6. Horror in the evening
Rango yawned loudly. He sat on his roadrunner somewhere in the desert and poured in some coffee into a cup.
Deep in thoughts, he let his eyes wander over the almost dark landscape. Around him hills and little flat rocks. He stood on a little elevation, in hope to watch something suspicious.
For many days he did this every evening. Beans had given him a coffee in a thermos bottle to keep awake.
Suddenly he lifted his head. Between some rocks he had seen a movement.
Quickly he put away the coffee and rode to the point. But it wasn't a person. It was a lonely roadrunner. No, more roadrunners. Rango climbed down and grasped one of them on its reins.
"Where is your rider?"
He looked around. But nobody was there.
A bad feeling rose inside him.
As fast as he could, he jumped on his own roadrunner and traced back the footprints where the roadrunners had come from.
Suddenly he had to stop again.
First, he thought something wasn't right with the coffee which he had drunken or the evening lights played a prank with his eyes. He blinked several times.
On the floor, not far away on a flat area, lay a few bodies. Arrayed in next to one another. And not far away from them, another body hanged in the air on a wood frame. In front of that hanging body stood a black figure and was busy with him.
Rango's lips started to tremble. Sometime he managed to give a sound.
"HEY!"
The plying person turned in his direction. But the chameleon couldn't see details because of the darkness. Out of fear Rango drew his revolver. But in the next moment the dark figure scurried away.
"Hey!" Like in a trance, Rango pulled the trigger. Maybe he only wanted to make noise.
Suddenly the dark figure flapped its wings and flew away.
Rango was like paralyzed. Had he dreamed?
But then he found out how to use his feet again and ran to the hanging person first.
The figure wore sloppily clothes and fur.
Rango touched him, but he showed no reaction. Suddenly he felt something strange in his hands.
He grabbed it and eyed it carefully. It was thin and long. He followed the long unusual thing. It was somehow connected with the hanging man and with a… plastic sac.
Rango looked up.
It was an IV line and an infusion bag.
Hastily Rango ran around the person. It was a rabbit. But somehow the shape looked familiar to him.
He winced. Quickly he ran to the three other figures who lay on the ground.
They lay on their bellies, their hands bound on the back together. Like slain animals after a hunt.
Rango ran from one to another. Finally, he bent down to the last figure and turned its head to the side. It was a Gila monster.