The beautiful beast.

Chapter 23

Crackle, crackle, crackle 

The sound of crackling wood filled the air as embers floated from a campfire. The flickering flames illiluminated the faces of seven figures sitting around the campfire.

  Naturally,the group was none other than the Stinging Nettles! The additional individual was actually related to the situation at the supermarket earlier in the day.

     They were all surprised when they found out that there was actually a living,breathing human in the area. The street was a popular one before the apocalypse occured and thus the density of monsters there was sky high.

  Though they had reduced a lot,it was still no place to find a human staying casually. Even if you strapped a greanade to their heads,they would refuse to believe that a human could be found there,but somehow there was!

With a face that was clearly immature,it wasn't hard to guess that he was a teenager at best. The strange thing was that when they found him there wasn't even a single monster in the vicinity. It was as if they had all been scared by something and had run away thus they chalked it up to the fact that he was probably a very lucky guy.

   Munching on a piece of roasted potato,Thomas looked at the young boy with a puzzled expression.

   “You really don't remember anything,do you?”

  “Yes!"

  " Not again!” 

   With a simple,short answer,he replied. His reply wasn't bad nor was it wrong but to the members of the Stinging Nettles it was since they had been hearing this same reply continuously and it had nearly made them crazy and soon someone couldn't take it anymore.

     “So we just found a random guy who randomly lost his memory? What sort of bullshit is that?!”

   Standing up abruptly from the log bench, Dave's hulking figure cast a lengthy shadow on the floor as he glared at the young guy looking dumbly at him which only served to infuriate him more.

He was just about to grab the guy by his collar when his brother James held him back.

  “Hey calm down man,he hasn't done anything wrong has he? Furthermore,he's just an ordinary human,what can he possible do to a group of awakened like us.”

  However,Dave was still not convinced.

  “Remember,the attack last month and what caused it? I don't need to remind you of Mike do I?!" 

Instantly everyone's faces scrunched up as the name mike was mentioned. Clearly,there was a bad memory associated with the name.

  " Enough!”

  “Sorry boss!" 

Looking at the two brother scratching the back of their heads, Thomas didn't know what to do with them.They were fond of arguments but now was not the time for that. 

 Rubbing his temples he looked at the young man who was still sitting there dumbly. He was having a massive headache right now. In fact he actually regretted bringing the guy along as he didn't know what to do with him.

  He couldn't just throw him away from the group! He'll be torn to pieces by monsters in mere seconds!

  “Hmmm?!”

  A brilliant idea suddenly came to his mind. Yes,he was the captain of this group but then,Tracy was his second in command. Why not just throw everything to her.

  Brilliant!

  He was just about to do that when he saw her giving him a look that clearly said ’Don’t you dare!’ causing him to rethink his plan.

  Right then though,the young man suddenly stood up with a contemplative expression causing everyone to perk up.

   “I think my name is Ethan. No,it is Ethan! what day is this?Why are we seated around a campfire in the middle of a supermarket? Why are you guys carrying weapons? Why are you all looking at me like that?”

  With an innocent look,he asked a barrage of question one after the another causing the group of scavengers to gasp in disbelief.

  What sort of mad plot twist was this?!

  How was it possible that someone who was totally unresponsive a few minutes ago suddenly became so active.

No, no, no, no, NO!

Even romance novels didn’t have these sort of plot twists!

  And from the way he was asking it seemed like he was not aware that they weren't currently in an apocalypse.

  The hell!

  “Wait a minute,I thought you couldn't remember anything not long ago. So how did you remember now?"

   Gawking at Ethan,Mira asked clearly confused. However his next answer was even more confounding.

   “I just remembered." 

Everyone :”....." 

  “Dang it!" 

Facepalming,Thomas felt like this was one of those ridiculous plotlines from movies. A young guy loses his memories and eventually becomes the lost heir or something. 

Sadly this was the apocalypse,thing like that were long gone. Judging from his expression and the aura on him,he definitely was not a monster.

  If his guesses were right,something must have happened to traumatise him so much that he lost all his memories including of the apocalypse for him to be asking such questions.

  “Well I guess we have to bring him along to the settlement then." 

“But boss reme-" 

  Nah.. we're keeping him!”

  With a tone of finality,he raised his hand causing everyone to lock up.

   He understood their fears and the reasons for their actions but then he just couldn't leave him, right?

   “Being a team captain sure isn't easy!" 

  Rubbing his temples,he tried to massage the incoming headache before giving his orders.

  " Dave,Mira you're on night duty for the first two hours,James and Greg the next and then I and Tracy would take the last. Ethan….” Looking at the young boy looking back at him,he didn't know what say at first.

“...you should try to get some sleep,we still have a long way to go tomorrow."

  “Yes boss!" 

  Nodding,Thomas started walking back to where his maje shift bed was only to pause with an amused expression.

  “Did he just call me boss? He sure is adaptive.”

  Shrugging, he worked his way into the bed and soon he was fast asleep.

Ethan too was given a sleeping bag though it was too big for him considering it was meant for Dave, however he managed it.

  What everyone didn't notice though was the fact that tears welled up in the corners of his eyes.

  “I miss you guys. How are you doing on the other side."