I have to say I really hated their scared, uncomfortable faces; they were usually happier. Rachel spoke as if she was in a distant world; she began reciting:
Two in spirit and five in flesh
Will travel far west
One will sacrifice himself to the sun
And the other will not rest until the task is done
The hero will be different from last
All the answers lie in your past
The prophecy ended, and grimness covered the faces of my companions.
"That does it then. Let's go get ready," Annabeth said, calmly even though she was shaking a bit. Nervous I looked around frantically for an answer.
"I'm sorry guys, I know you probably want a vacation." Rachel said, genuinely upset.
"Hey, it's not your fault. We just always end up picking the short stick of the bunch." Percy turned to Annabeth and Nico. 'We'll meet you at the enterance in ten minutes. Pack only neccesities,it might be a long trip." Percy and I walked back to our cabins in silence. I was dying to scream for an answer, but that wouldn't help. So instead I took a different approach.
"Hey Perce, what do I pack? Where exactly are we going?" I took a ratty old backpack from under my bed and began stuffing it with a weeks worth of clothing, and any food or water I could find in my suitcase.
"That's too much clothing," he began. I was thrown to mysterious packages, which were according to Percy, very important. "Nectar and Ambrosia. You'll never know when it will be handy. Ashley don't forget to pack the rest of your clothing back into the suitcase, it's going to be sent to your mom. You'll get the stuff when you get back home." He mumbled something inaudible under his breath. It sounded a lot like, ' if you get back home.'
Soon we were ready to leave on our quest. I fought the urge to go back, cry in my bed and wait for the summer to end. The arrows on my back hung in fear, but ready to attack if needed. We met Nico and Annabeth at the enterance of camp, "Our best bet is to walk down to New York City and then see if we can grab a train west. It's unusual they're making us go there, the Empire State Building is in New York."
"What does the Empire State Building have to do with our quest." I asked Annabeth, curious as to what was in store for us.
"Everything." She turned to face all of us, "The reason the prophecy is sending us west is probably to reach the Underworld and there's an enterance in New York, right?" Annabeth continued, making it clear she had asked a rhetorical question." The two in spirit are probably Luke, and Bianca." Unreadable faces flashed over both Percy and Nico's faces; Nico impulsively reached for my arm and pulled me closer.
"Are we really going to walk all the way to the city?" I asked. Annabeth shot me a glance, and I was sorry I had opened my mouth.
"Well," she began. "We can't trust everyone and we can't endanger innocent lives, so yes we're going to walk all the way to the city. Got a problem with that Sunshine?" I recoiled by her harshness, and soon her face melted a bit," Sorry Ashley, I know I'm being harsh. However, I've been through this before. I know the dangers and the losses we can face and I'm not going to go through that again. I'm not going to endanger anyone else."
Annabeth pulled a compass out of her pocket and waited until it stabalized itself. "New York City is South," Percy said reading over her shoulder. "We need to go that way," he said pointing in the general direction.
I piped up, "Why don't we just find the highway and walk along that? It might be difficult, but it's better than ending up having to cross the Hudson. Although that probably won't be a problem." I said rolling my eyes.
"Not a bad idea, but sometimes the highway is difficult to walk around." Annabeth reminded me. "We can try, and if it doesn't work at least we'll have a general idea of where to go. However, for now lets try with the compass. It will eventually lead us to the highway if the city is South." Annabeth gave me a small smile of friendship before taking a deep breath and leading us towards the city.
After walking along the highway for an hour, our feet were beginning to get tired. Nico, who was usually expression less, looked completely exhausted. "Why don't we take a taxi?" Percy asked. It seemed as though Nico and I came to the same logical conclusion; Annabeth stared him down completely condescending.
"You don't think it would be weird if four teenagers showed up in the middle of the highway, flagged a taxi down, and asked for a ride into the city?" Nico asked.
"Wouldn't hurt to try," and before we could change his mind he flagged down a taxi. The driver looked confused and shocked that we were casually waiting as he pulled over. Percy climbed in the front, "New York City please. The driver mumbled something to himself in his native language and then began to drive to the city. Occasionally he looked back and I knew he was wondering to himself why teenage children carried swords, arrows, shields, and stuffed back packs each.
Somewhere along the ride, I fell asleep. I remembered biting my lip hard to keep myself from crying. I missed my mom so much, and it gave my heart pain to think that I wouldn't get to say goodbye. Would I die? Would anyone in this car die? I looked up into Nico's face which seemed calm, but his eyes were clearly displayed hurt and fear. The traffic jam was slowing down traffic and I let my eyes slowly close.
I woke up and we were still a half hour away. Apparently the Yankees were playing and God forbid anyone miss the game. Suddenly Percy spotted something out of the rearview mirror, his eyes widened. .Suddenly Percy decided to change our destination to Flushing Meadows Park and when the driver dropped us off he got out cautiously.
"How did they find us?" Annabeth asked in awe. Nico looked down at the cell phone in my pocket which I had slept on. He checked the calls, "you accidently called three people." Annabeth looked sullen, "No use crying over spilled milk."
"She's right." Percy said calmly. "Turn it off and make sure you don't call anyone, that's how they track us. Now draw your arrows, we're going to fight.
