Zoo Catastrophe

• Stephanie McCallum, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2022

It was June 3rd, 1981 and my teacher was running around and calling out names for the zoo trip. When she was finally done we got on the bus. On the way the bus broke down and we had to walk the rest of the way. On the way one of the kids rolled their ankle and the teacher had to carry the kid. Luckily, one of the kid’s parents came and picked up their child with the rolled ankle.
A little while later… we finally got to the zoo. We were shown the monkeys, koalas, snakes and lots more animals. We hadn't seen the lions because they had not been fed. It was getting late, so we went and saw the lions. It was still very hot in the sun and my bff (which means Best Friend Forever) fainted. They had to call an ambulance to pick her up and take her to the hospital. The teacher then told us to DRINK WATER!!
12 minutes later… We finally got to see the lions and it turns out she had booked for us to go into the lion enclosure which was super cool. We didn’t know that the lions hadn’t been fed. We soon found out when the lion bit a kid!!! One of the nastiest kids decided to stick their head in the lion’s mouth and the lion bit his head off! We had to call the ambulance, their parents and the zookeepers. The teachers quickly got us out of the enclosure before anyone else was bitten.
They had to close the zoo just in case another animal bit someone. The teacher got fired and the family of the dead kid was angry, upset and depressed.