Coding and Codeine

Chapter Twenty-One: War

It was dark when we pulled up outside of Camp Halfblood, still half a mile out. The cars would have been too loud, the guards posted on duty would have heard the engine. In true Cloven fashion the twelve of us fanned out through the woods, four taking the left side, four up the middle, and four on the right circling around. They were soundless as they walked, which was a testament to how many times they'd snuck into Halfblood. I had to make a conscious effort to walk quickly and watch for branches, which was a difficult enough task considering the trees over head were obscuring the moonlight now.

This was both a blessing and a disguise, I guess. It meant it made it harder for us to be seen, but at the same time it wasn't doing us any favors either because we couldn't see where we were going either.

A twig snapped. I looked down under my shoe, but it hadn't been me who stepped on it. Our group of four whirled around. A woman was standing behind us, her gun pointed but she quickly turned it away. I recognized her as she gave the universal sign of being quiet, placing her index finger in front of her mouth. Percy held his hand up and the other two lowered their weapons but I had never raised mine in the first place.

"Zoe," He whispered.

"Jackson, di Angelo," Her voice was hushed but I could hear the smile in it. "I knew you two would be back."

"Zoe we don't have a lot of time," Percy said stepping forward to talk more closely with her. I had to strain to hear. "We're here to get everyone who will leave out of camp. Chiron has been lying to us the whole time, about everything. I wish I could explain it all, but we need your help."

"Perce, since you've been gone everything has gone to shit. Everyone's divided, even us Ponies. No one's said anything out loud, of course, but you two were good people. A lot of us don't believe that you would just turn traitor like that." She looked over Percy's shoulder directly at me, and even in the darkness her eyes were shining. "It didn't make sense, and it all happened too fast."

"Who's on our side?" Percy asked, she quickly gave him a list of names.

"Most of them are on patrol tonight but if they see you with these Cloven they won't question it a second longer, I'll make some rounds and tell the others to let you guys through, when you hear the signal you can keep going into camp, Chiron's been keeping the Ponies closer to the Pavilion Center lately so it shouldn't be too hard to sneak through." Zoe turned but Percy grabbed her by the arm.

"Thank you, Zo. Be careful." He said lowly, she grinned.

"More careful than you could ever be," And with that she was off. Michael and Bobby, the two others that made up our group were at Percy's side almost immediately.

"Who was she?" Bobby asked, from what I could see in his face he was lovestruck.

"I'd be careful of her if I was you," Percy smirked, "she's tougher than I am and she'd beat you to a pulp just as soon as kiss you."

Michael piped in, "She could beat me any day." After that the tension in the air seemed to break, we were alert but at least for me there wasn't so much fear. I wasn't ready to die, but if I died here tonight, fighting Chiron with Percy at my side nothing would have felt like a sacrifice.

We waited for fifteen minutes when a rather loud owl hooted three times in rapid succession, there were answering calls all around, not sounding one hundred percent animalistic. Percy pushed off the tree he was leaning on and nodded us forward silently. We followed behind him until the line of trees broke.

The familiarity of everything nearly choked me. We had only been gone for a little while, less than two days, but the time I had been unconscious made it feel like an eternity. For just a second I wanted to take Percy by the hand and drag him back to our cabin, I wanted to crawl into our bed and hold him until the sun came up. I could forgive Chiron, he had just been protecting himself. This desire blossomed in my chest like a weed, undermining the entire operation at hand we had here. I pushed it down.

Percy turned to us, "Okay, we'll go around and empty the cabins, we want to get everyone out of here as soon as possible before the bullets start flying." His eyes caught on me for a second.

"Don't you even think about it." I said. "I'm staying here with you." I saw his Adam's apple bob down and back up again as he swallowed some words I would have shot down. He just nodded, looked at me for a second longer with so much smothered passion in his eyes. I couldn't keep his gaze, I looked away.

"Will you two stop eye fucking and go? We don't have this kind of time." Michael was smirking and I rolled my eyes.

Percy punched Michael playfully, "Whatever, you fall in love one day and you'll understand." He looked around, lowering his voice more. "Charlie should be taking care of the girls' cabin right about now, which means we should start emptying out this side."

"Where are we going to send them anyway?" Bobby asked.

"There's a bus big enough to house almost most everyone, all the civilians anyway, there are just as many Party Ponies here, and their the ones I'm worried about. Chiron seems to have placed the bulk of them around the rec. center like Zoe said, there hasn't been a sentry through here the entire time we've been talking. He's protecting his lab for some reason."

"We'll find that out before we put a bullet in his brain," Michael replied, Percy nodded; ruthless.

"Alright then, let's go." He held his gun aloft and motioned us along again. We cleared two out successfully before the first hitch, everyone seemed to elated to see Percy—and even me. People were, of course, surprised but it was as if they had all been holding out hope that we would come back.

"Percy!" Carter said jumping out of bed, they slapped hands and he hugged me, then pulled back awkwardly after realizing what he'd done. He cleared his throat, "I mean, uh, what's going on?"

"Jailbreak," Bobby answered. Percy quickly told him that things weren't what they appeared, and that Carter should run with the others.

"Ha, yeah, that'll happen." Carter laughed as he pulled on pants. "I'm coming with you guys. Will'll look after Sadie for me, but you can't leave without me."

"Carter, buddy, look there's a lot of shit going on, we don't—"

"Have time to argue, which is exactly why I'm going."

"Carter—"

"No time to argue," Carter smiled, he reached underneath his pillow and pulled up a handgun. "Let's go." Percy huffed, but conceded. If Carter wanting to come along was the toughest thing we'd have to endure I would happily have even brought Drew with us.

"Things have been bad around here, man," Carter said as we left his cabin and snuck around to the next one.

"Zoe told us it was shitty," I said, piping up for the first time.

"Did she tell you that Chiron cut food rations, he's claiming that there's a shortage all of a sudden. I've eaten once since you guys left. Not only that but everyone's working around the clock all the way up till curfew, there is no free time. Oh, and curfew is six now."

"Six?" I asked.

"Yup, enforced with guns, if you're found out of your cabin after six you get taken to the storm bunker. I don't know what happens down there but Nathan Little got taken down there when he got caught sneaking out of his girlfriend's cabin and came back up with a broken arm and a black eye. We've even got bathroom and shower escorts now."

"No wonder people have started to rethink their opinion on him," Percy said.

"Yeah, he's had this crazed look in his eye since you guys left, and we never see him, but when we do he just stands outside on his balcony, just staring. It's creepy. Sadie and I were going to start investigating tomorrow."

"That's a sure fire way to get killed," Percy grinned.

"Hey, this place needed a leader since you left." Carter returned the smile and bumped Percy's shoulder with his own. We opened the next cabin. Men were inside, all of them awake. They must have been waiting to change out shifts with the guards patrolling the woods. Their eyes were alert and on us the second the door was opened. I knew them, of course I knew them, they were all Party Ponies. Patrick, Ashton, Erik, Darrin, and Lamont. I didn't talk to a lot of the Party Ponies but I at least knew their names. Silence hung in the air for a half a second.

"Percy Jackson." Ashton stood, Percy leveled his gun on him. I'm going to go ahead and guess these guys weren't on our side. The next thing I knew there were five guns trained on us as well, the sound of them being loaded took place of the previous silence, bullets finding chambers. Ashton laughed, he was a big man, like most of the Ponies. His bald head wrinkled as he smiled, his eyes were cruel and he stepped forward. "What the fuck do you think you're doing back here? Didn't running away like a little bitch teach you not to come back?"

"Look," Percy said calmly. "this doesn't have to end with everyone dead."

"Ponies are for life, Jackson. You knew that when we let you join, no matter what you put your brothers-in-arms over everything else." That felt like at dig at me but I kept my mouth shut, there was a reason I never hung around Ashton. He didn't always seem the sanest, but Percy's mouth was set in a thin line.

"You don't know what's going on." He said, his voice steel.

"What? Don't know that Chiron was the one who engineered and released The Mist? Or don't know that the Cloven are just little boys who wet themselves with fear when they think about how much military power we have here? Percy, you little shit, Chiron told us. He would never keep secrets from us, we're like his family."

"He killed his son." I nearly growled, frustrated by the fact that this idiot knew all of this but was staying anyway, "What makes you think you or your little peons are worth anything to him if he could do something like that?"

But Ashton didn't miss a beat, "Evian was like you, Nico. I remember him," He said. "A kid pretending to be an adult. He was preaching peace, trying to usurp his dad's hold on this place, like you guys are doing right now, he had to be taken care of." Ashton raised his gun, "Say hi to him for me, will you?"

I had never heard a burst shot before, in real life anyway, but I was standing so close to Percy that my ears were ringing when it was done. There were several flashes of light, thunderous pops, and then quiet. His rifle was still smoking when the bodies hit the floor. "Shit." Bobby said, whistling low. "I don't know what the fuck that was, but I liked it."

Percy stood to his full height, wiping his brow. "Yeah, those guys were dicks anyway."

I still wasn't sure what happened, but Carter's laugh was in my other ear, the one that wasn't ringing. "I didn't know you could shoot like that! I mean, it's really a shame those guys are dead, but—"

"They're not dead," Percy replied, and a groan chorused from the cabin. "Just shot in the legs and shoulders."

"That was fucking awesome!" Michael piped up.

"Percy!" We turned, guns poised and ready now for anything. Charlie was standing there, eight others standing behind him. "You guys are going to alert the whole fucking camp! Chiron must know we're here now."

"We knew we couldn't leave without dealing with him anyway," Percy answered.

"The element of surprise is a new concept to you, isn't it?" Hazel asked as we merged groups.

"Can we not comment on how I just shot down five dudes who were about to kill us and focus on the task at hand?" Percy asked. It occurred to me that I just watched people getting shot for the first time in real life, and I think I should have been more concerned that it wasn't bothering me than I was. But I couldn't bring myself to care about it. "Are all the cabins clear?"

"There were a few people who refused to leave, but yeah," Reyna answered. "Your friend Zoe is rather resourceful, all of your friends we've run into so far. People seem to like you two."

"They do," Carter smirked.

"Thanks," But Percy wasn't looking for praise, "Did you find Silena?" Charlie's huge fist tightened on his gun, he didn't answer. "She's probably with Chiron then, from what I've gathered he's been keeping his best people close."

Charlie and Percy locked eyes for a second, then Charlie nodded. "Alright, do you have a plan?"

"Chiron is held up in the Pavilion House," Percy said, "We can assume he is surrounded by his better shooters, which means the people on the outer perimeter of the building shouldn't be too hard to take down. We'll have to find a way down to him."

"Yo, Jackson!" Zoe and a few others were walking towards us.

"Stand down!" Charlie growled when one or two of our guys turned their guns on them. Zoe was still smiling.

"You run these boys well, Charlie." She laughed. "And I can't help but overhear that you want to cause a little confusion over at the rec. house. Ethan and I think we can do that."

Ethan Nakamura grinned beside her, looking handsome but tired.

"How do you propose you do that?" Percy asked.

"It'll be hard for them to do much of anything with two snipers taking them out left and right, we just have to go position ourselves." Ethan answered.

Percy nodded, "Cool, alright. I still haven't figured out what he's hiding in his lab."

I looked around; we had gone from twelve to twenty. Each face looked grim, every arm had a gun and the bloodshed hadn't even really started yet. I was so different than each of these people, they were ready to kill to overcome, and I had never fired a gun before. I sighed. This all had to end soon, Chiron's craziness, our running, everything.

"I know what he's got down there." I said. All eyes landed on me but I looked at Percy. "You do too, and so does Charlie. You all know what it is, if you just think about it." I stared at them, every eye color and skin color imaginable surrounded me. Height difference, different noses, different mouths, but we were all the same.

We all just wanted to live without fear and to love without regret.

"The Mist." Someone said, voicing the answer I knew they had all come to. "But how?"

I looked, it was Charlie that has spoken, "There's someone you guys at the Cloven camp have been missing: Maron." One of the Cloven girls gasped. "Chiron has him, and he's hosting the disease inside of his body. It's…" I swallowed. "it's not pretty."

Percy came up behind me and wrapped an arm around my shoulders, I let him hug me to him as I relieved my time spent cowering before Chiron. "That means we have to take extra precaution. Regardless of if you eliminate every last guard he has Chiron is still armed and dangerous."

"Let's get to it then," Charlie said. "If he has Silena with him and he's got that shit all around her I need this shit to be over. Like now." That seemed to be what everyone needed to put them into gear.

"Wait." I said, stopping them. I don't know if it was sentimentality or just the fact that I felt this new camaraderie deep in my bones now but I needed something else. "I don't know all of you. I don't want to do this unless I know each and everyone one of you. So please when I point to you please tell me your name." No one argued with me, or even looked like they wanted to. They understood, these people all understood me. I pointed to myself, "Nico." Then I began pointing at them.

"Charlie,"

"Michael,"

"Hazel,"

"Carter,"

"Zoe,"

"Bobby,"

"Reyna,"

"Ethan,"

"Frank,"

" Leo,"

"Laurel,"

"Ben,"

"Keto,"

"Alabaster,"

"Kayla,"

"Steven,"

"Buford,"

"Clarisse," My finger faltered. I had looked each one in the eye but this last one was the hardest. He grabbed my hand, finger still pointed, and placed it against his chest. We locked eyes and I knew there were tears falling down my cheeks. I knew we were marching to our death now. The easiest part of it had been evacuating the camp, and that had gone off almost without a hitch. It had all been too easy and that was because this next part was where we all died. But he smiled at me. He smiled at me like he had smiled the first time we saw each other. So big and beautiful that all his teeth were showing.

"Percy." He said.

My hands itched to wrap around him. My body yearned to be held against his. Everything in me was attracted to him like a magnet. But I nodded and swallowed the lump in my throat. I drew my hand back though it shook, the compulsion to hold on almost too strong, and I cocked my gun.

We walked.

Zoe and Ethan were in the trees, and when I heard the first shot I knew chaos. Chiron's men were firing now, but we were on the other side of camp, nowhere near them. We could tell the difference between our people and Chiron's people's attacks because Zoe and Ethan took measured aim while the others were in bursts and sounded like they were coming from everywhere.

Percy's hand had found mine; his was dry and warm, and mine sweat filled and clammy. More and more the gunfire was dying down, but I flinched when I heard a scream pierce the air. Percy gripped my hand tighter and then there was a rapid succession of shots, shots that sounded like they belonged to our people. Not crazed, fire everywhere shots but precise, expert firing.

Then there was the owl hooting we had heard in the woods. We answered back as a group and we moved as one body. By the time we got to the rec. center my heart sunk into my stomach. Zoe was leaning heavily on her sniper rifle, the front of her shirt was soaked a darker black than the fabric the shirt was originally and I knew it was blood even without looking her in the face.

Her skin was normally pale, but she was like a beam of moonlight now, I could see the veins throbbing in her temple and her cheeks were splattered with blood, whether it was her own or not I couldn't tell. Her expression was drawn with pain and when she saw us she collapsed to her knees. When we reached her someone tried to put a hand on her shoulder but she batted them away.

"They got Ethan." She said. "I'll be okay, but they pulled him out of the tree and they shot him in the head." She took a shaky breath. "I just wish—" Then her face blanched and she collapsed. Reyna took her pulse, proclaimed she was still alive, if only just, and we had to continue. Just like that we were down to eighteen, but Zoe and Ethan's efforts weren't for not. The ground was littered with bodies; too many to count but way more than we could have taken by ourselves head on. Familiar faces stared up at me with dead eyes and again I knew it should have bothered me, but I simply looked away. Charlie hid Zoe's body in the tall grass, we would have to come back for her.

Before he was even standing again the door to the rec. center burst open and again the sound of gunfire. Maybe it was the panic that tasted like acid in my throat but I was the first to raise my weapon, I was the first to fire back. A scream bubbled out of me, a war cry, a wounded animal, and then all around me my friends were firing too.

I saw blood arc high into the air, I heard a body hit the ground, but I just kept firing.

When my gun ran out of bullets I was not scared. There was a surplus of other firearms on the ground. Everything in me shut down. I was on autopilot. I picked up a rifle, held the butt to my shoulder and squeezed the trigger. Immediately I knew why people fired in bursts as I had heard. The rifle kicked like a mule in my hands with every bullet that left it, but eventually I got the hang of it. I was sure my shoulder was bruised to hell, but that wasn't going to be my worst injury.

It didn't matter if I hit anyone I was just returning fire. But I was though. I was I was hitting a lot of people, but all I could see was red. Left and right my friends were falling like I knew they would. This was a battle in the making for a long time. There was a predestined feel to it. My rifle clicked empty and I picked up another gun, this one was smaller and I had to pull a hammer back to load it, but it shot fast and it shot hard.

Belatedly I registered a pain in my side, and there was blood running down my temple but I just kept shooting as they kept pouring out of the rec. center. We advanced forward without a word, we pushed them back. For every weapon I emptied there was always another one just in front of me.

Something tagged me in the arm, and pain like fire ripped down my shoulder. I screamed and squeezed the trigger harder, my body was shaking and tears were streaming out of my eyes. I felt sick, but the sickness felt like an echo, something heard but barely there, just like the pain.

We pushed forward.

We were inside of the rec. center now, and if I had to count I'd say there were ten of us. Ten bodies pressed tightly together. I wanted to look for Percy but my semi-automatic clicked empty. Electricity was jolting down my arm as I reached for another gun. Bullet casings laid around us in the hundreds. Someone to my left got shot in the head, the blood splattered against my neck, it was warm and smelled like iron.

We pushed forward.

More and more we mowed down Chiron's forces, so many men and women, many of whom I had only seen once or twice. The guns blazed, and the shells fell until it became a routine. Fire. Empty clip. Grab a new gun. Repeat.

It wasn't until I was hit directly in the ribs did I go down. The bullet entered and exited cleanly, a through and through, and I knew it had broken one of my ribs. Pain like I had never known before exploded from that area. White, hot, searing pain that even adrenaline couldn't make me ignore. I was bleeding profusely.

Then the face of an angel was staring at me. He was so concerned. I reached up and touched his cheek to tell him not to worry about me, that angels shouldn't look so sad but my fingers streaked red against his face. He was saying something but my ears were ringing and I couldn't hear.

He was shouting now, but he was beautiful when he looked this upset. "Nico!" Someone slapped my face and I jolted back into full consciousness. My angel Percy had tears making tracks down his blood smeared face but he looked otherwise alright.

"I'm okay." I croaked but he still held on to me, I could have fallen asleep like that. I felt so warm. Someone was tying a tight bandage around my chest, binding my wound. Then another around my shoulder, my arm, my thigh, I was going to be a holey man if I got out of this alive. The others were attending to themselves now. A bullet had grazed Charlie's scalp, but hadn't done any major damage after all the blood was wiped away. The bandages, as it turns out, were strips of everyone's clothing. "Who's left?" I asked no one in particular, the firing seemed to be ceased for the moment.

"You, Percy, me, Hazel, Leo, Frank, and Reyna." Charlie answered.

I think it was hysterics but a laugh pushed its way out of my throat, "And then there were seven."

"I'm not dead!" Someone groaned across the hall. Percy sat me up and I watched Charlie pull Carter out from underneath a pile of bodies. Carter held his left arm against his body as if it were injured, but he could walk on his own.

"You're not dead, kudos. Zia would have killed you if you died." Percy smirked grimly.

Carter winced a smile and laughed, "Yeah, she would have pulled my ass out of the underworld to send me back down there again." They helped me to my feet, whereupon I threw an arm over Percy's shoulder so he could help me stand. Everyone left was bandaged and guns were reloaded.

We pushed forward.

When the vending machine was moved out of the way I insisted on being the first one down the stairs, but since I couldn't walk by myself without my knees buckling no one gave me much thought. Reyna walked down first, her handgun held out in front of her, we followed.

The stairs were just as narrow and winding as I remembered them, the staircase as dimly lit, but it felt like eons since I had been here. The air was damp and hot and we finally all stood at the bottom of the stairs. But what we found down there was not what we expected. A computer screen was flickering in the darkness, the words "PLAY ME" staring back at us.

Someone found the light switch and my jaw almost fell from its socket. Behind the barrier where I remembered Maron lying still and half dead was Silena. She stood there by herself, hugging her arms around her waist looking morose and abused. The purpling bruise under her left eye said that much. Her clothes were in tatters, and her hair was a nest on top of her head and it hurt seeing her like that when she was normally so impeccably dressed. It hurt not seeing that brilliant smile on her face, and instead seeing that her bottom lip was split. Charlie was the first one to the plastic but her mouth flew open before he could do anything.

"NO!" She screeched. Charlie's hands faltered at the zipper. "Charlie Bear, don't open that. You'll kill everyone on that side." A smile trembled on her lips as her eyes took in Charlie and she put a hand against the plastic. "Hi, baby." She cried.

"Silena." Charlie's voice wasn't there, not really. It was the whisper of a broken man.

"I've got The Mist, Charlie Bear." She said. "Not the one he gave Nico, the first one. The bad one." Her whole body was shaking visibly even from where I was standing, her hair fell in front of her face like a yellow curtain trying to shield her expression from our view, but I saw it. Despair; complete and utter despair. We had come this far only to fail. "He found me out, the day after you left he found me preparing to head to the rendezvous point, I was going to sneak out early. I was going to come see you." Her fingers curled into her palms. "I was so stupid. I'm sorry." She fell to her knees and I saw her break. "I'm so sorry."

Charlie grabbed the zipper. "Percy." He said. "Take that laptop and get out of here. Don't come back for us."

"Charlie, no!" Silena sobbed.

"Percy, do it goddamn it!" His voice cracked. It was the first time I'd ever heard his deep baritone ever crack. Percy handed me to Frank, who was a big, stocky guy and could hold me up easily. I leaned against him as Percy grabbed the laptop and handed it to Leo, then he walked over to Charlie and Silena. He said something to them, it was quiet but it was enough to make Charlie stand up and hug him. They hugged deeply, embracing more like brothers than friends and I watched tears streak down Charlie's cheeks. He kissed Percy's forehead and then they parted.

"Come on." Percy said taking the stairs. Chiron wasn't here. We would check his cabin but I knew he wouldn't be in there either. He had run when he discovered Silena. He was a smart man, on top of everything else, and there was no doubt that he would have beefed up security just to toy with us.

I couldn't leave them though, not like that. Frank picked me up and put me carefully on his shoulder. "Silena, Charlie." They both glanced at me. "I'm sorry." It didn't feel like enough, but Silena shook her head.

"Nico, we love you." She said and I felt my eyes prickle.

"Good-bye, Nico." Charlie said. Frank walked up the stairs and sat me down so he could help Percy push the machine back in front of entrance to the lab.

"Where was he?" Leo asked, it was our first real interaction.

"He ran, obviously." I replied, wiping at my eyes but unable to stop the tears.

"Play the video." Hazel said. We did. The video opened with Chiron's face, he had aged severely since we left. There were bags under his eyes and deep wrinkles lined around his mouth and grooved into his forehead.

"Percy, Charles, I'm glad you two could return." He began. "If you've noticed I am not here, currently. Don't fret, I'm not far. You see, Maron has finally taken the hint and is showing me the location Leneus has refused to disclose to me. We're leaving at or around the time Charles and Silena were supposed to meet one another. Did you really think you could fool me, Charlie? For your insolence and for hers I've injected your lovely girlfriend with something special. The very last of the first strand of Mystoplednia, there was just enough to keep her alive so you two could have another few hours together. Don't say I was never kind.

Perseus, if you've come looking for a cure for your boyfriend that's because Leneus is an inept old man who never truly understood my work. I regret to inform you that there is no cure that I have manufactured yet. You see you're both too late. You tried to turn my people on me, but really you just jumpstarted something that was in the progress long before either of you could toddle. Both of your loved ones will die, simply because you asked too many questions. I did love Silena and Nico, but they were both under your care and the most substantial things I could kill that would break you.

By the time you hear this message, if you hear it by some grace of the gods, I will be most likely pulling up to the Empire State Building, and I will be exacting my revenge upon Leneus. I would sincerely like to thank you boys, you made all of this possible. Good-bye, boys."

Then Chiron must have programmed a kill code into the computer because it fried. The screen went black and would not come back on.

"We've got to get back!" Hazel shouted.

"What's the point? Like two of us can stand, there's no way we can beat him there." Leo replied.

"We have still got to try." Percy came over to me. "I can't leave you yet, can I?" He asked, I shook my head. "Anyone who's still willing to fight can come with me. I'll understand if you're tired, but I can't sit idly by while a crazy man is still on the loose."

"Lead on then, boss man." Frank said. Percy picked me up and we on the move again.