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

Jafarr grasped her hand and stood, shaking his head at her, whispering, "You're going to have to get use to that."

"Not happening," she muttered, yet she squeezed his hand tight for courage.

"And she took his hand first," Sir Banden uttered aloud as he rose - so much that Jafarr flushed and yanked his hand out of Zormna's.

But Sir Banden grinned wryly at him, shaking head. "You know better than that."

Jafarr turned away from him, still red. He stepped closer to Zormna, trying to ignore the seer. "Shall we begin then?"

Not quite sure what had just happened, Zormna waved to the bowing crowd. "Yeah, just stop them from bowing at me, will you?"

Breaking into a loud laugh, Jafarr nodded and turned to the Kevin. "Could you do something?"

With his lips thinning as his eyes narrowed on Jafarr, the Kevin rose to his feet with a nod. Then he turned to the crowd and yelled, "Attention!"

All the soldiers got up at once and saluted the Kevin.

"Done," the Kevin said.

Jafarr raised his eyebrows. "That was effective."

"Certainly I believe in political opinions, but there are people who do not know where to stop." - Victor Hugo -

They had been forced to their knees, bowing to the headmaster with their sore and burnt backs exposed to his dangerous foot. The boys had bound up Brian's back with what little bandages they could get out of Mrs. Ryant's first aid kit, but it was hardly enough. His burns were severe and many blistered so bad some were oozing. The man glared down on them as the soldiers threw Darren in with them.

"It seems that wretches grow in this place," Dural Kelz said with a look like he had just eaten the contents of a toilet bowl. He picked up the yearbook Dural Korad had shoved in their faces. He opened the book to one page and dropped it on the floor.

"Explain this," he said, pointing to a picture of Zormna in her bathing suit at the school Olympics right after she had gotten out of the pool.

Brian looked at Jonathan and Mark. They all shrugged.

"Didn't you know Zormna was here?" Mark asked. "We thought you did."

The man glared down at him and placed his foot on Mark's head, shoving his face to the floor. "Alea Zormna Clendar does not usually dress in such an exposed manner. What is the meaning of this?"

Brian and Jonathan stared at Mark who glared at the floor until his head was released. Mark still clenched his fists when he was let up.

Jonathan shrugged and scooted back, waiting for Dural Kelz to step on his head. "She was swimming."

The Dural scowled at him. He then huffily shook his head and stalked out the room. They locked the door behind them.

"What was that?" Jonathan asked.

Brian's back and neck still smarted so he didn't venture to shake his head. "I couldn't tell you."

They looked at Darren. He had been crouched on the carpet, panting with his eyes on the floor. Mark peered over at him and glanced over his back. There were a few burn marks but nothing compared to Brian's back.

"So what was that about?" Mark asked.

Darren looked up. Mark lurched backward. A severe welt stretched across Darren's face, and he had huge black eye. Darren gripped his chest where a scathing burn went from his shoulder to his left arm.

"Holy cow." Mark swallowed.

Brian blinked at him. Jonathan got up, walking back to the nearly empty first aid kit on the floor. He picked it up.

"There's still some iodine," he offered, shrugging.

Darren grinned stupidly. "I didn't tell them."

All three boys leaned nearer.

"Tell them what, Darren?" Brian asked, gazing over Darren's cuts and bruises as the lanky boy turned over and sat up. Darren still clenched his t-shirt, trying to pry off the burned-in X-Files logo.

Jonathan ran back at him. "Don't do that. It might cause an infection, and we have no more alcohol pads."

Darren winced with a nod.  

"What didn't you tell them?" Brian asked. "I thought you already told them every secret about Zormna and Jeff - uh, whatever - Jafarr." His said his old friend's name with a certain taste of anger still.

A crooked, thin smile formed through Darren's pained grimace, as he wagged his finger at Brian. "You should thank Jeff for not telling you anything, you know."

Brian stared dejectedly at the floor. "He was always a liar." He looked up. "Is he a criminal?"

Darren shook his head kindly. "Not in the slightest." He leaned closer, wincing through a knowing smile. "Think about who is calling him that. Think about what they are doing. Jeff has been fighting that."

"He always did have a lot of scars," Jonathan said as he crouched next to the two boys, peeling open the small plastic packet of yellow medication. "Half of them burns."

Brian nodded reflectively.

Mark sighed. "They seem scared of him, though - don't they?"

Darren nodded vigorously. "They should. Jeff is not only a rebel, he also has Zormna as an ally."

"That's right," Brian murmured to himself. "They called her Alea Zormna. They said she was a soldier.... Which I guess we already knew. That military school she always talked about. She was always marching around and..." he shook his head. "But an actual solider? She's fifteen."

"Yeah." Darren nodded again. "She is. As far as I know, she's a soldier of high rank - like a captain. I think that's what Alea means. That and she's near genius."

Mark choked. "Zormna?"

However, Jonathan glanced at Brian, and Brian lifted his eyebrows. "She is kinda bookwormy...."

"Not bookwormy," Darren responded, shaking his finger like a scolding mother. "Brilliant. Did you know she's considered an adult back on Mars? They have a test you can take. Zormna passed it when she was twelve. Jennifer told me."

"Jennifer told you?" Mark murmured, rising. "Jennifer knew about all of this?"

Lifting his hands, Darren retorted, "Hey, don't get mad about that. Jennifer found out about Zormna last year. Don't you remember the time when Jennifer freaked out and was telling Todd that she thought Zormna was an alien?"

Jonathan nodded. "Yeah... but, she supposedly hit her head and..."

"...dreamed it all," Brian finished, but he looked floored by the realization that they had been mistaken.

They shared looks.

Darren rolled his eyes. "Well, you now know it wasn't a dream. And I'm a witness. The day Jennifer found out, I was looking out my window and Jennifer ran from Zormna's house - and I saw Zormna chase after her, knock her out and drag her back to the house."

The three boys stared.

"I was the only one who believed Jennifer then," Darren said. "But then she started pretending that it didn't happen around the same the FBI showed up. But I didn't know Jennifer was a Martian until the end of the school year. Her boyfriend doesn't even know... or didn't, 'cause now..."

They stared more.

"The thing is, those people know Zormna is dangerous because she's practically genius. And so is Jeff. That's why those guys are scared of them being together. They are a very dangerous combination."

Brian shook his head trying to sort out the information he just got. "Hold on a minute. You saying Jeff is near genius?"

"He does help us get Calculus," Jonathan murmured. "And I don't think I've ever actually seen him work hard."

Darren nodded, wincing. "Exactly. I mean, when Zormna and Jeff took off on those trips, did he have a hard time catching up?"

Jonathan shook his head then pulled the first aid kit close.

Mark fingered through it, unable to cope with this new revelation. "I think we used up all the bandages on Brian."

"No," answering Darren, Brian slowly shook his head. "I don't think Jeff really works hard on anything except maybe English. And he just lies his head off for Mr. Humphries, doesn't he?"

"Well," Darren painfully chuckled, sitting back while Jonathan and Mark were examining which corner of Darren's shirt they should start removing first to get at his burns. "He couldn't actually tell the truth, now could he? The FBI was listening in."

Jonathan grabbed the bottom of the shirt and peeled upward the same time Brian drew in a breath of understanding.

"OW!" Darren's flesh started to bleed again. "You're skinning me! I thought you said it would cause an infection."

Not letting go, Jonathan shook his head. "Better let it bleed. It will clean out the wound."

Then he continued the job, nodding to Mark to brace Darren back when it got rough. Mark took to the task, seizing Darren in a wrestling hold.

"Hey!" Darren protested, unable to push Mark off.

"Hold still," Mark said, almost enjoying it.

Jonathan carefully peeled away Darren's shirt. The lanky boy arched his back as his burned skin bled again, biting down hard with his teeth against the pain.

"That's why the FBI was watching Zormna," Brian murmured. "They knew."

Darren nodded, teeth clenched.

"Did they know about Jeff?" Brian asked.

Nodding again, Darren flinched as Jonathan applied the iodine. Breathing hard, Darren said, "They... figured it out... during that summer camp."

All three boys stared. "What?"

Nodding more, Darren panted from pain. "Yeah. They figured it out. And they've had spies all over the school ever since."

"Spies?" Jonathan recoiled. "Are you kidding me?"

Darren shook his head.

"Who?" Mark asked.

Shrugging, Darren swallowed, breathing heavily still. "I don't know all of them, but custodians. Student teachers. You knew about Sam Perkins."

They nodded to that.

"Well, the FBI has been following Zormna and Jeff since that summer. Zormna said the FBI had some 'ridiculous notion' about an alien invasion, which obviously she never expected to happen," Darren said.

"Did you?" Brian asked, peering hard at him.

Darren shrugged, his wounds slowly clotting. "I believed Zormna. She thought it was dumb. And Jeff... well, he said he'd kick the crap out of me and leave me in the woods if I ever brought up Martian stuff around him - or around Zormna."

The boys stared.

"He threatened you?" one of them gasped.

"Well, yeah." Darren stared back at them as if the answer was obvious.

They shared looks. So many questions had been answered, and so many more came up. For one thing, Darren really did know way too much. And they had a feeling that he had only told them a smidgeon of it.

Mark sat down and glanced at the door. "Do think they'll feed us?"

The night set in, and all four boys felt the emptiness in their stomachs and the dryness in their mouths. There was no electricity in their room. The People's Military had shut it off at the night, supposedly to suppress them. It was incredibly late when any of them could fall asleep. The light from the street, the hardness of the floor, and the emptiness in their stomachs made them restless.

"I have to pee," Mark said once in the middle of the night.

"Use the trash can," Brian muttered, lying on his side which was the only part of his body not hurting. "Everyone else has."

Mark moaned and shuffled across the room. They had set the smelly can on the opposite end of the classroom with an atlas on top to keep out the stink.

The door thumped open.

They heard Mark fall back, cursing at the can and the darkness.

"Get up," a looming shape said in the darkness. A guard's hot stick illuminated his face, forming an eerie green