Orso Fiction 027

Orso Fiction 027-Dawn
The next morning came slowly for the Orso. Outside, the heavy rain from the night before continued. Inside the base, word of the tragedy the night before was spreading.

---

“Did you two hear?”, Julie Roberts asked in the hallway, her eyes slightly red.

“About Carroll?”, Alex Simms asked. “Yeah…Yeah, I heard.”

“I can’t believe he’d do it.”, Julie said sadly, closing her eyes. “I thought he was one of us.”

“Who knows what Zeke told him, to turn him on us.”, Alex said, patting her shoulder reassuringly. “We just need to stay strong. We can’t let this scare us.”

“I kind of always thought something was weird about him…”, Ben Diaz said. “But…I had no idea it would end up like this.”

---

“What if he’s just the first of many…”, Katie Mankowski said, concern in her voice. “Zeke did threaten all of us that stayed…”

“Strange people…doing strange things.”, Crystal Franey said quietly. “We can only hope for the best, I suppose.”

“Why did he do it?”, Emi Illig wondered. “I thought he was happy here…”

---

“Doesn’t surprise me.”, Andrew Fitzsimmons said. “He was always kind of a jerk. I wouldn’t be surprised if-”

“Stop talking!”, Maya Koepke shouted suddenly, stunning Andrew. “Stop…He’ll come back. I know it. So don’t you dare talk like that about him. He’s our friend.”

“He might be a lunatic, but he’s our lunatic.”, Eric O’Neil said, somewhat sagely.

---

“It’s so weird…”, Sam Straitz said softly.

“You think you know someone, and then this happens…”, Katie Pugh chimed in. “It just doesn’t make sense.”

“So now what?”, Jenn Straitz asked. “Do we treat Alex like an enemy? I don’t know if I can do that…”

“We…have to, I suppose.”, Allie Dearie said, hating the words she was saying. She thought to herself, “Damnit, Alex…Just what is your problem?”

---

“Did you hear about Matt?”, Jenny Bosse asked. “Taylor told me he’s doing much better, his pain’s fading quickly.”

“…That’s good.”. Liz Anglin said absently. She gritted her teeth. Next time she saw the traitorous ass, she would beat him to an inch of his life. Then let him heal and do it again. She looked around at the little ones she and Jenny were trying to keep from worrying, seeing some of them near tears. She took a deep breath, and faked a smile. “Hey, Alex isn’t that dumb, guys. He’ll be back!”

“ You really think so?”, a voice from their right inquired teasingly. Liz and Jenny whipped their heads to see the pessimist in their midst. From the top of a tall filing cabinet, looking down on those assembled, sat Kelley Magee. “Seems like he thought this one through. Zeke is the big dog in the neighborhood now. Hell, maybe we should go follow Alex, and see if Zeke will cut us the same deal he got...”

“Why you….”, Liz growled. “If you’re not going to help, then get out of here.”

“Sounds like what someone might have said to Alex.”, Kelley laughed. She was distracted by one of the girls Jenny and Liz had been comforting, Melanie Lanni, beginning to cry. Kelley immediately bit her lip and jumped down.

“I’m sorry, kid!”, she said, in earnest. “I was just joking! I didn’t mean it!”

“Why…why couldn’t he stay!?”, Melanie asked through sobs. “What made him go?”

“I don’t know!”, Kelley said, feeling very much out of her depth. “Jenny? Liz? Help me? I’m sorry, kid! Please, stop crying!”

---

“This is a freaking mess.”, Kevin Holt growled. “Leave it Robbie’s brother to run off when things look bad.”

“Hey, hey, Kevin, calm down.”, Clay Collins said. “Let’s just focus on how we fix this, alright?”

“How’s that?”, Kevin asked. “We all saw that Zeke jackass fight. Even the two of US can’t beat him. Following the kid into the woods is just asking for an ass-kicking. Damnit! Wet-behind-the-ears, and convinced they’re hot shit, every one of them.”

---

“If Zach was here, this shit wouldn’t be happening.”, Connor Hyatt growled.

“If Zach was here, he wouldn’t be able to fight Zeke in a year. For now, we just have to tough it out. Tough it out, and hope that stupid kids figure out what’s good for them.”, Mike Conway said, pensively. He closed his eyes, and thought to himself, “But that’s no excuse to just sit here and do nothing. That’s it. Next mission, I’m hitting the streets myself. I don’t care what it is, I just need to get out of here and get somewhere I can go crazy…”

---

“Next mission.”, Sarah Candland said, at about the same time.

“No more hiding back here.”, Ame Roberts agreed. “We’ve got no reason to sit back while the little ones are suffering like this. I was fine with letting Zach take care of things, but if he’s not around and there’s problems…then I think the ones who taught Zach how to run things should take over.”

---

“And no holding back from now on.”, Carly Reed said. “Nothing like Robbie or CJ were doing, pretending like they were on the same level as the kids.”

“Naturally.”, Matt Flynn replied stoically. “We’ve got to maintain order around here.”

---

“Still…”, Milton Hirsch said thoughtfully, as he lifted weights. “I know Alex. It doesn’t seem like him to jump ship so fast.”

Ryan Sanzi, sitting across from him, a piece of wheat sticking out of his mouth in the most badass way you, as the reader, can imagine, nodded.

“He’s not dumb, nor is he a total asshole. He’s got a moral code.”, he said, running a hand through his hair.

“So, now the question becomes…”, Pat Anske began, doing rapid pushups with his forefingers. “What made him leave?”

“The better question is…”, Dylan Barbera began, throwing a knife at the dartboard on the other side of the room. “How do we drag him back?”

The knife, had one been watching carefully, landed 3 centimeters from the bull’s-eye.

Had one been looking even closer, one might have seen that the knife perfectly split the fly Dylan had been aiming for in two.

“What a mess.”, Kyle Conahan said, meditating under the target, the top of his head no less than 2 centimeters below the center. “It’s a shame Matt was such an amateur. If it had been me…I would have won.”

-

Next -->