JACK THE KING (Lord of the Flies reimagined)

Part 21 - A SIX MONTH PENALTY

It was a close shave but somehow Maurice had managed to avoid plunging to his death by grabbing onto a small ledge near the top of the cliff. He screamed for his life and Jack and some of the other boys arrived and pulled him to safety

''Maurice what the hell happened?'' Jack asked with surprise

''I was pushed!'' Maurice cried, still very shaky ''Someone tried to murder me!''

''Oh, nonsense!'' Roger said with a smirk ''be honest you muppet, you tripped and fell and you feel so embarrassed that now you want to pretend someone pushed you''

''No someone pushed me I swear!'' Maurice was crazy now ''Whoever it was I did not see them they came up behind me and they gave me one hard shove and over I went!''

''Well, I still say this is complete bullshit!'' Roger said firmly

''And I say shut up jerk before I shut you up myself!'' Maurice said angrily

''Look you two stop this now'' Jack said, annoyed ''Listen, Maurice, if you can't even tell us who pushed you then what do you expect anyone to do about it anyway?''

''Can't we even investigate at all? I mean to say don't you think it's serious that someone attempted to murder me?''

Jack suddenly grabbed Maurice and  pushed him toward the edge again

''MAN YOU CRAZY! LET ME GO!'' Maurice screamed, terrified now

''Roger and Henry told me what you and your four friends were planning'' Jack said getting up close to Maurice with a snarl on his face ''Maybe I should finish what the unknown assailant started?''

''You wouldn't dare?''

''Wouldn't I? why not?''

''Because if you murder me the other boys might start to doubt their own safety around you. You might face a revolt and you won't win against all of the boys''

''Ok you might have a point, in that case, I'm throwing you in the punishment put for 6 months''

Maurice became visibly terrified and upset and started to cry ''Please man not the fucking punishment pit for 6 months it will kill me, man''

''Oh don't worry you won't be lonely'' Roger said with a sadistic grin ''your four buddies Ryan, Liam, Craig, and Darren are already down there waiting for you to join them!''

Maurice was dragged back to the camp and to the mouth of the punishment put, he looked down and saw the other four boys down below in the darkness and the stink, they were all stuck together like sardines in a tin, it was a miserable sight of four boys suffering a wretched punishment

''6 months for all five of you!'' Jack said

''This is insane'' Maurice whined ''this is like just pure torture, there is barely room for 2 boys down there and five is really too many and you know it''

''Well, maybe this will teach you, boys, not to try and plot against me again. Maurice, I promise you I can make your life absolute hell to the point you will not only wish you had fallen today you might even throw yourself off the cliff one day. Alternatively learning to behave and stop trying to fight me might make your life easier one day''

And with that Maurice was thrown into the pit of punishment to join his four friends for 6 months of terrible suffering

But Jack was not the one who took the most delight out of seeing Maurice punished. Roger and, the increasingly tougher and harsher, Jason took even more pleasure.

After a couple of days, it was unbearable for the five boys in the pit

''Oh let us out. please let us out'' they begged, weeping and kneeling

''Oh don't worry only another five months and 28 days to go boys!'' Jack told them cheerfully and threw some watermelons down for them ''Plenty of time to think about your badness boys!''

''I can't stand this!'' poor Darren said after 3 days ''I am going mental down here''

''Yeah well, it's not fun for any of us is it!'' Craig said bitterly

''None of us should be down here apart from you Maurice'' an angry Ryan said

''Oh, and how did you figure that out then?'' Maurice demanded

''You talked us into joining you against Jack it was all your idea'' Ryan said ''Now thanks to you all five of us are being punished!''

''Yeah, Ryan's right it is your fault!'' Liam said

''No, you all wanted to be involved, I didn't force any of you. We're all in this together no point putting all the blame on me''

''Yeah yeah whatever you say'' Craig said

''Listen boys'' Maurice continued ''You don't want to start turning on me. Remember we were united against Jack's regime and look how right we were, that dude is out of control. We need to stick together and when we get out of here we need to carry on with our plan to take him down. We will trick him by pretending to be sorry and seeing the error of our ways, we will be extra cooperative with him and secretly we'll be planning to carry on with our plan to overthrow him. Only next time we won't let Roger and Henry or any of the others overhear, we have to be very careful from now on''

The others started to soften toward Maurice

''Well maybe you're right'' Craig said ''I still hate Roger too and I still want to fix him, he took so much delight in chucking us all down here''

''Exactly and someone tried to kill me'' Maurice continued ''I am not going to ignore that even if Jack is. When I take over as the king I will punish every single boy unless the culprit owns up''