Chapter 26

Piper

After a few moments of silence, Jason and the other boy ran to each other. I thought fists were going to start flying, but they embraced in a 'bro hug,' which involved a lot of patting on the back and stunned laughter.

They separated and I got a better look at the blond that wasn't Jason. He was about an inch or so taller with a similar hair style. There was a scar on his face that went from his temple to his chin. They were definitely old friends, but Jason never spoke of him.

When they separated, the other blond, Luke I think, grabbed Jason on the shoulders and said, "Thalia's gunna flip her shit."

"Is she here?" Jason asked

"No, she's back at camp."

Jason separated from the other boy and, with hands on his head in exasperated joy said, "Holy fuck"

Timmy leaned over to me and asked, "Who's that?"

"I don't know. They must be old friends." I responded

Jason looked over to us and back to Luke, then waved us over. Timmy and I stood up and walked over. As we walked, Timmy grabbed my hand to get support, and I returned by grabbing his gently.

Jason put his arm around my shoulder and introduced me. "Luke, this is Piper and Timmy."

Luke reached out his hand and I shook it awkwardly. He looked at me and asked, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." I said. "It's just been a while since I've been introduced to someone like this."

Luke chuckled then looked down to Timmy. Luke crouched down to eye Timmy's eye level smiled warmly and asked, "How's it going little man?"

"What's wrong with your face?" Timmy asked pointing at Luke's scar.

"You're pretty quick to the point aren't you?" Luke said which caused Timmy to try and hide behind my leg.

I was about to step in to protect Timmy when Luke said, "I respect that." Followed by him putting out his hand for a fist bump. Timmy bumped fists with Luke then stood back smiled like Luke was the coolest person in the world.

I wasn't sure what to think of Luke at first glance, and the scar on his face didn't help, but I now I think he's a good guy. It was weird since Timmy took a lot longer to warm up to Jason and me.

"What's going on back at the Military Base?" Jason asked.

"We had to move." Luke said sadly. "Some guys in army gear showed up and uh…" Luke looked down at Timmy then back to Jason.

"This story might not be good for… sensitive ears." Luke said as he subtlety motioned toward Timmy. I looked at Jason. He desperately wanted to know what happened and I couldn't take it away from him, especially when I involved his sister.

I nudged Timmy and said, "Let's go check on Nico and Annabeth." Timmy complied and I started walking back towards the room where Nico was getting worked on. I turned around and gave Jason a reassuring look. He nodded in return, and then returned his attention to Luke.

The girl who rescued us, I think Phoebe was her name, was in the room with the 'doctor', Annabeth and Nico. I sat down next to her and she smiled at me. "You alright?" she asked.

"Yeah, yeah." I responded. "Weird day."

She just nodded and returned her attention to back out the window. I looked out too and saw what she saw. A good sized group of zeds was forming around our area. They were obviously drawn in by the gunshots we fired earlier.

"I never thanked you." I began. "For getting that door open and rescuing us"

She shrugged and said, "It was nothing."

"Are you shitting me?" I said.

Phoebe looked at me in shock. She looked down to Timmy then back up. She must be surprised that I'm cussing right in front of a kid.

"He's heard and said worse." I said. "But seriously. Thank you. We'd be dead if it weren't for you."

"That's just what we do." She said.

"We must be seeing different people because I don't know anyone who would stick their neck out for us the way you guys did." I responded

I took a quick glance back over to Annabeth and the man who was helping Nico. Nico looked like he would be ok, but one can never be too sure.

"No. I mean us. Our group." She began to explain what they were like. Jason had told me a little, but never the full story and I never asked so it wasn't a big deal. Phoebe talked about how there were 35 people in the group, some new comers recently, where there camp was, what their supplies were like etc.

"Why do you trust me with this?" I asked.

She answered by shrugging. "Your obviously care about Jason. Jason, me, Luke, Thalia, basically the entire camp, go way back with him. I trust him, so I trust you. "

"But you could have died saving us, and you didn't even know we were with Jason, that was blind luck. Why save us." I questioned.

"You seem really skeptical of me"

"Sorry, just curious why."

"Maybe I'm just a good person. Maybe it's the foolish naive hope that if I was ever that far up shit creek someone would come and bail me out." (TWD)

That seemed like an honest answer, so I decided to stop questioning her. We simply began small talk. We talked for a few more minutes before Annabeth left Nico and came over to us.

"How's he doin" I asked

He'll make it. She replied. "He's in a lot of pain. Doc gave him some morphine to dull it."

"Gods, you guys are loaded." I said looking at Phoebe

She just shrugged and said, "We have a good system. What we do is…"

Jason walked in mid-sentence. He looked devastated, but was trying to cover it up by staying strong. He's too proud to look defeated.

Phoebe and Annabeth said 'hi' and he returned to hello. They clearly didn't see anything wrong with Jason, but I did. I can read Jason better than anyone, even himself sometimes. I sat down by him on the couch and put my head on his shoulder.

Phoebe and Annabeth were still talking about the groups system while I just comforted Jason. I said, "What happened?"

He closed his eyes and shook his head. "Not now. Later."

I didn't want to push Jason so I just him relax. Whatever happened to his people must have been terrible. We sat with each other for a while when I noticed Nico began moving. It was just groans at first, but he began to toss and turn.

"There's no dog here" he mumbled. Annabeth and I looked at each other confused.

"What dog?" I asked. Everyone was really confused.

He kept mumbling random things until he finally, somewhat gained consciousness. "The doctors are funny."

The one who was treating Nico said, "he's having a morphine high. It will wear off soon."

"You're high." Nico said. I've heard about morphine high's before and I know that they can be quite hysterical.

"Why can't I see anything?" he asked. He sounded like he was sleep talking. His words were slurred and sloppy.

"Because your eyes are closed bud." Replied the doctor.

"Really" Nico said in shock. "That's cool" Nico still didn't open his eyes.

We stayed there for a while just listening to Nico saying the weirdest shit. I think I almost died Laughing. Even Annabeth managed a grin a few times. There were times he was just mumbling nonsense, but we still laughed.

"I feel l-like a bird's - eagle view. Everything's happening, like, up here" Nico said as he waved his arm in a weird direction. The rest of us just kept laughing

"Did he touch my butthole" Nico asked. I almost died right there. I tried to stop making so much noise, but I couldn't contain it. Jason managed to laugh, even though he was still hurting from whatever Luke had told him.

"I don't think so" said Annabeth

"Good," mumbled Nico, "because I haven't done that sense college."

Jason then said, "Dude, you're like 15. You've never been to college."

"Oh. Well that explains a lot." Nico mumbled. I decided to leave before I heard something really embarrassing.

I spent the rest of the day getting to know the people I was with. There were a few mechanics, a few soldiers (that what the people whose only skill is fighting call themselves), and a doctor. Jason was the leader of this expedition team, while he was only second in command to Thalia, Jason's sister.

Over time I learned that they had a main camp about 20 miles from the city in a small forest preserve. Since there is no a lot of supplies, they have set up 3 outposts: one in the city, where we are, one at an abandoned ski lodge and one in a suburban house. People were never at each outpost round the clock, but, whenever scavenging parties are sent, they went to one of these outposts to set up camp

That night, Jason took a spot on the floor. I grabbed a blanket and cuddled up next to him. Jason wrapped his arm around my waist and I huddled against him for warmth.

"Do you wanna talk about it?" I asked

"Not really." He said with his eyes closed.

"It'll help." I said, which made Jason sigh. He began to tell me what Luke had told him. I'm going to summarize it as nicely as I can, since what he told me was horrifying.

Basically, he was in a group of about 60 people. Their camp was what remained of a Military camp. It had all sorts of weapons and a great set up for defense.

They had set up a working town and everyone did their part. Of course there were a few bad nuts, but overall their system worked. Thalia took control soon after Jason was lost. At first, Thalia was able took keep herself together, but overtime, she began to lose herself. The loss of Jason and the stress of leading such a large group were getting to her.

That, however, was nothing compared to when the Military goons showed up. I'm not sure if they were actually military, but they were savages just like everyone else. They butchered Jason's people to the point where only 20 made it out. Luckily, they had a designated place to meet if they were ever separated and the base was lost. They would recruit others into their society, just like before, but things are different now, based on what Luke had told him

I didn't know how to react so I just remained silent and supportive. After a while, Jason and I fell asleep on the hard wood floor.

The next morning people were packing up. They had spent all the time in the city that they needed to and had enough supplies to return home. Nico was awake and Annabeth was telling him about all the funny shit he said. I didn't know someone that Pale could turn so red.

After ten minutes of packing up, we began to make our decent to street level and walked ourselves out of the city with very few problems, which was surprising, since we were walking through a city with nine people in tow.

Once we were out of the City, it was only a 15 mile hike back to their camp. Nothing too bad, but everyone was carrying a lot of supplies, except Nico who could barely walk on his own. He was getting better, but still in some pain. Hopefully he would be better by the time we returned to the camp.