A.N: I know I am probably 100% late for the party of the Lord, but 2020 it's already being too hard and I just wanted to make something sweet for the kids that took over my days, all in all I am really glad that I found out about this book the way and at the time I did, as I am not from a English speaking country thus this book was never one my schools would make us read, or even watch the movies (both which I did because I got attached to the characters and wanted to consume all the media haha)
Yes, this is a kind of girl in the island sort of story, but with a twist, much inspired by other fanfics that I've seem, and it's important to notice that this story will also be available in AO3.
It is also important to notice that this story takes elements from the original story of the book (1954), as well as the both movies (1963 and 1990), making it have a bit of its own flavor, the story itself starting with the kids being described as in the books, and also the setting is inspired by the cold war time, as it was the time the book was inspired by. The age of the kids being around the ages depicted in the books 6-12 and a few months.
All in all I also like to state that I don't own any of the characters of Lord of the Flies, or the Lord of the Flies itself (the demon would not like that very much lol) but I do own my ocs, in special my main OC – Gale Applebie (or Apple)
I would like to point out that I have no beta (since I have no friends) and thus, if there is any grammar issue, please tell me so I can fix it! English is not my mother language so any help it's a good help
With that being said, I hope you have fun! R&R if you can
Bemorefiction
The radio was on, blasting a loud swing before a tall lady in a beige dress would bend on the table and, with her long fingers covered in rings, change the tune to a calmer music. The smell of tobacco was strong making the little girl's nose scrunch, only adding to her confused expression. Looking both ways to try and get the picture of the situation she was in . . . None, nope.
Gale had as much of a clue of where she was, or why she was in such a formal wear, she wondered if perhaps this was a dream of some kind, she does remember going to take a quick nap before going back to the homework before her mother arrived at home with dinner that night, and since it was around morning here, it wouldn't be too farfetched to think that. The buzzing of the radio took her off her thoughts as the music was interrupted abruptly by the urgent voice of a reporter.
"-it's expected for it to arrive on Saturday, Monday the congress shall reunite with the army forces to decide which actions to take next, the Royal Family continues to say that there is no need to panic-"
"No need to panic, ha, they make me laugh whenever they talk like this, as if we were dumb" The woman in the dress said bitterly, an almost amused facial expression gracing upon her "They probably left as soon as the first rumor of the bomb was made"
"What are you talking about?" Gale took the risk on talking to her, the woman at least seemed to have some idea what she was talking about.
"What do you mean Gale? Now my brother doesn't even let you watch the news? He is going to spoil you, frankly" She placed her hands on her hips, taking a newspaper and shoving in the brunette girl's way. Gale opened the newspaper to the headline in bold letters THE WAR EXPLODES THE ATTACK ON LONDON IS IMMINANT.
Gale could feel the color drain off her skin and make a puddle right where she was sitting, a ball of anxiety that she could not swallow no matter how hard she tried to, she tried to calm herself down. This is just a dream, she kept saying to herself, there was no way, she didn't knew the woman in the beige dress, she didn't even leave at London, her dad was actually very open with her and she could see all the news, this was all not real.
Then why it felt so real?
The woman-her aunt here, she assumed, was looking at her with the same smile a cat would give her, Gale had to fight the need to roll her eyes at her, it would not be wise to make the only person with the answers mad at her.
"Don't be a chicken" she almost laughed "It is very, very unlikely that Ronald will let anything happen to the apple of his eye"
"Apple?"
"We are the Applebies! Come on I remember Ronald telling me his daughter was smarter than that to make connections of her own at twelve years old" Aunt said, incredulous "Anyway I wouldn't worry too much about yourself, I would worry more about Ron and his stupid need to put the others in front of him" With that, she went back to mess with the radio, looking for some station that was playing actual music and not more messages of doom "Let's hope it doesn't run on the family" she added looking at nowhere in particular, but with a shade of sadness barely detectable.
Gale took a deep breath before looking at her hands, this was weird, more than she was used to, asking for names would be even more strange considering that these were her family that she grew up with and should know by now. Finally standing up, she made her way to find 'her room', and after some trial and error, she found a room with light colors that she could make a guess was a child's room, a given by some doll and balls on the floor without much care.
There were too many things to take of account that happened to her in the last minutes, taking a piece of paper and a pencil she started to put on paper the things that she knew had happened to her in the last minutes of her life.
She had woken up, but apparently she was already wake in a fancy dress, her name remained the same (her first name at least) as well as her age, she had a aunt that looked nothing like her actual aunts, her father were was named Ronald, there was a war -the still could feel a chill down her spine on the mere idea of that-, she was living at London and it supposedly was going to be attacked very soon.
Nothing of what she had written made sense in the least, that was not what she was used to, her head was already pulsating with the new information, and trying to make sense of it all.
'Was it like this that Alice felt when she fell into Wonderland?'
Placing the hands on her temple and massaging slightly she realized she was being dumb, yes, the realization hit her like a truck, to make sense of a dream, no matter how realistic it was being was a ridiculous choice, hell, if anything was going to happen it very well could happen to her, would be better than anything happening in the year she was the real life, so Gale would try to be positive and count her blessings.
Too bad at seemed like this was a dream of the past, she could go for a few rounds of a game or something, she was exhausted of making sense of the nothing and would wait, perhaps going to sleep in a dream would mean that she would wake up in real life, with luck before she ran out of time to finish her school work. She gave two steps and fell on the bed, with dress and all, making herself the most comfortable she could, looking slightly at the world outside the widow, it seemed so peaceful, almost as if there wasn't a war.
'If it were another case, I would love to live around here, with no war that is'
That was her last thoughts before drifting to a dreamless sleep.
Even with no dreams, the small girl could listen to small snippets of that strange reality. The voice of a man and a woman discussing with one another, someone laughing… or was it a cry?
Silence.
Gale opened her eyes with the grating of the door, rubbing her eyes to look upon the figure of a huge man entering the room, it was eerie for her, not the man itself, but that the man wouldn't make her fight or flight response kick in, she felt safe within the strange man's presence in her room, even if he was a stranger. The light was gone on the widows making her ask herself for how long she was even asleep for, probably missed dinner all together.
He was tall and burly, with the head starting to show signs of balding, but had a full funny mustache in the same caramel color as his hair, black eyes, his clothes seemed a little worm off, especially his sweater, but his black shoes seemed brand new, Gale could see the shadow of her aunt in the door, but she didn't dare enter the room.
'This must be Ronald – Father'
"Hey little Apple" he managed to mutter with calm and care, taking in consideration his daughter had just woken up, who was now coming to the realization that she was indeed, still in the dream world and not even in her bed.
"Good mo-night"
Ronald smiled at the correction of Gale, it would make it harder for him to do that, but it was his best shot, he knew what was going to happen, and that he already had missed one opportunity, Susan would not let him forget that, she had being the most insistent about sending her to study abroad early, he regretted not listening to her sooner, he thought he was going to be able to protect his daughter better, but now he could see the error of his ways, but not anymore.
"Apple, listen to me" He grabbed Gale's shoulders with urgency, looking her deep on the eyes "And I need you to listen very carefully to me, things… are not going great in this country, you already know this" he waited for Gale to nod before continuing "It seems… It really seems that they are going to launch a bomb here"
Aunt Susan decided that she had enough of eavesdropping around, or maybe she just didn't want to listen to what she already knew, turning her back on the door and walking away, her high hells making a distinct clicking sound in the deep silence that was in the house, most of the noises coming from outside in the deep of the night.
"We have to get you out of here, apple" Ronald said, taking some papers and a passport off his pockets and placing them onto Gale's hands "I have a friend that is willing to help us in getting you out of here"
"Hang on, me? What about you?" Gale protested, if she were to be in an unknown place, she rather be with people that were supposed to protect and help her. And yet her father continued to smile.
"Don't worry about me, you are the priority"
'Wow, if he was really my dad this would be pretty emotional for me right now… even if he is not, I can tell he is a good person'
"Pay attention, we are going to have to make some changes, the plane you are going to go, that I managed to squeeze you in, it's a plane for the sons of the militaries, like your dad is"
"Sons…"
"Yes, sons" He sighed
"The girl's plane already left two weeks ago" Aunt Susan came back, now spotting a pair of golden scissors, Gale did not need to be a genius to figure out what was going to happen next "when I told your father to let you go"
"Susan" Ronald growled
"It's the truth!"
Gale looked over the papers, they had everything on place, her full name, her age, date of birth, name of the parents, and of course, gender placed as male, and not female, it was a good thing her name was genderless. Taking the hand of her father on hers, she gave him a soft smile.
"It's ok daddy, I was tired of having long hair anyway" she spoke so softly and Ronald couldn't help but let his eyes be like plates and follow the impulse to hug his daughter very tightly while whispering to her that everything was going to be all right. Even though, Gale suspected that he was telling this more to himself than to her.
War being on it's way was a complicated thing, she had some idea of the entails of that, seem a lot of documentaries about the subject and even talking to her mother in the real world, but to feel and see how it affected people on the dream world was a totally different experience, she made note to be more grateful for her boring life once she woke up. Not wanting to waste more time, looking over at aunt Susan, Gale made her way out her dad's hug and onto the woman with the scissors.
"Please take care of my hair, if you want you could sell it"
Susan seemed to be fighting back tears, but kept the brave façade, making motion for the little girl to sit as she would get down to business.
It all happened away faster than it should, even though it served for at least one thing, once aunt Susan was done cutting her hair and was given her dad's old childhood clothes, she could see, despite the new hair cut (that was actually nice with her wavy hair), her appearance was the same as it was in the real world, down to the caramel color of her eyes, and since puberty didn't started yet, she could pass up as a boy.
Placing the final touch of a wine-colored beret over, even if it was night, it seemed like a nice idea, at least looked nice. Getting out of the bathroom, Gale could see her father and aunt closing a bag, hers, she assumed.
"Come on Gales" Ronald didn't waste time taking over Gale and getting into the car.
The ride until the airport was quiet, you could probably cut the tension over with a dull knife, looking outside, Gale had to give props for her imagination, this was probably the most detailed thing she even had created, from the look of a British town to the smells of a summer night, it was all very much on point.
As they grew closer to the base, less and less houses could be spotted, being replaced by large barracks and caserns, there weren't much people around, some guards doing scouting around, but not as many as Gale used to see.
'they must be in another place' she thought.
The car stopped next to a small hangar, there were another cars around there, most already making their way back out of the base, probably to look for a safe shelter or something.
Ronald was the first to get out, Gale following soon with Susan.
"Ah Captain Jaguar!" Ronald exclaimed, placing the bags in their respective place.
"Sargent Applebie, this is your champion I see" the man said, looking at Gale from head to toe, the girl was trying to look like a boy as much as she could by just standing up, she was not much sure if she was doing it right, but the Captain seemed satisfied. "Don't worry about it Ron, you sure know this is mostly just an emergency precaution over more than anything, they keep always babbling about starting something but I honestly doubt that they would actually send a nuclear bomb our way"
"I sure hope that you are right, Jaguar, I really do" Ronald said before getting on eye level with Gale, ignoring much of all that was around him. "Now please listen to Captain Jaguar, he is daddy's friend from the second division, when you arrive, your cousin Nela will be there to get you, and everything will be solved from there, don't worry about your old man" He smiled trying to reassure the girl – now a boy – and since he couldn't be affectionate now, the hug he gave her before would have to do.
The hand of the Captain was placed upon her shoulder, and she was guided to the stairs and up the plane she went.
For the looks of it, she seemed to be the last one to arrive, but no one was really paying that much attention to her, and for that Gale was thankful, the last thing she would need right now was someone to point out how she was doing a terrible job at trying to mix in, there was lone free line closer to the end, walking up there were a lot of faces, most of them were really young boys, younger than her at least, for her relief, hopefully none of them was going to cry in the middle of the flight, the last thing she needed was someone to keep on crying during all the time in the airship.
Examining her flight mates a little more, there were some that really popped out, in a sea of black, a group of boys, of different ages were talking, all dressed alike with dark barrettes and crosses, and, between those, one boy with hair red as fire popped out because of the colors. He seemed familiar somehow.
A murmur broke her stare before she was caught, turning her head over the voice of a chubby boy, he was cleaning rather franticly a pair of round spectacles while going on about something to no one in particular, Gale stared at the boy some more before a voice of the cabin called for everybody to seat and fasten their seatbelts, herring up, she tripped slightly over her feet, gaining a small chuckle from a boy with fair hair that tried to offer help but before he could, she was already seated and happily ignoring everything around her because her mind was erratic.
It had dawned on her.
"Bloody hell"
A.N So here you have it, I am pretty nervous as this is my first fanfic and even more my first one in english, I hope that if someone read this, leave a review, it would be nice to know what are you guys ideas on it!
