Read Saving the Dead for Free Online

skinny man was wringing his hands as he spoke. “It’s my gal.  She’s hurting awful bad.  You gotta help her, Mister.”
    Ramirez scanned the crowd. “Where is she?”
    He thumbed the trailer behind them. “Just inside.”
    Ramirez motioned him forward. “Lead the way, sir.”
    The skinny man led them up the cracked concrete of the driveway.  The crowd of onlookers parted as the small caravan passed but quickly closed ranks behind them, jostling for another view.
    Ramirez and Drifts lifted their medical bags off of the stretcher, which they left at the bottom of the stairs, and proceeded to follow the man inside.  As he cracked the seal of the door, a pungent smell of blood and decay struck Ramirez in the nostrils.
    “Mmmph!” Leo gritted his teeth.
    Noticing his partner’s sudden pause, Drifts looked inside the doorway. “What’s the matter . . . shit!  He staggered back as if he was actually assaulted, throat heaving.  The crowd that tried to press in quickly departed several feet back out of the splash zone.  Drifts grabbed his knees trying not to wretch.
    Ramirez took a slow breath, “Sam, are you okay?”
    Drifts held up a finger.
    “Do you need anything?”
    The EMT shook his head.
    “We’re going to go on in and check out our patient.”
    Drifts waved them on.
    “Come on, Justin.”
    The student followed him in. “Oh, wow,” he said as he caught his first whiff.
    “Are you okay?” asked Ramirez.
    “Yeah. I’m okay.”
    “Are you sure?”
    “Leo, I grew up on a farm.  Sometimes I ate breakfast smelling worse than this.”
    “Okay.”
    “She’s back over yonder.  I’ll show ya,” said their skinny guide.
    They followed him down a narrow hallway lined with picture frames and shelves full of Precious Moments figurines and other knick knacks.  He led them into a back bedroom where the rancid smell grew ten times in potency.
    Ramirez ignored it as he took in the room.  It had a large chest of drawers and full-sized bed crammed into its small confines.  His gaze fell on the room’s two occupants.  A wizened woman, who sat by the bedside, met his eyes with a frightened expression.  She was holding the hand of a teenage girl.  The girl, dressed only in a nightshirt, was even paler than the sweat-soaked cotton linen she wore.  The girl had a distended abdomen and between her legs was a thick tangle of towels and other cloths.  All of the linens were soaked with amalgam of blood and pus.  Without showing any signs of slowing the vile fluid continued to ooze out from her partially-exposed vagina.  
    Ramirez moved forward and felt the young girl’s wrist. “Justin, go ahead and spike a bag of normal saline.”  He turned to face the older woman, “Ma’am, my name is Leonardo, and this is my paramedic student, Justin.  What is this young lady’s name?”
    “This here is my granddaughter, Maybelline Swanson,” she said with a croaking voice.
    Ramirez nodded as he placed an oxygen mask on Maybelline’s face, and jotted her name down on his glove. “How long has this been going on?”
    “Her belly has been paining her all day.  She started bleeding like that maybe two hours ago.  I thought that she was having an extra powerful monthly, seeing as how they’ve been so irregular of late.”
    Justin placed the spiked IV bag on the bed.  Ramirez told him, “Put her on the monitor and get me some vital signs.”  He turned to look at the older woman. “You said her periods were irregular.  How irregular were they?”
    The grandmother’s eyes went wide. “I don’t rightly know.  That’s the girl’s business, but I do believe I heard her say that they had been scarce the last six months or so.”  Her eyes suddenly narrowed. “Just what are you trying to imply?”
    Before he could answer, Drifts walked in muttering under his breath, “Why is it always the last fucking room down the hall.”
    He froze at the door.  An instant later, he was beside Justin and took the