Chapter 1
Evacuation
Disclaimer: Idonotownralphjackrogersimonsamnericpiggyoranyothercharactersascreatedbywilliamgoldingialsodonothaveanythingtodowiththebooklordofthefliesexceptforwritinginanefanfictiononit!
(GASPS) GIVE ME OXYGEN! OXYGEN!
A/N: I was in school this morning and I was telling my non-lotf orientated friend about the storyline... I said, "They all became savages," and she thought I said "They all became SANDWICHES!" Lol... Then I had her guess how Simon died and she said stuff like "Eaten by a pig" and "Died of lung cancer". ANYWAY... this friend's nickname I gave her is Sam as she looks exactly like another girl in the class (they're not twins though). I call another of my friends Simon-cause she's so innocent!
On the topic of sandwiches, here is my list of sandwiches I THINK correspond to lotf characters...
Jack: Tomato sandwich
Ralph: Cheese sandwich
Piggy: Ham sandwich (for obvious reasons)
Samneric: Cucumber sandwich
Roger: Steak sandwich
Simon: Egg sandwich
Very random I know...
Kitty took to school life like a duck to water. Quick to make friends, she sailed through her first term at Ripon. She was fast at lessons, and found the schoolwork simple. She also made her mark in the school lacrosse team, being agile and good at catching. She got on well with the rest of her form, especially with two girls named Sarah and Michelle, who became her special friends.
However, it was an idyll that could not last. Far away, on the other side of the earth, forces had been set in motion that none, save few could control. The ugly threat of war stretched its tentacles from a country far to the North and enveloped the rest of the world, finally settling on the British Isles, and so into Kitty's life.
The morning the order came was a Monday, grey and cloudy as if the sky itself was aware of the deplorable circumstances the world had snared itself in. Kitty and Sarah stopped by the post-racks on the way to morning prayers-Kitty had a letter from Donny, whose absymal spelling always made her laugh.
"Come on, Kitty!" Sarah urged, tugging her friend's sleeve. "We're going to be late if you don't hurry!"
Kitty, who had been opening Donny's letter, stuffed it into her pocket to read at leisure.
The hallways were thronged with people wearing identical school uniforms, as they made their way from the breakfast-hall towards the chapel. Kitty no longer had the sense of melting into a crowd-she had become used to the hustle and bustle of school life. She no longer wondered why she had been sent away, but she was soon to find out.
The chapel was a small building, and its only ornate feature was the magnificent stained-glass windows that dominated the honey-coloured wooden walls. Each window had been a labour of love as well as skill. Every panel of glass had been carefully and lovingly cut and painted to depict scenes from the different chapters of the Bible. A pulpit dominated the front of the room. It was carved with the likeness of a swooping eagle and it was from here that the pastor would give his sermon.
The chapel was Kitty's favourite place in the school. She loved it from the cool flagstones of the floor to the high, vaulted ceiling. She always felt relaxed there. The chapel had an aura of peace, as if the countless services that been held there had somehow seeped into the panelled walls.
There was no distinction between boys and girls, so they could sit where they liked, provided that they stayed with their form. Kitty found herself seated between Sarah and a boy from her form called Peter. The service proceeded as usual. Hymns were sung and prayers were said, and the pastor read out a few verses from the Bible.
The last few notes from the closing hymn died away. A rumble of chatter permeated the mass of students as they stood to return to their classes.
"Wait a minute, boys and girls!"
The school's headteacher, Mrs. Evans, had taken the pulpit. She was a middle-aged woman with a few streaks of grey in her brown hair. Her gentle but firm temperament had earned her the respect of all the students and teachers, and most lately Kitty herself.
"I am sorry to keep you from your classes, but I have an important announcement to make. It concerns an evacuation order."
The rumble escalated.
"The government has decided that, because of the increasing threat from Russia's nuclear policy, it would be wise to evacuate as much of Britain's youth as is possible. It is only a precautionary measure, so there is no cause to panic. All of you shall be evacuated to either New Zealand or Australia, two of Britain's colonies in the Pacific region. Nuclear fallout migrates only slowly around the Equator, so if-and only if there is cause for alarm, you will be safe."
One of the youngest children had started to sob. Next to her, Kitty heard Peter whisper, "Holocaust!"
They were in the front row, and Mrs Evans heard Peter's panicked whisper. "I repeat, there is no cause for alarm. You should all be back home soon."
There was no conviction in her voice, and with a jolt of pure, cold fear running down her spine, Kitty realised that Mrs Evans didn't really believe what she was saying.
The evacuation order was chalked on a large board that was placed in the corridor, where all the students would pass on the way to their various classes. Sarah and Kitty stopped by the board to check their flight, and realised that they would not be evacuated together. Kitty's group consisted of part of the first form, combined with a group from the second. Apparently, several schools were going to be evacuated together, so apart from the two forms from Ripon, Kitty would be evacuated with children from other schools, like Bishop Wordsworth's School for Boys. She was one of the few girls on the flight-the other schools were all boys' schools. The evacuees were only allowed one suitcase to take with them, and its contents had been carefully stipulated by the school.
So this was why Mother sent me away, Kitty thought. Because of the war. Donny's smiling face, followed by her mother's lined, gentle one, flashed into her mind. It was then that she realised that, if the fear in Mrs Evans' eyes had a foundation, she might never see either of them again.
The first impression Kitty had of the airport was of blinding lights, huge machines and thunderous noise. It was a cold, early winter morning, so it wasn't likely to get light anytime soon, and the cloudy darkness added to Kitty's sense of uneasiness. The chartered coach pulled to a halt, and the students began to file out, clutching their single suitcases, with none of their usual chatter. The eerie atmosphere was heightened by the damp, winter fog that clung to the ground.
The only human voices in all the silent airport were a group of men. They carried megaphones, which they were shouting into. Now and again, one of the megaphones would malfunction, causing a parrot-like cacophony to blare out over the airport. Its bearer, maybe with a grimace of irritation, would fiddle his contraption back to working order, more often than not elicting a burst of static.
"Group 1b, New Zealand Flight 2, over here please! Group 1c, New Zealand Flight 3, to my right!"
Kitty listened with not so much as a pretence of interest, her eyes fixed on the ground.
"Group 2a, Australia Flight 1, in this plane, please!"
Kitty slowly detached herself from the throng of students and dragged her feet over to the aeroplane indicated. On any other occasion, she would have been overwhelmed by the complex grandiosity of the massive flying machine, but today she was past caring. Other children were thronging around her, many different school uniforms blending into the colourless winter morning. Numbly, Kitty climbed the rickety metal steps leading up into the belly of the aircraft. Her suitcase seemed unusually heavy at the end of her arm and it bumped against her leg with a dull rhythm.
Suddenly, Kitty was stricken with a realisation. I haven't read Donny's letter! She groped futilely in the pocket of her skirt for a letter she knew wasn't there, but was in the pocket of her other skirt where she had put it an eternity ago. Now she would never read it, never know what her brother had had to say to her when he had written. Donald would be waiting for a reply, unknowing that his letter had never been read, hadn't even been opened.
The inside of the plane was awash with the constant vibrations of the plane's engines. Kitty made her way to a seat situated by the window, fairly near to the cockpit. After hoisting her suitcase onto the overhead baggage rack, she sat down and stared morosely out of the window. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw that the passengers seemed to have stopped entering the plane and that one of the men with the megaphones had come in and was doing a quick headcount before takeoff.
She couldn't have cared less. Even though it was morning and the first pale streaks of dawn were beginning to show to the east, Kitty's eyelids felt as if they were weighed down with lead. Slowly, they closed. Kitty was asleep.
She was awoken by voices, speaking at close quarters. They sounded hushed, worried. Kitty blearily opened her eyes and realised that the voices were coming from the seat in front. Peering through the divide in the two seats, Kitty saw the man with the megaphone and the copilot, deep in conversation. Craning her neck forward, the girl tried to listen unobtrusively.
"So it's happened, then?" Kitty recognised this voice - only she had last heard it blaring out over a silent airfield. "You absolutely sure?"
"Yes. The call just came through on our radio."
There was a pause, a rustle of clothing. Kitty risked looking over the back of the seat; the man with the megaphone had buried his head in his hands. His voice, when he spoke, was muffled.
"Oh, God."
The copilot patted him on the shoulder. "We all knew it would happen someday. Russia was going too far with her nuclear policy to hold back. Just be thankful you're one of the lucky ones."
"What about the children? Should they be told? I mean -"
"They have a right to know. Only we can't break the news now. We're still shocked, and we need time to settle down. In time. In time we'll tell them."
Kitty withdrew. She had heard enough. She didn't know, if she listened further, where the conversation would go, only she could guess. And she didn't want to know for sure.
Outside the window stormclouds were gathering. The setting sun spilled and stained them with red. Kitty noted dispassionately that she had slept for nearly a whole day. She felt drained; incapable of emotion.
A violent jolt shook the plane, causing Kitty to crack her head against the window glass. The pain helped to shake off most of her despondency; it was still there, but pushed into a hard knot in the back of her heart for later. She strained against her tight seat belt, trying to get a glimpse of the cause of the bump. Around her, children were chattering. There were a few screams and belated bursts of hysterical laughter.
The next jolt was even more powerful, shaking the plane like a dog shakes a rat. The cries escalated. The man with the megaphone was on his feet, urging them to remain calm. He had forsaken his megaphone, so his voice echoed thinly into pandemonium. Kitty looked around the plane, panicked, and caught a glimpse of the wing of the plane through the window. A steady stream of flames was arcing into the surrounding air. The general panic rocketed as more and more children looked out of the window. The plane was wallowing steadily, losing height with every passing second. A sharp drop and the perspective changed. Kitty found that she was looking down onto grey, storm-lashed sea.
The man with the megaphone shouted something about jettisoning the passenger tube, but no one heard. No one was listening. The man swore and struggled along to the cockpit, closely followed by the copilot. Next second, Kitty was turning over and over in the air, the screams and yells of the other children echoing in her ears. Struggling, Kitty managed to rip her seatbelt off as the passenger tube crashed through a layer of green foliage, throwing her across the width of the tube to slam, side-on, into the opposite bank of seats.
A rent had opened up in the side of the tube. Stinging rainwater surged through the hole, getting into Kitty's eyes and blinding her. The passenger tube was still moving, crashing through the jungle. All around Kitty were shouts, screams and flailing limbs as people tried to keep their balance in the jolting passenger tube. It was moving swiftly, crashing down a steep incline, and Kitty reaslised, with a sick stab of fear, that they were being dragged out to sea by the storm. Visions of grey seawater rushing into the gap in the side of the tube and over her swamped her mind, followed by a choking sensation as if salt water was filling her nose and mouth, drowning her.
Kitty heard a strangled cry and realised it originated from her own throat. Forcing her clamped jaws open, she shouted, "Get out of the plane!"
Her voice sounded strange; it was lost in the pandemonium. Sobbing for breath, the girl struggled across the packed plane, doing unheeding violence to the children who were scrabbling on the floor and the seats. People were screaming and a few small boys were crying. As Kitty fought her way across the packed plane, she noticed a very little boy, curled up in one of the window seats, his knees drawn up to his chest, a staring, glassy look in his eyes. He was obviously too scared to move.
Grabbing his wrist, not caring how rough she was, Kitty dragged him bodily out of the seat, at the same time shouting in his ear in order to snap him out of his listlessness. The boy did not complain at the rough treatment, but hung limply from her grasp. Panting, straining at the dead weight, Kitty struggled across the aisle.
The plane jolted violently, sending most of the children flying. The boy's wrist was wrenched out of Kitty's grasp. She felt her nails tear his skin as he spun out of sight, sliding under a seat.
Despairing, knowing that she had run out of time, Kitty looked around desperately, trying to get her bearings. The bump had disorientated her, and she felt dizzy and sick.
A gust of cold wind and stinging rain to her right told her the relative position of the rent. The jolt had thrown her further than she had expected. Outside, the jungle was rushing by fast, leaves and branches whipping past the hole and striping anyone near. Kitty looked at the dizzying rush and felt nausea rise in her throat.
This is no time for teetering on the edge. Jump. Jump. Jump or die.
Kitty jumped.
She had managed to wrap her arms round her head to shield it from the whipping branches, but even so Kitty could feel them beating her mercilessly as she fell through the air. The short fall seemed to take eternity. She could feel the driving rain lashing her body, forcing her down.
The impact drove the breath out of her lungs, crashing her into thick, soft forest loam. Then she was rolling, unable to balance on the steep incline, soil and mulch flying up around her as she fought to keep it out of her eyes, scrabbling for something, anything to anchor herself and halt her breakneck flight. Then the inevitable crash came, and Kitty was driven up against something large and solid - a tree? An outcropping of rock? - with such force that the girl slumped to the earth, stunned, on the brink of unconsciousness. All around her were the mysterious night - sounds of the jungle, assailing her ears with such relentlessness that Kitty's pain - addled brain cried out in protestation. Everywhere was cloaked in velvety darkness that blindfolded her utterly and completely. Kitty's fingers probed the solid object that she was backed up against, the tiny movement sending fireworks of pain to her mind. Her fingertips scraped rough bark.
Kitty was lying at the base of a gargantuan tree, amidst its tangled roots. Slowly, painfully, the girl levered herself into a sitting position, pulling her knees up to her chest. Resting her aching head on her knees, Kitty allowed darkness to claim her. The sounds of the jungle faded and died.
She didn't know what had happened to the other children.
YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Finally the chapter is finished!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Haha, Kitty is angry with me now, as I left her in suspended animation for WEEKS, due to exams. Which I am glad to say I passed, and passed well :) Sam told me to split the author's note and the end of the chapter, as she said the YAY spoilt the mood. I have tried to remedy this with line breaks.
N.B. Bishop Wordsworth's School for Boys in Salisbury, in England is the very school that Golding taught at when he wrote Lord of the Flies and the Salisbury Cathredal Choir is the choir in which Jack was chapter chorister. Presumably, he also was one of the older boys in the school as it is stated that he was "head boy".
N.B. 2: I just realised that during the journey they'd have had to stop for refuelling. But I didn't write any of that. I think that it detracts from the pace of the story and I also don't want Kitty to get the chance to meet the other boys. Sorry about the inaccuracy :)