Things went back to normal, or as normal as one could get.
After being rescued by adults, all the bigguns were questioned first, which meant anyone above 10 was old enough for questioning right away. Sadly for Ralph, he was the first to go and explain what had happened, which seemed like an eternity to him. He had to explain every detail, every gruesome detail that happened on that island, which included the deaths of his friends.
He stayed strong through the interview, finally, he ended, was asked a few more questions, and was told that he could finally go and wash up.
Greedily, he took a shower, taking as long as he wanted and felt like. He felt so damned dirty; no amount of cleaning would get rid of the filth on him, even though he scrubbed long and hard at his skin till it was all red. He washed his hair at least three times, getting out the grease and the dirt and the grime.
Finally, he was done bathing, and a new pair of clothing waited for him outside the shower. Fresh, clean clothes, which he never knew he took granted for till now. He slipped on the clothing, glad to ditch his old ones.
Ralph turned, and looked himself in the mirror, seeing just how wounded he was now, and how badly he looked. He also had no idea what to do with his hair. He wasn't too sure if he wanted it cut, or to leave it like it is, as a reminder as to what happened on the island when chaos strikes out.
Well, his family would make him cut it sometime, so for now, he kept it the way it was, except he tied it back rather messily, and brushed his bangs away from his eyes, which was now easier to do due to it not being so greasy, and instead wet and clean.
He exited the bathroom, and looked around the corridor, wondering where to go now. He followed his sense of hearing, hearing shouting and fits of laughter, and that dreaded chant.
"Kill the pig!"
The voices got louder as he walked closer.
"Slit its throat!"
Ralph felt anger start to boil in his blood, never wanting to hear this chant again.
"Spill its blood!"
The chanting was louder, and he stood in front of the closed door it came from, breathing heavily in anger, as well as feeling tears start to brim his eyes and make his sight fuzzy.
"Do it in!"
Without thinking twice, he grabbed the door handle, and threw it open, gripping the handle so hard, he thought he might break the small delicate thing.
"Enough!" He shouted at the top of his lungs, all laughter and chanting and movement halting to a stop, as all eyes turned to him. The littuns with their faces still painted were running around the room, he could tell, because the ones who were on the beach with him during their time on the island were huddled in beds, looking frightened, but relaxed slightly as they looked towards Ralph.
"Haven't you all had your fun? Haven't you had enough? Well, I for one, have! So quit your mucking around, and get yourselves tidied up!" he shouted, trying to calm a bit. These guys had no clue what was going on in the island, thinking it was only fun and games. Well, the games where over now, and they were all about to face serious trouble, especially Jack and Roger.
Ralph huffed, and left, stomping his feet slightly as he did. The room remained silent.
Without realizing it, Ralph made his way up to the deck of the big ship. He paused for a moment, before slowly walking over to the edge, and leaned on the railing. He stared down into the water below that was being pushed by the big, heavy metal monster of the ocean. His mind began to wander to the memories of his friends, who were now gone. Piggy and Simon had both been taken out to sea, their bodies never to be seen again, nor any other part of them. Ralph doesn't even remember the whereabouts of Piggy's specs that he so badly needed to wear.
Tears once more formed in his eyes, but he threatened them, and told them not to come out. He wanted to be strong, in order, in control of himself.
Samneric. He hadn't the slightest clue what happened to them, but knew they were gone as well, he just knew it. Since boarding the ship, there had been no trace of the twins. Oh, he just wished those two had each other when they died, like they always were when alive. It would be terrifying for the two of them to be split.
Ralph leaned his head on his hand, shaking his head and looking down, eyes shut tight and trying to erase his memories, but no matter how much he willed them to, more memories of the four flooded his mind.
"They were too young!" he shouted, slamming his fist on the railing now. "They were too young! Why would you do this?! You bloody fuckers!" Ralph screamed, now at the very blue sky, a few clouds dolling along above him.
It was too much. Tears started pouring from his eyes, and running down his cheeks. They stung, because of his sore and swollen eye, and from lack of water in his system, but he welcomed the pain and continued to cry out loud, sobbing uncontrollably.
He only wished he had done more to protect them all. Why hadn't he tried harder? Why hadn't he done more? What went wrong?
The tears continued, and the sobbing and yelling and banging of the railing. One of the sailors must have heard, because suddenly there was a gentle hand on Ralph's shoulder, and a deep voice said to him, "Come on, son, let's get you back under and with the other older kids."
Ralph went willingly, still sobbing hard and shaking uncontrollably, not realizing that the sailor had told him that he'd be sharing a room with the other bigguns, which now consisted of himself, Jack and Roger.
By the time he was at the door of the room, Ralph had composed himself enough to stop crying, but continued to shake and his breath was deep and sharp at times, keeping the never ending tears at bay. The door opened, and there were four beds inside this room, two of which were already occupied by Jack and Roger, on one side of the room, and two empty beds at the other wall. The sailor left, leaving the boys alone in the room.
The two had been talking before Ralph arrived, he realized, because they now stared uneasily at him. He couldn't tell what was in their eyes. Sadness? Regret? Guilt? Or was it more along the lines of anger? Or revenge? He couldn't tell.
Instead, Ralph decided to choose a bed at the opposite wall, and lied on top of it, his back towards the other two, facing the wall. He had no need to talk to them.
He did notice, however, that the two were bathed and wearing clean clothes. No more of that damned face paint, or ragged clothing. All of that was gone.
Slowly, the rocking of the ship made Ralph tired, as well as from running and hiding and trying to stay alive just hours ago, and fell into a rather deep sleep, welcoming the darkness with open arms.
He wasn't worried about the other two trying to kill him now. Adults where everywhere here, and didn't let the boys touch any weapons of the sort. He felt safe here, for now.
Ralph awoke the next morning, feeling rather confused and his head pounded, as well as feeling a pain in his gut from hunger. He looked around the room, and noticed the now empty beds on the opposite wall. He really couldn't tell how long he'd been asleep, but frankly he did not care. For once he didn't have to be in charge of everything, or fear for his life, or someone else's. All he was worried about at this moment, was getting food. While walking the corridors, he tried to remember the last time he had eaten, which he figured it was before he was hunted, when Samneric gave him the meat at Castel Rock.
Once more, he followed his hearing, the noise of chatter and laughter guiding him, and, thankfully, nothing about that annoying chanting. Maybe the littluns had learned their lesson.
He stopped at opened double doors, which held some tables, and a line of both adults and children, being served by women behind the counters. Ralph scanned the room, going unnoticed by all. He liked this. It felt familiar and normal.
Ralph casually made his way to the end of the line, waiting to be served by the women. Even though he was starving, he didn't have much on his tray. He found an empty space, and headed towards it, sitting down all on his own. That is, until a littlun made his way, and sat across from Ralph. He recognized him as one of the children that stayed at the beach with him, instead of going off with Jack. The young boy smiled at Ralph, and he returned the smile a bit before stuffing his face with food.
Gradually, more littluns made their way to his table, still feeling safer near their chief from the island than with Jack. Chatter started at the table, and soon laughter followed, all without Ralph joining in.
"Ralph?" His attention snapped at the sound of his name, and turned to the littlun who had said his name, smiling slightly.
"Wanna play on the deck with us after eating?" he said hopefully, and those around him and at the table made sounds of agreement and hopefulness.
Ralph took a moment, before nodding his head happily, causing all the boys at the table to be filled with delight, smiling widely. Well, if he could at least do one thing right, it was to keep these guys entertained and happy, out of the way of the adults.
After eating, a few littluns went to go find something to play with, while the others and Ralph went onto the deck. The day was nice, the sun on their already burnt and reddened skin, but wearing sunscreen now, to prevent further damage. Clouds occasionally blocked out the sun, and the wind blew cold sea water onto them, a nice change from the unbearable heat and humidity on the island.
A few moments later, the littluns came onto the deck, smiling widely. They held up the item they had received, an empty, cleaned out can. They all seemed excited to play a game of kick the can, and had Ralph do the honors of starting the game.
It was one of the few moments Ralph felt he was at ease, and rather happy. The cheerful laughter of the kids made him smile widely, and for a while, everything seemed alright. The littluns were having fun, all without a single care in the world, except to make sure the can didn't fall from in between the railing at the bottom, and kicking that silly can around. It was a childish game, but it was a break Ralph needed from the harsh reality that hounded him.
After a while, Ralph began feeling light headed and dizzy, but try as he might he couldn't shake it off. Eventually, he wouldn't play anymore. He walked over to the railing, holding it for support, and he felt like he couldn't stand anymore, feeling hot, panting and sweating heavily.
"Ralph?" one of the older littluns said, noticing and causing other eyes to turn to him, stopping the game.
"I'm… I'm fine.." Ralph whispered, not able to speak more clearly than one who sounds in major pain. He tried to reassure the frightened little ones by smiling, but it was pained looking. He then pulled himself to look over the edge, and emptied the contents of his stomach, everything he had eaten since waking up and the previous day. The world went black, spinning fast, and he fell away from the edge, onto the hard deck, hearing someone shout his name, maybe a littlun, before darkness took over. He wasn't scared, oddly enough.
When Ralph awoke, he was in a completely different surrounding. He was still on the ship, he could tell, because of the crashing of the waves that he could hear very dimly outside. He looked at his surroundings. He was in a bed, white sheets and white blanket that covered him. There was pressure and a hugging feeling on his chest and head, and his right arm. His eyes looked over to his arm, to see it covered by white gauze, a tube coming from his arm, and to a bag full of clear fluid that hung up on a metal pole next to his bed. He used his left arm to touch his chest, only to pull it back out from the covers and being slightly red.
Ralph started to panic, but forced himself to calm down as he touched the gauze on his head, having the same effect.
Everywhere hurt. His head hurt, and the room continued to rock back and forth. His stomach hurt, and felt as if he was about to spill whatever was left in his gut, even though there wasn't. He felt so nauseous, and wondered if he even wanted to be awake right now and deal with all of this.
Suddenly, the door handle turned, and a woman dressed in all white with her hair pulled back in a tight bun entered. At first, her expression was blank, but smiled once she noticed Ralph was awake.
"Hullo…" Ralph said, surprised how off his voice sounded.
"You gave everyone quite a scare, dear." She said, standing beside his bedside now and checking the needle in his arm and the bag attached to it.
"What happened?" he asked, honestly having no memory of what had happened to him, and why he was now in this weird room.
"Well, from what we have figured out, something inside of you cause you to throw up, and you are running a pretty high fever at the moment, as well as your wounds on your chest opening up, now infected. What did you eat at that island?" she explained, and asked.
Ralph closed his eyes, feeling exhausted and tired of watching the room rock back and forth. "I uh… Ate a lot of fruit.. And some pig.." he said, very hesitant on saying the name. His thoughts started to flood of Piggy, causing tears to form in his closed eyes.
"That pig might be what is causing it. The others are lucky though, you're the only one infected." She said, smiling sympathetically. The nurse changed the gauze on his head and with much effort on his side, changed the gauze around his chest and cleaned it, which stung so much, and checked his temperature.
After all this, she left him alone in the silent, white room to his thoughts.
"Piggy.." he thought, eyes closed once more. They were all too young.. Why did it have to happen? Why couldn't Jack just stay sensible and helped keep a fire going, and help take care of everyone? Why did he have to go off and make his own tribe?
Now, because of that, Piggy, Simon, and Samneric where dead. Gone. Never to be seen again.
"I never even knew Piggy's real name.." he realized, and the tears finally rolled down his face. Broken sobs escaped his mouth, and he couldn't keep it in anymore.
"I never knew Piggy's name.. Instead I taunted him with that ridiculous name, even though it bothered him.. I'm the worse friend…."
Ralph continued crying, eventually crying himself to sleep.
His eyes opened sometime in the middle of the night, looking at the very dark room, the only light being illuminated from the silvery moonlight outside the window. There was slight movement in the shadows, almost causing his heart to stop, but he said or did nothing.
The shadow walked over, and laughed, holding something up.
"I told you, we'd do away with you, chief." Said the voice, and Ralph recognized it easily. It was Jack's.
His heart started pounding widely in his chest, going to scream for help, but found his voice was silent. He said nothing.
Jack grabbed Ralph's free arm, and turned it, exposing his vein. A needle stuck into his vein, and Jack injected something into him, taking effect immediately. It made him feel light headed and like his whole body was burning and on fire!
"You'll be with your pathetic friends soon enough." Jack said, Ralph barely able to hear him as he fell into darkness.
Ralph eyes shot opened, as he gasped for breath. There were three doctors and two nurses in his room, shouting at one another for something or other. Once they realized, however, that the boy was awake, they all backed off, giving him space to breath.
He coughed hard, sitting up now from how much he was coughing and trying to regain his breath, till, finally, he leaned over the bed, once again emptying his stomach, panting heavily and covered in sweat.
"Get this cleaned up." One said gently, looking up at the boy for a long time, still leaning over the bed.
"Wh-wha happened?" Ralph muttered, his voice sounding worse than it did the last time he was awake.
The remaining doctor and nurse exchanged glanced, looking very worried and uneasy.
"Son.. Your heart stopped for a few moments while you were asleep. We were trying to get it started again, when you suddenly came back to life…" the doctor explained, grabbing a clipboard and scribbling something down on the paper.
"Nurse, keep an eye on him. I want him checked every hour now."
"Yes, sir." She said, nodding.
Ralph slowly lied back down as the doctor left. Sidestepping the vomit, the nurse walked to the door, saying behind her shoulder, "I'll get you some water, dear." And left him alone once more.
He shivered widely, and brought the blanket up farther, curling in a ball as much as he could with his hurting chest and tube sticking out of his arm. Ralph would have cried, if his eyes still had some liquid in them.