Wow, this is great. Really well written and intriguing. A few things— separation of paragraphs would be good. I think you’re missing a few commas here and there, and you might consider a semicolon instead of a comma after “No one left the group”.

That aside, great job, and welcome to Ficly!

I guess it’s a case of getting back on the bike again, if I every was on it ever before. The words are in my head and now I need to relearn the craft of getting them onto the paper; having the dialogue flow like it does for me.