Chapter 366
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On Tuesday June 24th Eve and the technicians returned over the wall. This was Eve's second mission over the wall in as many days. The crowd was being fed, they were less angry. Rumor was not all of them were on Walker's side. Some had resorted to cannibalism to survive. It was almost impossible to know what was in someone's heart, so the camp had both crusaders and cannibals. The outside food made them less likely to turn on each other. Some from the crowd were feeding their children, to their own detriment. Others were letting their children starve, keeping up their own strength for the final battle. Eve was certain these people wuld take their frustrations out on her side very soon. One rumor said that Mason's people were giving some here drugs, heroin for one, not only to placate them, but to reduce their strength before the siege. During this Eve saw a familiar face. It had been over two years, and she'd never seen him in a loyalist army uniform, albeit a tattered one. But this was her old friend from highschool, Benson. One of the boys Nadia saved the night they all met, he'd become a born-again christian after that, but Eve hadn't seen him since before the war. As the technicians worked Eve started talking to him.
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Eve: Benson?
Benson: Eve? You look different.
Eve: You're one to talk.
Benson: Fair enough. Your tattoo, you fought for the Collective?
Eve: Yeah. I take it you were a loyalist.
Benson: And you're apparently an officer in my former army. Apparently we keep ending up on opposite sides.
Eve: It's a long story. So why are you here?
Benson: Walker's always been very good with showing who the good guys really are. The world is ending. All we can do is get right with God, or suffer the consequences.
Eve: I was a born-again christian for awhile. Even then I knew Walker was a thug.
Benson: Either you accepted Christ, or you didn't.
Eve: You remember Nadia? She risked her life to save us when we were total strangers.
Benson: Ofcourse I remember her. I haven't seen her since before the war.
Eve: She died, two months ago. The girl who murdered her, accepted Christ the day before, yet still murdered Nadia, simply because Nadia was a muslim.
Benson: I'm truley sorry for her. I would be in Hell right now if it weren't for her.
Eve: By your logic, she's in Hell, yet the girl who murdered her is in Heaven.
Benson: I can't say what's in the heart of Nadia's murderer. But yes, if Nadia died un-saved, she would not be in Heaven.
Eve: That is why I'm not a christian anymore, I refuse to believe Nadia's in Hell. Maybe I deserve to be there, I did after all join a death cult, Finis Generatium.
Benson: It is possible that you waited too long. Walker says God may have hardened certain people's hearts so that they couldn't accept Christ now even if they wanted to.
Eve: Maybe you're right. I'll probably be in Hell within a month. And I'll see Walker there too.