Riley walked along the edge of the river she couldn't help but wonder if the water was safe to drink... She assumed not and signed. She didn't really feel like making a filter and boiling all the water but she would have to do it soon... If not for her, she would for Nix.
She glanced down and reached over to pet the silky black cat that walked beside her. Nix wasn't like any animal she'd ever met, but she was the greatest gift she had ever received... Another mystery, she supposed, one she hoped to understand one day...
Nix wasn't a regular cat because of her size for one, she stood at the perfect height, just tall enough to have Riley rest her hand on her head and stroke behind her ears. She wasn't a panther. Or a bobcat. Or anything Riley has ever seen in her searches. She just looked like a giant, black, house cat.
Nix had been Riley's constant companion from the time she was ten. She had been a regular kitten, and grown at the rate of a regular cat.... But she had kept growing when Riley was 14 and stopped growing, Nix had as well. Her mother had supposedly found the kitten on the side of the road. Fat chance of that, Riley thought and snorted.
Even before the world went to crap, she had thought her mother was hiding something. She was pretty freaking sure the giant house cat was part of it, but she'd never told anyone about Nix for fear she would be taken away....
Riley brushed the thoughts aside and gazed into the woods, and up into the canopy. The sun was starting to sink down and she'd need to set up soon.. after many days in the road Riley had a good routine set for herself and Nix. A perfect tree caught her eye and noded to herself before speaking. "Alright, Nixey boo, let's set up camp."
Nix had run off into the woods will be Riley set up camp, hopefully to find a squirrel or two, and Riley had boiled water, she begun filtering it. Her hammock was strung up between in the branches of a tree, fairly high up, to avoid whatever predators might be left.
"Eeaaaaarrrr!!" "Aaaeeerr!" Riley glanced up, her heart picking up speed. It was only Nix, as she expected, but still, living in almost silence had made her jump at most noises that weren't there the quiet of the forest.
Nix was carrying some dead things in her mouth, and trotting to her from the the edge of the woods. "Aaaeeerr!!" The sleak cat yowled from around the carcass.
"That's my good baby! That's my good girl!" Riley couldn't help but grin widely at her cat as she dropped the hairless creatures. Asquirrel and... What was that? Was that a freaking possum? "You goober, thank you, baby." Riley rubbed her ears as she purred loudly and rubbed across her thighs, nearly knocking her over.
"Hello there!!" Riley's heart hammered in her chest as a surge of adrenaline shot through her and she whipped out her knives. Nix still pressed against her, hissed and growled LOUDLY, looking in the direction of the voice.
A pale faced person, with the unmistakable sickness crept out from the edge of the woods, hands raised, looking very frail and waif like in their ragged, loose clothing. Their dark hair was very thin, but not stringy, Riley assessed. They appeared more clean than some of the others she'd run into...
"I'm sorry, it's just... You.. and that cat.. you both look... You look fine. You look healthy. What the fuck?!" They gestured towards her face and Nix shiny black body. "And she... She's got hair. And your face. You look... You're not dying. You look fucking healthy! What that fuck! Tell me how! Tell me, I'll do anything! I have a family. We couldn't hide from it, not well enough... There wasn't any escaping it, except you somehow did. I'm Jake, I'm Jake Bryant. What's your name?"
Riley's heart sank.. fuck... Not another one. And more. A group maybe? She wasn't sure what to say. "I'm Riley.. this is Nix... Please don't hurt her." Riley fell silent for a moment before taking a deep breath. "I have no idea how I'm not dead. And I'm not sick. I'm trying to find answers."