Chapter Text
In the scorching sands of the Desert, two wandering cats found shade under a rock.
“Oy, Gambit, how long do you think we’ll stay here?” Said the one with the hat. He was weak after being defeated by a strong party of strange-looking cats, but a gunslinger could never fully let down his guard.
Zodiac took a sip from his water canteen and passed it over to his friend.
“Gyuh. Not much reason left, I think. Not much life left here either.”
Zodiac could only watch as the fat cat drank up the entire rest of the bottle. But he was right, the desert was a ghost town after the cats’ rampage. Where had they gone now?
“Well, I’ve heard about there being casinos and diners down east. We could go over there if you want.”
Gambit was playing with his dice as he spoke. That was all he seemed to care about these days…But the diner part seemed interesting enough.
Boon County was in a bit of a bad spot right now so Zodiac was in doubt about going back into town. Especially as he had worked hard enough running away from it in the first place. But where else could they go? The desert stretched on for miles in the other direction, and he assumed that wherever it would lead was either barren too or too dangerous for a nimble cat like him.
Yet his friend Gambit seemed to make these decisions on a whim. Go here, go there, his journey was a gamble. Zodiac wondered what prompted him to come to the desert in the first place.
A cat like him was suited to a much more luxurious life than this.
“Not very talkative today gunslinger,” Gambit playfully tossed his big dice in front of Zodiac. It landed on a two.
“You won’t be calling me gunslinger soon if there’s nothing left to kill here,” He hissed, then took a deep breath.
“…Sorry. The heat’s getting to me I think, it feels impossible to think straight here. Maybe we really should go.” Zodiac’s voice was low and grumbly.
He was miserable these past few days; his friend Morana was found dead in a ditch (the strange cats did it), his next targets were already dead when he arrived to shoot them down (the strange cats did it), and finally he was beaten up pretty badly (the strange cats did that too).
It was humiliating to say the least.
At least he had Gambit. Gambit who was now snoozing next to him, not even thinking of being cautious.
Well, was there anything to be cautious of anymore?
Zodiac sighed as he looked down at his aged revolver. A beautiful gun it was, taken the lives of many foes who dared to move in his sight. He let out a crooked laugh thinking about it, but it quickly died down when he remembered he couldn’t defeat the foes that mattered the most. He felt like a fraud.
He let himself fall on his big friend with a soft thud, put his hat over his eyes, and tried to sleep off these thoughts.
When they woke up it would be night, and they would set off to Boon County.
***