Tyler watched every step that he took, memorizing every stick and stone out of boredom. He listened in on everyone's conversations since no one seemed to ever want to talk to him.
Derek, breaking every stick underfoot, deadly silent behind him. Violet and Faith whispering about something to do with their jumpsuits being restricting and hard to hike in. Before he could extend his ears to Charlie and Scarlett, Xander slowed down to match Tyler's pace.
"Why are you walking by yourself?" Xander asked, his innocent blue orbs peaking up at him.
Tyler didn't really have an answer, nor did he feel like talking anyway.
He hadn't gotten much sleep the night before. The wind howling had kept him up; the crunchy leaves had scraped across the tent all night, making Tyler's imagination run wild.
Remembering his dream, he shivered, shoving it out of his head.
"Why are you?" Tyler turned it around.
Xander dropped his round face down to look at his wrist where a large red blotch had been growing. Xander hadn't stopped scratching at it the whole hike.
Tyler noticed a lump at the base of his thumb.
"Violet doesn't -." Xander started, but Tyler cut him off, his curiosity overcoming his need to be polite.
"What is that?" Tyler tapped his own wrist in the same spot.
He looked down again, then stretched his arm up to Tyler to show him.
"It's a bump, but I don't know where it came from." He said, sort of bored.
"When did it show up?" Tyler prodded.
"I've had it for a long time." Xander poked his index finger at it before shrugging.
Tyler noticed that it looked like a slender pill under the skin, quite abnormal for any sort of birthmark or bug bite.
That's when it hit him.
"Come on." He said, grabbing the boy's arm.
"Scarlett, look at this." Tyler squeezed her upper arm.
She turned to him and stopped, Charlie, following suit.
"Is that what I think it is?" Charlie leaned over Scarlett's shoulder, squinting.
"What do you think it is?" Scarlett looked at Charlie over her shoulder with fear-stricken eyes.
He met them with a hard look like he hoped it wasn't.
He came around and kneeled in front of Xander.
"C'mere, bud." He said through a gruff exhale; he pulled Xander's wrist closer to him.
Derek appeared behind Tyler; the hairs on the back of his neck stood at attention, alerting him of Derek's presence.
It's not just me; it's creepy, right? Tyler thought.
You can only hear Derek if he wants you to.
Tyler shuddered and took a step forward, surveying the group. The girls were looking on, whispering a few feet indecipherably to his left, Derek behind him, Xander in front of him, and Charlie and Scarlett examining him.
After a second of charlie feeling around the bump with his thumb, his eyes went wide, and he whirled around to Scarlett and grabbed her wrist, turning it over.
"Ow, what are you doing? I don't have one." Scarlett said as she yanked her arm back.
"It's a tracker, Scarlett; we could all have them." Charlie's eyes flitted around the 7 of us.
