Chapter 391

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July 14th 2036. Less than one week until impact. Eve heard rumors of a thug who'd taken control of a ration station, being murdered by one of his own liuetenants. Eve hoped Benson had killed Caeser, perhaps Burns had struck some sort of deal to be spared with some food. Eve was trying to scrounge enough food to survive, and another fix of heroin. The time she had left was far less than one percent of the time she had when George Mason first told the world about ELE. Eve heard something, a person calling for help. Eve looked around, saw a woman whose foot was caught in a rock. Her instincts were to rush over and help. Then she saw the woman's face. Her lips were red, she seemed almost sorry to see Eve, sorry for what was about to happen. Seven other individuals were surrounding Eve, all morlocks, she's fallen into their trap. Despite everything that had happenned, even with so little time left, Eve still wanted to live, partly because she feared the afterlife. She had to think quickly, or she'd be these morlocks' dinner tonight.

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Eve: I can help you get more food.

Morlock leader: I've seen what happens to those who take Mason's rations. They're poisoned.

Eve: That's not true.

Leader: I don't know if you're lying, or you're naive. It doesn't matter.

Eve: You don't want to eat me, I'm a herin addict.

Leader: No, I don't want to eat you. But I will, to buy me and my pack even one more day.

Eve: I had a baby. She died when she was three days old. But my body still produces milk. I can feed your pack.

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The morlock leader looked over Eve's body. She was telling the truth about producing milk. It did seem a shame to kill a body that could feed them longer. Eve couldn't produce much milk for everyone, but it was better than nothing. And, although this leader didn't say it, Eve knew he could always go back to plan A.

Eve was now a hostage of the morlocks, giving them milk. The leader realized this wouldn't be enough, not by itself anyway. There was always one morlock guarding Eve, but she counted no more than seven total. That first evening they went hunting for more food. They also now had Eve's revolver. She wished she'd used it on herself when they first surrounded her. Eve rememered hearing, before Febuary 4th, that women rarely used guns to kill themselves. Even when wanting death, women apparently didn't want to create a mess. Now, that seemed irrelevant with ELE coming. People were more concerned with lessening their pain than what mess this world would be in when it was all over.

When Eve woke up this morning, for a brief moment she forgot where she was, who she was. Then she remembered, she was Eve Thompson, she was in what was left of Washington D.C. Eve had hoped the rest was a nightmare. It was, but one she couldn't wake up from. Today was July 15th, barely 100 hours until impact. Maybe even less than that, if Eve somehow slept through Tuesday. She remembered shaking uncontrollably, from heroin withdrawel, the morlocks doing something to her she couldn't fight. There had been screams, sobbing, maybe her own. As she lay on the ground Eve had a strange taste in her mouth. What was it? Then a horrible thought occurred to Eve. The morlocks went hunting, their leader wanted to keep Eve alive. Maybe she would speak for them if arrested, or provide milk for a few days. At the very least they could eat her later, towards the end. But the leader needed her alive for these things, at least for now. The morlocks had a good hunt, they gae her food, she'd been desperate enough to eat. There was no denying it anymore, Eve was officially a cannibal.