There was an abrupt stop and complete silence for a few seconds. Just as the man was about to repeat himself, the little-uns were dashing here and there trying to get into single line. Within about two minutes there was a neat line of ragged little-uns all filthy faced with obedient expressions. The men lead them to their whaler and organised their seating position for the journey. All the older boys had to wait a bit longer for their departure from the Island and its disturbing memories. The whaler came back for the rest of the boys but this time they didn’t need to be told how to conduct themselves before entering the whaler. One by one they seated themselves according to the officers bidding and began the short voyage, which still felt like an eternity, towards the towering Funnelled Ship.
When the boys neared the enormous Battle Ship, the first thing they set their eyes on was on the huge Guns, which gave the boys a sense of security and safety. Swiftly their attention was distracted by the amount of officers and men looking down on their arrival. Men in uniform staring at them. This gave the boys a sense of protection.
As the rope ladder was thrown down, unexpectedly the ship started rolling on its side. This caused a twenty-minute delay because of the alignment process needed for the whaler to be alongside the Cruiser. Finally, the rope ladders were secured and they were ready to go.
“Right boys, up you get!” exclaimed the Officer. Ralph was the first to start clambering up the never-ending ladder. He stood up, took a deep breath and looked at Jack, who was expressionless. Ralph grasped the rough rope, which didn’t look as if it would hold. Determined, he climbed a few steps up and then looked down at the dark blue sea bashing against the sides of the cruiser. When Ralph reached the top he was pulled up by a smiling man, who literally lifted Ralph off the ladder and landed him on the vast deck of the cruiser. Behind him followed Jack and the rest of the boys. All the boys assembled in rows anticipating what was going to happen. Then in marched a tall man with dark eyes that resembled endless sleepless nights. His uniform was as perfect as anything any of the boys had ever seen, not a single crease on his clothes, and some of the little uns were staring at his boots as if they could see their faces on them.
“Right boys, welcome to H.M.S Mary. The most honourable battle cruiser on the sea. My name is Admiral Walsh and I would like to welcome you all to my ship. Please accept my commiseration for your hardship, being marooned on the island. Also my condolences for the unfortunate deaths.”
Ralph looked down at his feet when the Admiral stated this, and in the corner of his eye he could also see a few of the other boys doing the same. The admiral went on to discuss the rules and regulations, where they would be sleeping and their journey ahead. After it had concluded a seaman lead them to their quarters.
“Here you go, lads. You’ll find new clothes on your bunks. Hope they fit coz they’re all one size. Dinner’s at 8.00pm you lot will be fed after all the men have had their food. Is anyone hungry right now?”
“No”, said most of the boys but a few little uns said, “Yes, please”, and were called out to give them some spare food from the kitchens down below. Before the officer left, he made a small remark.
“Hope you lot don’t get sea sick”, and chuckled away with the little uns following.
It was just after evening when the boys came in after dinner.
“That was great, haven’t had a proper meal for ages”, said Evan.
“Me too”, said another boy while he was setting up his bed. One of the little uns walked up to Ralph and asked him
”Are we safe now…?”
“You bet we are, but from now on we have to do every little thing they tell us to do”, intruded Jack.
“Better than not knowing what is going to happen tomorrow!” retorted Ralph.
Jack was going to reply, which could have turned it into an argument, when an officer came in.
“Lights out, boys”, and with that he turned off the lights and everyone was in a hurry to get to sleep forgetting all about what had just happened.
The next morning Ralph was awoken with the noise of sirens blaring and men and officers running back and forth. It took Ralph a few minutes to figure out where he was but woke up to see most of the boys awake and listening to what Jack was saying.
“The ship’s been hit by something, a tornado or something. We need to escape or we’ll die.”
“Don’t listen to him or he’ll turn us into mad dogs the same way he made all of you kill, no, murder Simon and Piggy. Do you want that to happen again? I say if we stay with the adults they’ll keep us safe and everything will be all right.”
With that everyone’s face livened up and looked up to Ralph as if he was their King. Jack was speechless, which was a first, but it may have been the way Ralph mentioned ‘murder’ which caught him off guard. Just then two men came in to the room. The first man was out of breath.
“Right everyone, hurry, follow us, we have to take you to the lifeboats first, as you’re all priority, come on”, shouted the second man.
They were rushed outside to the decks, where there was smoke and fire blazing everywhere. There were men shouting here and there. Ralph glimpsed a man being stretchered away with burn marks all over his face and body. He could see men running around, with buckets of water and hoses in their arms, but to no avail, the fires kept blazing on. He could see that the guns were mantled or even broken and on fire. That’s when he saw it: in the distance, moving ever nearer, another battleship. Ralph didn’t need to think twice to know what was happening.
“How could people do this to each other?”, he told himself. He thought for a moment.
“How…?”
Ralph was running now to keep up with the two men, trying not to trip in the odd flurry of things on deck such as buckets and empty shells. That’s when he saw a photograph of a family on the floor. On it was an officer, with a woman presumably his wife and two children, a boy and a girl. It made him think of where this man could be – Was he alive or dead? - when he caught the eye of the Admiral. The admiral froze, aware of all the chaos around, and quickly smiled back reassuringly at Ralph. Then he attended to a phone call from the engine rooms.
When the boys finally reached the lifeboats, a few were on fire but there were some left untouched. The little uns were thrown into the lifeboats and older boys told to climb in. They were accompanied by a couple of men and then hoisted down beside the cruiser into the sea below. It was a steady descent but there was a moment when everyone thought the rope was going to give way. However, they reached to the bottom safely and were paddling as fast as possible away from the chaos.
When they were a fair distance away, one of the men said,
“Must have been ordered to abandon ship. Good thing we got off when we were told to.”
That was when some of the boys turned around to see dots jumping off the ship all round and about five to eight lifeboats being lowered, crammed with men and officers. Two of the boats fell as the rope gave way. Ralph felt pain as the two boats plummeted forty feet into the sea. It reminded him when the boulder fell on Piggy. They created a bigger distance with every stroke the men took with the oars and soon they could see nothing but sea around them. This is when an evanescent feeling hit Ralph and by the expressions of some of the boys, they too had been hit by a sudden sensation. They curled up and started to weep but were told to get a grip of themselves by the men. Ralph could only remember being told to rest and reserve as much energy as possible, because they might need it.
Ralph woke up to find himself lying flat on the ground. He was lying down on sand and so was everyone was else. Except for the men who were busy rummaging through the endless objects scattered across the coast for miles on end.
“Nothing! Nothing of use to us at all!” complained the man with a high degree of frustration.
“Stranded on this Island for god knows how long” said the second man. Ralph began to stand when a group of men come out of the bushes behind him and shouted, “We’ve found our water supply and some food”. It all came back to Ralph like a memory as if he’d been through this before. He wondered whether it was the same island or another one. He remembered the situation he was in before. The futile searches for human life on the island. Whatever Ralph thought he knew that he wasn’t alone this time and that he had better chance of survival.
“You there! Come over here” Ralph turned around to face the Man who was calling him. “Help me lift this up, boy.” Ralph obeyed and walked towards the man telling himself it’s all for the best, but with a feeling of extra wisdom having been through this before.
End of Chapter 13
