Lady of the Snakes

Chapter 9

As the group moved on, leaving behind only Samneric to keep the fire going, they were completely ignorant of what was happening in the sky above them.

Walter Vogel, 27th Air Division of the Third Reich, was having trouble with his plane. His thruster was entirely broken and nothing he was trying was working. I'd like to get ahold of the mechanic who looked at this before I left. Under heavy fire from the other planes, he could do nothing but watch as Paul, Frederich, Henry....all were blasted to bits. His was the last plane left. He fired ten shots at the other plane, taking careful aim.

Then he had to act quickly. Pulling the parachute out of the emergency box, he strapped himself in, pulled his helmet on securely, opened the hatch, and jumped.

He was hit with bullets from the other planes, the pilots of which could not see his falling body. By the time Walter Vogel hit the beach of the island, he was dead.

The wind carried his parachute up, but when his body hit the rock that Jack had kicked down the mountain, it stopped. There it waited for the next person to come along.

........

Nora blinked. It was very early in the morning, and everyone else was asleep. Laying back down, she tried to go back to sleep, but, finding this impossible, she carefully crept out of the shelter and stood in the sand.

Glancing at her arm, she saw scratches from plants with dried blood on them, dirt, mud, sand....

Wish I could take a bath. She'd avoided taking one, even a dip with clothes on, so as to avoid another Maurice incident. But no one was awake, and she knew of a tide pool on the other side of the island, should there be any early risers.

Setting off for this, she glanced in the doors of the boy's shelters. Ralph had his arm flung over his face, and Jack was sleeping on his stomach like a baby. Not so very impressive when they're sleeping, she thought.

The tide pool was about five feet deep. Nora put her clothes on the edge and jumped in. She had never been so happy to take a bath in her life.

When she was clean, she got out and dried herself with her sweater, which was acting as a towel. Comfortable and clean, Nora turned around glanced at the mountain, expecting early-morning beauty.

She screamed. It was involuntary, she was not the type to scream, but the figure sitting in front of her was so gruesome that to scream in horror was the natural reaction. Making herself look a little closer, Nora found she could make out human features in the disfigured face. A card lay by his arm. She gingerly picked it up.

Nora could make out the name Walter Vogel, with a picture of a happy-looking man with blonde hair and dark eyes, but the rest of the words were in German. A German pilot! She dropped the card and stood back. Looking at the pilot's bullet-riddled body, she couldn't muster up a feeling of hate for her supposed enemy.

........

Ralph dreamed of school. But instead of desks, all the masters had pigs, who kept on eating their papers. Then the pigs all turned into one pig, which screamed.....

Ralph sat up, breathing hard. He poked Simon. "Didja hear that?"

"Yes." Simon sat up too. All around them were sleeping boys, snoring, in various weird positions.

"Where'd it come from?" Ralph whispered.

"Down the beach. Be careful, Ralph." Simon lay back down, but didn't close his eyes.

Ralph stepped carefully over still bodies, then out the opening of the shelter. Down the beach he ran, jumping over rocks and plants in his urgency to find out who had screamed and why.

There was the side of the mountain. Nora was standing there, staring at something. She turned to him. "Nora?" He panted. "What happened?"

"Ralph, don't look to the mountain just yet. Keep your eyes on me." Nora cautioned. "Look when I tell you. Just be ready."

Of course, as soon as she told him not look, Ralph looked. "Bloody hell!" He fell backwards onto the sand.

"I did warn you." Nora helped him up.

"Whoa." Ralph pushed his hand through his fair hair. "What is it?"

"Look." Nora showed him the card.

"Walter Vogel, 27th Air Division of the Third Reich." Ralph read.

Nora blinked. "How did you-"

"They made us take German in school." Ralph said distractedly. "Should we tell the others?"

Nora remembered a moment when, two days ago, she had overheard Jack telling Roger that he couldn't wait to get to war, that if he met any Germans he would kill them on sight. She looked at the poor pilot's face, then at Ralph. "No..." they said slowly, at the same time.

"Jack-" Ralph began.

"Ssh." She held a finger up. "You hear that?"

There were more footsteps, and some yelling. "Go meet them." Ralph told her. "I need to find something to cover him up with."

Nora ran to see who it was. Jack and Roger were walking quickly down the beach, yelling.

"Where'd you two go?" Jack looked at her.

Roger smirked. "More like, what have they been doing?"

Nora felt her fists curl. She shook them out. Keep your temper. He's an idiot, and he doesn't know what he's talking about. Ralph ran up to her.

"I, uh, fixed the problem," he said.

Nora's eyes said that she was curious how he had done that, but she had other problems to deal with. "Then we should get back. Come along, you two." She imperiously beckoned Roger and Jack along, and they began to walk back.

"So." Roger said again, walking quickly. "What was so important that you and Nora just had to go rushing off together this early?"

Ralph could tell that Nora didn't like this remark. He didn't either, knowing what Roger was implying. But now he was going to have to lie, and he hated this. Ralph was a terrible liar. Lying is a skilled art. For one thing, you have to almost believe what you were saying. For another thing, you have to be able to look the person in the eye and lie to them without blinking. And all this takes practice and time. Ralph was fair. He extremely disliked cheaters and people of that sort, but here he was, finding himself one of them.

"Is that a shark?" Nora shrieked, pointing out into the ocean. It was, and thus distracted the other boys enough for them to drop the inquiry. Ralph mouthed Thank you to Nora. She mouthed, From now on, let me do the lying. Nora smiled, then said out loud, "Oh, look! We're back!" Both times she had used a high falsetto voice that Ralph thought was totally unlike her.

Another week passed by, days running into each other with sameness. However, events coming that would change the fate of all on the island.