“Jack! Why do you care about such superfluous things like hunting? We all know the fire is more important,” Ralph said angrily.

“You are so unilateral about these things when you should be more bilateral like me!” replied Jack.

“Stop equivocating with me, you only care about hunting and don’t see the bigger picture,” yelled Ralph.

“I care about the bigger picture, I care about our survival!” said Jack with his face turning red.

The platform area where they always had the conch meetings was full of little ‘uns and big ‘uns who were looking out into the sea, walking, talking, and playing with each other. It was high noon and the waves crashed against the rocks on the beach rapidly. The waves came in sets of threes; the ocean was reckless this time of day. The air was filled with the smell of the deep sea and there was a bit of a breeze. The fire was as immense as Ralph and Jack had just put new logs over the fire. After a while, Jack and Ralph went their separate ways and each of them told us to watch the fire even though they know we aren’t very good at having jobs and being organized. 

The sun was starting to fall beneath the mountain, the view was impeccable soon after everyone started to head to bed except for Sam and I. As Ralph went to bed he reminded us once again not to let the fire out. He had told us this so many times that I think he thinks we're clueless. We both ended up accidentally falling asleep which meant no one was watching the fire for most of the night. I instructed Sam to quickly grab some logs and relight the fire while I distracted the others.

“I don’t think anyone noticed, Sam, but that was way too close, we have to come up with a game plan and be more organized,” I said very discreetly.

“Let’s discuss this so-called ‘game plan’ tonight when everyone is distracted by the meeting” replied Sam with a halfhearted tone.

“How do you know there is a meeting? Well, that’s beside the point, at least we have a game plan now” I said, confused and relieved.

As the day progressed we became more and more worried that the others would find out about our mishap last night. Ralph then grabbed a portion of the big ‘uns and little ‘uns for his daily lecture about how important it is to keep the fire going and to not side with Jack because his ideas were foolish and absurd. Sam and I looked over and through the trees to see if Jack was hunting as we thought he was. He and his hunters were acting like fools and prancing around a herd of pigs. Sure enough, neither one of them came back with food. As we all noticed that there wasn’t any food everyone grew disappointed by this time the sun was almost down. Soon after Ralph blew the conch and we all gathered on the platform, however, Jack and his hunters had disappeared. Sam and I looked at each other with a sense of relief. We then realized that this was a better distraction than we planned the meeting would be. Ralph was very frustrated that Jack and his hunters were nowhere to be found and assigned us all jobs. Sam and I got assigned to go look through all the brush that had burned the first time Jack set the forest on fire. On the way there Sam and I looked all over the place to make sure no one was around and heard our conversation. 

“Eric! Let’s go over here no one will ever know and they will just think we are looking for Jack and the hunters” said Sam eagerly.

“Okay, I’m coming. What’s the game plan?” I said intrigued

“I don’t know, do you have any ideas on how we can coordinate and do better at our jobs?” Sam said, puzzled.

“I say we should take shifts as our parents did back home at their work. We switch out every two hours, so when everyone goes to bed you watch and build the fire for two hours while I rest, and then …. Oh no, someone's coming be quiet.” I said with an organized and then stressed tone.

“Okay, they are gone now. What were you saying?” said Sam.

“Oh and then after your two-hour shift I will watch the fire and build it up while you rest and so on,” I said somewhat out of breath.

“So basically we take two-hour shifts and rotate out to watch the fire and make sure it doesn’t go out again?” said Sam with an understanding tone.

“Yeah, you get it. Hopefully, this will work!” I said with a relieved and hopeful tone.

Once the sun had set all the way and it was pitch black, Ralph blew the conch. Everyone gathered once again, all of us looking to see if Jack and his hunters were found. Sure enough, Roger found them and forgot to tell everyone. He said that they had gotten carried away and went swimming in the ocean. Ralph was so angry that he couldn’t even speak, his face was redder than a tomato. Everyone started chattering amongst themselves about this whole incident. Ralph after about four minutes said his first words which were “You forgot! How do you just forget?” Roger then mumbled something about how Ralph was exaggerating, but that’s all I could make out. Ralph heard him mumble just as I and all of the others had and he lost it. Ralph went over to Roger and told him to come to talk with him. Everyone was very surprised by Ralph’s behavior and went off to their normal jobs. No one heard an ounce of what happened with Ralph and Roger, but no one dared to ask or speak of the incident. 

A little while after, the others and I went to rest except for Sam because of our new system. I nodded off for what felt like hours and woke up to Sam screaming in my ear “It’s your turn!” I realized that the fire looked a little low so I went down to where the extra logs were briskly and threw them on the fire. I was alone with my thoughts and started to think about back home. I tried to remember what time it was there and what activities would be happening. As time went by I noticed that it was about to be Sam’s turn, but I also realized how fast the time went by when we are organized. Just as I was about to wake Sam up, Ralph came out to sit by the fire and look at the stars. I asked him if he was okay after today and everything that happened. He said he was, but he just missed home and hoped that soon someone will find us. After talking to him I grew sad and went to go get Sam so he would go watch the fire. The sun rose a little after and the birds started to chirp. Everyone started to get up and start their day with a bath. Soon after everyone gathered for the morning get-together. Ralph went over the jobs and apologized for his behavior yesterday and explained that he was just very homesick.

 After this everyone went to work, the hunters went hunting, and Sam and I watched the fire to make sure it wouldn’t go out. The hunters after about three hours or so came and asked Sam for his help. So Sam went off with them to go help them with something while I stayed and kept the fire going. The fire was big as Sam and I had just put fresh logs on after the get-together. I looked at the ocean to see if there was any sight of rescue. Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything other than a few dolphins jumping in and out of the water. Ralph came and asked if there were any sightings. I had to break the bad news that there weren’t any sightings, but I gave him my word that if I did I would report to him immediately. After Ralph left I started to talk to the little ‘uns about how it was back home and out of the corner I saw something… I turned around instantly, it was a ship! I yelled down to Ralph excitedly and let him know. He blew the conch, everyone reported and we all started to make the fire much bigger. After a while of doing this, Sam yelled to be careful not to burn the forest as Jack had before. We did as well as we could and began to stop. Then Piggy went closer to shore, trying to signal the ship, and realized it was one of our enemies in the current war. He grew very concerned and instantly yelled for the fire to be put out! Within seconds the fire was put out, but everyone was confused and wondered why the fire had to be put out. Piggy then pulled Jack and Ralph aside to discuss what he saw. He explained that it was an enemy and that we would be better off just staying out here in the wilderness rather than being captured by the attackers of our nation. A while after their conversation, Jack blew the conch and explained the incident. Everyone chattered and Jack went off yelling at Piggy for telling everyone to put the fire out. 

“Ralph, can we talk?” said Jack in a sad voice.

“What do you want Jack?” replied Ralph.

“I just want to say I'm sorry for my behavior and I see what you mean about the importance of maintaining the fire,” said Jack with a disappointed look.

“It’s okay, but now we need to work together,” said Ralph with a forgiving tone. 

We all went about our ways staring at the beautiful skyline filled with birds singing. Everyone headed to sleep early so now it was just Sam and I. Sam was messing with a branch that had vines and leaves all over it. The vines were covered with thorns like a rose. I took the branch from Sam and told him to look at it very closely because I wanted him to remember the roses and flowers back home. Today was an emotional day and I wish it would have been our way back home, but unfortunately, we are better off here.  As the moon started to rise from under the mountain tops I realized something. There was another ship, I was quite surprised seeing that it was the same day we had seen human activity other than of course among ourselves. The light of the boat shone over the waters like a lighthouse. Maybe they will see us and our fire I was thinking. I didn’t want to excite the others so I just kept a close eye on the waters. The ship then was anchored and some army men started to look for something or someone amongst the trees. Now, this was the time to get everyone up so I did. We all started yelling and jumping trying to get their attention. An army troop heard our screaming and started to climb up the mountain. All that was running through my head was please don’t be an enemy troop and let us be saved. The troops started yelling that they were not bad, that they found out your location when Jack accidentally set the forest on fire. They said they were very sorry it took them so long, but they couldn’t pinpoint our location because this is uncharted territory. The army started to tell us that they were just sailing around in uncharted territory hoping to find human life and then they found us. We now get to go back home! The only question is how are we going to make this work since all of our parents died when the plane got shot down.