𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘴𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥

𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘍𝘪𝘷𝘦

Audrey's POV:

Some of the littluns had fallen asleep in the sand while waiting for Jack, Ralph, and Simon to come back from their exploration. Piggy shook the small figures awake, causing them to stir sleepily. Even though it was only midday, they must've been tired from the previous events that have occurred.

Jack was the first to appear, followed closely by Ralph who was breathing quite heavily. Simon trailed along behind the fair boy, sweat glistening off their foreheads and drenching what was left of their clothes. Jack had removed his shirt completely, while Simon had only unbuttoned his. Ralph allowed the torn remains of his button up to fall loosely over his broad shoulders and thin frame.

"We're on an uninhabited island. We'll have to look after ourselves," he began, as he took a deep breath.

The silence grew heavy and smiles turned to frowns, any hope that had been left in the crowd seemed to fade away in an instant. The sudden realization hit all at once: we were alone. No adults, and far from any sort of civilization.

"But it's a good island," he stated, making a quick effort to cheer everybody up.

"There's lots of fruit and I'm quite positive there aren't any dangerous animals, so things aren't so bad. If we're sensible, if we do things properly, if we don't lose our heads, we'll be alright," Ralph consoled the group.

"But where will we sleep?" a littlun called out of turn, concerned at the thought of no longer having a bed to sleep in.

"We'll build shelters!" shouted another, hopefully.

"And another thing!" Ralph interrupted.

"We can't have everybody talking at the same time. We'll have to have hands up, like we did in school. Then I'll give him, or her, the conch," he finished.

"I agree with Ralph," Jack spoke up, searching for a sense of authority.

"We've got to have rules and obey them," he further explained.

"After all we're not savages, we're English and the English are best at everything! So we'll have lots of rules-"

He was cut off by the excited cheering and sounds of agreement from the group of school boys.

Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a figure begin to stand from behind the log, holding his hands out for the conch.

"Piggy!" the group began to chant, their harsh voices growing louder and piercing through the fat boy's fragile self esteem.

"Quiet!" he shouted desperately, looking to me as if he were asking for help. I noticed tears forming in the corner of his round eyes as he pulled the conch closer to him.

"Guys, Piggy has the conch!" I shouted over the group, instantly gaining surprised looks from each of the boys. A few more giggles were heard from the choir, then silence.

"You're not letting Ralph get to the most important thing," he said, trying to brush off the teasing of the other boys.

"Who knows we're here? Nobody knows we're here! Perhaps they knew where we were going to, perhaps not. But they don't know where we are now, cause we never got there," he stated with his usual matter of fact tone.

"We might stay here til' we die!" he shouted harshly, snapping us back into reality.

I noticeably jumped at the sudden outburst, the tone of his voice causing the horrible realization to sink in. Jack quickly looked to me, accidentally making eye contact as he did so. His eyes filled with concern, which quickly turned to embarrassment as I stared back at him. I noticed his freckles grow less evident on his defined face, pink replacing the color across his cheeks and nose. I offered him a small smile, in which he returned. The boy looked away, content knowing I was relaxed.