Chapter 382

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As Eve and Benson walked back to their camp she could see he was having a hard time with the guilt, same as her. They had murdered those people who'd tried to surrender, children who begged for mercy. Eve's new religion was suppossed to help with this, telling herself she's released those people from the pain of this life. Benson's religion seemed more hard-nosed, calling this paganism against christianity. Did this make it easier for him? Calling those people barbarians didn't seem to make it easier for Benson. Finis Generatium didn't make killing children easier on Eve. She wondered, did devotion to Moloch make it easier for them, what they planned on doing? As they reached camp they saw people tending to the infants. Even with only nine days until impact this was important. Important to fight and die for something. Benson made a suprisong comment.

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Benson: I could use a drink.

Eve: I thought you weren't suppossed to drink alcohol.

Benson: A friend has a still. Walker says it's ilegal, but whatever.

Eve: Have one for me.

Benson: You don't want one?

Eve: I'm leaving, desserting.

Benson: Do you want to die, because Mason will shoot you for that.

Eve: If I wanted to die I'd just shoot myself. I don't know where I'll go, or how long I'll last, but I won't do that again.

Benson: I can't dessert my friends, but I wish you well, in this life and the next.

Eve: Thanks. Good luc to you too.

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Eve didn't know where she was really going. As she started walking away, Greer came to her, asked her to come with her. Greer had six cookies, two bottles of coke, and two ciggarettes.

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Eve: What's this?

Greer: Possibly the last cookies, the last soda, and the last ciggarette I'll ever have. I was hoping to share them with you.

Eve: Thank you. Did you hear my conversation with Benson?

Greer: No, but I think I figured out what you were up to.

Eve: Are you going to execute me, when we're done?

Greer: I don't know. I was hoping to persuade you to stay. I do remember you from the Pennsylvania Ark site.

Eve: Hard to believe we'd think of those as the good old days, but compared to this, yeah. Remember how you had all the new volunteers pose for pictures?

Greer: Yeah. Those photos are on display in the Arks.

Eve: So, a hundred years from now, they'll know we built their shelter. Hope they leave out what we did later.

Greer: Me too. My son will grow up in the Ark.

Eve: I didn't know you had a kid.

Greer: He was one year old on Febuary 4th. My son, John, might remember me saying goodbye. He doesn't need to everything his mother did.

Eve: I know. I had a baby, Hope. She's less than seven months old now. Hope will know her mother sacrificed for her. But I pray her adopted parents lie about some of my actions.

Greer: We built an Ark, gave it new lives. Both will insure the survival of the human race. That's all John and Hope really need to know about their birth mothers.

Eve: Anything else, irrelevant to them. I tried to be the good guy, I really did.

Greer: Maybe there are no good guys, anymore.

Eve: Yeah we killed them all a while ago.

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Eve and Greer enjoyed this last treat. When they finished Greer asked Eve one last time to stay. When she asked, Greer had her hand on her side-arm. Eve said no, and started walking away. Eve had no idea if Greer was really going to shoot her, maybe Greer didn't know either. But Greer let her go, never fired her gun. Eve kept walking, with no real destination or goal, except to keep walking away.