Lady of the Flies (An adaption of Lord of the Flies)

Charlie spat out the last of the seawater as she crawled onto the beach. She looked behind her back, noting the empty water that stretched to the horizon, unbroken except for the monotonous waves.

As she had been the first one to jump from the plane, she was probably the only one who had landed in the water.

She’d landed close enough to the shallows that she’d been able to swim ashore – perhaps some of the others had made it out of the plane crash as well, making it to the single jagged spire in the vast ocean around it.

Charlie glanced up at the volcano near the center of the island. She’d been able to catch a glimpse of the landform as she flew the distance from the plane to the water from the wheezing aircraft.

Wandering towards the tree line, she caught sight of a flash of white. Jumping behind a tree, she watched the progress of another girl her age with only a partial amount of recognition.

Flaxen hair cropped closely around a mousy face accentuated the repetitive roundness of the facial features. Large round spectacles hid misty blue eyes that widened in surprise at the sight of footprints in the sand.

She squinted into the woods, shading her face with an upturned hand and calling out to the observer in the greenery.

Dappled shadows scurried across Charlie’s body as she stepped out from behind her lookout spot. She smiled slightly as recognition finally set in.

“Marli!” she called, striding out to meet her.

“Charlotte!” the odd nickname Charlie had chosen for herself was forgotten in a squeal of pleasure as Marli’s overenthusiastic greeting washed over her.

“Have you seen any of the others?” Marli waiting in silent expectation, her eyes wide in anticipation.

“I just came in with the tide.” Charlie explained ruefully. “You’re the fist person I’ve seen so far. Do you know how we can signal them if they’re okay and somewhere on this island?”

Marli shrugged her shoulders and sat in the sand. After casting an annoyed glance in her direction, Charlie looked to the left and right, taking in the seeming paradise with a curious eye.

A break in the shoreline drew her attention. She hauled Marli up and started towards it, ignoring the sound of complaint that escaped the girl’s mouth.

However, Marli’s discomfort was soon forgotten as she spotted the pool of water sheltered by rocks and a bit of lazy forest cover.

She rushed forward, her attention caught by something near the edge of the pool, pouncing on a smooth, glossy object.

Charlie looked on in mild amusement as the girl began to splutter into it and then drop it as the initial excitement died away.

She glanced at her audience and granted a half-hearted grin at her own expense, attempting to explain her strange behaviour.

“It worked in the book I read…” she began to explain. Charlie grinned in expectation of an explanation for this strange behaviour. When none was forthcoming, she raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

Marli sighed and continued: “I read in some book or another about a shell like this. It’s called a conch and people spit in it to make a really loud blaring noise.”

She dipped her toes in the pool, her eyes rolling upwards in pleasure at the warmth granted by the sun to the water.

Charlie picked up the conch. The silky smoothness of the surface surprised her, and she looked closer only to be mesmerized by the wavy lines, entranced with their twisting pattern.