Flesh Deep

Lilly and Mali

"Goddamn it, Malachi!"

"Watch your mouth, Lilith! What have I said about taking the Lord's name in vain?"

"Well I wouldn't if, every time we go out together to get supplies, you didn't always land us between a rock and a hard place!"

"Lilith! Just watch my back and make sure they don't get to me while I work on this lock," Malachi replied.

Malachi was a catholic priest before this all happened. He likes to say it's the start of the second coming. Which he might be right. He is a tall guy, standing at six feet six inches he is a bit of a mountain of a man, also he is ripped. He likes to brag about how, as he has now started to say, back in the day he was bench pressing four hundred forty-five pounds on a bad day.  Bald head that he shaves with a piece of glass the he broke at just the right angle. He is someone that you don't want to make mad. But other than when he isn't pissed he is a pretty good, easy going guy.

Malachi is a bit of a father figure to Lilith. He has been a figure in her life ever since she can remember. Her biological father had never been in her life. Her mother was a rape victim. So Lilith never met him which is nothing she wishes would change and her mother was killed in a car wreck when Lilith was seventeen. It was hard on her. Lilith tried to kill herself many times but Malachi found her every time with just enough time to save her. He found her hanging one time, drowning in a bath tub another, messed up on pills once. She wanted to die and it broke his heart. Lily as he called her grew up in church and being baptized catholic, it's a sin to kill yourself. But he never had the heart to yell at her about it because he understood. Malachi lost his wife and two kids to a drunk driver. On Christmas Eve of all nights. He was out of town on a mission's trip. His wife took the kids to visit his parents and as they were headed home a man who was plowed beyond belief, driving way too fast, went right through the intersection and hit them in the side. The drunk was driving so fast that he knocked the little Honda civic that his wife was in 150 feet down the road, rolling the entire way. The drunk was killed instantaneously and didn't feel a thing. Malachi's family died in the hospital later the next day. Malachi took a plane home later that night and missed their passing by no more than a half hour, he was utterly destroyed on the inside. It took a lot of time but he got his life back together, but only just in time to start saving Lilith's.

"Malachi! How's that lock coming along", Lilith almost screamed getting frightened buy how close the zombies, slugs she liked to call them, were getting.

"Almost... there...." Malachi replied in a very concentrated growl. TI-CLINK. "Got it!"

Malachi shouldered open the door, grabbed Lilith by her shirt collar, threw her into poorly lit room, and rolled in after. He rolled to his feet, pulled his rifle off his back, pulled it snug to his shoulder, took aim and dropped the nearest slug with a single shot. Its head exploded with bits of mostly rotted brain matter, brown almost black blood, and shards of skull. Taking his overly large boot he then kicked the door shut and fell against it to catch his breath.

"Nice shot Mali, but you shouldn't have taken it", Lilith commented with a roll of her eyes and a flick of her long black hair.

Malachi had to take a second to admire her. She was on the taller side, but to him everyone was short. She was in the ball park of five foot ten, hundred thirty pounds of lean muscle, with the most striking green eyes on the pre-apocalyptic planet that he'd ever seen.

"Yeah, I know. It was a waste of ammo but it looked cool", Malachi chuckled.

"Well, the slugs are out there and we are in here. So lets get moving and try to find something useful in this place. We haven't ever been this far from camp before so there should be something here."

Lilith got up and dusted herself off with a slight groan.

"That toss by the neck kind of hurt a little," she said to herself.

Malachi sometimes forgets his own strength when things get tense. Lilith glanced at him over her shoulder as she started to walk into the next from to start the scavenging. She loved him in a father-daughter kind of way. Being the only male figure for the better part of her seventeen years he was kind of a big deal to her.

The room she walked into appeared to be a kitchen and dining area. With a single window it was dark but she could tell that the walls were painted blue with hardwood flooring. The table was set for an evening meal that never got served. It was a sad looking picture to her but she couldn't help to think back to the first Christmas dinner she had with Malachi.