Chapter 8 Journal Entry (Ralph)

Chapter 8: Two Tribes

The trumpet like sound of the conch roared in my ears as Jack blew into it. The boys of all sizes ran to were they heard the sound coming from and sat down to hear what this unexpected meeting was about. Jack beckoned for me to stand by his side and so I walked across the grass to where he stood, surrounded by the crowd of young boys.
“What are you doing Jack?” I asked, loud enough for all to hear.
“I have called a meeting!” Jack stood confidently beside me like the strong prefect he is.
I decided I should listen to what he could possibly want this time and quieted.
“Hmm, I-,” Jack paused and pointed at me with a now demoniac face. “He is a coward. All he cares for is getting off this island rather than surviving on it! He doesn’t want us to get meat and, and he called us hunters useless!” There was a gasp from the hunters.
“I didn’t!” I yelled.
“And when we went to hunt the beast he stayed behind, the coward,” The littluns were now frightened and some were crying.
“That’s a lie. I went with you too, me and Roger and you. We all went in the cave and I ran, so did both of you.”
Jack flushed. “He gives us all of these ridiculous taboos but we never get anything done. So I think that he should no longer be chief.”

I gasped. I had no idea that I had hurt him this badly that he would no longer want me to be chief. My face paled.
“I was voted chief and I will stay chief!” I said defensively.
“Then let’s have another vote. When we voted first no one knew what you would like and now they do so I say we have another vote. Raise you’re hand if you no longer want Ralph as chief.” He raised his hand high in the air and waited. Everyone’s face turned to the ground in shame. No hands went up.

I smiled hugely until seeing that Jack had slowly lowered his hand and began to cry. Tears were streaming down his face as he was walking away.
“I will make my own tribe. It will be a tribe where we will actually do things to survive on this island.” He began to run through the trees then stopped when I yelled his name.
He turned around “No!” he yelled, and left.

Hours later Piggy and I sat together with our new friendship. I whined on and on about Jack leaving and how it was my fault and Piggy kept trying to reassure me.
“I have an idea. We can take the fire from the mountain and bring it down to the beach so that we don’t have to walk as far every day to cook and get warm.”
“Bring the fire down here?” I asked, confused. “Hmm, that sounds like a good idea, Piggy.”

He tried to smile but while being demure. At night we brought the fire down to the beach and left the fire on the mountain just a pile of ashes and small flames. The new fire danced in the wind while Piggy and I sat around it on fire duty. We spoke some more of the new tribe and Jack when all of the sudden Jack and two dark figures ran onto the beach towards the fire. Jack and the figures took the fire onto their torches and left us with what we had on the mountain.

“We have caught a pig. I paunched it and it needs to be cooked,” Jack said loudly. By then most of the boys in my tribe had gathered around to see what had happened.
“You may join us if you like, for the feast I mean,” Jack announced to the whole group.
I shook my head at him and when he saw no one was going to join his lovely feast he left with his hunters behind him.
“Meat,” the littluns moaned.
“Yes, meat,” the biguns echoed.
“I know that everyone wants meat but we must survive on our own. Jack has left us and it was for the better. We can find our own meat,” I tried to say confidently.
“There is something that is worrying me more, Ralph. Where is Simon?” Piggy asked.
I looked around with the small light of the fire. “I don’t know,” I said, worriedly.

Chapter 6 & 7 Journal Entry (Jack)

Chapter Six and Seven: The Beastie Returns!
Two small dark shadows shook me awake.
“The beastie,” one said “we saw it.” finished the other identical voice.
“What?” I moaned, still half asleep.
“It had huge claws and it was moving,” the first one said. “Ralph is calling a meeting,” the other finished.
I sprung to my feet in the dark and noticed that the two shadows was Samneric. I quickly rounded up my hunters as Samneric woke the other children. I spotted Ralph waving the conch in the air and sleepy shadows dragging their feet toward him. Piggy was by Ralph's side already and so I raced over to join the meeting beside Ralph.
“What has happened?” I asked Ralph.
He turned quickly for he didn't know I was there. “Samneric saw the beastie when they were on fire duty. They say it's moving and is very scary,” Ralph said trying to hide the fact that this made him frightened as well.
“We must hunt it down! My hunters and I, we'll kill it! I exclaimed.
“We must hunt it down tomorrow when everything is bright and we can see better to hunt it down,” Ralph agreed.
My hunters were never dun when they heard there was to be a hunt soon.
“Yes, tomorrow sounds like a good decision since it is too dark to wander through the jungle much less hunt down a beast,” I said sagely.
Everyone returned to their shelters and quickly went back to sleep. Everyone but the hunters. After our first kill all we have wanted to do is slay some more pigs but killing this beastie would be our biggest hunt yet and ever. My father would have looked at me proudly but obviously frightened and said that I was being very bravado. Morning came too slowly and everyone but the littluns woke up and were immediately ready to go and kill this horrible beastie.
Ralph turned to me and asked if there was any part of the island I had not explored before.
“The rocks, I haven't spent time hunting over the rocks near those caves” I said as I pointed near the mountain area. “Just over that mountain, pretty far but we can make it today,” I tried to say bravely.
Ralph had a scared look on his face. “Good, well Piggy should stay behind to watch the littluns,”
“Always protect Piggy. Let him stay here so he doesn't get hurt,” I said enviously.
“But, but, what if the beastie comes here when you're gone trying to find it and I'm here all alone with only the littluns,” Piggy shuddered.
“Oh get over it, Fatty. Stop being so scared all of the time,” I said impatiently for the urge to kill was overwhelming me inside. The scene of the squealing pig struggling and then dying when I stabbed it repeated over and over again.
“Can we leave now? We won't have daylight forever,” I said through gritted teeth, stroking the point of my spear. Ralph agreed and Piggy was left alone with the horrible littluns to take care of. I lead the group of hunters and other biguns to the mountain where Ralph again lectured us about the importance of fire. Ralph would not give up so we left two people in charge of the fire while we were gone.
“It's getting dark. Someone should go back and tell Piggy that we won't be back before dark,” Ralph says worriedly.
“I'll go,” Simon said, already walking back up the mountain and down it again to get to the forest.
“My hunters need meat!” I exclaimed at Ralph.
He agreed to let us go hunt and so we raced into the jungle. I spotted a boar and nearly caught it when it gave me a large scratch on my arm. We chased after it but when we got back out of the jungle the boar was gone and Ralph was jumping up and down in excitement.
“I threw my spear at it and it was wounded!” Ralph yelled excitedly.
“It got away and gave me this little scratch,” I showed him the gash on my arm but he didn't seem to notice.
“I wounded it!” Ralph repeated but still nobody seemed to care. He was only trying to get more attention again. It was infuriating so I tried to make him look bad.
“Why'd you throw the spear? You could have waited and we could have caught it for sure,” I said.
“But I wounded it,” Ralph said depressingly.
We played a quick game to reenact what had happened during the hunt and everyone's spirits were up again.
We soon arrived at a cave and I decided that I would go in with Ralph to see what exactly was inside. It smelt of brine and another horrible stench.
“We should have one more person,” Ralph said.
“I'll come,” Roger whispered.
Ralph and I jumped because we didn't know he was in the cave with us.
“I guess that makes three,” I said.
Ralph fell behind and so I turned to see what he was doing. He stood motionless in the dark tunnel-like cave.
“Well aren't you coming? Or are you afraid?” I said trying to make him angry so he would keep moving.
“If you're not then why don't you go see what's out there and come back and tell us,” Ralph said foiling my plan.
“Alone?” my voice squeaked.
“Yes,” He said plainly.
I stared at him to see if he was jocking and picked up my spear and began to walk farther into the cave alone. About fifteen minutes later I came back and tell them that the rest of the cave was all clear and so we all got up, grabbed our spears and walked into the unknown. When we came out of the cave onto the other side we saw a sight unexplainable in words, all I know is that it was most definitely the beastie everyone was afraid of. We ran after we threw our spears to the floor and raced back to warn the others about the terrible discovery.

Chapter 5 Journal Entry (Simon)

Chapter 5: Ralph’s Assembly

Ralph walked away tempestuously down the mountain with his beloved conch in his hands. While the hunters roared on with their chanting the rest of us stood in silence.
“Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Bash her in!” The hunters chanting began to sound like an incantation. I sat near Piggy who at the time was glaring at Jack and trying to fix his glasses at the same time.

Piggy stood “Well, we should head down to the meeting area. Ralph might call the meeting any moment now,” he said to me and the rest of the group over the chants of the hunters. The hunters quieted when Jack stopped chanting.

“Is that what you think we should do? Always listen to Ralph,” Jack laughed jeeringly.
As Piggy pondered about what he should say in return I stood, walked to his side for a moment or two and started down the mountain. Soon I could hear the loud and clumsy footsteps of Piggy following with some of the adorably quiet footsteps of the littluns. It didn’t take a while to reach the shore and when we did we scattered. Most of the littluns walked together down the beach towards the meeting area while others went off to play in the water. The rest decided to follow Piggy off into the jungle to go pick fruit while they waited for Ralph to blow the conch.

I decided to go and follow the group of littluns headed toward where we held our meetings. The littluns tripped constantly as they took their small steps in the sand. When we reached the area where our meeting were held the littluns wept disappointedly as they watched Ralph in the distance, sitting on the log they play on. They turned and decided quickly they were no longer sad and would sit and build castles in the sand.
Ralph licked his lips and picked up the conch that was always by his side. The noise made the children act ludicrous, running and screaming until they remembered the source of the sound and calmed down.

Half way into thelong meeting the hunters winded and couldn't sit still like everyone else in the assembly. Ralph had gone over the rules that had always been there but were never inforced. I recited them in my head, number 1: no going to the toilet anywhere but the rocks where the water can wash it away. Number 2: we need to help out with jobs rather than going off in the jungle. Number 3: we need to start getting clen water from the river again and store it in the coconuts. Number 4: The fire always needs to be burning. We can never let it go out again because it is the only thing that can get us rescued.

"Another thing, the beastie is nothing to be afraid of. It is in you littluns imagination's. You were dreaming, it was all in your head," Ralph stated. This caused murmurs from the littluns who full in believe in the beastie. After a while a small boy walked foward with help from the other children and began to speak.

"Well I woke up one night and saw shadows. It was horrible and I, I know, I mean I think it was the beastie," he said unsure of himself. Oh no, I thought. He had seen me walking back from my secret place in the jungle. I conffesed this to Ralph who scolded me for going out in the night and not informing anyone. The littluns were reassured and all seemed well until Jack stood and spoke.

"Me and my hunters, we'll kill this beast. It wont have a chance against us!" He screamed.
Ralph glared at him for bringing it up again.
"Yeah, we'll cut it's throat!" Someone from the hunters yelled. The biguns cheered and the littluns weeped. Their lamentation was caused by the frightening subject of the beastie and the thought that there were no adults to save them here. Maurice cheered them up by falling over and everyone was laughing and cheering at the thought of the bestie dead except for Ralph, Piggy and I.

When everyone had left Ralph told Piggy and I about his plans to stop being leader because he could not compete with Jack as leader. Piggy and I tried and succeeded in talking him out of it. The night slowly faded away and the sun appeard. I wonder who will succeed in leading, Jack or Ralph, seemed to be on everyone's mind.

Chapter 3 & 4 Journal Entry (Piggy)

Chapter 3&4: Huts and Hunting
“Where's Jack? He better not be off hunting again,” Ralph asked himself.
Simon mumbled in agreement. Ralph and Simon sat on the mud covered ground on their knees. They wiped the sweat off of their foreheads from working so hard.
“Simon, go get more of that string,” Ralph ordered.
Simon stood, brushed the dirt off of his hands and walked off into the jungle with one of the littluns trailing behind.
“Piggy, where is Jack?” I turned as I felt a slight tugging on my sleeve.
“Not sure, probably out trying to get himself some meat,” I said. “Now go away, I'm trying to rest,” The littlun turned and dragged his feet in the sand back to his friends. When I looked back to check on the progress of Ralph and Simon's shelters Simon was back and Ralph had already tied the palm leaves to a stick in the ground like a tent.
I felt the tugging on my sleeve again. “Now see here!” I yelled. When I turned to my right I saw that Samneric were kneeling at my side in the sand.
“What is it?” I asked.
“We all,” said Sam “ we want food,” said Eric.
“If you haven't gotten any just get some fruit from the trees,” I replied.
“Well we can't reach and,” Sam said “Simon usually helps us get it.” finished Eric.
“Then go ask him for help,” I mumbled as I layed back down.. I could hear the quiet susurrations of Samneric as they walked away. I rolled back over to my left to watch Ralph and Simon again. Suddenly the hut they were building collapsed and Simon was buried under it. Simon got out from underneath the mess and had a contrite look on his face.
“Sorry,” Simon apologized. Ralph nodded his head.
Suddenly Jack jumped out of the trees from the forest. Ralph jumped and Simon gasped.
“Where were you!” Ralph said angrily.
“I was out hunting, I almost caught a pig Ralph,” Jack said, bursting with excitement.
“I have been here all day trying to make us some shelter and I only have help from Simon,” Ralph replied malevolently.
“We needed meat, and if you've been working all day on these huts it doesn't seem as if you've gotten very far,” Jack said as a matter of factly.
Their blatant argument was attracting attention form the littluns and the biguns.
“We need a place to have shelter for when the rain comes!” Ralph yelled
“Meat comes first. We need it more.”
“We already have fruit! We can wait on the meat but people will get sick if there is no place to stay when it gets stormy,” Ralph said, standing up a bit straighter as Jack flushed defeated and Simon slowly walked away, unnoticed by anyone.
They're acting like children, I thought to myself. I'd be a much better leader than either of them and they know it.
The next morning came quickly, and then evening came soon after. Ralph and I and a couple of other boys decided to go down to the pool to cool off. Of course, I just sat under a tree on account of my asthma and watched the others. Water splashed out of the pool every time someone did a cannon ball or belly flop into the water. Ralph's eyes suddenly widened and he chocked on water as he yelled. “Smoke, smoke, I see smoke!”
“Where?” Maurice asked.
“There, out in the sea, don't you see it?”
“It's a ship. Ship, ship!” Maurice added.
Everyone got out of the pool in what seemed like less than a second and were quickly getting their clothes on.
“I don't see any smoke!” I yelled to a rapt Ralph.
He was already running into the forest towards the mountain.
“I don't see smoke!” I yelled, staring at the mountain top.
Everyone had started running after Ralph and so I decided to follow. When I reached the top of the mountain I was panting and everyone was staring at the ashes left by the flames.
“They're turning around. Come back! Come back!” Ralph yelled. “Come back! Come back!” Everyone joined in so loudly that the birds flew out of the trees like the time Ralph blew the conch. When everyone could no longer scream and the ship was out of view we heard chanting and loud footsteps heading up the mountain. Jack was leading the chant and the line. Many of the littluns and hunters were behind him, covered in blood and sweat and the camouflage clay they had spread on their faces. Jack came to a stop and stood inches away from Ralph.
“We caught it! We caught a pig. Last time I didn't catch it but this time we were ready!” Jack yelled jumping up and down excitedly.
“Yes, I fell over,” Sam started “and he tackled it.” Eric finished.
“It was wonderful.” said Jack.
“You let the fire go out,” Ralph said through clenched teeth.
“We'll light it again. Oh you should have been there.”
“You said you were going to watch it but you let it go out,” Ralph repeated.
“I said I'd light it again didn't I? See,” Jack turned to me and held out his hand “Hand me your specs, fatty.”
“There was a ship! They would have seen us if there was a fire but you and your bloody hunting cost us all rescue!” I yelled, red in the face. Under his mask, the color in Jack's face had rushed out at the news of the ship. There was silence and Jacks face light up.
“What did you say, fatty?” Jack asked as his fist swung into my gut and made my fall back onto the ground. “What did you say!” It was more of a threat than a question now as the palm of his hand swiped my face and made a loud slapping noise.
Soon all of the hunters were laughing and chanting and Ralph was already walking down the mountain as he yelled “I'm declaring a meeting. I don't care if it's dark, but when I blow the conch the meeting will be starting!”

Chapter 2 Journal Entry (Simon)

Chapter 2: The Beastie

"There are pigs on this island," announced Ralph
Jack showed a matyred expression but no one noticed.
Everyone sat up straighter and listened more to what he had to say.
"There musn't be any interupting when I speak so whoever is holding the conch is the only one able to say anything," said Ralph " and he won't be interupted by anyone, you see?"
"But," one of the children asked. Ralph held up the conch to make his point and the child became quiet.
"He won't be interupted by anyone except for me!" exclaimed Ralph. "So, we know there are pigs but has anyone found anything while we were gone?"
A young boy with a big maroon colored birthmark was being pushed forward to Ralph.

"Yes, what is it? Speak up," Ralph said as he handed him the conch.
The boy stood silent as Piggy decided to kneel by him to help. The boy whispered in Piggy's ear amnd Piggy spoke.
"He says that he saw a beastie, a snake-like creature in the jungle."
"Beastie?" Ralph repeated
"Yes a beastie. It was ever so big he tells me," Piggy said.
"There's no such thing as this beastie. Only in big countries," Ralph stated.
"He says he saw it," Piggy said, shrugging.

"There is no beast I tell you!" Ralph said angrily.
"When we go hunting we'd be sure to kill it if we saw it," Jack said to the boy.
"There's no beast!" Ralph yelled.
Everyone fell silent
"Now, I would like to be rescued and I have a grand idea!" Ralph said, completely changing the subject. "How about we make ourselves a big fire on the top of the mountain so that the ships will see the smoke coming from the island," Ralph proposed
All the littleuns began capering and cheering at the wonderful idea. I wanted to tell Ralph that it wasn't a good idea because the fire may spread but I was to afraid that he would think I was being errant and silly.

Piggy asked for silence but the ebullience of the children went on as they ran for the mountain.
The fire didn't last long and Ralph was obviously disappointed. The sparks from the fire traveled with the wind into the junlgle and an unexpected fire started, spreading quickly.

Ralph continued to make recriminations that it was Piggy's fault for not helping enough. This was going to far, I didn't want to make a scene so I tried politely to help Piggy.
"He did help," Ralph's head turned swiftly to look at me "Um, he helped by letting you use his specs, yes he helped that way," I said, hoping I had induced Ralph to be nicer.
A moment of silence passed as everyone thought this over.

"Where's the littleun!" Piggy yelled breaking the silence.
"What?" Ralph asked in confusion.
"The littleun with the birthmark on his face, where is he?" Piggy asked hysterically.
"Who?" Everyone seemed to ask with Ralph.
"The one who told us of the beastie!" Puggy was panting now and everyone seemed to have one terrible thought in their head.
I turned my head toward the spreading flames in the jungle and everyone's eyes followed.

Chapter 1 Journal Entry (Jack)

Chapter 1: The Man with the Trumpet

The hambone frill on my togs was making my neck very warm since we have been walking for what seems like hours. The other boys all looked as they were about to faint if they took another step and so I did what was best for the group.
“All right we can take a short rest before looking some more,” I announced.
“What are we looking for?” one of the younger boys asked.

“We are looking for a place to set up camp so we can start thinking of how to survive on this island,” I answered, not to just him but the whole group.
“We don’t know this is an island,” Roger muttered.
Gasps came from the younger boys in the choir. How dare he talk back to me?

“What did you just say?” I asked trying to sound frightening.
“I said that we don’t know if this is an island or not, sir,” said Roger.
“Hmm; well I was thinking the same thing. What is your name?”
“Roger,” he said as the suffusion in his face quickly disappeared.
“Well then what do you think we should do, Roger,”
When he didn’t answer the pallor of his face was replaced by a bright pink.

Then suddenly a trumpet sounding noise blared throughout the jungle. The choir stood still in the sand and then realizing what this meant started cheering. This meant that we were being rescued and the grown-ups were looking for us right now.

“Single file, behind me; and calm down all of you, the adults will think we’re loons,”
“Yes, Merridew” they all answered in unison.

We arrived were the trumpet noise came from quickly but there were no adult’s, only children.
“You there, where is the man with the trumpet to get us rescued?” I asked the fat boy asking everyone’s names.
“There’s no man with a trumpet, only me. We’ve organized a meeting, care to join in?” A different boy answered. He was holding a conch shell in his lap and sitting on a rock in the middle of the group of boys. He had blonde hair the color of tow and seemed to be around my age.

“So there are no grown-ups here to rescue us?” I asked, disappointed.
“Except for the pilot who no one has seen, no there are no adults,” The fair haired boy responded.
“Well we may as well join your meeting, you may take off your togs boys,” I said to my choir.