Apocalypse Before Finals by Julie Steimle (electric book reader txt) 📕

"Wait!" The Dural held up his hand to halt their attack.

Brian's chest heaved. He crouched on the floor, glaring at Darren. "Shut up!"

Darren shook his head. With convincing grief, he said, "Zormna Clendar was here. She was my friend. She was the one who told me everything, not Jeff. And she only told me all this because I already met one of your people before, and that woman told me. But that woman is dead, so it doesn't make a difference. Jeff and Zormna both left here yesterday. She was going to pilot the ship out of here, and they were going back to your planet to help the rebellion by joining the Surface Patrol."

Dural Korad swelled up with each word. Affronted. Horrified. Indignant. They really couldn't tell if he was going to kill them or explode from the news.

Brian and the rest shrank back to the desks, but Darren continued rambling. Shaking and trembling as his own personal earthquake, he nervously babbled. "I figure they are there now, meeting with Zormna's leader - the Kevin I think she called him. They're gone, I tell you."

The People's Military officer glared severely at Darren, stepping furiously close. "Are you saying that Jafarr Zeldar has joined up with Alea Zormna Clendar of the Zeta District?"

Darren nodded feebly.

Swelling larger, it like he would soon reach critical mass. Yet, after several minutes of changing colors in fury as well as distress, Dural Korad tromped out the door, ordered his men to lock the boys in the room.

Darren, Brian, Mark, and Jonathan sat in silence. They listened to the sound of Dural Korad's boots echo on the linoleum tile outside. Once they could no longer hear him, all three boys rounded on Darren.

"What did you tell them for?" Mark cried out.

"You little fink!" Jonathan barked angrily, lifting his clenched fist as if to pound on him.

"How could you do that?" Brian gasped.

"I...I...I had to," Darren said, pulling away from the three high school wrestlers.

All three boys glared at him.

"You don't understand," Darren said. "They were going to kill us. That man is Dural Korad. And I heard he is just plain evil. He killed Jeff's dad, you know."

A nasty plummeting sensation punched to the bottom of Brian's gut. "Killed his father? When?"

Darren shook his head. "Look. Jeff's dad never beat him. I don't remember how old he was when said his dad was killed. But that man he lives with isn't his uncle. Everything he said about his family was a lie."

Jonathan's eyes opened wide again. Mark was the only one who still looked angry.

"So you finked on them? That Dural jerk is going to find them both and kill them now!" Mark yelled.

But Darren shook his head with a knowing grin, which emerged out of his face like a secret. "No, he won't. Zormna and Jeff had a head start. And if I know Zormna, they are long gone. Completely safe. No one can hurt them now."

Mark still glared at him. But Jonathan shook his head. "Please don't tell me this is more Mars stuff," still unconvinced regardless of Brian's argument.

Darren blinked and looked the other way. "Then I won't talk to you, so you won't have to hear it."

Mark choked. He looked to his friends. "He's joking!" 

Jonathan shook his head, giving Brian and Darren looks.

Mark almost laughed, but that hurt so he stopped. He clenched his side, which apparently had also been hit. He shook his head instead. "You nut. Don't tell me you think these guys are Martians."

Darren stared frankly at him. "Well then, you tell me where they are from. Where is Arras? What country is that? Who are these people?"

Mark gaped yet still shook his head, but stopped half way and appeared thoughtful. "I think I heard of Arras in France. Maybe they are French."

Brian moaned. "No. They are not French."

All three boys turned and stared at Brian. Darren blinked.

"You believe me," Darren gasped.

Brian closed his eyes and nodded.

Mark choked again. "You can't be serious!"

But he watched Brian nod sadly.

Jonathan closed his eyes. "He's serious, though I still don't believe it."

"Ask them yourself," Brian pointed to the closed door. "Ask them where Arras is."

Darren grinned stupidly. Tears were in his eyes.

"I don't believe it," Mark said again, gawping at Brian.

Brian shrugged. "Then don't. I've been struggling with it myself. But these men aren't from around here, and they are from where Zormna is from."

"Ireland?" Mark's face twisted with incredulity.

Brian shook his head. "No."

"Mars." Mark inspected Brian's eyes now to see if they were glazed or if he was in a fast dizzy. Brian only looked sad and tired.

"I don't know." Brian leaned forward onto the desk.

Jonathan and Mark exchanged looks and then shrugged.

"Ok, let's just forget this for now," Mark said giving up. "How long do you think they'll keep us here? It is nearly time to go home, isn't it?"

Darren rolled his eyes superiorly. "Like they'll keep the school schedule and let us go. This isn't detention. We've been invaded. They'll probably keep us here indefinitely. That is...until they decide to kill us."

Jonathan went ashen.

Brian moaned into his arms. He had crossed them over his face upon the table. He seemed to be trying to sleep and forget the day. But then his mind immediately went to his sister Joy and his younger brothers, Ammon and Moroni who sometimes didn't know when to quit stupid antics. Where were they? Were they ok? Would Joy be singled out for knowing Zormna? And what would those men do to her if they did? He trembled, clenching his teeth.

"Do you think they will kill us?" Mark asked, now leaning toward Jonathan.

"Definitely," Darren said matter-of-factly.

Brian looked up and nodded to Mark, and Jonathan nodded also.

"They nearly killed us this morning," Jonathan said.

Mark flopped back and stared up at the ceiling. "And to think I missed going to my grandma's for this."

All three boys looked down at him. Mark didn't explain himself, however. He stared up at the ceiling, shaking his head and muttering.

Darren's reassurances to Brian and Jonathan and Mark were in fact, well founded, though inaccurate. Zormna and Jeff had left Harvest only two hours before Pennington High and the other high schools were overrun by the People's Military, but they were well ahead of Dural Korad. The trip from the Earth to Mars (or Arras as the natives called it) took no less than ten minutes. The miracle of Martian space flight used folding technology that enabled a ship to instantaneously travel from one point in space to another. In ten more minutes they flew through the thin atmosphere of Mars to the large canyon Valles Marineris where the entrances to the underground city of Arras lay entrenched in the rocky walls. Not one Surface Patrol checkpoint hailed them - a bad sign.

"Do you think we should fly into Zeta or Alpha?" Jeff said. He was sweating profusely, an aftereffect of space folding. He had to shake his sweaty mop of hair out of his eyes.

Zormna shook her head. "No, Jafarr. Both Alpha and Zeta are locked down. Salvar said to. They wouldn't let this strange ship in. We need to land in a PM docking bay or the community one."

Jeff looked at the view screen. "I didn't think the People's Military had a docking bay. The community one was the only one I knew of."

Zormna shrugged. "Apparently they do, with that invasion force we saw. Perhaps the PMs had made one, or stole one from one of our districts. But I wouldn't be surprised if they tunneled it without the Patrol knowing. The PMs had areas close to the surface which the Patrol would not be able to regulate."

He nodded, knowing exactly how close the People's Military compound was to the surface. He had seen maps. Currently they were coming closer and closer to the rocky canyon wall.

"Keep an eye out for an entrance. I'd rather use the community one if no Surface Patrol district will open up," Zormna said.

 But as they approached, all they saw was rock face but no open entrances to the city. When they got closer, Zormna pointed to a small rectangular hole in the canyon wall. "There's one."

Jeff peered at the open bay. It was lower in the canyon, most likely a community bay, rather than Surface Patrol. The doors were not yet shut.

Steering the craft, Zormna narrowed her eyes to see clearly, making sure the shuttle would enter the small bus-sized hole. It was only big enough for a small shuttle and possibly a flying scooter. It wasn't difficult for her though, regardless of how out of practice she felt. She hadn't been in a spaceship for over a year. It was exhilarating to fly again. Zormna almost didn't want to land.

Once the craft settled in the middle of the docking bay, past the open doors that were slid into the sides behind the rock wall and inside the atmospheric shield, Jeff jumped out of his seat and pressed the door button. The door snapped open and slid up into the roof of the ship, leaving a huge gap open for Jeff and Zormna to hop out into the surprisingly spacious cavern. The cavern was actually deep. It was full of smaller ships - mostly one-man scooters - and three rusty looking shuttles. Only the center where they had parked their ship was open.

Jeff stepped off the shuttle right away, tossing his helmet back into the open doorway. He looked back at Zormna, who stood up and glanced out of the pilot's window once more. "I don't see..."

An angry man stumped toward them with a roar. "What are you PMs doing here? Didn't I tell you to land in your own bay? You got one you, lousy roaches! You didn't have to jam my doors open, you know!"

Seeing the man was not an enemy, Jeff blinked and glanced around him, ignoring him due to the press of time. "No one. The bay is clear."

Zormna nodded hurried off of the ship, jogging to Jeff's side.

Though furious, the old man halted where he was in a stare at her, especially her saggy suit. "Hey! You...you aren't PMs, are you?"

Jeff hurried past him, looking toward the corridors to choose an exit. "What gave us away?"

Zormna pulled off her helmet and tossed it in the shuttle. "Where to first?"

Jeff laughed honestly, pulling back. "You're asking me? I'm flattered."

Zormna rolled her eyes at him. "This is not the time to joke."

"If it isn't Alea Zormna!" The old man approached her, grinning now, utterly baffled yet pleased nonetheless "What are you doing in PM clothes?"

Zormna blushed, turning her eyes to him. "Trriin. I see you are working the gates still. The PMs didn't take you off it?"

The man grinned with a contented roughness, much like a kid satisfied that he had squashed in mud and it was oozing in his toes. "Ah well, they tried to but they couldn't quite rout - "

But what he was going to say immediately cut short. A squad of ten People's Military officers marched into the room from an off tunnel coming from the uppercity.

"Stop right there!" the squad leader called out.

All three turned. Jeff grabbed Zormna by the arm, and they ducked behind the control center at the side of the docking bay. The squad opened fire, pinning them down.

"How are we going to get out now?" Zormna called to him as they crouched against the wall, while the old man fired back.

Jeff only smirked. He tugged on Zormna's sleeve then pulled a pocketknife out of his inside jacket pocket. She watched as he pried open a machine panel, slipping the blade in between the cracks and loosening where it should detach for repairs. Lifting it off, he handed it to her. Then he pried off another panel and slid it over to the old man who had been