Through different eyes || GlovesUp SmackDown Contest

1.3 Uncovering the beast

Round 1.3 | Classic Retelling must include Zombies

A/N: a retelling of Lord of the Flies by William Golding set in the overturn to a dystopian world.

Two boys were walking alone towards the lagoon. Both had just met, but they walked down the beach like old-friends. One of them, Piggy, glasses and enthusiastic, rambled on and on about himself. Ralph, the older one, didn't respond most of the time.

The two explored the lagoon, one dived right into the blue, while the other stuck in his toe carefully.

„My dad is a commander in the navy," Ralph said when he came up for air. " When he gets leave, he'll come and rescue us"

Piggy kept silent for a moment. The conversation graced from their current location to how they even ended up on the island.

"Didn't you hear what the pilot said?"

"That they'll fly us somewhere safe," Ralph said.

"Not just that. He talked about a bomb. They are probably all dead. No one's going to find us." Piggy's breaths came out quicker with every word. His asthma acted up when he got nervous.

"My dad is going to save us." Ralph repeated.

"My auntie never hugged me as tight as she did when we said goodbye. I heard two men next to us talk about locking up the cities. He mentioned a highly infectious virus, oh, and something about stopping the outbreak. I swear that is the reason they moved the school trip up."

Silence settled between them once again. Even the sky or crystal water couldn't lighten up the mood.

The time flew by until they found a cream-coloured conch shell washed up on the shore. Piggy had the idea to summon all the other survivors with the loud call. He was proven right when one boy after the other appeared out of various directions.

Ralph walked next to Jack, climbing towards the peak of the mountain. He would've preferred to walk next to anybody else. Even though he was the elected leader, with every day spent on the island, the power dynamics shifted. Even the younger boys looked up to the impressive hunters led by Jack. So much even, that they only saw their one successful hunt and completely disregarded their failures.

Jack and his followers promised to maintain the signal fire, yet when a ship, their first chance for rescue, passed, no fire burned.

As Jack walked around the next bush, he stopped so suddenly that Ralph nearly walked into him.

"I don't know what the littluns are so terrified of. This just looks like a piece of fabric." Jack murmured more to himself.

Ralph followed his eyes and had to agree. This "beast" seemed not as horrible as the two panicked boys described.

Half an hour later, they reached the mountain top. The boys inched towards the edge to look out for the beast.

Their steps slowed the closer they got to the edge. The wind pulled at Ralph's hair in a silent warning when he leaned forward.

Then they saw something dark hanging in a dead tree over the abyss. The wind had draped the black fabric messily over a figure.

Suddenly, the dark shadow of a presumed body moved. In spasmodic movements, the arms began shaking and gripping into nothingness.

The body of a man moved at a shocking pace, took branch by branch until it pulled itself up to the platform where the boys stood frozen in disbelief. The fabric stayed behind and revealed a disturbing face.

Ralph reacted first. Breaking through his fear, he stumbled backwards.

A face that still wore the distant expressions of a human, scrunched up into an inhuman grimace. The closer it came, the more dead it looked. Flies, who normally gathered on sticky fruit, swarmed the ripped and rotted face.

They both ran.

Stumbling down the hill with the monster on their heels, the boys constantly tripped over themselves. Unbeknownst to them, they left the trail. 

Plants blocked the way, because they grew wildly between coconut and papaya trees. Ralph ran ahead, breaking through knots of plants, while Jack pushed him to hurry. The green swallowed them whole, but monster followed unbridled. An impossibly thick grove of vines forced Jack and Ralph to part ways. Ralph crouched down behind the hanging ivy. He needed to see the monster again to know he wasn't caught in a nightmare.

The monster came so close that only a few branches and vines separated Ralph and the living dead.

Ralph gripped the stick he gathered when he first fell to the ground. It isn't human and it wants to kill you, he thought. In his mind, he repeated the words until he actually believes them. He struck. Again and Again.

It wasn't human. The monster almost broke through. It took a step back, and used its whole body to break through the plants. Ralph hit emptiness.

A hand from behind pulled him back. Jack's face was the next thing he saw. Cold and determined eyes.

Then they were running again. They ran until the forest broke and they reached a cliff. Ralph broke down there. His knees gave up and he sunk down by the edge, soon Jack sat next to him.

"We need to barricade ourselves," Ralph panted.

"We have to fight it, find out how to kill it. That is the only way we can survive. The hunters can lead the operation." Jack's tone left no room for objections.

A sound made both of them jump. In seconds, they ducked deeper behind the bushes.

Ralph pressed the back of his head to the tree behind him. His eyes forward, he could overlook the lagoon and see beyond. He hoped that the peaceful scenery would calm his nerves. Those hopes shattered when his eyes noticed a disrupting object.

A ship.

The ghost of the boy who set up the signal fire caroled but his present self's heart dropped.

The water around the ship moved, not like waves in a rhythmic dance, instead it splashed and dark shadows moved towards the reef.

The shadows that reached the atoll were close enough to recognize them for what they actually were. Dead faces. 

 Ralph closed his eyes and wished to wake up.

Words: 1026