Chapter 18: PJ

Well...

That was a beautiful welcome to Pennsylvania!

It was easy enough. I just hope this doesn't happen every time we cross state lines. We left the tracks, not wanting to be run over by an oncoming train.

Annabeth pulled out Daedalus' laptop, opening up a map, she figured out exactly where we were.

There was a diner down the road and both Annabeth and me were hungry after the fight. A quick decision was made. We would walk and eat while still heading to... Somewhere. The next soul of Delphi's.

The shop sold sandwiches for cheap. They gave us a discount since we bought so many. It still ended up costing us fifteen dollars but it was still less than we expected.

While we ate, Annabeth filled us in on our situation.

"We're in Morrisville. It's not a big town. A few shops and what not but we should keep walking. There's a bigger city, Prussia, about half an hour away by car." She hit a few keys, then, "It'll be about lunch-time when we arrive if we walk."

Finishing my sandwich, I said, "Walk then?"

The rest of the group agreed and we threw away our wrappers into the trash.

And started walking.

Very quickly we noticed a stand holding bikes for rent. Half an hour cost ten cents. A sign above the bikes showed where you could drop them off at.

One was in Prussia.

How convenient.

There were seven bikes, two extra for anyone else wanting to go biking. Rachel hooked up her phone to the bikes and we headed out, speeding along.

We chose not to take a scenic route, instead opting to bike along busier roads with sidewalks. Delphi and Rachel directed us west, letting their gut guide them to the next Delphi.

As we rode we spotted a shoe, nails, paper bags, a pumpkin, and a pencil, all along the roads in the shoulder.

For anyone driving by it must've looked weird to see teenagers and a few adults all biking in a group.

Maybe it wasn't as strange as it sounds but to see us biking on the highway going faster than some cars (alright, it was one car and an old granny was driving it. She was going 1 mile an hour), we had to look strange. Hitch-hiker backpacks and all, speeding along a highway? I would be curious at the very least.

We couldn't hear anything over the wind so we opted to play follow the leader. Annabeth was in front. Suddenly, she veered into a ditch, which caught us surprised.

We pulled over to ask what was wrong when we noticed why she had stopped.

Her leg was limp.

She had a gash the size of a pencil running down her leg. It wasn't deep but from the way her pant leg was soaked from the blood it looked like it had been bleeding for a long while.

At least since we had fought the Gorgons.

Why she hadn't said anything...

I found the gauze inside the first-aid kit and wrapped her leg up. She wouldn't be able to keep biking. And if she couldn't bike she couldn't walk. Which meant she wouldn't be able to keep going.

Harry fished her phone out of her pocket and passed it to Delphi so she could call 911, obviously not knowing the number.

The ambulance arrived and by that time Annabeth had passed out. We stayed until they had gotten her onto the stretcher and we gave them Camp Half-Blood's contact information.

When we reached Prussia we would need to message Chiron to tell him that Annabeth wasn't traveling with us anymore.

The rest of the ride, we rode in silence, mourning the loss of Annabeth and her help.

Before she passed out, she given us her phone, allowing us to have an extra way to contact camp.

When we reached Prussia, we sighed. The bike ride had taken longer than expected, the time was around late lunch and we were ravenous.

Finding a table at a cafe, we planned out what we would do next.