The Body

Her chest was a ravine, a wide crevasse baring the soft inner flesh of her chest, one lung was popped and the other could be seen struggling to inflate under the broken left side of her ribcage.

Further inside the wound you could still see her heart beating as it pumped blood, slowly filling the ravine…

The fight had ended a few moments before and although Bay hadn't seen all of the tussle, this woman had clearly not been good enough.

She shouldn't be alive, couldn't possibly be alive Bay thought to himself, as he slowly approached the body.

The woman lay there, her eyes closed, her hands lay clutched to the side of her chest, dark greyish smoke seemed to be pooling around each of her clenched fists.

Bay knew that he should at least be careful, this woman's body was mangled sure but after witnessing her fight a few moments before, it seemed better to be cautious.

As he approached he slowly squatted down next to her putting one hand in the dirt beside him for stability he took a quick glance at her clothing.

Although most of the cloth was obscured either by blood or dirt, most of her clothing seemed to be of quite a fine make Bay gathered, that her top half was probably far too ruined to be worth anything substantial bothered him a little, but her leggings however would probably fetch enough for a pie or two.

Bay slowly traced his finger over one of the few still intact chest pockets, being as gentle as possible even though he was pretty sure she was dead. Feeling nothing he instead grabbed at the small satchel at her waist and flipped it open, a faint smell of roses wafted up from the bag but there was clearly nothing of worth there. Only the dried up remnants of what looked to be a few rabbits feet and a small goat or sheep's skull, he couldn't tell.

Bay sighed, this search was proving to be very unfruitful and the feeling of his ribs poking through his shirt was not something he wanted to get used to.

After sitting there for a few more seconds Bay tossed the satchel in frustration, stretching to his full height, he leaned against a nearby tree as he contemplated what to do next.

He could harvest her organs… but most of them were probably ruined from the beating she took, he wasn't about to go fishing around in there if the woman miraculously turned out to still be alive.

He refused to acknowledge the beating heart even though it was clearly visible from the gap in her chest.

Bay stood there mulling the conundrum over in his head, he hadn't eaten for little over two weeks now and although it'd probably be that last thing he'd resort to, cannibalism was an option that he'd have to consider.

A faint snap suddenly came from the body, bay was quickly shaken out of his pondering, he stared at it, with its still beating heart. His own heart caught in his throat, as the body's left hand began to slowly inch across the forest floor, slowly, ever so slowly, the hand seemed to search, tracing the strap of it's satchel bag with one bloody finger, it clawed its way towards the opening. Bay did nothing but watch, seemingly glued to the ground underneath him, he stared at the scene with a mounting tension in his gut.

In a quick snap decision bay rushed forward, kicking the satchel away from the searching hand, it arc'd through the air snagging slightly on the bodies ear but ending up luckily out of it's reach.