A/N: I'm really glad you like that last chapter, I was worried. Thank you for your encouragement, and don't worry I won't give up on this story until it's completely done and posted. There will be a smack down, don't worry. But, it won't be for a little while. To answer another question: there will probably be a large amount of romance eventually. But no promises there. It will never take me that long to update again, and I sincerely apologize for the wait.
As Ralph awoke Annie was leaning over him, but looking away. It was dark, but the air was warm by the fire. There was singing and nobody seemed to notice that he was awake. Then she looked down into his open eyes. "Ralph…" She whispered in disbelief. "He's awake!" She said while turning to face Jack. "Jack, Jack, Ralph's awake!" The singing died out and Jack flew up from his seat on the rock and ran over to Ralph.
"Ralph, buddy!" He said jovially while slowly helping Ralph into a sitting position. He wasn't thoroughly happy that Ralph was awake, but he was glad that there were no more deaths. He acted thoroughly happy and nobody could see through his act. "Ralph's awake!" He screamed so that all of the little boys who were sleeping could hear. He clapped Ralph heartily on the back, but not hard enough to hurt the sick boy.
"Hey." Ralph said while smiling. He was talking to Jack, but smiling at Annie. She didn't say anything. She just wrapped her arms around him in a big hug. He hugged her back and she rested her head on his shoulder. There was a rage filling Jack, and his jaw was set stonily as he looked on with cold eyes. No one was more surprised than Ralph when Annie fell asleep on his shoulder.
It was hot and muggy as Annie woke in one of the shelters. She was still tired but the heat drove her to waking. She saw that the shelter was full of boys lying around asleep. She noticed right away that she had been sleeping between Jack and Ralph. Ralph was awake and sitting up. She sat up and looked at him.
"How are you feeling?" She asked him, noting that he looked like he had completely recovered.
"Great." He answered with a smile. "Thanks…"
"For what?"
"Simon told me that you took care of me and the other guys the whole time we were out. I'd probably be dead if it weren't for what you did." He explained.
"You're welcome." She said.
"You hungry?" He asked while getting up.
"Yeah, now that you mention it." She answered. She made to get up by herself, but he reached his hand down and pulled her to her feet, while she smiled at him. The left the shelters and walked through the woods to the fruit trees. He climbed a tree and threw some bananas down which she caught. He tossed a pineapple, but she let that fall so that the sharp points of the fruit wouldn't cut her hands. They sat at the base of a tree and ate.
"How long do you think we'll be here, Ralph?" She asked as she peeled a banana.
"I don't know, it could be a long time." He said after he had finished chewing and swallowing. "We should try to make the island as much like civilization as possible."
After a while littleuns began walking into the woods and they both went out to the beach after Ralph had gotten them some fruit. Jack and the hunters were just coming out of the shelters when Annie and Ralph walked onto the beach. Jack was shirtless and wearing baggy khaki shorts that reached to his knees. He stretched his arms above his head as he walked out of the shelter. All of the hunters were in the same state as he and they walked out the shelter after him.
"'Morning, Jack." Annie said cheerfully to him as they got closer.
"Hey," He said coolly with a little bit of a smirk and a nod as he looked at her. He then turned his head toward Ralph. "Hey." He said with a flat voice and stony eyes.
"Hey." Ralph answered a little more warmly than Jack had addressed him. "Are you hunting today?"
"Yeah." Jack answered. "We're gonna catch a pig today."
"Oh, I hope you do." Annie interjected cheerfully. "I'm so hungry for something other than fruit!"
"Don't worry, I'll get one for you." Jack said with a smirk causing Annie to smile.
"I'm gonna have a meeting before you go." Ralph announced. He picked up the conch from where it had been sitting in the sand and blew it. All of the boys came running and all of they began to sit down around Ralph. During the meeting Jack was the only one who dared to interrupt anybody (except for Ralph who could interrupt anybody he wanted because he was the chief) but nobody noticed that whenever Annie was speaking and he wanted to say anything he would wait until she was done. Eventually Annie brought up the topic of how she had heard a little kid scream in the night when she was taking care of Ralph.
"There was a beastie!" The little boy who had been the screamer stood up and announced.
"There's no such thing." Piggy said in response.
"Yes there is, I saw it, it attacked me!" The littleun argued.
"Are you sure you weren't just dreaming?" Ralph asked maturely.
"I wasn't dreaming. It had big claws and it grabbed me!"
"Then why don't you have scratches on your skin?" Piggy asked superiorly.
"I do." The littleun said as he went around the circle of boys showing them his arms which were, surely enough, scratched. What nobody noticed about the pattern of the scratches was that they were in five lines like they had been made by fingernails.
"If there is a beast," Jack announced loudly while getting up, "we'll hunt it and kill it!"
"There isn't a beast." Piggy whispered under his breath. Jack and some of his hunters went off into the woods to hunt and the littleuns went to play. They other hunters helped Ralph build shelters and looked after the fire.
"Is it ok if I go to the other side of the island to see Kevin's grave, Ralph?" Annie asked him. After all, he was the chief.
"'Course you can." Ralph said while lifting a heavy branch with the help of Sam. "I'd go with you, but we really need to build more shelters. You should go with somebody though…" whether he said this because of the possibility of a beast or some other reason, she didn't know. "You can go with Simon." With that Simon and Annie began to walk along the beach to the other side of the island where the grave was.
"Is there a beast, Simon." Annie asked and waited for his answer. "Come on Simon, I know you know… please tell me, I'll believe you."
"There's no beast." He said quietly. "Not really anyway…" He left the sentence hanging and she didn't question him further. They made it to the grave and she looked on it for a few moments. The mock headstone that Simon had laid was the only sigh left that Kevin even existed. They left the grave and decided to walk through the woods instead of around the whole island. There was no danger of them getting lost because Simon had already been all over the island.
They walked through until it began to get very quiet. The constant sounds of animals were gone, leaving them in an eerie silence. "This isn't good." Simon said quietly.
"What is it?" Annie whispered.
"I don't know." There was no sound for another minute and Simon and Annie stopped moving and stood still to listen. Suddenly there was a rustling in the distance. It got closer. The sound of yelling followed. Suddenly a boar burst through the brush and Annie and Simon had to jump out of the way in order to keep from being pierced by the boar's sharp tusks. A bunch of boys came crashing through after the boar. Their faces were painted and they were running with raised spears made out of sharpened sticks. They didn't follow the boar as it ran past Annie and Simon, instead, they turned on a different kind of prey.
Annie and Simon began to run through the woods as fast as they could. Annie felt herself being grabbed by the waist and pushed up against a tree by toned arms. She struggled but he put his knife up against her throat and pressed down gently, not hard enough to cut. She looked into his stony eyes and recognized them immediately.
"Jack!" She choked out. "What are you doing?" He immediately dropped the knife, and looked completely shocked at what he had been doing.
"We were hunting, I got caught up." He explained while running his hands through his hair. "Jesus, Annie, I didn't mean to."
"I know you didn't." She said, still a little shaken. They boys had come to their senses and were no longer chasing Simon, who was swift enough to get away from them and not be caught like Annie was. "What did you put on your face?" She asked in slight alarm, looking at the mixture of rich colors caked on his face, a grotesque mask.
"It's just some clay we for hunting, nothing scary." Jack explained suavely. "We almost got him that time. There's another one!" He called out as he dashed off after a fat sow darting through the forest.
Annie and Simon walked back to camp a little shaken, but otherwise unharmed. When they came through the trees onto the hot beach the sun was high in the sky and the heat was extreme. Ralph and the hunters who were helping to build had all shed their shirts and some had even rolled their shorts up a little bit. Annie was again aware of her own discomfort and she really wished that she had shorts and a t-shirt instead of her knee length skirt and sweater.
Ralph gave her his shirt and she bathed in the river and washed the shirt. She tied a knot at the bottom of the shirt so that it didn't look so big on her. When she went back she could see that the littleuns had been playing in the sun all day and they were burned badly. "Will you tell the littleuns to stay out of the sun, Ralph?" Annie asked him as he sat in the sand taking a break.
"Why?" He asked, a little confused.
"They're all burned and they could get sun sickness."
"Good idea. But I want you to tell them. They should learn to listen to you too." He said quietly. If she could have read his thoughts she would have heard 'Listen to you like a mother.' But she couldn't read his thoughts so the statement stayed like that. She walked so that she was up to her ankles in the ocean and called to the littleuns who were swimming:
"Boys!" She called out while forming her hands like a megaphone around her mouth. "Please come in now and stay in the shade! You're going to get sick and I'm sure you all have sunburns!" None of them listened even though they heard her.
Ralph grabbed the top of her arm gently. "It's ok. They'll learn to listen when they have sunburns and they're a little sick. I could tell them to get out of the water, but it's better if they learn for themselves to listen to you." He went off to bathe and so did the other boys.
Surely enough, they were sick later and they had horrible sunburns. Annie put cocoanut milk on the burns to help ease the pain. The best thing that could be done for them was to get them to sleep. They were helped into the huts by Annie and the boys and they began to sleep just as the sun was setting.
After a while it was night and the hunters still had not come back. The group on the beach was beginning to worry because of the long absence of their comrades. Annie was sitting very close to Ralph and they were almost touching shoulders. They had watched the sun set like this. There was a far-off singing/chanting from the group of hunters, signaling the relief of the waiting group. The singing was very loud now as they approached. It was the unmistaken song of a great victory.
A/N: Sorry it took me so long to update. I'm getting killed with work before midterms next week. It's extra-long to make up for how long it took me to post. I don't really like this chapter at all, so if you do like it some positive reinforcement would be great. You're always so good about that anyway. As always, I am willing to do a rewrite. Hope you like and please review.
