English Final Project

2074 words.

Simon woke up in a daze, not remembering fully what had happened. He sat up groggily with dried blood crusted around his mouth and nose, when he noticed a small figure lying by his feet. As he carefully moved his legs to stand the figure shifted, still asleep although now illuminated, it was a small dog. Simon could now clearly see the small german shepherd  pup in the sunlight beams making their way through the creepers hanging from the tree. He slowly began reaching over to check the pup for a collar when it woke up. When the small shepherd awoke its eyes slowly adjusted to the shaded area before turning to Simon and sniffing his still outstretched hand. While the pup sniffed him, he gently picked it up and placed it in his lap. With a new light he recognized the pup as the pilots support dog Scylla, that had been roaming the cabin before the crash. How the puppy had survived was beyond him but he knew that he couldn't just leave her there, especially with Jack on a quest of bloodthirsty carnage.

After resting for awhile Simon and Scylla were now headed up the mountain. As they walked he noticed that Scylla was limping slightly as well as now being able to see the scar on her face stretching from the base of her ear to the tip of her snout. "No one gets off this island without a few scars." he thought aloud. With this comment Scylla looked up at him with a tilted head, before perking up in an alert position beside him. "What is it girl? What do you see?" he got no response, only the swivel of her head as her hazel eyes scanned the area. Scylla then returned to a relaxed position and disregarded whatever she sensed with a wag of her tail. "Nothing? That's odd." As they kept on walking, a putrid smell hit them hard. The smell was gradually becoming stronger with each step closer to the top of the mountain. The pair soon broke through the last grove of trees, upon seeing the culprit of the stench Simon immediately turned to empty his stomach of what contents were left, seeing as though he hadn't eaten in over 12 hours. They had found the source, the slowly decomposing body of a parachutist. After the ill feeling had subsided, all that could be heard was the sound of the wind in the leaves, the distant sound of waves crashing on the sand, and the sound of Scylla whimpering next to the hunched over boy. "We have to tell the others that the twins were wrong! They have to know that there isn't a beast, that the only monsters are themselves!" Simon and Scylla took off towards the beach, not taking notice of the rising smoke in the distance farther down from the platform.

Once on the beach Simon searched the platform and the shelters for any sign of Ralph, Piggy, Samneric, or the littluns but no luck. Until Scylla barked at Simon to get his attention turned towards the smoke farther down the beach, the sun was almost entirely down when they started running towards the thin trail of smoke. Upon getting closer they began to hear the hollers of the boys, Simon began to yell for Ralph. "Ralph! Ralph!" However his cries were drowned out by the chants that had grown louder with every sprint taken. By now it had started storming and the chants and hollers had just become a blur of screams and laughter muffled by the downpour. Simon kept to the outskirts of the rings of children to find Ralph, Samneric, or Piggy, knowing Jack and Roger wouldn't listen to his warning or his discovery. Ralph was the first to see the boy looking frantic and grabbed Piggy to drag him to the rough looking pair. Now taking notice of the dog, Ralph halted for only a moment before continuing on. Once Simon saw Ralph he almost collapsed from the relief now flowing through his body. "Ralph! We were wrong! There is no beast! Samneric saw a dead body of a man with a parachute, he must have been killed from the fall. The only monsters here on this island are us.." Simon trailed off, noticing the suddenly quiet clearing. One by one during the dance the boys had heard his words of warning and truth causing all of them to turn towards him, most with interest and curiosity and two with anger. Each group being fairly obvious in who showed anger vs curiosity. "We have nothing to be afraid of on this island except ourselves!" Simon cried with Scylla whimpering next to him. Some boys had begun to think that Simon had gone crazy with all his rambling, Jack had had enough. He began to laugh and had begun mocking Simon with every step he took. "Ralph! Oh Ralph! We were wrong! We were wrong!" the other boys had begun laughing nervously along with him, in fear of what would happen should they not play along. Before long, Jack had reached Simon with but a mere foot between them with Roger close behind. Roger took the initiative and started to tease Simon. "Boys! Our little Simon has gone mad! Oh, and look he's found a pet that's just as sca-." "I'M NOT CRAZY!" Simon cut him off abruptly. "There is no beast. We're the monsters. We-." "ENOUGH!" Jack's voice rang out. "What would you know Simon? You've gone mad." He smirked at Simon with an evil glint in his eye. He turned to the hunters and cried out, "Do not listen to this coward, th-this imbecile. There is a beast, this child is wrong, he fools you, all of you and for all we know, he's the beast. Listen to me, your leader.(denial)". "That's enough Jack. Simon has a point." Ralph spoke up from the sidelines. "You're all too afraid of Jack to see what's really going on!" Piggy finally spoke up. "Shut it fatty!" Jack was now shaking with anger, his knuckles white as his fists clenched. "No! I won't! It's the truth, the only reason they're staying with you is because they're scared of you! Those who aren't scared, are bloodthirsty and mad!(projection)" As soon as these last words came out of Piggy's mouth, Jack yelled with anger "ARGHH" and it was with this yell that Jack turned to the pup at Simon's side and kicked, hard(displacement). Scylla let out a whimper as she was punted. As she landed Simon let out a cry "SCYLLA!" Simon ran and collapsed at her side. The group of boys turned to look at Jack horrified, Roger however looked on with a smirk. Jack turned to look at Ralph and Piggy with a look of sudden shock on his face, before facing the ground. The air was thick with tension as the only sound that could be heard was the rain, the crackling of the fire, and the soft whimpers of Scylla as Simon seized up unbeknownst to the others. The stress and tension had been too much for his condition to take as he forgot to calm down with the situation.

As Jack's fists unclenched, Roger spoke up in a tone only fit to egg Jack on. "You're not fit to run this tribe Jack." "Excuse me?!" Jack turned with a new determination. "You heard me. You aren't fit to run this tribe. You can't even keep a couple boys straightened out, so how are you supposed to keep this tribe in line?" Roger had begun to circle Jack like a vulture circling new prey. As he was circled Jack glared at the boy, the new threat to his power. "If you think you can be a better leader than me Roger, then we shall fight it out." The boys went to opposite sides of the circle and each grabbed a spear. Jack found it hard to swallow as he glanced back at his opponent, seeing the crazed look in his eyes, with a sudden bad feeling he turned to Ralph, Piggy, and Simon. "Roger is insane, he's worse than me, so just know that I'm sorry. I know I've been a twit, but when I die, help the boys get home." With that he turned away ready for what was about to come. The fight began with the boys circling each other, Roger crazed with bloodlust and Jack focused with a newfound fear. "I created you Roger, I'm the reason you're in this position in the first place." Jack stalled. "Oh please, you didn't do anything, you're weak! You're nothing but a coward and loser!" Roger taunted back(regression). Roger made the first lunge, jabbing offensively towards Jack's stomach. Jack spun his spear to block the attack, but he only redirected the blow to his thigh, the spear pierced the skin deep. With a cry Jack collapsed as Roger pulled back the spear. When he went strike again Jack had brought up his spear to weakly block. Jack's vision was getting spotty but he shook it off and stood, favoring his now bleeding left thigh. Roger laughed at Jack and turned his back for mere seconds when a spear entered his right shoulder. He yelped with pain feeling the spear be pulled from his back. The look of rage in Roger's eyes was enough to confirm what Jack had known, he wouldn't make it off this island, but if he could help it Roger wouldn't either. With that Jack made quick jabs at the boys stomach, only just strong enough to pierce but not catch. Roger blinded with the rage growing from each jab thrown his way blocked the boy's last attack and thrust his spear deep into Jack's stomach. As he pulled the weapon from the slowly dying boy he turned to the crowd of boys with a triumphant smirk and was met with the looks of horror in their eyes. Close but not quite dead Jack weakly threw his knife at Roger's back aiming to end the life of the one who could kill everyone else, and enjoy it. As soon as Roger's smirk had appeared it was gone, turning his head to see the knife piercing his back and the smile on Jack's face as the light faded from his eyes. Roger's reign was short-lived as he fell to his knees, and onto his side as his final breaths were taken from him.

Simon slowly began to awaken with Scylla licking his cheek. Once again waking up with dried blood on his face, and no knowledge of what had happened(repression). The first thing he heard was Ralph and Piggy yelling at the boys to keep the fire going so we could 'get off this wretched island'. Yet the first thing he saw was the patches of dried blood on the grass, merely 10 feet away. Scylla followed his gaze and whined, before turning back and nudging the boy to get up. They made their way over to the group Ralph's shouts getting louder. "Let's go! We gotta keep this fire burning, so we can get rescued!" Samneric came sprinting through the trees, panting heavily. Sam started to speak, "T-there are-" "m-men o-on-" Eric had cut in. "t-the beach!" the boys finished together. The boys all began running to the beach, a sense of hope filling the air. As they reached the platform that had been forgotten, they saw the ship out on the horizon, with smaller boats that had been dragged onto the sand, and finally they noticed the group of uniformed men standing at attention. The group slowed as they reached the adults. "Is this all of you? Are there any adults?" The man who seemed to be in charge had spoken. The boys just stared, not knowing what to say. Then Simon spoke up weakly, almost wincing with every word. "It's just us, no adults. There were three more of us, but they didn't make it." he said, leaving out the truth(reaction formation). "Then there was the pilot who died in the crash, and a random man who parachuted onto the island." The rest of the boys were silent. "What about the dog?" the man asked. "It was the pilots." Simon said no more and pushed away the flashing images of bodies as he knelt down next to the panting dog(suppression). They were finally going home.