Our luck did turn around. The next two weeks flew by fast, and Lorenzo kept his promise. Twice a week, I went to see if he had a job for me, and he always did. One time, I had to take those… bread sticks… to the same boat guy, but the other three deliveries were longer and harder to find. One time, it took me three hours to get to the client and back, but Lorenzo gave me a whole pizza as a tip on top of the twenty bucks. It was so much money that Alex and I were able to even save a few bucks every time for emergencies!

Alex’s skin was slowly getting better now, too. With all the salve and bandages and disinfectants we had now, we were finally able to treat his wounds, and after just a week, he was able to walk a little without breaking his skin. I still made him rest, and to make sure he actually did so, I bought him two thick sketchbooks and four pencils. He loved to draw, and he was really good at it, so that kept him entertained for days.

And Simon was such a cool guy. I felt so, so bad for thinking badly of him in the beginning, because he treated me and my brother so well. He sometimes brought us food, and he always made sure we had enough water – it had become a bit of an inside joke between us – and he and his friends started hanging out with us in the evenings.

The storms had finally passed as well, and it got dry enough for us to build a huge campfire outside. Alex and I spent a lot of time next to it, enjoying the warmth and warm food we could now make. The smoke burning in our eyes and sticking to our clothes was annoying, but as the days passed, we got used to it.

The best part about the campfire was that we could hang out with the other residents of our abandoned grocery store, especially Simon and his friends. They often told us stories about dragons and pixies and knights and stuff. I mean, they tried to, but at least they were funny.

“…and this massive asshole dragon is sitting on top of his mountain of gold – like treasures you can’t even imagine – statues of pure gold, rubies and diamonds and a shit-ton of necklaces and rings and like a million gold coins, and–” Simon spoke, waving his arms in elaborate ways, but Cornell interrupted him with a frown.

“Wait, wait, wait… It’s a fucking dragon. How did it get all those tiny fucking coins up the mountain, huh? He’s got no pockets!”

Simon turned to glare at him. “I don’t know! I didn’t ask, all right!”

“Fool. He probably had bags,” Patric offered, snickering.

Simon bowed at him. “Right! He had bags! Anyway–”

I just laughed quietly while listening to this chaotic storytelling. Alex was having fun, too, while he drew a dragon in his sketchbook, based on how Simon described it. Simon dropped by every now and then to give his enthusiastic opinions, and Alex made the corrections. It was starting to look really cool.

It was a really fun night. We hadn’t had fun nights like that in like… ever.

But then a couple of new guys joined the group… Well, not our group specifically, but they took seats close enough so we could hear them.

I glanced at Simon, who had stopped speaking, and his expression went blank when he watched those two. They were talking to another group of guys who were a bit older than Simon and his friends. They were just chatting about their day and asking if anyone had any booze. Normal stuff. I wouldn’t have paid any attention to the two, but…

I watched Simon. His face stayed neutral, but… He didn’t like the two. I wanted to ask why, but obviously not now. But if he didn’t like them, then I didn’t like them, either.

I guess Simon sensed my eyes on him, since he suddenly turned to me, saw me watching him, and smiled.

“And that’s the story of the dragon for now,” he said.

“What? But you didn’t finish it?” Alex said.

“I’ll tell you the rest of it tomorrow,” Simon promised. “It’s time to go to bed.”

“What? It’s not even that late,” Alex asked with a frown, but I nudged him gently on the side. He took the hint very fast. “Oh, I didn’t realize how late it was.”

I smiled at my smart brother, but I was getting a little worried.

“Come. Let’s go,” Simon said, and helped us gather our snacks, bottles, blankets, and Alex’s pencils.

I couldn’t help noticing how Patric and Cornell stood between us and the two strangers…

They really didn’t like the guys at all…

They escorted us to our little hut. I made Alex go in first, but I stayed behind. The three older alphas were watching the entrance and the campfire behind it.

“What’s wrong?” I whispered my question to Simon.

He shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. Just… Stay away from those new guys, okay?”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because they’re new guys. We don’t know them,” he explained with a smile.

“Technically, you three are new guys too. You moved in a month ago,” I noted.

He snorted and chuckled. “All right, smarty pants. It could be nothing, but… They are giving me True Order vibes, if you know what I mean.”

Oh…?

I stared at him for a moment longer. “Right…”

He gave me a short, calculating look. I realized my mistake.

“Thanks for the heads-up. We’ll stay far away from them,” I hurried to say.

He nodded slowly, then smiled. “Good. Now, go to sleep, okay? I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Yeah. Goodnight,” I said.

“Goodnight.”

A moment later, I made myself comfortable in my bed after treating Alex’s wounds and making sure he didn’t need anything. As I lay on my small mattress, listening to his breathing, waiting for him to fall asleep, I thought about what Simon said.

True Order…

People called them terrorists. People said they were the reason a third of our country got bombed into ruins. People said they were the reason hundreds of thousands of people got killed in the last twenty years. People said they were the reason all these bad things had happened to us.

People said they were bad people.

But… Didn’t it all happen because of omegas? Because they wanted to take jobs and leadership positions from alphas? Because they wanted to rule our country, even though everyone knew they would ruin everything good us alphas had done? The world us alphas had built?

That’s what my sire always used to say… True Order just wanted to protect our country, because omegas weren’t qualified to make good decisions for us. They were too emotional, too hormonal, and none of them wanted to go through schools or get a proper education for themselves. How could they lead us if they didn’t even know how to read? How could they lead us when all they cared about was making babies?

I’d met plenty of omegas, and I sure didn’t want any of them to make any decisions for me. They were just… They were so weak and scared all the time. They always preferred to hide and let everyone else – alphas – deal with whatever issues we had. I didn’t hate them, not at all, but… The omegas living with us here… I just couldn’t see how they could be happy to be treated as our equals. They weren’t happy. They didn’t want to make decisions, and they sure didn’t want to do anything dangerous.

They must’ve been so much happier obeying us alphas… All they had to do was listen to us, take care of our homes, and birth all the babies they wanted. That was what they were born to do. That was the only way they could be truly happy.

So… Why did they have to ruin this country for us? Why did they force True Order to start a war to save our country? My parents would still be alive if they’d just stopped chasing things they didn’t actually want… 

And not only that… My parents had told me that Governor Morgan was just taking advantage of this equality bullshit to have people killed so she could steal their money. So many people had talked about how her army was full of murderers who enjoyed torturing and killing everyone they didn’t like… That they weren’t even trying to end the war. They were trying to make sure it would never end so they could keep murdering people legally…

And why couldn’t people still see the truth? After twenty years of fighting and death and destruction, people still thought True Order and everyone who supported them were evil!

I wished I could do something…

I breathed out, trying to calm down.

Sometimes… I did hate omegas… And people like Simon, who clearly supported this war… I couldn’t even voice my opinions because people would say I was somehow the bad guy for wanting peace. I just had to act like I hated True Order. I had to call those heroes terrorists… My already bad life would get so much worse if they knew how I truly felt about True Order.

And the worst part was that Alex was being brainwashed into thinking badly of True Order, and I couldn’t do anything about it. I just had to hope he was smart enough to see the truth for himself.

I peered at the doorway…

True Order vibes, huh…?

Maybe I wasn’t alone with my views in this place, after all…