A Percy Jackson Fanfiction
Chapter 2 Traveling
I woke up slowly with the usual cracks of light from my window shining in my face. I craned my neck to the right, and I flipped my hourglass over, starting my morning wake-up routine. I shoved my blankets off of me and walked down the hall into our bathroom. Luckily, we were one of the few people with a shower, but it only used cold water. I quickly stripped off my boxers and turned it on. After I was drenched from head to toe, I turned it back off and began scrubbing myself with an old sponge. I wouldn't dare leave the water running because the wasteland barely has enough water left to last, at least, water that we can get to. After the nuclear war, most lakes, rivers, and wells dried up, and even though the seas are still there, the man Carnegie had apparently stopped most people from obtaining water from there. After a couple of minutes, I finished my shower, put a towel around my waist, and walked back into my room. I opened my old- fashioned dresser and pulled another pair of boxers and jeans out of it. After I put them on, I moved towards my cabinet and took out a plain black shirt. When I reached for my jacket, Mother appeared in the doorway. "You won't be needing that," she said. "Come to the living room when you're ready." And with that, she shuffled back down the hall. I turned around slowly and inspected my run-down room for the one item I knew I was going to need out in the wasteland. "There you are," I said approvingly. I picked up my dark shades and hung them from my pocket. I took one final glance around my room, and then walked to the living room. My mother was sitting in her chair directly across from me. She smiled, and gestured for me to drink the tea she made for me. I picked it up and downed half of it in one gulp as I sat down on the small couch. I placed the tea back down on the table and I urged my mother to tell me whatever she was going to tell me. It only half worked.
She stood, and plucked Eli's coat of the nearby rack. She weakly tossed it to me, and said, "You are Eli's legacy. Therefore, you will carry his items." She then picked up Eli's headhunter and his music player off the floor and gently handed me them. "Are you ready to go, Jack?" She asked me. I nodded reluctantly, and she led me to the door. "Oh, I almost forgot. I'll be right back." She moved a lot faster than she normally did, and in a few moments, she returned with a black bag in her hand. It had 'Jansport' written across the front. "This is one of the few things left undamaged from before the war. I sewed a sheath into the side of it for Eli's headhunter, and I put some dried beef, four bottles of water, one hundred dollars, and a copy of the bible Eli carried. Oh, and this. It's a charger for your music player. If you place the two wires into the bottom of the player and turn this crank for fifteen minutes, it'll be recharged." She smiled as I thanked her for the pack. I sheathed Eli's sword and slung his trench coat around my tanned shoulders. I put the thin straps of the backpack on my shoulders and I turned towards my mother. She moved forward and embraced me. "I love you, Jack. Remember what I told you. Follow your heart. Have faith that the lord will guide you." She held me at arms length. "Be safe," she said. I nodded as tears began to swell up in my eyes. I turned and took a shaky breath. I could feel my worries begin to leave me, and I took the glasses out from my pocket and placed them over my eyes. I took the music player from my other pocket, selected the song "The Crow & the Butterfly" by Shinedown, which I was shocked that Eli had, and I put the music player itself back in my pocket. I took the earbuds and placed them both in my ears. "Goodbye," I whispered as I began walking forward.
I decided that I should go East. Since Mother had told me that she and Eli traveled West, I figured i'd find the people mother was talking about to the East. Plus there was a small encampment that way.
As I walked, I took out Eli's sword and swung it experimentally. I had some practice with guns and swords when Mother and I were younger, and I found that this sword felt good in my hand. I re-sheathed it and continued down the dirt road. For miles, all I could see was this road. There was no vegetation, no water, no rubble from destroyed buildings, nothing. I was glad that I had my music player, for without it, I would've gone mad. I walked...And walked...And walked some more. Then finally, I could see something in the distance. I began jogging, and in about five minutes, I found myself in the center of the encampment I knew about. As I walked, I glanced around and saw numerous people giving me glares, so I moved faster and once a saw a sign labeled 'Water', I turned towards it. During my walk from Mother's home, I finished off two of the bottles of water, so I figured I would need more. I opened the small gate and moved towards the water pump. I began to fill my bottle when a large man grabbed my wrist. "That water's not for free, ya know." I fell backwards and began to stutter. "S-sorry. I can, uh, pay whatever fee." He laughed deeply, and stepped forward. "No can do, boyo. I don't like stealers. I'd much rather have your-aw shit. Not this again." He glared outside the gate towards three people and as he moved toward it, I decided now would be the perfect time to slip away. I opened the second gate, but just as I went to shut it, he turned and the man was on me again. "Now you're goin' to try to escape?" His hand slapped me hard across the face, and I fell to the ground. He stomped his boot down on my chest and I struggled to breath. "I think i'm gonna have to put you down, boy." His boot slammed down on my chest again, and I wheezed. He laughed heartily into the air, and I rose my hand to Eli's sword. My grip tightened around the handle, and any fear I had of this man was gone. I swung it around and hacked his foot clean from his body. The man screamed as he fell. He reached for his gun, but I slammed my own boot on his hand, hearing all of his fingers crunch. The man yelled, and I looked around at the other people. They all weren't paying attention, as if this man had karma coming to him. I sighed and instantly felt guilty. I cut a large chunk from the man's shirt and placed it around his bleeding wound. I then grabbed a conveniently placed hose and wrapped it around the shirt piece, clamping the piece to his leg. He cursed constantly. "Why don't you just finish the job you twerp?" He yelled in my face. "Because I don't kill for no reason!" I yelled back. "You wrongfully accused me of stealing water when it was just a misunderstanding, and then you try to kill me for it!" I stood up, and took ten dollars from my bag. "Your sign said five dollars per bottle, well here you go." I tossed the money on my chest, and the man cursed again. "You'll pay for this boy." He said. "You'll pay." He then passed out, and I shook my head at what I had just done. Why did I let him live? I thought, In the wasteland, it's kill or be killed. Survival of the fittest. You don't just let somebody who tried to kill you live. Two men walked up, glanced at me, all hostility gone, and carried the third man off. You said it yourself, the back of my mind said, You don't kill for no reason. I scrunched my eyebrows and walked back towards the pump. I quickly obtained my two bottles of water, and when I turned and began walking away, I bumped into someone. "Uh, sorry." I said uneasily. I looked up and saw a boy standing in front of me. He looked about sixteen, with broad shoulders, tanned skin, long, jet black hair, and sea-green eyes. Behind him stood a skinny, tan blonde girl with grey eyes, and another girl, with spiky black hair and electric blue eyes. The boy stuck his hand out and smiled. "My name is Percy," he said. I shook it slowly, and the girl with black hair sighed exasperatedly. "Christ Percy, you have no clue how to approach somebody." She shoved him out of the way and asked, "What's your name?" I stood, stunned for a moment, then answered. "Jack Valentine," I said more confidently. She nodded. "Ok, well, my name is Thalia Grace. This is Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase. Listen, we wanted to ask you if you had any food to eat." I thought about the beef Mother had packed me, and since that was all I had, I lied. "No." I said, looking away. She looked troubled by this. "Oh, ok. In that case we wanted to give you some." She said. I broke and immediately sputtered the truth. "Ok, look, all I have is a small bag of dried beef, nothing else." Thalia chuckled. "We're still going to give you some. Well, actually we wanted to ask you if you wanted to come back to our hideout with us. It's a helluva lot safer than wandering the Wasteland." I pondered this for a moment. Mother had talked about people setting traps and killing others, but these people weren't much older than myself and they didn't look like they would hurt me at all. "I suppose," I said, and all three of them smiled. "Good," Thalia said. "Our trucks are just outside the town. Shall we go?" I nodded. "Yeah." She began walking, and I followed. "So why are you taking me back to your hideout?" I asked. "Wouldn't I just be in the way?" The other girl, Annabeth, laughed. "In the way? Please. We're always looking someone with a pure heart. Your's happens to fit the requirements. After all, you had that man under a gun, and instead you stopped him from bleeding out and paid him for the water. I don't think you'd be in the way." Percy chimed in. "And you're polite too. Not many people around here are as humble as you seem to be." I smiled for the first time in ages. "Alright, here we are," Percy said as we approached a small convoy of vehicles. There were three black hummers and two camouflage four-wheelers. I saw four people, a guy and a girl on one atv and and a guy and a girl on the other. The first guy had blonde hair and electric blue eyes, like Thalia's and the other guy had light brown hair with blue eyes. The first girl had black hair and brown eyes, and the second had brown hair and green eyes. All of them were skinny and fit, and all of them were chatting until we approached. They inspected me. "Who's this?" The guy with blonde hair and electric blue eyes asked. "This is Jack." Percy replied. "Jack, this is Jason Grace, Thalia's brother. That's Piper Mclean, Travis Stoll and Katie Gardner." Everybody said hi, and then Piper asked, "So did you get gas and food?" Percy grinned sheepishly. "Well, we were about to when we got entertained by Jack. He had a misunderstanding with the water pump man and one of them lost a foot. Obviously, Jack has both feet, so the pump man lost his foot. And instead of killing him, Jack stopped the man from bleeding out and paid him for the water." Everybody nodded in approval. "You seem to be a good man, Jack," Jason said. "So i'm assuming he's coming back with us?" Percy nodded. "Just after we get gas and food." He grinned, and him, Thalia, and Annabeth walked off. Travis was the first one up. "There's a few other's you should meet," he said. So one by one we went to every truck and he introduced me to several people. Nico di Angelo, Connor Stoll, Leo Valdez, Hazel Levesque, Frank Zhang, Grover, Juniper, a guy named Jacob, another girl named Sarah, and the final guy apparently didn't know his real name, so everybody called him Delta. By now, everybody was outside the vehicles, standing around me. "You're done traveling man," Nico said. "Welcome to the family."
Author's note
Here's the second installment to the story. I hoped you all liked it. I should be posting every weekend.
Thanks again for reading!
-N