Who: Noa, Roman, Nate and Adelaide Where: Rodeo's trailer What: Meeting and planning! When: Backdated to 11/8/18
this is a call to arms, gather soldiers time to go to war this is a battle song, brothers and sisters time to go to war here we are at the start, I can feel the beating of our hearts here we are at the start here we are at the start
Holding this gathering in Rodeo's trailer without him around feels strange, calls to light all over again just how massive his absence really is. He's the one who should be masterminding something like this, pulling strings and making connections in his ever-active mind. It's practically what he was born to do.
But he isn't here, their leaders aren't here, and so it falls to this group - ragtag collection of devoted loved ones more used to following than leading - to find the way.
Adelaide is torn up, reeling, reliving this most persistent nightmare one more time, doubly so with Sarge locked away too. But at least this time the rules of the world have changed, at least this time there is firepower she can use, there is strength she can stand on, there is something she can do to get them back. For the first time she can admit that maybe there is something to be said for that, for the Dogs and their people and the independence that comes from being so armed.
She's grim and determined as she sets out bowls of food for those gathered - Noa and Nate, familiar to her, and Roman who is less so but she would trust Noa's judgment any day and he's just that kind of big and solid that she's already inclined to like. Steaming bowls of spicy ramen noodles, eggs fresh from Willa's flock poached in the broth, a precious jar of kimchee added in with plenty of soy sauce, go down to fuel this meeting. Growing up with those ever-hungry Montgomery boys, Adelaide has never been able to not feed people in her home, even now.
She sits down at Jims' table with her bowl and his notebook in front of her, safe under her hands like a talisman. "So. We have a map. We've asked the doctor to get in and get eyes on them if she can. We have seventy Dogs and two hundred people. We have guns, explosives, and balls. Anybody have an idea how we turn that into an escape plot?"