In this article we explore orthogonally additive (nonlinear) operators in vector lattices. First we investigate the lateral order on vector lattices and show that with every element e of a C-complete vector lattice E is associated a lateral-to-order continuous orthogonally additive projection p(e) : E -> F-e. Then we prove that for an order bounded positive AM-compact orthogonally additive operator S : E -> F defined on a C-complete vector lattice E and taking values in a Dedekind complete vector lattice F all elements of the order interval [0, S] are AM-compact operators as well.