Chapter 347
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With so little time left Eve was grateful to Zoey and Jed, not just for a more comfortable bed to sleep in. They provided her with some much needed comfort right now. The three of them worked suprisingly weel together. They all had jobs to do. Eve worked as secretary, Zoey worked with films for morale, and the Monuments Men project, Jed was still recovering from his wounds. The doctors said he'd be ready to be deployed before June 1st. Mason needed every soldier for the final retrievals. He was likely to give amnesty to any of Gardner's coup who defected for these final ones. For almost a year now the Secret Service agents had been replaced with marines, but Mason would likely send them out for retrievals. With so many desertions, every loyal soldier was needed, even traitors desperate to retrieve their honor were needed right now. Zoey worried about her husband, what they would do to the president's son. A part of her wished Eve hadn't saved him. Until then all three of them were sometimes asked to watch the children in the White House. Not just little Rebecca or Pete, or the vice-president's other children Anton and Zeena. With all the conflict a large number of children were orphaned, some taken in by Mason. There were likely over thirty children here. Eve soon uderstood why Mason took her in, to ease his conscience. The White House staff often kept the children entertained with DVD's, movies about the lunchbox thief or one with a space adventure, problems that needed to be solved with math, thus teaching kids about mathmatics. The staff censored what the kids watched, Eve couldn't blame them. No new kids movies or shows, and the movies made today made violence, theft,rape, even murder seem fun. As disgusting as these films were, Eve hesitated to say that television had reached rock bottom, because it could always get worse. Reverand Walker was an example of things getting worse. He'd been kicked out of the Trinity Broadcasting Network, but he still broadcast his sermons over the internet. He called Mason the antichrist, claimed they had secret Arks under Washington D.C. Walker said if Mason was excluding real christian Americans from these Arks, they should take them by force.
By May 23rd Mason and Gardner had reached an agreement. Since angry crowds were gathering outside D.C. anyone who returned to fight them, or retrieve others for the final selections, were granted amnesty. A small number would be allowed to remain in the Arks. Eve doubted they'd be able to retrieve even half of the chosen, and she still wasn't sure if she could get on an Ark. General Gardner, as leader of the coup, would be executed. To his credit, Gardner was putting the lives of his men head of his own life. Or maybe he was just depressed and wanted to be reunited with his beloved ms Wynter. On this Friday night, Jed and Zoey helped Eve cope with her fears in their usual way. They also offerred her some brownies, with a little marijuanna baked into them. This was probably the last of their chocolate so Eve was somewhat touched. She had never used illegal drugs before, she wasn't sure if it was still a crime. Only heroin was still regulated, mostly used on patients dying in great pain. On this night, Eve decided these pot brownies could help her throught he night.