Free Apocalyptic Visions Super Boxset by James Hunt Page B

Jones said.
     
    The congressmen around Daniel started whispering. Daniel knew exactly what Jones was doing: making a last-ditch effort to try and break what resolve he had left. The only thing he wasn't sure of was if Jones had been successful.
     
    Daniel shook it off. There was no way Jones could know about his past. That was buried. He'd taken the necessary steps to make sure no one found out. Jones was just grasping at straws.

 
     
    ***
     
    The house Beth pulled up to, which straddled the Maryland state line, was dilapidated. The paint curled off the walls, leaving behind black strips of wood and concrete. Rocks and sand filled a yard surrounded by a sagging fence with broken and slanted boards. Pieces of jagged glass from the broken windows lined the porch. Beth peered inside, looking for any inhabitants.
     
    The furniture, floors, and ornaments were covered in dirt. Trash littered the living room, and the only light that was shining into the house was the fading sunlight behind her.
     
    There was no way anyone still lived here, but this was the address Beth had been able to find for Edwin Carlson, the original inventor of the process turning anything from salt water to toxic water into fresh, drinkable liquid. If he wasn't here, then Beth had no idea where to look. The road ended here.
     
    The front door rattled when she pounded on it. Dust disturbed by the shaking fell to the porch floorboards and onto the tops of Beth's polished black heels. 
     
    “Dr. Carlson?” Beth asked.
     
    She knocked on the door again, even harder than before.
     
    “Dr. Carlson, my name is Beth Fryar. I'm with Congressman Smith's staff,” she said.
     
    A gunshot sounded, and Beth instinctively ducked, covering her head. After a moment she looked up, checking her surroundings and patting herself down, making sure she wasn't hit.
     
    Then another gunshot blast echoed through the air. It was coming from behind the house.
     
    Beth's heels thumped on the wooden steps as she made her way from the porch to the side of the house. She unlocked the gate latch that separated the front yard from the back. Another gunshot sounded, this one louder, as she made it to the rear of the house.
     
    The backyard opened up into a large field of dirt and mostly dead grass. Toward the middle of the field, she could see a man standing with a rifle, aiming at some objects lined up on a table ten yards in front of him.
     
    “Dr. Carlson?” Beth asked, yelling and waving her arms.
     
    The figure in the field lowered the rifle and turned toward her. She could see him waving his fists and shouting something, but she couldn't tell what it was. He came rushing toward her, but something was wrong. The rifle was aimed in her direction. The next gunshot rang out and hit the backside of the house.
     
    “Holy shit!” Beth said, almost tripping over herself as she ran as fast as she could in her heels to her car.
     
    The man's screaming was becoming louder. Another gunshot went off, and the dirt to her left exploded into the air from the bullet that struck it.
     
    “Jesus Christ!” Beth yelled.
     
    Beth reached into her purse and ripped her keys out. She fumbled them in her hand while making it to the driver’s-side door of her car. The man shooting at her was running through the front yard now, still aiming his rifle at her.
     
    Before she could stick the key into the door lock, the barrel of the man's rifle was in her face. Beth held her hands up, the keys still dangling from her fingers.
     
    “What the hell are you doing on my property?”
     
    Beth could smell the booze on him. His face was bearded, and he had long, matted strands of gray hair. His clothes were stained and torn.
     
    “My name is Beth Fryar. I'm a member of Congressman Smith's staff,” Beth said.
     
    The end of the rifle's barrel made contact with Beth's blouse, flattening her against the car door.
     
    “The same congressman that tried to help Dr. Edwin Carlson pass his