Venomous [Engl.]

1. In the dark

Soft slow swings woke him up from his painful powerlessness. Everything was dark around him. From time to time he felt a strong shake.
The Gila monster moaned because of the headache and wanted to gasp for air, but he couldn't open his mouth. Suddenly another shaking shook the floor and he rolled weakly aside. He moved his head back and forth, but he couldn't move more. Why not? Escaping from his faint, he tensed his muscles. But he couldn't move arms and legs. Something held them together. He felt ropes and cords.
"Mmmmmpf!" he mumbled dully. He set up jerkily and pulled on his ropes like crazy. Suddenly there was a shake again and he stumbled back to the floor.
Damn it! Where was he?
He suppressed the panic and tried to get his bearings. He moved his hands and feet again. His hands had tied tightly behind his back. His legs had tightly tied as well. His eyes had bandaged and his mouth had gagged. Even his lizard tail had tied up with his legs. It was almost impossible for him to move. He could no more than roll back and forth.
After he ascertained that, he explored the environment. As his mouth was gagged, he could not use his tongue, thus he couldn't use his olfactory organ in his mouth. Instead, he had no other choice than to use his nose as an aid. He breathed in and out focused several times. The air smelled slightly hazy and judging by the temperature, it was night apparently. Then he tried to fathom the constant shaking and rocking, which seemed familiar to him. He had to be in a cart, which was pulled by a draft animal.
He listened intently. The slight squeaking of cart tires and a slight snort from an animal, probably a peccary pulled the cart, was all what he could hear acoustically. No city noises, no voices, no background noises like water or anything else. Absolutely nothing. The cart drove through unpopulated countryside. Anyway the ground was not flat. From time to time the cart drove over a stone or a small hollow. But where they were, if anyone else sat on the cart, he couldn't tell. He had no idea where he was.
He laid himself on his back and scanned the floor with his hands, which was made of stable wood. He rolled himself aside until his body butted against a wall. Then he rolled back to the other side and he butted against a second wall.
The wooden wagon where he was in, was twice as big as him and twice or three times as wide as him. Gently he leaned against the wall and managed to stand up despite bounded feet. He almost straightened up to his full size when his head hit the ceiling of the cart. Groaning, he stopped and tried to find a breath of wind. But this prison seemed not to have windows obviously.
A new pothole made the cart tremble and the monster fell hard on the cart floor. Angrily, he sat up again.
Where the hell were they going to take him and first of all questions: Why?
Who was it who had anesthetized him, tied him up and locked him?
Bounty hunters? Black marketers? Or even lawmen, who wanted to send him to prison?
He was not a much-wanted criminal, but as Bad Bill, he had not a good reputation for most animals.
Where had he been the last time before that?
It was in near of Dirt. He had been on his way to his hiding place when something hard hit his head. From then on there was a deep memory lapse.
He tried again to loosen the ropes, but he realized immediately that it was useless. He had no other choice than to wait where the journey ended. But no matter where they wanted to take him, it will be not a good place for him most likely.

Over one hour passed. Bill had laid down while this time to waste his time with many theories about his situation. Then he felt that the cart slowed down his speed.
He lifted his head. Did something lie in their way or did they achieved the goal?
A jolt crossed the cart and came to a halt. But this took just few seconds. Then the cart drove on. Bill noticed how the ground noise of the wheels changed. Then the cart stopped. Bill didn't dare to breathe. He listened to every sound. Someone climbed down from the cart. Shortly after that there were more steps which came closer. He listened intently, but no one spoke a word, as if they communicated only with sign language. Somebody opened a kind of big sliding door of the cart side. Bill raised his head, although he could not see anything. For a moment, he asked himself, whether it hadn't been the best to pretend that he would sleep.
But now they had already seen that he was awake.
He heard heavy footsteps. Several footsteps of three persons or more. Then suddenly they fell silent. He mumbled something through the gag, when no one spoke. But he felt eyes, which stared at him. He straightened up a bit. But nobody was still talking.
Suddenly several big hands grabbed him and dragged him ahead to the open cart door. Bill breathed loudly in and out. Asked himself repeatedly what all that should mean. But nobody gave him an answer to his silent question. Bill started to panic and braced himself against the strangers who tried to get him out of the closed cart.
Chains clinked and he felt how they pushed ropes through his arms. Something unpleasant cold was wrapped around his neck. Was that a neck chain?
All of a sudden, the hands let him go and ropes and chains were stretched instead, which pulled him with all strength out of the cart.
Bill protested loudly and rolled himself several times back and forth to prevent them from getting out of the cart. But now it seemed to pull a whole army on the ropes. After a few vigorous attempts, Bill had to give up the resistance. As tied as he was, he had no chance to hold on anything. In one go, he was dragged out of the cart door and landed with a dull thump on the floor next to the cart. The ground was stony, he noticed that immediately. But he had no time to analyze his new surroundings. The strangers started pulling the ropes again and dragged the Gila animal across the ground in a certain direction.
Bill struggled; although he knew that it had no use. But he didn't want to surrender without a fight. He didn't like the fact that someone treated him like dead meat. He bent his legs slightly and tried to sit upright on the floor. He put his feet on the floor and for a moment, he managed to slow down the tug on him. But just for a few seconds. The dragging stopped for a moment, but then the group jerked him forward forcefully and he landed with his upper body on the floor. Someone went behind him and gave him a hard kick in the back. Bill groaned loudly and was unable to move for a moment. The hijackers used this moment and dragged him again across the ground. This time at a faster pace, so that he became dizzy. It had to be very big animals, which dragged him with chains and ropes over the floor.
Once again, he straightened up and threw his head back.
"Mmmo mpfng mh mmh?! Mmm mpf muh?!"
Of course, no one understood his dull screams, what nobody seemed to want to know probably. Nobody said a word. Nobody asked him a question or warned him to keep quiet. It was a scary silence.
After a while, Bill became tired of all fighting and struggling. As much as he tried, he was dragged like a despised, dead animal, which didn't know the destination and did not know whether it would not be his last walk.
The latter gave him the impetus to resist repeatedly his captors. He paused when he heard how a door was opened. His catchers stopped a moment and interrupted their tug on him. There was a strange buzzing sound.
The Gila monster whined unsurely.
What should all this be?
Then there was a clear, high-pitched beep that Bill had not heard often, but which he had heard somewhere before.
It was an elevator. But a rather modern elevator. Older ones didn't own high-tech. Especially not which he had seen in the desert. Were they still in the desert?
Once again, the tugging started at him and Bill was transported into the elevator. Almost without resistance, he let it happen. At least they left him alone for a little while. The elevator doors closed ant the elevator moved down.
Bill didn't know how far down they drove, but it wasn't long.
Shortly afterwards, the doors opened and the game started from the beginning.
As soon as they had left the elevator with the monster in tow, Bill noticed immediately that the floor was made of smooth stone slaps. He tried to orient himself, but there was no noise. Fortunately, the forced tour didn't take a long time and the migration group stopped. He heard the ringing sounds of keys and a door was unlocked.
Then he was dragged forward again. As soon as they had passed the door, Bill heard the sounds more subdued. It had to be a room where they put him in.
Maybe final stop.
Someone grabbed him by the necklace and forced him to sit down. His back was pressed against a kind of column or something else and tied him to it.
He tried to stand up again, but then someone kicked him in the pelvis and his legs gave way unintentionally.
After they had fixed and fastened him adequately, the hands dropped off and left. The door slammed and there was silence in the room.
For a moment, Bill didn't dare to move. He did not even dare to breathe. When he couldn't longer stand it, he drew a powerful breath through his nose. He couldn't smell so good with his nose like with his Jacobson's organ, but there were no suspicious odors in the air. At most metal and... something disinfecting. The room seemed to have been cleaned thoroughly recently. He leaned back his head and rubbed his head against the pillar, trying to strip off the blindfold somehow. Finally, he managed to push it up a little gap at least, but that didn't help him either, because the room was pitch-dark. Even without blindfold he couldn't see anything here.
Bill panicked again. With all his strength he pulled hard on the shackles. But the more he moved, the firmer they seemed to become around his wrists. He breathed heavily with excitement and exhaustion. His heart was racing. Why had they brought him here? Why did no one say a word? Why this secret? What did they want from him? Did they want to kill him here?
These and more questions crossed his head over and over again until he couldn't think any longer because of fatigue and dozed after a while. He startled from his dozing sleep when he heard a jingling at the door. His muscles tensed as the door was opened. The Gila monster held his breath.
Was that his end?
The door became open with a dash. Through the millimeter gap under the blindfold, Bill could see light, accompanied by large shadows.
Someone entered the room. There were footsteps of more than two persons.
"So, this is our newcomer?" he heard a voice for the first time. It was a man and sounded anything but friendly. On the contrary. It even sounded very condescending.
"Not a bad choice," the stranger continued. "Looks strong enough. Where does he come from?"
"From the Mojave Desert," his companion answered. Bill couldn't say whether he was one of those who had dragged him here.
"Well, well, well, well! Even in such a wasteland there is still something useful to be found. Fine, fine, fine."
Bill hissed in protest at the disrespect, which he received. Angrily, he shouted through the gag, hoping someone would take off the cloth so that he could scold them properly. But nobody did that favor for him.
Instead the stranger continued to say: "I see, you are still groping around in the dark. But don't worry. Your task will be explained to you soon enough."
Task? What permitted this guy himself?
He would only be too pleased to give his kidnapper an angry look. But his eyes were still connected, so that he couldn't even do that at least. Instead, he threw his head back furiously and tugged with all his strength on his shackles. Bill couldn't see it, but he meant to feel, that the stranger smiled and enjoyed the lizard's helplessness, what Bill made angrier.
Angry as he was, he kept trying to stand up.
Now he could hear the stranger's softly giggling.
"Let him stay here for a while. A few days diet, after that you can carry him out."
He heard how they turned around and left the room.
Bill hissed indignantly and screamed all kinds of insults through the cloth in his mouth, which someone could guess with a little fantasy. But that didn't impress the strangers. With calm, relaxed steps they walked away and blocked the door.
The Gila monster fought for a while longer, then he gave up. There was no point in fighting, if nobody watched him. He had to try to keep a clear head, though it was not easy for him. For him, there was always the motto to hit somebody's skull or run away. He rarely had had another option in his mind with some exceptions. After he drubbed himself a thousand times "Calm down!" into his head, he did the only best thing he could do now. Resting. Who knew whether he would need his forces for something. In worse case to fight for his life.