Fiction: Group 2
Sturgeon
The International School of Macao, Hoi, Derek - 10, Fiction: Group 2
n any given day, the fishermen of Zhongshan would row midway between the shores and hurl
their long fishing lines into the calm waters of the Pearl River hoping to catch sturgeons and
enormous fish, like carp. They sat there for hours staring into the dark murky river; if they were
lucky, they might catch a tremendous carp, though it was very rare for someone to catch sturgeons.
Oh by the way, my name is Cheong Kit. I work for the Zhongshan Sturgeon Company. We sail to
the inner part of the river to catch colossal sturgeons. We harvest their eggs and sell them. That’s how we
earn money.
On this particular day, at 7am, I was heading towards the factory when I noticed strange people
pasting odd posters on the walls. I investigated the text; it said that there were only about a hundred
sturgeons left in the Pearl River and the sturgeon company where I worked was going to be forced to shut
down by the Chinese government! I looked around in shock and quickly made my way to the factory. I
shared the discouraging news with all my friends and colleagues. “Why is everybody staring?” blared
Captain Zhou. We all gathered around him. “Captain! Captain! Cheong Kit said that the factory is going to
close! Is that true, Captain?” “Yes, it is true,” he nodded gloomily. “Now back to work!” Everyone trudged
away downheartedly…
The bright morning sunlight shone into the bedroom, “Uhhhhhhh!” I yelped. I sleepily stood up
and lingered towards the bathroom to change. I looked at my watch and noticed that it was getting late. I
quickly got dressed and grabbed a few mouthfuls of spicy fried rice while rushing out the door.
I sprinted towards the factory. Luckily, I was on time. I went looking for my friends. I found them
sitting on a boat with three fishing poles and two fishing nets. “Whatcha lookin’ at?” I inquired. “Get on!”
yelled Chen Zhen. I jumped onto the small brown sailboat, and we started sailing. It took an hour to get to
the inner part of the Pearl River. We grabbed our long fishing poles and hooked the bait to the end of the
line, thrusting the fishing pole into the river. The water was murky and dull. It was very hard to scan the
water. SPLASH! SPLASH! We looked in every direction, but saw nothing. SPLASH! SNAP! Something
was pulling on my line. I tried to haul it out of the water, but it was fighting back violently. I took the
fishing net and trapped the fish. We pulled it out stared at it in awe.
“It’s an albino catfish!” hollered Chen Zhen. “I simply can’t believe this!” I marvelled. We quickly
sailed back to shore and hurried to show the fish to the captain. KNOCK! “Come in!” thundered Captain
Zhou. We staggered in hauling the catch. The captain was in shock. “Chop it up!” he yelled. “Now get
out, or you’ll be chopped up too!!” We rushed out. “I wonder what’s up with him?” Chen Zhen
murmured.
The next few days, everything went wrong! People were saying that the sturgeons in Shenzhen
were attacking the fishermen. 756 boats or more had been flipped over, and more than100 had been
wrecked!! Scientists discovered the sturgeons were heading towards Zhongshan. Rumors said sturgeons were
attacking in groups. “I think they're getting back at us for what we did to them!” moaned Chen Zhen.
“Don’t be stupid!” I barked. “Let’s go!” We stood up, jumped on our fishing boat, and sailed away.
When we were halfway across the river, we could feel something rocking our boat. “Cheong Kit,
come back! Come Back! The waters are dangerous!” wailed the captain over the walkie-talkie. We quickly
returned to shore. “Everyone gather around and listen up!” howled Captain Zhou. “The situation is out of
control! TV stations all over Guangdong are reporting attacks by sturgeons!” he explained. “We cannot
afford to lose our workers, so that means no more fishing in the Pearl River.” We returned to work.
“Hey, Chen Zhen, what do you say we creep out tonight and go get that monster that was rocking
our boar?” I whispered. We waited until night, and then we slithered towards the docks. We grabbed our
fishing poles and nets, and launched into the mist floating above the gloomy river.
When we reached the inner part of the river, we saw other boats and small rafts. “Cheong Kit?” It
was the other workers! “Why are you here?” asked Chen Zhen. “We wanted to see if it was true!” yelled
the workers. We sailed around the Pearl River for a while. The first attack was at three in the morning: a
raft flipped over. I grabbed the net and scooped a humongous sturgeon out of the river and threw it on
board. I grabbed a knife and killed it. Splash! Splash! BOOM! The other boat flipped over and exploded! I
threw a spear into the water! Blood exploded everywhere. It hit it target and another sturgeon went belly
O
