A New Companion

You pull out a spare bandanna from your bag, handing over a forepaw to Jackal. With a grin but a serious tone, you order, “Give me your burned arm.” Jackal curiously raised his left arm up, watching as you wrap the orange cloth around the injury. Tightening the knot, you finished wrapping it to let Jackal peculiarly inspect it.

“Well gee, uh, thanks. Say, if you’re not looking to steal anything in this town, then what are you looking for…?” He asks you. You gesture him to follow you as you rise up to a full stance.

“Let’s go inside somewhere. I prefer breathing pure, clean air when I’m talking to someone.” You answer back to avoid the traveling smoke clouding around.

After settling inside an abandoned, dark hut, and not fighting in this one this time, you explain to Jackal your reasoning for leaving your home and about the quest for stopping the infection, explaining some of the theories you had and why you were digging through buildings to find traces of what happened. Jackal was slightly taken by insane idea of a **** wish to openly travel everywhere for the idea of possibly stopping the infection which could easily land him in the belly of some creature, although, he seemed to see it as more hopeful than crazy thing.

“Jackal, what specifically happened to this town? Did you ever live here?” You ask him, impertinent to know because he mentioned that raiders were the main cause of it. Jackal only sighs before sitting further back in his seat, rubbing the back of his head with the eerie silence of the dark hut. He didn't even glance at you.

“Actually, when I came to this town, it was already abandoned. I figured that it had been overrun by infected ferals and everyone was either eaten, infected, or they just…left at first.” He replies. You could only slowly nod in confirmation as Jackal continued. “When I traveled here, I knew for the most part raiders were a problem because ferals don't go through your belongings, remove your drawers, and pull out all that you own from your homes. The old market places were of course empty. At first, I found only a couple of infected.” He then flexes his arms and bloats out his stomach. “But they were no match for these.”

You huff in playful annoyance and grab your bag before heading out towards the exit. Jackal immediately got up from his chair, letting the audible dragging sound out behind you to almost make you stop. “Are you leaving already?”

“Well, unless there’s a cure for the infection here, this place doesn't have what I need or already have.” You begin to walk out of the building, and by pressing a hand at the door, you say, “I guess it was nice to meet you, even if we did have bad first impressions.”

“Wait!” Jackal yells to you, raising an arm hoping to halt you. “I want…” He trails off in his voice as you raise up your ears to hear his explanation with some intrigue. “Egh…how can I say this without it being weird? Listen, I wanna sorta repay you back, for what you did back in the burning building…”

You began using a mocking tone. “What? Is the infamous Jackal going soft? I thought he could stand for himself with...” You gesture his previous action by flexing your arms as he had done before, “These.”

“Shut up.” He crosses his arms. “I was just thinking that if I helped you…that would make us even, you know?”

You chuckle aloud, “I’m guessing that means you’re going to follow me then. Alright, pack a bag of all the food, blankets, matches, medicine, or anything you need as much as you can. I guarantee that this trip is going to take awhile.”

Jackal has joined your party!