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

an awful past both Zormna and Jeff had wanted to forget, the two People's Military officers in stolen clothes were talking low together about their failed search. Their murmurs in their language barely lifted higher than the crackling of their campfire.

"...Em en'op por'om mane trii mane. En del'rein keerg'or le em nit'om o'rem chmeka ta'dal, nee oomtor'om," one muttered to the other. "Le o're za eerz eezshal'a, em nas tregg'om o'rem gootak'ever'ova. Korra tan nas an'za'en eintan ta o'rem kareet'en."[1]

The ground crunched behind them with the sound of approaching feet. Quickly turning, both men drew their weapons and squinted into the darkness over the firelight. One nearly dropped his weapon when he saw Zormna emerge from the trees like a ghost. Her hair down now. She was back in the school tee shirt she had worn that day, red with the words Pennington Pirates Swab Up! boldly printed on her chest in black. Her pace was steady as she walked towards them, and her facial expression maintained firm disapproval.

"Why did you come here?" Zormna asked the men in her usual accent.

Automatically the driver of the car gaped.

"You! You were the waitress at the food place!" the other man said, waving his weapon at her.

"How ya find us? Who arrrre ya?" the driver said now, lifting his gun and clenching it in his fist.

Zormna walked closer to them, closing the distance between them. "I am Alea Zormna Clendar of the Zeta district here on assignment to retrieve the criminal Jafarr Zeldar. This is my jurisdiction. What are you doing here? The People's Military have no jurisdiction on Partha."

Both men pulled back, sharing looks. One had gone a sick shade of green, looking guilty and trapped. But the other quickly squared up his shoulders, lifting his weapon. "Alea Zormna Clendar is it? Of Zeta?" He then slipped into a tirade yelling a string of obscenities in his own language. Color of Zormna's face changed when he said them. Her expression grew darker, and her glare narrowed into harsh slits.

"Spasp'kai!" Zormna barked back like she would bit. "Nee za rein asorrak'ell tan. Nee za re'deks'narr sha zakoh ekk za'narr tan."[2]

      

"Now?" someone whispered to another in the trees over a small radio.

Zormna and the other Martians did not hear them.

"Not now. Wait a little."

 

The cursing People's Military officer marched toward her to shove his weapon in her face. Of course that was the mistake Zormna had been hoping for. He may have known about her, but he didn't know her, or what he was truly up against.

"No more," the People's Military officer said, slipping back into English. "The People's Military will deal no more with the Surface Patrol. We have won."

He took aim.

"You are too far ahead of yourself," Zormna said.

In that moment, Jeff had leapt on the unsuspecting People's Military officer near the fire, knocking him down and snatching his weapon out of his hand. The P.M. cried out. Hearing the scuffle, the one marching up to Zormna turned back for just a second. Zormna took advantage of his stupidity, striking him to the earth in two quick moves and catching the weapon which she had knocked out of his hands. Her heel was at his throat, his own gun pointed at his face when it was all over.

Both men stared up in horror at what had just happened.  

"Go get some binder cuffs, Jafarr," Zormna said, a keen eye on her captives. "There should be two in the ship."

Shocked at their own foolishness, both captives stayed where they were. Mostly they stared at this Surface Patrol officer who was helping the very rebel they had come to find.

"Traitor!" the P.M. with the attitude shouted at her.

Zormna smirked at him. "Not at all. I've been wanting to join the rebellion for some time. It is the government that has turned traitor to the people."

Jeff climbed into the ship, fishing around the compartment for a moment. He came out of it with cords and wires instead.

"No cuffs?" Zormna grimaced at what he was carrying.

He shook his head. "Not a one. I expect they were just going to kill me. I guess they thought that with all the Tarrns gone they could kill the last Zeldar now."

Almost smugly the P.M.s at their feet glared up at him.

"I'm right," Jeff said, carrying the cords over to a tree. He then unwound one. "I figure these cords will work just as well. You remember lashing from camp, right?"

Zormna nodded. "But you're doing the tying."

 

"Now?" the voice in the dark asked again.

"Not yet. Soon, but not yet. Wait for my signal."

 

Before long, the two teenagers had both men tied hand and foot to one of the pine trees. Jeff seemed to take a great delight in making sure the cords were tight. He even hummed cheerfully as he managed a good knot, hearing the men attached to the tree grunt. He stood up, wiping his hands on his pants.

"Done?" Zormna asked him, still pointing her gun at the two captives.

Jeff nodded. "Done." He then glanced over the campground. "We'd better put out that fire."

Zormna nodded. She dropped her aim and shoved one of the guns into her pocket. The other she handed back to Jeff.

Walking over to the burning fire, Jeff did everything he could from kicking dirt onto it to climbing under the space craft to the actual fire pit and carry back sand to smother the flames. It was hard to make sure the fire was completely gone with all the smoldering pine needles, but they didn't have any water handy. As he was doing this, Zormna had climbed into the ship and was inspecting the controls. She seemed to enter her own little world when she did that.

Jeff paused in his work once or twice, squinting into the darkness like a wild animal.

The watching agents drew in breaths, almost sure he could see them.

"Did you hear that?" Jeff called up to the cockpit where Zormna was sitting.

She lifted her head. "What did it sound like?"

He shook his head and climbed agilely up to the cockpit. He swung his legs in and settled beside Zormna. She glanced at him expectantly.

"It was probably a raccoon," he said, shrugging it off. "Are you ready?"

Zormna grinned wide with the truest smile she had ever given since she had been 'stuck on this rock'. She nodded happily, her fingers fluttering over the mechanism like a musician who had found her instrument of choice. Right away a slight whir and then the clear ringing of an open radio line sounded.

"This is Zeta thirteen, Loshan, receiving me," Zormna called into the receiver.

The other side buzzed and hummed.

<<Zeta Thirteen - Zormna! You are not supposed to call. This hairline is for emergencies only,>> answered a clear voice who sounded both relieved and annoyed at the same time.

"Friendly, isn't he," Jeff remarked.

Zormna smirked back at him.

"Salvar, I'm coming home," she said clearly with a grin.

The other side protested. <<You can't! They've already killed all the Tarrns here. They've got Dad locked up I don't know where. You can't come back.>>

Jeff mouthed, "Dad?" to Zormna.

"He's the Kevin's son," she said, not taking the same care in silence.

<<Who are you talking to? Zormna, who are you with?>>

She moaned and replied, "I'm here with a friend."

Salvar's tone sounded jealous. <<Not a friend I know, is it?>> Then he paused. <<Zormna, you can't come back. I don't know what your so-called friend said, but we can't lose you now that I know you are alive.>>

Zormna rolled her eyes. "I'm with Jafarr Zeldar. We're coming back together. He - "       

<<Zeldar? Are you crazy? He's a criminal! I thought you hated him!>> Her friend then went into a tirade much like that of the PM, only without swearing.

"Now Salvar..." Zormna started to say, not at all pleased about where the conversation was going.

"Zormna," Jeff tugged on her shoulder, looking over the edge of the ship and going ash gray in his face.

"What? Jafarr - " but she also looked over and saw what he saw.

They were surrounded.

In the time they took to radio Alea Salvar, the FBI's troops in black had entered the clearing, gagged the two People's Military officers and encircled the spaceship. All of them had automatic weapons. Jeff was the first to see them. It was they he had heard before he climbed into the cockpit of the ship. And though he had suspected some kind of counter move by the FBI, he just never expected to see so many.

Zormna and Jeff leaned together, watching the agents below as they encircled the spacecraft.

"Care to fly out of here?" Jeff whispered to her.

"Are you kidding?" Zormna shook her head. "It would take too long. The engine has to heat up, and by then they would have shot this ship and us full of holes."

He grimly agreed the attempt to escape at that point would be a joke. They would have to think of another escape route now.

"Come out of the spacecraft with your hands in the air," the voice of Agent Palmer echoed from a bullhorn out dark the woods.

Jeff sighed. Rising out of the cockpit, he stepped on the rim and dropped to the pine covered ground.

Immediate the catches from numerous rifles and guns clicked, reminding him to lift his arms. He rolled his eyes and raised his hands to they could see them. Immediately, the approaching men in black felt over Jeff's coat to pull out the weapon he had taken from the PMs, along with his cell phone which he had retrieved after school from Mr. Humphries. They shoved him over to a heavily armed group at the side of the campground where two beefy men pulled his arms down behind his back to cuff him.

"Hey, aren't you going to read me my rights?" Jeff asked with a casual air.

The men cuffing him remained silent, shoving him deeper into the throng of armed black-suited men.

Zormna had stayed in the cockpit like a child clinging to a security blanket, watching this happen. She let out a mournful sigh and slumped in the seat. They had been so close to going Home.

"Come out of there," the voice from the woods resonated authoritatively.

<<Zormna? What's going on? What's happening?>> Salvar called out of the radio.

Moaning, Zormna stood up with one sulky glance. She switched off the radio so her friend's voice did not have to compound her disappointment. Squaring her shoulders, Zormna peered over the crowd of FBI special ops agents. She spotted Jeff's dejected, yet thinking expression. As she knew him, she figured he was devising a way to escape their predicament, which was all she needed to know. He was the escape artist after all.

Zormna leapt off the side of the ship and flipped impressively to the ground.

The armed swat team staggered back in surprise, which was the effect she wanted. Zormna glanced at them and then raised her arms in surrender. Taking that signal, the armed men quickly surrounded her and went through her pockets, removing the gun and her cell phone. She had nothing else. She had left her house keys in Jeff's bushes.

"Showoff," Agent Steve Keane said, stepping through the crowd toward her.

Of all people out of the FBI, he really was the last one she had wanted to see. Zormna's glare for him was especially personal. The men in black pulled her arms behind her back and forcefully cuffed her.

"You know, this is an unlawful arrest," she grumbled at him.

The FBI agent smirked and shook his head. "We shall see."

Wordlessly, the SWAT team dragged the two teenagers and the two People's Military officers, cuffed and at gunpoint, back down the hill to the main road. There it looked like either a funeral or a dark circus. Parked across from Jeff's house were several cars and one armored van. Jeff took one look at the collection of vehicles and shook his head.

"You've gone all out. I'm impressed," he said as they pushed