#decorous

"We need a medic on site, south gate NOW!" 

A voice yelled, the desperation and anger in the voice echoing through the camp. It came from the internals of Phoenix Nest just inside the main gate. The garage was closed, people lining the streets standing in the inches of snow lining the frostbitten ground. The white blanket and blue ice on the pavement was stained red as Dingo and Decorous shuffled through the large metal doors with someone between them. A boy, just over 18, and leaving a trail of crimson in his wake as they pulled him in to safety. 

Behind them Cell and Itzel both slid inside quickly, weapons drawn and wary eyes trained on the street. The bowwoman was waving for the guard on the wall to quickly shut the gates as Dingo and Decorous escorted the boy towards a team of medics rushing through the crowd with stretcher in hand. He was pale, convulsing as his body grew colder as Dingo grasped his violently shaking hand.  

"You're gonna be alright, son. Just hang in there we've got a medic on the way. At least we bloody well should WE NEED DOCTORS OUT HERE DAMMIT!" he yelled around him to any with medical practice who would listen as Megan approached hastily, her face as pale as the snow along with another nurse in tow at her side who quickly lifted the boy's shirt to assess the injury. 

"What happened here?" the nurse asked, her voice thick with an unknown accent.

"Gunshot, 9mm to the side. We found him maybe two minutes after he was injured-" Decorous explained hastily before his attention was taken away by the sound of screaming from the crowd. 

 "GET OUT OF MY WAY, THAT'S MY SON!" a female voice shrieked as a woman charged forward almost barreling over Decorous. Her face was twisted with anguish and terror as her wiry hands took Dingo's place as he stepped back. 

"Th-that's my boy." she sputtered as frozen tears streaked her cheeks. Somehow her presence alone seemed to ease the boy's fear, turning his head to look her in the eyes with a weak smile. 

 "H-hi mom... I-I guess I missed curfew." He joked faintly. 

 "Stop it, Jared, what were you thinking!?" the woman retorted, wiping the smile from his face as she doubled over with sobs, placing his hand against her forehead. "What were you thinking...?" 

 The boy, Jared, mirrored her despair as his lip started to quiver with the despair of his condition washing over him. "I-I'm sorry," he shivered, "I just wanted to help-" 

 "You put a lot of people at risk. I admire your resolve but that was very stupid of you." the nurse retorted, earning a concerned look from Megan before she went back to work washing a cloth with antiseptic.

"Megan bloody tell me is he gonna make it!?" Dingo demanded. 

 "I-I don't know," she stammered, "He's lost a lot of blood and sepsis is already setting in. We don't have time to get him inside we-"

"Is he going to live?" Dingo demanded again over the sobbing woman, this time Megan could only respond with a distant look in her eyes and a shake of her head. The Australian's teeth grit as his eyes shadowed beneath his hat before turning on his heel, his boots crunching in the snow as he paced towards the crowd. 

 "Dingo, do not-" Decorous began but was cut off as the sniper pushed passed him. The amount of resistance from Decorous was minimal almost as if he wasn't fully intent on stopping him from what he was about to do. He stepped up to a man at the front of the crowd, his hair well-kept and bushy eyebrows above his sunken in eyes, grabbing him by the collar he shoved him against a light post. A few people stepped aside with gasps and screams as Dingo locked the man's gaze with his, his ice blue eyes burning with anger. 

 "This was your doing. YOURS. You told that boy that he could fight on his own, that he should never rely on anyone else and you got him KILLED. DO YOU UNDERSTAND THAT?" Dingo yelled, his mouth foaming as he shook the man in tandem with his lecture. 

The stranger's hands were clasped around Dingo's wrist, blood staining his fingertips and shirt where Dingo held it with an iron grip. His eyes looked at his wrist for a moment before stepping back and releasing the man's collar. 

 "Look at you. Look at your hands. His blood is all over them. Just like mine," he said almost taunting as he raised his own hands in front of him. "But I stained mine just like those nurses and his grieving mother trying to save him, yours are stained like you were holding the gun that shot him. You filled his head with dreams built on being the wrong man." 

 "That's not fair! I showed him how stupid following you blind idiots was! I taught him to how stand on his own two feet-!" the man argued.

"AND NOW HE'LL DIE ON HIS BACK." Dingo snapped back as if he could spit acid. "He'll die believing the lie his father put in him before he could find out what it meant to be his own man. Following your ideals and your beliefs before he could find his own. You told him to stay inside and give up on what he believed in and now he's dying for it."

The man had tears in his eyes but his face was red with rage, his eyes darting all over Dingo as if he was looking for an angle to attack before he shrank back as Christi approached and stood at Dingo's side. 

"What is the meaning of all this?" she questioned prudently. 

 "Miss Rheddstone, tell your subordinate to know his place! He's attacking a grieving man in his time of loss for his own ideology!" the man begged.

"He is not my subordinate," she said, her voice as cold as the concrete the man groveled on. "And he has the right to speak his mind. Especially when he is correct. You've been under investigation multiple times by the bureau for child abuse and now look at you. You would defend your actions as he lay dying instead of being at his side. You'd defend your reputation as opposed to protecting your son, because if he did not follow your word he had nothing. He died for an arrogant man that he believed was the personification of what this camp should stand for." 

Christi spoke almost as if she were giving a speech, her method so condescending in the most painful way as he stood to represent the real image of a leader without even intending it. The man before her tried so much harder to demand respect for naught and she took it with such ease. 

 "The difference between us and you is we stop people like you. The people who destroyed our world and took lives believing it was for a righteous cause." To add to the poetry of her words, Decorous stood just beyond her. 

Christi's eyes remained unwavering as she crouched staring into the eyes of the man as the bloodcurdling cry from Jared's mother echoed off the camp walls. She sobbed with utter despair into her now deceased son's chest.

"I'm sure you'll forgive yourself within minutes because you believe what your son did was worth being proud of yourself for, but she never will forgive you for any of this," Christi said as she stood to her feet. "Now you can walk yourself to the holding chambers and answer for your part in this murder investigation or I can have the two men who were more of a father figure to that boy in his last minutes than you ever were take you by force. But whatever occurs between then and now is out of my jurisdiction and off the record." 

 As the cries of the mother continued to echo the man's eyes and continued darting between the Administrator and marksman before scanning the crowd as they all stared with disapproval and malice. 

 "What are you all looking at!?" he yelled, pulling himself up with the pole, using it to steady himself. "That was my son too, and believe it or not I loved him! He had more conviction than all of you useless bastards! Say what you want, but I will stand by my choices! I did my job, and that boy lost his way and chose to follow his own uninformed convictions! You killed my son! All of you!" The man howled, the veins in his neck bulging with his hoarse voice as he pushed his way through the crowd; yelling obscenities as he left. The woman in the military cap stepped up next to Decorous, giving him a tap on the shoulder. 

"Rubies, we should get going and find the guy who did this. If we're quick we can pick up his trail." In the same moment a shot rang out and the crowd dispersed, the few remaining opening up a path as they turned to look at the source of the sound. 

A Merc, one clad in body armor and a helmet marked with 'SECURITY' stepped backwards as the father of the boy stumbled with his hands clutching his chest, choking as blood spilled from his mouth before he stumbled into a snow drift. His eyes staring distantly as the life left his body and red stained the ground. 

 "I had no choice, he attacked me!" the man claimed, a few mumbles from the distraught crowd confirming his story as Decorous stared at the now unfolding massacre. 

 "We've no one to find, Itzel." Decorous said to his partner.