JACK THE KING (Lord of the Flies reimagined)

Part 23 - BRUTALITY

Jack and Dani had a sleepless night, too worked up about Ralph to sleep

''Are you sure it was Ralph who attacked you?'' Jack asked Dani at 6 am when the sun started to rise

''Yes, of course, he spoke to me and I saw his face'' she said, lying came to Dani surprisingly easily

''Did he..you know..did he hurt you?''

''He tried to but I fought him off and escaped''  

''Well it's unacceptable and Ralph will have to be dealt with''

As the other boys began to wake up breakfast was prepared. The boys took turns making breakfast for everyone. This morning it was Paul and Stephen's turn. Coffee was made by boiling some water on the fire and roasting coffee beans. It had been a few weeks since Dani had identified coffee bean trees growing on the island and everyone had been very excited and happy. It was boring to only drink water all the time.

As everyone sat down to eat and drink their coffee Jack made an announcement 

''Listen up, all of you, today we're going to catch Ralph and Simon and bring them here'' Jack declared ''I've been wanting to do that for a while now anyway, those two being free to roam around needs to end and they will be our prisoners. But especially now that Ralph attacked Dani they can no longer be allowed to roam free''

The others agreed ''they've been left to their own devices for way too long now'' Stephen said

''We just have to find out where they are and capture them'' Jack said

Roger smirked ''I know exactly where they will be'' he said confidently ''there is this cave they hang out in. it's covered by creepers and they think no one knows about it but Henry and I have known for months''

''And why did you keep it to yourself?'' Dani demanded ''Why did you not tell Jack and me?''

''Yes, boys this is a good point why didn't you tell us?'' Jack demanded

''Sir I'm sorry I didn't think you'd care. I should have told you Sir I'm sorry''

Jack stared at Roger and Henry for a moment, as if deciding whether to be angry or not. Eventually, he mellowed out ''Don't worry it's ok you've told us now and that's the important thing. We must go at once and capture them''  

''What punishment will Ralph get for attacking me?'' Dani demanded to know

''Erm, can we talk about this later? We need to get them into our custody first'' Jack said firmly ''let's catch them and then when we have them here we will decide how to punish Ralph''

Simon was alone in the cave while Ralph was off somewhere on his own. He had no idea where Ralph went and what he was doing but he often went away for hours at a time. Simon was busy with his squirrels, the  first babies had grown up and left and now there were more little ones 

It was so peaceful in the cave, Simon felt peaceful and happy and safe alone here with his squirrels. Then suddenly it wasn't peaceful anymore. Suddenly boys with painted faces were running into the cave yelling and screaming. Warriors with daggers and pigs' blood on their faces

Ralph was walking along the beach, at the spot where he first met Dani on that first day. It felt like such a long time ago now but could only have been a few months. How long exactly Ralph had no idea anymore. He had lost count of the days. He remembered finding the conch. For the first few days, the conch was used to call meetings and everyone would pass the conch around, whoever was holding the conch had the right to speak and be listened to. That had only lasted a few days literally before people stopped caring about the conch. But Simon still liked the conch, he kept it as a souvenir in the cave.