Sky Corruption (Past Tense)

Chapter Six

After a while, China accompanied the boy whilst North stood by the front door of the store, his rifle firm in his grip as he paces back and forth, grumbling impatiently to himself.

China had crouched down low enough to the point that they were making eye contact. "You'll need to have a name since you're going to stick with us...at least until you get your memories back." She contemplates to herself, the boy knits his dark eyebrows together, slightly confused.

He opened his mouth to speak. "But my memories are-"

His sentence got cut off by Jay's loud and bellowing voice. "China! Get away from him! That's an order!" Jay commanded gruffly, his voice was low and tense enough to send a shiver down anyone's spine.

Jay continued his way over to China, aggressively grabbing her by the corner of her arm, which forced her back upon her feet with a harsh yank. Jay placed himself between the two, not even turning around to face China. Even though Jay yanked her upward with such ferocity, she looked completely unfazed.

"Name," Jay growled. His words were short, almost hollow. If the boy was seeking remorse in these people, China was the only one to provide him with such.

Jay's backside blocked China's entire view of the boy.

"I-I don't know...." The boy stammered. Jay tilted his head in response, confused at the answer that was given to him.

"What do you mean, you don't know?" Jay repeated in almost a mocking tone, his voice getting louder and sounding more agitated by the second.

"It's Bob for the time being," China had spoken up, her voice radiated with confidence. Jay glanced over his shoulder at her so quickly that it looked like his neck would've broken in the process.

North and Tyrese had blocked off any way of escaping by standing down the aisle. North was still armed with his rifle. Tyrese wore an unreadable expression on his face as he folded his muscular arms one another across his chest, scratching along the stubble of his jawline. China grabbed Jay's shoulder.

"Bob?" North repeated the name with utter distaste in his tone, his nose wrinkled, eyes squinting at China in disbelief, Tyrese remained unfazed and continued...staring.

"There's no need to scare him, Jay, he's no threat." China pleaded. Jay turned around, glaring into her large, hopeful brown eyes. How can someone be so quick to defend a complete stranger like this?

Jay's glare deepened and he begun to seethe, "You don't know that for sure! He could-"

"No, she's right."

Tyrese's calm but analytic words interjected, he slowly sauntered towards the three, leaving North alone to keep an eye on the rest of the store.

Tyrese and Jay exchanged a look, one that wasn't really understandable to others but had conversed unspoken words.

Tyrese cleared his throat. "Clearly, if he was one of those things, China and North would've already fallen prey to him, a matter of fact, he wouldn't even stay in the same spot, you know how the outsiders work. They don't normally play with their prey, let alone be afraid of it."

The tension within the store went down a few notches as Tyrese dispersed all of the accusations thrown at "Bob".

Tyrese turned to China. "Hey, Ambrose, why don't you guide the boy to the front door? Keep your gun on you."

China pumped her fists, "You got it!" China exclaimee energetically, gently grabbing the boy by the hand and had led him away from Jay and Tyrese, which bound them some time to discuss what to do with Bob.

Jay snuck a glare over at China, who had her hand placed along with the boy's bareback, which revealed odd markings along with his backside, not necessarily a tattoo, but not necessarily a scar either.

Tyrese took notice at this at snapped his fingers. "We'd be getting nowhere if we keep asking him these questions." Tyrese pointed out, his voice is mellow and calm as Jay gnashed at his teeth in pure fury.

Jay cut his eyes at Tyrese. "What if he attacks her-"

Tyrese interrupted Jay, placing a firm hand along his shoulder and gave it a slight squeeze. "Faith has trained China well, plus, if he were to try anything, he'd also be dealing with North."

Jay let out a deep breath, knowing that Tyrese was right. His muscles relaxed as he anxiously used his thumb to crack at the knuckles in his hands, a habit he picked up after the apocalypse started.

"Look, if the boy is innocent, we'd be making a huge mistake." Tyrese continued, sliding his hands in the pockets of his pants, his eyes narrowing at Jay who just scratched at the stubble along his face.

Jay lowered his eyebrows and folded his arms across his chest, "That isn't our problem." He huffed, his tone going back to where it was before: rough and demanding.

Tyrese responded with a swift eyebrow raise. "Remember how you found China?" He reminded Jay, which causes Jay's movements to come to a sudden halt.

It was clear that the flashbacks were hitting him. The state that girl was in, how her cheerful and energetic side hardly existed when he found her, how weak she was, how different she was in almost every aspect.

Faith is going to chew my ass out for this. Jay thought to himself curtly.

Jay cursed underneath his breath, using his hand to pinch the bridge of his nose, "Fine, we'll take him back." Jay sighed, rolling his eyes at Tyrese's profound smug expression.

"But! He's staying in the guest room and will be watched at all times." Jay added before storming over toward the front door, carrying China's bag in one hand, leaving Tyrese by himself to gaze at all of them.

He's too much of a hothead sometimes, but he's got a good heart...Tyrese contemplated to himself as he slowly followed them out of the store.

Something about that boy, something seems off about him, but he doesn't really serve a threat to any of us at the moment...I will need to keep my eye on that one. Tyrese continued to wander aimlessly in his train of thought, continuing his way outdoors.