A/N: I do not own the Percy Jackson series Kane Chronicles or The Stand Cut or Uncut version. I have however posted 'The Tales of...' series. This story takes place after The Tales of Magicians and Demigods: The Crown of Ptolemy but before the events of Trials of Apollo. Before reading this I suggest to read if you haven't yet:
The Tales of the Son of Poseidon: The Early Adventures
The Tales of the Son of Poseidon: The Lightning Thief
The Tales of the Son of Poseidon: The Sea of Monsters
The Tales of the Son of Poseidon: The Titan's Curse
The Tales of the Son of Poseidon: The Magical Labyrinth
The Tales of the Son of Poseidon: The Stolen Chariot
The Tales of the Son of Poseidon: The Sword of Hades
The Tales of the Son of Poseidon: The Bronze Dragon
The Tales of the Son of Poseidon: The Last Olympian
The Tales of the Son of Poseidon: The Staff of Hermes
The Tales of the Heroes of Olympus: The Lost Hero
The Tales of the Heroes of Olympus: The Quest for Buford
The Tales of the Heroes of Olympus: The Son of Neptune
The Tales of the Heroes of Olympus: The Mark of Athena
The Tales of the Heroes of Olympus: The House of Hades
The Tales of the Heroes of Olympus: The Blood of Olympus
The Tales of Magicians and Demigods: The Son of Sobek
The Tales of Magicians and Demigods: The Staff of Serapis
The Tales of Magicians and Demigods: The Crown of Ptolemy
Also I'm going to let this out. On rough decisions based on what I know from The Stand, any mystical creatures Monsters, and automatons that are usually associated which characters from The Tales of and/or Percy Jackson won't be in this story
Also there's no character list for the stand, but if I had too pick two from the book it be Stu Redman and Fran Goldsmith as a pairing, and if I was allowed to add a fifth character to show, it would be of course Mother Abigail.
For the list of pairings which would be spoiler alert for those showing up later:
Percy Jackson/Annabeth Chase
Leo Valdez/Calypso
Jason Grace/Piper McLean
Frank Zhang/Hazel Levesque
Stu Redman/Fran Goldsmith
Larry Underwood (no relations to Grover obviously)/Lucy Swan
Other Important Characters
Mother Abigail
Nick Andros
Tom Collins
Glen
Ralph
Trashcan Man
Susan Stern
a few more demigods as extra characters to help out.
Antagonist but still important
Randal Flagg
Harold Lauder
Nadine Cross
Lloyd
And of course the two main forces that are mention but more of Lead Supporting Roles without actually making a character appearance: God and Devil
Not Only Annabeth was Right but it also got Worst
Percy and Annabeth were at Haps place enjoying a day off to themselves. Hap gave them a day off after what happened last night with Campion. After all, they were young and still have the rest of their lives ahead of them, and they don't need to return to work with the memory of the car scene and Campion dying fresh on their mind. At least, that's what Hap's wife argued.
"Hap sounded like he was starting to catch something this morning," Annabeth noted.
"I'm sure Hap is fine," Percy said. "Probably the summer cold or flu. Nothing to worry about."
"Percy, you heard what that Campion guy said. He was coughing and sneezing with a headache hours before he crashed into the pumps," Annabeth said.
"Yeah… but we're fine. We're not sick," Percy stated.
"You know that don't always mean anything," Annabeth slapped her boyfriend. "First thing they taught in first aid class, some people take longer to show symptoms than others."
"Okay, fine," Percy said. "But what about the others? Norm, Tommy, Stu, Henry, Vic… they were there with us. We don't know if they're showing any symptoms at all."
"I guess so…"
"Let's just enjoy the day, and tomorrow we'll see how everyone is doing when we go back to work," Percy said.
Little did Percy know, Annabeth was right to be worried, as they might be fine, but those with them and anyone they had contact with, exception of one other, was already showing symptoms.
…
Norm Bruett woke up a quarter past ten in the morning to the sound of kids fighting outside the bedroom window and country music from the radio in the kitchen.
He went to the back door in his saggy shorts and undershirt, threw it open, and yelled: "You kids shutcha heads!"
A moment's pause. Luke and Bobby looked around from the old and rusty dump truck they had been arguing over. As always when he saw his kids, Norm felt dragged two ways at once. His heart ached to see them wearing hand-me-downs and Salvation Army giveouts like the ones you saw African American children in East Arnette wearing; and at the same time a horrible, shaking anger would sweep him, making him want to stride out there and beat them.
"Yes, Daddy," Luke said in a subdued way. He was nine.
"Yes, Daddy," Bobby echoed. He was seven going on eight.
Norm stood for a moment, glaring at them, and slammed the door shut. He stood for a moment, looking indecisively at the pile of clothes he had worn yesterday. They were lying at the foot of the sagging double bed where he had dropped them.
That s- b-, he thought. She didn't even hang up my duds.
"Lila!" He bawled.
There was no answer. He considered ripping the door open again and asking Luke where the heck she had gone. It wasn't donated commodities day until next week and if she was down at the employment office in Braintree again she was an even bigger fool than he thought.
He didn't bother to ask the kids. He felt tired and he had a queasy, thumping headache. Felt like a hangover, but he'd only had three beers down at Hap's the night before. That accident had been a heck of a thing. The woman and the baby dead in the car, the man, Campion, dying on the way to the hospital. By the time Hap had gotten back, the State Patrol had come and gone, and the wrecker, and the Braintree undertaker's hack. Vic Palfrey had given the Laws a statement for all seven of them. The undertaker, who was also the county coroner, refused to speculate on what might have hit them.
"But it ain't cholera. And don't you go scarin people sayin it is. There'll be an autopsy and you can read about it in the paper."
Percy gave a little grumble in complaint as he was dyslexic, meaning words don't stay in place when he tries to read, or that's how Norm understood it. Annabeth was too. Norm don't know much about Dyslexia other than at first it sounded like an excuse for kids to be lazy about reading. But Percy and Annabeth weren't stupid nor lazy. It doesn't take a genius to figure that out. So Norm and the others who didn't know better about dyslexia took the duo's word for it. But it made no difference to the coroner/undertaker.
Miserable little p-, Norm thought, slowly dressing himself in yesterday's clothes. His headache was turning into a real blinder. Those kids had better be quiet or they were going to have a pair of broken arms to mouth off about. Why the h- couldn't they have school the whole year round?
He considered tucking his shirt into his pants, decided the President probably wouldn't be stopping by that day, and shuffled out into the kitchen in his sock feet. The bright sunlight coming in the east windows made him squint.
The cracked Philco radio over the stove played a song that sounded like it was singed by an African American:
But bay-yay-yaby you can tell me if anyone can,
Baby, can you dig your man?
He's a righteous man,
Tell me baby, can you dig your man?
The thing was, the radio was on a country station and the song was rock and roll. Norm turned it off before it could split his head. There was a note by the radio and he picked it up, narrowing his eyes to read it.
Dear Norm
Sally Hodges says she needs somebody to sit her kids this morning and says she'll give me a dollar. I'll be back for lunch. There's sausage if you want it. I love you honey
Lila.
Norm put the note back and just stood there for a moment, thinking it over and trying to get the sense of it in his mind. It was g- hard to think past the headache. Babysitting…a dollar. For Ralph Hodges' wife.
The three elements slowly came together in his mind. Lila had gone off to sit Sally Hodges' three kids to earn a lousy dollar and had stuck him with Luke and Bobby. By God it was hard times when a man had to sit home and wipe his kids' noses so his wife could go and scratch out a lousy buck that wouldn't even buy them a gallon of gas. That was hard f- times.
Dull anger came to him, making his headache even worse. He shuffled slowly to the Frigidaire, bought when he had been making good overtime at the paper factory, and opened it. Most of the shelves were empty, except for leftovers Lila had put up in refrigerated dishes. He hated those little plastic Tupperware dishes. Old beans, old corn, a left-over dab of chili…nothing a man liked to eat. Nothing in there but little Tupperware dishes and three little old sausage done up in Handi-Wrap. He bent, looking at them, the familiar helpless anger now compounded by the dull throb in his head. Those sausage looked like somebody had cut the cocks off'n three of those pygmies they had down in Africa or South America or wherever the f- it was they had them. He didn't feel like eating anything. He felt d- sick, when you got right down to it.
He went over to the stove, scratch a match on the piece of sandpaper nailed to the wall beside it, lit the front gas ring, and but on the coffee. Then he sat down and waited dully for it to boil. Just before it did, he had to scramble his snotrag out of his back pocket to catch a big wet sneeze. Coming down with a cold, he thought. Isn't that something nice on top of everything else?
Unlike Annabeth, Norm didn't connect the dots of Campion mentioning headache and coughing to the phlegm running down his nose as he died.
…
Hap was in the garage bay putting a new tailpipe on Tony Leominster's Scout and Vic Palfrey was rocking back on a folding camp chair, watching him and drinking a Dr. Pepper. Hap had told Vic how his wife enforced him to give Annabeth and Percy a day off after last night and Vic was fine with that. Hap been managing this station on his own before Annabeth and Percy showed up, and although business has improved with Annabeth working there, one day without them wouldn't make a difference. As Vic thought that the bell dinged out front.
Vic squinted. "It's the State Patrol," he said. "Looks like your cousin, there. Joe Bob."
"Okay."
Hap came out from beneath the Scout, wiping his hands on a ball of waste. On his way through the office he sneezed heavily. He hated summer colds. They were the worst.
Joe Bob Brentwood, who was almost six and a half feet tall, was standing by the back of his cruiser, filling up. Beyond him, the three pumps Campion had driven over the night before were neatly lined up like dead soldiers.
"Hey Joe Bob!" Hap said, coming out.
"Hap, you s-," Joe Bob said, putting the pump handle on automatic and stepping over the hose. "You lucky this place still standin this morning."
"S-, Stu Redman saw the guy coming before Percy did, but Percy switched off the pumps. There was a load of sparks though."
"Still d- lucky. Listen Hap, I come over for somethin besides a fill-uip."
"Yeah?"
"Are those two teens with you today?"
"Percy and Annabeth. No, my wife insisted on giving them a day off after last night," Hap said.
Then Joe Bob's eyes went to Vic, who was standing in the station door. "What about that old geezer? Was he here last night?"
"Who? Vic? Yeah, he comes over most every night."
"Can he keep his mouth shut?"
"Sure, I reckon. He's a good enough old boy."
The automatic feed kicked off. Hap squeezed off another twenty cents' worth, then put the nozzle back on the pump and switched it off. He walked back to Joe Bob.
"So? What's the story?"
"Well, let's go inside. I guess the old fella ought to hear, too. And if you get a chance, you can phone the rest of them that was here, including those two teens."
They walked across the tarmac and into the office.
"A good mornin to you, Officer," Vic said.
Joe Bob nodded.
"Coffee, Joe Bob?" Hap asked.
"I guess not." He looked at them heavily. "Thing is, I don't know how my superiors would like me bein here at all. I don't think they would. So when those guys come here, you don't let them know I tipped you, right?"
"What guys, Officer?" Vic asked.
"Health Department guys," Joe Bob said.
Vic said, "Oh Jesus, it was cholera. I knowed it was."
Hap looked from one to the other. "Joe Bob?"
"I don't know nothing," Joe Bob said, sitting down in one of the plastic Woolco chairs. His bony knees came nearly up to his neck. He took a pack of Chesterfields from his blouse pocket and lit up. "Finnegan, there, the coroner—"
"That was a s-," Hap said fiercely. "You should have seen him struttin' around in here, Joe Bob. Just like a pea turkey that got its first hardon. Shushin people and all that."
"He's a big t- in a little bowl, all right," Joe Bob agreed. "Well, he got Dr. James to look at this Campion, and the two of them called in another doctor that I don't know. Then they got on the phone to Houston. And around three this mornin they come into that little airport outside of Braintree."
"Who did?"
"Pathologist. Three of them. They were in there with the bodies until eight o'clock. Cuttin on em is my guess, although I dunno for sure. Then they got on the phone to the Plague Center in Atlanta, and those guys are going to be here this afternoon. But they said in the meantime that the State Health Department was to send some fellas out here and see all the guys that were in the station last nightl; and the guys that drove the rescue unit to Braintree. I dunno, but it sounds to me like they want you quarantined."
"Moses in the bulrushes," Hap said, frightened.
"The Atlanta Plague Center's federal," Vic said. "Would they send out a planeload of federal men just for cholera?"
"Search me?" Joe Bob said. "But I thought you guys had a right to know. From all I heard, you just tried to lend a hand."
"It's appreciated, Joe Bob," Hap said slowly. "What did James and this other doctor say?"
"Not much. But they looked scared. I never seen doctors look scared like that. I didn't care for it."
A heavy silence fell. Joe Bob went to the drink machine and got a bottle of Fresca. The faint hissing sound of carbonation was audible as he popped the cap. As Joe Bob sat down again, Hap took a Kleenex from the box next to the cash register, wiped his runny nose, and folded it into the pocket of his greasy overall.
"What have you found out about Campion?" Vic asked. "Anything?"
"We're still checking," Joe Bob said with a trace of importance. "His ID says he was from San Diego, but a lot of the stuff in his wallet was two and three years out of date. His driver's license was expired. He had a BankAmericard that was issued in 1986 and that was expired, too. He had an army card so we're checking with them. The captain has a hunch that Campion hadn't lived in San Diego for maybe four years."
"AWOL?" Vik asked. He produced a big red bandanna, hawked, and spat into it.
"Dunno yet. But his army card said he was in until 1997, and he was in civvies, and he was with his family, and he was a f- of a long way, from California, and listen to my mouth run."
"Well, I'll get in touch with the others and tell em what you said, anyway," Hap said. "Much obliged."
Joe Bob stood up. "Sure. Just keep my name out of it. I sure wouldn't want to lose my job. Your buddies and those two teens don't need to know who tipped you, do they?"
"No," Hap said, and Vic echoed it.
As Joe Bob went to the door, Hap said a little apologetically: "That's five even for gas, Joe Bob. I hate to charge you, but with things the way they are—"
"That's okay." Joe Bob handed him a credit card. "State's payin. And I got my credit slip to show why I was here."
While Hap was filling out the slip he sneezed twice.
"You want to watch that," Joe Bob said. "Nothin any worse than a summer cold."
"Don't I know it."
Suddenly Vic realized the same thing Annabeth realized of what Campion said last night and said: "Maybe it ain't a cold."
They turned to him. Vic looked frightened.
"I woke up this morning sneezing and hackin away like sixty," Vic said. "Had a mean headache, too. I took some aspirins and it's gone back some, but I'm still full of snot. Maybe we're coming down with it. What that Campion had. What he died of."
Hap looked at him for a long time, and as he was about to put forward all his reasons why it couldn't be, he sneezed again.
Joe Bob looked at them gravely for a moment and then said, "You know, it might not be such a bad idea to close the station, Hap. Just for today."
Hap looked at him, scared, and tried to remember what all his reasons had been. He couldn't think of one. All he could remember was that he had also awakened with a headache and a runny nose. Annabeth noticed it too and she seemed concern. Hap originally passed it off as everyone catches a cold once in a while. But before that Campion had shown up, he had been fine. Just fine.
That was how Vic and Hap started too realized what Annabeth was arguing with Percy about, and the news is still about to get worse.
…
The three Hodges kids were six, four, and eighteen months. The two youngest were taking naps and the oldest was out back digging a hole. Lila Bruett was in the living room, watching "The Young and the Restless." She hoped Sally wouldn't return until it was over. Ralph Hodges had bought a big color TV when times had been better in Arnette, and Lila loved to watch the afternoon stories in color. Everything was so much prettier.
She drew on her cigarette and then let the smoke out in spasms as a racking cough seized her. She went into the kitchen and spat the mouthful of c- she had brough up down the drain. She had gotten up with the cough, and all day it had felt like someone was tickling the back of her throat with a feather.
She went back to the living room after taking a peek out the pantry window to make sure Bret Hodges was okay. A commercial was on now, two dancing bottles of toilet bowl cleaner. Lila let her eyes drift around the room and wished her own house looked this nice. Sally's hobby was doing paint-by-the-numbers pictures of Christ, and they were all over the living room in nice frames. She especially liked the big one of the Last Supper mounted in back of the TV; it had come with sixty different oil colors, Sally had told her, and it took almost three months to finish. It was a real work of art.
Just as her story came back on, Baby Cheryl started to cry, a whooping, ugly yell broken by burst of coughing.
Lila put out her cigarette and hurried into the bedroom. Eva, the four-year-old, was still fast asleep, but Cheryl was lying on her back in her crib, and her face was going an alarming purple color. Her cries began to sound strangled.
Lila, who was not afraid of the croup after seeing both of her own through bouts with it, picked her up by the heels and swatted her firmly on the back. She had no idea if Dr. Spock recommend this sort of treatment or not, because she had never read him. It worked nicely on Baby Cheryl. She emitted a froggy croak and suddenly spat an amazing wad of yellow phlegm out onto the floor.
"Better?" Lila asked.
"Yeth," said Baby Cheryl. She was almost asleep again.
Lila wiped up the mess with a Kleenex. She couldn't remember ever having a baby coughed up so much snot all at once.
She sat down in front of "The Young and the Restless" again, frowning. She lit another cigarette, sneezed over the first puff, and then began to cough herself.
Unbeknownst to her, she had the same thing Campion had which her husband caught and spread to her and her two sons, and now she had spread to the three children she was watching over. And it wasn't just here, but all over Arnette as those at the gas station and ambulance spread it to those they knew, and those people spread it to those they knew and so on.
Annabeth was right to think this was the same virus Campion had. But she had not realized how quickly things have escapade in one day, because no mortal or demigod could without knowing what kind of virus they are dealing with. But most can at least come close, but not before it was too late to stop it.
A/N: Originally there was a chapter with a military government base behind the Flu that was released onto the world in the next chapter. It seem useless to get to it though without any characters from The Tales of Series. So I'm going to have to skip it for now.
As for why Calypso and Leo are not in Texas since Leo grew up in Houston, well, Joe Bob basically explained half off it. CDC and State Health Department. Mortal or immortal, I would think something in Calypso's blood would give away something that she's not human, and testing blood will be the first thing CDC will be checking for too make sure who has the virus or not. Percy Annabeth and Leo are safe because they're still humans, even if they're demigods. By time the flu hits Ogunquit, they will skip trying to capture those sick and go straight to quarantining the cities in futile attempt to just fight the virus off. So Calypso and Leo would be best there.