Free Revenence (Novella): Dead Red by M.E. Betts Page A

radio.
         "On our way."
         "Took you long enough," Red's voice replied from the speaker.  "We're on 49 now.  We've covered almost a mile since you two left."
         "We'll catch up," the unwashed young sadist said, placing the radio back into his pocket.
         "I guess we should haul ass a little," said the other, prodding Daphne with the taser to move more quickly.  "We've got some ground to cover."
         As they continued down the wooded dirtbike trail, heading toward 49, they heard a cracking sound from the treeline to their left, the sound of twigs breaking beneath a hurried, human tread.  It was briefly accompanied by another noise, one which sounded like a light, bubbling fit of laughter from an adult male.  After a moment, the footsteps receded behind them until they were no longer audible.  If it weren't for the fact that Daphne could see the confusion on the face of the sadist beside her, she would wonder if she were having a residual hallucination.
         "The fuck was that shit?" the shotgun-bearing young man muttered, demonstrably disturbed.
         Daphne, too, wondered about the footsteps and the bizarre laughter.
         "Don't know," said the larger sadist, "don't care, as long as we make it to the highway."
         They continued under the dull, dark gray sky.  As 49 and its scattered wrecks came into view, Daphne and the two sadists again heard the footsteps to their rear.  The sound began in the woods to their left, then crossed the path and entered the woods again to the right, moving too quickly in the darkness for Daphne to get a good look at the figure.  She readied herself as the smaller sadist stopped and ruffled his greasy hair, spinning his body around and taking a dozen steps forward to confront the unseen man in the woods.
         "You know where you are, fucker?" he boomed with false bravado, clearly perturbed even as he puffed his chest and flexed his arms, his fists clenched.
         "A.J., don't...." urged the larger one, trailing off.
         With the two men distracted, Daphne was ready to take a chance and go in for the strike.  She stopped abruptly, her bound hand reaching behind her to clutch the large testicles of the bald sadist  who had been looking at A.J. to their rear.  As a result, he slammed hard into Daphne and her uncommonly strong fingers.
         She turned to gaze behind her as she squeezed.  For the first second, his expression was one of simple surprise.  Then, as her iron grip began to close, vice-like, around the delicate organs, his eyes bulged and he struggled to breathe or produce sounds.  From the woods, Daphne heard another short ripple of laughter.
         "I'm gonna fuck you up when I find you!" A.J. warned the boisterous mystery intruder, aiming his shotgun randomly into the woods as he moved farther away.  Oblivious to what was going on between his associate and Daphne, he approached the treeline.
         Daphne spun around, grabbing the man's thick wrist as he lifted the taser.  She squeezed the dozens of bones together until his fingers relinquished their grip on the weapon.  The oversized sadist let out a grunt of pain tinged with shock, his left hand moving from his injured testicles to his somewhat pulverized wrist, where Daphne had damaged the nerves and broken a few minor bones. 
         As his left hand went for the revolver holstered at his right hip, Daphne lunged for the taser on the ground.  She bent her left knee at a hard angle, her right leg extended out behind her, until her thighs formed a straight line, parallel and low to the ground.  She reached with her fingertips down past her rear end, her hands still bound behind her back, and just barely grazed the taser.  Straining to reach a few millimeters lower, she grasped the weapon with her left hand and transferred it to the right just as the sadist wrangled his revolver from its holster.  His entire left arm trembled as he