Chapter Text
“You saw?” Ashlyn whispered,
Tyler could feel tension wash over the room, but he couldn’t bring himself to say any more instead hanging his head, unable to meet their eyes.
“Oh God…” Logan said, his hand had pulled away from Tyler to cover his mouth “how…” Logan began before trailing off, understanding he probably wasn’t getting an answer.
Ben suddenly stood and stormed out the door, the short blond calling after him pleadingly as both disappeared down the corridor. Ashlyn and Logan shared a look before Logan nodded and pulled out his gun, chasing quickly after the two boys and leaving Ashlyn and Tyler alone.
The room was silent, that was aside from the low hum emitted from the lights,
Ashlyn stared at Tyler who remained with his eyes fixated on the floor.
It was weird seeing him like this, seeing him completely destroyed and lost for words wasn’t like him, she didn’t like it. She wasn’t sure what to say but she desperately wanted the silence to end, for Tyler to say something. Wordlessly, she crouched besides him; if Tyler noticed he didn’t show it, he looked completely engulfed by his thoughts.
“Tyler, I’-” Ashlyn stopped, the gravity of the situation catching up to her.
This was all her fault,
she had dragged them into this.
She was the reason her best friend was dead.
Her best friend was dead.
“I’m”
“I’m so sorry”
“I’m so sorry, if I hadn’t dragged you all in she-” her voice trembled as she forced the sentence out, tears burning in her eyes which she refused to let fall.
“It would have been better if you had never met me.” Ashlyn finally managed, unable to look at Tyler anymore.
Silence
Suddenly, she felt arms rap tightly around her,
Tyler was hugging her? It was ridiculous really, his sister was dead because of her, and now he was comforting her?
“You really need to stop being so mopey all the time, carrot top…” Tyler murmured. Ashlyn was stunned, before slowly returning the hug. Tears began silently streaming down her face, it was as though a dam had broken and all of her emotions caught up to her at once as she sobbed into Tyler’s shoulder.
They stayed that way for a while for a while, both trembling slightly as they sat together in silence.
A while later they were joined by the three boys again, by the looks of it Ben had been crying; his eyes looked irritated and refused to look directly at anyone.
Ashlyn and Tyler tried not to stare and instead looked to the two other boys. The four of them exchanged awkward looks, unsure on how to break the silence.
Logan started picking at his fingers as he tried to form a sentence.
“Tyler… we were wondering, if you were able… if you could tell us what happened?” Logan said,
“It’s… it’s ok if you can’t though!” He quickly added
Tyler stayed silent for a moment before exhaling.
“it’s ok…” he said slowly.
“You deserve to know.”
“You’re sure it was her?” Aiden said, his usual smile no longer present, as the group now shared a look of horror.
“Definitely.” Tyler grimaced.
“It could have been a trick, or a fake, or something!” Aiden pleaded, “you weren’t there very long right? Maybe they were treating her? Right?”
Tyler didn’t say anything.
“Shit…” Aiden whispered
“So, if they did the same ‘experiment’ with Ashlyn and Taylor, are we all going to do it?” Logan asked. “If that’s the case, they might be trying to see if we have different reactions to the infected.”
“That makes sense. They may want to see if we are immune or something. But we’re not.” Ben typed
“It makes no sense, why would they make all of us do it? They said it themselves that there’s only six like us. Why are they being so reckless? Ashlyn said, tapping her foot steadily as she spoke.
No one replied. They didn’t have an answer.
Tyler slowly opened his eyes, he was exhausted. He hadn’t felt this stressed since his death, but that had passed and it was over. He wished he could say the same for this. This only seemed to get worse by the minute.
Faintly, he heard the door swing open, Tyler sat up to see that Alex was entering his room, he was holding something white. It looked like a ring or a weird crown.
”I’m sorry about your sister, I haven’t seen her yet but I was told that she took quite a hit.” Alex began, Tyler scowled at him and Alex’s face softened “I can’t believe that they’re doing this… you’re just kids.”
“No way…” Tyler rolled his eyes, he genuinely couldn’t tell if Alex was lying or just an idiot, either way, he wasn’t wasting his time on him.
Alex sighed, “I’m sorry… I want to help, I really do, but it’s not as easy as it sounds. There are eyes everywhere, he glanced to the corner of Tyler’s room where the camera was once again sat alert.
“I know you and your friends have a way of communicating, so I need you all to play along for a bit.” His expression soured “escaping from your room and half blinding a guy only draws more attention to you, you know.” Oh… Tyler had completely forgotten about that, how was he supposed to know that would blind a guy.
“Anyway… they need me to put this on you. You probably know from your friends what’s about to happen.” Alex started fitting the white ring to Tyler’s head.
“They’re going to try and kill me like my sister?” The words didn’t feel right coming out of his mouth, it sounded too monotone, even for him.
“What.” Alex’s face paled, but two guards had already made their way into Tyler’s room and had begun to lead him away, leaving him without an answer.