“A looser pair of pants, bandages and pain medicine of some kind,” She rattled off, glancing at him with a small smile, “Plus a brush would be amazing and anything I can use to clean up.” The food already smelled good and she couldn’t help but look towards it as if it was already done, “Oh! And a spoon to stir this food.”
Jay nodded. "Alright. Shout if you need me, but I'm not sure I'll hear." He said with a small smile. He headed out, going into each building with his gun drawn and ready to fire.
(I kinda want him to find this like…puppy and bring it back with him and then they keep it XD)
(YESSsSs)
She waved to him as he left before laying back on her back, setting her pack behind her head as a pillow. It didn’t take long for her to get bored, but it wasn't much different than when she was alone. She had plenty of ways to keep busy, her favorite being ‘count the not rotten ceiling tiles’.
Jay heard a scuffling noise in the next room, and came around the corner with his gun drawn and ready. There was a bag in one corner, and there was something sticking out of it. He walked over, gun held at the ready. As he came close, the bag started wiggling. He picked up the bag, and a small puppy came tumbling out with a shrill yip.
The food smelled delicious and her mouth was watering my the time the chili was warmed up, though she reminded herself she wasn’t going to eat until Jay was back. Her eyes closed momentarily and she tried to keep herself awake, humming to herself as she opened her eyes again and went back to counting the tiles.
Jay came back with about half the things he'd meant to grab stuffed in his pockets, and a wriggling, happy little puppy in his arms. "Delia! Look what I found!" He said, setting the little puppy down on the floor, where it immediately came sniffing hungrily over to her, panting. It was limping slightly, and it looked to be a mutt mix, with one ear up and one down, and a sort of sandy yellow color to its fur. It tipped softly, nuzzling at her.
She glanced over at him with a look of half interest before she saw the puppy, eyes lighting up when she saw the wriggling sandy golden ball of fur. “Where’d you find him? Or her, whatever gender it is?” She asked, sitting up attentively, “Also, hate to be a pain, but did you happen to find a spoon so I could stir this rice and chili?”
"Him. And I found him a few stores over. Almost shot him before I realized it was a dog, not a person." He smiled slightly, and pulled a spoon from his pocket. "Yeah. Might want to rinse it off, it was on the floor." The puppy barked softly, sniffing curiously at the cooking food. Jay handed her the spoon, and sat down. "Come here, boy." He called to the puppy. The puppy looked at him for a moment, then sat down and started scratching.
She took the spoon with a nod, using up the rest of her water to wash the spoon before stirring the rice followed by the chili. Her eyes watched the puppy and she smiled lightly, “Well doggo, you need a name.” The puppy’s limp worried her slightly, but she figured he wasn’t going to let her anywhere near his leg to see what was going on.
Jay smiled. "Yeah, he does." He said, watching the little puppy for a moment. "Any ideas?" He asked, looking over at her. The puppy sat up, tail thumping on the floor, then sniffed at the food again with a soft whine. "I think he's hungry." Jay said with a soft laugh. The puppy stared at Delia in a begging way, eyes big and sad. He was very thin, and the ribs could be seen.
She looked down at the puppy and sighed with a smile at the begging look it gave her, “Only a few more minute and the rice and chili will be done and you can have some.” Stirring the food one more time, she decided they were done and pushed them out of the way of the fire, “Do you see any bowls around? We just need something for tail thumper here.” She relaxed back against the floor on her elbows as she thought of names, “And in response to the puppy name predicament, how about Leo? Or Charlie?”
Jay smiled. "I like Leo." He said. "So we can call him that." He looked at the little puppy, and clicked his tongue. Leo's ears perked up slightly, and he looked at Jay. Jay pulled out a long, ratty piece of cloth, and shook it at Leo. Leo growled, and pounced on the cloth, pulling at it with his teeth, tail wagging.
Delia laughed and shook her head, watching the two of them for a moment before checking to see if the food was cool enough to eat yet. “Do you want me to add the chili directly to the rice?” She asked, “Or just on the side?” There was no bowl for Leo that she saw in the storage room, but there had to be something to put some food in for the pup.
He looked up, letting go of the cloth and standing. "Uhm, it's up to you." He replied. "I'll go out and find a bowl for Leo." He ducked out of the room, searching through the place for a bowl. He can back with one in his hand. It was cracked and chipped, but would still hold food. "Here we go. Just give him rice; I'm not sure that chili is good for dogs." He rummaged in his backpack. "And we can add a piece of jerky, too. So he gets protein." Leo was rolling around on the floor, the cloth now tangled around his body.
She nodded and took the bowl, scooping out a decent portion for Leo and setting it down near him. She laughed when she saw how tangled up he was and tried to help him, though the puppy was squirming around too much for her to be of much help. “You can eat first.” She held out the spoon to Jay and watched at Leo finally made his way to the bowl tangled in the rope and started scarfing down the rice.
Jay gently tried to shift the puppy so he could add the jerky, and Leo growled at him. Jay sighed, and slipped the jerky in right under Leo's nose. Leo yipped happily, and kept scarfing down the food. Jay chuckled softly, and looked at Delia. "You sure? I can wait, if you want to eat." He said.
“I’m sure, you’re the one that found all of this, you get to eat first,” She said, smiling from Leo and pushing the pot of rice and chili towards him. The food made her mouth water but she wanted to make sure he ate first, before she scarfed down all the food.
Jay sighed. "Alright, fine." He neatly divided the chili and rice in half, and started eating half, mixing the two from his half together as he ate it. Leo finished up his food, licking his chops, and came over to Jay, sniffing at the bowl. Jay smiled, and pushed the puppy away gently. "Not for you." He said, mouth full. Leo whined softly, staring at him and his tail wagging slowly, licking his chops every now and then. Jay sighed, and gave Leo another bit of jerky. "Now stop begging, it's rude." He told the puppy. He finished up his half of the food, and then pushed it towards Delia. "There you go."
She nodded and took her half of the food, eating it as neatly as she could. It was hard not to shovel all the food into her mouth at once but she forced herself to eat slowly, eyes landing on Leo every so often as he moved over to her and started begging again. A small smile twitched at her lips and she rolled her eyes, trying to ignore the pup. Despite her better judgement, she gave Leo a small handful of her rice before polishing off the rest of the food with a sigh of content, “That was good, amazingly good.”
Jay nodded. "It was." He agreed. He looked at Leo. "I think we picked up a begger, though." He said with a soft laugh. Leo sat down and started scratching again, tongue lolling happily out of his mouth. Jay poured some water into Leo's bowl, in case the puppy was thirsty. After a few minutes, Leo padded over to the bowl and started slurping up the water.
She laughed as well, shaking her head, “Traveling with him is going to be slower unless we find a way to carry him when he gets tired, I don’t think Leo is going to be able to walk almost all day like I’d like to.” Relaxing back on her pack, she focused on the warmth of the fire and let her eyes close, though she wasn’t sleepy. “Do you want to go explore the buildings today? Or tomorrow? We could camp out all of tomorrow here and then get going again the following morning. I still need at least a new pair of pants before we head off.”
"I can carry him so long as he doesn't squirm too much." Jay replied, looking at the puppy with a small smile. "Although I want to take a look at his paws; he's limping." He looked at her. "Sounds like a good plan. I would have grabbed more stuff while I was out, but…I found Leo instead." He chuckled softly. Leo finished up the water, and trotted over to Delia, nosing at her curiously.
Delia smiled, opening one eye and reaching out to pet Leo, “I would’ve been quite disappointed if you had left him there too, supplies can wait until tomorrow.” The puppy was already growing on her, he was cute and small and gave her something to worry about besides the aliens or government.
Leo barked softly, closing his eyes and leaning into her hand. Jay smiled. "All right. Although since we're taking him with us, we'll have to feed him and make sure he gets water, so we'll have to stop and eat and get water more often. It's going to slow us down. Which is fine." He shrugged.
“Stopping more often is fine,” She agreed, nodding with a smile as Leo’s tail started wagging faster when she scratched behind his ear, “As long as we don’t eat a ton so our food will last.” Feeding two people and a puppy was going to be challenging with the limited food and supplies they could carry, but maybe they’d get lucky and would be able to find a bigger backpack to carry more food.