Free Dead to Writes (April Almighty #1) by Tim Miller Page B

“I know, but I won’t wanna bang her with her face all fucked up. That’s freaky lookin’.”
         “Now boys, you still got these two ladies right here,” Ma said pointing at Nancy and April. That got a reaction from Nancy who sat up right. Cletus grabbed Herbert’s body and dragged him off the table. He took him into the corner of the shed and threw him on top of Don’s body.
         “Let’s do this one next,” Marty said pointing at April. “She’s purdy.”
         Cletus walked over to April and bent down. This is it.
         “Damn, she sure has purdy blue eyes,” Cletus said.
         “She sure does. I’ll put them in a jar in my room. They’ll look real nice up there.”
         What the fuck?
         Cletus reached in and cut her feet loose, then her wrists. She had to act now! He was still on one knee right in front of her. Before he could get to his feet, she thrust the splinter into his eye. He screamed as she felt it go into his eyeball. As he reeled back, she blasted him in the chin with her knee, knocking him flat on his back.
         Once he hit the floor, she ran. She didn’t see what Ma and Marty were doing. Ma had screamed “Cletus!” as she ran, bursting through the door and out into the daylight. The ground was hot, burning her bare feet, but she ignored the pain as she ran past the house and down the trail. Looking behind her, Marty was coming but she had a good lead on him.
         She headed down the trail which was angled downhill. It was hard to keep her balance in her bare feet. Marty was closing in behind her as his footsteps grew louder. She cut to her right, off the trail and into the woods. That killed her feet even more. The ground was covered in sticks, rocks, and thorns as she tore through the woods. She figured if she could get off the trail she might lose Marty.
         It was hard to make her way through, but she thought it might be working. After almost a hundred yards, she hit a clearing. There was some kind of swamp, which was odd. She’d never seen a swamp, but spent most of her time in the city. This swamp was too large to go around; it wrapped around the woods as far as she could see.
         The water was dark and murky and had a strange, yellow hue. She couldn’t tell if it was glowing, or if it was just the sun’s reflection. Either way, she couldn’t go back the other way; Marty would be hanging around there. So slowly, she stepped into the water to swim across. Within a few steps she was waist deep and almost instantly it was up to her neck. She did her best to swim across but the water was so thick and full of sludge.
         Her tank top had ridden up and was almost choking her. She pulled it off and continued across, laboring with each stroke. A few times her head went under, but she managed to pull herself back up. As she reached the other side, the water thinned out and became more like pond water. She climbed out, realizing her shorts had come off somewhere during the swim, though modesty wasn’t the foremost thing on her mind at the moment.
         She headed back into the woods just as Marty stepped out and backhanded her across the side of the face.
         “Well, got to give you an A for effort I guess. Cletus might not be so forgiving though. You fucked his eye up good. Mama is pissed at you too.”
         She lay on the ground, dazed from the blow, but feeling sick to her stomach as well. She wasn’t sure what that could be from. Might be from the swamp water; she’d swallowed a mouthful on her way across.
         “Glad to see you decided to get more comfortable though. You got some nice titties on ya!” He grabbed one of her boobs and squeezed it as if he were honking a bicycle horn. She tried to pull away, but he kicked her in the stomach, flipped her onto her back and wrapped her wrists and legs in duct tape.
         He picked her up and threw her over his shoulder as she began