David stood in the middle of a busy area of the town he found himself in. It was a large circular downtown area that had a road off to another section. A central area within the circle of buildings provided space for horses and other livestock to stand and drink, away from the busy roundabout. He saw the big saloon that Xia must have been talking about. He saw a sheriff’s office and a butcher and all the other stores you’d expect.

  Despite David’s impression of them as newer, the buildings were worn down. He crossed his arms against his chest as he looked about and tried to be careful to stay out of people's way as they went about their business. One thing he noticed was that while the first person he met was obviously of Chinese descent, most of the people were white.

  The sun was beating down on David, and he wiped the sweat from his brow. He also wiped away the caking of dirt and dust. He blinked and gave one last look around before he headed back to his shop on the other side of the circle.

  Wong’s Corner Grocer looked about the same as it did back home. Now it was a wooden building instead of stone, but it was still a two story building that sat by itself. That was rare back in Chinatown and they had gotten lucky when they first bought the building. Not having to worry about other apartments or other stone fronts in the building ended up being wonderful.

  He stormed inside the place and found Max doing his usual prep work for his lunch counter. “We’re in a western,” David said as he walked over. “And why are you getting ready, like it’s just some normal day?”

  Max looked up from where he was folding gyozas with a blank expression. “I kinda figured we were in some sort of western since that guy said he owned a saloon,” he said simply.

  David frowned and blinked. Finally, he nodded and sat at the counter in front of where Max worked. “Yeah, everyone I saw was wearing denim and leather and the cowboy hats you see in the old spaghetti westerns. I was waiting for Clint Eastwood to ask me if I felt lucky.”

  Max smirked. “As for your second question, what else am I supposed to do? This calms me. You were exploring. I was looking after the store and making food. I’m freaking out, pops but like… what am I gonna do?”

  David nodded his head. “Yeah,” he agreed, resigned to that fact.

  “Well go figure, another store run by these tanned black haired eastern fools from that damn Empire across the sea,” a gruff voice rang out as the shop door opened.

  David closed his eyes and cursed under his breath. When he opened his eyes, he saw Max tightened his hand on the chef’s knife he was using. The muscles on the boy looked tight all over. He was in fight-or-flight mode already. This would not go well.

  David turned on the stool and looked at the three men who had entered. They all wear jeans and black shirts with vests and various kinds of hats. He could tell none of them had bathed in a while from their beards and the dirt on their faces. The one thing that really tied them all together was the red scarves they wore around their neck.

  “Ah, hello gentlemen. Anything I can help you find?” David said with a smile.

  They glared at David and knocked over a rack that used to hold postcards and now held some small wooden prints.

  “Only thing I want is for you folks to go back to the empire you came from,” the one said, who seemed like he might be the leader. He walked in front of the other two and was the one who talked.

  “We aren’t from any empire, but we are new here,” Max piped up, still gripping the knife handle.

  The man stepped closer to the pair, and David had to hold back the gag. “Oh yeah? What’s your name if you aren’t from over there? Probably Shoe and Chao or something.”

  David smiled. “I’m David and this is my son Max,” he left out their last name.

  The guy glared down at him and gave him a sneer that exposed his lack of teeth in the front. “Think you’re funny, do you?”

  Max lashed out with his chef’s knife at the man on his right, who jumped for him. They had been approaching behind their leader to close the gap to pounce.

  “You son of a-” came a higher-pitched voice from the one that Max swiped at. He didn’t have the same gravely bad guy voice the leader had.

  David saw a fist fly towards his son and he went to yell in protest, but before he could, there was a red flash that seemed to come out of nowhere. A mangy red cat landed on the scrawnier man’s face. Its red hind legs dug into the man’s collar bones as the front paws batted at the man’s face.

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  “Nacho!” Max yelled at the street cat that he had been feeding for the last year or so. It was his cat without really being his cat.

  The leader grabbed David by the shoulder and flung him around, and David watched something he couldn’t believe. Pepper, up to this point, had been sitting peacefully in his cage. David watched Pepper disappear and turn into a smoke like shadow and then reappear outside of the cage.

  When the leader pulled his meaty fist back to punch, David Pepper landed on the man’s skull, digging his talons into the man’s soft flesh that covered his skull. He screamed but continued with the punch until the bird bent over the man’s forehead and pecked at his eyes.

  This made him change targets and reach for the bird. Blood was pouring down the man’s skull from the various points the bird had stabbed with its talons. The man’s left eye was probably gone, and David backed up from the gory scene. He bumped into the lunch counter and saw the third man running out from the grocer in horror, yelling.

  The man that Nacho had leaped on was staggering around the shop, knocking things over and running into the shelves as he tried to fight the cat off. He screamed the whole time, and David and Max could see the claws from the cat’s hind legs digging into the flesh around the man’s collarbone. A loud hiss and then the cat leaped off from the man’s chest.

  When David looked, he saw that the man’s face was scarred from scratches, but not only scared, they were also scabbed over by burns. He grabbed at his face and fell to his knees, yelling.

  “What in the fuck is going on in this place?” he shouted and looked over to find his comrade on the ground and the Jackdaw still picking in the man’s eye socket. “BOONE?!”

  The fear and anger in the man’s voice caused both David and Max to look over, and then David heard Max vomiting from the scene. David just kind of gaped at the lifeless body and while he saw the last man run out of the shop, he didn’t quite realize that he left.

  The shop was quiet for a long while after that. Max leaning against his counter and David sitting there. Occasionally there would be a caw from pepper, or a noise from Nacho, but the humans didn’t speak. David wasn’t sure how he felt about the scene that unfolded. He probably could have talked their way out of it, given the time. Though, those guys seemed to really have a problem with people from whatever empire they were talking about.

  Max likewise thought about just how much there was going to be to learn about this new land. The realization he wasn’t in some manga or anime finally dawned on him after he watched a burned man grab at the claw marks on his face or the other one getting his eyes eaten out of his skull.

  “I guess it’s good you started taking care of Nacho,” David finally said before he looked up at his son.

  Max just looked at him, horrified.

  David nodded his head. “How did all of that happen? Pepper just turned into smoke or something and left his cage and what about the scratch-” David stopped when he looked up and saw Max’s hand raised and shaking his head.

  “No, let’s not talk about it. Let’s just clean up,” Max pleaded.

  David nodded and gave a deep sigh. “Yeah,” he agreed as he stood.

  There was silence once more in the shop as the pair worked and cleaned. They picked up the shelves and the products that fell. For now, they ignored the body in the middle of the shop and organized everything else. David would have to dig out some stuff from the janitor’s closet to clean that up, and he doubted he had anything that would clean blood.

  “Oh my goodness,” an elderly female voice came.

  Neither of them had heard the door swing open, and they both looked towards the doorway, not sure if they were ready for more bullshit.

  “Those red scarf gang idiots try to mess you up, huh? Good for you for getting them,” she said with an approving nod as she looked over the dead body. “Those fools need to be shown a thing or two.”

  She wore a loose dress David thought it would be functional if she had to work on a ranch. There probably were ranchers here, he figured. Herding cows or milking or whatever. She had gray hair that poked out from under a bonnet and sharp green eyes. David watched her move around the shop like she already knew where everything was and she headed for the loaves of bread and then to the refrigeration units.

  They were still cold. He had checked. He wasn’t sure how, just like how the wok station still worked, but all he really cared about was that they kept the food cold. It took him a minute to catch up with everything and he stared at her, still holding a bag of chips. “I’m sorry, the red scarf gang?” he asked as he set the bag down on a shelf.

  “Mhm, that’s what they call themselves. That man there that got his eyes ate out is Boone, one lieutenant or whatever. He’s not the one you really have to worry about though,” she explained as David went over behind the counter.

  “No?”

  She shook her head. “No, it’s the brother.”

  David blinked. “The brother?”

  She nodded. “Carson, he’s the leader of the gang. Bad ass mother fucker he is, but he’s the real deal.”

  “Carson.”

  A fast nod from her. “Mhm. Some say the tribes out in the desert don’t even fuck with him.”

  “Desert tribes?”

  “Boy, you don’t know anything about anything, do you?”

  “We’re new,” he smiled.

  “Mhm. Well, I gotta go.” David watched her place some money on the counter. This money wasn’t like the golden coins he got from the saloon owner. This was paper and looked more the sort of money he’s used to. “You can keep the change. You might be able to hire a guard or something because I’m almost sure Carson is going to rain holy hell down on you for killing his brother.”

  “Uh…” he audibly gulped.

  “Mhm,” then she looked over and acknowledged Max for the first time. “You’re an awfully soft looking man. You’re gonna wanna toughen up.” Then she left as quickly as she had come.

  The two stared at each other, and Max wore a glare.

  “We gotta figure some shit out, I guess,” David said.

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