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Murrays mORTIFYING fir

Mathew Aronin
Mrs. Healan
Science Block 6
May 6, 2015
Murrays Malicious Fire Escape
It was a Monday. Just as all other moose do, Murray hated Mondays,
but he still awoke happily. He hoped he would finally learn about his favorite
lesson in science class, biomes. A biome is a region of Earth with its own
special plants, animals, and climate. Earth has six major biomes. Just as
Murray hoped, they were starting the biome lesson in the Minnesota Moose
Elementary School. He put away his bag, and settled into his desk. Anyone
could tell that Murray was clearly the only one excited to come to school
today.
Mr. Hoover entered the classroom a few minutes late and had to take a
moment to set up todays lesson. Murray eagerly watched as he pulled out
his worksheets for the class. Mr. Hoover taught Murray and his class about
the types of biomes and ways to classify them each. He told the class that a
biome can be determined by many things. For example, a tundra is
determined by its low temperatures, short growing seasons, and little
precipitation. Other factors in determining the type of biome include its
elevation, plant and animal life, and latitude. He wrote on the board in his

small handwriting the temperature ranges and the yearly rainfall for certain
biomes.
Just as the other moose were about to leave, Murray reminded Mr.
Hoover about their upcoming project. The rest of the class groaned as they
hoped that he would have forgotten. Mr. Hoover went over their new project
in great detail. He explained that the class was to determine which biome
that they lived in. Afterwards, he handed out the worksheets which gave key
characteristics to a few biomes. Murray was surprised to learn that one of the
biomes with the lowest of temperatures, a tundra, has temperatures as low
as -10 Celsius and only gets up to 15 Celsius. He was excited for this
project and soon realized the he was the only one who was.
The other moose hated Murray for reminding Mr. Hoover about their
project and knew that they could trick him. They made sure that Murray
could hear them talking and began their mischievous plan. All of the moose
told each other that they were going to go as far as they can into the woods
to determine the characteristics to find which biome they were in. This made
Murray excited because he was going to go into the woods with them and
maybe make new friends. However, Murray did not know that the other
moose were going to look up the answers on the Antler-Net.
When Murray got home, he told his mother about going into the woods
that weekend. She asked him if the other students were going as well, to be
safe. After he told her that they were, she said that he could go. Throughout

the week, Murray asked the other students for details about the trip into the
forest. They told him that they were leaving at eight oclock sharp behind the
school on Saturday. After relaying all the details to his mother, Murray
packed his hiking backpack. He did not sleep a wink that night.
The big day had arrived and Murray was excited to explore the forests.
He had packed a camera and his worksheet, so he was well prepared. Shortly
after waking up, Murray realized that the day before was Daylight Savings
Time, and he was an hour late to the trip. He ran to school and saw no one
there. He assumed that they were already deep in the forest so he ran as
fast as he could through the humongous forests. He tried to stay near the
school so he would not get lost and waited for them to return.
He decided to make use of the time and started to see which biome on
the worksheet matched what he saw. Murray was amazed by the bare forest
floor. On his biome worksheet, it was stated that in a Taiga was a snowy
forest with mostly conifers. Those are trees that have needle shaped leaves.
These leaves allow snow to fall from the tree before it is damaged by the
weight. Murray discovered that there were no plants growing on the forest
floor. When these leaves fall off of the trees, they cause the soil to be acidic
because they contain acid in them. This fascinated Murray, and eventually he
wandered away from the school in awe at the lifeless ground. Murray
concluded that he lived in a Taiga. After a while, Murray realized that he was
lost. He had no idea what to do.

After hours of discovering new things about his biome while waiting for
the class, Murray realized that his classmates had tricked him into getting
lost in the woods. He tried to retrace his steps but could not focus because of
his anger. Just as he thought that things could not get any worse, he realized
that his cameras lens had reflected sunlight onto the ground causing a small
wildfire. He remembered that wildfires can be started even in the snow. This
wildfire grew and Murray became frightened.
He tried to pour his water bottle onto the fire to yield it but to no avail.
The fire continued to grow and soon it had almost surrounded Murray. Just as
the fire was about to enclose Murray, he sprinted out of the closing gap and
ran as fast as he could. The smoke for the blazing wildfire caused Murray to
slow down and the fire was almost traveling as fast as he was but he
managed to stay ahead of it. Eventually, Murray could not breathe and he
passed out.
After what seemed like hours of being unconscious, Murray awoke to
loud noise overhead. He looked up to see the Wildfire Squad helicopters
flying to the now twenty foot tall flames. He watched in awe as they blasted
the fires with hundreds of gallons of water. One helicopter sent down a
stretcher along with two other moose. One he recognized as his mother and
the other one a younger moose he had never met before. They helped him
onto the stretcher and the helicopter whisked them away to safety.

Once Murray was safe, he met the other moose. Apparently, one of
Murrays classmates had felt bad for him and went to make sure that he was
not lost earlier in the day. Once he saw the wildfire, he called for help. Murray
could not thank him enough. The next Monday in class, Murray presented
what he found about his biome. He started with the basic facts that he found.
Murray explained how Taigas get 40-61 cm of precipitation each year and
how fascinated he was by the acidic soil causing a bare ground. Before he
was finished, Murray called his new friend, Bruce, up with him and together,
they told the story of Murrays mortifying fire escape.

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