Hurricane Island (Diddy x Dixie)

by LucyM22

Threatened by a quartet of bully children, Diddy is afraid to tell his situation. One day, he meets Dixie and family in the middle of their fugitive situation. They both establish a special friendship, where feelings for each other later arise. Their frustrated attempts to take a first step will lead them to live an unexpected and dangerous journey away from DK Island.

82. Three Days Later

Chapter 80: Three Days Later

About three days later, several things had happened. Now, inside a room with some small stretchers, were lying on them some little kongs, all of different species. Those kong children seemed to be at rest after the tragic event there.

Suddenly, one of these children, who was an orangutan, began to open his eyes slowly as he seemed to try to regain track of time. Later, he tried to get up, still with a lost look and rubbing his temple... but then clutching his abdominal area, where apparently, he felt a stabbing and unbearable pain that made him emit a slight squeal. When he observed himself, he noticed that he had a kind of white sticker attached, which he began to remove.

"Hey, don't take that off!" another of the children, who was a capuchin monkey on the stretcher next to him, suddenly exclaimed. "And how good that you already woke up."

"What?" Jemky said, looking at him strangely as he put the 'sticker' back in place, but not before he had seen what he had under it. "W-what is this?! Why…" he added before giving out a squeal of pain after trying to stand up.

"Calm down, don't move so abruptly or it will hurt," Rocky replied. "It's that you have a wound. We confronted those tamers while trying to escape with our dads, don't you remember? If I'm not mistaken, one of them shot you. And according to what I've heard from some people in white coats who are around here: they took out the projectiles in you and then they stitched up your wounds, and that's why you should rest like everyone here."

Jemky gave him another look of weirdness for a few seconds. Then, he turned to observe the rest of the room, where on other nearby stretchers, Mandrew, Melenky and also Diddy were still asleep.

"They're still asleep," Rocky said. "But according to those people, they'll soon wake up."

"And you weren't asleep too?" Jemky asked.

"Yes, but I think only for a few hours after that massacre. That tamer who had an eye patch just shot those sleeping syringes at me. The rest of you were hit with gun projectiles."

"And where are our dads?"

"They are resting in another room here; they still have to recover. In fact, your father is also already awake and must only recover from a few blows like me; he was only shot with sleeping syringes too. My father has also already woken up. The others are still asleep... Well, that's all I've heard so far."

"Oh, but how long should we rest- Ahhh!" Jemky gave a squeal and clutched his abdomen after trying to jump off the stretcher. "Heck, this hurts like a cauldron! Not even when Dixie shot me or someone gave me a good beating... Hey, and by the way... if the monkey is also here, where is Dixie?" he added, pointing to Diddy and noticing Dixie's absence.

"Uh, well... From what I heard: she has been very affected. I think they're still doing some kind of healing for her, that's why they haven't brought her here yet. She received only those syringes too, but... I think they were quite a few."

"Ah, so she's still healing," Jemky said as he carefully got off his stretcher, then began climbing onto the Mandrew's. "Uhh, hey, Mandrew... are you awake?" he added, shaking his shoulders.

"Hey, don't move him!" Rocky replied. "The white-robed people said that they must not be moved like this, or they will have complications."

"And then how much longer will they be-"

"W-what?" a different voice was heard, which belonged to Mandrew.

Suddenly, Mandrew began to open his eyes too, although with more weakness and emitting slight squeals of pain as he tried to get up.

"He's alive!" Jemky exclaimed, showing excitement and pointing to Mandrew.

"Don't move too much, Mandrew," Rocky said, heading to him and trying to calm him down. "You don't have to get up if you can't. They took out the projectile that those tamers fired at you, that's all. Now you have to rest."

"What the…?" Mandrew said in a weak voice. "And for how... long?"

"I don't know yet," Rocky replied. "Anyway, I was just waiting for all our dads to wake up so they let us create that blue healing elixir and get out of here quick-"

Suddenly, the door of that room began to open, while a group of three of those doctors were entering, which earned some looks of weirdness from Jemky and Mandrew; the latter was still lying down.

"And who are they?" Jemky whispered, looking sideways at them as they approached.

"They're those people I mentioned to you," Rocky replied. "They're a kind of doctors, I guess."

The people stopped to examine Jemky and Mandrew especially, making observations on their wounds... which made these two put on faces of distrust and began to put up resistance.

"Don't be afraid, they don't hurt," Rocky told them.

"Don't worry, little one, it's for your good," one of the people told Jemky with a sweet tone, trying to examine his wound.

Jemky began to be uncomfortable at the intervention of those people towards him. He even looked somewhat fearful and, as a defense, tried to push people away, but his pains in the wound prevented him from doing so and made him emit squeals of pain. Mandrew, on the other hand, was in the same way, although he could not move so much and was still lying down.

"No, no, don't move, please," one of the people said, while they were putting a liquid on their wounds, which caused a certain burning in them. "Okay, okay, it will only hurt a little, but it will help you heal," they added, trying to calm them down.

Then, the people finished examining them and began to write on some paper sheets that they carried, before also going to examine Melenky and Diddy, who were still asleep. Meanwhile, Jemky and Mandrew kept breathing agitated by the intervention they had received.

"It seems that these little ones are recovering well," one of the people said. "Even the spider monkey has been recovering after he had to be operated again. And we're just waiting for the little red-shanked langur to wake up. The one that is already quite recovered is the capuchin monkey. The other adult mandrills and orangutans have shown improvements as well, but at a slower pace; they still need stricter care and examinations to be done."

"Geez, how could an event like that have happened?" another person said. "On top of that, inside this clinic... And by the way, how is the little chimpanzee?"

Suddenly, the other two people looked away while showing themselves… as if they did not want to answer at first.

"Well... I'd like to say that she is also recovering," one of the people replied, before emitting a sigh. "But... I'd be lying to you if I told you that. She's not well at all, really. She has already had some interventions, but it seems that her body is not resisting the high amount of tranquilizer she received. She only opened her eyes the day after the event, but she looked very bad so she was taken to the intensive care unit."

"It can't be!" another of the people exclaimed, showing shock. "But... That is, will she still be undergoing treatment? Or will she…"

"No, I don't know if you understand what I mean... She hasn't shown any improvement, and if she no longer does... it's very likely that she won't be here tomorrow anymore."

"Oh, no, what a pity for her," another of the people said, looking very saddened. "And she used to be fine, that is, she had only arrived here with light bruises but nothing more; she was the only one who arrived stable here."

"Yeah, I feel very sorry. Maybe she tried to protect the spider monkey; she was found lying near his stretcher, and one of those men who were from the circus was at the foot of the stairs with a tranquilizer dart weapon. News have not yet given official statements about the event, but the three former tamers are hospitalized too... And according to reports, they've had serious, very serious injuries."

"What a thing. But it's very clear that those three former tamers have a lot to do with this, even if some say they still have to gather enough evidence to charge them for that massacre."

"What happened to the other four little chimpanzees that came in the aircraft, by the way?"

"They still don't appear; they have not even come to eat. It's likely that they have been lost without a trace."

The people began to leave as they continued to talk. Meanwhile, the kids from Jemky's quartet, except for Melenky who was still sleeping, remained silent for a long time, at the same time looking at each other with uncertainty.

Suddenly, on the other side was Diddy... who seemed to have moved his eyelids, while his breathing began to accelerate as usual.

"What did those people just say?" Jemky asked, still in surprise. "That is... we're all fine, but did they mean that Dixie…"

"It was the same thing I understood," Rocky added, shrugging his shoulders and looking uncertain.

"By the way, I'm really hungry," Mandrew said, keeping himself lying down. "No food around here?"

"Maybe they'll bring it to us later," Rocky replied, before looking and pointing in one direction. "Hey, look…"

Suddenly, they could see that Diddy was beginning to present movement on his own. Seconds later, he began to open his eyes in a forced way, while feeling as if he had a huge weight on his head. Then he slammed his eyes open and fully recovered his sense of reality; he felt a sudden fright upon looking up at the white ceiling above him.

"The monkey has woken up," Jemky whispered.

Diddy opened his eyes again to the fullest when he heard those murmurs that belonged to Jemky's quartet. He turned his head and made a shocked expression upon seeing them on stretchers too.

"W-what?!" Diddy exclaimed, getting up in one fell swoop... before emitting a sore squeal and clutching his abdomen upon a sudden excruciating pain he felt in it.

"Don't move so much like that, monkey," Jemky said. "Or it'll hurt you like you couldn't imagine."

"But what?!" Diddy exclaimed, looking at his wound, which was covered in a white 'sticker'. Then, he looked at the quartet again; he had no idea what had happened or what time or what day it was. And, as if that were not enough, he did not know at all where he was and why Jemky's quartet was also there. "What is all thi-"

"You're injured too, monkey," Jemky interrupted. "If I'm not mistaken, you may have been shot in that plane which you were taken to."

"Uh, yeah, but... what happened now?" Diddy asked again, watching everywhere uncertainly. "W-what place is this?! And why are you also here in these beds?!"

"Because we were hurt too. Look," Jemky replied, showing him his wound.

"This is like a hospital," Rocky added. "There are people out there who look like doctors."

Diddy looked at them with extreme weirdness; he was beginning to think that the four of them were playing a bad joke on him, even if he saw Melenky asleep and Mandrew unable to get up. After a while of silence, he gave them a look reluctantly.

"You guys are plotting something!" Diddy said, raising his voice. "What are you up to right n-" he added before clutching his wound after trying to stand up. "Tell me!"

"Hey, we're not plotting anything!" Rocky replied with an indignant expression. "We are here because our wounds are healing. And in case you haven't heard, you were here before we arrived, Dixie was here with you and my father and our uncle Will were healing his wounds in this place too. You remember being taken in a plane that crashed, right?"

"Yes, of course," Diddy replied, still confused and trying to remember. "But how did it crash?... In fact, I think it was your father who shot me and I fell down. Then, Dixie stayed to help me and then I don't know what happened... By the way, and where is Dixie?!"

"W-wait, let me continue explaining," Rocky interrupted quickly and with a forced smile. "Well, I guess that plane crashed and both of you were brought here with my father and Uncle Will. And when we got here-"

"Hey, sorry to interrupt," Diddy said, staring at them, before pausing. "Where is... Dixie?"

Rocky and Jemky, even Mandrew, looked at each other... as if they didn't know what to tell him.

"Uhh, l-look, Diddy…" Jemky said with a forced smile as well. "You see, in short: we came here with our dads to rescue Rocky's father and our uncle, the other orangutan, and then... those tamers came too, and we began to fight with them. And so-"

"I asked where Dixie is," Diddy interrupted, beginning to have a bad feeling for them. "What did you do with her?!"

"Hey, hey, calm down," Rocky replied. "You see, there was a massacre three days ago in this place. Those tamers wanted to kill us all and then-"

"Speak to me with the truth!" Diddy ordered them starting to get up, holding his wound at the same time.

"Well, that, monkey!" Jemky replied. "We had a confrontation with those tamers."

"You have plotted something!" Diddy told them, trying to go against them and as if he was not convinced by that answer. "Tell me where Dixie is!"

"Well, she participated in that massacre too!" Rocky replied, raising his voice. "In fact, she was protecting you during the event and-"

"But I want to know where she is right n-" interrupted Diddy before complaining of pain in his wound after making a sharp movement.

"Look, Diddy, first of all…" Jemky said, stepping down from his stretcher to take Diddy to his by his arm, "you'd better go back to your bed and not move as much or that wound will hurt like hell, believe me."

"But first I want to know where Dixie is!" Diddy replied, reaching his stretcher again, though with difficulty climbing up. "Tell me where she is!... Or did you or your dads or those tamers do something to her?!"

Suddenly, there was a moment of silence as Jemky climbed back onto his stretcher and they looked at each other with expressions of not wanting to answer.

"Tell me!" Diddy replied, staring at them.

"Uh, hey, little monkey… it's that…" Rocky said with a rather forced smile, before speaking to Jemky whispering to him. "Who tells him?"

"What thing?!" Diddy replied, beginning to be furious. "Tell me!"

The kids from the quartet continued to look at each other with faces of uncertainty as they gestured with their eyes to each other to answer with the truth to Diddy.

"Uh, well... You see, Diddy…" Rocky said with a tone of insecurity. "What happens is that... Dixie is also in this place, but it's that... I mentioned that she was in the confrontation too, and well... Well, she is…"

"Wait a minute!" Diddy interrupted, looking shocked after starting to grasp what they wanted to tell him. "Are you… telling me that Dixie…"

"If she is…?" Jemky continued with a forced smile. "Uh, no, no... it's not that; she is alive."

"Yes, that," Rocky added in the same way. "Uhh, well, she is not yet-"

"What do you mean with 'not yet'?!" Diddy replied, beginning to feel an inner tension. "Tell me well how it is!"

"Oh, okay, I'll be direct!" Rocky exclaimed, returning to a normal tone, before sighing. "Look, do you remember I mentioned some people who are doctors in this place? Well... they were here recently and said that... Dixie... is in a very bad state, that is, she's the only one who has not recovered!... And if she doesn't recover until tomorrow…"

"Well... you know…" Jemky added, still uncertain, "she will fall asleep... forever."

"What?!" Diddy exclaimed, freezing for a few seconds, but then looked at them with a reluctant expression. "It has to be a joke! You want-"

"Seriously, it's true!" Rocky interrupted. "If you want the truth, that's the truth!"

"You lie! You want to take me for a fool as usual! You are-"

"We're telling you the truth, Diddy!" Jemky replied. "That's what those people said: Dixie won't be here anymore tomorrow! That's what they said!"

"You're lying! You always come out with your bad jok-"

"It is true, Diddy!" Rocky replied, raising his voice more. "What's more, if you want to know what happened, so: the last thing Dixie did was face that one-eyed tamer; it was even to protect you. She shot that man and threw him down the stairs, but that man also shot her with that sleeping syringes weapon and that was what hurt her a lot!... And I did see that, because that tamer also shot that tranquilizer at me shortly before, but he shot it at Dixie many more times."

Diddy, while breathing heavily in both anger and worry, kept looking at them very reluctantly and as if he still thought it was all a bad joke... or at least that's what he wanted to think.

"You won't take me for a fool again, you stupids," Diddy replied angrily, before getting back off the stretcher. "You know what?! I'm going to go find Dixie right now! Whatever this place is!"

"Hey, what are you doing?!" Jemky exclaimed. "You can't get out of here!"

"Yes, I will! I know Dixie is somewhere and she's fine!"

Diddy, as if he felt no pain in his wound now, began to sped towards the door with all attitude. Instantly, Rocky and Jemky got down and went after him to stop him.

"Hey, come here, monkey!" Rocky said, taking his arm. "You can't get out; you'll be caught by those people!"

"I don't care! I'll go find Dixie!" Diddy replied, pushing them away.

"Your wound is going to open, monkey!" Jemky added in the same way. "Don't get agitated like th-"

Suddenly, Diddy gave them a push that got them both away in one fell swoop, without feeling pain in his wound due to despair. Immediately, he opened the door and walked out at a fast pace as if nothing.

"We better not have told him," Jemky said, shrugging and clutching his wound.

On his part, Diddy was already walking and even almost running through the corridors. He had no idea where he was going or what that place was, but he needed to know an answer on his own; this time, he didn't want to trust anything until he saw with his own eyes. Even if those answers that Rocky and Jemky gave him about Dixie resonated in his mind, he wanted to keep sticking with the idea that they wanted to play a bad joke on him like they had before.

"A monkey!" a voice behind him suddenly said.

Diddy turned to look and saw a pair of people in white suits staring at him in amazement. Diddy ignored it and started running at speed, still not feeling any pain in his wound.

"But what?! It's the spider monkey!" one of the people exclaimed, pointing at him.

"He's already awake! Don't let him escape, he can't run like that!"

Diddy had no idea how they had references about him, so he hurried to detour through other corridors aimlessly, until he lost sight of those people. He hid in a corner to take a short break while his breathing was agitated and later his wound began to hurt. Even so, he did not want to give up and resumed the search for Dixie; all he wanted was to know something about her.

Later, while Diddy continued to search through various corners of the corridors and even the windows that were there... he noticed that behind one of the latter, there was a silhouette quite known to him. He tried to climb up until he could see better through that window, and what he could see caught his attention instantly: there was a stretcher with certain devices on the sides, and where on it... there was a little chimpanzee apparently sleeping. Before thinking of the worst, Diddy hurried to get down and headed towards the door of that room so he could enter. As he did so, he felt as if his breathing and heartbeat stopped for a few milliseconds... That chimpanzee had blond hair and light brown fur, just like Dixie was.

After a few seconds of gaping and freezing, Diddy began to accelerate his pace and climbed up to that stretcher. Suddenly, he felt a sudden scramble in his chest and as if the circulation went to his feet suddenly, seeing that it was Dixie who was there.

"D-Dixie...?" Diddy pronounced, still clinging to the idea that she would only be sleeping.

Then, Diddy grabbed Dixie's arm and began to shake her, as despair gripped him as he realized that Dixie didn't really move at all. Now he was having the reaction he would have had when Jemky and Rocky had told him what had happened, if not for the fact that he had thought it was a joke.

"Dixie!" Diddy exclaimed, panicking and moving Dixie to try to wake her up. "Dixie... Are you... o-okay?!... Dixie?"

Diddy stood with a blank expression as he tried to process the situation. He still didn't want to accept that the worst could happen and he wanted to hold on to the idea that it would be just a joke, but he couldn't anymore... not if he was now seeing with his own eyes that Dixie was all motionless and with some devices attached to her, just as he was a few days ago.

"Oh, no... Dixie?... Dixie!" Diddy exclaimed again, trying to reanimate her without success. Suddenly, he felt his eyes begin to moisten as he didn't know exactly what was happening to her. "Dixie, please... Please, wake up... Look at me, Dixie…" he added in a trembling voice. "It's me, Dixie... Diddy."

Diddy continued to keep an agitated breathing and with continuous squeezes in his chest when he saw that Dixie did not react.

"Dix…?" Diddy said, starting to have cloudy vision as his eyes became wetter and wetter.

Suddenly, footsteps were heard through the door. Diddy turned to look at what it was and noticed the presence of a couple of medical people, who were entering the room.

"Holy heavens! What are you doing here, little monkey?" the person exclaimed, heading towards him. "You can't be here-"

Suddenly, Diddy began to resist them as they tried to take him in their arms; he knew nothing at all about what they were doing, so he gave a frightened primate squeal.

"No, no, don't worry, little one," one of the people said in a sweet tone. "We won't hurt you; we have spent taking care of you these days."

Suddenly, the people tried to carry him out of the room, but soon after, Diddy resisted again and tried to untie himself from those people, while stretching his arms in Dixie's direction.

"Hey, calm down, little monkey!" the person carrying him exclaimed, trying to calm him down, before noticing Diddy pointing insistently in Dixie's direction. "Oh, no, don't worry... S-she is sleeping; she has to rest. You can't enter here, and you must rest too; you're still with the wound."

"You must stay where you were, little monkey," another of the people said as if talking to a little child.

The people got Diddy out of that room and took him back in the direction of the recovery room where he had been before. Diddy, on the other hand, was still desperate and distraught after knowing about Dixie, and was still thinking about how to see her again.

A few minutes later, the people returned to the room along with Diddy and put him back on his stretcher. Diddy was going to get down instantly to escape, but the people stopped him.

"No, you can't get agitated, little one," one of the people said. "It's going to hurt you."

"It's time to examine him to check his state," another of the people said.

Suddenly, Diddy had gone blank as he tried to process what was happening. He wanted to think that maybe it was just a nightmare that his mind would be playing on him, as he never imagined a place like that, much less in that situation. The last thing he remembered was that he had been with Dixie in that aircraft fighting two of the apes, and where at one point, one of the mandrills had shot him after he had defended Dixie. And in his last memories, he only had the image of Dixie trying to help him and caressing her face before he had lost all sense of reality...

While Diddy was still immersed in thought, the medical people were examining him and even treating his wound with a liquid. Diddy felt so empty that he couldn't even feel so much physical pain while being examined. On the other hand, the kids from Jemky's quartet stared at him while looking at each other uncertainly.

"It seems that everything is fine with the little monkey," one of the people commented. "Of course, he has to continue in recovery."

"Although... he looks somewhat lost, really," another of the people said, looking at his face. "Look at his eyes."

"It must be the unknown of not knowing where he is... Don't worry, little one, you're safe now," one of the people said, caressing his head while Diddy kept an empty look... Suddenly, the person began to look sad and heaved a sigh. "Oh, the little chimpanzee would be so happy to see that her little friend has woken up... but…"

"I know, it's a pity," another of the people added in the same tone. "It really makes me very sad; she won't be able to see him anymore... And is there really nothing that can be done?"

"The tranquilizer has spread so much inside her; the only thing left is just to wait... maybe until today or tomorrow, when her heartbeat no longer responds."

Diddy regained his senses after hearing those words from those people, while feeling a sudden and continuous blow inside, while his breathing began to accelerate.

Then, the people finished examining Diddy, and even put back his usual clothes: his cap and his shirt, also taking care that his wound was not affected.

"That's it. Now you must stay to rest, little one," one of the people said, giving him small and sweet pats on the head, while Diddy looked at them uncertainly. "And you can't get out, or it can hurt your wound, okay?"

Later, the people left the room, leaving the little kongs alone again.

Diddy had an empty but anguished look at the same time. Even if he already felt some pain in his wound, he also began to feel an inner pain while he could only think... about Dixie. Suddenly, his eyes began to fill with tears, which rolled down his face later.

"Hey…" someone next to him said, who was Rocky along with Jemky who had climbed onto his stretcher to see him. "We told you it was true," he added with a tone of seriousness.

Diddy looked up at them in all seriousness, trying to hold back his tears; the last thing he wanted was for that statement of theirs to have been true.

"I'm so sorry, monkey…" Jemky said earnestly. "But we weren't joking this time."

Suddenly, Diddy began to breathe heavily, while showing a distressed expression again, before exploding.

"No, it's not true!" Diddy exclaimed as his eyes began to shed a couple of tears. "This still has to be a joke! Dixie will be fine!"

"But it's not a joke," Rocky replied. "I mean... you just heard from those very same people that Dixie won't-"

"No!" Diddy interrupted, raising his voice and getting back down from his stretcher abruptly. "Dixie will be fine! I'll go see her; I know she'll be fine!"

"Hey, what are you doing?!" Rocky replied, heading to stop him. "You can't get out of here, even those doctors told you!"

"No, leave me!" Diddy replied, pushing them away.

"Don't be stubborn, monkey!" Jemky told him. "Your wound can be reopened!"

Diddy pushed them away again, ignoring the pain of his own wound. Immediately, he walked out of the room again and started running in the direction of where he had seen Dixie before. This time, he was careful that no one from that place would see him.

A couple of minutes later, Diddy had arrived back at the room where Dixie was. Even if he had already heard with his own ears what had happened, he wanted to get the idea that all was not lost and that at some point he would see Dixie again. He got stealthy into the room and headed back to Dixie's stretcher to climb up and try to do something about it.

"Dixie…" he said, taking her arm and with a look of pleading. "Please... tell me you will be fine... Dixie!"

Diddy began shaking her arm again and even trying to open her eyes, just as she had done to him previously. He tried in various ways to try to get Dixie to respond... but it did not seem to be possible at all; Dixie was completely motionless.

"Dixie!... P-please, wake up," he said as tears rolled down his face. "Please, Dixie... speak to me!"

But with every second he spent trying to reanimate her, he felt anguish take over him. Suddenly, Diddy inevitably began to emit light sobs.

"Dix... please... just tell me it's not true…" he said, before letting his tears begin to flow continuously. "Tell me it's not true you're leaving, Dixie... Please, don't it... Don't do this…"

Diddy just let his tears fall even on her, while his sobs had become more repetitive.

"Dix… w-we have to go back to DK Island... You said we would get it... Tiny needs you! Kiddy and Chunky need you!... They all need us there, Dix... I need you... Please, just look at me, Dixie…"

Diddy took Dixie's hand and held it for a moment, while continuing to shed continuous tears. He started thinking about the whole situation they had been through. He didn't know how they got there; it was assumed that in the past week they barely expected to be able to return to DK Island with calm. He was also thinking about those words the people had said recently: how Dixie would be happy to see him again. He knew that Dixie was still present, but he didn't want to imagine hearing later from those people that she wouldn't be anymore; his world would have collapsed, much more than it already was.

"Dixie…" he said in tears. "Please, just tell me something... Don't go... Dixie…"

Diddy continued to shed living tears and sobbing continuously. Later, after wiping away his tears at every moment, he just lay next to Dixie and stayed by her side for a long time. He just wanted to stay by her side and look at her, even if he felt his world fall apart upon seeing her like that. Between moments, Diddy caressed her face, remembering that it was the last thing he did at the last moment he saw her in that aircraft...