LOTF: Before and After

Phase 2: Chapter 9

"Did you arrive here by plane?"

"Yes" Rapper continued. "It crashed. We used the plane's emergency lifeboat to get to this island."

"Do you remember where this plane you were on was heading?"

"The United Kingdom" Larry confirmed.

"You're all from the military academy in Georgia, yes?" the officer assumed.

"Yeah" Tony confirmed, abandoned and forgotten memories of Bainbridge Military Academy resurfacing in his mind.

The marine officer nodded and walked away from the boys to consult with the rest of his team.

"What the hell are we gonna do? He's gonna talk" Ralph heard Roger whisper to Jack just behind him.

"I-I don't know" Jack spoke for the first time since the Marines arrived.

"He's gonna tell them everything. We can't just do nothing" Roger continued to insist.

"There's nothing we can do now" Rapper chimed in.

Another officer approached the boys. His uniform indicated he was the Commandant of the Corps.

"Listen up" the commandant spoke, earning the attention of all the boys. "I need each of you to state your full name for the record. Once we've completed the roll call, we will be distributing clothing, food, and water bottles while we wait on the remainder of the rescue helicopters. Does everyone understand?"

"Yes" most of them spoke in unison.

The commandant pointed at each boy as he jotted their names down with pen and a notepad, asking for clarification on spelling for some names; starting from the front to the back of the cluster.

"Ralph Langley."

"Larry Evans."

"Rapper Jones."

"Roger Conroy."

"Jack Merridew."

"Eric Brooks."

"Samuel Brooks."

"Maurice Kent."

"Tony Hughes."

"Andy Hall."

"Greg Collins."

"Peter Campbell."

"Percival Madison."

"John Parker."

"Rusty Stevens."

"Steve Foster."

"William Owens."

"Luke Armstrong."

"Sheraton James."

"Patterson Graham."

"Mikey Dixon."

"Tex Wallace."

As the names of all 22 survivors were recorded by the commandant, Jack realized he had never even known most of their last names before now. In fact, he hadn't even thought of any of them having last names at all since they arrived on the island. He'd barely thought about his own since he'd adjusted to life on the island. He was just Jack, up until he'd become Chief.

The other Marine officers stepped in when the commandant headed over to the helicopter he'd came in on with the list of names. They asked the boys to stand up and separated them into three groups based on size. The grade 2-3 boys and a couple of the smaller 4th graders were grouped together including Mikey, Peter, Will, Percy and a few others. The 5th and few 6th graders like Sam, Eric, Maurice, Larry, Tony, Andy, Patterson and Luke were put in the second group. Which left Ralph, Roger, Jack, and Rapper in the last group.