Hey guys! This is my first fanfic, so NO FLAMES! I'm not here for you to vent out all your problems, so take it somewhere else. I would really appreciate constructive criticism, though, so if you see any room for improvement please let me know. Comment if you have any questions and I'll try to respond in the author's notes before each chapter. If you want to BETA this story, I would be willing to get a BETA, so that door's open. Thanks again for giving this fic a try! Hope you enjoy the story!

-Petra (aka Fangirl-OP)

Disclaimer
Me: Nico?
Nico: *grunts* what?
Me: the disclaimer...
Nico: Oh right! *clears throat*
Nico: Fangirl-OP does not-
Percy: *crashes into room*
Percy: *pants* I WANNA DO IT!
Annabeth: *Comes in with frying pan*
Annabeth: *whacks Percy with frying pan*
Me: Thanks, Annabeth. There's a reason You're my favorite character.
Annabeth: Awww, I love you too Petra! Just don't kill me off, okay?
Nico:...
Nico: Anyways, Fangirl-OP does not own PJO or HOO,-
Me: Thanks, Nico! *blows kiss*
Nico: *mutters* ...thankfully
Me: Excuse me!?

Chapter 1

Annabeth POV

IF THE INFECTED DON'T KILL ME, then the isolation surely will.

It's been three days since I have seen any Infected, and only God knows how long it's been since I've seen another Survivor. But the silence is constant, like the world is trying to remind me that I'm alone. In all honesty, being alone doesn't really bother me (I was never very social), but being stuck with only my head for company is what gets to me.

Gee, Annabeth, you ask. Are you mental? Or is your head just annoying?

No. My head isn't annoying. Nor am I mental. It's just that if I have no Infected to fight, I get bored and I start to think.

Well, do you hate thinking or something?

Uh, yeah.

Why?

Because it makes me realize how fast the world is turning into a hopeless pit of hopelessness and dying people, okay? Eff off.

Take a chill pill, Annabeth. But whatever. Bye!

Actually, maybe I am mental. I already know I'm ADHD. But running around in the Ohio backcountry for three months, fighting to stay alive, can you really blame me? Heck, I sleep in trees and make rabbit jerky for food! And don't say anything, because I told you to leave.

At least the forest is pretty.

Anyways, due to reasons previously stated, I hate being alone and, therefore, was actually happy when the Infected attacked me. You know, in a sick way.

The first giveaway that Infected were stalking me were the moans. You see, they act like zombies: listlessly walking around, groaning and trying to eat you alive. But the weird thing is, they aren't dead. Like, they still do the normal life processes of eating, drinking, going to the bathroom, sleeping, and even reproducing (it's absolutely disgusting). The only thing is that their food and drink is human meat and blood. But even though they're alive, they don't last long, because once the virus goes to work on their bodies, they start to rot. The brain goes first, and the flesh is next- they even look like zombies. Eventually, the person dies because the virus used them up, and it moves on to the next host.

What do they look like? Well, their skin is all purplish and greenish, and they always, always have missing teeth. And the teeth that they have are so unhealthy that they might as well just fall out. The Infected usually have crazy hair, but everybody does these days. Their nails are really long, too.

So anyways, I was just sitting on a log in the forest, musing over my life, and I hear their groans. I was like, okay. Let's dance, zombies. So I stand up and turn around, expecting two, maybe three Infected. Instead, I find this whole group of them converging on me.

In hindsight, I probably should have run, but I guess I wasn't thinking straight.

I scrambled for my backpack (my dagger was in it), but one of them grabs my shoulder and jerks me towards the group. I curse and stumble over the log I was just sitting on, landing on my stomach. I rolled over and swept my feet under their legs, knocking some of them over. This bought me enough time to stand up and grab my bow, 'cause it's closer to me than the backpack.

I swung the bow around in a wide arc, and it tore through the group. Another thing about the Infected is that even though they are fairly strong and fast (I guess the virus never gets to the muscle tissue), they have really soft skin and weak bones. I hear a satisfying crunch as the wood of my bow meets their bruised, rotten bodies. I heard this hysterical laugh from somewhere above me, and I wasted time looking for its source.

While I was peering into the trees, one of the Infected grabbed me, and its abnormally long nails raked down my bare right arm. I let out a cry of pain and gritted my teeth as one of the Infected behind me, who did not have to courtesy to die, bit into my right shoulder. I screamed.

Okay, if you've ever had someone try to eat your shoulder off, you would know what that felt like. My entire right side exploded in pain, and I managed to hit the thing on the head so that it let go of my shoulder. I gasped and fell forward onto the log. Black spots danced in my vision. I let go of the bow and it clattered onto the log next to me.

I struggled to my feet as one of the Infected I had knocked over tried to take a bite out of my right leg. Like, leave my right side alone! I grabbed my bow and swung it again, and it connected with the one that tried to eat my shoulder off. I probably would have laughed at it if I weren't in pain.

There was still one in front of me. I thrust my bow into its chest, even though I usually try to avoid stabbing Infected because it makes me feel savage (don't judge). I jerked the bow out of its body with a squelch and winced at the noise it made.

I heard that creepy laugh again and wondered if it was an Infected. Can Infected even laugh at all? I groaned and glanced around warily, half because my shoulder hurt and I was about to black out, half because I wanted to know where that laugh came from. Also, I thought there were more Infected- did I really fight off that entire swarm?

Answer: no.

There had been more behind me.

But I didn't know they were there until they began grabbing at me, pulling me down. Then one clamped its jaws around my neck and everything went black.

The last thing I thought was, whoever was laughing, thanks a lot.

Thalia POV

Blondie was so stupid, I almost laughed.

Like, Girl! If thirteen Infected attack you all at the same time, run!

I crouched in my tree and watched as she grabbed a bow and started swinging it around like a club. This time, I did laugh, and immediately clamped a hand over my mouth. The girl looked up in my general direction, trying to figure out where it came from. One of the zombies used her temporary distraction to rake its nails down her arm, and she cried out in pain.

Hehe. Whoops.

She hit some more of them with her bow, and would have hit more of them, but one of them reached forwards and bit into her shoulder.

Double whoops.

Blondie screamed and fell onto a log. She managed to get back on her feet and whirled around. She was breathing pretty heavily at this point. There was another one in front of her and four more behind, but I don't think she knew about the ones behind her. Blondie stabbed the one in front of her and winced, like she thought it was gross or something.

I laughed again. Really, sorry, but it was kind of funny. Blondie looked up at the trees again, and the Infected chose that moment to grab at her. She screeched and tried to stab one with her bow, but she didn't get to because one of them bit into her neck.

Triple whoops.

Her body went limp, and I think she was unconscious. I will say that she fought like the devil, though; that girl was tough. "Dammit," I muttered. I guess I have to help her now.

I grabbed my bow and nocked an arrow. I aimed towards the Infected who had bit her neck and released the arrow with a twang. It shot into the zombie's eye. "Oops," I muttered. I nocked an arrow and shot another Infected, then hopped out of my hiding place in the trees. I landed in a crouch, then stood up, grabbed the last two zombies' heads, and banged them together. I heard a crunch and they fell face-first onto the ground.

I sighed and looked around. There were bodies littered all around the forest floor. I didn't really want to hang out with them, so I grabbed my duffel bag, Blondie's backpack, and our bows. Then I dragged an unconscious Blondie along behind me, trying to find a new place to camp out.

About seven minutes and three mosquito bites later, I found a nice clearing that was free of corpses. I pulled my sleeping bag out of the duffel and rolled it out. Then I laid Blondie on it and cleaned her scratches and, ahem, bite marks, using hopefully clean water from a nearby stream.

'Nough said.

Now Blondie looked less like an almost-corpse and more like an injured-but-just-sleeping person. I sighed and prepared myself for the hard part: waiting for her to wake up.

Annabeth POV

I FELT A DULL THROBBING in the base of my skull, which sucked because if I was dead and in Heaven, I wouldn't be able to feel pain. And if I wasn't dead, then I was alive (obviously). Being alive means that I would have to heal and whatnot, which I was not in the mood to do.

My whole body was sore, I had a headache, and my shoulder throbbed where the Infected had bit into it. I'll try not to complain, though, because when my mom was still alive she always told me to be tough. "Girls- especially blondes like us- are stereotyped too often," she would say. "Be so tough that people don't even get the chance to stereotype you." She told me to never complain and to always, always, give my best effort. She also told me that my gray eyes were my best assets; because they showed that I was not your typical teenaged girl- I was more than that.

But she died when I was twelve, in a car crash. That was four years ago, and I still remember that she was fighting until her last breath. And so lying there on the forest floor, half alive, I thought, maybe I should keep fighting, too.

Slowly, I cracked my eyelids just enough to see sunlight streaming down from the sky, unobstructed by trees. So I must be in a clearing or something, I thought. How did I get here? I opened my eyes all the way and squinted from the sudden light.

I groaned and sat up, then froze. Someone was laughing that same laugh I heard when I was fighting the Infected. The person was definitely female and was probably sitting about three feet behind me. Slowly, I turned around to glare at the girl behind me.

She was thin and tall and had really short, raven black hair and unsettling, electric blue eyes. Like, pixie-cut girl smirked. "Sleeping Beauty awakens, eh?"

"You have a lot to explain," I snapped through dry lips. "So you better start talking."

She shrugged. "There really isn't that much to tell. I was just sitting in a tree, minding my business, and you came along and sat on a log underneath me. Then some Infected attacked you, so when you blacked out I finished them off and dragged your unconscious butt to the spot which you now occupy."

"Why were you sitting in a tree?" I challenged. I didn't really care why she was in the tree. Heck, I sleep in trees! But I hated that I needed saving from this girl, so I guess I wanted to annoy her.

"It's safer than sitting on a log, Blondie." She began to draw in the dirt. "Shouldn't you be thankful or something? I could have left you and stolen your backpack." She swept her hand over whatever she had drawn, erasing it. "On second thought," she mused, " I probably should have."

Angry, I grabbed a pinecone and chucked it at her face. It bounced off of her forehead harmlessly, and she started laughing again. "Look," I growled. "If you call me 'Blondie' one more time, I will do something a lot worse than just throwing a pinecone at you."

"Not in your current condition, you won't." she smirked.

"What's your name?"

"That's a good question," she mused. "What is my name?" She looked at me.

I narrowed my eyes. "Look, if you don't trust me, I'll go first. My name is Annabeth Chase and I'm sixteen. " I paused, waiting for a reply. None came. "Your turn," I pushed.

"Well, let's see," she tapped her chin. She was trying to anger me, and it was worked.

"Ugh!" I threw another pinecone at her and said, "If you won't tell me what you name is I-"

"What?" She smirked. "What are you gonna to me?" I grabbed yet another pinecone, and was about to throw it at her, when she said, "I know! You can just call me Pinecone face!" She exploded into laughter.

I don't know why, but that calmed me down. I couldn't help it. "Okay then, Pinecone Face. But I still want to know your real name, just for kicks."

She smiled at me. "Just because I like you, my name is Thalia Grace and I'm eighteen. But only because I like you."

I laughed and we fell into a comfortable silence. Eventually, I said, "How long was I out?"

"A day. Nothing too crazy." She laid back and stretched her legs. "So, tell me about your life."

"My life is an appallingly dreadful pile of crap," I said. Thalia snorted. "Is that what you were asking?"

"No," she said, "but I don't doubt that it's true. What I meant was, why are you alone and not in a camp?"

Camp? What was she talking about? I never heard anything about a camp. This was completely new to me, but it presented an opportunity to stop running around with nowhere to go. "What camp?" I asked her quietly.

"You know, a camp. Like, when the Outbreak first happened, some people got smart and started collecting people into isolated areas, and most of them still exist. They're safe havens for loners like us." She looked at me curiously and sat up. "You really never heard of the camps?"

"No. Is that where you're trying to go? One of the camps?"

"Yeah," she said. "There's this one in Manhattan where my idiot cousins are. That's where I'm trying to go."

"So why are you in Ohio?" I asked.

She froze. "Annabeth, this isn't Ohio. I started out in Ohio, too, because I was visiting a friend when the Outbreak happened. But I've mostly been traveling on the Interstate, and right now we're in northern New York."

I blinked. This was also new. "But-" I struggled to find the words. "How do you know?"

She chuckled. "Well, I have a compass, so I know which direction I'm going. But mostly I know because a couple of miles east, there was a sign that said 'Welcome to New York'."

"Why aren't you still on the interstate?"

She let out a dry, humorless laugh. "Annabeth, the Interstate can only take me so far. I had to leave or else it would have carried me through New York into Massachusetts. Or up into New Hampshire, depending which route I took."

"So then I just wandered into New York," I said. She nodded and shrugged. I had noticed a slight change in the types of vegetation in the forest, but I hadn't thought much of it. Actually, it was rather odd that I had stayed inside forests the entire time, too. "Um," I said abruptly. "Can I go to that camp in Manhattan with you?"

She shrugged. "Sure. We're a little far out, but together I think we can make it. You seem pretty 'school smart', and I'm pretty 'street smart', so together we have all the smarts one could need!"

"Hey!" I spluttered. "I'm 'street smart'! I've survived this long!"

Thalia laughed. "Chill, Annabeth. I was joking. From what I can tell, you're actually one of the smartest people I've met. Definitely not a dumb blonde."

"Good. Because if you'd been serious, I might have had to throw another pinecone at you." I wagged my finger at her warningly.

She raised an eyebrow. "Oh really?" she gasped and threw her hands in the air. "Oh no! The mighty pinecone thrower has targeted me!"

We laughed. "So, Pinecone Face," I said. "Allies?"

"Uh, no." I flinched and reached for my bow, wary that she might try to take my stuff. "Psyche! Just kidding!" She laughed. "Not allies, friends."

I smiled. "Friends it is, Thalia."