The Promise

20. Stay away from him!

Rango lay on the ground without energy. He clenched his eyes and put the head to the left defeated.
He found me, he found me. It's over for me. My end found me.
He winced when someone put a metallic big gun on his belly.
"You are looking very sick, aren't you?" he heard a familiar voice, which let his blood freeze in his veins. His body trembled uncontrollably.
"M-ake i-it shor-t," he said with shaking voice.
"I – I – I can't hear you," Jake parroted his stuttering. "You are mumbling. Speak louder!"
Rango winced and swallowed heavily. He took a breath, but all what he could give was a convulsive sobbing.
"You stay here!" Jake ordered.
Rango blinked when he saw how Bill tried to come away. Now he stood on all four legs like frozen.
"I still have a crow to pick with you."
Bill didn't dare to run away. He laid down himself on the ground and looked with shocked eyes at the gigantic rattlesnake.
"Damn," he muttered.
Rango became dizzy again and closed his eyes with a moan.
Jake moved his Gatling gun and directed Rango's face ahead so that he could see in his face.
"Open your eyes if someone is talking to you!"
Rango swallowed and opened his eyes with effort. The sunlight hurt his eyes.
"It was a bad mistake to run away!" Jake said annoyed.
Rango didn't want to blame it on Beans. It was also his own fault.
"I must admit, it was a mistake," he admitted.
He didn't have the force to give an argument. His nerves were frazzled.
Jake snorted satisfied. He circled around him and darted his tongue in and out over his body.
Rango winced. "Why do you torture me longer? Give me a short death at least."
Jake didn't answer. "What the..."
He touched Rango's arm with his gun. Rango wailed quietly. "Please, don't touch... please."
A sharp hiss with threatening rattling cut the air.
Rango clenched his body.
It's over soon. Heaven... take me.
"You damn son of a bitch!" Jake yelled. "What have you done?!"
Rango was so shocked that he opened his eyes with horror. But instead to look into eyes, he only saw how Jake looked in another direction.
Bill grew pale like never before in his life. The snake got an evil fire in his eyes, which wasn't a good sign for a living creature.
"N-Nothing," Bill stuttered.
Jake rattled with his rattle. "You goddamn liar! I know your bite marks!"
Bill screamed when Jake jumped at him with a high speed. All tries to run away were useless for the Gila monster. Like a lightning the rattlesnake coiled her body around the scared big lizard and squeezed him.
"AHHH... NO... LET ME G-...."
"SHUT YOUR TRAP!" Jake yelled. "I will break every bone in your damn body!"
"What concern is it of y... mmmhpf..."
Jake held Bill's mouth with his body.
"He belongs to me!" Jake yelled in his face. "It's only my job to kill him! And no one else! Did you get it in your damn brain?!"
"Mmmmph..." Bill struggled like crazy and gasped for air, when Jake began to take his breath like a python. It wasn't Jake's nature, but it also wasn't his plan to suffocate him. Before Bill could lose consciousness, the rattlesnake loosened his grip again and lifted the Gila monster higher so that he was on eye level with him.
"Don't worry, I still haven't forgotten that you and the mayor gave me a trap. It will be a pleasure for me to return the favor. But not too fast, very slowly."
He opened his mouth and held his deathly fangs in front of Gila monster's face.
Rango, who watched the scene, didn't know what to say. Despite the venom, which circulated in his veins, he remembered something.
He lifted his hand. "J-ak-e? Ja-k?"
"WHAT?"
"I-I understand you are angry..."
Jake hissed darkly. "What do you want to say?"
Rango swallowed again. He felt still nausea.
"He still has to speak."
Jake held his breath for a second. "Are you out of your mind?" He narrowed his eyes and held Bill a little higher. "Speaking? Ha. He could only tell my dirt in my nightmares to me. Why shall he stay alive?"
"Jake, please. Let him down. Maybe he is the only one, who can say where it is."
"Where is what?"
Rango took a deep breath. He felt so weak, but he had to stay awake.
"Somebody in the train gave me a paper, which, I think, might be very important. Roscoe was totally in anger when he didn't find it...."
Jake snorted. "So, you met him."
Rango didn't reply. He spoke faster. "He was ready to forget the money and for this reason, I think is more valuable than money, I think."
He took a break. His lips felt numb to the touch.
"So, you say, I shouldn't kill him?" Jake asked.
Rango moaned with pain. "Not-ye-t."
He moved his lips. They are really numb.
"That's not a reason for me!"
Jake pressed his coils more together. Rango opened his mouth, when he recognized tears in Bill's face. Of pain or scare, he couldn't say why. Maybe he was ready to die, but otherwise he seemed to try to say something. The Gila monster mumbled something, which wasn't hearable under Jake's coils. Jake looked at him, loosed his grip a little bit and released his mouth. Bill moved his lips and gasped some words.
"You-can- get- everything—every part o-f- the- gold-"
Rango looked in surprise when he heard the last word.
In contrast to Jake, who had raised an eyebrow. "You dirty rat! Do you want to suborn me?"
He turned his body and pressed the lizard on the ground. In Rango's mind was chaos. Gold? That's would be a reason why Roscoe was so crazy to get it.
"J-ake," he began. "B-but- maybe it is the best to find it."
Jake rolled his eyes. "I have no interest to do business with that dirty creature."
Rango pressed his eyes together. He couldn't stay awake any longer.
"Think about Roscoe," he spoke loudly. "He could attack the town. He has a guess where it could be, but not exactly where."
Jake growled annoyed. He had still the picture in his mind when Bill and his gang had amused and the mayor wanted to give him the deathly shot. It had been luck to Bill and his gang that his first revenge belonged to the mayor instead of them. Now he got the chance for his revenge, and that green lizard ordered him to release him.
"Mmmh....Haa! You have no right to make me rules!" Jake yelled at him.
Rango's hands trembled like crazy. Bill was an idiot. But what if they never find the thing, which was for Roscoe very valuable? Could that be the end of the town?
His vision became blurred. He felt a tingling in arms and legs. Tears filled his eyes again and he sank to the ground.
God! Send me an angel!
"Jake, please. Do what he says, please!"
Rango blinked in surprise. "Wha- what..."
He moved his eyes in all directions. Suddenly a shadow appeared above him.
"I said, you should keep distance!" Jake hissed.
"Jake, please. Don't be a fool."
Jake held his breath. "Keep your tongue!"
"But he is right," Beans replied.
Rango didn't know what's going on here. She seemed to ignore him. He thought she would come to him, with worried look, her first question, what happen to him or how he is. But there was no word.
Suddenly he felt so different. So...
"Bea-ns," he mumbled. "I- I fe-el—so—diz-"
In the last second, he could see how Beans winced and called his name. Then he fell into deep darkness.
"Rango?" But Rango didn't speak a word anymore.
Beans bent down to him and touched his face.
Jake hissed warningly. "Stay away from him! We have a deal! Did you forget?"
Beans's hands trembled. She tried to control it. Her inner urge to pet Rango's face, to stroke his body, was strong, but she couldn't risk a wrong reaction. She swallowed with effort.
"Jake! I have to wash out his wound. It could become inflamed. He must go to the doctor. We have to bring him to the city!"
Jake hissed, but then he nodded. "Alright. Just because I want to see his face. We bring him to the city, but that..."
His eyes wandered back to Bill. "He will be my next soul for a place in the hell."
"Jake, did you forget what Rango said?"
"That's no concern of mine."
"Your revenge is useless if you let both die."
Jake growled loudly. That damn woman.
She looked at him pleadingly. Seconds passed. Then he nodded darkly.
"Do what you can do, but don't..." He rattled his gun. Beans knew what he wanted to say and nodded hastily.
She stood up and ran to her roadrunner to bring the water bottle.
Jake paid his attention back to the Gila monster.
"You have luck that I still want to tell him something. But if he should die..."
He tightened his grab around Bill.
Beans came back and cleaned with trembling hands the bite wound. Her eyes were worried.
Hang in there! Hang in there, it echoed through her head. She didn't know much about Gila monster venom, but it wasn't harmless for a little lizard. She bound a bandage around his arm and controlled the vital functions.
Jake came closer and watched her. Beans recognized his warning look, to remind her about her promise. She swallowed and continued her work. When she finished, she stood up, still trying to hide her deep fear for Rango.
"I will take him on my roadrunner..."
"No!" Jake interrupted her. "I will bring him to town. You have no right anymore to take care for him. He doesn't exist for you."
Beans's eyes trembled a little. Jake raised an eyebrow. "You promised."
Beans open her mouth. Her lips under control. "Yes, I did."
Jake nodded. "Meantime you can take care for that rubbish."
With these words, he threw the "rubbish" to the ground. Bill moaned with pain when he was released of the deathly grip of the grim reaper.
Jake didn't pay attention to the Gila monster anymore. But before he went to Rango, he whispered a last sentence to him. "I hope you die on your way."
The rattlesnake put Rango from the ground carefully. He didn't want to risk that he got more damaged. He needed him still alive.
When he was sure, that Rango couldn't fall down, he moved.
"We will meet in town again," he said to Beans then he slithered away. Beans looked at them with worried eyes.
After Jake was gone with him, her eyes were filled with tears. "Rango."