Guys... I'm so, so sorry I haven't updated for like, WEEKS! (maybe even months?), but our router died in a thunderstorm we had someday in June, and without it there's no way for me to get on the internet. Plus I've been sick for like, two weeks so I haven't had the strength write :( (still feeling a bit feverish)... Anyway, we still haven't got a new router, so I'm borrowing Adelies computer to post these chapters, don't expect any updates soon, at least not until we got our router _... But don't worry! I'm NOT quitting this story, I like it far too much :D! A new chapter always WILL come sooner or later!
And I hope this covers up for some of the damage, but here's TWO new chapters I managed to write while we were without internet and before I got sick ;)
*** Chapter Eleven : Mutiny! ***
They had only been riding for a couple of hours when Priscilla shouted out for Rango; she had seen something in the sand. The big gray, writhing thing looked like vultures gathering around a carcass.
Intrigued they both rode closer and shooed the scavengers away, even though they were about twice the size. It was a roadrunner, or at least what was left of it. It was covered partially with sand, so it must've died during the sandstorm.
"Isn't that sheriff Calls saddle?" Priss said and pointed to the thrashed saddle on the carcass' back. Rango took a closer look and felt a cold hand gripping his heart when he realized Priss were right.
"But then... Where's Woodrow?" Rango asked. Priss shrugged and looked around.
"There are more vultures over there!" She said and pointed to another group of the vile scavenger birds that seemed to sit still around something. Waiting for their little snack to die.
With loud "Whoop"s and "Yaah!"s, they made their way through the batch of vultures and found sheriff Woodrow Call in the middle of it all. He lied face up and almost fully covered with sand, just like his bird. Rango jumped down from Excelsior and
"Sheriff?! Sheriff Call?!" He rushed toward the seemingly unconscious prairiedog and carefully shook his shoulders. A faint moan were heard from the sheriff. "He's alive!" Rango said with a relieved sigh. "But where's the others? And what happened here?!" He added a bit worried.
"He got shot..." Priss answered the last of his questions.
"How do you know that?" Rango asked sceptically. Priscilla pointed to Woodrows stomach, where Rango held his hand. Rang carefully lifted the hand and noticed that his palm was covered with blood. Rango shrieked in surprise and tried to shake it off. When he stood up, he noticed another creature lying in the sand further away.
"Priss, stay here and help sheriff Call, I see someone over there!" He said while running to the other person. The vultures didn't seem all to curious about him.
He knelt before the lifeless figure and turned him around, only to discover it was Augustus McCrae, the deputy! Rango shaking bent down to control if Augustus was still alive. He couldn't hear him breathing, but suddenly he sprang up and pressed his gun against Rangos nose. Very much alive.
Rango jumped back in surprise and stared at the gun in the jackrabbits paws.
"W-wait! It's me!" Rango said and hold up his arms to protect himself. Augustus wrinkled his nose, but then he seemed to remember the sheriff of Dirt.
"Well darn it! I was hopin' it was that good for nothin' scumbag that ambushed us!" He snarled and put his gun back in its holster. He tried to stand up, but the gunwounds in his right leg and hip made him cringe in pain. He cursed again.
Rango gave him a helping hand and with joined forces, they managed to lift the old jackrabbit up on his feet. Even though the pain made almost made Gus scream, he managed to take a few steps.
Rango realized that he couldn't help Gus on his own so he called for Priscilla, who had started heating up a fire to cook some healing herbs and roots to put on the wounds. She abandoned her ongoing work to help Rango carry the wounded deputy to the fire.
"What happened?" Rango hurried to ask as soon as Gus was sitting somewhat comfortably on the ground, his wounded leg rested on a small sand hill.
"Haven't got a darn clue!" He mumbled and gratefully accepted a water bottle from Priss. He drank before he continued; "That darn sandstorm surprised us when we had set camp for the night. And suddenly out of nowhere, someone shot at us!" Gus made a sudden, big movement with his arms which made Excelsior and Birdie jump in surprise. "It was MADNESS, I tell ya kids! MADNESS! Bullet were flying EVERYWHERE and we couldn't neither breathe nor see! Suddenly some lucky pig got a lucky shot in my leg here... I've been passed out until I heard you two kids show up! Thank god the sandstorm didn't bury us completely, or we would've been goners by now!"
He cast a worried look at Woodrow, who still lied unconscious on his back. The only lifesigns he made was an occasional moan. "Gee, I hope ol' Woody here makes it... That wound looks mighty nasty!"
"Yeah, we need to get him back to Dirt as fast as possible. There's not much we can do here, and to try and take out the bullet would probably cause more harm than good..." Priscilla said and poked in the fire. "Doc however should be able to patch him up though..."
"Good... good..." Gus said and scratched one of his long ears. "What're you kids doin' out here anyway?" He asked Rango.
"We came to tell you that one of our townspeople got murdered last night by a rattlesnake, we believed it could have been Blake" Rango started explaining.
Gus raised an eyebrow. "Believed? Of course it was him! Why even doubt?"
Rango didn't know how to continue. "Well... The thing is... We met the Rattlesnakes last night, Blake claims that he is innocent and that him and his sis are after the real culprit..."
Gus' eyes flashed and he grabbed Rango by the coat and pulled the lizard closer to his face.
"You've met the serpent-devils?! And didn't even try to apprehend 'em? And now you say you believe one of the slimiest murderers in the whole West when he claims to be innocent?!" He hissed and clutched his leg in pain. Rango pulled away and held up his hands in defense.
"First off, what he said does makes sense. He wasn't near Dirt at that time, and second; from what I could tell, he had a thing for that Isabelle of yours, and would never hurt her" Rango explained, but it only made the jackrabbit angrier.
"That still doesn't explain why you didn't catch 'em..." He muttered.
"Because we couldn't! Its just that simple, we didn't prepare for a run-in with the snakes. It just seemed to unlikely, and we didn't want to load to much on the runners since we wanted to find you guys fast." Priss explained and poked around some more in the fire. "We should rest for a bit before heading to Dirt since our runners is tired. By the way, wasn't there more of you guys?"
"I don't know, they disappeared after the storm..." Gus answered and looked troubled as he looked around.
"Rango, could you go look for them before we head off?" Priss asked and looked at Rango with a it-wasn't-a-suggestion look. Rango sighed and nodded. He stood up and grabbed a burning piece of wood from the fire and went out to search for more members of the posse.
*** Thanks for reading :D! Next chappie will be up in a jiffy ;) Delilah OUT!