Chapter 52
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On Thursday June 30th Eve was working her shift. She thought about what Jessie had said. Maybe he was right, it did make some sense. Her body was already adjusting okay to the hard labor, even the blisters. Probably best to adjust now, with 1116 days until impact. After her shift Eve went to the mess hall for something to eat. She knew that the fourth of July celerations here were scheduled for July 3rd through July 5th. The plan was that people would get to enjoy the festivities at some point, even if they were working on actual independence day. Eve' schedule had her working on July 3rd, and her late shift on the 5th, but off on the 4th. As she ate Eve's roommate Julia came to tell her the big rumor. Zoey Allen, the vice-president's eldest daughter, was visiting this Ark site. She'd be here during the celebrations. Eve remembered Zoey from the "Rock the vote" commercials last year. She believed Zoey was about a year older than Eve. Eve didn't always follow the first family, but they were often in the news. Vice-president Allen had two other kids, the twins Anton and Zeena, who were roughly ten. Zoey was believed to be dating the president's son Jed. There were rumors of those two cheating on each other. Eve wasn't sure she believed those rumors, but there were a lot of them surrounding the first family. The president was believed to have had an affair with his press secretary Erica, but Erica had recently ended the affair to marry another man. First lady Sharon Mason had an affait with a secret service agent named Pierce, but that affair ended and Pierce was fired. Eve remembered three years ago when Mason's other child, Mimi, had a baby and refused to name who the father was. That had seemed scandalous back then, even though Mimi was 22 when she had little Rebecca. Eve tried not to judge, they were all only human. Also the president had said the first family wouldn't go into the Arks, not even him, only to leave other Americans to die. So whatever these people did to relieve tensions, who was she to judge? At any rate it was rumored that Zoey was coming with a film crew. Zoey was a big film buff, colonel Sadlet likely needed more newsreels to attract more volunteers. Eve wondered if she might end up being in one of the newsreels. She hadn't come here to be a movie star, but suddenly liked this idea.