Apocalypse Before Finals - Julie Steimle (bts book recommendations .TXT) 📗

"Martian stuff," Mark grumbled. "Not that again."

"Darren, you are such a geek," Jonathan said huffing, with hands raised.

Freed, Darren scrambled for the school doors.

Brian stared after him in annoyance. "Does he really still think Zormna is a Martian?"

"I wonder what he thinks Jeff is." Adam snorted.

"Probably from Jupiter," Mark said with an eye-roll. "Or Lemuria."

Snickering Jonathan nodded and sat back at the picnic table.

But Brian frowned, staring to where Darren had gone.

"Mr. Sicamore!" Agent Keane bolted into his superior's office, sweaty, with his tie flopped askew.

The head of the Mars Project was sitting at his desk, looking much more composed than he had been in months. With the project going ahead as planned and his parents safely hidden in a government facility with armed guards, he felt enormously better - especially since no one had yet figured out his family connection to the entire thing.

"What is it?" Agent Sicamore asked, a mite concerned at the state of his associate.

Agent Keane wiped his sweaty brow, walking farther into the room. "The second shift at the boy's house found Agent MacDougal's and Agent Hick's bodies stuffed in a bush. Their car gone. Agent Powell says he thinks he saw their car driving down Kennedy with two strange men in it."

"What?" Clutching the edge of his desk, Agent Sicamore went sick pale.

Agent Keane repeated, "MacDougal and Hicks have been murdered, shot in the forehead - exactly like the Florida incident. And Agent Powell saw some strange men driving their car in Pennington."

Sicamore felt nauseous. "They did it. They killed two of our men. Those blatant..." He started to swear something awful, each word louder and cruder than the next.

"No sir." Agent Keane interrupted him, hands raised. "We don't think it was that kid. Stephens in the dark room said that Jeff got a phone call this morning in class, and apparently his brother told him about the missing car, possibly even the two dead agents - because the boy reacted like something horrible had just happened. He did not order it. And I doubt they'd do that sort of thing right outside their own home."

That made sense. Agent Sicamore calmed down. But that also meant there were two new individuals in the mix. Wildcards.

"Where is his brother?" Agent Sicamore asked darkly.

The young-looking agent winced. "Our agents scanned his house, then kicked in the door. You know, probable cause. But no one was there."

"Did you check his work?" Sicamore asked, his mind racing.

Agent Keane nodded. "They are checking it now, sir. I also sent dispatches to the uncle's work and to the college after the boys." He shook his head. "The aunt never returned from shopping. Her car is still in the parking lot at the grocery store."

Agent Sicamore sat up. "It's time then." He closed his eyes, thinking on what they had to do next. He could have them all picked up and incarcerated. Lifting his gaze, he asked. "Are the Boy and Zormna still at school?"

Agent Keane nodded. "At this very moment they are in their seventh hour class. I last saw Jeff going to auto shop. Zormna is currently in Driver's Ed, and has been heard reacting to the road rage videos her teacher is showing right now."

Nodding, Sicamore stood up. "Ok. Though we could send agents to the school to pick them up, I think we need them more as bait. If the boy reacted to the appearance of those responsible for our agents' deaths so negatively, it might be they're looking for him. Search the area and find out how those killers got here and..." he sighed harshly and closed his eyes, "and get ready to take those two kids in."

As it was, those two 'kids' were now sitting in their counseling sessions and not in their seventh hour when Agent Keane made the report. School was out. And Zormna was anxious in an excited way. Not because the two agents had been killed exactly, but because it would cause a chain reaction that would lead her and Jeff to return to Home, which was all she wanted. Because of this, she sat in her counseling session with a renewed sense of humor.

"Now remember, you have a right to say, 'It is my body, and if you love me you will respect it.'" The counselor spoke in her usual maternal manner.

They had already covered the material seven times over and the only reason they had repeated it so much was Zormna's apparent lack of interest - that and she still ran around with Jeff. For some reason, the school guidance counselors and the vice principal believed that if Zormna finally understood what they were saying she would 'dump' Jeff and spend time with other boys. Zormna never got the logic of that. But then, they never listened to what she said every time she told them that she and Jeff weren't an 'item'. They would just say to her, "You don't know the way he looks at you." And no retort would shut them up.

In this session Zormna nodded obediently with an air of feigned innocence. "Oh. Now I see."

The counselor caught her false tone instantly. She sighed. "You know, we wouldn't have to repeat this if you would only listen."

"Well, don't worry," Zormna wearily replied. "I'm sure I won't have to hear it for much longer. So, you can be happy that you don't have to tell it to me anymore."

Not sure what to make of that, the counselor shook her head and lifted up the pamphlet for Zormna to see. "This here shows the process of gestation and growth of a baby. Pregnancy last for approximately nine months..."

Zormna mouthed the words with her as she pretended to look at the pamphlet.

The counselor stopped once and stared.

"I have it memorized you know," Zormna said, meeting her gaze. "If you want, I can teach it to you."

Massaging her nose ridge, the school counselor said, "Then why isn't it sinking in? Why do you still hang around with that dangerous boy?"

Zormna leaned back and blinked at her. "He's just being my bodyguard."

The counselor stared at her.

Then she picked up the pamphlet again, pointing to the next picture.

"Breathe in and out. Now, how do you feel?" the coach asked Jeff.

"Lightheaded," Jeff replied, glancing out the window with the wish that he was out of there already.

The coach groaned.

"Emotions, please," the coach reiterated with weariness.

Jeff would have laughed, but he was hoping his compatriots had made it Home safely. And he had to plan his own exit route. "Anxious."

The coach smiled. "Good. Now why do you feel anxious?"

Jeff smirked. "I want to get home. I have homework to do."

Another disappointed moan came from the coach. "Ok. Is that all?"

Jeff nodded. "Yes."

"Ok then, tell me how you feel when some one says something offensive about your friends," the coach encouraged him again.

"I feel like beating their heads in," Jeff replied.

"Emotions, Streigle," the coach said, reminding him.

With a moan, Jeff replied, "I feel defensive. I feel hostile. I feel protective. I feel like someone just stepped on my face. I feel like a fire, burning things to ashes. I feel increased animosity toward my fellow man. I feel like this is a waste of my time."

Jeff's accentuation on the last sentence snapped the coach out of his reverie from releasing the emotionally tied up boy at last. The coach looked at Jeff's annoyed expression and frowned.

"Can I go home now?" Jeff asked him.

The coach sighed again. "No. We have ten more minutes."

Jeff moaned again.

"Let's practice listing Jeremy's good qualities," the coach began.

Groaning, Jeff clenched his teeth and started that exercise. "He is not entirely grown so he's not set in his ways just yet...."

The FBI on duty at the school watched the two walk together as always across the school parking lot. Jeff straddled his motorcycle, and Zormna climbed on after him, hugging him around the waist to she would not fall off. Same old, same old. They watched Jeff take Zormna to her work that afternoon, much to their surprise. It was one of those rare days that she did work, as her schedule had been thinned out due to after-school activities and detention. Her boss seemed pleased when Zormna came in and was ready to go. Jeff, however, entered with Zormna rather than heading off to his own job like he would have usually. He had a few words with the manager of the burger place.

"I suppose you can stay, but you have to let her alone to work her shift," the tubby woman replied, looking Jeff up and down. "And not make a mess."

Jeff nodded obediently. He took a seat in a far booth, opening up his folder and a few textbooks so he could do his homework. It was a small corner booth, so he would be out of the way.

Zormna set off to the back room to slip into her uniform. She would be on roller skates that night and so she had to suit up for it. When she returned, Zormna had her hair tied up into two tiny ponytails, her longer strands of hair tied back and wound around the rubber bands to make it look nice. With a paper hat perched on the crown of her head, and a simple rounded apron hung over the store-issue red and white striped shirt, she looked adorable - like a time traveler from a fifties movie. Jeff's eyes followed her as she rolled out to take orders from the cars at the drive-in burger place, his heart beating a little too fast. He had to shake his head to clear his thoughts so he could go back to his homework.  

People came and went from the restaurant during the dinner rush, filling most of the tables, but more of the parking spaces outside. The novelty of the place was the old 1950's style eat-in-your-car service, which had a high turnover from about five in the afternoon to about seven in the evening. A number of men from the local community college came just to watch Zormna skate around the parking lot with her trays of food. Those that worked outside on roller-skates had to master skating with things in their hands before even being allowed to carry product; so of course when the manager had discovered Zormna's impeccable balance she had been working outdoors on skates ever since.

For nearly three hours she worked. Jeff finished his homework in two and occupied the rest of his time with reading. Not that their major novel for English class mattered anymore, as they were going Home, but that he needed something to do while the FBI continued to watch them. Jeff was actually waiting for the FBI to come up to the burger place and flash their badges at them then arrest them. He had no doubts the agency had figured out by now that the house was empty. He only hoped the FBI, when they would eventually discover their missing agents, would not blame them for their deaths. It was most likely - as such would be a knee-jerk reaction. But Jeff was still working on his escape plan. They didn't have an available ship as of yet.

But at around six-twenty things changed. Not the FBI visiting though.

Zormna had been skating around the Roller Burger restaurant, gathering orders and delivering food along with another girl when a familiar dark sedan pulled up to the restaurant and parked in a vacant spot. She recognized the car on sight. It was exactly the same car that usually sat outside Jeff's house every night, but the men inside looked like two recruiters for Neo-nazis who felt uncomfortable in their suits and ties. Zormna glanced at them once as she skated by. Smoothly, she rolled past the restaurant window to see if Jeff had spotted the People's Military officers, tapping the glass.

Jeff lifted his eyes from his book, then ducked out of sight. Slipping behind the booths so that he was