Chapter 78: One Last Vengeance
Dixie was lying on the stretcher. Suddenly, her eyes began to open a little after she had plunged into a deep state of sleep. Then, as if suddenly, she opened her eyes in one fell swoop and didn't know why, but... she felt an urgent need to get up while having some acceleration in her heartbeat. She wasn't going to take it so seriously... if not for the fact that she heard a slight but sudden noise outside the room, which immediately triggered her curiosity.
She decided to get off her stretcher before checking to see if Diddy was fine. Then, still with some curiosity, she went to the door and leaned her ear against it... She could clearly hear some strange noises in the corridors outside. Although after all, she assumed that they would be more of the medical people who might be around... if it weren't for the fact that, a few seconds later, she began to hear certain murmurs accompanied by knocking on a door. And, as if that were not enough, Dixie jumped out of fright when she heard a knock on the door of the same room where she was, at the same time that the knob seemed to be moving. She began to have a bad feeling, so she just stood still until she no longer heard any noise behind the door; she knew that if it were any of the doctors, they wouldn't have to knock like that.
A couple of minutes later, Dixie felt enormous uncertainty and, as stealthily as she could, turned the doorknob, deactivating the latch and slowly opening it until she could poke her head out. The lights in the corridors were off and barely any lighting came through the windows.
Suddenly... Dixie opened her eyes to the fullest when, in a certain corner of the corridor, she could see silhouettes taller than her. Those silhouettes were next to one of the walls, more specific... at the door of the previous room where Diddy and Dixie had been taken.
"It doesn't open," one of those figures was heard whispering as they tried to open the door.
Dixie began to breathe heavily after hearing the voice of the silhouette that spoke... That was not possible. Suddenly, within seconds, one of those silhouettes turned to look in Dixie's direction, which put her on alert instantly.
"It's the brat chimpanzee!" one of the figures exclaimed, this time letting his voice be heard clearly.
Dixie hid in the room again and closed the door as quickly as she could, securing it immediately. The palpitations in her heart had been activated severely and she trembled continuously when she saw that those silhouettes belonged to the very apes; in this case... the lead orangutan along with the two remaining mandrills, those in blue and red lapels. Dixie wondered too desperately how those apes could have gotten there... and that would mean a serious danger.
Suddenly, the door to that room began to be knocked on again repeatedly.
"Darn it, she has secured it!" one of the apes was heard saying, struggling with the knob. "It doesn't open!"
"Or let's shoot instead to see if the lock gets deactivated."
The palpitations and tension in Dixie increased upon hearing that; now they would be in severe danger. A couple of seconds later, a loud gunshot was heard that even went through the door. Dixie immediately pulled away, away from the door, and the first thing she did was stand next to the stretcher where Diddy was while thinking about what she could do now.
"Almost done!" another of them was heard saying as they continued to fire shots at the door. "Make way, I'm going to open it!"
Suddenly, the door was being beaten more aggressively as if it were going to be knocked down. Until a few seconds later... the apes managed to create a large enough entrance and where they began to enter one by one, all with a gun in hand.
"So, here you are, girl!" the lead orangutan exclaimed, pointing at her.
"Oh, and the little monkey was attacked," one of the mandrills added, pointing in Diddy's direction.
Dixie climbed onto Diddy's stretcher and stood in front of him in a defensive position while looking extremely seriously at the apes, even if she felt an enormous panic to see them armed, in front of her who had nothing to attack them.
"Wow, I thought you weren't here," the lead orangutan said, staring at her. "We didn't come here for you, in fact. We were coming for our two mates who escaped to go look for you both; I thought they had already killed you two. But since you're here now…" he added as they lifted their weapons."
"Hey, hey, w-wait, wait...!" Dixie stuttered, struggling not to get blank. "L-look, I know we ruined your p-plans, but I swear I didn't know... that you did everything for those t-tamers."
The apes began to place their fingers on the triggers, so Dixie hurriedly jumped to the floor and pushed one of the stretchers at the apes to push them away. Immediately, Dixie took Diddy's stretcher and pushed it rolling towards the door... but not before the apes opened fire and managed to shoot one of the devices that was connected to Diddy. Luckily, Dixie managed to leave the room in a hurry, and started running while rolling Diddy's stretcher through the corridor.
"COME BACK HERE, GIRL!" the apes shouted as they opened fire again in the direction of Diddy and Dixie.
Dixie had managed to turn into another corridor in time, although unfortunately, the apes managed to shoot another of Diddy's devices. Dixie hid in a corner of the corridors to stop to process what was happening; she wanted to think that everything was a nightmare. Suddenly, she noticed that the device the apes had shot to was spilling a liquid, which alarmed her, as she assumed it might aggravate Diddy's state. She thought about going to the doctors for help, but at the same time, she knew that with armed wild apes it would be very risky to endanger other individuals.
"I heard them over here!" a voice was heard nearby.
Dixie opened her eyes to the fullest when she heard clearly that those voices... didn't seem to belong to the apes, but... other ones she wished not to see again anymore. She left the corner where she was, trying to keep Diddy safe, and peeked out the corner of a wall.
"Darn it, those apes must be carrying our guns!" one of those figures said as he ran through the corridor. "We have to stop them, take the two apes that infiltrated the flight and clean up any darn evidence!"
Dixie immediately hid as she continued to stealthily watch the figures pass through that corridor. Her breathing and palpitations were racing to the extreme when she realized that... it was the very circus tamers. Dixie no longer knew if her mind was playing tricks on her and it would be a nightmare. She would escape at that very moment from that place with Diddy, if not for the fact that he was still asleep and had to recover under strict care. But she had to stand their ground, she had to do something about it, otherwise... things could end up worse.
Very carefully, and checking that no one was around, Dixie pushed Diddy's stretcher again and rolled it through the corridors, looking for a good hiding place for him first of all. Suddenly... he felt a sudden collision with the stretcher.
"But what the heck?!" a sudden childish voice was heard. "It can't be!"
Upon seeing better, Dixie realized that she had in front Jemky's quartet, who were dumbfounded at first... and with guns in hand too.
"It's the monkeys!" Melenky exclaimed. "I thought they were already dea-"
Without thinking any longer, Dixie pushed the stretcher against the four of them as if she wanted to run over them, and continued to run through the corridor until she could reach the next one.
"Don't let them escape!" Rocky exclaimed as they prepared their guns and aimed where Dixie had gone with Diddy.
"Hey, but the monkey is already dead or what?" Mandrew asked as they ran.
"No, maybe he just got hurt from that flight," Jemky replied. "At least that's what we hear those tamers say about what they saw on the TV news."
Dixie continued to run at full speed with the stretcher. Her adrenaline was so great that she had to fight not to be consumed by the desperation of not knowing what to do. She couldn't believe that almost all the enemies were present there.
Later, after a long and exhausting route, Dixie found a point where she thought she could hide Diddy; she didn't know what area it was but at least she wanted to think it would be safe to leave him there. When suddenly...
"Stop there, girl!" the group of three adult apes appeared, pointing at them. "Stay still!"
Dixie hurried to detour to another corridor with the stretcher; she felt an enormous frustration that she could not hide Diddy, since it was an extremely risky situation to have him in sight of the enemy groups and at the same time leave him alone.
"Here they are!" Jemky's quartet appeared by surprise at the corner of a corridor.
Dixie had to rush to detour again. She reached an intersection of corridors until, when she reached one of the corners, she collided with a tall silhouette.
"It's the disastrous monkeys!" one of the tamers said, appearing with his group by surprise.
Dixie, for the third time, looked for a place to detour. When, to bad luck, where she was going, the apes came, who rushed to aim at them.
"Don't move, mon-"
"The apes!" the tamers interrupted, also coming in the opposite direction.
Suddenly... the tamers began to open fire and shot in directions close to the apes, while the apes rushed to shoot at them. Both groups were hiding in the corners of the corridors between times.
"Now you'll see, you darn apes!" the one-eyed tamer exclaimed, who, unlike the other two ones, carried a weapon of tranquilizer darts.
The one-eyed tamer seemed to want to put the apes to sleep, whom he was trying to shoot. But at the same time, the apes were trying to shoot them back.
"Where are those monkeys?!" Jemky's quartet appeared on the scene.
"It's those little brats!" the one-eyed tamer exclaimed as he noticed the quartet.
"What?!" Jemky exclaimed.
"Hide, boys!" the lead orangutan ordered in the distance.
Suddenly, another shooting began... This time between the tamers with the apes. Both sides emitted projectiles in the air, which passed near where Dixie was with Diddy. Dixie had placed herself in a position to protect Diddy and, trying to go unnoticed, immediately went down and continued to take the stretcher to a safe point, escaping the battle scene. She did not even understand the sudden firefight between the two sides, since she thought they would rather be allies.
"The chimpanzee is escaping with the monkey!" one of the apes exclaimed, pointing to them in the middle of the shooting.
Dixie ran as fast as her legs gave her to run and her hands to push the stretcher. Suddenly, on the way, she saw a door opening in the side wall, through which some of the doctors of that place came into view. Dixie almost collided with those people, but managed to pass successfully, but not before emitting squeals to them as a sign that they should hide due to the violent scene that had been created.
"But what is all this?!" one of the people exclaimed. "The chimpanzee is taking the monke-"
Suddenly, gunshots rang out in that corridor, which had come from two of the apes who were chasing Dixie. Instantly, people hid again and closed the door, frightened at the sudden scene.
"What's all this?!" one of the people behind the door was heard yelling. "Why do those apes have guns?!"
"I don't know, call emergency services, QUICK! QUICK! AND DON'T LET ANYONE OUT FOR NOW!"
Dixie continued to run and turn into random routes. She considered running away from that place with Diddy, but she also didn't know if it would be a right choice because of the state he was in.
"I found you, brat!" the lead orangutan appeared, pointing at her.
Dixie hurriedly pushed him with the stretcher and ignored him, before turning into another corridor in time. Suddenly, she began to run into several of the enemies in different parts, as if they had all dispersed, which further increased the tension in her.
The group of tamers seemed to be trying to catch both Diddy and Dixie and the apes... In fact, they talked along the way as if they wanted to get rid of all of them and leave no traces.
"These darn apes!" one of the tamers exclaimed very furious. "After we came to take the two wounded apes to erase evidence, the others came to make it worse!"
"And that pair of disastrous monkeys! We must get rid of them now or we'll be in trouble with the law!"
On the other hand, the apes were wanting to catch up with Diddy and Dixie. Jemky's quartet was in the same way... although they were somewhat more disoriented, and each one was in the company of one of the adult apes.
"I think I saw the little monkey girl over there!" the red-lapel mandrill said, who was running alongside Melenky. "At any moment she must appear anyway!"
"What about those tamers?" Melenky asked, showing insecurity.
"We just shouldn't let them see us."
Suddenly, the one-armed tamer appeared by surprise in front of the mandrill and Melenky, so they turned into another corridor they had on the sides, and continued to flee.
"Darn, those tamers are not going to let us exterminate those two monkeys at will!" the mandrill complained on the way.
"We should better have fled elsewhere!" Melenky replied. "Why do we still want those mon…"
Suddenly, Melenky was interrupted at the same time that a gunshot was heard. The red-lapel mandrill immediately turned to look... and noticed that Melenky had fallen to the floor.
"Melenky!" the mandrill exclaimed as soon as he saw the langur boy lying down, and hurried to his aid. "What happened-"
Upon closer inspection, the mandrill realized that Melenky had a wound, which appeared to be from a gunshot.
"Ouhh... I-I think that…" Melenky exclaimed in a forced voice as if complaining of pain.
"Keep calm, keep calm son!" the mandrill exclaimed with a tone of desperation taking him in his arms and helping him. In fact, this time... the wound was not healing as before. "Keep calm, Daddy is here-"
"We got you, darned apes!" the one-armed tamer appeared, pointing with his only arm at them and about to shoot them. "This time you won't-"
Suddenly, two shots in a row rang out... The mandrill had rushed to take his gun and shoot at the tamer, knocking him to the floor. But a few seconds later, the latter also managed to hold his gun and fired a shot at the mandrill, which landed in his arm.
"Urgh!... You scoundrel!" the mandrill exclaimed, clutching his arm in pain. "But you won't hurt my son, you darned!"
Suddenly, the one-armed tamer on the floor, still seemed to have some strength and aimed at the mandrill again, but the latter returned other shots more, hurried to take Melenky and fled from there as he could, before the tamer fired unsuccessfully... and then got motionless on the floor.
On the other hand, Dixie was still running and hiding from enemies along with Diddy's stretcher. She didn't even have the time to find a hiding place for him and she couldn't leave him alone either. She kept running as fast as she could until she became desperate not knowing how the whole situation would end. Suddenly, she arrived at an intersection of corridors, where she had to think quickly which of the two routes to take. Until...
"I got you, girl!" the lead orangutan appeared along with Jemky, both pointing at her.
Dixie, ignoring all risk, turned into the other direction, when for bad luck, the blue-lapel mandrill appeared along with Mandrew and Rocky, blocking her from running. Even still, Dixie was going to turn to go back the way she came from... until she saw the other mandrill approaching with Melenky in his arms.
"Stay still now!" the lead orangutan ordered, placing his finger on the trigger. "From here you won't-"
"Hey... hey, wait!" the red-lapel mandrill interrupted, arriving with Melenky in his arms. "It's Melenky... He was…"
"Terry?! Melenky?!" the lead orangutan and the other mandrill exclaimed, looking shocked.
Everyone seemed to have ceased fire, and stopped to look at the red-lapel mandrill in a state as if he was complaining of pain as he spoke. Then, he placed Melenky on the floor, who was complaining of pain as well... and with a recent wound.
"It can't be, he has been hurt!" the lead orangutan exclaimed, heading with everyone to observe him, but still keeping an eye that Dixie did not escape. "Was it the tamers?!"
"The… same ones," the wounded mandrill replied, holding his own arm. "One of them shot him... and I shot him back, but then he shot me in the arm... and then I shot him again about three times. Don't you carry… that healing mixture now?!"
"We didn't bring any of those elixirs!" the lead orangutan replied. "We are vulnerable, we just carry those sapphires to create the healing mixture, but there is no time to do it right now!"
"We told you to just escape somewhere else aimlessly!" Jemky replied to them. "Why did these two monkeys matter now?!"
"It's true, how much whim did you have with these two?!" Rocky added. "I mean, we hate them too, but we weren't going to risk coming here for them either. We were just coming to take my father and our uncle Will."
"Urgh... It's that…" the lead orangutan exclaimed, very furious. "It's because of these two monkeys that everything happened! Anyway, the boss tamers will kill us lat-"
"Wait, wait...!" the wounded red-lapel mandrill interrupted. "You know what?... I think this time the boys are right... Why do these two monkeys matter now? It's not worth it, the little monkey is already even moribund on that stretcher."
"You know?... I'm thinking the same thing now," the blue-lapel mandrill interrupted. "We didn't even come for these monkeys; we were just going to escape all together. We even thought that the monkeys were already dead."
"Why don't we… just finish the bosses off instead?" the red-lapel mandrill said, straining his voice.
"What?! We can't kill the bosses!" the lead orangutan replied, showing shock. "I mean-"
"It doesn't matter!" the mandrill interrupted. "Anyway, they'll kill us wherever we go! And just look at Melenky... He could die if we don't do something right now!... Our bosses are monstrous after all!"
Suddenly, the lead orangutan was silent for about five seconds while the other two mandrills and Jemky's quartet looked at him with absolute seriousness, even Melenky. Then, the hurt mandrill took the gun that Melenky was carrying, and as if things took a sudden turn, he threw it at Dixie.
"Take this, girl!" the mandrill told Dixie, earning a look of great strangeness from her. "Help us if you want!"
Dixie was shocked by the apes' attitude, which also made her doubt whether what they were telling her was true, so she just stared at the gun on the floor.
"Come on, take it! Let's finish those-"
"Over here! I heard their squeals!" a nearby voice was heard.
Suddenly, accelerated footsteps were heard closer and closer, accompanied by voices that clearly belonged to the tamers.
"Quick, it's now or never!" the mandrill exclaimed again, preparing the gun along with the rest. "And hide Melenky! Don't neglect-"
Suddenly, that red-lapel mandrill had received another sudden shot that knocked him to the floor. Instantly, the apes rushed to open fire and try to shoot at two of the tamers. But Dixie didn't stay to look at the scene anymore and, before that shooting began, she had already escaped from there along with Diddy's stretcher... and she had carried the weapon given to her by the apes. She would have stayed to fight the tamers, even the apes if necessary, but she couldn't put Diddy at risk at that point.
Meanwhile, the apes had stayed to try to confront the two remaining tamers, but they were rushing to fire first, so they must all be hiding behind the corners of the corridors. For his part, the mandrill that had been wounded was taken to hide in a nearby corner with Melenky in his arms... Both were already without any mobility.
Dixie, on the other hand, was trying to get to the area where there were recovery rooms so she could hide Diddy, but unfortunately, the tamer of the prosthetic leg appeared around a corner and aimed at her. Dixie hurriedly activated the gun she was carrying and fired a shot at the man, but he had already hidden before and ran away when he saw Dixie armed. Dixie, now confidently, hurried to follow the tamer's pace and fired shots where he had gone, but she had already lost sight of him.
Afterwards, Dixie returned to take Diddy's stretcher again, but by bad luck, the one-eyed tamer had appeared. Instantly, she pushed the stretcher, rolling it to hide it, and then rushed to try to shoot the tamer, but he had tried to shoot first, so Dixie had to dodge. Then, the tamer fled, and Dixie tried to catch up, but had to abandon the chase at that moment since she couldn't leave Diddy alone.
Dixie returned a second time to pick Diddy's stretcher, but when she arrived... it was no longer in that corner. She panicked, as she was sure that the stretcher was at that point before. When suddenly, she heard gunshots that could not be heard so far away, which further increased the tension. Dixie began searching for Diddy in extreme desperation; she didn't want to think that the situation had become much worse. When suddenly, at the end of a corridor... she caught sight of Jemky and Mandrew shooting in one direction, until in a moment... both appeared to have been hit. Dixie, swallowing her fear, held her gun and ran in the direction of the scene.
"I ran out of projectiles!" Mandrew exclaimed, trying to shoot with his gun and, at the same time, holding his own arm in a forced way.
"Me too, darn it!" Jemky added, holding his own leg in the same way. "Attack him anyway!"
Upon arriving, Dixie noticed that Jemky and Mandrew, who were seen limb injuries, were fighting the prosthetic leg tamer, even if they struggled to move. The two of them, although the tamer had executed a couple more failed shots, pounced on him and began to attack him like wild animals. But before long, the tamer managed to push them away until they were knocked to the floor, and hurried to shoot mercilessly at both kong children. Second later, the blue-lapel mandrill appeared, who forcefully grabbed the tamer's false leg until he took it off, and began to attack him with it.
"You won't hurt our kids!" the mandrill exclaimed as he attacked the tamer, both with his leg and with his own claws in a savage and brutal way, so much so that the tamer could no longer defend himself and even got almost motionless.
For their part, Jemky and Mandrew had fallen near where Dixie was, whom they gave a faint look with narrowed eyes and heavy breathing.
"Your monkey… is over there," Jemky told her in a forced voice and pointing to the end of a corridor, while clutching his extremely sore abdomen.
"We pushed him toward there because... those tamers... were about to shoot him," Mandrew added in the same way.
Suddenly... Jemky and Mandrew closed their eyes and stood motionless on the floor. Dixie stared at them for a couple of seconds with a shocked look, and then hurried in the direction where she had been pointed. To her surprise, Diddy was in that corner "safe and sound." Then, without further thought, she continued to run through the corridors, trying to protect him and keep him sheltered.
On the other hand, the one-eyed tamer was still unharmed and with the gun in hand; although his was tranquilizer darts, he also carried another fire one. Suddenly, he spotted Rocky and the lead orangutan in different directions and began to fire shots at them, but not before they also tried to return them.
"Only one of them remains!" the blue-lapel mandrill exclaimed, appearing in front of the lead orangutan. "I already gave his big comeuppance to the second one! That darned man shot Jemky and Mandrew!"
"What?!" the orangutan exclaimed too furiously. "Those darned scoundrels!"
"Where's Rocky, by the way?! We must be careful, only he remains!"
"He went over there! Let's go! Let's not let them hurt him too... And I already ran out of projectiles, by the way!"
"And me too!"
Meanwhile, Dixie was hidden along with Diddy by a few corridors. She no longer wanted to fight in the confrontation; she felt quite exhausted and with a high uncertainty of not knowing what actions to take. Suddenly, she felt the presence of someone coming running through the next corridor. Without even peeking out to see who it was, Dixie ran away through the corridor again. Unfortunately, the one-eyed tamer appeared around a corner and began to chase her. Dixie hurriedly prepared her gun and tried to shoot him, but as if he didn't care at all, the tamer had rushed before to pounce on her and try to snatch it from her.
"Let go of me, you darned!" Dixie exclaimed, which was heard like high-pitched squeals for the tamer's hearing.
The tamer exerted enough force against Dixie until he lifted her into the air. In the middle of the struggle, the tamer even kicked Diddy's stretcher hard, sending it rolling at speed to the end of the corridor.
"Nooo!" Dixie exclaimed in extreme desperation, waving her feet in the air.
Suddenly, Dixie gathered strength and used her hair to try to choke the tamer, getting him to stop exerting force. But within seconds, the tamer managed to pull the end of her hair, which made Dixie lose strength. Then, with a quick movement, the tamer gave Dixie a hard push, throwing her away from him and reaching to take her gun to keep it in his pockets.
Dixie fell sharply to the floor, a few meters from the tamer and without having a weapon to defend herself. Then, the tamer reloaded the gun and aimed at Dixie, when suddenly... he was interrupted by someone who surprised him and began to attack him with slaps and scratches. It was the blue-lapel mandrill, who was trying to snatch some of his weapons. But a few seconds later, the tamer gave him a hard beat that sent him to the floor as well. Instantly, and since he had his gun loaded... he shot mercilessly at the mandrill. Then, he fired again in Dixie's direction, but she had already managed to hide.
A couple of seconds later, Dixie no longer heard any trace of the tamer, so she got back out where she was before. She was going to take her gun again, but it was no longer there. With no more to do, Dixie ran in the direction of where the tamer had sent Diddy's stretcher to roll, which had gone too far... even almost to the point of reaching the stairs.
For his part, the one-eyed tamer appeared to be heading towards Diddy's stretcher and was preparing his tranquilizer dart weapon to shoot him. But suddenly, the lead orangutan appeared along with Rocky, who pounced from side to side against the tamer and began to attack him like wild animals. But before long, the tamer kicked Rocky and rushed to shoot him instantly. The lead orangutan emitted a loud shriek of anger and scratched the tamer's face, before the tamer kicked him back and shot him to the floor. Even though they were tranquilizer darts this time, both Rocky and the lead orangutan... got completely motionless.
Immediately, the tamer reloaded his dart gun and aimed it in Diddy's direction... but not before Dixie, who was less than a meter behind, propelled herself with the help of her hair, managed to take her gun back from the tamer's pocket and landed on Diddy's stretcher to shield him. Instantly, she shot the tamer head-on without thinking further... but unfortunately, the tamer had already released a couple of shots of tranquilizer darts, which fell directly to Dixie's arm and abdomen, knocking her down instantly. The tamer, who had also been wounded, fell backwards, near the stairs and clutching his chest wound.
On her part, Dixie felt that she was losing mobility while her vision began to distort. She hurriedly pulled back the darts as best she could from her, which caused her more pain. A second later, as if she got out of context for a while... Dixie began to have memories about Diddy, DK Island and her family. In the midst of her vision now blurred and with a heavy breathing, she caught sight of the tamer standing up again, so she hurried to take the gun and fired it at the tamer... But it didn't shoot anymore.
The tamer, even if he was wounded, stood again and began to load his dart gun one more time. Dixie, who was suddenly remembering that tragic episode of her parents with the tamers, tried to gather strength she still had left and began to stand up again, keeping her gaze fixed on the tamer. Before the tamer could release another shot, Dixie had managed to jump to pounce on him and began attacking him with all the fury she could feel at that moment with all her might. Her last attacks were with her hair, with which she managed to push the tamer to the edge of the stairs and, after a strong spinning kick that she gave him, the tamer lost his balance and fell downhill towards the stairs... not before he also managed to execute another couple of shots towards Dixie.
Dixie fell back near Diddy's stretcher... while she reached to hear repeated and severe blows through the stairs, which came from the tamer falling and hitting himself sharply as he got down.
Almost a minute passed while Dixie had a breathing and palpitations faster than ever, while her vision had become completely blurred. She felt that her strength was no longer enough at all, not even to withdraw the last darts she had received... Then, stranded on the floor, her mind replayed distant memories, this time being memories that belonged to the times when she lived in the circus or when she lived on her island with her entire family. Suddenly, several memories with her parents were the last thing her mind transmitted to her... before closing her eyes...