a/n: so this is part of a collab i did with 13 other writers called the fourteen felonies. if you’re on instagram, search the hashtag #top14f and you’ll find all our posts and explanations of what the collab is:))
it’s that time of year again.
the time where they all march.
people selected at random.
in between one and two hundred men.
that’s the one question tyler doesn’t know the answer to.
he was informed of the other three when he was selected. but when he had asked the question ‘why’, he only got silence as an answer.
yet here they are, lining up and marching across the sand by the piers, along the line where the waves meet the shore, gently lapping up against the sand and receding again.
and he still doesn’t know why he falls in line.
a week ago, when tyler received the letter in the mail telling him he had been chosen, the color drained from his parents’ faces. he asked them why, and they wouldn’t tell him anything other than “it’s not good.”
tyler didn’t understand why they acted like that; he still doesn’t. but here he stands now, marching with his troop. the officers gave everyone a loaded rifle and had taught them all to use it in the past week. this made tyler anxious. he asked the general if they would ever have to use them, and he assured tyler that they wouldn’t.
but it seems highly unlikely. why would they teach them all how to handle a rifle and give them a loaded one if they weren’t gonna have to use them? none of this has been settling well with tyler. the place they’re at, their gear, the commanders and generals, everything just seems...off.
“march!” the commander yells. they all start marching, left right left right and so on. tyler looks out to his right, out into the ocean, and sees the loading dock of the boat that they came here on getting smaller and smaller as they travel farther and farther away from it.
two drops fall onto his arm. he looks up at the cloudy, gloomy, grey sky. he didn’t even realize a storm was coming. okay something definitely doesn’t feel right about this.
“eyes in front joseph. you could get a raindrop or two in that eye of yours if you’re not careful. and heaven forbid they see you cry.” his general scolds.
tyler nods, contrary to his confusion. “yes sir.” he says as he focuses his eyes on the stranger’s back in front of him and grips his gun tighter in his hands out of anxiety.
the wind picks up quickly all of a sudden, sending a chilling shiver down his spine as his feet continue to carry him across the shoreline in sync with the others.
the wind blows heavily for about ten seconds before just up and stopping. it doesn’t come to a slow or anything, it just abruptly stops, leaving everything in an eery silence.
the uneasiness in tyler’s stomach is overpowering. he slows his pace slightly and looks around cautiously. he turns to the man behind him. “should we leave?” he asks the man. the man’s face remains barren of any emotion, almost robot-like as he recites “this line’s the only way”, causing tyler’s heart rate to spike.
he thinks he hears footsteps approaching from far away, but before he can turn and look, the commander shouts at him to keep his eyes focused forward.
he reluctantly complies as his stomach gets extremely nauseous. just as he takes a couple deep breaths in to calm himself, a gunshot goes off from afar. the line comes to a halt. tyler turns around just in time to see the very last person in the line drop down dead.
this is what his parents must’ve meant by not good.
faint yells in the distance can be heard, confirming that there definitely is some hostile force heading towards them. he prepares to make a run for it, but the commander and general are yelling instructions at everyone.
“do NOT step out of line! this line, the one you are standing in, is the ONLY WAY BACK. if you wanna get back to the loading dock, STAY. IN. LINE. and use those rifles!”
everyone turns around, staying in the same formation-only reversed now-and prepare their guns to fire. the mysterious enemy starts shooting again, hitting the men back and forth- injuring low to none, killing practically all. one by one the men in front of tyler drop like flies and soon there are only seven men left in front of him. tyler aligns his gun with his target in the far distance and pulls the trigger on his gun, only for it to crumble to sandy dust in his hands. his heart rate speeds up drastically and fear spikes in his chest.
this was obviously a trap.
his body becomes paralyzed with fear and he braces himself for impact as two more men fall to the ground, both dead. five left.
tyler feels a tap on his shoulder. he turns his head for a moment. “follow me instead.” a whisper is spoken from the man behind him. tyler squints in confusion. “what?” “you wanna get out of here without dying, right?” the man asks. he has dark brown curls, deep brown eyes, and is a good couple inches shorter than tyler. tyler nods as another person falls. four.
“follow me then.” the man says. “who are you?” tyler asks back as another drops dead. three. “i’m josh. you?” “tyler.” he breathes out, watching as two out of the three fall, one dead and one heavily injured. one.
tyler fails to slow his breathing as his mind spins violently. he doesn’t know if he can trust this man right now, but he doesn’t exactly have any other option. “i don’t...i don’t wanna march here anymore.” he says frantically to the man as they turn to the left and start walking into the water. “you won’t have to. we’ll make it back.” everyone else suddenly starts following tyler and josh’s movements and walk into the shallow water with them, still keeping the line formation. that’s when the next gunshot goes off, causing the person in front of tyler to fall and lay there motionless, although the bullet only hits his leg.
“go GO.” josh yells as he nudges tyler, dropping his gun and running for the loading dock with tyler, the door still wide open as it was when they left it. it’s not too far out in the ocean, so they only have so far to go until they reach the safe haven. the rest of the line, which is about only fifty or so more people, once again follow the lead of the two boys.
but they still show no emotion.
“it’s like they’re brainwashed or something.” tyler points out as he and josh run for their lives, dodging bullets left and right. “that’s exactly what it is.” josh replies simply. tyler almost stops. “what?” “they’re brai-” he’s cut off by three bullets pelting his leg, taking him out. this time tyler does stop in his tracks, running down to josh’s side immediately. he grabs josh’s arm and pulls him up to a stand.
he’s not leaving without josh. even if it makes everything more dangerous, he can’t leave without this boy.
josh can only walk on his left leg since his right one got shot three times in almost the same spot on his thigh. tyler brings josh’s left arm around his shoulder and puts his own right arm around him. together they both make their way to the loading dock as quickly as they can. they only have about seven more feet to go before two more gunshots go off, the bullets pelting tyler’s upper back, behind his lung. tyler lets out a cry of pain as his body jerks forward and collides with the hard surface of the wild ocean water. “TYLER!” he hears josh yell before his head is submerged under the now reckless waves of the heavy storm.
his vision turns spotty at the edges and he can tell he’s starting to lose consciousness, probably from the loss of blood in his back. he tries to lift himself up above the water, getting to the point where his eyes and nose breach the surface. he’s able to get in a quick breath through his nose before a wave crashes into his face, pushing him back down.
tyler tries to hold onto the air he has as he fights the raging waves. his lungs are on fire, screaming for oxygen. to his relief, he soon feels a pair of arms reach down and struggle to pull him back above the waves. once his head brakes surface, he takes in a huge gulp of air, as big as he can get without hurting anything, followed by fits of coughing from the water he accidentally inhaled on impact. josh is standing on one leg with both his arms around tyler to help hold him up.
“come on man we can do this. just a few more steps.” josh encourages. tyler nods as his chest heaves to gain the oxygen that it can. he looks down at josh’s leg, which is now bleeding significantly more than it was the previous time he looked at it, leading tyler to believe his wound is just as bad. the men around and behind the the two boys continue to rapidly collapse into the rough waves as the boys finally fall into the loading dock. tyler collapses onto his stomach as josh drags his way over to the side of the boat and quickly hits a button on the wall to seal the door.
tyler looks out the closing door of the boat, squinting, and sees the ocean water tainted red from all the blood of the men, now lying in their ocean graves. “what the heck...” he mutters. “oh my god.” josh says as he stares out the door in horror. “they killed all of them.”
tyler stares the scene in front of them in disbelief as the door slowly goes up and up until the light of day is no longer seen. he rolls onto his back as his vision starts turning spotty. he looks up at the boy...josh, for a moment more. josh looks back down at him and gives him one of the warmest smiles he’s ever received.
that’s he last thing he sees before blacking out.
tyler wakes up to the harsh voice of his general yelling at everyone to “get the heck out of bed because they’re got a big day ahead of them”, only he didn’t use ‘heck’.
tyler’s heart sinks down to his feet. that was a dream?
he really should be thankful that he didn’t actually get shot, but all he can think about is that boy from his dream and what he said. was the boy made up by his own mind? or is he an actual soldier in tyler’s regiment? is everything that happened in his mind going to happen now?
tyler slips his shirt over his head and pulls it down over his stomach, scanning the room of men in hopes to find someone who looks even remotely similar to the boy from his dreams. he stares everyone down, taking in every detail, but it’s no use. the boy is nowhere to be found.
tyler brushes his teeth quickly and shuffles out of the room with all the other walkers. they file slowly out the door, gnawing on tyler’s patience, wearing it down. once he gets through, he sharply turns a corner just as someone else does. he runs into them pretty hard, both of them stumbling back a couple steps.
the man stops mid sentence with a shocked expression on his face. tyler’s face probably looks equally as surprised. brown curls, dark brown eyes; exactly how he looked in tyler’s dream. they look at each other like that for a good ten seconds before the boy in front of him speaks up.
“tyler, right?” tyler nods slowly. “yeah, you’re josh?” he says more than asks. josh nods in reply.
“i’m assuming we had the same dream then.” tyler states. another nod from the dark haired man.
josh breathes out sharply. “okay yeah this is a little weird.” tyler nods again. “do you really think...all of that is actually gonna happen....today?” “look, i really have no idea.” tyler nods, sort of dazed about this whole situation. “okay, should we just...see what happens then?”
josh sighs. “i guess so. i don’t know what events are gonna play out, but i sure hope they’re not gonna be like that.” tyler nods immediately in agreement. “yeah, that would be nice.”
after a few more minutes, the boys figure they should probably get in line with the other walkers. they’re handed their guns and are all commanded to start walking along the shores.
tyler thought he had escaped this. he thought he’d been saved. but once again, here he is. he feels as if he were picked up and carefully placed back in his spot.
once again, he will be on a march to the sea.
