THE LAST MINUTES

NOTE: This story is based on Author's fiction. It does not apply to any historical references or real-life incidents.

"If you are a 90's kids, there is no possibility for you to not know him. He will be in all animal planet, discovery channels in our childhood days. For all of us wild animals may look beautiful. But at the same time, it look dangerous. But only for some people there is no fear in such animals. At the same time, they have a huge respect for those giant creatures along with the nature." A 35-year old Sunil Varma told to his 10-year old son Adhithya, who had been watching Discovery channel around 8:00 PM in his house.

"Oh!" Adhithya said watching the TV.

"That kind of people will not hesitate to give their life to them. They have that kind of love on that animals. And one among them is Steve Irwin. But his fans and family named him, "The Crocodile Hunter."

"What?" Adhithya exclaimed by looking at him.

"When I watch him in the TV, I used to look at him like a hero. But at that time, his unexpected death, made his worldwide fans sad and shocked."

"So what happened to Steve? What was his last minutes? How did he died?" asked Adhithya.

Sunil narrates the life of Steve to Adhithya, due to his curiosity.

FEW YEARS BACK

Steve is not only a TV personality. He is a wildlife expert, environmentalist, nature conservation advocate and a zoo keeper. Steve spent his whole life with animals. Both his parents were wildlife experts. He started to grow among crocodiles. He didn't have the same childhood days like other 90's kids.

In the age of six, he caught a 12 feet python in his hands. At the age of nine, he started handling crocodiles. His love for forest and animals started to grow along with him. He voluntarily engaged in catching hundreds of dangerous crocodiles in Queensland. In 1991, he took over the zoo and started running it and in 1998, he named the zoo as "Australia Zoo."

2006

In 2006, Steve was 44-years old. At that time, in TV channels, he was very popular with 10 years experience. The crocodile hunter series was a mass hit all over the world. Steve always work with no breaks. In both TV channels and off cameras. Not only that, at that time he was married and had a 8 year old girl Bindi and 2 year old boy Robert.

Steve loved his family very much, and his life was very happy. That was 2006 September. Steve and his crew was in a small coastal town called Port Douglas, Australia. To do a documentary called "Ocean's deadliest" his crew was getting ready.

Though Steve was doing his work happily and motivated, the producer of the crocodile hunter and Steve's best friend John Stainton had a bad instinct about it. In fact, three weeks before this Ocean's deadliest shooting started, John called the Discovery channel and asked them to stop the documentary.

But since discovery channel already spent a large sum of money on this project, they was asked to continue without stopping. Since he is the director of the documentary, he started to continue without any options.

Few days before this shooting started, Steve gave a speech to his crew members. In that he said thanks to all the crew members. Even though it looked like a normal speech to the crew members, it was very disturbing to Steve's best friend and director John. It looked like a last speech. Still he couldn't do anything. He has to take the documentary and that day also came.

SEPTEMBER 04, 2006

MONDAY

It was a normal day to Steve. He woke up early in the morning and in his 75 feet long boat, he and his crew started the trip. In that John and Steve had a cup of tea and looking at the sea while going. And Steve was saying about his happy life to John.

Steve was in a very happy mood. Not only that, Steve will always be ready for adventure. Then his crew members noted that the climate was cloudy. So they thought that they could not shoot the Ocean's deadliest in the ocean and they started waiting for the whole day.

But how Steve means, he is not a person to sit and watch what is going to happen. He is the person who make things happen. So when they were waiting, his daughter's wildlife TV show is going to come in the Discovery kids channel. Bindi is going to present the "Bindi- The Jungle girl" show.

By Bindi hosting this show in discovery kids channel, they thought that she can educate and create awareness to other kids like her father. Steve liked this idea very much, and Bindi is like a mini-Steve. So to take footages for that Steve asked his cameraman to get ready for a quick dive.

Both Steve and cameraman who went for a dive, waited for a tiger shark to shoot. But there was no tiger shark there. So they started recording sting ray, a member of Shark family. Actually they were little bit away from the main boat. And in that place ocean was not deep.

Stingray is not a dangerous fish. Yes. Even though they had stings, they are not aggressive like the other sharks. In fact even if their lives are in danger, they will swim away or bury themselves under the mud. It will attack humans in a very rare situations only.

That is if we disturb them, or step on them when they are hidden in the mud, it will attack. So Steve and cameraman now saw a 6 feet beautiful stingray. It was a very beautiful creature. It is worth to show in TV. As they planned they filmed the stingray in a few minutes. But they wanted a quick shot like it is swimming away from them.

So for his daughter's show, they tried to take it. Steve is not a ordinary man to be afraid. He spend his whole day with dangerous crocodiles. But here an unexpected situation was about to happen. Stingray became ferocious. It lifted up it's tall and stung it to Steve's chest. In a blink of an eye, it stung him many times.

Now the cameraman didn't take his hand from the camera. He recorded everything. Because like this it happened many times to Steve. But Steve had only one rule to his cameraman. What was that means- Whatever happens the camera should be on recording. So at that time when the sting ray attacked Steve, camera was in rolling only.

PRESENT

At present, Adhithya looks shocked. With little tears in his eyes, he asked his father: "Dad. What happened after that?"

"When the stingray swam away from Steve, Steve was swimming in his blood. The next day morning in all the media, Steve himself took away the Sting's tail from the chest and the cameraman was recording till that." Varma said to which, Adhithya questioned: "What? Till then, did he recorded everything?"

Squeezing his eyes, Vishnu said what exactly happened after that incident to Adhithya.

2006

But it's not the truth. The sting ray made a hole in Steve's chest and came out. Then only Steve realized he was in a big trouble. He stood up from the water which is up to his chest level and started shouting in pain. He said to the cameraman that it damaged his lungs. But the truth was more worse than that.

There was a 2 inch hole near Steve's chest and blood was pumping out very fast. Steve was taken from there to the main boat. The cameraman couldn't believe what was happening to Steve. Because it happened many times like this. But like this it never happened.

So the cameraman was very much frightened. So with the help of his crew members, he asked him to hold the hole tightly for preventing him from blood loss.

"The crocodile hunter Steve you should not die. You should at least live for your children. So hold on." They said.

But looking at his friend and cameraman, Steve said: "I am dying." This is the last words of him and after that he became unconscious.

Immediately, the cameraman started performing CPR. But there was no use. From the attack of sting ray and till the CPR, everything was recorded in the camera. Immediately the paramedics team came there. But they checked Steve and said that he already died.

But the crew members took him to the hospital. But there was a severe damage in Steve's heart. So they couldn't save Steve. So the video in which Steve was attacked, was not released to the public still now. They will not release in the future also.

PRESENT

"Just like that, in a few seconds, Steve died while doing his lovable work." Varma said to Adhithya, who became shocked and upset.

Varma continued telling: "While this happened his wife and two children was in a trip, my son. This sad news was shared with them." Holding his son's shoulder he said: "Think how they might have felt, Adhi. How she might have said this to her children! How the children understood."

Seeing the pictures of Australian Zoo, Varma told: "So when they came to the Australian zoo from there, the Zoo was filled with flowers. All the Steve fans from Australia came there. She didn't marry after that."

"Why dad?"

"According to her Steve was her soul mate. No one can ever replace him. So instead of marrying another person, she took over the zoo and started running it with her two children. Robert was just like Steve when he grew up. They made Steve proud by taking over the zoo."

After Varma said this, Adhithya looks at the book "The Crocodile Hunter" and writes: "Steve Irwin is my inspiration."

EPILOGUE

According to this world they will never forget about Steve, who created awareness about the nature and animals. So readers, do you know him? Have you seen him on TV? Comment if you like him. Also if you came to know about his last minutes now, give a like to this story and share it with your friends who see national geographic, animal planet and discovery. Definitely they will be surprised. Their memories will be freshened.