Dead Pulse Read Free

branch snapping it in half. In the stillness, the crack appeared to sound as loud as a gunshot and the Fallow darted deeper into the vegetation.
    “Damn Ralph,” seethed Matt. “I had him in my sights.” Matt skulked off into the coppice.
    Ralph bent down to do his bootlace; he mumbled and cursed as he tied his lace. He looked at the ground curiously, noting that the dirt looked disturbed, as if something had been recently been buried. Just as he pondered on this for a second, a hand appeared from some mulch beneath him gripped his boot. A rancid girl burst out from within the ground sending loose earth into his eyes as he fell. Ralph gave out a yell as he struggled to back away from the person that had grabbed him. Her neck was ripped open, the skin torn and shredded revealing what appeared to be an empty ribcage - her major organs missing, however from the waist down the girl appeared preserved as if kept in a refrigerator, her scant remains were weathered and wildlife had largely skeletonised her upper body. She sunk her teeth into the horrified man.
    The shots of an Anschut’s rifle echoed throughout the forest disturbing birds and foraging wildlife. It wasn’t long before Ralph had fired off five .22 bullets.
    Matt smashed the girl in the face with the butt of his gun and she fell to the floor.
    Ralph sat gasping for breath holding his neck as Matt he leant over trying to stem the blood from his friends sustained wound.
    “That thing came out of the ground and attacked me!” shouted Ralph, his hands and shoulders splattered with blood. “You know who that was don’t you? That was that missing girl who has been in the papers! Jenny Tucker.” he panted.
    “ Murdered Tucker, they couldn’t find the body to arrest that Carpenter guy.”
    Ralph looked at his blood-covered hand. “Is it bad?”
    “It’s not that bad,” Matt lied as he spat on the ground nodding to Ralph with his face screwed up in disgust.
    “Well you found her alright, naked as the day she was born and now we’ve killed her, again?” Matt murmured hoping to distract Ralph from the wound and the steadily seeping blood.
    “Yeah we find a missing girl, presumed dead, and I shoot her four times in her gut , were going to get pinned for this!” shrieked Ralph.
    Jenny Tucker rose once again and lumbered onto Matt who was crouching in front of his friend. Pushing him off balance he fell to the floor, his red cap lost in the brambles. As she lunged towards him, he held her away at arm’s length from his face as her teeth snapped and she snarled. Mustering all his strength he launched her away from him and she tumbled away. He gripped his sidearm, a .500 Magnum revolver and holding the orange safety grip, he took aim. Before he could let off a shot Ralph suddenly attacked him from behind causing the gun to go off in Matt’s face. Blood and skull splattered onto the damp grass, quickly followed by Matt’s body thumping to the forest floor. As his body convulsed with the last breaths of life Ralph lumbered to his knees and began to chew on his friends arms. It wasn’t long before Jenny joined the feast. In the light drizzle that now fell she knelt down besides Ralph and like two hyenas dining on a stolen kill; they bit into the softer body parts of the dead hunter, quietly observing the view over Farmore’s forest and the ruffled wildlife that hid in the undergrowth.
     
    Just off a faded dirt track in the forest, gunfire had briefly stopped Carpenter in the midst of his lewd act on a girl, whom he had remorselessly stabbed seven times. It was his third kill. He ruffled his short hair and slowly ran the palm of his hand down his face. He looked at his blood-covered hand and raised an eyebrow. His heart began to slow, scrabbling around on the layer of leaves and twigs that covered the ground he found his cherry-red lipstick and put it back into his top pocket.
    Carpenter reflected over his past kills while he pulled up his jeans and fastened his