The Troop

The hungry man from the diner parks the truck and steals a boat. His stomach has ruptured from excessive eating, but he doesn’t notice—he’s distracted by his hunger. He’s also on the run: He escaped from someone named Edgerton, and he worries they’ll come after him because he knows their “secret” and is “toxic.” He plans on hiding on a remote island, which he drives the boat to. He then spots a light in the distance and wanders toward it, hoping to find food.

Falstaff Island is essentially a government-owned nature preserve that is home to a lot of wildlife, but no permanent human residents. However, there is a shelter there that is sometimes used for educational purposes or emergencies.

Dr. Tim Riggs, who is also a Scoutmaster, has taken his troop (52) of five 14-year-old boys on their annual weekend trip to Falstaff Island. A boat dropped them off, and now they’re alone on the island for a full weekend until the same boat returns to pick them up. It’s the first night of their trip, and the boys are in bed but not asleep yet. Tim drinks some scotch and reflects upon how this trip is a nice break for the boys and him as well. Though Tim did bring a radio in case of emergencies, nobody brought cell phones, as they are taking a break from technology and civilization. They almost didn’t get to come this year because there was supposed to be a storm. Tim is in his forties, isn’t married, and has no children. Instead, he enjoys caring for the boy scouts and the townspeople—he’s the only General Practitioner in North Point. This year will probably be the last they get to go on the trip because the boys are getting a little old for it. The scouts are Kent (a “jock”), Newt (a “nerd”), Max and Ephraim (who are “harder to define” (12)), and Shelley (who seems “vacant”). Tim goes outside and sits on the porch.

The hungry man struggles forward, finally locating the path leading toward the light he spotted.

In the cabin’s bedroom, Ephraim tells the other boys a scary story about Gurkhas—child soldiers from Nepal. He claims their plane crashed near this island, so they could still be there. Scoutmaster Tim tells the boys to go to sleep. The boys tease Newt that the Gurkhas will come after him.

Tim hears a boat arrive, although nobody else is supposed to be coming to the island. Usually, Tim is calm, but now he starts to worry. Someone approaches the cabin, and Tim stands up to confront him, not knowing what to expect. At first, he thinks it’s a creature or “monster,” then a skeleton, and then he realizes it’s a malnourished man. The man, who is eating dirt, asks Tim if he has food. Tim says he does. The man stumbles and Tim reaches out to catch him; in the moment, Tim feels something move under the man’s shirt. Tim hesitates to invite the stranger in, but he decides it’s his duty as a doctor to try to help. He brings the man inside to feed him. 

In addition to being thin, the man is also very pale. The tags on his clothes say “XL,” so Tim concludes he wasn’t always so thin. Tim tells the boys to stay in the bedroom because the stranger might be contagious. Kent says they should call for help, and Tim agrees, although Tim also says he’s a doctor and can handle it for now. However, Tim doesn’t have all his usual supplies with him, just a small kit.

The stranger enters a frenzy, breaks Tim’s radio, then coughs something up onto Tim’s face. The boys hear the crash of the radio and try to leave the bedroom, but Tim has locked the door. Tim injects the man with doxylamine, which puts him to sleep. He and the kids go to sleep, too, until Tim gets up in the middle of the night to eat.

The military now occupies North Point with a convoy. They created a barrier surrounding the area, and nobody is allowed to fly or boat around. 

In the morning, Kent wants to exit the bedroom. The other boys know he probably can’t do anything to help, but Kent always wants to test his limits around adults and is also overconfident, partially because his dad is the police chief. Some of the boys, including Max and Ephraim, who are best friends, as well as Newt, heard someone eating in the middle of the night. The boys emerge and notice a lot of empty snack containers in the trash. Tim claims he had the munchies.

Tim admits that the stranger destroyed the emergency radio and the boat won’t come to pick them up from their camping trip until the end of the weekend. He also admits he can’t find any identification on the man, so he doesn’t know who the man is or why he’s here. Tim already checked the boat the man arrived on; the spark plugs were missing, so it won’t start. Tim doesn’t know why the man destroyed his own means of transportation, but he doesn’t share the news about the boat with the boys, allowing them to think instead that the boat is just too small for them all to fit on. Tim sends the boys on a hike alone while he stays at the cabin to help the stranger.

This article is from the future, once the main events of the novel have unfolded (unlike the news articles, which are contemporary with the main events of the novel). The hungry stranger who visits the troop’s cabin is named Tom Padgett, who was 35 years old when he died. Tom’s mother shares that he was not a thin, malnourished, or hungry person—he was large until he participated in an experiment with Dr. Clive Edgerton.

The head of the Centre for Contagious Disease claims that Tom Padgett was a biological weapon on the loose, as Tom fled Edgerton’s lab even though he was contagious. It was too late for Tom by the time he ran away—Tom didn’t realize it, but he was already on the brink of death before he arrived on Falstaff Island.

Kent leads the group on the hike like always because he’s the biggest and most aggressive. He forces Max to give him the Walkie-Talkie even though Scoutmaster Tim said Max should carry it.

Kent gets the boys lost, and they end up at a cliff overlooking the ocean. They’re about three miles from North Point and see a lot of boats patrolling their home area, which aren’t normally there. Thunder jolts them, suggesting an incoming storm.

Ephraim’s therapist instructed him to journal about his anger for “homework.” Ephraim’s mom says his feelings of anger are his father’s influence. Ephraim tries to control his anger but finds it difficult when people provoke him.