Tyler's Point of View:
A week.
It took a damn week before the first sign of boats appeared. When someone did see a boat, mass excitement and panic ran through the group of survivors. Many of them believed the boats were saviors. The others thought it was ending. Some people actually believed that the people on the boats were coming to put an end to them all, to do a mass cleaning of the island of the U.K. Those who believed that thought it was Americans coming. Those who thought help was finally here believed that it was people from Spain or France, maybe Italy. None of them knew. All they knew was to stand on what the could and wave, praying that they weren't about to be killed.
Tyler and Troye were apart of the groups waving. Phil was trying to get all he could packed in two bags. Tyler didn't notice that there were only two filled bags, one for Tyler and one for Troye, but Phil still had his stuff.
When the boats hit the docks, the only word that could describe what happened was panic. All the people tried to rush onto the boat, but guards were trying to hold them back. Tyler couldn't make out what they were saying, but he was sure that it was in Spanish. Spain had come to help them.
The guards lined up, blocking the ways onto the boats and ordered people to line up in an orderly fashion. Tyler had to cling onto Troye. He didn't want to lose his boyfriend in the crowd of people. Twice he had to look behind him, check if Phil was there, and twice he was there. He was sure that Troye was holding onto Phil's hand.
Shouting continued, forcing the three men to separate to be checked. Tyler watched as Troye and Phil were taken to two other guards men, watching as the men took the other two off somewhere.
At first, the guard started asking Tyler questions in Spanish. When he bee realized that Tyler didn't know Spanish, he started asking questions in English with a heavy accent.
"Sir, were you bitten?"
"No."
"Have you been contaminated with blood or other liquids from the zombies?"
"No."
"Allow me to draw some blood."
"Fine."
Tyler wasn't squeamish over blood drawing, but the excitement of being healthy and taken away from this Hell was... was... exhilarating. He was so close, and so was Troye and Phil! They would be checked and given permission to board the boat. They would be given clean clothes that fit and they would get hot meals. They would be allowed a hot shower and a proper rest room. They would be in beds instead of sleeping bags on the ground. Hope and life right in their grasp.
When his blood was checked (apparently if he was sick, the blood would have turned blood after the man added some kind of clean liquid stuff), he was asked to join another guards man.
The next man asked Tyler to strip down bare. Thankfully, the Spanish men had set up a few tents so that people could be checked in peace. Well, almost peace. There were at least three guards in the tents along with a doctor of a specific gender. Thankfully, again, Tyler got a male doctor. When he was wearing nothing, the doctor asked him to raise his arms, move them in circles, squat, lean side to side, turn around, raise one foot, then the other, and so on. Tyler was really happy when he didn't grab poke at him in any ways and was happy to know he didn't have any hidden scars or marks. All the doctor said was that he was malnourished and that he would be fed soon. At least, that's what he thought the doctor said. His accent was hard to understand.
Before Tyler was allowed to leave, he was given some clothes; a pair of clean socks, clean underwear, a pair of gray swear pants, and a white tee shirt. The smell of fabric cleaner was so strong that Tyler nearly started to cry. It had been so long since he smelled clean clothes, had the smell of lavender detergent surround his whole being. Apparently the guards understood that Tyler needed a minute to take in the fact that he was in clean clothes and would soon have a stomach full of warm food. Everything was going to be okay.
It took awhile, but soon he was loaded onto the boat and was informed that they would be served when the boat took off. Tyler nearly sobbed again. Food and clothes. Warm food and clean clothes. Everything was okay. He had his boyfriend and his best friend. He was going to protect Phil and help him get through all that he was. He was going to be able to have a normalish life with Troye.
Everything will be okay. Nothing could go wrong.
For all the people they had, it took about four hours before everyone was filed onto the boat. There weren't very many people if he remembered correctly, but he figured that checking each and every one of them, making sure no one was sick or hurt took awhile. Tyler didn't care, though, because soon he would have hot food and a bed. And a shower.
There were about four or five people left before Tyler found Troye. Troye was wearing a similar outfit except that he was given shoes whereas Tyler didn't have shoes, just socks. That didn't bother Tyler. Maybe he would never wear shoes ever again.
"Have you seen Phil, Troye?" Tyler asked, holding Troye's hand.
"I thought you had seen him." Troye blinked, confused. One of them had to have had their eyes on him, or had to at least seen him somewhere on the boat.
"Maybe he went to find his bed or-"
The boat's horn blared. Tyler felt his whole body go numb. After so long of being trapped in a zombie filled land, any loud noises made Tyler lock up, ready to fight or flight at the first sign or monsters. When his brain decided to rationalize that he was safe and that the horn only meant they were going to leave soon. Tyler yanked at Troye's hand to bring him to the back of the boat, to watch as the United Kingdom of Zombies faded into the distance. He wanted a final memory of their escape.
Two things happened that caused Tyler to regret that decision.
He should have listened to hit gut, to go find Phil, but he didn't. He was so eager to go and watch Hell fade away. When they reached the back of the boat, when their hands hit the rails, the boat was already pulling away from the port. Tyler was grinning with joy, ready to be with civilization, to forget all that had happened, but his grin changed when he seen a lone figure.
"No... no!" Tyler shouted, leaning over the rail. Troye was forced to grab him to keep the other from jumping into the water.
The figure alone on the dock was waving. It wasn't hard to tell from the dirty fringe and tall frame who it was. Why hadn't he gotten on the ship?!
"Phil! Troye, Troye, Troye we need to get them to stop! We have to get Phil! We can't leave him-"
Tyler watched the waving figure, tears forming in his eyes. Everything around him slowed at least fifty percent.
Troye was saying something, possibly something important. Tyler was struggling to see through tears, struggling to hear anything over his shouting, screaming. His stomach did flips and turns, his heart pounded against his rib cage, threatening to break through at any moment. They had to stop, they had to get him. He couldn't leave Phil.
I promised I'd protect him!
Tyler could remember the exact moment time stopped.
Time was frozen the minute the figure stopped waving, raising his hand to his head. The world wasn't turning when the sound of a gun being shot was heard. The figure slowly fell, and all Tyler could hear was his screaming, could only feel the tears racing down his cheeks.
This couldn't be happening, it couldn't be.
Tyler was ready to up overboard, to forget the shower and food and civilization. He was ready to throw it all a way to just go back to the point where Phil's heart was still beating, to where Phil was still joking and smiling and being purely Phil. He would sell his soul to have him back.
Apparently his body was against the idea of jumping into the freezing ocean because the next moment he was against Troye's chest, tweaking punching his fists into his boyfriend's chest. He failed; he failed Dan, he failed Phil. What did anything matter if he just lost his two best friends? All that they had been through and they were dead, lost to the apocalypse.
Everything hurt; his eyes, heart, stomach, throat, everything. How was he supposed to recover from this?
"Tyler, I'm so sorry. Tyler. Tyler please breathe. You're going to suffocate yourself like this." Troye was trying to coax Tyler out of his sobbing. If Tyler had been paying attention instead of crying and blaming himself he would have realized that Troye was crying too. Everything was falling apart at the seams.
Everything hurt.
"Tyler. Tyler we can't do anything now. It's... he's... they're..." Tyler felt the sob that Troye let out.
Dan and Phil were both gone. How could the world hate such rays of sunshine? Why did it have to be them?
Why?
The boat trip to Spain wasn't exciting. The thought of making it anywhere hurt. Tyler barely at anything when they had breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
All Tyler wanted was his friends back.