A/N Sorry I take so long lately. I've been catching up on school work. Yeah, lame excuse, I'm sorry *bows head in shame* but I will not let a full week go by without updating! Hopefully... usually

And in case you hadn't noticed, I'm trying to make this story kind of tie in with the series. Little things here and there that coincide with the series, you know...


Annabeth POV

"You want to do what?!" Frank burst out. We'd just gotten back and finished telling our tale of sorrow. Grover's face when we told him about the Stoll brothers… that would be in my nightmares tonight.

And Percy had just dropped the biggest bomb of all on them… the one that involved people going to a majorly zombie-infested area in search of cure ingredients that may or may not still be there.

"You heard me," Percy said, "And the sooner, the better."

"That's really dangerous, Perce. There's a ninety-nine percent chance only half of us would come back." Nico said, "And I mean half of each of us. As in one leg, one arm, five fingers…"

"Understood." Percy interjected, "But come on, this could be it! This could mean the end of this hell we're living in! Isn't it worth the chance?" Even Thalia looked unsure, and she knew more about this than most of the people in here. Percy himself was looking a little green, and he was encouraging this. It was time I stepped in.

"Percy's right." I said, walking to stand beside him, "If the ingredients I need are there, then we could start the end of all of this. Either we take the chance, or we spend the rest of our lives fighting, and then making our kids fight, and our grandkids, and so on." Juniper took one look down at little Daisy, asleep by her side, and spoke.

"I think it's worth a shot." She said quietly, "I don't want Daisy to have to live like this anymore." Grover wrapped an arm around his wife.

"I agree." Everyone, even pessimistic Nico, was looking a lot more determined now.

"When do we leave?" Piper asked.

"We are not all going. Troop Two, stay back and protect the base." Percy ordered.

"Hey! You guys got to go on the raid!" Jason argued, "I've got a fresh Troop, ready for action." Percy pursed his lips.

"Jason has a point," I said, surprising Percy, "After today, Nico, Beckendorf, and Thalia need to rest."

"We need just as much as you two," Thalia said, "And this project was you, me, and Luke's. I should come with." She argued.

"Thalia has a point too," Percy said with a smug look at me, which I returned with a glare.

"Compromise: Percy, Annabeth, Thalia, Beckendorf, me, and Jason go." Nico said.

"That leaves the base without some of it's strongest fighters," Jason protested.

"Thanks for the bout of confidence, Jason." Piper muttered, "Me, Hazel, Grover, and Frank are perfectly capable of keeping this place safe on our own."

"What about me?" Leo asked with a pout. Piper just raised an eyebrow.

"We'll need a Repair Boy in case the toilet clogs up." She teased.

"You wanna go, Beauty Queen?" Leo mockingly raised one of his screwdrivers towards her.

"So it's all settled!" Hazel interjected, "We got this, Perce. When do you leave?" He took a look out the window at the pitch-black street.

"This is dangerous, so we'll need to plan out some things." He admitted grudgingly, "Me and Annabeth will come up with strategies tomorrow and we'll leave the day after."

"Are the rest of us not allowed to plan with you two?" Nico asked with a single eyebrow raised and a small smile on his lips.

"No! I mean yes, I mean… you can if you want to…" Percy stammered, which only made his face redder.

"No, no, we'll all do a little extra training tomorrow and leave you guys to it." Thalia said with such obvious double meaning that I was pretty sure even oblivious Frank would understand.

Thanks for the blush, Thals. Juniper winked knowingly at me. Oh god…

"Now that all of that is settled, goodnight everyone." I said quickly and turned on my heel to exit the awkward atmosphere.

"Night guys," Percy's voice carried faintly down the hall as I briskly walked to my door. Don't say it, don't say it, don't say it…

"Hey Annabeth, wait a sec." Crap. I took a deep breath and turned to face Percy, standing in the middle of the hallway staring at me.

"Yeah?" Percy's sneakers made a squeaky sound as he shuffled his feet on the floor.

"I want to talk to you about today." My heart sunk down into my stomach. I was hoping we could skip this conversation.

"Look, I'm sorry. I didn't realize who they were, if I had I wouldn't have…"

"What? No!" Percy interrupted me, "No, not that. If you and Thalia hadn't acted, we probably would have joined them in their fates today." He said, "I meant what I told you on the way home."

"You mean about your mom?" I asked. Percy nodded and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Yeah…" I noticed that his eyes stayed shut just a little bit longer when he blinked, "Only Grover, Nico, me and Juniper know about her." He swallowed hard. Acting on instinct, I reached out and put a hand on his shoulder.

"I won't tell anyone." I promised, "I get it." And I did. The same way that Beckendorf wanted to keep Silena to himself, Percy wanted to keep his mother as personal as possible. I was doing the same with Luke in a sense, not telling anyone he'd been my boyfriend. Percy looked up and smiled at me.

"Thanks," I nodded, and retracted my hand before it got more awkward.

"No problem," I muttered, "See you tomorrow."

"Meet me down at the pool, we can figure things out there." He suggested. If I could keep my head clear with all the chlorine in there that is.


Percy POV

Bright and early the next morning I was diving into the room-temperature water of the pool. Even as a kid I'd done some of my best thinking underneath the surface. It was above land where my stupid ideas came into play.

"Percy?" The sound came from above the surface, so it sounded more like "Purblee?" My head popped up just enough so my chin still rested on the top of the water.

"You rang?" I raised an eyebrow. Annabeth stood on the edge with her arms crossed over a map on her chest, and her hip jutted out. Today she wore a plain black t-shirt and the same camouflage pants she'd shown up in along with some simple sneakers. I'd seen Piper and Hazel in the same thing before, but they looked nothing like Annabeth.

"You wanted to plan in here…" She prompted.

"Yep, so let's plan." I said and folded my arms on the side of the pool. The cold tile made goose bumps rise up on my arms, but I ignored it.

"Ok then…" She muttered and pulled up a plastic chair on the side of the pool next to me. Annabeth spread out the map of Manhattan on the tiles and started pointing things out, "I was thinking we could head up this street…"

Later on I would blame my zone-out on ADHD, but in that moment I was just staring at Annabeth. Her head tilted just a little to the left as she spoke and made a couple strands of golden curls fall down into her eyes.

Snap, snap, snap. She snapped her fingers underneath my nose.

"Percy, were you listening at all?" She asked with a disapproving grimace.

"You were talking about streets probably…" She rolled her grey eyes.

"You've got seaweed for a brain…" She muttered. I raised an eyebrow.

"Seaweed? Interesting choice…"

"Well, your eyes are the color of seaweed. I think that's because pigments from the seaweed in your brain blended into your irises because of all the time you spend in the water." I only understood about half of what she said.

"Whatever you say, Wise Girl."

"Oh-ho, Wise Girl? Real clever." Annabeth didn't even bother to hide the sarcasm in her voice. I flicked my hand so that droplets of water splashed against her face, "Hey! Watch the map!" She said with irritation as she wiped water off of the piece of paper, "It was pretty hard for me to get my hands on this, you know."

"Just tell me what we're doing tomorrow, Chase." She huffed, but did as I asked.

"We head down this street, go the long way around, and enter the school through the roof where, hopefully, we'll have less zombies." She said, "We're in, we're out, piece of cake." Her words sounded brave, but her voice was trembling a little bit.

"You're right, piece of cake." I repeated as confidently as I could. Annabeth didn't answer, but instead turned her head to look through a crack in the boarded up windows at the dusty world outside.

"Even if this cure does work, it'll be a long time before things go back to normal." She said thoughtfully, "We'll be lucky if America returns to it's former state by the time Daisy's a great-grandma."

"All good things take time and effort." I said. Her head swiveled to look at me again, much more intense this time.

"Yeah," She agreed, "They do."


Riptide clanked against my thigh as I bounded down the stairs to the lobby where the group was meeting. It was just before dawn, so everything was still dark. Juniper and Grover stood by the door, with Daisy on her father's shoulders. Annabeth leaned against the doorframe beside Thalia and Nico, wearing worn-out old jeans and a black hoodie like myself. Black was a good color when fighting zombies, it didn't catch their eye as bad as brighter colors.

"Stay safe, man." Leo said and pounded me on the back, "When you get back, I'll make tacos!" Leo grinned at me as though he'd just solved our biggest problem. If only.

"Crunchy shells," I requested, patting his shoulder affectionately.

"You got it, Perce." My eyes drifted to Jason and Piper, holding each other tightly in a goodbye. It had been a long time since Jason had been in a fight without Piper. Then again we were hoping for no fight.

"We'll see all of you tonight," Hazel said firmly. Frank simply nodded. He never had been very good with his words.

"Promise," Juniper and Grover just hugged us all with tears in their eyes. I watched as Daisy waddled over to Annabeth and tugged on her sleeve. The tubby little five year old pulled out a crumpled piece of construction paper and handed it to her.

"I drew you a picture, Annabeth." She said. Annabeth smiled, and got down on her knees beside Daisy, staring at the piece of paper. It was a good thirty seconds before she responded.

"I love it, thank you Daisy." She kissed Daisy's cheek, who giggled and ran back to her mother. Annabeth looked down at the picture, smiled again, and tucked it into the pocket of her jeans and standing up.

"Good luck out there," Grover said as me, Annabeth, Nico, Thalia, Jason, and Beckendorf gathered at the door.

"Good luck in here," I said. He nodded grimly.

I ripped of a small chunk of wood that we'd intentionally made removable so that we could look outside before leaving. The street was empty except for one or two zombies roaming aimlessly away.

"It's as safe as it'll ever be." I sighed.

"Let's do this." Nico said determinedly, swinging his sword in a circle. Together, me and Jason opened up our makeshift door. The Troop set out into the early morning.

Well, I've lived a nice life.


It would take about two hours of walking to get from base to the school, and near the end we'd have to be extra careful because of all the zombies.

A half hour into the trip we came across our first batch of three or four zombies, feeding on… scratch that, I don't even want to know. Dealing with these small groups was a lot trickier than it should be. We had to keep it quiet, so that we didn't attract any other nearby flesh-eaters. I gave a single look to Beckendorf and Nico, and both knew what to do. The three of us stuck to the shadows of a nearby building and crept as close as we could while Thalia, Jason and Annabeth watched from the overhang of a used-to-be boutique.

One swipe, two swipes, three, and they're… more dead than they were before.

"Clean," Thalia commented.

"Our specialty." Nico replied with a smug grin.

"What is? Winning against opponents with a third their normal brain capacity, or losing to ones that can fight back?" Thalia mocked him, and the gothic boy turned red. Whether it was from anger or embarrassment, I don't know. Maybe both?

And with that the two started to banter/bicker back and forth as the rest of us looked on with an amused expression. It's nice to know I'm not the only guy with girl issues lately.

"We can finish this when we get back," I cut in after a few minutes of random name-calling, "Right now we have a job to do, and the sun will set in about… five hours? Six?" I guessed judging from it's position in the sky.

"He's right, we need to move." Annabeth said.

"Stop!" Jason called. The entire group tensed, and had their weapons pointed in all directions, "Did Annabeth just say that Percy was right?" Thalia groaned and punched her brother, letting her weapons drop.

"Why I think she did," I said, turning to look at the blushing blonde, "Didn't you?"

"Wasting sunlight." Annabeth mumbled, and started trekking ahead of all of us. Thalia snickered, and jogged after her.

"You know, Percy," Jason said as he took up a walk beside me, "Annabeth's dad's a zombie, and her older brother is MIA, so I'm kind of next in line…" I raised an eyebrow.

"What're you getting at here, Jason?"

"I'm just saying that as Annabeth's presiding fatherly figure, it's my job to tell you that if you break her heart…"

"Dude!" Jason held his palms up towards me.

"I'm just saying…"

"That's not a problem, Jason. We aren't like that." Wow that was such a bad lie, I'm pretty sure the zombies would have been able to tell. Jason just smirked at me.

"Whatever Percy, just keep her happy and we won't have an issue." He winked, and fell back to walk next to Nico.

The rest of the walk was pretty uneventful. We came across one or two more zombies, but they weren't even a problem. It was when we were within about a half a mile of Goode Middle School that we had to start being a little sneakier. More and more undead could be seen wandering aimlessly around the streets the closer we got.

I'll admit it, Annabeth was right about the whole planning thing. She immediately led the group into a back alley and up a fire escape without one of the flesh-eaters noticing. We raced across the top of a roof and somehow ended up right next to the building we needed. It was about a five-foot jump to get to the roof of Goode. Annabeth didn't even slow down. She just jumped the gap, and continued on.

"Don't tell her I said this, but Annabeth is pretty fierce." Nico said in admiration.

"Keep your eyes to yourself, Nico." I growled. He smirked at me.

"You're such a sucker, Perce."

"Shut up…" I muttered, and followed her onto the roof of Goode.

"School buildings have to follow the code…" She muttered, "It should be around here somewhere…" Annabeth had us twist around different pipes and corners until we reached a utility door.

"How do you know so much about this?" I asked, "I went to school here and I didn't know this was here." Jason picked up a stray crowbar that was lying underneath a big pipe and started working the door.

"I like architecture." She said, "When me, Luke, and Thalia were traveling around together..." She explained, eyeing Jason as he worked at the door with no luck, "For goodness sakes let me do it!" She huffed, and pushed Jason away. She spit on her hands, and began pulling on the bar, "As I was saying, I picked up a lot of books on buildings and stuff." A bead of sweat formed on the nape of her neck as she tried to pry open the door.

"Wait a sec," I said and put a hand on the crowbar to stop her from getting it open, "What if there are zombies on the other side?"

"There aren't." She said surely, "This door leads to a set of stairs that lead to a locked door that was almost never unlocked even when school actually happened here. Besides, if somehow they had gotten in, wouldn't they be groaning and banging against the door right now?" Ok, that makes sense.

With a final grunt and shove, the hinges gave way and the door snapped open.

"And that's how it's done." She said proudly. Ok… wow. That was kind of hot.

"I loosened it," Jason grumbled, crossing his arms.

"Of course you did," Thalia pat his shoulder, "Whatever keeps you motivated." Nico snickered.

"Shut up, Nico!" Jason snapped.

"Guys!" I shouted. Not shouted, because of the dangerous open door, but said louder, "Not the time." They always wanted to argue at the worst moments! Annabeth brushed her hands together.

"Now I've studied floor plans for this school, and there are three different science classrooms on opposite sides of the building. What we want to do is get in and out as quickly as possible, and it'll take too long for us all to go to each one."

"Easy fix, we just split into teams of two and tackle all three at once. Then we can meet up in the cafeteria to make our escape." I suggested, "Nico's with Thalia, you guys work well together in training. Go to Ms. Gottschalk's old room." Annabeth gave me a smirk behind Thalia's shoulder, "Beckendorf why don't you go with Jason? The door to the classroom closest to the gym is probably pretty sticky after all this time, and it'll take the both of you to pry it open." I turned my eyes to Annabeth, "And you and I can go to Mr. Hamm's old room." Nico opened his mouth to make a joke, but one look from Beckendorf silenced him. He gave me the: I'll give it to you later look.

"Gather what you can, and meet in the cafeteria as soon as you possible." Annabeth said, pulling her dagger from her belt loop, "Be careful, stay safe." Nobody made any promises.


Nico POV

Why are my palms so sweaty? Ok dude, just be cool.

Beckendorf and Jason had just headed down the hallway on the left while Annabeth and Percy went up the staircase.

It was really weird being in a school again. It had been a while since I'd walked the long halls. Even this dusty old place with rotting walls and blinking light bulbs made me nostalgic. I must admit, the only good thing that came from the zombie apocalypse was that I no longer had homework.

"You used to go to school here, right?" Thalia asked, "You know your way around?" I shook my head.

"No, I was still in elementary school. But my older sister, Bianca, she went here so I know where to go." Thalia raised an eyebrow. She had really pretty, electric blue eyes.

"You had an older sister?" Did I tell her that? This girl makes me forget what I should and shouldn't say to people.

"Um, yeah. Bianca." I said, rubbing the back of my neck awkwardly. I didn't give her any more details. My family history wasn't exactly the best…

"Bianca," Thalia repeated, "That sounds really familiar…" I bit my tongue to hide my panic.

"Uh… I guess she just has one of those names, you know?" She still didn't look convinced. Crap.

As we walked, I tried to ignore the suspicious looking stains on the walls, and stench of rotting flesh, and the dark shadows that stared at the two of us from around every corner. Only a couple of flickering lights showed up in the hallway.

We rounded the corner and came upon the broken-in door of Ms. Gottschalk's old classroom.

"Come on," I said, and pulled Thalia towards the store room located in the back, "Keep your eyes peeled since the door was open." Thalia rolled her eyes.

"I think I know how these things go, Death Breath." I'm not even sure how she came up with that name.

"Whatever," I muttered, and walked into the dim storage room, "Get what you can, stuff it in your pack, and lets get out of here!"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm moving!" She went around the room, grabbing different medical kits, lighters, basic stuff. I, on the other hand, went to the small containment unit in the back of the room and opened it up. After all these years, these vials had stayed totally perfect inside this box. In all there were about ten or twelve little vials with rubber stoppers. I took each one, wrapped it in a sock, and put it in a shoebox in my backpack. It was Annabeth's idea, since we couldn't just put glass vials in a bag and run.

"You ready yet?" Thalia asked. I nodded.

"Yeah almost." She leaned against the doorframe and crossed her arms over her pack.

"Nico?"

"Hm?"

"If I tell you about my family, will you tell me about yours?" I paused for a second in my sock-wrapping.

"Maybe." She rolled her pretty eyes.

"You know what? If I tell you, then you'll feel guilty and tell me." Nah, I stopped feeling guilty a couple years ago.

"Go for it," I muttered and stuffed another sock in the box. She took a deep breath.

"My mom was a movie star," She said, "But she was one of the ones that stayed out all night, drinking and smoking, and then brought home random men…" She shuddered, "I was only ten, so I didn't even realize what was going on." Her eyes closed, "My dad was never around. He left when I was a baby and never came back. Jason was the only real family I had. Him and Luke, that is. Jason and me lived next to Annabeth's family, and Luke lived across the street. He was Jason's best friend." She retold. Thalia told me all about her, Annabeth, and Luke's adventures. For some reason she glided over any details on Luke.

"Well…?" She prompted after finishing her story, "Feeling guilty yet?" Honestly? A little bit… damn it. I sighed and stood up, brushing the dust off my jeans.

"Listen, Thalia." I said seriously, "Whatever I tell you in the next few minutes, you need to swear to me not to tell anyone, not even Annabeth. This is stuff only Percy knows." She nodded and made an X over her chest.

"Cross my heart," I took a deep breath. What was I doing telling her this stuff?!

"My mother's name was Maria. I didn't really get to know her that well, she died when I was five or six." And here comes the shocker, "She got murdered… by my father." Thalia's eyes noticeably widened, but she said nothing. "He was crazy and kind of obsessed with death. After my mom, he went to prison for life and me and Bianca were put into an orphanage." She said nothing, just listened.

"Bianca was really smart for her age. She started an internship in this science lab down the block." Thalia was smart. Considering the look that was probably on my face, she could most likely guess what I was gonna say next.

"She was working with the Fountain of Youth, wasn't she?" Thalia guessed. I looked down, but nodded.

"That's not even the worst part." I admitted, "She had been conducting her own research on the side, sneaking in and out of the labs at night. When they finally caught her... she'd already finished the vitamin." Thalia's hand drifted up to cover her open jaw, "The vitamin was gonna make them millions, so they let Bianca off the hook."

"So… your sister… your sister she, she did this? She did all of this?" I nodded, but couldn't meet her eye, "Oh my god…"

"Please Thalia, please don't tell anyone. Everyone will hate me." Thalia stared down at me, so I looked at the floor. I don't even want to know what that sludge is by my shoe.

"I won't tell anyone." She promised quietly, "It doesn't matter anyways, what's done is done. What matters now is that we try to fix the damage."


Beckendorf POV

I'd never gone to this school, but all high schools were pretty much the same back then. Goode was making me miss Silena.

Silena. All my fault…

"I think this is it," Jason interrupted my thoughts, pointing to a door at the end of the hall, "You ready?" I nodded, and pulled out the crowbar I'd brought from the roof. Jason gripped the door while I stuck the crowbar into the edge. He pulled on the handle while I pushed on the metal. Rust and dead spiders rained down from the cracks of the door as it slowly creaked open. With a final groan the door burst open and about a hundred spiders came crawling out and over our boots. Jason shuddered and rolled his shoulders.

"Good thing Annabeth's not here, she'd scream so bad it'd attract every zombie in the city." Jason said shaking his feet.

"She's scared of spiders?" I asked. Jason nodded.

"Big time. Cannot stand them." That's odd. Annabeth's pretty tough. It's hard to believe she's scared of something so easily crushed under a boot.

The two of us walked cautiously into the dark, windowless room. Jason flicked on the light switch, and a single bulb flickered over our heads before sputtering out and submerging us in pitch black again. It was probably about eleven or so, but no light could come in since there weren't any windows.

"I guess we're doing this with flashlights." Jason sighed, and strapped on his headlight.

"Guess so." We weren't all that talkative. With the lights on, it was easier to see our surroundings. It was pretty obvious this place hadn't been used in a while. All the desks and counters were covered in a thin layer of dust, spider webs, and dead bugs like a dead man's parfait. Yuck.

"Rummage around and take what you can, I'll get the vials." Jason said as he slipped his backpack off his shoulders.

As I stuffed pens, a fire blanket, some paper, and other assorted goodies into my bag, my thoughts drifted back to the conversation me and Annabeth had had a while back. When I'd told her about Silena. I'm not sure why exactly I'd told Annabeth all those things, but it had felt good. Plus, Annabeth understood. She said she'd lost someone special too.

"Hey Jason?" I asked, he grunted in response, "Annabeth mentioned something to me earlier…" At her name, Jason perked up.

"You were talking with Annabeth?" Jason asked. I nodded.

"Uh, yeah." I said, "Anyways, she mentioned losing someone…special, a year ago." Jason raised an eyebrow.

"Annabeth? Well, I got separated from her and Thalia and Luke four years ago. Back then she was only twelve or thirteen, much too young for a boyfriend." Jason's eyebrows furrowed.

"What is it?" I asked. Jason tapped a finger on his chin.

"Thalia told me that Luke got bitten about a year ago…" Jason's voice slowed to a stop. His eyes widened in shock and realization, "Annabeth and Luke?!" He said it at a normal volume, but it was obvious that if we weren't surrounded by flesh-eaters, he'd be yelling.

"Wait, who's Luke?" I asked.

"Luke was our old neighbor… ah gross!" Jason shuddered more violently than he had when the spiders came out at us, "Luke was my best friend, and Annabeth was like a sister… ew!" Huh, well that sheds a little more light…

"She must have been devastated," I said. Jason sighed, and nodded.

"Couple or not, of course she'd be sad. Thalia was, and you should have seen me when I found out about what happened to him…" Jason shook his head to clear it, "It's probably best if nobody else knew about him and Annabeth. If I didn't know about them, then I doubt she wants anyone else to know about it. Especially Percy."

"Are Annabeth and Percy…?" Jason smirked at me.

"No, not yet."


Percy POV

"Hurry up, will you?" Annabeth hissed, "What happened to "we get in, we get out"?" Her Percy-voice was terrible.

"I'm coming, don't get your panties in a knot!" She rolled her eyes, and opened the door of my old science classroom.

"Ah, old Mr. Hamm's room. Lots of good memories in here." I breathed in, and coughed at the smell of dust and corpse.

"Like what? Blowing up the classroom?" Annabeth asked as she kicked open the fridge in the corner.

"As a matter of fact…" I snuck a peek at the black mark on the wall. Annabeth followed my gaze, using the light coming in from the window.

"Oh, you didn't…" A smile painted her face, "You blew up the classroom?" She asked in disbelief. I held up my hands in protest.

"He told us to create a chemical reaction, I created a chemical reaction!" Annabeth laughed.

"You're a Seaweed Brain." She teased.

"I do what I can," I said, patting my chest proudly. She rolled her eyes again.

"Whatever, lets just get this done and go home." Annabeth crouched down to look in the fridge, "Oh excellent! This is perfect!" She said to herself and started packing up the vials.

"Are you finding what you need?" I asked as I stuffed a couple jars in my pack.

"And more. There're a lot of useful chemicals in here." She turned to look at me with a glint in her eyes, "At least you didn't blow these up." She teased.

"Oh shut up, Chase." She smiled, and turned back to her packing. I swallowed hard, and tried not to stare at her soft hair, her slightly pink cheeks, her grey eyes that had that little light in them whenever she laughed…

"Um… Percy?" I blinked, and realized she was staring at my staring, "Can I help you?" She had a hand on her hip and a joking smile on her face.

"Er no. I thought I saw a pen mark on your nose." I lied, trying hard to downplay my bright red face, "It was just a shadow." Annabeth blinked.

"Ok then…" She straightened up and shouldered her backpack, "I've got all the vials. You ready?" I opened my mouth to answer, but was interrupted by a muffled bang coming from somewhere in the adjoining room. Both our heads snapped toward the door.

"Done." I said quickly, and the two of us silently ran to the door and out into the empty hallway. My eyes started to water at the smell, but I ignored it.

"The cafeteria's this way." I jerked my head towards the door at the very end of the hallway. There was another bang behind us. A low groan could be heard.

Crap.

"Annabeth quick!" I grabbed her hand and pulled her to the cafeteria, running as quickly and as quietly as we could. I guess it didn't matter anymore, they could smell us…

The groaning got louder, and thumps started getting more consistent in one of the closed classrooms. I didn't waste time trying to get a look at what was in there. Annabeth and I reached the cafeteria just as the door burst open and the undead started pouring out.

"Percy!" Annabeth yelled. The two of us ripped open the cafeteria doors and slammed them shut just as one of the zombies collided with the door, pressing their face to the small slit of glass.

"Oh come on, man! You had to bring the flesh-eaters with you?" Nico yelled. Him, Thaila, Beckendorf and Jason were all sitting at one of the old lunchroom tables in the small cafeteria.

"Really not the time, Nico!" I said as I slid a broom handle through the handles to keep them out. About ten pairs of hands stuck through the crack, and five or six faces were pressed to the glass of the small windows. Annabeth wrinkled her nose, and turned slightly green.

"That won't hold them for long." She said, "Where's the back exit?"

"There isn't one." Nico said, his voice raising an octave higher in alarm.

"There's always one!" Thalia cried.

"Well we had a cheap school, alright! Everybody calm down and figure out a way to get out of here!" I said firmly.

"We can't break through the brick walls." Beckendorf said, "We might just have to fight our way out."

"There are probably two dozen zombies out there! We'll never make it alive." Annabeth said.

"We don't have a choice, Annabeth." I said with dead seriousness, "We fight, or we die trying."

"Well I don't know about you, but I'm not dying tonight." Thalia said, slinging her bow, "Lets beat those flesh-eaters into the ground." Jason said nothing, but reached out and hugged his sister. I took a deep, unsteady breath. The banging on the door became more persistent. The broom cracked, and we all pressed ourselves against the back wall.