Thalia, Zoë, and I were on our way to the Chase household. I don't like complaining when I'm on important, world-saving missions, but my feet were sore and all I wanted to do was sit and rest. After several long minutes and a few awkward attempts at conversation, the girls stopped walking, though I could not figure out why. They hadn't looked very tired, and it was a truly easy walk, albeit a bit long. As I watched them try to communicate telepathically, I realized we were lost.
"I don't think this is San Francisco," Thalia was saying, looking around. "Did we go the right way?"
"Well, if we are not in San Francisco, we are not in the right place," Zoë said. Her comment seemed rather uncalled for and a little obvious, but I decided against commenting on it. I rather liked being in one piece.
"What if we just ask for directions?" I asked, fully aware that I was likely going to be extremely injured soon. Thalia could be unforgiving sometimes, never mind Zoë, and I really didn't wish to be a pile of ash left in the middle of the road. She didn't look impressed with my outburst, but she seemed rather put off by my idea.
"We could," Thalia said slowly, "but who would we ask? No adults will want to talk to three homeless-looking teens. We definitely aren't in San Francisco. Who knows how helpful the people in this area even are?"
"True," I admitted. I hadn't thought of that one. "So who could we ask? We can't just sit here. We have a deadline. If we don't make it to Mount Tam in time-"
"Everyone's doomed. Who knows what they'll do to her? Those titans are crazy. We have to make it." Thalia left no room for argument. If we didn't get there soon Annabeth would die. I knew Thalia was also worried about Annabeth, but I couldn't tell if that was even who she was worried about. As far as I knew, she could genuinely be this worried about Artemis. She seemed to be significantly better at hiding her emotions than I was. I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.
"Thalia is correct. We do not have long. Everything is depending on us. We will need to ask for directions or locate a map. What do you think we should do?" Of course, Zoë wasn't talking to me, but I answered anyway.
"We should ask someone," I said automatically. It would be so much faster.
"Why? We would still have to try to find someone," Thalia argued. I got her point, but she seemed to be arguing purely for the sake of arguing.
"We would still have to find a store," I pointed out. "And we're dyslexic."
"The boy has a point. We do not know where we are, or where the nearest industrial community is." I was thoroughly surprised when Zoë agreed with me. I must have sounded more logical than I felt. Or she had realized we weren't going to get anywhere if she didn't step in.
"Fine," Thalia huffed. "But you two are finding someone to ask." I decided not to point out that Thalia was stuck with us through everything. With her current mood, she seemed ready to attack the next thing that so much as breathed too close to her. Zoë seemed to have come to the same conclusion, although she did not seem to have the same inhibitions I did.
"Thou are going to have to come with us anyway," she told Thalia. The glare Thalia sent our way was terrifying, leaving me wishing Zoë hadn't brought that up. Being on the receiving end of Thalia's glares was at the bottom of my 'to-do list.'
"How 'bout them?" I asked, looking over in the direction of a tunnel. There were three teens on the far side of the highway, seeming like they knew their way around well enough. We would just have to make it across multiple lanes of vehicles probably driving way over the speed limit. It would be worth it, though. Probably.
"We would have to cross the highway." Zoë stated my thoughts aloud. It wouldn't be easy. The cars were moving too fast, and one person with bad timing could kill us all. I didn't want to die so young, but what other choice did we have?
"Thank you, Captain Obvious," Thalia grumbled. I really didn't see how that was necessary. "Do we want to cross the highway? We could die."
"We could die standing here, too," I reminded her. As a demigod, you could die at any time for no apparent reason.
"I guess it's worth a shot," she mumbled, not sounding too happy. As we watched the cars fly by, I couldn't help but wonder about her and Zoë's past. Why couldn't they agree on anything? It seemed illogical to purposefully argue over everything, yet they seemed to. They must have had a disagreement in the past, although that would imply they had met before. Which they may have, although I was not aware of it.
I was jerked out of my thoughts by Thalia's hand gripping my arm. There was a break in the first couple of lanes, just long enough that we could run through. None of us wanted to stand in the middle of the highway, so we had to time our advances well around the space between approaching vehicles in all lanes. By the time we all got to the other side, the other teens were gone.
"Now what do we do?" Zoë asked. "They already left. We cannot split up to find them. It's too risky."
"I saw them head to the right," I said, already walking that way. I glanced back to see the girls following me. Apparently they didn't have any better ideas.
Thalia was the first to notice the group of three we were looking for. "Hey!" she shouted, trying to get them to notice us. It didn't work.
I ran up behind the group and managed to catch their attention. Shortly after, Thalia and Zoë arrived, disapproval evident on their faces.
"What?" one of the blond guys asked. He was clearly leading, and the other guy clearly didn't like it.
"How do you get to San Francisco from here?" Thalia asked. I wasn't surprised she went straight to the point.
"Why?" the other blond asked. They were asking too many questions, and our deadline was fast approaching.
"Why not?" Thalia challenged. I didn't like where this was going, so I decided to step in.
"Before we all kill each other, let's at least learn each others' names," I tried. Fortunately, it worked. Thalia and the blond that wasn't leading were still glaring daggers at each other, but at least no one was killing anyone else. "My name is Percy." I looked over at the girls, silently willing them to speak.
Thalia stepped forward first. "I'm Thalia, and this is-""I can introduce myself," Zoë cut off Thalia. "My name is Zoë. Who are thee?"
"Well," their leader started, "This is Emily," he pointed at the girl, "Octavian," he pointed at the other guy, "and I am Jason."