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He reached town and saw the car she’d been driving parked in front of the small grocery store. He’d ransacked the place when he’d first arrived, and there had hardly been anything then. He stayed back, knowing he had to think of how this would play out. If he went up to her, she’d no doubt be scared. He was a big fucker, and she was so small. She had no reason to believe he wouldn’t hurt her. And he didn’t want her just trusting him. That was stupid in this day and age … in this world.
As he stood there thinking, formulating a plan, the sound of an approaching vehicle had him straightening and going on alert. He snapped his head in the direction the sound came from and saw a beat-up pickup truck approaching. There were two guys in the back, their voices loud and obnoxious, the sound of a bottle breaking echoing.
Malachi’s heart raced as he watched the truck come to a stop in front of the grocery store.
The two assholes jumped out of the truck, and the driver opened the door and reached for something in the cab. When he shut the door, Malachi saw the metal bat he now held.
“Fuck,” he grumbled under his breath. He pulled his gun out, checked how many bullets he had left, and knew that once those assholes figured out the two girls were inside, shit would go down.
They moved into a semi-circle, and all three looked back at the entrance, and it was then Malachi knew they were aware that there were people inside.
“Fuck,” he said again. Looked like it was time to go back to his roots, ones that were deep and dark and pretty fucking twisted.
Two of the fuckers leaned against the side of the rusty brown pickup. They all looked grungy and dirty, what someone would expect a fucking end of the world appearance to be like.
Desperate.
Unclean.
Uncaring.
The other two had weapons, ones he couldn’t quite make out, but small enough that they could be tools of some sort, a wrench maybe, a hammer.
He didn’t stop himself as he made his way toward them. Hi throat tightened when he saw the girls step out of the store, the oldest one’s eyes widening as she kept her arm behind her, protecting the little girl.
The closer Malachi got, the clearer the voices became.
“You sure are pretty,” one of the bastards said.
He had his focus on the one he wanted, the girl with the long fall of hair haphazardly pulled into a ponytail.
“We don’t have anything but a few cans of fruit,” she said, her voice soft but a strength laced in it that made him proud. She was a fighter.
And then he watched as she went for her gun, resting her hand on it.
“How about you girls come with us. We’ll get you something to eat. We have a camp set up. It’ll be nice.”
“No thanks. We have people waiting for us. A group.”
She was smart, making them think she wasn’t alone but he knew they wouldn’t believe her.
“They just let you go out all by yourself?”
She didn’t answer right away. “They’ll be here any minute.” Her voice wavered slightly, giving away her lie.
“That right?”
Malachi was a few feet from them now, and when she noticed him, her eyes widened.
“I was wondering where you two ran off to.”
Her eyes widened but she didn’t say anything to ruin the lie.
Malachi stepped beside her and smiled. “The others are on their way.” The lie came easily to him. He turned and faced the fuckers. His expression was void of emotion; he made sure of it. “Can I help you guys?”
“You?” The leader, he assumed, shook his head. “The girls, though? Yeah, they can help us.”
“These girls?” Malachi lifted an eyebrow. “Nah, they aren’t up for grabs, boys.”
“We got a brave one on our hands, boys.” That had the other men chuckling. “Listen, we found them first. You want some action, find your own.”
Rage built in Malachi so fiercely he actually growled low.
“You look like you can take care of yourself,” the thug said and looked Malachi up and down. “Yeah, you’re a big motherfucker, but you’re outnumbered.” He shrugged. “Maybe you were something big back before this shit went down with the world.” He grinned. “But let me tell you, the world we live in is very different. Eat or be eaten, you feel me?”
Malachi didn’t answer.
His smile vanished. “So how about you step aside and give the girls to us?”
Malachi shook his head slowly. He felt them still behind him, heard the soft sound of the younger one crying.
Malachi gritted his teeth. “I’m not giving you anything. If you want them, you’ll have to get through me first, and I’m going to warn you that the ending will be the three of you fuckers dead.”
