End Of State by Neesa Hart

Author:Neesa Hart [Hart, Neesa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2004-11-05T12:14:32+00:00

He opened his eyes and his gaze fell on the suitcase full of his

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family’s clothes. Gingerly, he picked it up and headed for the bedroom. He would unpack them and place them in a drawer for safe-keeping. He had a feeling that in the days ahead, he would need the tangible reminder that someone . . . sometime . . . somewhere . . .

had loved him.

★ ★ ★

W a s h i n g t o n , D . C .

R o c k C r e e k P a r k

L o c a l T i m e 6 : 3 2 A . M .

Despite the signs that spring was in bloom in Washington, Brad could see his breath as he made the short walk from his parking space to the Calvert Street entrance to Rock Creek Park. He’d passed the tidal basin that morning on his way into the city. Somehow, the festive site of the blooming cherry trees had seemed in stark contrast to the feeling of gloom that still hung over the nation’s capital.

Crater-sized holes littered the open spaces where planes had fallen from the sky when their pilots went missing. Though no aircraft had been inbound or outbound for Reagan National at that hour—the city’s long-standing 11 P.M. curfew still in effect for takeoffs and landings at the urban airport—Washington was in the flight path for international flights to and from Dulles International Airport twenty miles outside the District.

Fires had broken out across the city when pilotless vehicles had crashed into power lines. The D.C. fire department had been overwhelmed by the sheer enormity of the crisis. In some areas of the city, the fires still burned. A cloud of gray smoke and the smell of charred earth and steel hung over the city.

Yet the cherry blossoms bloomed in apparent defiance of the devastation. Brad had found comfort in the sight of the cheerful pink flowers, just as he had in watching the tide roll in two nights ago on the California beach. The order of the world remained, despite the chaos of its human occupants.

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Neesa Hart

When he saw Marcus Dumont leaning against a tree, waiting for him, Brad hastened his step. He had questions for Marcus, lots of them.

After unpacking his family’s clothing last night, Brad had tried to sleep. Exhaustion and fatigue were biting at his heels, but too many questions had plagued his mind. When sleep had failed him, he’d gotten up. Restless, he’d pulled his wife’s Bible from the suitcase and searched it for answers.

He’d listened to enough sermons to know that the book of Revelation— one Revelation, his mother always said, not Revelations—

held the majority of the prophecies people had referred to as the

“end times.”

But Brad found the text confusing and difficult to follow. The Bible talked about seven seals and seven trumpets, lampstands, horsemen, and a great tribulation. Brad had once dismissed the writing as

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