Chapter 4
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Eve and her parent didn't go to church every week. They went on christmas, easter, and sporadic occassions. On Febuary 5th there was a special mass quickly scheduled, everyone was welcome. Saturday evening mass was sometimes called "fisher's mass" for those who wanted to get church out of the way and spend sunday morning fishing, or golfing, or just sleeping in. During their walk here Eve's father Zack explained why he'd been called into work today of all days. Zack was an executive at Ravenwood, a defense contractor that supplied weapons to the military. Back during the war on terror Ravenwood also built bomb shelters for paying customers. That program fell into dis-use after alqueda was defeated. But now, they were going back into the shelter business. Zack seemed pretty optimistic about this. Even if they couldn't get into a government shelter, they would likely get into a Ravenwood one. If ELE was destroyed the family might actually emerge from this crises better than before. This church was usually only half-full on Saturday mass, tonight it was very crowded. People were waiting outside as the priests and nuns tried to figure out how to fit everyone inside. They never wanted to turn anyone away, especially on a cold Febuary evening, especially this one. As Eve and her parents waited outside there were people selling rocks out here. These salesman claimed that these rocks were from another asteroid. Anyone who possessed these rocks couldn't be killed by ELE. This seemed impossible to believe, and yet people were buying these rocks. Eve knew that logically these guys were lying, president Mason's message of everyone working together seemed to have been lost on these people. But a small part of her wondered if one of these little rocks might actually save her in three years. So Eve bought one of these rocks for five bucks. Before they went inside they saw a man in plain clothes tell these hucksters to get lost. They obeyed. Eve wondered why they would back down to one nosy guy. Eve's mom Kendall said that at the supermarket a couple of guys almost got into a fist-fight, until two other guys pulled them apart. It took Eve a little while to realize the connection. The guys at the supermarket, the one who told the charlatains to leave, they were soldiers. President Mason, was having these soldiers keep order and prevent chaos. He probably had them in plain clothes because a military presence would create more chaos. Eve put the little rock in her pocket and went into the church. Father Mcnamara egan his sermon.
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"My friends, welcome. I'm sure many of you have questions. The question that comes to mind is "Is this the end of the world?" The Bible says that noone will know when the end comes, not even the angels in Heaven. Only God himself. Is this the end, I pray it is not. But I do not know the will of God. And I can promise that the charlatains in the street do not know either. Buying little trinkets will not protect you, it will only line their pockets. They say that the world changed yesterday. A crises has emerged, but crises' always emerge. The question that always comes before us is "What are we going to do about it?" Are we going to help our fellow man during these hard times, or will we only look out for ourselves? I pray that the asteroid is diverted just as you do. Four years from now, we will look back at how we acted during the hard times. Will we proudly say we looked after our friends and neighbors, or admit with shame that we cared nothing for others? Will we abandon our own selfish desires and be given the glory of Heaven? Or will we reject God in pursuit only of the futile goal of surviving this world. I cannot make this choice for you. Each of you must make the choice for yourself. To serve God, or yourself.