The Promise

19. Stop that!

Rango pressed his lips together.
That's not true! This can't be! He wants to kill me with his venom!
Rango was like paralyzed. His mind was unable to think.
"AHHH! Stop that, Bill! BILL!"
Bill didn't listen to him. On contrary. He increased his bite.
Rango screamed all kinds of sounds, moved his legs to push Bill away, without success.
Rango moved his right arm, which was still free. He pressed his fingers together, drew back his arm and hit it with all force the fist into Bill's wounds.
For a second, Bill's bite became tighter, but suddenly Bill loosened his bite, threw his head backwards and yelled in pain.
With effort Rango managed to push him away. Bill rolled to the ground and held his hurting wound near his belly. Rango's eyes wandered first on his bit wound. It was bleeding, but the clothes on his arm inhibited that the most venom arrived his blood veins maybe. Quickly he hitched up the sleeve. He bit his lower lip. It hurt terribly. The wound began to swell. What should he do now? Sucking? No, bad idea. He would transport the venom more into his body. Water! He needed water to wash it out... There was no water!
Rango held his arm. His hands began to tremble.
Will he die?
He breathed heavily.
Don't panic, don't panic. Be quiet. Don't panic.
He lifted his head when he heard a sharp hiss. Bill had recovered from the attack and tried to stand up again.
"That's not enough for me!" the Gila monster hissed. "I will kill you!"
"Stay away!" Rango screamed and held his arm to avoid moving him anymore.
Bill jumped forward. Rango ran outside. He looked around. The hawk was still not visible, but he needed something to protect himself. His gun was empty. But there were still somewhere Bill's guns in the area, which the hawk had thrown away. He tried to remember where they had landed. He looked around. Luckily for him that Bill was too injured to run very fast. He sighed in relief when he recognized the gun belt on the ground. After he reached it, he took out the first revolver and aimed it at Bill.
"Don't move or I will shoot you!"
Bill stopped, but he didn't lift his hands.
Instead, he grinned. "You would never shoot me, would you?"
Rango narrowed his eyes. He felt a little dizzy, but his mind was still clear. Maybe he could give a warning shot first.
He pulled the trigger.
A single "Click" let him froze.
Empty gun.
Bill chuckled morbidly. The Gila monster felt pain, but he tried to ignore it.
Immediately Rango grabbed the second gun. It had to be loaded.
"This gun is loaded," Rango warned. "Stay away and let me go!"
Bill took one step more in his direction. "Do you really think you can go a long way? You underestimate my venom."
He licked his lips and grinned mockingly, which remembered Rango the painful bite wound.
He trembled again. Rango swallowed down the fear.
"Do what I say," the chameleon said for a new try to keep Bill in his place.
But Bill was never afraid of Rango. Not even now. The Gila monster had too much filled with anger and pain that he didn't realize Rango's survival instinct to fight for his life if necessary. Rango held the gun tighter when Bill hissed threateningly and went one step forward. His hands still formed as fists.
"I wanna see you die," Bill panted. "You can't leave me to spoil the party."
His steps became stagger, but he didn't become faint.
Rango took a deep breath. "You can't stop me to leave you."
Bill laughed. "So you wanna leave me? What a hard guy are you now? Did you ever been a hard guy? When I saw you the first time I only saw a coward, little stranger with a big mouth. If the hawk had never appeared, I would have killed you. It's a mystery for me that someone like you got so much luck for nothing. It seems that your luck will leave you today."
"That was yesterday," Rango replied. "Today things are different."
"Oh yes. Things really changed," Bill said mockingly. "You came here as a weak, lonely lizard and you will die as a weak, lonely lizard." He coughed but he continued. "Realize it. You will die as an unimportant creature without a grave. That's your destiny. Your little girlfriend will also die as a mourning widow. Don't worry. Just in case if I survive, I will take good care for her. Maybe she will like me more than you."
Rango pressed his lips together before he said: "She would rather die than to do that."
Bill shrugged his shoulders. "Whatever, maybe she will find another one who is more worth than you."
Rango was close to tears. Beans would never do that!
"That's enough Bill!" Rango screamed threateningly. He took the safety catch off.
Bill raised an eyebrow. "You would never shoot me, would you?"
Rango breathed heavily. He couldn't hear these words anymore! His eyes narrowed. Seconds passed, but nothing happened.
Bill snorted. "I knew it."
He hissed and tensed his body. Suddenly he jumped at Rango. Rango jumped aside, but Bill managed to grab his arm. Rango yelled when he touched the bite wound.
"AHHHH! YOU...!
Rango broke away from him, turned around and gave Bill such a hard push what Bill had never thought. The Gila monster fell to the ground. Rango turned around and... shot.
Bill screamed and held his left shoulder. A bullet had struck his skin.
"You think, I can't do that?!" Rango yelled. "Of course I can!"
Again a shot and hit Bill's right shoulder. Bill screamed in pain. This time it wasn't just a grazing shot. Bill didn't know what he should do and was like paralyzed.
"You said I'm a coward?" Rango's eyes were filled with tears. "I'm not a coward!"
Rango shot several times. Every time he missed the target very deliberately. Bill always winced when a bullet missed him.
Four-three-two-
Rango hesitated to shoot the last shot. With the last bullet.
Bill crawled away. That was too much for him. Rango was totally out of his mind.
"You wanna flee?" Rango spat with disgust. "The coward are you!"
The chameleon picked up a stone and threw it in Bill's direction. Bill screamed when the stone hit his leg. The next one his head.
"Stop that, stop that," Bill screamed. He had too injured to fight back. Besides Rango still had a bullet in his gun. Another stone hit the Gila monster on his head. Bill looked at Rango with disbelief. He had never seen Rango like this before.
He crawled back. But Rango didn't want to let him go. Instead, he picked more stones and threw them at the Gila monster. Bill's hands trembled like crazy. "Stop that! Stop that!"
"Are you begging? I can't hear you!" Rango screamed back.
He picked up another stone.
Bill lifted an arm. "No! Stop that, stop that!"
Rango didn't listen to him. He threw the stone and hit Bill's belly. Bill screamed in pain. The hawk's cuts were still fresh and sensitive. Bill tried to protect himself and lifted his hands to save his head at least. Finally, he couldn't sit anymore and fell aside to the ground. He huddled up and stayed lying there.
Rango was ready to pick a new bigger stone, and lifted it in the air while Bill lay exhausted on the ground.
"You are a monster!" Bill screamed and cried of desperation.
Rango froze in his movement. The stone still in his hand. The time seemed to stop and he realized what he had done. His eyes kept on the heavy breathing big lizard, which still lay bleeding and cramped on the ground.
What happen to him? What was he doing? He had never done anything like that. Slowly he became calmer and his rage sank, when he saw the Gila monster helpless lying on the ground and tried to protect its face.
Rango couldn't understand himself anymore. He lost the control about himself. Why?
He looked again at the injured Gila monster.
When Bill didn't feel a stone anymore, he dared to risk a look at Rango. Rango held the stone higher in his hands. Bill winced and hid his face again in his hands.
The chameleon lowered the stone in his hand and let him fall next to himself on the ground.
Then he took the revolver and put it on a stone. Then he took a deep breath.
"You will behave now," he said as calmly as he could do. "Or I will lose my patience forever."
He turned around and tried to come clear in his mind again. Bill meanwhile had taken his hands from his head off again, but he didn't dare to move. He was still scared. Instead he stayed on the ground and wiped away sand and dust from his body.
Rango sank on his knees. He was disappointed about himself. He had never lost the control before like now. Tears rolled down his cheeks and clenched his hands. Why went everything wrong?
His eyes wandered to his injured arm. It didn't look good; it was dark red and it still bled a little. He needed a doctor, but nobody was near. He had no idea where he was now. Where was the town? Where were their roadrunners? He couldn't see them. Had they run away when the hawk had come?
He looked over to Bill, who lay on his back and breathed heavily. The Gila monster turned his head in his direction. Their eyes met for a while. Rango felt how he trembled again. Slowly he sank to the ground.
At least we can die together, Rango thought. Maybe Bill thought the same. He avoided the chameleon's glance and lay motionless on the ground.
Rango couldn't stop himself and began to cry.
"I hate you," he sobbed with shaking voice.
"I'm not surprised," Bill replied emotionless.
Bill licked his tongue, when he smelled his own blood. Damn hawks, he thought and hissed painfully.
Rango crawled away from him a few meters to be alone. Bill wasn't annoyed about this. On contrary. Everyone wanted to be alone with himself. With his own pain and sorrow.
There was silence for a while. Nobody of them said a word.
Rango moaned when he moved his body. The bite wound of Bill in his arm still hurt horribly.
A terrible nausea rose inside him. He swallowed several times. But it was useless. He couldn't stop himself. He jumped forward a few meters and vomited.
Bill looked at him when he cleaned his mouth again and crawled back.
The Gila monster smiled mischievously. "It still works."
Rango gave him a nasty look, but he was too tired to discuss with that lizard.
He lay himself on his back and stared into the sky. Clouds went their way, but he couldn't travel with them. A wind blew over the landscape and petted his bloody wound and his skin. It stroked his face. The desert wanted to calm him down. To die a softly death. The desert had become his new home since he came here. It had caught him when he had fallen out of the car. Now he would find his peace here. He closed his eyes, laid his arms aside and relaxed his body. He couldn't feel the pain anymore. The desert lulled him to sleep. He listened to the wind, which seemed to sing a strange song for him. Rango smiled.
Take my body, take my soul...
Suddenly, there was a rattling sound in the air.
He blinked. He opened his eyes and looked into the sun. A shadow appeared with a big hat.
Rango sighed deeply and closed his eyes again.
The death is fetching me.