Lifesaver [Engl.]

36. What next?

A shiver ran down Rango's spine as his hand wandered further and felt Beans's dress. His heart was in his throat when he touched her hand. Was she dead? Shivering, he clutched her hand, but didn't dare to feel for her pulse. He knew that he could never bear the thought that because of his fault, Beans had to lose her life.
"What's down there?" Jake switched his voice down to him from above. "Did you get down there?"
Rango swallowed. "Yes, I found her."
He stood up hastily and tried to pick up Beans somehow. The bucket of water swayed with every move what he made. Rango didn't want to think about how deep it went down below them.
After several attempts, he managed to support Beans's body on his shoulder. But how was he supposed to get her upstairs? His gaze wandered up to the fountain entrance.
"Jake!" He called. "Can you pull me up somehow?"
First, there was silence.
"How does he envision it?" Jake mumbled softly at the edge of the fountain.
His gaze wandered up to the well-winch. He shook his head. The winch was totally broken and was about to disintegrate. It was impossible to use it.
Maybe he could climb down? He shook his head again. The rope was a way too old and could break under his weight.
"I can't pull you up!" He called down. "Try to climb up the rope somehow."
"Great," muttered Rango. "Not that as well."
But what other choice did he have? He couldn't stay down here either.
Quickly he took off his vest and put Beans's arms over his shoulder and her body on his back so that his hands were free at least. Then he put the vest back on so that she wouldn't fall off easily.
His gaze wandered back up. Then he took another deep breath and swung himself onto the fountain rope with all his might. He pulled himself up on it with panting. Beans wasn't heavy, but with her it was twice as strenuous to climb the rope. Her weight pulled him down a few millimeters each time when he pulled himself up. After just a few centimeters, Rango thought to faint from exhaustion at any moment. Panting, he interrupted the climbing tour to take a short break. But shortly afterwards his hands began to slide off the rope. Immediately he reached up again and pulled himself up a little again. Then again and again.
He was startled when he heard a strange noise. He stopped and listened. It sounded like a rustle. No. More like a slight tear. His gaze wandered upwards. He let out a choked scream when he realized that the rope above him had been torn slightly in one place.
"No! No! ", Rango yelled and pulled himself up on the rope again. But with each of his movements the fibers of the well rope threatened to tear more and more.
Rango continued to climb in panic. But too late. The chameleon with the desert lizard clung convulsively to the rope and narrowed his eyes.
Suddenly he felt a slight jolt. The rope broke.
"AHHHHH!"
Both fell. But shortly afterwards they landed on something heavy. Rango instinctively clung to it and almost fell off. The bucket of water shattered in the depths.
Rango's heart raced wildly. He only opened his eyes again when he heard a familiar voice.
"That was pretty close, wasn't it?" Jake said.
Rango looked at him in surprise. Jake had caught them just before they could fall into the well. "What? How did you come here?"
"I was looking for something suitable in the shed. The old horse bridle was still inside."
Jake turned his body in a wave and crawled up the old but sturdy line that he had attached to the top of the well. Once at the top he let himself fall over the edge of the well and all three landed on the dusty floor. Rango, who had landed with his face directly in the sand, spat the sand out of his mouth in disgust.
Immediately he remembered Beans. She was still lying next to him, motionless.
Reluctantly, he turned her onto her back and leaned over the passed-out girl in concern. She was pale and the blood was hanging down from her hair in a dried-up groove. Rango swallowed hard. "Please don't, please don't."
He brushed her hair aside with trembling hands. Jake had moved closer to her now and was gentle wrapping Beans around his body.
"What are you doing there?" Rango asked in shock.
"Listening," Jake whispered to him. He listened intently for a sign of life.
Then his expression relaxed. "She's still alive."
Rango looked at him in disbelief. "She lives? But how can that be? She was dead."
"Let's see." With that, Jake leaned forward and glanced under Beans's hair.
"Tz, it's just a graze. She's obviously just in shock."
Rango thought he was bursting into tears with happiness.
Jake smiled slightly. "Well, obviously Madog is not that good at aiming from a distance."
Suddenly his face turned serious again. "Speaking of them, we have to go into town immediately."
With these words, he broke away from the two and hastily crawled a few meters forward.
But when he noticed that Rango wasn't following him, he slowed down.
"What's now? Come on now! We have to prevent them from destroying the town."
But Rango paid him no heed. "I can't leave her alone," he said, gently stroking Beans's face.
Jake rolled his eyes. "Heaven and Hell, forget her. Nothing happens to her. It's just a graze. She'll be fine again. But something is about to happen to the town if we don't set off straight away."
"No!", Rango replied. "I can't leave her alone!"
Jake's eyes narrowed. "Now pull yourself together and stop crying! Do you think she'd let you sit here mothering her instead of saving your town? "
"Say what you want," Rango said, hugging Beans so tightly as if he feared Jake would tear her out of his arms any moment. "You can't forbid me."
Jake growled angrily. "Did you really listen to me?"
But Rango really didn't seem to be listening to Jake at that moment. His thoughts were only on Beans. Everything else didn't seem to matter to him at the moment. Even his town.
"Now listen to me!" Jake growled, turning Rango's head in his direction. "Do you really want that your friends die? Don't forget. He wants to use dynamite! Do you think they'll survive this?"
Rango was silent, still stroking Beans's head. Finally, he averted his gaze from Jake and looked sadly at the floor. "Why don't you do that? What can I do against them? We don't have a chance against them. Neither alone, nor together."
Jake bit his lip. Basically, Rango was right. But Jake refused to accept the triumph of this snake killer and that haughty turtle. "Now come up with something! You're the hero here! So do something!"
"I'm not a hero," Rango replied. "I know that every story needs a hero. But in this case even the greatest hero is powerless."
"Oh, just as powerless as you defeated me in the past?" Jake asked mockingly. "Who held a revolver in front of my face and who brought the water back? Well, who?"
Rango sighed. "It was me."
As if that was the cue, Beans began to groan suddenly. Then she opened her eyes.
"Beans!"
Rango hugged her in relief. "I thought you were ..."
"What was going on?" Beans asked, still a little dazed. "There was a loud bang."
She stroked over her head.
"Don't touch it." Rango took her hand and pushed it back down.
Then he took a cloth out of his pocket and held it to her gunshot wound. "It's just a scratch."
"W-what ... what happened to you?"
"How so?"
"You are so dark."
Only then Rango remembered that he still looked like a chimney sweep because of the soot. "Oh, that doesn't matter."
"W-where are the others?" Beans asked further. "Where's the turtle?"
"They rode to town and want to destroy it," Jake interrupted.
Beans looked at him in surprise. "And? What are you still standing around here?"
"That's exactly what I asked him, too," Jake interfered. "But this stubborn little man doesn't want to save his town."
Beans looked at Rango in surprise. "Is that true?"
Rango blushed. "Uh ... no ... that is, first, but then... I was worried about you!"
"Rango, the others are more important," Beans said reproachfully.
Jake grinned. "I told him something like that, too."
Rango sat there and didn't know what to say. "But what do you expect from me? I can't do anything."
He stood up and walked a few steps back.
But Beans did not give up. "Then think about something. You're so good at that."
Jake grinned widely. Much to Rango's annoyance.
"But what should I do? I can't do anything! "Desperately the chameleon clapped his hands over his head. "I don't know what to do!"
Disappointed with himself, Rango sank to the ground. Beans walked up to him and massaged his shoulders soothingly. "Now calm down and think in peace. You have to think of something, otherwise the town is lost."
Rango massaged his temples. "But what? I'm just a chameleon with a revolver. And Jake. What can he do against a gang of snake slayers?"
"But even you were able to defeat him," Beans said encouragingly. "Then you will think of something against this gang."
Rango glanced up at the sky for help. "But what?"
There was a silence. A silence that nobody dared to break. Not even Jake. He always thought Rango was a little crazy, but he had to admit that he didn't always have stupid ideas.
After a while, Rango stood up and paced restlessly. He folded his hands behind his back and kept quiet conversations to himself.
"We can't beat them on our own," he mumbled quietly. "We have to get help. But from whom? We are alone. Completely alone."
He looked up.
"Unless..." He snapped his fingers. "I think I know what else we could do."
"What?" Beans asked and Jake as one.
But Rango did not answer her question, but urged on to hurry. "We have to start on our way immediately! Beans? Do you think you can walk Or no, better not. You have to take care of yourself. Jake, couldn't you... "
Jake's eyes widened. "That's out of the question!"
"Jake ..."
"No."
"Please." Rango made doe eyes.
"No!"

"Idiot," Jake muttered as he crawled through the desert terrain. With Rango and Beans on his back. "Idiot. Idiot."
"At least you owe her this favor," Rango said. "After all, you owe it to her that you still have your tongue."
Jake's face darkened even more. The chameleon and its arguments. How much he hated that.
"Does this day never end?" He grumbled through clenched teeth. "Where are we actually crawling to?"
"Where we probably still have a chance to get help," answered Rango. But his voice was not so convincing.
"And how far is that?"
"I'll tell you then."

After a long walk, Rango called out: "Stop. That's far enough."
"Far enough?" Jake asked.
"You will see in one moment."
With that, Rango jumped off Jake's back.
As soon as Rango was downstairs, Jake formed his body in a wave and let Beans slip off his back as well.
Jake looked around. Around them was a vast rocky desert landscape. Who should help them here?
Rango took a few steps forward. Then he stopped, looked around again, then he whistled as loud as he could.
At first nothing happened. But then...
Jake screamed when he saw a shadow flit over him. Out of sheer panic, he raced past Rango and squeezed himself under a stone while the shadow in the sky continued to circle.