VOLATILE (I) : peter pan ouat

When a Disagreement Happened

Day: 11

Cold fingers are on my neck as I sit straight up in the hammock. I roll out sideways, landing hard against the ground. My hands find their way on to the cloak of the boy kneeling in front of me, whose soft hands shake against mine. He rubs my hands, I can hear him breathing.

I suddenly realize the boy was not trying to strangling me. Who in their right mind puts their hands on a sleeping person's neck to try to wake them up?

"Harry?" I ask, surprised.

It's dark and it's hard to see the boy, but I can make out his basic features. Big ears, short, black hair, just like Harry.

The boy shakes his head quickly back and forth, his hands resting on mine.

"Thomas?" I whisper.

He nods, so I put him down. It's been a while since I've actually seen Thomas. He has been with Lyle and Max so much, and I have been with them so little. I decide that I will talk to them in the morning, see how they've been doing all this time.

"What's going on?" I ask.

Thomas grabs my hand and takes me outside the tent. We walk through the campground to the medic tent. Once we get inside I see the two boys, who finally made it back, lying together. Caleb is still passed out, but he has finally rolled onto his back. At least his face is out of the dirt. The other boy, Wilbur, is frothing at the mouth, spit pouring down his cheeks. His fingers twitch back and forth, and his eyes are glossy.

"Where's Jared?" I ask Thomas, suddenly wide-awake. "Do you know where he sleeps?"

Thomas shakes his head back and forth. It seems the kid still isn't speaking.

I run out of the tent and begin looking along the tents for Jared. I finally get to a tent where I spot Jared, floating high-up in a hammock. I step on one of the hammocks down lower, trying carefully to avoid the boy. The boy grabs my ankle and pulls me down, pinning me of the ground as he falls on top of me.

"Charlie. What are you doing?" The boys seethes.

It's Alex.

"It's Wilbur, we need Jared." I tell him.

Alex quickly gets off of me and stands up. He yanks on a rope attached to Jared's hammock and Jared immediately falls to the ground, feet first.

Jared groans, getting up. "What's the emergency?"

"Is this how you always wake him up?" I ask. "Seems extravagant, and completely unnecessary."

"Something is up with Wilbur, would you go..." Alex trails off, ignoring my question.

Jared nods walking out the tent. I begin to follow him before Alex grabs hold of me.

"If you're smart you'll go back to bed. We don't need you getting in his way, alright?"

I rip my arm from his grip but walk out of the tent anyway.

Thomas does not follow me, he just stands inside the tent. I begin to walk back in before Alex gently pushes the kid out.

We walk back to our tent in silence. I crawl into my hammock and wait for sleep to reach me.

I can't believe I got waken up for this. What a waste of a good night.

I wake up the next morning, and walk out of the tent. I wade through a sea of all the boys running around and get to the Medic tent. I walk inside and see the tent empty, except for Caleb and Wilbur. I guess Jared took care of him.

I walk back out only to be greeted immediately by Thomas. He grabs my hand and takes me over to where Max and Lyle are sitting in a circle. They are eating some sort of egg, I doubt it's from a chicken, and some various green vegetables. I choose not to ask.