Chapter 203
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Frank, Emerson, Clarke and Hope made it away from the torture chamber. In the excitement of the escape they didn't notice that Billy was no longer with them. Most likely he had fled, he knew Frank was serious about killing him, and their truce was now over. They were still stuck in Hell, but they could at least make their way here. Maybe they could get to Antarctica, or maybe they'd be stuck here until the final battle. In the meantime they vowed to do better, to try and not make the same mistakes again.
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By April 2024 America had diplomatic relations with all three parts of Antarctica. Many, including some former SBA members, supported this, at first. Some believed that it was in everyone's best interests for them to be able to have their own nation states. Some were just happy to be rid of alien refugees. If that meant they got to live out their lives in a frozen wasteland, so be it. The SBA had now nominated Patricia Turner for president. Despite the accusations of being a nazi front organization, they were still functioning. Some refused to believe this inconvenient truth, despite all of the empiracal evidence. It seemed that the republican and democratic parties had been replaced by the Society for a Better America and the American Solidarity Party. The ASP once again nominated president Odonnell, and despite his age he was winning. Even those who were wary of alien refugees wanted nothing to do with nazies. Patricia Turner denied these accusations ofcourse. She stirred up hatred of these aliens even though, as an agent of Hell, she was technically an alien. Such logic and facts are typically lost on haters, as long as the speakers give them a target for their irrational hatred and an excuse to express their anger. By May of 2024 Hell seemed to be developing a new strategy. There were those in Hell who had murdered children. They took perverted pleasure in harming the innocent. Some even murdered their own children, they enjoyed the attention that came from people who pitied them for this. Now, Evil had recruited many of these psychopaths. Ever since the Rapture, children were a scarce resource. These psychopaths targeted children, then simply fled back to Hell. The media reported this, it seemed like every night they had a new story of children being murdered by agents of Hell. It was not hard for Patricia Turner to blame this on alien refugees, turn more people to her side. They blamed the refugees living in Antarctica, claimed that the psychopaths were hiding amongst Antarctica's civilian population. This unfortunately turned more people towards the SBA. This in turn made Magneto and his followers cautious, they prepared themselves for the possibilty that America would launch a preemptive strike. Many moderates, in America and Antarctica, feared that if Patricia Turner were elected president, then war might be inevitable.