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Lord of the Flies
As Roger processed this ill-natured news, it became clear to him that he belonged to the wrong tribe. Even he knew that a proper chief did not beat his followers. Jack had been acting quite grandiose since the feast. A thought that he otherwise would not be allowed to think popped into his head. Perhaps Jack's egotistical behaviour was due to the fact that everyone was afraid of him.
Robert watched him with an expectant eye.
"I'm going to stretch my legs." Roger declared, as he stood, stretched, and then flung himself down the scorching rocks to the baked earth below.
"But the Chief called a meeting!" Robert said hastily, as if that's all he had to live for, more or less, that is what most of the littluns lived for.
"I'll catch up." Roger replied dully, knowing that he'd probably be dead before he could find out what he'd missed at a now unimportant meeting. Hunting could wait.
Ralph led the remains of his scanty tribe to the fruit trees, now almost bare. As the littluns found some less than ripe fruit to start sucking on, a figure appeared at the edge of the scar. Ralph glanced up quickly, and in less than the time it took for someone to sneeze, he had his spear poised for attack.
"Wait! Hold up!" a somewhat familiar voice said, hesitantly risking a few more steps.
"Stop!" shouted Ralph, trying to keep the fear out of his already worn out voice, "What d'you want?"
"I came to join your tribe. It's me Ralph, Roger."
"Why'd you want to join us?"Ralph asked, using a slightly interrogative voice.
"I don't know. Jack was getting on my last nerve, I guess." Roger replied, not risking the truth. He wasn't sure if he could trust Ralph yet.
Ralph eyed him suspiciously, yet there was a hint of curiosity in his sardonic gaze. Finally, Ralph said "Welcome, Roger."
Jack sat and counted the small, brown heads. As he neared the end of the line in front of him, he noticed one was missing. Where was Roger? Jack snarled under his breath and asked if anyone had seen him recently.
"He was talking to Robert, on the lookout rocks." This came from Wilfred, who, after receiving an unnecessary beating, would reveal any information Jack required. Jack marched up to the lookout and took Robert's neck in one hand. As Jack slowly lifted Robert off his feet, a sadistic look gleamed in his eyes.
"Where is Roger?" Jack demanded, in a near shout.
"He.....went....for a walk!" Robert gasped, all the while trying to catch a decent breath. He could feel his face turning blue.
"Where did he go?" Jack growled a deadly tone to his voice. Not once did he ease his death grip on the small boy.
"I ....don't.........know!" gasped Robert again, as he collided with the dusty earth below him. A small cloud of dust swirled into the air after he'd landed. He sat, looking up at Jack, with a terrified expression on his gaunt face.
"Find him." Jack threw the harsh order over his shoulder without looking back.
Roger had been assigned to watch the fire on the beach, but as he sat, mesmerized by the licking flames, a flippant shadow caught his wary eye. As the shadow slinked about the trees, Roger struggled to identify the tiny boy.
Yet, he noticed that, one by one, pairs of angry eyes appeared in the darkness. As soon as roger was on his feet, the fire all but forgotten, a silhouetted figure emerged from the dense foliage.
"Roger," it said, "Come with us to Jack. He will help you." It hadn't been twenty-four hours since he'd heard that voice. A voice that was once overly excited about a murderous beating.
"Go back, Robert," Roger called, too exasperated to say more. Then, an unexpected fury passed over him. "Tell Jack that if he wants me back he'll have to kill me. Like he killed Simon." After shouting this dark message to Robert, Roger stalked off in the opposite direction.
"A ship! A ship!" screamed Ralph. "Everyone to the beach!"
Ralph's tribe slowly trickled into the hot midday sun. Their expressions showed that they thought Ralph was playing a cruel trick on them. However, when they spotted the uniformed officers, all their faces lit up with joy. Ralph eyed each one. It had been so long since they had had any real emotion.
After pondering this for half a minute, Ralph took off towards Castle Rock. He ran, stumbling occasionally, and falling into some thorny bush or another. As he neared the neck of rock that connected Castle rock to the main island, Ralph collapsed. The heat mixed with his excursion had proved tiring. But he couldn't let this opportunity slip through his dirt-encrusted fingers.
"There's a ship!" he screamed, using his last breath, "Hurry! Come now! A ship!"
A voice boomed over his own. "Stop!" It cried, "Stay! It's a trick! Come back! What about.....?" The voice trailed off, now seemingly lost in thought. It was predictable Jack wouldn't want to give up his new found power.
Jack stood, frozen, staring at Ralph's eager eyes. A ship? A real ship? Jack gave himself a mental shake. He began to yell again. No one could take this away from him. No one could defeat him. He was Jack Merridew!
As he kept screaming his incoherent pleas, he realized he was shouting at no one. He watched as the last of his followers raced after Ralph, leaving a trail of kicked up dust and leaves behind them.
All the boys arrived on the torrid beach in record time, with Ralph lagging behind them. Without even looking closely, they launched themselves into the life rafts waiting to ferry them over to the great ship only a few miles out to sea.
"Alright!" Ralph said breathlessly, "That's everyone. I'm sure all of them followed me here."
The life rafts were shoved off the sand and all the boys began to row, fervently at first, then slowing gradually as their arms grew tired.
As the island grew smaller and smaller, a littlun, Wilfred, pointed back to the beach they had all just left. All the littluns in his life raft turned to see what his fixation was. As the remote island dropped from the side of the Earth, one could just make out a small, painted boy drop to his knees on the golden sand.
FIN