“Kids are eating dinner with Mona,” Jahan said as he looked around with confusion and uncertainty.
“Of all the palaces, you had to take your family to hell. Don’t you see the news? That land is cursed. Your kids, my grandkids, won’t see their 20s because my stupid son took them to hell,” Jahan’s mom said on the phone as she cried for his son and his family.
“They are eating burgers and fries, and they are smiling, and soon all refugees will have a shelter here. Mom, our country is at war; there is no future for them. I wake up every day torturing myself for not being able to feed my family properly. I saw Mona crying in silence every night, thinking I was asleep and couldn’t hear her. Heaven’s Peak might be a hell, Mom, but it’s a real heaven next to where I was. I prefer to be threatened by actual demons than enemy soldiers.” Jahan hung up his phone.
His thoughts were messy; they were on that ship for four days, and he barely slept or ate.
"Jahan..." Mona, his wife, came to him with a burger to give him.
“Was it your mom?” she asked.
“Look, my love, I’m with you in this; we did the right thing. I know this place is crowded and chaotic right now, but it’s not close to what we endured.” She hugged her husband to calm him.
“Come here and eat with the kids; they want their father.” Mona continued, held Jahan’s hand, and brought him to the table.
The food table was for a burger stand serving his customers outside. The sky was, as usual, cloudy and bloody red. Jahan wished the weather did not get rainy; they didn’t have enough clothing; they even didn’t have enough money to pay for their burgers, but he got lucky because one of the staff there understood their situation and said burgers would be on his tab. His name was Lenny, and he was working as a cook, cashier, and waiter with his brother and the burger shop owner.
Waves of people got off of the ships and walked into Moonland town.
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Peace demons’ businesses were booming. Everyone had something to trade or had to buy something for the night. All tents were sold out, and hotel rooms were reserved.
Jahan was fortunate to fill his family’s belly for tonight because all the restaurants were running out of food too.
The people who got to the Moonland the last time fought for food and a place to sleep. No man was there to keep the crowd in order, so whoever brought a gun was taken from those who did not seem like they forgot to see the sign or did not know what would happen to those who did bring guns, but they could sleep at ease by bullying for that night.
People like Jahan and his family had seen enough bloodshed for two lifetimes; they chose the peaceful way and walked out of Moonland Two to find shelter or a safe place to sleep in the forest.
For the first time, the sound of humans overcame the scary sounds in the forest, and people decided to make fire camps and sleep close to each other, making them safer together.
The next morning, a hundred gunslingers riding horses merged at Moonland early in the morning when crows cawed and flew around. Most people were too tired to notice an army was getting there.
By noon, all who brought guns and firearms of any kind were crucified upside down, dismembered by four horses, or lashed to death by the hands of brutal gunslingers. They raped the women and daughters of those who brought guns and then branded them with a H-shaped hot iron stick before they made them their prizes and killed their sons with bullets.
They made sure all people present in the Moonland witnessed the torturing process; no harm was done to anyone who obeyed the law.
Their leader had a shiny new sheriff badge hung on his old, long brown jacket; he was the new order. His gunslingers called him Hector; his eyes were grim red, the same color as the Heaven’s Peak sky, and all his men treated him with respect and fear.
The only thing he said before leaving with his gunslingers and their new brides was, “Disobey any law, and you will face us.”
When they left the Moonland, no one bullied anyone else over food or a place to sleep. Everyone from any part of the world tried to help each other.
Hector always said one thing to his gunslingers: “Every living being understands violence.”
10,000 people understood it that day, and the other 100 paid the price for their learning.
Jahan got back to the Moonland after, and again, he was lucky enough to not be in there when that terrifying scene happened, though the aftermath and the bloody streets and crucified bodies were enough to tell them the whole story.
The town was at peace and fear; ships were gone, and Jahan still thought, ‘better than the hell that we’ve lived in’