Ok, so maybe stealing the creepy owner's money wasn't her best idea. It's also not her worst, which is definitely not packing enough money when she left home. Second worst idea was definitely trying to pay her rent with the money she had stolen. Not that she's going to admit to that, no matter how much Mr. Parker yells at her.
"Will you stop that!" Parker yelled at her as she blew into her trombone from the top of an empty trailer, resisting the urge to smirk as she did. "Just give back what you stole and we can forget about this."
Zoe is aware that she's not the best at thinking ahead, she can privately admit to herself that most of the time she can be pretty impulsive and foolish. She can also underestimate people, like how she thought she could trick him by paying him with her own money. However, she wasn't stupid and knew that if she gave him even a shred of evidence that she had stolen from him, he was going to either kick her out. So instead she just blew harder into the trombone, making even louder noises while Parker's face got even more red from anger.
"If you don't give the money back, I'm going to call the cops!"
That made her stop, only because it made her snort of derision. "Oh come on, someone got stabbed here last week and the cops didn't do anything. Do you really think they're going to care about this?"
In truth, she didn't know for certain the cops wouldn't care. A grown man being stabbed is very different from a teenage runaway under Tyrak's laws after all. However, she knew that Parker also didn't know whether the cops would care and he wouldn't want the embarrassment to call them only for them to do nothing. She could only hope that fear of humiliation keeps him from actually calling the cops and eventually giving up, or at least leaving her alone so she can leave. She's stayed here long enough anyway, it was time to get on the road and either finally make plans to cross the boarder or find a new place to stay for awhile.
"Hey, what's going on?" a new voice announced itself before Parker could speak, both him and Zoe looking in surprise at the owner.
He looked around the same age as Zoe, maybe a year younger, with dark hair and sharp facial features. He was wearing a dark green hoodie over a black shirt, some slightly damages jeans and visibly worn shoes, while a large backpack was visible behind him. He looked a bit nervous, like he was already doubting his decision to get involved, but he didn't leave despite Parker's glare.
"She stole from me! And then tried to pay her rent with it."
"I didn't do it." she lied, while watching the boy to see what he would do.
"Do you have proof?" he asked Parker, who looked like he was going to explode with rage.
"What are you, her attorney? No, I don't have proof."
"Then I think your case is weak." the boy told him with what could only be called a mocking smile.
Parker looked at him before looking at her, and then finally throwing his arms up comically in a huff. "You teens! Just a bunch of criminals, all of you!"
Zoe watched him march off, his angry muttering getting more quiet, before looking down at the boy. "I could have handled him myself."
"Well, it didn't look like it." he told her, making Zoe roll her eyes. Typical guy, butting his nose in where it doesn't belong. Still, he's new and he did help her, so she might as well do the introductions.
"Anyway, welcome to the Night Skies Campground. If you love crappy trailers, creepy owners and angry neighbours, this is the place for you." she said with an overdramatic gesture to what has been home for her since she run away.
"It's that bad?" the boy asked with a chuckle, before doing a slight wave. "I'm Tyler by the way."
"Zoe." she replied with a nod, looking in the direction of Parker for a moment before focusing back on the teenager. "Look, Parker isn't likely to rent you a trailer after that little stunt. Unless you're willing got pay double. But if you go straight down there, you can find some decent cardboard to sleep on. The only other people there are Dancing Carl and Freddie, and they're pretty chill."
"Dancing Carl?"
"Some guy who's super intense into dancing. But like I said, chill." she explained, and Tyler nodded appreciatively.
"Thanks for the advice. I guess I'll see you around?" he asked as he started to walk off, and after she shrugged in response he left. She watched him go for a moment before, after checking that Parker wasn't watching her, getting off the trailer to head for her own.
As she walked up the hill, having wanted a trailer a bit more removed from the others when she first arrived, she spotted Tyler at the corner of her eye. She chuckled slightly when she saw him dancing like a dork with Carl. Not that she could really judge, she wasn't exactly the great dancer her father had hoped she would be when he paid for those stupid lessons, but still she was pretty certain she was a little better than that. Once she reached her trailer she quickly went inside, shutting everything and getting onto her bed.
She laid there for a moment, before sighing and reaching into her backpack to pull out the file. She did this most nights, just re-read the same page she's been reading for weeks. The page that proved that everything her father taught her, everything everyone she's known for the last decade except for Kaito has taught her her to be true. But sometimes she reads it in the hopes that she will somehow, despite how stupid it would be, that she had made a mistake. That Kaito had lied to her and this wasn't real, that she had misread it or spot some kind of evidence that it was a fake. But of course this never happened, and after a couple of minutes of looking she just puts the file back in her bag.
For the next two hour she just did what she usually did when she was bored and had nothing better to do. Technically she could practice her trumpet, but that required her to be in the right mood. So instead she just paced in a straight line up and down her trailer, took out everything she owned to check it was still there before putting it back where it belonged, and just laid on her bed trying to remember the plot of the last book she read or film she saw. And once she did all of that, she went outside to get some fresh air and to build a fire, having found that listening to the cackle of flaming wood was oddly soothing to her ears.
It was when she finally had the fire lit that she spotted the area where Carl, Freddie and presumably the new boy were now asleep, and an idea formed in her heard. There wasn't anyone else her age at this place, just a bunch of adults, and she supposed he must be at least slightly decent for helping her earlier. After making sure the fire was fully blazing, she raced down the hill as quickly as she could without making it look like she was running like a crazy person. For a brief moment she wondered whether the boy had left after all or if Parker had found him and forced him to leave, but that worry vanished the second she saw his sleeping body.
She laughed a little when she reached him and saw how awkwardly he was sleeping with his mouth open, before she reached down and gently started shaking him awake. It took a few tries, but eventually his eyes fluttered open and looked up at Zoe in confusion.
"Hey. Come hang out with me." she told him, gesturing that he should follow her. Tyler just stared at her for a moment, blinking rapidly as he began to wake up, before cautiously getting up and following her after checking his backpack. He followed her in silence, and Zoe got the sense that he was a little baffled by this turn of events. She couldn't blame him, if she was in his shoes she would be cautious as well. But he seemed to relax as they got up to the hill and he saw the fire she had made.
"Sit." she told him as she dropped to the ground, with Tyler doing as he's told after a moment of hesitation. "Have you got any marshmallows?"
"Marshmallows?"
"Yeah. They're little white stuff that you put on sticks over a fire and then you eat them. You can also eat them as they are, but I prefer cooking them over a fire." she explained with a teasing tone before smiling. "Sorry, I just ask people that. I like them."
"Right." he said simply, and the two fell into a silence for a moment. Zoe wondered whether she should say something, she did bring him up here with no real explanation. He was probably expecting something and...Oh god, will he think she's making a move on him? The thought made her look away in embarrassment and worry, not sure how she would react if he tried anything. Well no, she knew how she would react. She would slap him, then depending on how he reacts either apologise for not being clear or beat him with her trumpet and leave very quickly.
"Zoe? Are you ok?" he asked her suddenly, his voice bringing her back to reality.
"I'm sorry?" she asked as she looked at him.
"I asked how long you've been on the road?" Tyler explained.
"Oh. Right." she replied quicky and awkwardly, trying to calm herself down as she continued. "I left home at the start of the summer. There was this big sandstorm, so my dad was distracted and I was able to get past the cops."
"Does your dad know where you are?"
"No, but he knows I ran away. He's probably looking for me, but I'm never going home again. I want to get out of Petria and live my own life." she explained, being careful to not slip up and reveal too much to this complete stranger. "My dad thinks I should be grateful, because I get to go to a good school and live in a big house. But I hated everything about it."
"Well, to be honest? That doesn't sound too bad." Tyler told her, before a flash of worry crossed his features. "No offence."
"None taken. Look, I know I had it better than most other kids. But it was still a prison and all the money that paid for it came from him helping to make this country worse. Maybe he had his reasons, I know he liked to say he worked hard to provide for me and maybe that's true, but it doesn't change the fact that he expected me to agree with everything Tyrak does. And then, well, I found out he did something really bad to get everything we had and I just had to leave." she explained and she was happy to see him nod in what seemed to be understanding. "What about you? I'm guessing from the clothes you've been on the road for awhile?"
"Uh, yeah. About two weeks. Wasn't easy, got stuck in a few places for a couple of days as I tried to figure out how I'm going to do all this."
"Why did you leave?"
Tyler grew silent at that, before answering after a few seconds. "I didn't have much of a choice. Things just changed for me and I had to leave."
Zoe wanted to ask a bit more, but it's not like she was being completely honest with him either. She wouldn't want someone pressuring her to reveal more than she was comfortable with sharing, so she wouldn't do the same.
"Do you think we can make it?" she asked him.
"Make it where?"
"Across the border. Where else?"
"Oh. I mean, I hope so. I know a lot of kids get captured, but others don't right? We just have to be smart and look for the right moment."
Zoe nodded at that thoughtfully. "Yeah, you're right. Plus, it has to be better than staying here right? I know it won't be easy, but if we don't leave now then President Tyrant is just going to make it even more difficult. If he wins the election, then we're just going to get more Pits and arrests, and border patrol will get even more strict."
"You've got that right." Tyler replied with almost a knowing nod, the two then falling into a comfortable silence for a few minutes.
A silence interrupted when Zoe had an idea. "Hey, let's play some music."
She knew it was cruel, but after the heavy discussion she just had she wanted a reason to laugh. Standing up she dashed into her trailer, grabbing her trombone and cassette player, checking that the right tape was already inside. She came out with a smile as she looked at the confused boy and handed him her trombone. "Here, play Bella Ciao."
"What?" he asked in complete bafflement, though he still took the trombone.
"You know, it goes like this." she told him before humming the song, his eyes lighting up in recognition.
"Oh that. I knew a kid who got into trouble for playing that song. But I don't know how to play...whatever this is." he said as he pointed at the instrument.
"It's a trombone. And it's fine, just give it your best shot." she said, trying to make it clear that it was a challenge with the tone of her voice. A challenge Tyler picked up on and accepted.
She had to admit, for his first time he wasn't half bad. He was able to play what she could recognise was Bella Ciao, but so loudly and out of tune she couldn't hold back her laughter. And when she started playing the music, she had to give him credit for putting all his effort into it despite not remembering exactly how it should go and making some mistakes. He was smiling as he played and she laughed, the two of them temporarily forgetting all their troubles. It was one of the main reasons she loved music, sure she took up the trombone specifically to annoy her father but she did love learning to play all these songs because it gave her a way to escape whatever was bothering her. And while she might be wrong, she got the sense that Tyler also needed an escape from whatever it was that was bothering him, because clearly something was.
Unfortunately, Parker turned out to be too big of a bother to ignore through music.
"It's three in the morning! Turn that music off now!" he shouted up at them, making Tyler stop playing and Zoe turn off the music. The two glanced at each other, and then Tyler made a mocking noise with the trombone that made Zoe giggle and proved to be the last straw for Parker. "That's it! I want both of you to be gone by sunrise, you hear me! Or I will call the police!"
The two watched him stomp off in anger, before Tyler turned to her. "Is he serious?"
"Yeah, I think he is." she admitted with a sigh, feeling a bit guilty as she looked at her new, but sadly temporary, friend. "I was going to move on anyway, but I'm sorry I messed this up for you."
"Hey, it's fine." he told her as he handed back her trombone. "Like you said, he wasn't going to forget me standing up for you. And I only needed a place to stay for one night anyway."
"Still," she replied, grabbing her cassette player and taking out the tape, handing it to him, "take this. To remember me."
"Oh. Thanks." Tyler said in surprise, taking the tape with an odd look of gratitude and amusement, before looking up at her with a friend. "Oh. So I guess you don't want to hit the road together?"
"No, but I appreciate the offer. I just feel that this is something I have to do on my own, you know? To like, grow as a person or whatever."
"Yeah, I get it." he told her reassuringly with a nod, before standing up. "Well, I guess I should see if I can get any food and bit more sleep before I leave."
"Yeah, me too." she replied, smiling at him. "It was good meeting you Tyler. And good luck."
"Good luck to you as well Zoe." he said with a friendly wave before walking away, leaving Zoe to pack up her things.
Please tell me what you think and if you can see any spelling mistakes or sentences that don't make sense. So basically this will be all the encounters from the perspectives of Zoe, John, Alex, Fanny, Stan & Mitch, Sonya and Jarod, who all meet the same hitchhiker. I won't be trying to make this make sense geographically or timeline wise since I'm lazy and the game didn't really try to do that either. Basically just imagine that Tyler between chapters has to take a bit more breaks instead of travelling across all of Petria in a few days, and that this takes place a vague amount of time before Election Day.