Chapter 19: Back in Tazmania

Taz woke up the following morning. It seemed like his boat had stopped moving. When he took a look, his was on sand. The ocean was just a few yards away from Taz. When Taz looked at his surroundings and saw familiar looking trees and land, as well as a familiar yellow sky, he realized that he was back home! Taz vocalized in happiness. It was only fueled when he saw Molly and Jake's boat. "JAKE AND MOLLY ARE HOME!" he cheered, but then stopped and wondered, "But where are they?"

Taz went away from the coast and into more familiar territory. However, it was quiet, too quiet. No animals were around and especially no one that Taz was familiar with. He was getting worried about where everyone was. But then he remembered the TV ad he saw while out in California. Started to make sense to him. But then he remembered something Dingo said before they made their escape. He wondered if this is what Dingo ment when he said he used everyone. He just didn't know what that precisely ment or how he could use everyone, but he sure wanted to figure that out.

After some more walking, Taz saw a bunch of construction vehicles parked near several homes with many spies and special units talking. He hid behind a bush as more conduction vehicles came roaring down the road. "Chairman wants these houses gone starting at 4:30am the following day," One of the spies said, "I'm sure you will all be ready by that time. A casino will be a good fit right here, especially with the historical significance of this area." Taz listened from afar. Everything clicked into his mind. "Dingo wants homes gone to make Tazmania a tourist spot in order for Acme and himself to benefit," Taz said. "Took you long enough to find out," said a voice from behind him.

Taz looked behind to see Molly and Jake. Taz jumped at first when he realized she and Jake were behind him, but then he became happy. "Taz happy to see Molly and Jake!" he said. "Well good for you then, because I'm not," said Molly, "Why should we get back with you after what you did?" Taz could tell Molly was still understandably upset about him eating the passport, even Jake might've been since he refused to make eye contact with him. He knew he had to explain himself in order to make things right. Taz cleared his throat, as he was about to talk normally for the second time since they had to run from Acme. "Molly, Jake, I'm sorry for what I've done," he explained, "It was a very stupid thing for me to do. I should have never ate the passport. I was just so in my own head about staying in California and was so devastated by Tazmania wanting to sue us, that I didn't think about what you guys wanted. I figured that out shortly after you guys left. When I saw you guys on that boat, I knew I had to come home with you guys as I believed I would be nothing without you, Jake, mom, dad, and Dog." Taz began to feel himself become teary eyed. "When I took a row boat to follow you guys. I had lost sight of you guys during that rainy day and it was the worst 3 days of my life. I began to slowly lose hope and believe that I would never get to see you guys again. I was sad, scared, and lonely. It was something that hurt me more than anything. All I can say is I regret what I did so badly and I am so sorry for the pain I put you guys through. If you don't wanna forgive me, I understand, it's my fault..."

Taz' tears rolled down his face like a waterfall until he saw Molly and Jake come in to give him a hug. "All is forgiven," said Molly. "All that matters is that you have learned from your mistakes," added Jake. This helped Taz feel a little better. He then spoke in his usual gibberish to his siblings. "We haven't seen anyone besides these spies," said Jake. Taz spoke again to ask what the plan was. "I don't know," said Molly, "It's just us as we really don't have anyone on our side." Taz then got an idea, as he vocalized to suggest it. "Do you really think they'll all be there?" asked Jake. Taz assured them that they would be where he is thinking of.

At the tribe, many members of the Mudpeople checked out Hugh as they had been for days. Hugh was just as sad as his wife was when she was trapped at the time. It had been pretty painful for him, wondering where his kids were at now. The only reason he had stayed in the cage for people of Francis' tribe to look at was because Francis himself still had no idea what to do with Hugh. "This has certainly been a rough stretch, besides my lack of screentime," Hugh said to himself, "I just hope my family is doing well..."

Francis watched Hugh from a distance. "Ugh! What am I doing?" Francis asked himself, "I could have been doing anything to that big foul breathed beast by now! He's my trophy, but I want something more done to him!" Even after all these days, Francis still had trouble thinking of something he could do to Hugh. Admittedly, he wanted to take more extreme measures to make Taz feel pain if he were to find out. Then Francis thought of something perfect. A huge smirk crawled onto his face. "I wonder how Tasmanian Devil would taste," he laughed.

Francis approached Hugh's cage. "Mr. Tasmanian Devil," he said, "I believe I have made a terrible mistake leaving you in here for so long." Hugh looked up at Francis and approached to where he was. "Your gonna set me free?" he asked. "Oh goodness no!" Francis scoffed, "Your going to be my dinner tonight!" Hugh tried to hide being worried but knowing that Francis wants to eat him is something that really creeped him out on the inside. "Attention!" Francis announced, "I have decided to do something else with the Tasmanian Devil by the time the evening comes! See him now while you still can as he won't be around for much longer!" Everyone looked at Francis, wondering what he wanted to do, but they took his word to take a look at Hugh one last time. Hugh gulped, knowing that he was screwed unless some miracle happened.

There was a bus station that had just about the entirety of the Tazmania population hanging around at. Many faces Taz was familiar with were there, waiting for the next bus to Australia to take them there. It consisted of Willie Wombat, Bob, his mom, Buddy Boar, the Platypus Brothers, the Bushrats, and many others. Most of which had pretty sad looks on their faces, feeling like they had no choice but to leave there old lives behinds. Much like how Taz, Molly, and Jake felt when they had to leave Tazmania.

Just then, they saw the 3 siblings slowly coming into view. "Hey, is that who I think it is?" asked Willie. It was indeed who he thought it was. Everyone looked to their right of where Willie was looking and gasped when they saw who it was. Taz and his siblings stopped where the others were as they were out of breath from all the walking. "Where have you guys been?" asked Wendl, "That Dingeri Dingo fella is making us all move out of our homes so he can recreate Tazmania in his own image!" "It's a long story," said Jake. "There's more to the story about what Dingo wants, but we'll explain that later," added Molly. Taz vocalized to his friends about what they should do. They didn't seem to understand what Taz ment. "I think what he's trying to say is we fight to get our homes back," said Molly.

Everyone looked at Taz like he was crazy. "You can't be serious Taz!" said Daniel. "He is indeed serious my second me," said Timothy. "Are you aware of how many of those guys there are? They'll squish us like insects!" exclaimed Bob. However, Taz vocalized to assure them that they'd be fine. "Taz has somewhere to hideout," said Taz, "Trust and follow Taz." Taz' friends followed him and his siblings as they left the bus station.

At the Acme building, Townly and Dingo watched from the security system. Seeing everything unfold in front of them. "Well I'll be damned," said Townly. Dingo's expression was a frown at first, but then the fury came crawling onto his face as he growled. Townly saw and quickly backed off. Dingo grabbed a phone, yanked it so it unplugged, and began banging it onto the camera screen where Taz and the others were. "GO AFTER THEM NOW!" He demanded. "Yes sir, Mr. chairman!" replied Townly as he ran out to go alert all the spies and special units.

When Townly was on the first level, he grabbed one of the phones and put it on intercom. "Attention all spies and special units in this building!" he announced, "We have a code red! I repeat, a code red! Report to your vehicles immediately! That Tasmanian Devil and his siblings are back and looks like the entire population of Tazmania are about to fight against us!" Townly went to his limo where Lachlan was and they zoomed off. All the other spies and special units within the building came rushing out and got into all the vehicles and aircraft they could. They all came pouring out of the parking lot like it was a parade.

The others who were discussing what to do and where to build throughout Tazmania, were interrupted by Townly radioing them. "Continue those plans later on, we got a population to take care of!" he said. They quickly got into whatever vehicles they had and went to go after Taz and the others. Or at the least, look for them.

To be continued in the next chapter...

(Chapter 19 published 10/10/22)