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

of the rest of the captive student body had only a few casualties. The battle of Pennington High was not exactly epic. But the students since talked about it as if it had been.

There was the 'Charge of the Redtop', of course, recounted by the teachers who had been there for years to come. Then the 'Raid of the Main Floor', which had been swiftly executed like 'expert video-gamers', each soldier taking out the classroom guards in just a couple of pops of blue light and hasty dragging of prone bodies. And the 'Stripping of the Science Rooms' where a holdout of People's Military officers threatened to exterminate an entire classroom full of captives - until a flash grenade was tossed into the room and everyone was blind and deaf...unfortunately including the students. The Surface Patrol officers then took out the other soldiers. And lastly "The Final Scuffle" during the removal where a bunch of helmeted PMs had attempted to win back territory with a few tear gas canisters. But that battle was won by gismos, a number of which sabotaged the helmets the People's Military wore by sending of high frequencies, forcing them to tear them off before going deaf. Then the new army cleared the air with micro fans that sucked the gas back into other canisters.

During these battles, a lot of students fainted from lack of air and had to be revived. A large number were hauled into the school gym for physical checkups and given nasty-tasting blocks of... well, they weren't granola bars and they also weren't as 'tasty' as energy bars, but their emancipators called it food. Most didn't eat it, no matter how hungry they were. Most thought it was poison.

As soon as the entire school had been emptied of their occupiers, Anzer Dzhon Niizek had also returned to the school and spoke in private with the Vice Principal who was somehow still alive. Their conference was long. The only reason it dragged out was due to Mr. Vicklser's offended incredulity that he had to listen to the advice of a boy not more than eighteen years old. The message, though private, soon spread throughout the freed student body. First of all, everyone was allowed to go home. 'Jafarr Zeldar' and Zormna had sent this particular army in to rescue them - which news made everyone at Pennington High draw in breaths of public disbelief, but also believing relief. Mr. Vicksler also relayed that he had been advised to tell them to stay home until their own city law enforcement could be reestablished, and to stay off the roads. This was a message he agreed with. It wasn't safe. In fact these soldiers were given strict instruction to escort them home.

But that part made everyone uneasy. Everyone feared a new form of captivity. Maybe concentration camps next. For all they knew, the Martians had secretly made all those FEMA camps they had heard about on YouTube. Maybe they just needed the opportunity to herd them into cattle cars like during the Holocaust. In fact, as students were escorted home, most were cynical, doubting the invasion was over. It was psychological manipulation, some said. It was Project Blue Beam, others said. But there were a few (a very few) that believed the sincerity of the second 'invasion force' and all their grievous apologies in the name of the Surface Patrol of Arras.

Despite fears concerning this new army, all the dark expectations proved unsubstantiated. During the slow exodus from the campus, these new invaders collected all their own dead - including the dead People's Military officers. They gathered all the captives onto the senior lawn where these soldiers stripped the People's Military officers in the middle of the school quad, shredding their uniforms. The remaining students at the school watched the new soldiers jeer at the half-naked P.M.s as they were loaded up their captives into their own shuttles which had been parked in the parking lot and on school fields, and taken away. Anzer Dzhon and a few others remained to clean up the mess the P.M.s had left... making especially sure the dead students and teachers were cared for and identified.

Once the school was entirely cleared, Anzer Dzhon went about with his platoon, and freed the entire 'city' of Pennington Heights.

Then they moved on to other cities.

Of course this counter attack took more time than the People's Military invasion. But then the extraction of malignant elements always had to be done with more tact. It took a pound of cure, as it were. Most of the Surface Patrol had wished they had been more vigilant and prevented the invasion - that ounce of prevention that had once been their duty.

In two weeks, the city started up again - cautiously at first. The local public TV and radio stations were once more broadcasting. Other cities slowly were being freed. Smaller towns were vocal in protest over the downed internet, demanding what had happened, because all they knew was that there had been a month-long internet blackout and they were thinking the New World Order was taking over. Then all the internet social media sites boomed again with life as the internet had been reestablished in part, then later more. Many within the battle-zones exchanged experiences. Pennington's own police was back in action that second week, and the same in some smaller areas around the nation as the Surface Patrol extraction teams pulled out with their captives and dead.

The big cities were a little harder to recover, mostly because the People's Military fought dirty and did not care who they hurt when they fought to keep their rule. Bombs went off. Nasty casualties, especially 'collateral damage' were made. But eventually those big metropolises gave way to the superior Surface Patrol by the end of the month and the Arrassian battle went skyward.

Mobs of people witnessed the most amazing dog fighting between the two alien militaries above their cities. It took less than a month for the Surface Patrol to clear out some of the capital cities, and more still for the Surface Patrol to chase down the stragglers. The citizens of the world nations watched this global battle mostly on YouTube, Vid.me, and similar sites, filled with amateur camera shots and independent reporting. Once the national stations were out of P.M. hands, they also began to broadcast what they saw.  It was a game of catch up. Refusing to be outdone by the amateur independent news outlets, they sent out their cameramen, or borrowed internet clips until they could send out their own. They broadcasted the worst of the shootouts and battles within the streets on TV's and internet everywhere, some grisly. But unlike some of the internet folk, the media did not quite root for the 'rescuers'. Rather, they cynically waited to see what would happen next.

Many of the broadcasts showed fugitives, hostages, and the soldiers of both groups. They caught images of green, black, yellow and silver suited soldiers fighting blue and green suited soldiers. It was hard to tell who was who in many cases. To their eyes they were the same: uniformed, armed and (when on occasion they were not in helmets) pale as death with light hair reminiscent of neo-Nazis. But the word Nazi soon got thrown out, and the word Morlock started to be used... because in the eyes of all, these were not humans.

"They're all Morlocks" people would say. "And we're the Eloi. Don't be deceived." More talk of Project Blue Beam came from the conspiracy theorists. And talk of lizard people, the grays and the greens, and of every ancient alien artifact people could find.

Then in the middle of May, the battles on Earth were gone.

Eyes turned to space, fixing back on Mars. And there, they could see the battle continued. But many on Earth wondered if it was just for show.

 

Despite their caution, life started up again. Surviving government officials gathered together, reevaluating their standing in the world. And all the armies, if any were still abroad, were called home. Somehow their international battles felt like petty fights. Most nations were now under martial law. A number of police were too active in the aftermath searching out for any 'Morlock' stragglers. Unfortunately, it made any pale blonde person with green or blue eyes a target. Fights broke out. More innocent people were hurt. Every hurt seemed to be blamed on skin color from thereon.

As soon as they could get together, the United States president opened a new cabinet of advisors in the war department - the Martian Bureau - within the first week of freedom. General Gardner was to head it. But Agent James Sicamore was chosen as his right hand man. Of course, by now everyone in the FBI knew now that he was of Martian blood. It was inescapable since he realized that eventually his government would find out, as his parents had been found and 'rescued' by the People's Military from their guards. That was a tragic scene, especially since his parents had no desire to be rescued and their guards had been killed. His parents had been dragged away to a facility for older high bloods the People's Military had found where the residents there had protested, declaring they had left their home world for a reason. After the removal, Agent Sicamore discovered where they had been stashed and fetched them with a contingent of FBI agents.

His full confession floored his entire team who honestly had no idea Sicamore was in the least connected to the Martians. Agent Sicamore turned himself in, explaining he hadn't understood his ancestry until after Jeff Streigle threatened his parents... and that the Boy had threatened them with being arrested and taken home to their home planet for being involved in the death of Zormna's great aunt. That part surprised them the most. It was a penitent and grim Agent Sicamore who faced them. And they locked him up.

However, after a hearing, General Gardner himself spoke on Agent Sicamore's behalf. In his eyes, Sicamore had long exonerated himself through his first actions during the invasion, fighting against the Martians and saving a number of their important generals. That, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation reaffirmed that he was the one who had pushed the Mars Project forward so at least they had forewarning enough to save their President as well as several important dignitaries. In the few short weeks after the emancipation of their nation, under a full pardon from the President, Agent Sicamore had become the expert on Martian behavior.

And what did the expert say?

Agent Sicamore advised the President to carefully consider that maybe these Surface Patrol officers were in fact telling the truth about their intentions to remove the People's Military - but not to count on the conflict ending there. In his experience, Alea Zormna Clendar (who he knew was a high-ranking officer in the Surface Patrol) had hated the very concept of invading Earth. She had repeatedly denied such a plot even when under sodium pentothal. However, that said, nobody knew what was truly going on. Including him. For all he knew, she had been long out of the loop and the politics surrounding her royal status was moot. After all, nonsense about prophecy had no place in the modern world. Or so he said.

As many governments regained their footing - some with new presidents, and others with no leaders at all - they armed their soldiers and braced to defend their lands, training troops with many new volunteers. They refused to be caught off guard this time.

Unfortunately, the stumbling governments were also thinking about RFID chips and other ways to 'track their citizens for their protection' as well as identify spies from Mars during the tagging process. But this led up to angry protests at Capitol Hill and in the Mall full of screaming chants of "Freedom! Freedom!" and "We won't trade one fascism for another!" The issue only got dropped after the