged. Jesse helped his cousin from the truck as gently as he could, moving to get her situated in the truck bed on an old picnic blanket. Jesse turned at the sound of Boss’s bullhorn.

“The Dixie is disqualified from the race on account of coming ‘round the starting line, ‘stead of the finish line, which is cheatin’.”

Daisy rolled her eyes. She slid from her jeep, her short-shorts soaked so they clung closer than a second skin, looking more painted on than anything else. “Boss Hogg, I ain’t tryin’ to cheat. I dropped outta the race.”

Glee lit the heavy-set man’s eyes and a wide grin spread across his pudgy face. “Oh, well, that there’s a different matter. You don’t get your registration fee back for droppin’ out, Miss Daisy.” He stressed the Miss just to sound over-polite. An’ Bo Duke can’t go finishin’ the race in the Dixie.”

Wincing in pain as he landed on his sore ankle, Bo glanced over and frowned. “Boss Hogg, I ain’t fixin’ to cheat, neither!” He gripped the side bar on the Dixie, but the sudden anger raging through him started to ease again as Jesse’s incensed voice came to the cousins’s defense.

“J.D., Bo an’ Daisy dropped outta the race. If’n I were you, I’d be checkin’ into why two competitors returned in one battered vehicle, instead of casting stones.”

“Yeah, Elmer Jenks drove me off a cliff!” Bo picked up the injured foot, leaning on the jeep for support. “An’ he drove three other cars into the ground!” Their drivers’re still hotfootin’ it down that there road!”

Daisy’s voice chimed in, almost covering Bo’s, “An’ he drove me into the pond, and nearly drove Enos into a stone wall!”

“Now, now,” Boss prepared to soothe their injured feelings when his deputy’s name was mentioned. He frowned. Enos was a first rate dipstick, but that didn’t mean he wanted the man injured. After all, there was paperwork and fees if an officer of the force were injured. “Enos hit a wall?”

Bo gave a disgusted look at the man in the white linen suit. “Yeah, thought that’d get yer attention, Boss.”

“No, he made it by a whisker, but that don’t mean Elmer Jenks shouldn’t be pulled from the race for trying to kill everyone!” Daisy’s voice rose higher in indignation, and Uncle Jesse had to slip an arm around her to try to control the woman. He guided his niece towards an empty farmer’s wooden two-wheel cart, slanted against the ground at an angle. Whispering to the woman, he interrupted two more attempts at reasoning with Boss Hogg. Finally, the pair sat on the cart, balancing against the angle so as to not disturb it and send themselves flying to the ground.

Just as disgusted with Boss’s deliberate ignorance of Elmer’s nastier habits, Bo limped to the pickup, intent on lying in the back. He assured Uncle Jesse, and several other people, that he’d be fine. When he pulled himself painfully up into the truck bed, though, his frown deepened. The sight of his injured cousin made him turn a heated glare on the unsuspecting back of Boss Hogg. If Bo Duke was the type to do violence, he’d have been raising holy hell right about then.

Only Emmy-Beth’s pain-filled voice stopped him. “That you, Bo Duke?”

“Yeah, how’d you know?” He moved carefully through the truck bed to sit on the top of the cab instead, giving the woman the room she apparently needed. Her injuries looked much worse than his own.

“I could smell you.” The laughter in her strong voice eased some of his tension, and the blond man laughed in return. “To me, you always smelled like car grease and hay fields.”

Bo grinned wider, seeing a glimmer of hope for his suite. “So, you know’d what I smelled like?”

“Sure,” Emmy-Beth’s voice was a bit muffled behind her bandages. Pain was laced through every word, but still, a Duke’s spirit wasn’t easily broken. “It was the nicest thing about you.”

Daisy laughed as Jesse chuckled from the cart next to the truck. Bo looked surprised for a moment, then grinned as he caught the implied insult, and the laughter underneath. Emmy-Beth was teasing him... that was a very good sign. True to form, Bo continued lightly flirting with the woman, letting himself be thoroughly distracted from the fact that Elmer was out there trying to kill his cousin and two close friends. Bo Duke could get distracted from his own execution by a pretty lass.