The War A Piece From His New Novel The Story of My Life: By Ralph Ferguson As the Officer rowed us boys back to the ship, I thought everything was going to be OK. When we boarded the ship I got a weird feeling something bad was going to happen but thinking it was only me and how long we had been away from home, I decided to put that thought behind me. The Captain led us to our rooms so we could have a good night rest then he was going to interrogate us in the morning. I was paired off with Jack, Sam, Eric and Roger. After the boys got settled down Jack said to me, " Ralph, I'm sorry for everything that happened on the island things got way out of hand and you were right, things did fall apart. Will you ever forgive me?" After what seemed like an hour I finally said, "Yes, but two people died because of our lack of responsibility and now we will have to live with that for the rest of our lives."
Jack Teagarden
English: "John Smith," line engraving from the 18t...
Eric Pollard"Yeah but, it wasn't our fault it was the island it made us all go crazy, we couldn't help it" replied Roger.
That was true and all of us knew it. After a while we all fell asleep until we heard a loud booming noise. Jack and I instantly jumped out of bed. "What was that?" the two twins both yelled out.
"It sounded like thunder only louder and closer" I said.
"Lets go ask someone what is going on," said Jack.
So all of us boys went out of our rooms and met up with Bill and Robert. Together the seven of us crept silently out into the main hallway; there was no one in sight. "Hmmmm, that's weird shouldn't there be soldiers and people walking around," said Bill "Yeah that is weird, there should be people scurrying about everywhere" I replied All of a sudden we heard a weird noise coming from up on deck. We decided to go up on deck and see where everyone was.
Ever so quietly us boys went up to the stairs, but when we got to the top of the stairs I told them all to stop. Up ahead I saw a German soldier with a gun pointed at the man who came to the island to save them, I had earlier found out his name was Captain John Smith, as I was listening to the what the English speaking German soldier and the Captain were saying I found out that the Germans were taking over the ship, holding everyone hostage and demanding ransom or the crew would be killed.
I told everyone to go back downstairs so that we could figure out a plan. I decided we should radio for help but Jack being a hunter said we should fight.
"We can't fight off the Germans, they have guns and we don't have weapons," I said with anger.
"But we do have weapons" said Jack " I have my Pocket Knife and we could sharpen broom sticks and stab the Germans with those.
"You expect us to use sharpened broomsticks against grown men who have been trained in the field of battle, and plus they have guns we don't" I replied.
"Yes but they don't know we are here, so we can surprise them" Jack said with determination in his eyes.
"OK if you want to fight the Germans with your sticks we will, but first we have to radio out for help or back up or something." I added.
So we all got to work, Jack, Roger and I went to the kitchen to find broomsticks but we found more than that. Knives all over the place, we took as many as we could and as many broom sticks as possible. Then we went back up to my room to figure out what we were doing. Sam, Eric, Bill and Robert were told to wait in my room until we got back with supplies, for about half an hour we sat there sharpening broomsticks and practicing with the knives.
We then decided to call for help we knew the control room would be guarded but we didn't know how heavily, so with that in mind I decided we better split up into two groups so if one group gets caught there is still a second chance. The first group consisted of Jack, Robert, Bill, and Roger. They decided they would try first. But Jack said he would not go into battle without war paint so we went back down to the kitchen and looked for anything that we could use for war paint, out of the corner of my eye I saw a woodstove with ashes from the wood left in the stove.
So we all put ashes on our faces and we also found black clothes in the pantry. Jack and his group of soldiers decided it was time for battle, we went up to the top of the stairs with them and watched their progress, our group was Sam, Eric and Me and we weren't the best hunters in the group but we did know how to defend ourselves against death, as we watched our comrades go into battle, we were amazed by how quick and agile the hunters were, they snuck in the side door and Jack stabbed the closest guy to him with his spear and the German man went down in pain, by the time he hit the floor he was dead. Robert and Bill both threw their sticks at the two guards that were guarding the entrance to the control room. Instantly they both died. That left only two soldiers left in the room, Jack ran at the largest one with his knife and thrust it into the mans abdomen a word never even escaped his throat. But the second man saw what was going on and he fired at Roger, Roger went down and I never even had a chance to think, I just acted, I ran in and stabbed the man over and over again, until I heard people running and then I started to run, I met up with Sam and Eric and I told them to run as fast as they could, and they did. We ran into the kitchen and hid in the meat locker. After awhile we came out because we were cold.
We got something to eat and then we went to find Jack and everyone else, we went to where we could see all the soldiers and crew. Tied up beside the Captain, were Jack, Bill and Robert. A man was beating Jack and Jack was yelling in pain, I almost lost it but right at that moment Sam told me to keep my cool so that I wouldn't get killed. I listened to him, then I started thinking about the situation we were faced with I counted how many soldiers there were I decided we needed a distraction and maybe some more powerful weapons. We went back to the control room and surprisingly the bodies and the guns were still there. I grabbed a machine gun and a handgun from a dead body and gave a machine gun to each of the twins. I decided I was going to be the distraction and Sam and Eric had to free the hostages, so I figure out how I was going to make a distraction and I had to make sure all the soldiers came after me.
So I sent the boys on their way and started to carry out my plan, and my assumptions were right I found the cans of gas in the engine room and I took off my shirt and soaked it in gasoline, then I stuffed it in the can of gas I found a lighter in the cabinet beside the engine room door and lit the shirt on fire and ran away and hid, the can exploded and soon enough there were almost all the soldiers seeing what was going on I stood up and yelled "This is for Roger", and opened fire I took out the first 20 guys with my machine gun then started with the handgun I shot 5 out of the remaining 10 guys before I was shot in the arm, as I dropped to the ground in agony I wondered how the twins were doing.
The twins were having a battle themselves as soon as they heard the explosion they headed to where the crew were being held prisoners. As Sam started to shoot at the 7 guys left, Eric went and started to cut the ropes that held the Captains hands together and he gave the knife to the Captain who then untied Jack, Jack then told Eric to give him his gun, because he had a little business to deal with and with that being said he went off to find me. As I looked up at the soldier with the birthmark on his face, it reminded me of the boy who said he saw a beastie, the soldier then pointed his gun at my head and said, "Any last prayers," then from out of nowhere jack was there and said, "his prayers are being answered now" and shot the guy, the others opened fire on him and he jumped down beside me, he asked me if I was OK and I said yes so he helped me to my feet and I grabbed my gun, then together we both jumped out from behind the box we were behind and started to shoot the German soldiers, we hit everyone of them and then we both fell down on the ground with exhaustion, we were tired and we needed sleep.
I fell asleep on the boat and when I awoke the next morning we were docking in England, when we got off the boat I asked where my friends were and they said they went to see their families and that there was going to be an award assembly to honor our heroic journey we had and to congratulate us on our fight against the Germans, I sat beside Jack, Sam, Eric and everyone else who was there and then I was crying and I couldn't stop the Queen said it was OK and gave me a big hug.
To our surprise, the Queen knighted us all and we had Tea and Crumpets with her, we got plaques and medals honoring our bravery.
Now 20 years later the gang still calls me and we go out for a drink at the bar, Jack is happily married with two kids, which by the way he called Piggy and Simon. Sam and Eric own a company that sells office supplies and as for me I am a writer and a journalist, I own a newspaper company and have no kids or wife but I'm happy with my life.
And now I leave you with this book about my life so far and I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I have enjoyed writing it.
The End
English: Jack Kerouac by photographer Tom Palumbo,...
A .50 caliber M2 machine gun: John Browning's desi...
Field Maneuvers - W. German Army (Bundeswehr) with...
Closeup of M2 – This machine gun is part of a co...
English: A MG4 of the German Army
English: Jack O'Neill with Representative Sam Farr