The woods on the island held special powers. The power to thrill, the power to terrify, the power to escape and daydream among peace and nature. The woods thrilled Jack, this was a place where he would be as wild as he liked and hunt and be a warrior. The woods scared the smaller boys, or ''littluns'' as they had been nicknamed. The littluns were convinced that there was a beast or ''beastie'' in the woods. At night, or that twilight period between day and night, the woods looked spooky. The trees make strange and creepy shapes, like snakes stretching up into the sky. But for Simon the woods were neither scary nor thrilling, they were a peaceful place where he would be alone with his thought and enjoy nature. He found lizards, squirrels, and other animals and he tamed them and talked to them.
During the morning assembly, where the group could discuss any issues they had and chores would be assigned, Jack declared his intention to hunt again that day
''Listen Jack you hunt way too often, do you want the pigs to go extinct?'' Ralph said to him ''anyway Jack it's your turn to guard the fire today''
''Are you fucking kidding me?'' Jack said with fury ''you want me to waste time guarding that stupid fire?''
''Yes I do, it's your turn now, everyone has to do their fair share of the different duties''
''Look I am a hunter ok, this is all I care about. I have no time to guard some wretched fire. Get the littluns to do extra shifts, they never do sod all around here anyway''
Ralph was ready to lay down the law now ''Jack it's an order, today you will guard the fire. If you want to argue and disobey you'll have to be punished. I'm sorry so far I have held off from giving punishments but I will if I have to''
There was a very tense few seconds while Jack and Ralph stared at each other. Jack was used to being the one giving the punishment, not the one being threatened with it
''And what punishment will I get then if I disobey?'' Jack said at last
''I'm not sure yet, I haven't given proper thought to punishments but you can be sure I'll come up with something''
''Jack you know guarding the fire might not be so bad'' Dani said ''Today I will be on fire duty with you''
Jack perked up at once ''Really?'' he said ''In that case, I'll be only too happy to keep a lady company''
''So is that settled at last?'' Ralph asked ''you will obey me and do your duty?''
''Yes Sir'' Jack said ''I will guard your fire like a good boy''
''I don't know why you need to be so difficult about everything'' Piggy said, giving Jack a look of disapproval ''you do it on purpose just to wind Ralph up. My Auntie would have given you a damn good spanking by now''
''Shut up about your wretched Auntie'' Jack said ''In fact, Piggy, just shut up before I cut your tongue out!''
Piggy was outraged ''Ralph are you going to let Jack Merridew talk to me like that?'' he whined
Ralph was impatient now
''Guys I don't have time for any more of this'' he said sternly ''we need to start getting on with today's tasks. I want to end the assembly now unless anyone else wants to say something?''
One of the littluns, a timid boy called Paul, put his hand up and Jack immediately rolled his eyes
''Oh here we go more whining from the little baby boys'' Jack muttered
''Go ahead, what do you want to say, Paul?'' Ralph said kindly, doing his best to ignore Jack and not lose his temper
''What about the beastie?'' Paul said, in tears ''We heard it again last night, howling in the darkness. We were so scared''
YOU ARE READING
JACK THE KING (Lord of the Flies reimagined)
General FictionThe Lord of the Flies is a very famous novel by William Golding, first published in 1954. Since then it has been studied by millions of school pupils, including myself. In this story I will write a reimagining of the story, using most of the same ch...
