Scorpion Ships

Ralph

Mom walked ahead of me into the room, my home, really. I dumped my backpack in front of the door, calculating the best possible angle for fastest grab-and-go, a habit from the bullies at school.

"Ralph, hey!" Toby called, wandering over and mussing up my hair.

"Hi, Toby," I said shyly. Even after all those weeks, I wasn't entirely sure these guys wouldn't leave me someday. "Any new cases?"

Toby got quiet, a bad sign. "Yeah, buddy." He leaned down, crouching so our faces were level. "You know Walter's sister? Megan?"

Immediatly, an image of her popped into my head, and I started reviewing what I know about her. "The girl with MS?" I asked innocently.

"Yeah," Toby said. "Well, she's got more than MS now." He tried to crack a weak smile.

"What happened?" I asked. Walter's probably upset. Someone should be checking on him, I thought.

"A few shooters got into her hospital." Toby sighed, anger beginning in his expression. "They, well. They got a lot of the patients. Megan's roommate, Thalia, was shot right in front of her. Megan got under a bed in time, but something's up with her ribs. . .they were doing tests when we left."

My eyebrows furrowed. "You guys went?"

Toby looked up at Mom. "You didn't tell him?"

"I'm still here," I snapped, rare for me.

I looked up in time to see Mom shake her head warningly at Toby.

"That's not good parenting," Toby muttered, and Mom kicked him softly in the thigh.

"Actually," Sylvester called, a little slow on the uptake. "Megan is pretty much okay. She has a slightly punctured lung and two broken ribs. She'll be fine."

Toby raised both his eyebrows. "How would you know?"

"I called her," Sly said shyly.

Toby's eyebrows went up further. "That was Megan?"

"Are we going to try to get the shooters?" I asked, interrupting them in my haste.

Sly chuckled. "Yeah. So far we have some shells. Happy?"

"They're to a semiautomatic handgun, the most-used gun in mass shootings nowadays," Happy pitched in. "Our guy-and girl-isn't very creative."

"What type of gun is it?" I asked, going into work mode.

"We're not entirely sure. Right now, we're thinking an XD-S centerfire pistol."

"What model?"

"The nine millimeter."

"Was it new?"

"We think so. We found a few tiny black chips, possibly from the finish. Cabe took them in to look at them more closely."

I nodded, looked up at Mom. "Can I help?"

"If you want to, Buddy." She smiled, and love for her filled me. I squeezed her hand, then let go.

"Where's Walter?"

Mom looked at me, a flush lighting her cheeks. "Upstairs, probably."

"Is he okay?"

Mom smiled, pride in her smile. "You're really getting better at empathy. Go on up."

I gave her a final smile and dashed up the stairs, ready to see my hero.

"Walter?" I asked, happy as could be. Since Drew had dropped me off at school, ending my extremely awkward time with him, all I'd thought about was being with Walter again.