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

"What are you thinking, Zormna?" Jeff leaned to the edge of his bed and ran his fingers through his hair. He never admitted it to her, but he thought Zormna was unknowingly psychic.

<<I have a bad feeling, that's all.>>

He also did, but he didn't want to tell her. She got impulsive at times, and he didn't want her to act prematurely. Her pride, after all.

"Well, until something does happen let's just keep cool, ok?" He was still clenching his hair. That nasty feeling had not left him, and he didn't like seeing Zormna get jumpy.

<<Easy for you to say,>> Zormna replied. However, she left the conversation there and added, <<I think I'll go lie down and see if I can sleep. I'll see you at school.>>

Jeff sighed. That was better. "See you then."

He pressed the off button on the phone and rubbed his now sore scalp.

Jeff tried to go back to sleep once he placed the phone down, but the vision of the medallion did not leave his eyes. In the end, he got up and went to his bedroom door and entered the hallway. Jeff trudged to the kitchen to get something to drink then trudged back towards his bedroom. Yet he stopped in the hallway at the door of their communications room. He stared at the door for a moment, thinking, then twisted the doorknob. It was unlocked.

He stepped in the room. One of the rebellion operatives was at the radio, listening to the other side and marking things on a map that lay on a large drafting table. Closing the door behind him, Jeff let the lock catch and approached the table.

"You know, Eergvin, you really should lock that door when you are in here," he said, placing his mug of warm milk on the table edge.

The twenty-something freckled redhead grinned feebly at Jeff and blinked up under the small bright fluorescent lamp which lit a small patch of the table. The rest of the room was dark. He could barely see the computer in the back or the maps on the walls and radio equipment to the side of the room.

"Well, I was getting up to go, and I guess I forgot about the time," Eergvin (known in public as Eric) said, rubbing one of his eyes.

"How long have you been in here?" Jeff asked, peering over at the map.

"Since twelve." 'Eric' pulled out a map and a sheet of paper full of notes. "I got an urgent radio message at two, and I haven't been able to pull myself away since. Right now I am waiting for a call from Q. He has been giving me information on PM massing in the undercity and middlecity, but someone took him away for something a half hour ago."

"Are you sure someone didn't simply put him to bed?" Jeff said with a smirk.

Eric shook his head. "I doubt it. It's three in the afternoon there. Why are you up?"

Blinking and picking up his mug of milk, Jeff said, "I couldn't sleep."

The redhead nodded. "I thought so. Orrlar's been saying you haven't been sleeping well these past days. Care to share?" Orrlar was the real name of Jeff's 'Uncle Orren', who was not really Jeff's uncle at all but one of the rebellion heads.

Jeff shook his head. "It's nothing new."

"You're in here. Something must be bugging you," Eric said, leaning nearer. "What's on your mind?"

The midnight-haired boy sighed.

"Would it help if I gave you my chair?" Eric offered.

Jeff smirked. "No."

It took a few seconds for Jeff to formulate his thoughts. His elder, Eergvin Dolvar, had known Jeff since he had joined the rebellion, and Eergvin had the most confidence in Jeff's capacity as a leader than any other in the rebellion. He liked the boy besides. 'Eric' had known Jeff's real father, and knew what Jeff's father thought of him and his future. He also knew what Jeff was really capable of. He was also amazed at how well Jeff fit into and fulfilled every point of the prophecy concerning the person identified as the 'Leader-of-Many'. Not the same as the returning Tarrn, the Leader-of-Many's job was to protect the future ruling Tarrn and lead the rebellion. Because of his respect, Eergvin was one of the few Jeff confided in. Somehow Jeff felt that Eergvin, above anyone else in the leadership of the rebellion understood him - excluding his best friend Al who wasn't leading as much as along for the ride.

"I have been having visions," Jeff said.

Eric nodded, expecting this.

"Tonight's was...was.... I don't know how to describe it. It was disturbing like usual, but I feel like I did something that has caused others grief, and I haven't a clue what I did." Jeff shook his head. "I almost felt like I had killed Zormna. But...no, it wasn't like that. It was more like I made people feel like she was dead, and I felt guilty for that. And..." Jeff's voice trailed off. A light seemed to come into his eye. Something immediately became clear to him. "The medallion."

Eric nodded, but already felt that Jeff had lost him. "What about the medallion?"

Jeff instantly looked relieved. "I understand it now."

Eric frowned. "Well I don't. What about the medallion?"

Grinning widely now, Jeff looked down at his friend and sighed relief. "It was my fault, and I am guilty, but it is a good thing."

"Jafarr, I don't follow. You're speaking cryptically," Eric said, growing a little annoyed. Jeff sometimes talked more to himself than to those he was with.

Jeff blinked and realized that he was still talking to his friend.

"Oh, uh...well, I was seeing this picture of a medallion on a wall and seers were crying over it, but I completely forgot that I had one of our men make a fake for the PMs to find so people would think all the Clendar Tarrns were gone. They must have found it." Jeff grinned and picked up his mug. He downed the rest of the milk then grinned to himself some more.

Eric nodded.

"I see..." Eric said, but he really didn't see. Jeff tended to do things without telling them, especially things concerning Alea Zormna Clendar, the Tarrn whom they found hiding in their own suburb a year ago.

"Well, Eerg," Jeff said with a refreshed pat to Eric's shoulder, "I feel much better now. Thanks for the talk."

The redhead shrugged and followed Jeff with his eyes to the door. "Uh, sure thing, Jaf."

Just as Jeff stepped to grasp the doorknob, the radio buzzed alive again. Eric swiveled in his chair back to it. Jeff paused at the door to listen.

<<Q calling EG. Come in.>>

Eric immediately pressed the button to answer. "EG here. Do you have the rest Q?"

The other side buzzed. <<I have it, but could you wake Big Z? I have some information he needs to hear.>>

The redhead looked up at Jeff. "He's right here, Q. The kid couldn't sleep."

Jeff walked over, letting go of the doorknob. Had he been Zormna, he would have cuffed Eric for calling him a kid, but Jeff ignored the remark and leaned against the table to get close to the radio mouthpiece.

"This is big Z. What is it, Q?"

The other side sounded delighted at their luck. But when Q spoke, it was rather solemn. <<You said you wanted to know all Tarrn news?>>

Jeff leaned in closer. "Yes, of course."

<<Well then, here is the worst of it. The PMs found the last of the Zebba and the Astrov lines and they found the Clendar medallion on a burned corpse in the undercity. It looks like our old Tarrn here is one of the last. There's only an Effron Tarrn medallion missing on the wall in the museum, and our guy is a Bently, somehow not a medallion carrier but a true blueblood all the same.>>

Jeff listened. His chest tightened. His vision came back to him in a rush. He had not noticed that the wall was nearly filled. His mind had been so occupied with Zormna's medallion that it never occurred to him to think of the other Tarrns.

<<Big Z? Are you still there?>>

Jeff swallowed and answered. "Yes, I'm still here. I was just thinking."

Eric gazed at Jeff. He had known about the Tarrn the rebellion was training in their hiding space, but he knew full well the Clendar medallion was around Zormna's neck as she would never part from it. In fact, she was apt to harm anyone who touched it. Jeff's earlier babbles now started to make sense. The Clendar medallion on the wall had to be a fake.

"How is our old Tarrn doing over there, Q?" Eric put in, still watching Jeff think.

Jeff's eyes flickered down to him, watching and listening to what Eric had said. They had agreed that no one, not even their own people in the rebellion, were to know about Zormna's Tarrn status or that they were hiding her. He had figured it was safest for all of them to keep her identity secret and her presence unknown because certain People's Military officers had a grudge against her. If anyone of the establishment knew she was a Tarrn, she would be hunted down and killed within an hour's time.

<<That man is a bit hard to deal with, to be honest. If he is to be the warrior we have all been waiting for, then he really needs more time for training. He's an arrogant tunneler. And so weak. A fool really.>>

That sounded like a Tarrn. Most of them were weak and proud. People used to say that it was easy to pick a Tarrn out of a crowd. Thing was, Zormna didn't fit the image. She was hardly weak, and her pride was well-earned as she was brilliant at a number of things.

"Thanks for the report, Q," Jeff said at last. He stood up and walked back to the door, deep in thought.

Eric watched him go out and shook his head. He turned back toward the radio. "So what did we not get to?"

The other side murmured and started going back into reading and reporting.

Jeff had been subdued when he entered English class that morning, his mind preoccupied. His friends hardly noticed it, as all of them were busy with last minute cramming. Brian was busy scribbling down his notes from his reading of Grapes of Wrath. Adam and Joy were arguing about the purpose of Sadie Hawkins dances. Zormna came in the room after right him, rubbing her eyes from lack of sleep. She didn't say anything at all when she slid into her seat. She just pulled out her essay questions and her copy of Grapes of Wrath and put them on the desk.

Leaning over to see what she had done, Brian gasped at her thorough scrawl under each question. "You're all done?"

Zormna nodded, lifting the stapled papers up to give him a better look.

"Where do you find the time?" Dejectedly, Brian leaned back in his chair.

She shrugged then hunkered down, shifting her head so they rested in her folded arms on top of her desk.

Jeff peeked at her. Her tired eyes said it all. She had not gone back to bed, but had finished her homework instead.

"I get up at five every morning, and go to seminary, and do my homework in between hours...and I still didn't get that far," Brian moaned.

Jeff blinked at him. He was also done with his essay assignments, but like Zormna, he had completed most of his when he couldn't sleep. No one else had finished theirs, and the entire assignment was due that hour.

Mr. Humphries marched into the room with his usual commanding air. He dropped his rear upon the edge of his desk, rifling through papers as he always did to find a guinea pig for in-class reading. The moment he looked up, facing the disgruntled students in