The Deepest Red by Miriam Bell Read Free Book Online

helpful. I will try my best to mark our location on my map so others from the prison can pick up the rest later. It’s the best I can do.
    I’m just standing up, placing the newly filled supply bag on my shoulders, when a chill races up my arms. The birds are no longer singing. My eyes search the branches seeking those two red birds from earlier. Tom’s scream bounces off every tree and lodges itself in my brain. My sight rushes to the creek where Tom had been standing only to view a new horror. A type of horror to add to my growing collection, the kind where the victim you watch is someone you know- a familiar face, someone you care about. Panic consumes me.
    I don’t realize I’m running until I’m halfway to them. I pull my knife out from its sheath and drive the sharp point through the eye of a mutilated woman. There’s a crunch followed by a smell of rotting flesh. We land together onto the hard rocks, Tom still clutched in her arms. I push away, hurrying to stand and bring back the blade. I gasp at her eyeball still attached to my weapon’s sharp end. Brownish red gooey liquid oozes from her eye socket as I pull the eyeball off my blade and sling the slimy mess into the creek water.
    I spin to face the woman again who's struggling to right herself. Her bony hand clutches at her empty eye socket before extending out toward me. Her body has a sheen of wax-like death, bruised and torn away. On her leg a section of rot has been peeled back exposing black muscle and brittle bones. Pieces of the forest cling to the opened flesh.
    I stand watching her attempt to navigate through the large rocks. She falls several times, her weakened mind losing balance. My attention drifts to Tom’s corpse as I wait- feeling the adrenaline rush through my veins. Before I could get to him, she had ripped into his body. A huge hole is impressed into his neck. Bright red blood spurts from the gaping wound. His face displays a manner of surprise and pain all mixed up into one.
    Blood partially coats his once white beard, covering the wispy hair like a thick coat of red syrup. The syrup pours down the wrinkles of his skin as I suck in a breath. I realize I won’t be saving him. My friend and partner is gone. Dead. I swallow down my shock and fear as Tom’s lifeless body lays half way into the water. Vacant eyes continue looking toward the clear blue sky, his blood gushing into the ever flowing current. The bright red creates satin like ribbons swirling and riding the flow of the water. I tear my gaze away as the mutilated woman lunges forward.
    Before I can think, I slice at her sickly body. A cloud of auburn saturates the front of her shirt as she reaches for me. She’s a tall woman but so thin that with one clean slice I could remove her head. I avoid her reaching hands and quickly position myself behind her. My movements are too fast for her to process, my training taking over- fueling my body. She spins to face me but it's too late, I’ve swept my blade through her neck- my weapon meeting no resistance. Her body stands teetering back and forth, before gravity forces her head to slide off her neck and shoulders. The lump of hair falls to the dirt with a thump and rolls sideways. It wobbles to a stop, her one eye staring back at me. I notice Tom’s blood on her blue tinted lips and turn away. The birds begin to chirp once again as disbelief and grief enters my fragile mind. My hands begin to shake.
    I take the tip of my blade and nudge the still standing mutilated woman’s remaining body. Her thin bony features land on her own head. I sway slightly on my feet looking down at her in shock, I recognize the gown she’s wearing. The thin material is the same as the repulsive man’s from yesterday.
    A tag protrudes from the back of the neckline. With a shaking hand, I reach down to read the faded print. Most of the words are unidentifiable except for the letters forming “Property of Phoebe Sumter Medical Center.” I don’t