Gone

and went after Quinn.
    “Pull over,” Sam said. He jumped off and ran to Quinn’s aid.
    Quinn tried to leap the ditch beside the road, but landed badly. The two thugs were on him before he could recover. Cookie pounded him in the back with his fist.
    Sam made a flying leap at Cookie. He grabbed Cookie in the crook of one arm and yanked him forward with his momentum.
    Cookie landed hard on his belly, and Sam rolled free. Cookie had dropped his bat to pound Quinn with his fists, and Sam dived for it. Mallet, Edilio, and Quinn had a brief but violent tussle that left Edilio and Quinn standing and the other kid down. But it had given Orc and Howard time to climb down from the truck.
    Orc swung his bat and caught Edilio behind the knees. Edilio dropped like a sack of cement.
    Gripping Cookie’s bat, Sam raced to get between Orc and Edilio.
    “I don’t want to fight you,” Sam shouted.
    “I know you don’t want to fight me,” Orc said confidently. “Nobody wants to be fighting me.”
    Astrid came striding up. “All of you stop it,” she yelled. Her fists were balled up. There were tears in her eyes. But she was angry, not sad. “We don’t need this crap.”
    Howard slid between Orc and Astrid. “Step off, Astrid, my man Orc has to teach this punk a lesson.”
    “Step off?” Astrid shot back. “You don’t tell me to step off you…you invertebrate.”
    “Astrid, stay out of this, I got this,” Sam said. Edilio tried to stand firm, but he could barely stand at all.
    Surprisingly, Orc said, “Hey. Let Astrid talk.”
    Pumped on adrenaline, Sam almost didn’t hear him. But then he processed what Orc had said and kept his mouth shut.
    Astrid took a deep breath. Her hair was flying wild. Herface was red. Finally, struggling for calm, she said, “We’re not looking for a fight.”
    “Speak for yourself,” Cookie muttered.
    “This is crazy,” Astrid said. “We’re just looking for my brother.”
    Orc’s slit eyes narrowed further. “The retard?”
    “He’s autistic,” Astrid snapped.
    “Yeah. Little Pe-tard,” Orc sneered, but he didn’t push it.
    “You should have stopped, Sammy.” Howard made a tsktsk sound, shaking his head regretfully.
    “That’s what I said, and I’m the one who ends up getting pounded?” Quinn gestured wildly, angry at Sam.
    Howard nodded toward Quinn, amused. “You should have listened to your bro there, Sam. I told you last night, you need to take care of my man Orc.”
    “Take care of him? What does that mean?” Astrid demanded.
    Howard turned cold eyes on her. “You have to show Captain Orc some respect, that’s what I mean.”
    “Captain?” Sam resisted the urge to laugh.
    Howard stepped close, brave with Orc standing right behind him. “Yeah. Captain. Someone had to step up and take charge, right? You were busy, I guess, maybe surfing or whatever, so Captain Orc volunteered to be in charge.”
    “In charge of what?” Quinn asked.
    “Stopping everybody running crazy, that’s what.”
    “Yeah,” Orc agreed.
    “Kids were busting everything up, taking anything they wanted,” Howard went on.
    “Yeah.”
    “And all those booger-eaters, all those little kids running around, no one to even stop them crying or change their diapers. Orc made sure they were taken care of.” Howard grinned a huge grin. “He comforted them. Or at least made sure someone did.”
    “That’s right,” Orc said, as if it was the first time he’d heard it put that way.
    “No one else wanted to get things under control, so Orc did,” Howard said. “And so he is the Captain now, until the adults come back.”
    “Only they ain’t coming back,” Orc said.
    “That’s totally right,” Howard said. “What the Captain said.”
    Sam glanced at Astrid. The truth was, someone needed to get people to stop acting crazy. Orc would not have been Sam’s choice for that job. But he didn’t want to do it himself.
    The fight had mostly gone out of the situation. And now that the two sides were lined up face-to-face, there was no question who would win if it started up again. It was four to four, but the four bullies included Orc, and he counted for three at least.
    “We just want to go look for Little Pete,” Sam said finally, swallowing his anger.
    “Yeah? If you’re looking for something, it’s best if you go kind of slow,” Howard said with a smirk.
    “You want the golf cart,” Sam said.
    “That’s what I’m talking about, Sammy,” Howard said, spreading his