Chapter 76: Unease
"But what are you saying?!... How is that possible?!"
"The flight appeared to be clandestine, in fact. They have not yet been able to find any legal identification or proof of where it came from."
A group of people wearing clothes of what they seemed to be doctors, stood in the middle of corridors with white and yellow walls. They all showed expressions of having witnessed something unexpected while recounting it.
"How many of those primates were on board?"
"So far, they have found eight: an adult male mandrill and orangutan, the other six were young, among them: a male spider monkey, three female chimpanzees and two male chimpanzees… Although among those little ones, only the spider monkey and a chimpanzee have been confirmed to be still alive."
"What a pity for the other four little ones; they could not be saved... And what happened to the two men who were on board too?"
"They were taken to the hospital too; they're very injured... and not just because of the accident; there are suspicions that there was some kind of shooting inside that flight…"
Suddenly... loud and rowdy murmurs were heard inside the place and alerted the people present.
"STOP THEM! THEY RUN AWAY!" someone was heard screaming and running.
Suddenly, in one of the perpendicular corridors, four kong children could be seen running at full speed while a group of people was chasing them, although it was in vain, since these children were quite agile. They were two chimpanzee boys and two girls, who seemed to want to flee from that place.
"No! It can't be! They could escape to the city!" one of the people exclaimed, panicking.
"But what happened?!" one of the people in the hallway asked.
"Those four little chimpanzees we thought were dead ran away... And they're not dead! In fact... we don't know what they are; we find very strange things in them."
That quartet of kongs had come out from a door that led to a room. This room also had white walls with pastel yellow coatings, where more people, between men and women, were in white suits, and who handled certain tools. Inside the room, there were several devices and small rolling stretchers... On one of the latter, Dixie was sitting while being treated by two of the people, who were putting bandages on certain parts of her, since she had some blows that she had not noticed due to the adrenaline she felt in the tragic situation.
On the sides of where she was, there was another stretcher where Diddy was lying, and where two other people were treating him and placing strange devices on him. Dixie kept an eye on what they were doing to Diddy; even if those people had told her they were going to help them, she didn't want to trust it completely yet.
"They ran away!" another of the people exclaimed, entering the room with others. "We don't find them."
"Oh, it can't be!" one of the people who was helping Dixie replied, showing concern. "Those four chimpanzees were very strange. I don't understand how they got up while we were examining them, I mean... just by seeing them, it could be deduced that they were lifeless, even though they did not have any injuries."
"But they must not have gone far, they must be hidden somewhere in this clinic... I don't understand what all this situation is about."
"News will provide more details about the plane crash later. Some suggest this may be a matter related to wildlife trafficking."
"And what about the mandrill and orangutan that were also on board?"
"They were already taken straight to the operating room; they were seriously injured, just like this spider monkey."
Dixie, while still watching what they did to Diddy and also to her, only stood with an empty and dull expression, wondering how all that had happened in such a short time; two days ago, she was on Hurricane Island just trying to find out how Jemky's quartet had learned of their whereabouts. She was also concerned about Jenny's quartet, who had recently fled the room after being examined by those people; if only she could tell the people that those four children were actually mechanized, and that it was evident that they no longer had a life of their own.
"Alright, we can take the little monkey to the operating room now," one of the people who was treating Diddy said. "And it must be fast; his chances of life don't seem so high either."
Then, a group of people began to move the stretcher where they had Diddy to take him out of the room. Instantly, Dixie became alert and hurriedly got up to stop them, but the other people immediately held her down.
"No, no, calm down, calm down, little one!" one of the people said, stopping her. "The monkey is going to be fine; they're going to save him."
Dixie continued to resist them as she saw Diddy being taken out of that room. She tried to free herself from those people and run after Diddy, but the people didn't allow her.
"Stay still!... Stay still!" one of the people insisted, holding her until she was immobilized, to which Dixie emitted primate squeals as she tried to point at Diddy. "Yes, yes, yes, the little monkey will be fine, don't worry!... They're just going to cure him; he's going to be fine."
Dixie kept insisting on wanting to go after him in her kong language, while still pointing to the door where Diddy had been taken out.
"He'll be fine, he'll be fine," one of the people added, also trying to gesture to Dixie. "See... They are going to heal that wound that the little monkey has, and for that they will do something to him that is too disturbing for you to see."
Dixie, ignoring them, suddenly jumped off the stretcher and started running towards the door.
"Hey, no, come here!" the people exclaimed, heading to try to reach her.
Dixie walked out of the ward and set out to follow the people who had taken Diddy away. She ran at such a speed that it didn't take long for her to catch up with them. Immediately, she climbed up to the stretcher where Diddy was, causing a small scare to the people who moved him.
"Hey, watch out!" one of the people exclaimed before taking Dixie. "No, no, don't move anything! Go back to where you were, little one!"
Dixie waved her feet in the air and stretched her arms to catch up with Diddy, while the people held her in their arms. Then, the other people arrived and took Dixie, even if she kept putting up resistance as they took Diddy away again.
"Calm down now!" the person holding her replied, holding her arms. "You can't go there, it's dangerous!"
Dixie breathed heavily, giving them a look of pleading and disagreement towards those people.
"Oh... well, okay," the one who held her said. "Well, we'll take you just a while to see where they'll take the monkey, okay?"
The person holding Dixie gave her an authoritative look that later turned into a smile as if trying to calm her down. Dixie, still looking suspiciously, finally stood still as the person began to walk with her in the direction of where Diddy had been taken.
A minute later, they had reached a large door with small windows on top. The person lifted Dixie so that she could look out of these windows, through which she could observe another room where there were more devices, lamps and a larger stretcher... where they had Diddy on it. A group of people in white suits and some kinds of protective eyewear were preparing some tools and examining Diddy, who had had his cap and shirt removed as they began to tend to his wound. Dixie panicked and became restless again before trying to push the door in, but was stopped by the person holding her.
"No! You can't get in there!" the person said, holding her arms. "Your friend, the little monkey, is going to be fine. They are going to save him and the monkey will recover," he added, speaking in a sweet tone as if he were talking to an infant.
Dixie only made a gesture of anger and concern as she insisted with her gaze on wanting to enter.
"Oh, let's do this then," the person said. "Let's go over there."
That person went with Dixie in his arms to a door that was ahead, and they entered a new room. This room, of the same colors as the previous ones, had a few tables and chairs beside a couple of rolling stretchers. The person placed Dixie in one of the latter and took her to a huge window in that room. This window showed the room where they had Diddy for intervening him.
"From here you can see your little friend, do you want to stay here?" the person asked, who seemed to deduce Dixie's answer after she did not hesitate to lean out of the window and watch Diddy carefully. "Okay, I'll let you be here, but only on one condition: don't try to enter that room, it's for your sake and the sake of the little monkey."
Suddenly, Dixie saw how one of the people was inserting an object into Diddy's wound, which immediately alarmed her and began to bang on the window as if she wanted to enter.
"No, no, calm down! Don't do that!" the person exclaimed, stopping her arms. "They're not hurting him; they're just going to heal that wound he has... I told you: it was going to be something disturbing for you to see."
Dixie just gave another distressed look as she slid her hands on the window glass, and then turned around shuddering as she saw how Diddy was being intervened again.
"Oh, no, try not to look so long there... Or if you want, we go back to the previous room, do you want to?" he said, taking her in his arms again, but Dixie refused to go and preferred to stay on that stretcher next to the huge window. "Okay, okay, you can stay here. Only one thing... I recommend you don't look too much toward that room, okay?"
Dixie nodded weakly as the person gave her a cozy little smile. Then, that person walked to the door.
"Your little friend is in good hands, don't worry, little girl," he said, smiling at her, before retiring and closing the door.
Dixie was silent for a while upon she was left alone in that room. Then, curiosity invaded her and she turned to look again at the room where Diddy was being intervened. She stared for a long time at what that group of people did to him, where between moments, she had to cover her eyes and make gestures of pain.
"Don't forget to save this projectile; they'll come to ask for it for investigations later," one of those people was heard saying behind the window, who was intervening Diddy. "Holy heavens, this little monkey is in very bad conditions; we must hurry or he could die."
Those words only made Dixie shudder and worry more, who was only filling herself with overwhelming thoughts as she watched how they intervened Diddy. She wished she could enter, but she was trying to trust that she should just wait for those people to do the work; after all, there was nothing else she could do. Later, she turned to stop looking behind the window, and sat on the stretcher with a low look, while her eyes began to moisten until she expelled a couple of tears and emitted a few light sobs.
Suddenly, Dixie turned again to look out the window, but had to turn instantly when she saw what they were doing with Diddy. Without nothing else to do, Dixie hugged her legs and rested her head on her knees as she let her tears fall and thought about everything that had happened... Starting with that day where she left DK Island to search for Diddy. She remembered how she had set out to find Diddy and return with him to the island immediately; she never imagined how heavy the rest of the journey would become... She thought about how calm she was with Diddy on DK Island... and even how happy they would be if they had started their love story on the same DK Island without so many problems and acting better to tell each other things.
"Diddy…" she whispered as she progressively shed her tears, before turning for one last time to look into the room where he was being treated, but looked away instantly. "D-Diddy…"
Dixie began to sob and shed continuous tears as she felt enormous pain inside; she wished more than ever to close her eyes and wake up on DK Island... along with Diddy. She didn't know how that situation could end now; from just thinking about the worst, she sobbed harder as she tried to dry her tears. If Diddy were to have a bad outcome, Dixie wouldn't know what to do; her world would have fallen apart... similar to what happened to her when her parents departed that world; in fact, Dixie recalled that at that time she was in the same way: waiting for long and overwhelming hours that they could be saved, which... it didn't happen. Dixie was only consumed by the thought that she would never see Diddy awake again, and if so, she would not know how to return to DK Island in the midst of that situation... First of all, she didn't even know what place both were now.
Finally, she began to recall several moments with Diddy. She remembered the emotion that caused her to start a story with him, she remembered all the illusion she had upon being able to spend wonderful moments together, she remembered how beautiful it was to be in the company of him as if time were only for the two of them, she also remembered... how their love bond had been broken, even though things had already been clarified. Now she only cared that Diddy could turn out well, which she did not have high hopes for. Dixie never wanted things with Diddy to end like this; first of all, she wouldn't even have wanted them to have to go from a circus to an island far from home in order to be together... let alone get to where they were now. Each thought only tormented Dixie more and made her shed more tears without being able to stop her crying.
A few minutes later, her eyes still in tears, Dixie lay down until she tried to get some sleep, even if it wouldn't be easy to get it...