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

had not left him. Only a few noticed his eyes falling repeatedly back to Zormna as he ate lunch. But his hands were growing increasingly clammy. And worse, he was finding it difficult to focus. He knew the signs. And though he had finally learned how to hide the outward indications that he was seeing something that wasn't visible to others, he could not exactly control it. But for a split second he saw resting in the center of a clean flat surface, a broken satellite with the letters U S A etched on it. The lenses had been smashed out, and the components for transmission had been broken off. When his focus returned to the Pennington High redtop where his friends were joking around, he blinked across at Zormna who had paused to look at him, as if she had also felt it.

What it meant, Jeff could only guess.

He trudged to his next class, staring at the ground, thinking.

Brian noticed.

Fact was, Brian frequently noticed when Jeff had become mentally preoccupied, but he didn't say anything. Jeff had always been troubled, and Brian had long decided that it was safest to keep quiet when Jeff got this way. He didn't want to trigger a violent episode even though Jeff had never been violent with his friends. But Jeff was becoming more high-strung as if late. And the last time Jeff acted like that was when he had first come to Pennington. As for him spacing out, that was a new thing which worried Brian.

Of course Jonathan and Mark had also noticed this change in Jeff. They were exchanging looks behind Jeff's back, gesturing over what they should do.  Brian motioned to Mark and Jonathan to follow him and leave Jeff alone as he spaced out. Mark was about to tap Jeff on the shoulder, but Brian had gestured for him to stop.

Shrugging, Mark lowered his hand and followed Brian to their PE lockers instead.

Jeff almost walked into the first row of lockers in the PE room, but jolted awake when the bright red painted barrier was an inch front of his nose. He looked up to see where his friends had gone the same time he just about tripped over the bench in the second row.

"What's up?" Brian finally asked once Jeff had managed to open his locker and jerk off his shoes.

Jeff looked up at him, eyes unfocused, mind still preoccupied.

Jonathan and Mark had already changed and run out to their places on the asphalt for roll call. Adam didn't have PE with them as he wasn't in wrestling.

Jeff shrugged it off. "Nothing. I was just feeling dizzy."

"Dizzy?" Brian gazed at him with increased alarm. "Jeff. The last time you got dizzy at school, you fainted in the cafeteria. Is something wrong?"

Jeff sighed. He hated the increasing number of lies he had to tell Brian, though they were all necessary, so he honestly said, "More than you'll ever know, Brian."

He patted Brian on his shoulder and pulled off his shirt to change it for the white tee they used in PE. As usual, all his scars were exposed for ogling. On most occasions, seeing them drew enormous pity from those around him, as they crisscrossed Jeff's back like he had been at a whipping post in some ancient medieval dungeon. Jeff quickly pulled on his white shirt to cover them, as he really didn't like the stares.

Gazing at him sadly, Brian knew Jeff well enough to see he didn't want to talk about it. Not pressing further, Brian rose from the bench and walked toward the locker room door. Jeff just continued to dress into his PE clothes.

Brian sighed again and went out of the room.

Jeff closed his eyes. What could he possibly tell Brian? He respected the guy as a person, but he didn't want to tangle him up in his mess. Besides, how could he explain the ominous feeling that swelled within him without sharing any incriminating information? He was not in the eye of a storm anymore. It was more like he was standing on the edge of a precipice. Not a cliff, but atop a big wave like a tsunami. He would either stay atop and fare it out, or he would fall and be crushed under its weight. Jeff knew something was starting to happen. The wave was beginning to fall.

Chapter Three: Hard Watch

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

People are never sneaky in only one area of their life

 

The FBI had begun their Hard Watch program immediately after their spy satellite was discovered. As ordered by the Pentagon (if only Zormna and Jeff knew they were important enough to be considered a threat by the Pentagon), the FBI made it their duty to keep a sharp eye on the two teenagers and report all activity - significant or not, suspicious or not - to the Pentagon daily.

The reports were mostly full of mundane things...like how the two regularly came to school in the morning to hang out with their classmates while munching on a doughnut each and drinking the cocoa that was sold from the small morning cafeteria window. They listened to recorded jokes that had been cracked during English class in their thoroughly bugged classroom. A number of bugs had been planted by fake custodians the night before, hiding them in various places in case Zormna found and destroyed any - as she frequently did in the course of her week with full knowledge the FBI was spying on her in school. They listened as Jeff deliberated with Brian over whether Steinbeck meant to make his book depressing or whether Steinbeck himself was depressing and it came naturally to him. They also caught Zormna's annoyed interjections that they were trivializing the story, while Mr. Humphries' remarks came from across the room saying that the boys in that corner should take the perspective of someone seeking a way to relieve the suffering of others. But there was no incriminating chatter to speak of.

The Pentagon collected a surplus of recordings containing Zormna's under-breath grumblings about her ridiculous teachers. Most recently she talked with Jennifer and Jessica in History about the upcoming dance, especially at the dread over Miss Bianchi's choice of costume, which she said was 'the most bizarre costume possible for her to wear'. With these complaints, they had obtained a clear record of her huffs when Miss Bianchi described the American military's superior soldiers who helped end World War II. But Zormna had said nothing about her own military in her mutterings. Yet they had a thorough record of Zormna arguing with her Biology teacher about evolution during their test review, but not naming the reason why she objected so much to it. To their disappointment, the FBI had collected nothing - absolutely nothing - that indicated that those two teens were involved at all in a military strike against the United States of America, let alone the Earth.

At the end of the week, the head of the Mars Project left Pennington for Washington D.C. to lecture on the distinct political split between Zormna, Jeff, and their captive High Class men (whom they had arrested earlier that year in Florida for the murder of five FBI agents), delivering all their files and assessments so far. It was a long an exhaustive presentation, but had to be done. On Monday, he returned to Pennington and joined back in their Hard Watch - taking in more of the boring record of the mundane life of Jeff and Zormna in America.

Simply, the FBI could see that Jeff and Zormna were playing it safe. The two teens went nowhere out of routine and did nothing unusual for two kids in their 'situation' - had they been normal people born on this planet. In fact, the two talked about nothing personal in mixed company or in public - even joking. By the middle of the month of March, it looked like the FBI would be recording nothing but ordinary living from both of them for the rest of the year.

That was how good Jeff was at protecting those things that mattered most.

If only the FBI knew both teenagers felt like they were standing on the edge of a towering precipice. If only they knew Jeff was now having visions every night, warning him of the events that were happening at Home. If only they knew Zormna was getting increasingly anxious, waking up at night in cold sweats, dreaming about battles with people dying, including people she had been raised with. But Jeff had set up ways to prevent the FBI from spying on them in their homes, and both of them maintained their cool when among others.

Early Tuesday morning, three days before the anticipated school dance, Jeff was disturbed by a startling dream. In the dream he had seen dead faces in front of his eyes and recognizable circular medallions hanging on a black wall. The Tarrn family medallions. A gathering of men in seer robes were weeping not far from the wall. In his vision, Jeff stared at the wall and saw Zormna's circular medallion also hanging with the other medallions. The robed men were weeping over her medallion as if she were dead. Waking, he sat upright, sweating and heaving, feeling as if somehow something horrible had happened and it was his fault. A surge of guilt had been twisting in his stomach during the entire dream. Was Zormna all right?

Jeff looked at his clock. It was four in the morning.

That explained the utter darkness in his room. Still, uneasy, Jeff sat up and rubbed his eyes, trying to make the vision go away. The picture of the hanging medallion still stayed in his eyes. A tremor of fear rippled through him. What if she wasn't all right?

Jeff picked up his cell phone. He could call her. He probably would wake her, but there were chances that she was in trouble and she needed his help. Jeff turned his phone on and pressed the speed dial.

It rang once.

<<Hello?>> a groggy voice answered on the other end, almost automatically.

"Did I wake you?" Jeff asked, biting his lip and waiting pensively.

<<No. I was up. Nightmare,>> Zormna then yawned. <<Why are you calling?>>

He let out a sigh of relief. She was fine.

"Nightmare," he replied.

A weak laugh came from the other end. <<What did you see?>>

She knew him well.

Jeff sat on his bed and leaned against his bedroom wall. "I saw what looked like seers mourning at a black wall. Your medallion was hanging on it."

Her side hmm'd and let out a sigh. <<I dreamed about war. Battles. People dying.>>

He sat up, blinking sleep from his eyes. "Is this the first time?"

Zormna yawned as she replied, <<No. One of many, and they're getting worse.>>

A dreadful chill ran through him. "Then you can feel it."

<<We're going Home soon,>> she replied.

She was right. He felt it too.

"But I thought we agreed we would stick it out to the end of the year," Jeff reminded her, knowing she wanted to go Home as soon as possible. She was never quite content to just wait. Her pride as a soldier would not allow her to believe that the rebellion knew timing better.  

Her irritated growl resonated through the cellphone.

<<Jafarr, I said I would,>>