Chapter 241
.
The mood in camp 81 was one of relief. The war was over. Prisoners and guards began playing a game of baseball together incelebration. As Eve watched the game she began thinking about exactly what would happen next. Even with Adam and Claire vouching for her she would likely be in this forced labor camp for a few years. All things considered, maybe she deserved it. Reconstruction laws would be determined by a vengeful president. They'd be enacted by a blood-thirsty loyalist congress, their rights subjected to a supreme court stacked by George Mason. Eve wondered if she'd ever be allowed to return home, or would the state keep her house forever? Public housing for displaced loyalists? Even if she sued, Mason had already stacked the courts. All prisoners were suppossed to be released within the week, except for refugees and criminals like herself ofcourse.
With communication restrictions lifted Eve and some other P.O.W.s saw a video on Youtube. It was her former boss, mr Dole, posted April 29th. Eve had heard that some Ravenwood executives had committed suicide during the fall of Los Angelas. Colby had sufferred a fatal heart attack months ago. Ms Wynter had betrayed Ravenwood and turned her resources over to Mason before the war even started. Rumor was Wynter was general Gardner's mistress. In Dole's video he and a female assistant were drinking a bottle of wine. Eve had heard rumors that Dole owned a wine bottle once owned by Thomas Jefferson, the most valuable wine in the world. The young woman was playing Russian roulette with herself, deciding this was how she wanted to die. Dole delivered a lecture.
.
Dole: It seems that Karl Marx was right. Capitalism was just a place-holder. An improvement over fuedalism until humanity was ready for socialism. I was arrogant enough to believe that capitalism was the endgame, that it was my duty to defend capitalism. I suppose I was biased, I greatly profited from capitalism. I really believed it was an opportunity for the under-priveledged. I started with nothing, achieved success when nobody helped me. I even helped create a new country, but that country won't exist much longer. And now, we are seeing the death of capitalism. The Arks will no doubt have a socialist system. The state will control all resources, giving them only to those who contribute. No room for slackers or the selfish. But Ravenwood technology helped build these Arks, our greatest, perhaps our only, lasting contribution to mankind. I take some joy in that. Even more basic than class warfare, it's ultimately man against nature. The Arks are proof that mankind is slowly, but surely, gaining the upper hand. Wherever Karl Marx is, Heaven, Hell, somewhere else, he must be laughing at the death of capitalism. He was arrogant enough to think he could predict the end goal, communism, centuries in advance. I've spent decades trying to prove Marx wrong. As it turns out Karl Marx wasn't a god, he was just higher up the progressive ladder than me. I hope he sees from the grave, when people ultimately replace communism with whatever comes next.
.
Dole walked to the window, barely noticing when the girl's gun went off, putting her brains on the wall as her body fell to the ground. He walked to the window, looked down at the earth at least 50 stories below. He jumped, this was the experience he wanted as he died.
The night of May 1st president George Mason addressed the nation. Millions around the globe watched or listened intently, Eve among them.
.
Mason: My fellow Americans. Our civil war is over. Although it has been relatively brief, it has been full of loss. More than twenty million American men, women, and children are dead. Nothing can bring back those sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters who've perished in this terrible conflict. I am among those grieving fathers who will never see their child again. My granddaughter Rebecca, will have to grow up without her mother. But we who remain have a responsbility to go on. To work together against the asteroid. To ensure that humanity will survive. Those who committed war crimes will be tried, and if convicted, excluded from the Arks. Foot-soldiers on both sides will remain free, will become productive members of society. Orphans will be taken care of. We will not engage in vengeance or score-settling. We must work together to ensure that the Arks protect humanity. To ensure that the plague never returns. This will not be easy, but it is neccessary. With malice towards none, with charity towards all, we will rebuild society. With 446 days until impact we must learn to live together, or we will die alone.