Chapter Six

Beast from Air (Pages 103-118)

Plot
In the darkness late that night, Ralph and Simon carry a littlun back to the shelter before going to sleep. As the boys sleep, military airplanes battle fiercely above the island. None of the boys sees the explosions and flashes in the clouds because the twins Sam and Eric, who were supposed to watch the signal fire, have fallen asleep. During the battle, a parachutist drifts down from the sky onto the island, dead.

When Sam and Eric awake they tend to the fire and take the shadowy form of the parachutist as the beast. They rush back to the camp, wake Ralph and tell him what they have seen. Ralph calls a meeting and the boys go out looking for the beast equiped with wooded spears leaving Piggy behind with the littluns.

The boys soon reach a part of the island that none of them has ever explored before—a thin walkway that leads to a hill dotted with small caves. The boys are afraid to go across the walkway and around the ledge of the hill, so Ralph goes to investigate alone. He finds that, although he was frightened when with the other boys, he quickly regains his confidence when he explores on his own. Soon, Jack joins Ralph in the cave.

The group climbs the hill, and Ralph and Jack feel the old bond between them reforming. The other boys begin to play games, pushing rocks into the sea, and many of them lose sight of the purpose of their expedition. Ralph angrily reminds them that they are looking for the beast and says that they must return to the other mountain so that they can rebuild the signal fire. The other boys, however would rather build a fort on the new hill and are displeased by Ralph’s commands but grudgingly obey.