Cage

The town came to the zoo based on the promise of a special exhibit of animals captured with great difficulty. The audience was truly impressed.

“My god, they are ten times our size.”

“They are bellowing so loud they can be heard ten towns away. The shrieking hurts my ears and might leave me deaf.”

Despite their fear people stuck around, mesmerized by the crazed beasts. They trusted the extra thick bars in the cage.

Their trust was ill-advised. The humans broke out of the cage and stomped the crowd into the ground. Three thousand Xanians died painfully.

From Guest Contributor Doug Hawley

An Appreciation Of Nature

NATURE SUBMISSION:

David led the group to the African Savanna. He'd been here many times and knew the habits of the big cats, in particular the lions, which were what everyone wanted to see. "They mostly just lay around in the sun, resting. But watching them feed is a transformative experience."

No one seemed impressed. Even the children were more interested in their phones than looking at the animals. It was a sad commentary on the state of the world.

"Acting this way can get you killed in the wild," he warned.

"Good thing we're at the zoo then," one boy retorted.

From Guest Contributor Leonard Panse

Robot Monkeys

“Daddy, why are there bars on the robot monkeys’ windows?”

Roger picked a bit of cotton candy off his son’s nose. “Danny, it’s a zoo.”

“But Daddy, they aren’t wild animals like the others. We don’t keep our robots in cages.”

Roger laughed and tousled Danny’s hair. “Well, Buddy, our robots have Gen IX brains. These little guys are first generation. Nobody wants them and they could never survive on their own.”

“But why keep them then? Why aren’t they just recycled?”

“Daniel. We’re not barbarians. We gave them life. We can’t just throw them away. Besides, aren’t they cute?”

From Guest Contributor Simon Hole

A Saccharine Fairy Tale

Once upon a time, Prince Candy met Princess Cotton at tea in the zoo. During a lovely flirtation, luscious Prince Candy realized dusk about to fall and quickly strutted away. Now, wise Princess Cotton had secretly tied twine around Prince Candy’s ankle. Following the twine through the zoo, she found it now tied to a peacock’s leg. Though the peacock screeched and pecked, she knew it was her beloved bonbon. As the sun rose, she kissed his beak changing him back into her sweet beau. Vowing unending love, they lived happily ever after, producing bundles of brightly colored cotton candy.

From Guest Contributor D. K. White-Atkinson

Hyena

The boy, prescient and wise, child of a dove, knew this day was coming, when the neighborhood man would tear into his school and wave his weapon and laugh like a hyena and cut down everything that stood in his path. The man yearned to be young but lived encaged in the zoo of lost innocence, and given arms and a rare safari he had to take lives, lives that betrayed his by existing where he could no longer be. So the boy absented himself on the dreaded day, warned the principal, who wouldn't listen, watched the news, and cried.

From Guest Contributor, Curt Klinghoffer

King Netzahualcoyotl

When the last known jaguar died in the San Jose Zoo, it was believed that people would be safe from now on. And for the next decade, not one mysterious case of kidnapping or decortication was reported anywhere in the region.

Sloane Davidson, professor of ancient lore, warned anyone who would listen the jaguars were still among them. When the killings began, she was the first. Friends and colleagues revealed themselves as jaguars in disguise. The time had come for revenge.

Not many humans survived the uprising. Those who did became slaves. Thus the rule of King Netzahualcoyotl had begun.

They Won't Make A Monkey Out Of Him

Even in childhood, William George dreamed of traveling in space. Rather than play outside, he would read science magazines. Instead of trips to the zoo, he built telescopes.

During adolescence, there were few friends, and no girls. Though he disliked sports, he ran cross-country in order to meet the physical requirements. He received his doctorate in Mathematics before he had turned twenty-five.

NASA immediately accepted him into the astronaut program.

Thirty years later, he still has never been to the zoo. How could he go to the primate house knowing that chimpanzees have been to outer space, but not him?