Three days until what? He pondered. With his experience of the island he knew it couldn't be good. Three days until they all died? Three days until the end of the world? He decided they needed to get off the island quick so begun collecting wood to build a signal fire like before. He walked down the sandy path into the forest before starting to tug at some dead wood. Most of it was burnt or rotten so when he pulled up a log it would break up into a shower of fragments. The ones that came into one piece he piled into his arms and carried up the mountain stumbling frequently in the dark. He didn't ask the others for help especially after last time when it got out of control and Ally's brother got burnt to death. He threw the logs in a heap on the flat ground up the mountain and threw on some dried leaves and green branches to make more smoke. The question was, how would he light it without Piggy's glasses that they'd relied on last time. He felt a pang of sadness when he thought of the bespectacled boy's death. He found some sticks and attempted rubbing them together with no result then Maurice's advice from last time suddenly came to him."You make a bow and spin the arrow"
He carved a small hole through one of the sticks and slipped the other into the hole and swivelled it around until a think trickle of smoke rose up then turning into a flame, he threw the stick into the pile which gradually ignited letting out a long line of smoke which would hopefully attract a ship if Sophie didn't find one. He walked back down the other side of the mountain where he hadn't been before and as he picked his way through the rocks he caught his shoe on one and crashed down, rolling the rest of the way to the bottom over the rocks. The groaned in pain as he lay there with his face on the floor and looked up to see something horrible. A skull,
Mulberry boy's skull.
He heaved himself up and picked up the skull gingerly deciding to bury it so Ally never found it. Even though she probably wouldn't know this was her brother's skull he still didn't fancy her coming across it. The area was sparsely vegetated from the fire which had left spindly black trees and drooping black bushes there. He turned to walk back up the mountain after finding the creepers were too thick to go around the side and when he reached the top he stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the figure standing on the edge of the mountain overlooking the sea which sparkled with the stars reflection. He would've marvelled at its beauty if it hadn't been for the figure standing there. A figure which he recognised as Jack Merridew.
He wore the same ripped shorts and war paint as he had last time he'd saw him when they were rescued from the island however he didn't have savage madness in his eyes anymore. They were filled with sadness instead. He didn't seem to notice Ralph who stood a few metres away frozen to the spot and then the red haired boy let out a long sigh, rocked back and forth on his heels a few times before stretching his arms out either side of him like a bird about to take flight. Except he did the opposite. He leant forwards and fell off the edge and Ralph rushed over to the edge and peered over and saw nothing, no splash, no disturbance to the water at all. It had been some sort of hallucination yet he looked so real. He backed away from the edge nervously and proceeded to hurry back down to the shelters to get away from what he'd just seen. When he reached the shelter the sun was just starting to rise and the sky was pink and orange. He clambered into the shelter unsure if he'd ever be able to will himself to come out again.
A/N: Hello just typing to say thank you for the continued support and reviews as I've been writing which I appreciate so much considering what a shoddy writer I am! I have great ideas I just suck at putting them into words! The question is, did you pick up on what was happening there with Jack jumping off the cliff as we know he never really did that when they were on the island so... no I'm gonna see if anyone figures out what the link was behind that. A quote from an earlier chapter may help you figure out what happened.