blog 2- The fire

After Ralph had said we needed a signal fire, the group of boys became tumultuous. Everybody broke into a chaotic run up the mountain. Ralph realized his mistake and took off after them up the mountain, leaving the conch on the ground. I picked it up, and when he turned around to see if I was coming, I gave him a scornful look. He turned back around then continued to catch up with the group. I looked back down at the conch, I felt like I had almost become one with it, almost like we were warped together. The conch was so important to what organization we had left, but right now it meant nothing to any one but me. Though I did not agree with the boy's savage behavior, the urge to be rescued was irresistible. So I headed off after them to make sure they weren't going to do anything stupid. All the other boys moved nimbly up the mountain and made it look easy, but for me this was a difficult task. I had almost caught up to the group when my asthma kicked in and I had to stop for a minute. When I finally made it to the top the boys had already started gathering wood. As I sat there wondering how this whole fire was going to start, the pile grew, and only when they were done did they start to think about the real problem at hand. How do we start it? If there had been any officiousness at all to what they were doing they would have thought of this before they went marching up the mountain. Everybody was embarrassed at how dumb they looked; they had just spent half an hour heaving wood up the hillside while I sat there trying not to laugh. It was Jack who first thought of an idea on how to start the fire, "gimme your specs," he said. "What for?" I replied. "To start the fire fatty, now hand them over." He then snatched them right off my nose and lit the fire with them. Then he gave them back, and I could see again. The fire began to grow and soon it was five meters high and was still growing. "More wood," yelled Ralph. "We need more wood." I told them they were going to burn up the whole Island, but that only made Jack angry and he yelled at me to shut up. Then a spark ignited a bit of creepers and the whole forest began to go up. "See what you've done," I told them. "You've gone and lit the whole Island on fire, what are we going to eat, and if every tree burns to the ground what shall we use as shelter. Don't you see what you've done? You're going to destroy the whole island." I tried to convince them that what they had done was bad, but no one listened even though I had the conch. They just ignored me. So there I sat and wached our food, our shelter and our hope burn to the ground.

The Scar

When we crashed down on to the island, I was sitting right at the front of where the plane had split in half after it was shot down. I was clambering over seats to get away from the massive hole in the front of the plane where I had been devouring my favorite book by Mark Twain. As I climbed past the other boys seats, I saw a terrible pallor on their faces. All the little boys were quivering with fear, sure they were about to die. As soon as the plane hit the trees, it all turned into a jumbled mess of metal, trees and the terrible screams of the boys who were flying out the front. I had just reached the middle of the half of the plane that was left when we hit the trees, and I went flying right down the isle and out in to the terrible scar the plane had made in the trees. For a moment, everything was a daze and all was quiet. Then, when the dust settled, an amazing clamor erupted as birds chirped and huge mosquitoes buzzed around the extremely hot, humid forest I suddenly found myself in. When I got to my feet and looked around, all I could see was a grating of trees so thick that I couldn't see more than three meters away. I speculated about my surroundings and how I would get out of this place, where the temperature easily exceeded 40 degrees Celsius. I vainly attempted to see in the forest, but the only light was the one coming from the scar which had left a huge hole in the forest. I decided that this would be the best way out and it might take me to the lagoon. As I made my way out of the forest, I heard a strident sound and decided to follow it. It didn't sound like any animal I had heard in the forest and, therefore, it must have been a human. I made my way out of the forest, tripping over roots and other low plants. When I emerged, I saw the lagoon, and what a sight it was. It brightened my mood to see such a beautiful thing, Then I turned around and saw the horrific scar, and I was overcome with sorrow immediately. The scar was such a depressing thing to look at, that if I never saw it again I would be delighted. Again, the sound made me realize that there were other boys here and it immediately cheered me up; I broke in to a run to get there faster. When I got there, a crowd of boys had already gathered. Not a second later a fat boy, whose name I later found out was Piggy, asked me my name. I told him and then joined the group. Right after that, a whole group of boys walked up that were led by a decorous boy named Jack. He said that he should be the leader of the group, but another boy quickly announced that there should be an election. All the others agreed. When we were done voting, a boy named Ralph had won the election. I could see the look of indignation on Jacks face; he was clearly upset with how the elections had gone. The fat boy spoke again, and Jack told him to shut up, then began teasing him by calling him fatty. Everybody laughed. Ralph quickly interposed, saying that his name was not Fatty, but Piggy. Again the crowd erupted in laughter and Piggy turned bright red. After everyone had settled down, Ralph said that we should send out a party to see if this was really an island or not. Ralph chose himself, Jack, and was then looking for one more person to go. There were plenty of volunteers, but Ralph chose a boy named Simon, and the three started off immediatele. Piggy complained that he should get to go too, but Ralph insisted that he stay and take names. He then turned and caught up with the other two, and headed towards the mountain to get a good look at our surroundings.