𝐚 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐬 | Tyler Hernandez x Reader

| Ep 85 |

Happy Halloween, everyone!

If you guys were cool enough to dress up this year, what are you?

I went simple this year with a clean Choso look because he's fine and i'm fine so everything works perfectly 😍

"Y/N!" A voice shouts in my face as I stand frozen in place, "Let's go! NOW!"

A hand takes my wrist, dragging me down the corridor with the rest of the group. I don't even focus on the pace at which my legs are taking me, too distracted by the repeated flashes of my dad's face storming my head.

I don't feel bad, nor do I regret what I had to do. But I still feel this sickening agony in the pit of my stomach. Why? He deserved what happened. He deserves to be dead.

So why does it still hurt?

"Tyler, man, she's slowing us down!" Aiden calls out from several feet ahead.

I'm brought back to the present and look in front of me to see Tyler's hand gripping my arm. His back is to me as he guides me along, but it feels like my legs aren't moving at all.

I hear him let out a sharp sigh in frustration at Aiden's words. He comes to a quick halt and looks over his shoulder at me, "I know you're not in your right mind, but do you think you can keep up, amor?"

I open my mouth to speak, but not a word spills out. His gaze hardens and he scoops me up and throws me over his shoulder. A small yelp escapes my lips as my upper body folds over.

I feel his biceps flex around my thighs as he adjusts his hold on me. He then breaks into a run to catch up to the rest of the group, who didn't bother to slow down when we stopped.

I lift my head up to see how close the guards were to us now. We still had several feet on them so we weren't going to worry. And they haven't opened fire, meaning whoever sent them wanted us alive.

CRASH!

An infected leaps around the corner, lunging right for one of the guards. I gasp, which catches Tyler's attention. He turns his head long enough to see what was going on and I hear him mutter,

"Mierda..." He looks back over at the rest of the group, "Ay! There's more of 'em!"

Ashlyn and Logan stop in their tracks, and the latter does not hesitate to raise his gun and clock the nearest infected. It seemed they were appearing around every corner we turned.

"Nice shot!" Aiden praises, patting Logan on the back and urging him forward.

Several more minutes of running down halls and shooting down anyone in our path, things start to quiet down. The guards either weren't able to keep up, or the infected caught up to them.

A soft tap on my leg shifts my attention to the boy carrying me.

"As much as I like the quiet," He huffs out a few breaths, never breaking his stride, "I don't like when you go quiet."

I stare down at his back muscles, not feeling like talking at all. I just wanted to get as far away from this hell hole as possible.

"Y/N...please."

I squeeze my eyes shut, trying my best to not melt at his plea. I wasn't ready. I wasn't ready to admit how I felt about what I did.

"Put me down." I speak, my voice coming out a little hoarse after not saying anything for a while.

"Huh?" His grip on my legs only tightens.

"Tyler, put me down." I repeat and attempt to shove myself off of him. The pressure I put on his shoulder causes my chest wound to tear the slightest bit. I restrain the grunt that threatens to escape me and instead stop moving.

Unlike most times, he doesn't put up a fight and allows me to climb off of him. I don't spare him a glance and match the pace of the rest of the groups.

I catch up to Ben, whose eyes don't veer to mine for a hot minute. But once they do, I look back up at him just long enough to watch him sign, Better him than you.

That really put things into perspective for me. Ben was right, it would have likely been me dead on the floor if I didn't pull the trigger.

This is what it means to endure and survive. This is how we've all managed to make it this far.

"Guys," Taylor says, "I spot another one!"

We all turn our heads and spot a trio of guards appearing from down the hall. But that wasn't what Taylor noticed first. What really caught her attention was the vicious infected patient mauling one of the guards.

The sight was gruesome, but not the worst thing we've had the pleasure of witnessing. Logan points his gun at it, but doesn't get a chance to shoot before Tyler grabs ahold of him.

"Leave them," He orders, dragging Logan along with him, "They can handle themselves. We need to go!"

Logan hesitates leaving the man to die, but knows Tyler's right. He lowers his gun and follows us. But we don't make it far before a new voice calls out to us.

"Hey brats!"

Up ahead is a man dressed in a black button-up and slacks, with a shaved head for hair. He perfectly matched the description of the man Alex told us to look out for. He was here to help.

But none of us make a move to welcome him with open arms, rightfully keeping our guard up. But the new guy, Charlie, we picked up earlier didn't seem at all wary.

"Ryan?" He points a finger at the bald man, "What are you doing here?"

"Charlie? Aren't you supposed to be locked up as punishment right now—"

Ryan took one step forward when Ashlyn jogged up to push him, "Okay, yeah, whatever reunion this is, it can wait. Some idiot let the infected loose and we're running out of time."

He's startled at first when he begins getting shoved, but he makes little effort to fight against it, "Hey- I did it 'cause we needed another distraction. You should be thanking me!"

"You let them out?! ON PURPOSE?" I shout, running by Taylor's side now. This was probably the loudest I've been today.

"You do know that they're attracted to us, right?!" Tay asks, refraining from ripping him apart.

"What?!" The color visibly leaves Ryan's face.

I am about to get my hands on him, which Tyler is quick to interfere, but Ashlyn's voice makes us all halt immediately when she orders, "Everyone, stop!"

She stretches her arm out to prevent me from running any further. I feel her elbow dig into my chest, knocking the wind out of me and shooting an uncomfortable pain through my body.

Just as she stops us, an infected lunges right before our very eyes, barely missing Ashlyn by an inch. His head spins in our direction, angered that he missed his target.

Tyler frantically smacks Logan's shoulder, "Logan, shoot!"

His hand trembles as he aims the gun at the infected, "I can't! The others are in the—"

BANG!

The infected drops dead on the floor, oozing out black blood from its side. My eyes fly in the direction of the gunshot and lock eyes on the woman who started this all. The friendly face who welcomed us to the alternate dimension that singlehandedly changed our lives.

"Well," The short-haired brunette casually steps over the dead body, "Ryan, I was expecting. But Charlie's a surprise."

I spare a glance to Ryan, whose eyes are on the verge of popping out of his head. The woman has the audacity to grin, tapping the tip of her gun to her lips as she says,

"What should I do in this situation? I feel so betrayed on Mavie's behalf, y'know?"