Where The Wild Things Go (Joshler AU)

Chapter 8- The Truth

~Tyler~

Tyler stepped on a fallen branch, a soft crack broke the thick heavy silence. Him and Josh were walking around following an old muddy trail, looking for a place to rest. They had only run into three monsters, in the past four hours. When they first arrived at the Zones, Josh had seemed so brave, like these monsters were tiny fruit flies, but when he actually saw one, he totally lost it and practically bolted across the forest. Tyler however, had stayed calm, and remembered his training, he reached for an arrow from behind his back, and grabbed his bow as well. He placed the arrow on the bow, and pulled it back, once he let go the arrow flew at the strange feathered creature and pinned it down. 

The second and third were a lot harder, Tyler recognized them from his book, the second was was called a Tanglehood, it was blue monster with one eye and had at least five silver snakes on it's head, it had a difficulty level of 12. Before attacking the creature itself, Tyler needed to deal with the snakes, that detached from the monster's head and began crawling towards him. Meanwhile, Josh had crawled up in a tree and was shaking back and forth. Tyler drew his sword and cut all the snakes at once, then he pulled out his gun and clicked the bullet into place, pressing on the trigger a loud thud went off and the beast laid dead on the ground. The third was a large six limbed purple reptile called Rustmouth, it had a difficulty level of eight. This time Josh decided to help, by throwing his suitcase at the beast knocking it over, then Tyler swooped in and chopped it's head off.

"What were you planning on doing with the money?" Tyler wonders, breaking the silence. He had been curious about that this whole time, and now he had finally said it.

Josh looks at him then back at the ground, "I needed the money to get my mom out of jail, she was innocent, there wasn't even enough evidence for her to be convicted, but the city leaders through her there anyway." He mutters.

"What was she accused of?" Tyler questions, still needing more answers. 

"She was charged for driving with substances, but we met after the accident, she was sober, and the person she hit is still alive, plus it was night and they were wearing all black." Josh explains, but Tyler shakes his head, there's no way Odele could have agreed to do this. Why should he believe a murder anyway? Josh notices his disbelief, "I know you don't believe me but, why else do you think I did it?" He defends himself, anger creeping into his voice.

"Why would the city leaders do something like that? It doesn't make sense, you're right I don't believe you." Tyler states, "That's pretty fair though, considering you shot and robbed someone, not to mention you lied about who you are."

"You know, I don't really need to be reminded, you wanted an answer and I gave you one. I'm sorry that what happened is too depressing for you to handle, that the perfect city leaders could never do anything wrong." He snarls, sarcasm in his voice.

Tyler scoffs, "I just think it's typical criminal behaviour, to make up some sob story so people feel sorry for you, instead of just owing up to your actions."

"Yeah, you're absolutely right." Josh snaps, being sarcastic again. "I love telling people that my family and life is so fucked up so that way they can look at me like I'm so poor baby, who needs to be protected or whatever." 

Tyler stays silent, and Josh walks away from him down a hill. "Where you are going?" Tyler shouts. 

"There's a creek down there, I'm going to rest." He shouts back, Tyler sighs and drags his cart filled with all his equipment and makes his way down, following Josh.

Josh bends down to a river, and cups his hands, he lowers it into the water, and was about to take a sip when Tyler stops him.

"Not all water is fresh," Tyler points out. He sets his cart on a steady ground, and opens up his bag labelled FOOD, inside was a canteen with a filter inside. He places his bottle to the ground, and lets water flow inside. The water is automatically filtered, after a few seconds he takes a sip and hands it over to Josh. Who sighs before taking the bottle, and pouring it into his mouth. He rests on the rocky dirt covered ground. Tyler takes a seat beside him, and Josh hands him back the bottle. 

"We don't really know each other, do we?" Tyler comments sitting down beside him. "I'm sorry," He mutters. "I have a friend in the government, I could ask him to find out if what you're saying is true, but I need to know, did you ever end up getting her out?"

"Any chance he could do something about the situation too?" Josh wonders, "Not exactly, see I couldn't just give the prison the money. They would have questions about how I got it. I found someone who would do it for me and we executed a believable lie, he had a stable job and if we waited long enough it would seem like he just earned that money. Meanwhile, the police were getting close to solving my case, so I had to flee-" 

"So you did all that for nothing? Your mom gets out, but you're a suspect! Also, how did you know the police were after you, that's not information they just reveal." Tyler ponders, he had so many questions, and instead of getting answers all he got were more questions. 

"I'm not in jail, though, am I? My mom and I made a plan to meet up in the Zones once it became safe. We could just hide out here. I would do anything to get her back." Tyler nods, his mom would do anything she could if she knew there was a way to get her mom back. "Also, you know you're so called 'friend'." Josh states, Tyler furrows his eyebrow, he didn't like where this was going. "Yeah, Ben Hadden he was the one who tipped me off."

Tyler's eyes widen, there was no way Ben could have done that. He would never have given away private information. But of course he had access, Pierre worked at the PPC, and the two of them were close, he could have found some way to use their bond to help Josh. He shakes his head, there were so many things that had been complete lies, and he wasn't sure how to feel.