Fear on the Mountain (Chapter 6, perspective of Simon)

Today started off energy filled. Samneric yelled about seeing the beast this morning. That woke everyone up. But of course, during all the commotion, no one tended to the fire. And it went out. Again. We're never gonna get off this island at this rate. But then Ralph called an assembly. He let Samneric tell the story about how they saw the beastie. It frightened many of us, including me. Of course, during the middle of the assembly, Jack took control and started making decisions without anyone's approval. He decided for the group to go and hunt down the beast. Amazingly, mostly everyone agreed to this plan. Ralph soon was all over the group about how they didn't want to keep the fire going. And how they didn't want to be rescued. Really, thats the only thing Ralph talks about anymore. The fire. And being rescued. I can see his concern for it, but he's obscessing over it. Don't do this, you've got to be tending to the fire. Stop playing around, tend to the fire, don't you want to be rescued? After Ralph's short speech about being rescued and keeping the fire going, all the Bigguns went into the forest to hunt for the beast. Jack narrowed the places to where the beast could be to one place high up on the mountain, as Jack had been everywhere on the island except this place. As we were walking, I tried to talk to Ralph, but I couldn't. Even on this island, speaking out is supressed by the pure pressure of saying something wrong. The other Biguns and I waited at the bottom of the mountain as we watched Ralph, and later Jack, ascend the mountain. All I could do was wait at the bottom, doing nothing. I felt so helpless against the beast. Finally, Jack and Ralph came down from the mountain, empty handed. But Jack told all the other kids about how cool it would be if they built a fort up there and at this, all the Biguns got excited and started rolling rocks around. Ralph got mad at this, and started yelling at all the kids that were rolling rocks around. He said that rolling rocks around was a waste of time, and that they shouldn't be doing that. The sheer force in Ralph's voice made all the boys stop. I hope that we will get off this island soon, and leave the responsibility of the fire, the shelters, and even the fear of the beast.