Savage World •••Daryl Dixon•••

Meeko of Lostvayne House

Plates shattering on the floor ripped Asher from her restless sleep. She held as still as she could against the couch she took residence upon for the past few days, trying to keep from ripping the tear in her stomach open any wider than it already was. More objects clattered to the floor and filled the stale air with shatters of glass and ringing of metal.

That's when she heard the noises.

They started off as small chuffs so soft she thought it was just the pounding blood in her ears, but they quickly grew in sound until she was absolutely certain that no human nor walker could make them. Pushing up from her place on the couch, she slowly shuffled to the kitchen as quiet she she could. Once she reached the threshold, she slowly peeked around the corner to see what could possibly be making all the noise and probably attracting every walker within hearing distance.

"What the shit?" Asher was met with the sight of a massive house cat that looked like someone took a cheetah and shrunk it down to fit through a dog door. It was sniffing it's way through the rotten food of the kitchen, searching for anything to eat.

"What the hell is that?" A large satellite ear flicked in her direction as she whispered to herself and it jerked up to stare at her with beautiful eyes that looked like fresh honey. It's lips pulled back to expose large needle teeth and a sharp hiss filled the room. Amber and black spotted fur bristled in warning.

Asher held up her hands and slowly backed out of the room so the thing wouldn't launch at her face and claw out her throat. Though she'd be surprised if it could get by the giant collar she still couldn't manage to remove. So far all she's been able to do is slide a thin rag between the spikes and her healing skin. It was all she could do until she found a pair of bolt cutters and get to whatever was holding the thick brace around her neck.

Deciding to instead take the time to explore the house, she took her spiked bat with her just in case there was more than the single walker in the house with her she was yet to find. After a thorough check of the house, she decided to finally move to the garage where she left the body of the other she took down on her first night. It took her a moment to push the door open against the dead weight, but she finally did it and waited for a second to see if any walker heard her and would come shambling out of the darkness.

Catching the shining edge of a flashlight, she felt her lips pull up in a massive smile as she processed the inside of this stranger's home. Their entire garage was packed wall to wall with weapons of all kinds from axes to bows to knives and swords from every era and some she had never seen before.

"Finally! Something is going right for me!" She happily perused the man's stores and picked out her few favorites that she could carry: a repeating crossbow with air compression and a ram's head, a pair of beautiful fighting knives paired with a back sheath and armpit straps, and lastly a beautifully intricate short sword with a slight curve and the black engraving of a dragon swallowing its own tail on both sides of the cross guard. She noted that the small placard above the sword told her its battle name, Lostvayne.

"Nice name. Well, Lostvayne, how would you like to come on an adventure with me?" Finding the sheath for it, she snapped the two together between the knives and continued to look for other supplies like bandages and food. Finding neither, she moved to the kitchen and peeked in to see if the weird animal was still snooping around. That's when she spotted the food bowls in the corner of the room, a name carefully painted on both containers. Meeko.

"Meeko?" The oversized cat popped its head up from the bed it chose of the top of the fridge, ears pricked at its name. "That's you? You're Meeko?" The feline stood and stretched itself out before yawning widely.

"Perfect, someone had a pet cheetah and left it behind to die. What an asshole." Slowly stepping into the kitchen, she shuffled for the pantry and opened the door to look inside.

"Jackpot! Look at that, Meeko. Looks like your jackass of an owner did something right and left us a whole lot of jerky." Reaching down, she pulled out two gallon sized bags almost splitting apart with the dried meats. At the sight of them, the cat ran for her and started to rub against her legs. It size and her weakened unsteadiness almost made her fall.

"Woah now, you're gonna kill me. You must really like this stuff." Asher opened one bag and pulled out a large hunk of the jerky before crouching down to hold it out for Meeko to take from her. The cat sniffed at it, but refused to take what she held out.

"Alrighty then, I'll just leave it right here for ya. Deal?" She tossed it a bit away from her and waited for the cat to pounce for it. She stood and made her way to the living room so she could get packed and start her journey to find the others. Or at least get away from Zero and his goons.

Finding a backpack in the garage, she stuffed the jerky in, clipped a duffle bag strap on the ends of her new crossbow, and scooped up the circles of metal arrows to be stuffed in with the meats. Slinging her crossbow over her back she made for the front door, stopped by Meeko standing up on its back paws and bracing against the wood with a honking meow like it was demanding where she was going.

"I gotta go, I have a family to find. But I'll leave the door open so you can be free too. They shouldn't have left you in there to die alone and scared." She reaches down and gently scratches at the cat's big ears before looking through the peephole and slowly opening the door just in case a walker was waiting where she couldn't see. Finding nothing, she stepped out and waited for the cat to follow before she closed the door behind them.

"I'll hopefully see ya around, Meeko." She stepped off the porch and headed back towards the road, brows furrowing when she heard a small bell chiming behind her. She glanced over her shoulder and was pleasantly surprised when she saw Meeko trailing her just off her heels.

"You're just following me for the jerky. But it would be nice to have some company if just for a little bit. But first things first, we gotta get rid of this bell. You're gonna get us both killed with that thing." She knelt down and opened the circle link to slide off the bell and toss it into the weeds. "That's better. Guess we're traveling buddies now, Meeko." Asher hefted her bag into a more comfortable position and kept walking, dropping a piece of jerky on the road as she stood up for the cat who snapped it up in a flash.

"Let's go find Dixie."