It got dark, and Odius switched with Guy. Guy and I both looked at him like he was crazy when he pulled off to the side of the freeway and said, "You're up, Guy."

Guy leaned forward slightly and said, "I can't drive, Odius. I haven't been out of the camp in years."

"Not true," Odius said, getting out. He leaned back in and looked at Guy, "I know you got some pointers."

I saw Guy's eyes flicker and he looked down at the floorboards.

Odius continued softly, "I can't drive all day and night. Flare knows next to nothing about driving considering she hasn't been out of camp since longer than you've been there. Come on, Guy."

Guy looked at him and sighed, "Alright." He got out and they switched. Guy was now in the driver's seat and Odius was sitting behind him.

Guy pulled back onto the freeway. I could tell he wasn't too thrilled to be driving by the tension in his arms.

"Relax," I told him. "You can't be as bad as Harry." I looked thoughtful and then glared at nothing, "He better not kill the twins with his road rage."

Guy chuckled to himself and a little of the tension eased. "I don't think he will. He'll try to avoid it."

"And fail to avoid it," Odius inputted.

We laughed. Guy looked over at me, "Get some sleep, Flare. You've been up all day."

"I didn't even get up until noon," I replied.

Guy shrugged, "Still. Car rides can make you tired."

"Not true," I yawned. I heard Odius stifle a laugh. "Shut up," I muttered. I propped my arm against the door, setting my head on it.

I wasn't out for an hour when I got a rude wake up call. For some reason, people liked to wake me up in the worst ways possible. We had been driving down an almost deserted stretch of road. Harry and the twins had rejoined us and were a few feet behind us. There were two other cars, one ahead of us and another behind the others.

The one ahead of us cut us off, causing Guy to slam on the brakes and veer sharply to the side. I hit my head on the window and shot up, "Ow!"

Odius was leaning forward, "What is he doing?"

Guy replied, "I don't kn. . . Shoot!" Again, he slammed onto the brakes as the guy ahead of us clipped us. We were pushed into the dirt that separated the different ways on the freeway. Guy fought the steering wheel so we wouldn't have to do donuts.

The car stopped. A second later, the other car rammed into Harry's car, pushing him into the dirt to join us. We took our queue and got out of the cars, our weapons drawn.

Odius came around to stand in front of me. "What are you doing?" I asked him.

His reply was, "My job. Stay back and stay quiet."

Four buff guys got out of the other cars. All were extremely tall and extremely buff. Watching them get out of those cars was like watching dozens of clowns getting out of those tiny bug cars. These guys were bigger than Harry.

It was eight to six now. Not too bad odds, but still bad enough for Odius to tense up as he evaluated the situation. Cody and Cole knocked an arrow apiece into place and aimed at the guys. Their arms were steady as they aimed down the shaft of the arrow. We were children of Apollo. That meant we were the best archers in camp.

I knocked an arrow in place, but didn't aim. Odius was still in front of me. Guy came around to stand next to me. He had a backpack on and I wondered where he had gotten it from. Harry had another one on his back.

One of the guys drawled, "Hand over the girlie and you twigs won't die today."

"Twig?" Harry snapped. "Who do you think you're calling a twig Treetrunk?" I rolled my eyes. He was off. Great, this was just going to go downhill from here.

The guy slowly turned his head to look at Harry. "You think you're tuff, son of Ares. You're just like your daddy, though."

"Oh yeah?" Harry asked. "How so?"

The man sneered, "All bark and no bite."

That did it. Harry launched forward at the line of tuff looking lumberjacks. Odius yelled, "Harry, wait!" The guy didn't listen. Odius growled, "Flare, you and the twins cover us."

I nodded. Cole and Cody came over to flank me as Odius ran in with Harry. Guy stayed back with us. The twins and me aimed our bows and fired at the line of muscle. Three of them broke off from the group and dodged Odius and Harry. They headed for us. Guess what, though. . . Our arrows kept bouncing off of them!

"What are these guys made of? Steel?" Cole asked. He shot another arrow. "It's not helping!"

"I know, I know," I said. "Look out!" The four of us jumped out of the way before we got slammed by the charging guys. I leaned back to avoid a fist and let the momentum pull me back into a back flip. I kicked the guy just under the neck as my legs came up. He stumbled back, but wouldn't fall.

I landed and jumped back a few feet. A second later I hopped onto one foot, "Holy cow! I think they are made of steel, that hurt!"

A shout from Cody and a loud crunch made me look over. Cody had dodged a punch from another guy and the car had been hit instead. It was dented and almost bent in half.

"Whoa," I said.

Cody looked at the car, "You're kidding, right?" Cole grabbed his collar and pulled him out of the way of another hit.

I looked for Guy. He was easily dodging the third guy's attacks. He ducked and jumped and turned in the right way at the right times. It reminded me a lot of dancing. Guy backed up into the guy attacking the twins and ducked just in time to avoid a punch from the one chasing him. Its punch went straight through.

We stared at it. The one guy's arm was stuck in the other's stomach now. I could see wires and a round motherboard. These guys were just robots. But if a hit through the stomach doesn't kill them, then what would?

Think Flare. I jumped and looked around. There was no one else on the road. It was completely deserted except for us. Where did that voice come from?

Another voice added to it. You know a little about these things, Flare. We know you do.

That voice I remembered. It had led me to Camp Half Blood. That confused me though. That was a female's voice. The one I had just heard was male. This was so confusing.

You have it in you, Flare. the male voice continued. You've already done this twice now, haven't you?

I stared at the motherboard. Computers all had to have fans to keep them from overheating. That was it.

I yelled to the others, "Expose the motherboards! It's the heart of these things."

"And then what?" Harry growled.

"And then this," I replied, glaring at the motherboard that was exposed now. I felt a thudding in my head and it burst into flames. The two linked machines stared at the flames. A few seconds later, the one blew up, taking the other out with it.

I got knocked to the ground with my ears starting to ring. I blinked my eyes open to try to see through the dust. I saw Harry with a huge evil grin on his face as he threw a robot into another one. It hit it hard enough for the back to come off and for me to see the motherboard. I glared at that too and they were gone.

The shock shook the ground and kicked up more dust into my face. I still couldn't hear anything. Odius knocked another two together and Guy tripped another to add to the pile. Harry threw the other one in and I set those on fire as well.

At that explosion, parts of robot rained down on us. It crushed some of the cars and the fire was bright and it hurt to look at. I could feel the heat from a few feet away. I sat up carefully, trying to steady my shaking limbs.

I stood up carefully and looked around. The others had been knocked back at some point or other and were all regaining their footing as well. My ears were still ringing.

I was slowly regaining my hearing as I looked for my bow. I still had the quiver, but I wanted my bow back in my hand. That always seemed to be the thing that I lost in a fight. I'd have to fix that.

The first thing I heard was Cody yelling, "Flare! Flare, look out!"

I looked up in time to see him jump over a piece of rubble and push me. I fell back hard, ironically next to my bow, and noticed that he hadn't fallen with me. Then I heard a screech that I had come to fear and hate at the same time.

I looked up fast in time to see it fly back up and screamed, "Cody!"

I was in a kneeling stance with an arrow in place faster than I had ever been and was going to fire up at the huge thing. Odius grabbed my arm and pushed it down, "You'll hit Cody unless you have a good enough shot!"

I stared back up at the sky, but I couldn't see it. I shook my head, "No. No!"

I heard Cole shouting something. Harry had him in a firm grip as he tried to kick out of it, "Cody!" Guy was looking at the sky, trying to get a lock on the thing.

Odius made me look back at him, "They won't kill him, Flare. He's safe until they get you."

I was still shaking my head and muttering, "No. No." over and over.

Odius loosely wrapped his arms around me. He was hesitant, like he thought I'd shank him for it. I was too dazed to even think of it. Cole had stopped struggling and he sank to his knees when Harry finally put him down. He punched the ground and screamed. I looked over at him over Odius's arm.

I pushed away from him and went over to Cole. He was actually crying. No, sobbing. I knelt next to him and hugged him. He clung to me. I felt myself crying. My shoulders shook and I tightened my grip on Cole. He already had a death grip on me.

"Not Cody," he cried. "Not my brother."

I buried my head in his hair. I said nothing, but in my head, I was praying to anyone who would listen. Please let him come back to us safely.

A star shot across the sky above us.

This is where things start moving forward a little more….

Good news is that I almost have this story completely written out, so updates should be coming a little faster. To anyone who's still reading this after all this time, I love you guys and I'm really sorry that it's taken so long for me to get back to this….