the dog king (markedman) wrote in remains_rpg, @ 2015-08-14 01:40:00 |
|
|||
The air in the Chapel is charged tonight.
Last week was a blur of blood and loss, and the look in his crew's eyes is that of a browbeaten boxer rallying in a corner. They are ready for the next round, ready to come in swinging. The pack mentality is strong as ever, and his men are hungry for retribution, prepared to take eye for eye and tooth for tooth. That's always been the way here-- violence begets violence, and any perceived aggression has been met with crushing animosity and a helluva lot of overeager trigger fingers. This camp was built on it, built on us vs. them, surrounded by a wall constructed to reinforce the idea that everything beyond it is them and everything inside is us. Protect your own, defend your home, avenge your brothers. They have never turned the other cheek. Payback has always been swift, brutal, bloody. Blind.
His crew is expecting more of that. Rodeo can tell-- they're broiling with destructive energy, feeding off each others' bloodlust and hate. This is the mentality he's encouraged in them. When he looks around the group settling into the pilfered pews that are set in semi-circle around the walls of the Chapel tent, he wonders if they will be able to change. If they'll be able to listen to him now at all.
The Council Chambers may be Rodeo's favorite place in the Dog Park, but the big green Chapel has never been very far behind. The layout is structured for discussion, with three sides of the tent framed by four rows of church pews that have been built up like bleachers, each row rising a little higher than the one before on a platform of unfinished wood. The fourth side of the tent is set with seven chairs, one for each officer, facing the Chapel's stacked seating. This is a place where his family comes together, not just to drink and shout and be merry, but to look to the future and listen to each others' ideas. Every choice Rodeo makes for his camp is weighed carefully here and in the Council Chambers, and Rodeo doesn't think there could be a better place to begin anew.
The Dogs aren't alone in Chapel tonight. It's not the first time that the Chapel has been opened to old ladies, but it is the first time it's been opened to everyone. With almost all of the Dog Park's 200 residents crowded into the tent, there aren't enough pews for everyone-- some folks are standing, others have found themselves a seat on the ashy dirt on the floor of the tent. Rodeo looks at all their faces, some of them laughing and chatting, others grinding their teeth and gearing up for orders. When the clock on the wall strikes seven, Rodeo rises from his seat with a file folder tucked under his arm and the tent begins to hush. His eyes find Adelaide's in the crowd, picking her out where she's taken a seat beside Noa, and he begins.
"We have it in our power to begin the world over again." Rodeo pauses, glancing across his friends and family, meeting the gazes that are fixed on him. "The lives we used to have, the world we used to know, all that is gone. We've lost brothers. We've lost sisters. We've lost children, friends, lovers. We can't change the past. But in all this destruction, all this loss, there's opportunity. We have a chance to create a better tomorrow for the ones we have left, for the good of humanity as a whole. And what have we been doing with that chance? What contributions have we made to the future of humanity?" Rodeo lifts his brows, looking to his brothers. "Murder. Mayhem. Violence. Destruction. We're stealin' from the sick and killing for thrills. We're doing everything we can to burn down what's left of this world. We've been acting like there ain't a future, and if we keep it up there won't be. Not for us.
"History is written by the victors. And right now the Capitol is writin' ours. Did it piss you off, readin' what they had to say about us? It should piss you off more known' it's true. We didn't shoot first this time, but Wolfe's blood-- Wolfe's death is on us. Look at where we're standing. We reached a point where we're so far gone that we gotta court for friendship, and anyone fool enough to trust us becomes a wanted man overnight. But standin' alone, it's worked for us so far. We look out for ourselves, right? We take more than we need and we kill when we don't have to, but it's us against them-- always has been. The thing is, we been lookin' at it wrong. Austin ain't the enemy."
Rodeo unravels the string that fastens the folder he's holding, opening it up to draw out a piece of cardboard slapped with a printed sticker. He holds this up, and most of the members of his crew recognize it as one of the labels affixed to the crates of Praxacaterol in the storage bunker. "You ever ask yourself why the Mayor wants us gone so goddamn bad? It ain't 'cause he's jealous we make outlawin' look so good, boys. It's because we have this. See, he's gone and tied himself up in a real nice web o' lies, but we got the thread that can lead to his unravelin'. We took a truck full of wash in April of 2017-- some of you were there. Some of you already know this story. But that truck had a map in it, and that map led us to a warehouse full of men with government IDs and the motherlode of Praxacaterol. The drug we been sendin' into the tunnels, it was the Capitol's before we took it. And this label? According to these labels, it was manufactured at Merck Pharmaceuticals in New Jersey in October and November of 2016. After the gas was dumped on Austin. After the Mayor's been claimin' he lost contact with the outside world." Rodeo holds the cardboard out to a scraggly-haired patch sitting on the pew nearest him, wanting the label passed around for everyone to see for themselves. "How's he gonna order two thousand cases of wash sent from New Jersey when he can't even get a call out to Houston? And what the fuck did he want that much of a drug like this for anyway? Because it was his." Rodeo takes out a stack of laminated Capitol-issued ID cards from the folder too, holding those up for all to see. "We took these IDs off the resource men in the warehouse. Look, this ain't enough to prove much, but we know the truth here. Problem is, who the fuck is gonna believe us? Who the fuck is even gonna listen to us? All this time we been tryin' not to let the Capitol take us down, but we gave 'em exactly what they wanted. We made ourselves the villains. We made it so that nobody wants to stand beside us, 'cause it means standing beside drug lords and murderers. Is that who we wanna be? Is Olinger the man we want building the future? 'Cause as long as we're keepin' on like this, we're giving it to him."
Rodeo drops the IDs back into the folder and drops it down onto his empty chair. He turns back to the crowd cramped into the tent, eyes scanning the faces of his family. "We been lookin' at this wrong. We been goin' at it like everyone outside that wall is an enemy. But the truth is, we ain't alone. What happened this week, let that be your proof. Olinger will go after anyone who stands against him, anyone who ain't a happy pawn in whatever game he's playin' at. Every man, woman and child in that city who craves freedom from oppression is our ally, but they ain't ever gonna know it if we don't last long enough to earn their trust and show them the truth. And we are gonna have to earn trust, brothers. It ain't gonna be easy. But there is no freedom and there is no future on the path we're walkin' now. We have to make ourselves right first. A group of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ain't gonna be trusted by anybody. Things have to change. We can't go around shootin' cops on sight and takin' over trucks on their way to the fuckin' hospital. As long as we're only lookin' out for ourselves, are we any better than them? To secure our own liberty, we must guard even our enemies from oppression, or we establish a precedent that will reach back onto us. We want a future? We want to be free? Well it starts with us.
"From here on out, we fire only when fired upon. From here on out, we take from the city, not from supply scouts or resource trucks. From here on out, the people of Austin are no longer the them on the other side of us. Things ain't gonna be easy. No matter how many friends we manage to make, Olinger will probably have more. But if we want a world free from despotism, then we gotta fight for it. And there will be a fight. But if trouble's gonna come, let it come to us. None of us was designed to be forced. We will never bow to tyranny, no matter how hard they push against us. Let's stand, brothers and sisters, and let them fuckin' push. We'll show them who is strongest."