Trapped

It was early morning and the rain was falling hard. The trees were so dense that the foliage formed a canopy over the jungle so only enough rain could come through to gently sprinkle the ground. The sun was just rising so the jungle was still dark and foreboding.

I spotted my prey from a far, a boar. I moved through the jungle closer to it with silence and cat-like grace, my long, striped tail flicking side to side behind me. My keen, blue eyes watched it as it slept, calculating the odds that I could successfully kill it. I crept toward it getting as close as I dared. The stupid creature slept on not suspecting a thing. I crouched down, my back arched, prepared to spring as I let out a low growl.

Suddenly, I sprung pouncing on top of it, claws sinking into its flesh. The boar squealed, flailing as hard as it could trying to break loose of my hold. I was inches from sinking my teeth into it, when I heard voices from somewhere in the dark jungle. In my moment of hesitation the boar scampered off still squealing wildly. I let out a roar of frustration and continued on feeling weary and hungry.

After passing through some dense bushes I saw some sort of contraption on the ground several feet in front of me, inside was a large, juicy slab of meat. The smell of it wafted towards me. I stared at it hungrily; it seemed to be mine for the taking. The contraption it was in looked like some sort of cage. I wondered whether it was safe to go inside or not and retrieve the meat. I decided it was probably harmless and rushed forward greedily to take it. Just as I got inside the cage the door dropped down and slammed shut…I was trapped.

“No, this can’t be happening! I need to escape!” I thought to myself wildly.

I knocked my body with full force against the side of the cage, growling and roaring in anger and frustration when it didn’t move. I paced the cage pondering what else to do, when two figures dressed in khaki colored shirts and shorts, holding long black objects, stepped out of the bushes.

I growled and bared my fangs at them as they approached me.

“Wow, isn’t she a beauty,” commented one of the men, a portly fellow with a thick black mustache, as he peered into the cage at me. I snarled at him and he backed up a bit.

“I was hoping we’d capture one. Think of the profit our zoo will make no that we have her Jonathan,” said the other man, whose green eyes glittered with excitement.

“And she’s a white one which is even better, they’re terribly rare,” Jonathan added. “We’ll use the tranquilizer guns on three then Stanley?”

“Yes, I do believe so,” Stanley replied.

The two men lifted their guns pointing them at me. I knew something was about to go wrong. I roared and lashed out against the side of the cage, desperately trying to escape as Jonathan counted aloud.

“Three…two…one!” he exclaimed.

When the shots hit I swayed. It seemed I became so very tired at that moment, my vision blurred and it appeared there were four men instead of just two. That’s the last thing I remembered before the world around me went black.

When I woke up and looked around I noticed something was wrong. I leapt to my feet and stretched, the ground beneath my feet was this uncomfortable, hard, grey stuff. On all four sides of me metal bars separated me from the unfamiliar outside world. Outside this new, larger cage there were other ones similar to it that held other animals that I had seen before in the jungle. There were more of those unfamiliar human creatures, like the ones who found me in the jungle, walking around. They stared at me, pointing and talking excitedly. I paced the cage feeling agitated. I longed to find a way to leave this scary, new place.

“Mom look! It’s the White Bengal Tiger! Get the camera out! Take a picture mom, I want to show my friends at school!” begged a small child tugging at his mother’s sleeve.

She pulled out a small square object which I suspected to be a camera. Then, without warning, a bright flash of light erupted before my eyes. Roaring and scampering backwards I startled the child and he began to cry.

“What is this place? Am I to stay here forever?” I thought desperately to myself. I gazed around one last time, looking for a way out before lying down in the middle of my cage as the mother and child walked away.

“Maybe if I go to sleep again when I wake up I’ll be back in the jungle lying on the soft ground, my stomach full after a delicious meal. This is all just a dream,” I thought to myself before falling asleep.

However, when I woke up again I realized it wasn’t a dream…it was reality. I was still in a cage and I’m still here to this day. Day after day it’s the same routine, a worker comes in and cleans up my waste and feeds me, I simply lie there watching them, not bothering to try and escape as I’ve tried countless times before and failed. Day after day people come and stare at me, taking those awful pictures. Day after day I seem to get weaker and weaker. I can’t help but think daily what would’ve happened if I’d have just stayed away from the cage and I keep coming up with the same question every day: Will I ever get out of here?