Chapter Twelve - Cry of the Hunters

I hid in the forest. I was right by the tribe. I watched them feast on the pig. I began walking through the forest towards the fruit trees. I got there and there were two littluns. When they saw me they screamed and ran. I couldn't be that beaten up, could I? After eating I continue into the forest. I came across a clearing and I see a pig skull on a tick. This must have been what had caused to much fear, it must be the creator of the beast. I knocked it down before continuing on. I go back to the forest near the tribe and watch. I saw that Sam and Eric have been forced to join the tribe. They were on watch duty, so I went to talk to them. I tried to convince them to leave the tribe, but they seem terrified of Jack and Roger. They end up giving me some meat and they tell me that Jack has a plan to hunt me the next day. Roger has sharpened a stick at both ends, like he did for that pig I found. Before leaving I tell them where I will be spending the night. I managed to sleep, but not much. When I woke up I could hear the tribe approaching. Sam and Eric must have told them where I was! Why would they do that? I thought they were on my side! I thought they were my friends! I ran and they chased me , but I managed to lose them. I ran for a long time. Eventually the savages try and smoke me out of the forest by setting the whole island on fire! What a group of idiots! They're destroying all our food, our shade. What will they do when they kill me? They'll have nothing left! I ran until I reached the beach, and what I saw made my heart stop. There before me was a naval officer, and out in the water was a ship! We've been rescued! As I sat and answered the officers questions, the others came running and screaming out of the forest. When they saw the officer, they fell silent. The officer laughed and asked if we were playing war, which I suppose we were. He asked if they're have been any casualties, to which I say yes. He looked stunned. I don't think anyone would ever think that a group of private school boys from England would ever turn into savages. I wept at that point. Everything hit me. Piggy and Simon were dead. I've had to grow up to become the chief. I am no longer a child, I am no longer innocent. The others joined and the officer turned away. I am going home, but to what?

Chapter Eleven - Castle Rock

I've been trying to get a fire going since forever. It's no use without Piggy's glasses. If he had only asked! I would have given them fire if they had asked, but they came to steal it in the middle of the night like a band of savages! I called a meeting and Piggy spoke. He was very upset about them stealing his glasses. We decided that we would go to Castle Rock with the conch and try to get his glasses back. Jack had to give them, they weren't his and he had no right to have them. I thought that we should maybe try and get ourselves cleaned up, look like how we used to. Clean our clothes, untangle our hair, but we didn't have time if we wanted to get Piggy's glasses before dark. I led the way to the tribe, Piggy followed behind me, and behind him came the twins. When we arrived at Castle Rock I blew the conch to assemble the savages. I asked for Jack but that said that he had gone hunting. Then I heard him behind me. I told him we came for Piggy's specs, but he didn't give them. I called him a thief and he ran at me with his spear. We fought for a while, but Piggy reminded me why we came. I addressed the tribe. I reminded them why we had built a fire in the first place, to be rescued, not to cook meat. Then Jack told his savages to take Sam and Eric and tie them up.  I was very mad then and I charged at Jack. We fought for a while again and again Piggy broke it up with words. He began speaking to the whole group. He says that they're acting like a bunch of kids and that they should grow up. Roger leaned on a tick which was propped under a huge bolder, which was just above Piggy. The rock was dislodged from its resting place and fell on Piggy. The conch was crushed, as was Piggy. The sea claimed his body as well. Jack and the others threw their spears at me, so I ran. I ran through the forest until I was exhausted, though I heard them retreat to the fort. I was alone, the tribe was out to get me and Piggy was gone. I was hopeless.

Chapter Ten - The Shell and the Glasses

Sam, Eric, Piggy and I are the only ones left except for a couple littluns. Everyone else has joined Jack's tribe of savages. I talked to Piggy about Simon's death, He says it wasn't our fault, that it was dark and we were scared, but it was. Piggy and I weren't really in the circle of murderers, we could see, we could have done something! We let them commit murder! And poor Simon! He didn't deserve this, he helped around more than the others, he was kind, he didn't deserve to die. Sure he was different from the rest of us, but he didn't have to die!  Sam and Eric came to talk as well. They said that they left the feast early. I lied and told them that we did too. I didn't want to be blamed for poor Simon's death. We got another fire going just before night. The fire was no longer just a way to signal passing ships, it kept away the darkness, though they are still not enough to keep it going. That night we were all sleeping in the same tent. Jack, Roger and Maurice came into our camp and attacked us. I got a few punches on one of them, but they ended up kneeing me in the groin. Piggy had run to protect the conch, but that was not what they were after. They stole Piggy's glasses. How on earth is he supposed to see now. It was bad enough that he had cracked one side, but now he's completely blind. And how are we supposed to start a fire? We could have shared the glasses! They didn't have to steal them from us! What are we supposed to do now?

Chapter Nine - A View to a Death

Piggy and I were at the bathing-pool just before the feast was to take place. Piggy is getting more and more confident, and I less. I was jokingly spraying water at him and he got mad, but unlike usual he yelled and splashed water back at me. We were the only biguns at camp, so we decided to check out Jack feast. When we arrived, everyone was silent. Piggy and I walked over to a palm tree, but before we could get there the boys cooking the fire charged at Piggy and pushed him over. Everyone laughed, and I joined in. Then Jack told his tribe to bring us meat. He called an assembly and everyone sat in rows before him. He asked who would join his tribe and most boys said they would join. There was a storm coming and Piggy thought there would danger. Jack ordered the tribe to do their dance and they all ran to the sand. Roger became the pig and they all chased after him. They chanted " Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!". Then a figure came from the woods. They all thought it was the beast and attacked. I could see it was no beast. It was Simon. He was screaming something about a dead man on the mountain and he took off running down the beach. The tribe of savages followed and tackled him. They stuck their spears into him until he lay motionless. The sea water rose and swallowed his body whole.

Chapter Eight - Gift for the Darkness

When we arrived back at camp, I talked to Piggy about what I saw. I don't think he really believed me when I told him we saw it, though he looked scared. Jack called a meeting. I wanted to talk first but Jack insisted. I had thought he was going to talk about the beast, but instead he said a lot of untrue and mean things about me. He told everyone that I was coward and that I thought they were too. He said that I didn't go up the mountain, which I did. He asked the others if they also thought that I shouldn't be chief. No one raised their hand. Jack was hurt that they all thought I was a better chief and ran off into the forest. Simon took he conch and proposed that we climb the mountain, which of course was stupid, what could we do about an enormous beast. Piggy then took the conch and said that we could just have a fire on the beach, that way there would be smoke and we wouldn't have to worry about the beast as much. After the fire was built I realized just how few biguns had stayed. As far as I knew, there was only Piggy, SamnEric and I left, the others had joined Jack. There's no way the four of us can keep a fire going, it's impossible! Jack came back to the camp and told us that he would be hosting a feast and that if we wanted we could join. He is the chief of the boys who decided to leave. After he left I saw that someone had stolen our fire. Him asking us to attend the feast must have been a distraction. I called a sort of assembly with the boys who remained. I wanted to remind them of the importance of fire and why we didn't join Jack, but the words did not as come easy as usual, Piggy had to help me get my point across. We decided that we would attend the feast, we wanted meat.

Chapter Seven - Shadows and Tall Trees

I followed Jack down the pig-run. We stopped to eat and I realised how filthy we all were. My hair has grown considerably and is full of knots and my teeth could go for a good brushing. Simon came and talked to me, he said he thought that I would get home all right, I don't know how he believes it anymore. We've been stuck on this island forever! Roger found some pig droppings, so I allowed them to hunt, so long as we were going in the right direction. As Jack was leading, I found time to daydream of my old life back in London. We had once lived in Devonport, in a small cottage. This was the last house I had lived in, before I was sent away to school. Mummy had been at home then and Daddy had come home every night. There were wild ponies that came to the fence and it had snowed there. I daydreamed about all my books and for a moment, everything seemed fine. But then the hunt brought me back to the island. The pig had been startled and had run through the creepers. The savages ran after it screaming and yelling. Then the pig was on the track again and he was headed straight for me. I threw my spear and hit him right in the snout! The pig changed direction and ran off into the woods. The hunt followed to a clearing, but the boar was nowhere to be seen. We started talking about the boar. Robert pretended to be the pig while the rest of us jabbed at him. At first I think it was fake pain, but by the end he was screaming in real terror and pain. The game ended before any harm came to him. I have to admit, the game went a bit far. We might have actually hurt him, or even killed him. This is what hunting does to you, it turns you from a civilised human into a savage beast. We then decided to go to the mountain, one boy going to tell Piggy that the rest would be back after dark. I led the way, we went through a pig run that Jack had previously explored. He was getting frustrated from not being in the lead anymore and started to challenge my authority as chief. He was making me so mad! I asked him why he hated me so much, there was no answer. We continued and when we were in sight of the mountain, I made the decision to go across to the platform and climb up tomorrow, but of course Jack thought I was scared. He said that I was scared to go up the mountain, but that he was going. We both ended up climbing the mountain, along with Roger. It makes me so mad when he says things like that! Of course I'm frightened of the beast! Any sane person would be. We climbed the mountain and when we came near the top, Jack went on alone. Roger and I sat on a log and waited for him to return. When he came back he was obviously shaken. He said he saw the beast, up on top of the mountain. I decided that it would be best if we all went up together. When we were near the place of the beast, we started to crawl. When we were about four yards away, I stood and went forwards, then there was a gust of wind and the beast lifted its huge head. I froze for a fraction of a second before running down the slope of the mountain at breakneck speed. The beast was real.

Chapter Six - Beast from Air

I was woken by the twins. It was early morning, just before the sun would rise. They had rushed into our tent and had tried to explain what they had seen but it was hard to follow as they took their turns speaking. They told us that they had gone up to the mountain to check the fire. They had put a bit extra wood in and they had seen the beast. It was on the mountain. At first I thought they were just playing around but then I heard it. It was a billowing sound from up he mountain. We waited in terror for the morning and when it came, I told the twins to call an assembly. I let them describe what they had seen to the others. Jack wanted to hunt it with the spindly little wooden spears that he made. It was a stupid idea, we had no idea how big it was, how strong it was, how fast it was. We knew nothing. Piggy voted that we all stay on the beach in the relative safety it held, which was also a ludicrous idea. How were we supposed to get food, what would happen to the fire and we would always have to be on the look out for the beast. I told Piggy that he would stay on the beach to look after the littluns, which he didn't seem to mind, though he did ask a reasonable question. What happens if the beast comes when they're gone hunting. What would he do if he got scared. At that point Jack broke in and told Piggy that he was always scared.Piggy tried to reason with him, said that he didn't have the conch. Jack then basically said that the conch was stupid and useless, which is completely wrong. The conch is all we have, it represents order and civilisation. If we didn't have the conch we would all turn into savages. All Jack wants to do is run off into the woods and hunt and kill. Doesn't anyone want to be rescued? And with the fire being on the mountain, and probably out by now, there is no chance of ever getting home. The fire is our only hope, if that burns out, were done for. At the end of the assembly we decided that we would check the one place Jack hadn't been, Castle Rock, and if we found nothing, then we would go to the mountain and relight the fire. When we set off, I let Jack lead the way. I'm quite tired of always being in charge. The responsibility of thinking for everyone is overwhelming and tiresome. The weight of all these boy's lives have been on my shoulders since the beginning, and it is a heavy burden. When we arrived at Castle Rock I made the others wait for me in the tall grass as I went to investigate the area. Before I got too far, Jack came up beside me. We explored the area and sat. He thought it would make a perfect place for a fort, which was completely unnecessary to our survival. Plus, there was no fresh water nearby nor any food. We were now at the top of the castle. The others saw us and came running up the path to where we were. I turned around for one minute and they all started pushing huge rocks into the ocean. What a wast of time! We should be walking back to the mountain to relight the fire, not wasting our time and energy! I yelled at them to stop it and reminded them of the fire and rescue. Still most of them wanted to stay and roll more rocks. I was getting really frustrated. Did they not want to go home, see their parents again? They were acting like little kids! They wanted to build a fort, for goodness sake. It took a lot of yelling and shouting but, eventually, they all followed Jack to the mountain, though they were obviously not happy about it.

Chapter Five - Beast from Water

I called an assembly. I wanted to talk about the water in the coco-nuts, the lavatory rocks, the shelters and the fire, but my main point was about the fear. Ever since that littlun asked about the beast everyone has been on edge. I talked about the first four topics on my list and I let the others decide on the fear. Jack said that there was no beast, but that if you're scared you should just deal with, while Piggy said that we shouldn't be scared, there's no beast so there's no reason to be scared, unless we start getting scared of people. One of the littluns stepped forwards and took the conch. He said that he had been dreaming about the creepers in the forest, but woke up. He was outside and he saw something horrid moving through the trees. Simon had been wandering around outside in the middle of the night! What a queer boy. I told him not to do it again, we had enough things scaring the littluns as it was. After the first littlun another was forced forwards. He would not say his name for a while and when he did, it  was his entire name plus his address. Then he started crying and the other littluns joined in until Maurice made them laugh. Jack then spoke against the rules, which would make my job as chief harder at the next assembly as the others will have noticed. He asked the littlun what he knew about the beast and the littlun said that it lived in the water.Most boys thought it was a stupid idea, but I could see it bothered them. Simon stood and took the conch. He hypothesized that maybe there was a beast, but it wasn't a real touchable living thing, but rather a beast that was inside the boys, in their head. I can't believe he would believe there was a beast, although he is quite strange. Then of course the others changed what he had said into ghosts. We had to vote as it was getting late so we voted whether or not there were ghosts. Some actually thought there might be ghosts! Piggy stole the conch from me and started saying how he didn't believe in no ghosts. Jack got mad and tried to take the conch. I got mad and tried to defend Piggy, Jack told me that I was a bad chief and that the rules were stupid. The rules are all we've got, if they're gone we're all doomed to become savages.Then they all ran off to dance and chant on the beach about how they would kill the beast if ever they found it. I sat in the assembly area with Simon and Piggy. I knew that if I blew the conch and they didn't come, that would be it, we would be cavemen for the rest of our lives. Piggy and Simon both think that I should continue being chief, but if they don't even listen to me what's the point? Piggy also says that Jack hates me. He says that he's jealous that I'm chief and he's not. I don't know if I believe him yet. If only there were grown-ups, they would know what to do, they would make sure the fire was lit at all times, they would make sure there was water and shelters and they would make sure everything was clean and proper. They would know how to get us home.

Chapter Four - Painted Faces and Long Hair

We have become used to the rise and set of the sun, though we are still finding it hard to adjust completely. There's a littlun, I think his name's Percival, who stayed in one of the shelters for two whole days, crying. He doesn't play with the other littluns much and cries often. The littluns are separate from the biguns. They eat fruit most of the day and have become accustomed to the diarrhoea and belly aches. They have nightmares every night so they sleep together for comfort. They play most of the day and are filthy as a result.  They built sand castles on the beach and played there often. There were three there now, Percival was one of them, the other two were Henry and Johnny. Roger and Maurice, two of the biguns, bullied them today. While the littluns were playing Roger and Maurice kicked down their sand castles and sand got into Percival's eyes. Roger then followed Henry down near the water and he started throwing rocks around him.When Henry turned around, Roger hid behind a tree. Jack was ten yards away, beckoning him. So he followed. When they stopped, there was a bunch of other biguns and they had different ingredients they were using to paint their faces. They were going hunting. A while later Piggy approached me. He proposed making a sun dial, what a stupid idea. I had been swimming and was laying down when I saw a ship on the horizon. A ship! I was so sure they would see our smoke...If we had any. I ran to the mountain and saw that there was no one there. Then I looked down the side of the mountain and saw a procession of boys carrying spears and a pig. Jack had his face painted and was grinning. I was beyond angry. Jack had taken the boys who were watching the fire on a hunting trip. I started yelling at Jack but Piggy interrupted me. Jack immediately punched him and broke his glasses. Now the most intelligent of the whole group has blurred vision. Again Piggy tried to yell at him but Jack pretended to rush at him so he ran and hid. Jack made fun of Piggy and then apologised to me for having let the fire out. I lit the fire again and Jack cooked the pig. Jack gave everyone a piece except for Piggy, so Simon gave him his and Jack gave Simon another piece. Then Maurice pretended to be the pig and the others pretended to kill him, just like savages. I then told them we were having an assembly immediately.

Chapter Three - Huts on the Beach

It has been a number of weeks...or months. I'm not sure. We've been here for so long I've lost count. Lately Jack has been obsessed with finding and killing pigs. He goes off into the woods all day and only comes back for food and water. He hasn't killed anything yet. Simon and I have been trying t o finish building the third hut by ourselves, but it's useless without help from the others. Most boys had helped with the first one and about half had helped build the second. I had also said that we should store water from the river in coco-nut shells so that we didn't have to walk through the forest to get a drink of water, and we had done that for about two days. After that, the boys got lazy and just walked to the river instead or didn't get water more than once a day. Jack and I fought today. He had just came out of the forest and I had complained that people would work hard for about five minutes before getting bored. They would wander off or hunting.Jack kept saying that we need meat and each time I would remind him that so far, we haven't gotten any. He got all red in the face and started yelling, saying that I was accusing him of something. Then I explained myself. I said that we needed shelters from the rain and from the beast that most boys think exists. We are all scared. Jack then said that when he's hunting he feels as if he's not the one hunting, but the one being hunted. We then started talking about being rescued and he looked out towards the ocean and said "I got it!". Of course I thought he meant he saw a ship, but obviously he was talking about the pigs. I got mad then and yelled at him. I work hard all day with Simon while wanders around the forest hunting pigs. We don't even need more food at the moment, we have all the fruit we can eat! We need shelter! He agreed to help for a bit but when we got back to the hut Simon was gone. Simon is a strange boy, he doesn't say much and he likes to be out in the forest alone. He spends a lot of time out there, only coming back around sunset.

Chapter Two - Fire on the Mountain

It was late afternoon when I called the second assembly. I told the others about what we found when we went on our expedition. I've made a few more rules, such as lifting your hand to speak and only speaking if you have the conch. Piggy raised a few concerns, mainly that no one knows where we are. I reassured everyone by reminding them that there was food and water and that even though we were stuck there we could still have a good time. Then a little boy with a weird mark on his face was forced forwards by the other littluns. He stuck his hands out for the conch and I couldn't help but laugh. Piggy stood up for him and asked me to give him the conch, so I did. He was even more shy now that we had all laughed at him, so Piggy sat next to him and told the assembly what he said. He asked what I was going to do about the snake-thing. Naturally I laughed, it was a stupid question. He then changed it to a beastie and said that it came from the woods. I tried to explain nicely that it wasn't possible to have a big snake or beast on an island this size, but he didn't seem to believe me. The others also seemed to start believing this impossible story. I had to do something so I told him he must have been dreaming or having a nightmare. He asked me what I was going to do about it and if it would come back that night. I was getting very frustrated so I started yelling that there wasn't a beast. Still the boy believed his story. He was getting quite exasperating. I yelled again but he didn't listen. Then Jack took the conch from the boy and said that there wasn't a beast but if there were he and his hunters would hunt it and kill it. How could they all believe this child's story? It was completely impossible! I knew I was defeated but I had to get my point across. I yelled again that there was no beast and everyone was silent. I still think they believe there is a beast. I then told them that we should make a fire, to help the ships see us. They all ran off ,like a band of savages, into the forest to collect wood and bring it to the mountain. Near the end of the day we had a huge pile of dead trees on top of the mountain, but there was a problem. We had no way to light  the fire. Then Piggy came up the mountain and Jack had the idea to use his glasses to set the wood on fire. We swarmed Piggy and Jack got his glasses. He handed them to me and I lit the fire. The fire was no good, it was too big and there wasn't any smoke. I decided that we would only have a small fire and put leaves on to make smoke if we saw a ship. I also decided that we needed people to watch over the fire so Jack volunteered some of the hunters for the job. We then talked about how there haven't been any ships yet and Piggy started yelling but stopped halfway through. While we had been arguing the wind had caught the fire and it was now ravaging the forest below. Then Piggy went on a tirade and said that we should have built shelters first not the fire and that we don't even know how many littluns there are. We looked around and couldn't find the boy with the mark on his face.

Chapter One - The Sound of the Shell

Hello,
it's Ralph typing. We just crashed on an island in the middle of nowhere. My private school was being evacuated due to the war and I guess the plane broke or maybe we were shot down, I don't know, but it looks like most of the boys have survived. The pilot is nowhere to be seen, so we can only assume he's dead. When I first found my way out of the scar, I met a boy named Piggy. I don't think that's his real name, but I think it suits him. Piggy is fat and wears glasses and he is somewhat annoying. Right near where we crashed, there is a lagoon. It was very hot, so I decided to go for a swim, and Piggy followed. I was looking through the water and I spotted something pink near the bottom. Piggy bent and picked it up. Piggy told me it was a conch shell and that if I blew in it, it would make a sound like a trumpet.I blew in it and at first it didn't work, but eventually I got the hang of it. The sound called all the other boys that were scattered around the island to the beach where I was. There was a group of boys all wearing black caps who were being led towards the rest of use by one boy in the front. It turned out to be the choir boys and their leader, Jack Merridew. Once everyone was gathered we all decided that we needed a chief, and the vote was between myself and Jack. I was chosen as chief. I don't think Jack was too happy about it. Jack kept insisting upon having hunters so I appointed him chief hunter. We also decided that we should try to see if what we thought was an island was actually an island. Jack, Simon and I went on an expedition to the mountain to get a clear view of the entire land. We found that it was in fact an island. On the way back we decided to take a short cut through the forest and we found a piglet stuck in some of those creeper things. Jack drew his knife but hesitated too long and the pig broke free. I think he was scared to kill it, he would be taking a life and that would change him forever.