"MERINNA, MERINNA!" Jake shouted slithering across the rough rocky terrain "Where are YOU?!" Jake was at a loss, both physically and emotionally. True, his body was hurting from the effects of the fallings rocks and from the battle not too long ago, but he was hurting emotionally because of what Merinna had told them- Jake, Rango, and Samuel, to do; leave her and get of the cave before it was too late. Jake blinked, her voice echoing through his mind as he replayed the scene over and over again.

"MOM, NO!" Samuel had shouted as he tried desperately to get back to help his mother, whose leg had become trapped under a falling rock.
"SAMUEL, DON'T!" she had shouted "GET OUT WHILE YOU STILL CAN! GO! FORGET ABOUT ME, GO WITH YOUR FATHER! PLEEEEAAASE!"
"No! I won't leave you be'ind!" came the heart-broken response.
Jake had watched, unable to believe the scene that was happening before him. His dear wife, trapped underneath a boulder shouting to their son to leave her and get out before the cave finally caved in.
"JAKE, TAKE SAMUEL!" Merinna screamed, her eyes wide with pain and horror "GET HIM OUTTA HERE!
Jake only gapped in realization at what she was asking him to do. Leave her, and safe themselves.
"JAAAAAAKKKKEEE Please!" she cried "I'LL BE FINE I PROMISE! JUST TAKE SAMUEL AND GET HIM OUT OF HERE!"
"ARE YOU CRAZY WOMAN?! THERE IS NO WAY THAT WE'RE LEAV'IN YOU HERE!" he had shouted quickly dodging another one of those falling rocks. He hissed, there was no way in ALL the FIERY pits of hell, he was going to leave his wife trapped among the rubble.
"JAKE, listen to me, hun! THERE IS NO OTHER WAY, IF YOU DON'T GET SAMUEL, AND YOU DON'T GET OUT OF HERE IN TIME then WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!
Time seemed to go still, as Jake looked at wife, a young woman whom he would have never thought to fall in love with, marry, and had a child -a son- together. He noticed the endless amount of love and devotion in her eyes. She knew that she wasn't going to make it out of this alive, and yet she was asking him and her son to leave her behind, so that THEY may escape alive instead of she.
Merinna was mouthing something to him, and although reading lips wasn't one of Jake's strong suits, he recognized what she was telling him.
"I love you."
Jake lowered his head, clenched his teeth, and shut his eyes. This...was probably going to be the very last time he saw his wife alive again. And he had no other alternative; it was either grab his son, and make a break for it, or stay here, and let his whole family die. So he did the only thing that he could do for Merinna, that sweet little gecko wife of his -take their son and get out. He looked at Merinna one more time, before quickly wrapping his tail around Samuel's body and made a run for it. All the while trying to ignore his son's painful protests and dodge the much bigger boulders.
He had only a few seconds left before the entire cave crashed down upon them, and with the last burst of strength and energy Jake had, he shot out of the entrance and into the blinding daylight. Behind him, the cave collapsed, sending a thickening cloud of ash and dust and trapping the one he loved inside.
Samuel screamed "MOOOOOTHHHHERRR NOOOOOOO!"

"JAKE!" a voice shouted breaking Jake out of his trance. It was his 'brother' Rango's voice "WE"VE FOUND HER! WE FOUND MERINNA!"
Jake jolted and quickly slithered to where Rango and the other were surrounded at. He panted once he arrived.
"Well? D-did...you..f-find her?" his voice rasping and dry.
Rango lowered his eyes, prayed that his 'brother' didn't kill him on the spot
"Yes...w-we've found her, but...I'm afraid it's too late. She's gone.
Jake...froze. His pupils dilating from shock. What...Marinna's dead?! NO! I-i't CAN'T BE!
"No..." he shook his head in disbelief "NO!" he shouted "MERINNA'S NOT D-DEAD! SHE CAN'T BE!" As quick as a flash he drew his gun right at Rango, the fire in his eyes raging with such anger, that Rango thought hell itself was coming to claim him.
"YOU BETTER BE LY'IN SHERIFF! YOU BETTER BE LYING!" Jake roared at him. He aimed his gun straight at Rango's heart, and prepared to pull the trigger just in case this was lie.
"Jake," Bean's voice rose out of the silence and tension. "Rango's not lying, it's tru-!" Jake wrapped the last of his coils around Bean in order to silence her from finishing her sentence.
"You BETTER not be lying, Miss Beans." Jake hissed tighten his grasp "IF you know what's good for ya!
Bean gasped for air "I'M NOT LYING JAKE! It's TRUE LOOK FOR YOURSELF!"
Jake loosened his hold on Beans, dare he kill her and stain his relationship with town and Rango.
"Where?" he asked, still not wanting to believe the truth, but in the end there was no denying it any longer.
"Over here." the small voice of the small Cactus mouse, Pricilla said.
Jake slowly moved over to the spot where she was pointing at. Giving the girl, and everyone else a sounding hiss, he peered over the side of the whole and there...he saw her - dead.
"No..." he whispered. Merinna was dead, and yet he couldn't save her. Samuel had already beaten him to digging Marinna's still body from underneath the rubble, and was now pressing her battered still body against his chest, sobbing uncontrollably. Jake carefully coiled the lower half of his body around his only living son, tilted his hat the side, and began to cry silently.
Merinna Scarlet, his beloved wife, was dead and there was nothing that he, nor his son could do about it. She gone from them forever.
A true legend of the West, a treasured mother and wife was gone and had slipped into the ever careful grasp of death.
She...was gone.