Chapter 97

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Eve's job at Ravenwood involved a lot of "Hurry up and wait." Long periods of boredom, then suddenly having to quickly dictate memos or transfer calls. During her downtime Eve did her homework, read the Koran, or surfed the internet. She sometimes checked out Zoey Allen's blog. This was how she knew that president Mason kept the heat down at the white house to conserve fuel, even wore a sweater to set a good example, or that he sufferred from insomnia. All president's had a lot of stress to deal with, this one more than most. On December 19th Eve was going to Ravenwood. As she walked towards the building she saw a woman jump out a window to her death. This event startled Eve. She called her father, Zack told her tocome into work, try to keep busy. Eve went into work, did what she could. Maybe it was best to keep her mind occupied at moments like this. After work Zack was driving Eve home, they talked about what happenned.

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Eve: I don't understand, why someone would do that.

Zack: Rumor was she was going to be fired. That meant less chances of her or her family getting into shelters.

Eve: But there are only 944 days until impact. Why commit such a grave sin with such a short time until death?

Zack: Maybe she didn't want to believe she'd go to Hell for it.

Eve: I don't want to believe mom is in Hell. But I also wouldn't risk it with so few days left.

Zack: I could understand why. This woman had a husband and children. She couldn't face them, tell them she'd lost their best chance of surviving.

Eve: So she'd rather risk Hell than face them after that?

Zak: So it would seem. It's not too uncommon. Rumor is that in Japan, when their exeutives are fired like that, they throw themselves on samurai swords.

Eve: I've heard that, it's probably just an urban legend.

Zack: Maybe, but I've seen others at Ravenwood. Everyone's nervous about Mason siexing private shelters. Some keep cyanide capsules, even guns, in their desks.

Eve: They plan to kill themselves if Mason does that? At least the euthanasia laws have a seven day cooling down period.

Zack: I could understand. If I lost the chance to protect you and Karen, I might kill myself.

Eve: Please don't say that dad.

Zack: I love you Eve. I don't want to die. But I might prefer that to letting you down.

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On the night of December 22nd Eve was watching "It's a wonderful life." Although a muslim Eve still enjoyed certain part of christmas. She missed the decorations, Santas all around. But it seemed people couldn't afford much of this anymore. Eve had gotten gift for her father, Amy, and Even Karen. Nadia said she didn't want one, but appreciated Eve's thought. She was watching this movie on the Trinity Broadcasting network. Normally they were showing Walker or some others talking about the end times or the fight between christianity and islam. Eve didn't like this, but she had to agree about one thing, things were falling apart. Wars were starting all across the globe. Fighting was worst in Sangala. Centuries ago Europe had colonized this country, divided the people into two ethnic groups, Bawa and Askari. Suppossedly the Bawa were more advanced, phsically and intelectually. In reality they were just the ones who collaberated with the Europeans and, not coincidentally, were chosen to run the government. After Europe left the Bawa retained control of the government with an apartheid syste where Askari couldn't hold office or even vote. This led to an on-again, off-again conflict. The two groups made peace to build Arks after Febuary 4th, but fighting resumed recently over the limited space. Fighting wasn't this bad in America, yet there were talks of militias plotting to sieze the Arks, states seceding from the union, private companies taking up arms to keep their shelters. Sexual immorality had increased since Febuary 4th. Eve knew very well that Karen was cheating on her dad, but Zack didn't feel he had the right to judge. After all, he'd cheated on his first wife with Karen. There were fewer instances of teachers and students together since principal Bauer took over. Although there was one teacher who had married a former student, currently pregnant with his child. Eve was grateful to be able to watch an innocent movie about faith and people coming together.