Disclaimer: i never wrote the book, i certainly don't own one, let alone the story itself. i disclaim this.
Rescued
Ralph stood staring at the ocean on the cruiser. There was a clear blue sky and the waves gave the boat a gentle rocking motion. He couldn't keep his mind on the problem on hand. But what was the problem? Ralph shook his head. "Too much sun."
"What did you say?" Ralph almost looked up with joy, thinking it was Piggy.
"I said there's too much sun, Robert." Ralph didn't know why he thought that was Piggy's voice. Robert had a clear almost nasal voice, while Piggy had, Piggy had, a.. well.. a fat boy's voice.
Robert closed his eyes against the sudden sea breeze. "We were in sun all those weeks before and now you complain of it?" He lightened the question with a smile. Ralph smiled back. "Ya know, uh.. a lot of us really didn't want to.." He trailed off but started up again. "To hunt you down and all but Jack and all with his face painted and the way everyone else was acting with Roger and the hunt.." He trailed off again.
"Yeah, I know what you mean." He nearly bit his tongue for admitting how the power of a group could hold sway on him. "It doesn't matter anymore, we're with grownups now."
"All passengers on this ship, please report to the Mess Hall. I repeat, all passengers report to the Mess Hall. All crew, report to the deck. I repeat, all crew report to the deck." The speakers were silent once more and there weren't any grownups insight, but all the children obeyed and walked directly to the Mess Hall.
The littluns were in first and in front. The biguns came in slowly, dreading the words of the officer. The officer quickly counted to make sure all 27 of them was there. "We should have done that." Ralph muttered angrily under his breath. Those immediately by him looked at him but they didn't know what he said.
"Looks like everyone is here." The grownup cleared his throat. "We will soon be arriving to our destination. It's our naval base at Hong Kong. From there, all of you will board a plane to go directly to England. We have not received a list of your names yet and will not. Everyone will be accounted for at the port."
No one made a move and or a sound, something Ralph could never fully accomplish. Ralph gave a sparing glance towards Jack who was only a few feet away. Jack looked normal again. Everyone did. They were given clothes, a bath, and medical aid after they all finished boarding that day.
"We have sent a report ahead of us of what we saw. You will be questioned when you reach England. Take any personal items with you and dispose of the garbage before you leave this ship. We will announce when we have arrived in port. That is all. You are dismissed."
The littluns were the first to leave since
they were anxious to get out and play. The biguns were forced to wait,
even though they wanted to run out. Everyone dispersed in different directions
but only the littluns left in groups. Ralph ignored the gnawing of his
stomach and went directly to his room.
"Flight 394 now boarding to London. Flight 394 is now boarding to London, Terminal 2."
"Jack… Jack." Roger tried to whisper but either Jack was ignoring him or he really didn't hear his name being called. "Jack!"
"What?!" Jack looked annoyingly at Roger. "Couldn't you see I was trying to think?" He asked bitterly.
"Well I was looking at the back of your head, did you expect me to be able to see through you brain..?" Roger swallowed the rest of his sentence but he still thought it. '..like the way I could see Piggy's face from the back?' There was a silence but Roger broke it once again. "What were you thinking about? Maybe it's about what I was going to ask."
Jack slowed down and walked side by side with Roger. "I was thinking about what questions they would ask us." He hesitated but continued anyway. "And what I would say to those questions."
Roger nodded slowly. He was going to ask Jack what they were going to say if they asked about Piggy and Simon and.. and who? Wasn't there a third? Roger remembered dimly of something Piggy was babbling about once, a birth mark on a littlun's face. How long ago was that? It seemed like ages ago, was it only a few weeks?
"What did you want to know?" Jack said with a more friendly voice. Roger shook his head to get out of his daydream.
"What are we going to say to them about..
about them?" There was no need to say who them was. Jack merely looked
at Roger in eye. They looked at each other for quite a time while they
stood waiting to board the plane. They looked away and knew what they were
going to say in spite of what they wanted to say.
All the children were driven to a some government building after they got off the planes. They were pushed into a large room with chairs and grownups. "Everyone quiet down and take a seat. Shorter ones in the front and taller ones in the back, that way everyone can see."
There were several grownups there and each had a warm smile on their face. When everyone was seated and quieted down, another grownup stepped forward and spoke. "Hello, I'm Miss Silver and I'll be reading out names on the list I have in my hand." She held up a white piece of paper. "When you hear your name, just raise your hand, okay?" No one said anything or moved. She took that as a 'yes.'
She began in alphabetical order, unfortunately, most of the littluns forgot their names and what was Piggy's real name? Ralph felt guilty for not knowing. "Percival Madison." Ralph could have asked what his real name was, especially after he asked that he wouldn't be called Piggy. "Is there a Percival Madison?"
Ralph got up at the that question. "Are you Percival Madison?" Some of the older ones sniggered at that.
"Forgot who he was." Ralph heard someone say behind him.
"No, I'm not, I'm Ralph." He pointed to a littlun. "That's Percival, miss." Miss Silver only nodded and checked off two names on her list.
"You're Ralph Willington?" She asked even though she checked the name off already. Ralph nodded but didn't sit down yet.
"The problem is, miss, is that a lot of the littluns don't remember their names." He sat down after that in the sound of agreement from the other kids that knew what was going on.
"Don't worry about, we'll figure it out." She smiled and looked down at the next name. "Bill…" The rest of the name was lost to Ralph.
"We'll figure it out." That's something Piggy could do, figure things out. The next name seemed to pierce through his thoughts.
"Jack Merridew."
Jack raised his hand and went back to his thinking. After that, names seemed to go by quickly. Then a question was asked. "There are 27 of you here. On the plane was 30. Where are the other three?" Her voice was as clear as chimes and the question echoed in everyone's heart. When no one said anything, she nodded to someone on her left and stepped back. Didn't they know where the other three were? Or where they just having fun?
"Everyone who knows their name can leave and go with these people on your right to another room to be questioned." All the biguns dragged their feet out the door and into the next room. The ones left were also being questioned, but only to help them remember their names.
The group that left was divided, biguns and littluns. Mr. Dorin was the name questioning the biguns. "Well, since you are all old enough to know what is going on, we'll get straight to the questions and try to finish as quickly as possible. We all want to get home and you guys especially, so with your cooperation, we can do that."
No one would say anything different and sat down when indicated to do so. Mr. Dorin also had a list of the names but only part of it. There were windows behind Mr. Dorin and unfortunately, the light shone through the paper and everyone who was close enough to see saw 2 names that weren't checked off on his list.
There was a sinking feeling in Ralph's stomach and he wished he had been trapped in the burning forest. He would have been dead by now, it was only a few hours ago. "We'll start simple," Mr. Dorin started, "what does everyone remember of their trip before the accident? Raise your hand… Yes, you."
"I remember my mum--" the boy started but was cut off.
"Ah, I'm sorry. Please state your name before speaking."
The boy seemed to struggle, as if deciding whether or not to reveal his already revealed identity. "My name's Maurice." Mr. Dorin looked on his list and nodded. "Well, my mum said we we're going on a trip to the States but we were gonna go East and not West like usual. I thought it was because of the war but there's fighting out in the West, too."
Mr. Dorin nodded in approval at the knowledge Maurice possessed of events of the world. Another hand went up. "Yes, what is your name?"
"Jack, sir." Jack stood up and tried to hold his head up high but failed in the mist of the adult world. "My choir went on this trip, too. Maurice is a part of it. They said we were going to the States for some advanced schooling, but we never made it. I think we were shot down and we ended up on an island." Jack looked at Roger in a quick glance. He hesitated but continued, "The… the pilots, they died I think."
There was a long silence, which Mr. Dorin interpreted as a silence for the pilots but none of the biguns wanted to bring up the other deaths. "It is a real pity that they had died, perhaps you would have been rescued earlier if they hadn't died." No one raised their hands. "Well, the trip was supposed to end up in the States for specialized training in the areas you were best in. It was towards the East and when the plane was crossing the Pacific, it was shot down. Your plane was mistaken for an enemy aircraft. The rest, you know."
Two hands were raised. Mr. Dorin pointed to one but both got up at the same time. "I'm Sam.."
"..and I'm Eric."
"We wanted to know.."
"..our mum and da.."
"…they know if we.."
"..they gonna come get us?"
"..soon I hope.."
It's always hard the first time to figure out what they were saying exactly but you become accustomed to it. Every grownup in the room stood there thinking over what they said. "Ah, yes. I see what you mean now. Some others have gone to contact them as we speak, so don't worry about that." They both sat down simultaneously. "Any other questions?"
"Are we going to get any food? I'm starving and I think I need a new bandage for this wound." He lifted his shirt to show a blood soaked bandage. "Oh, and I'm Walter."
Mr. Dorin nodded to another adult on the side. "Food will be given later, but does any one else need bandages?" Only another stood up. "Okay, you two may be excused."
"Come this way, we might have to stitch that up, Walter, if it continues to bleed like that--" her voice was cut off when the door closed. They didn't seem surprised that those two were hurt so badly.
"If there are no more questions, we shall proceed." There was a silence. "We want to know what happened to Simon Rockford and William Fellar." Everyone cringed at Simon's name, but who was William? Slowly, everyone realized and cringed.
Everyone stayed seated and quiet, so at last Ralph got up or else they would pick someone to get up. "I'm Ralph. Simon and Piggy--" The grownups looked puzzled. "That's what we called.. William," Ralph stumbled over Piggy's real name. "We called him Piggy and the specs that Jack had with him when we got on the boat was Piggy's."
Ralph heard Jack scowl but he ignored it. What does he have to be made about? It was a fact. "Well, you see, Simon died first. It was an accident. All of us got tied up in this hunting thing and before we knew it, we were attacking Simon thinking he was a beast but it wasn't and he was dead. It was an accident! Honest!" Ralph wanted to back up and out of the room but his chair kept him from doing so.
"It was his fault! He shouldn't have been wandering around like that, all crouched over and stuff. He was batty, he was going to get himself killed by the beast if we didn't do it first!" Roger blurted out.
"..if we didn't do it first!"? Does that mean Roger wanted to kill him the whole time and he was just waiting for an opportunity? No, it couldn't be. As soon as those words left his mouth, he realized what he had said. "No, I didn't mean we were going to kill him anyway, I'm just saying.."
"And William? Or Piggy, however you want to call him?" Mr. Dorin's voice cracked in several places.
"You see, we were going to--" Ralph started.
"It was Piggy's own fault!" Jack stood up and screamed at Ralph. "He always had to say something and that stupid conch! He was too fat to move and he wasn't any use. His specs were more useful than him!"
"It's your fault! You took his specs! We would have given you fire if you asked for it but you just had to take his specs instead! You just have to be some kind of leader, don't you?! You and your stupid hunters! How did you help get us rescued besides setting the whole island on fire?!" Ralph couldn't contain his anger any longer.
"We kept the stupid fire going! Your fire was too small for it to make enough smoke for anyone to see it! If us hunters weren't there, we wouldn't have set the island on fire and we would still be stuck on that stupid thing right now! And Piggy would probably be talking away with that blasted conch! I'm glad Roger hit him with that rock."
"Hey! Don't bring me into this! I didn't do anything!" Roger yelled in his defense. Suddenly another two rose.
"You lying, stinkin'.."
"..filthy rotten.."
"You kept beating us up!"
"You pushed the rock!"
"And the rock hit Piggy!"
"You two shut up! The only help you guys were, were to tell us where Ralph was hiding!" Roger yelled back.
"Look at your stupid tribe now!" Ralph sneered at Jack. Jack blushed fiercely.
"At least my tribe listens to me! And it was a lot better than your group!" Jack retorted.
"Everyone be quiet!" Mr. Dorin's baritone voice rung across the whole room. "You, Ralph, tell us what happened and no one interrupt him!" Everyone sat down but Ralph and didn't dare speak out again.
"Jack took Piggy's specs to make the fire and we went over to ask for them back. Piggy took the conch to talk but then Roger pushed one of the rocks over the cliff and it hit him and the conch broke and—and.." Ralph couldn't say it. He choked on his words. "He flew and hit the rocks.." The rest could be pieced together.
"I see. Well, I'm sure your parents will be here shortly. When they all arrive, all of you can apologize to Simon and William's parents."
Apologize? Would they accept it? Would
their own parents be there to hear the story? It was a long wait.
***
it was a bit long, but i hope you like it. i kinda wrote this out of boredom. i couldn't think of another way of ending it, i'm bad at endings. tell me what you think!