The Troop

When the boys return to the cabin, it’s dark. Tim is outside by the fire and forbids the boys from entering the cabin because the sick man might be contagious. Tim doesn’t know what the man has and is still shaken after observing him try to eat the chesterfield journal. In order to find out more, Tim would have to cut into the man, but he’s not a surgeon and doesn’t have the proper equipment with him. A rational voice inside Tim’s head who sounds like Hal 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey warns him against taking such an action. However, a new, competing voice convinces Tim to do it, and he asks Max to help him attempt an investigatory surgery.

Tim and Max enter the cabin, where Tim orders Max to wear a makeshift face mask. Tim doesn’t wear one because he believes he’s already sick himself. He’s eaten a lot of their weekend food already, so he has Max take the rest outside now. Ready to proceed, Tim cuts into the man’s body, planning to enter his stomach and intestines. Tim peels back one layer of the stomach lining, but there seem to be several more layers of lining, which makes no sense to Tim. The voices in Tim’s head bicker about whether he should keep going or quit now. Tim becomes hungry, distracted, and confused. Max tries to get his attention, but Tim does not react until feeling something moving inside the man. Tim screams.

A large white tube emerges from the incision in the man’s body. It flexes, constricts, and moves as if alive. It’s a worm. Tim cuts it, and it grows more limbs. Tim warns Max not to let any of the worms get on him. The other boys hear commotion and try to enter the cabin, but Tim has locked them out. The worm continues unraveling out of the man’s body, appearing to grow, until it wraps around the man’s neck, strangling him to death. Tim takes a swig of whiskey, then swears at the boys, insisting they stay far away from the cabin.

Back outside, sitting around the fire with the boys, Tim explains that what appeared to be inside the dead man was similar to a tapeworm, but larger and thicker than any Tim has ever heard about. Tim knows that tapeworms eat whatever nutrients their host ingests, depriving the host of nutrients and slowly starving it. However, Tim doesn’t explain this process to the boys because he thinks it would scare them. Some of the boys have had worms before and didn’t die because they were standard worms and the boys got proper treatment from Tim at his actual doctor’s office. The boys therefore won’t understand how a tapeworm could kill someone. Tim tells them the worm strangled the man and admits that he was scared. Kent says that Tim shouldn’t be scared at a time when action is needed. Max says the worm is dead now because Tim sliced it. Tim says parasites die when their host dies anyway.

The boys beg Tim to take them home using the stranger’s boat. Tim says he’ll take them home the following day. In reality, the boat is broken, and Tim is too tired to do anything.

These notes detail Dr. Edgerton’s fourth test subject: a guinea pig into which he injects the modified hydatid (worm) that he bioengineered. For three hours, nothing happens. Then the guinea pig starts making agitated sounds and eating or chewing on non-food objects such as its cage, wood chips, and feces. An hour later, worms start coming out of the guinea pig’s excretory tract. The guinea pig’s noises become more agitated, then eventually stop.

The guinea pig starts eating its own flesh, but it doesn’t seem to be in pain or aware of its actions. The guinea pig has a gastrointestinal rupture, and more worms escape its body. The guinea pig starts chewing on air, ruptures again, excretes more worms, then dies. Three minutes later, all the worms are also dead. The guinea pig went from 1350 to 490 grams within the span of less than six hours, with a net weight loss of 860 grams.

The narration briefly flashes forward, revealing that in 15 minutes, Kent will have the idea to lock Tim in the closet, and the other boys will help.

The narration then flashes back to Kent disobeying Tim and entering the cabin to see the worm. Shelley wants to see it as well, but Max warns them it’s dangerous and to at least wear a mask. Kent claims he needs to see what the problem is in order to determine the best course of action. The boys enter the cabin, and Tim follows, knocking Kent down and declaring there’s nothing to be done, and the disease could be airborne. Shelley asks why Tim would attempt surgery or have Max assist, if it could be airborne. Tim doesn’t have an answer, but he tries to get the boys outside still. A helicopter flies overhead. Tim claims the boat will still come pick them up as scheduled, and they can leave then, but the boys are suspicious. Tim gets dizzy, and Kent realizes he’s sick. Kent then orders the boys to lock Tim in the closet, and the boys obey. Shelley eggs Kent on to take a drink of Tim’s whiskey, which he does, despite Max’s protests.

Nathan Erikson started working for Dr. Edgerton after graduating from his doctoral program, where he studied worms, although not the same type of worms Edgerton was working on. He didn’t have any other job offers, so he accepted Edgerton’s. He regrets it now because of what happened, but he didn’t expect such a tragedy to occur. Erikson wasn’t allowed to talk about their work because they were developing a pill for a pharmaceutical company that could cause rapid and effortless weight loss.

Once the mob mentality has dissipated, Newt regrets locking Tim in the closet, but the others still feel okay about it, and leave him there. The boys discuss the dead man and try to compare him to other things they’ve seen—dead pets or grandparents dressed up in coffins—but nothing compares. Newt still worries the boat won’t come as scheduled, but the others just tell him to “shut up.”