Percy POV
"Search for the series of clues following this letter... There are two classes of vitamins: water-soluble and fat-soluble. Water-soluble substances can freely travel in the blood while fat-soluble vitamins need a transport mechanism."
"Bro, I am not here for a science lesson. This ain't no school," Leo exclaimed.
"Oh my god, Leo, shut up. Piper, please continue reading the letter. We need to find these clues before it's too late," Hazel scolded.
"To elucidate the transport mechanism, one must first ingest the vitamins. This room has several vitamins, but only one will lead to the chylomicron," Piper finished.
"What's a chylomicron?" I asked in confusion. I was never the best at school due to having ADHD and dyslexia. I didn't pay attention in classes, and I didn't care either.
"I just feel dumb right now," Leo expressed.
"A chylomicron is a form of lipid structure. Individual lipid molecules surrounded a fat-soluble substance so that they can be transported in the blood. It's a clever way of Elysium saying that we have to find the transport mechanism whatever that is," Will explained.
"But, the first step is to find the fat-soluble vitamin," Hazel said. However, her voice simply conveyed confusion.
"Honestly, let's just search for anything strange," Jason said firmly.
We separated throughout the room. Piper and I were searching the tables more closely. We were looking for any more clues that might be on the chairs and tables. Hazel, Frank, and Nico were studying the walls and floor. Jason was checking the trays and food stand.
A pounding interrupted Piper's and my search.
We turned towards the cafeteria doors. Annabeth was slamming the doors to get our attention. She motioned us over even though we were busy.
"Wise Girl, we're a little busy over here."
"Yeah, Annabeth, unlucky for us, we're stuck in this phase. We can't be distracted because we only got an hour," Piper shouted.
"Listen to me," Annabeth started. Her voice was muffled since we were separated by a steel door and glass windows. "Vitamins are found in food. Fat-soluble vitamins would be naturally found in fatty foods."
"Wait, Annabeth, you heard me reading the letter?" Piper asked. "I wasn't even talking that loud."
Regardless, Piper walked towards the group with this new information. My gaze locked onto Annabeth, whose eyes were sparkling with wisdom and emotions. Thalia and Rachel were crowding around the windows as well.
"Annabeth, what else do you know?" I asked seriously.
She looked at Thalia and Rachel before slightly shaking her head. It was a subtle cue, but I decided to save my questions for later.
"Percy, are you okay?" Rachel asked with concern.
"I'm fine, Rachel, but we're very busy. I have to get back and help the others," I expressed quickly.
Rachel nodded as she took a deep breath. She looked incredibly worried and stressed for me and everyone else. Rachel was super kind and caring. "Rachel, don't worry. They're going to make it out," Thalia comforted.
I quickly returned to the group. They were sifting through the remaining meals. In particular, Will was taking lead with analyzing the food for high-fat content.
"Will, do you have any ideas?" I asked.
"Yeah, so avocados and cheese are two products with high-fat content. Technically, we were served with both mac and cheese and avocados. To be honest, I don't know which one has more. Also, what do we do with them?" Will responded.
I stared at the remaining scoops of guacamole before turning my attention to the mac and cheese. All of us had eaten except Rachel, Annabeth, Thalia, and Luke. We had four trays of food left.
As such, we had four scoops of guac and four piles of pasta.
"Well, they're food, so do we eat them?" Leo asked.
Piper face-palmed in annoyance before scolding Leo about how he had already eaten enough food for one meal. Technically, we ate our food already, and we didn't notice anything.
Suddenly, Annabeth started knocking on the door again. I sighed before walking over. I told the others to wait for me to come back. They continued to bounce ideas as I met Annabeth and Thalia near the door.
Rachel had left with the excuse that this was too stressful to watch.
Technically, Rachel was correct. Elysium was holding these phases as a form of social entertainment. Rachel didn't want to partake in the sick experience.
"Percy, you guys found the food, right?" she asked.
"Yeah, we did, but we don't know what to do with them. We reread the letter as well, but no one has any good ideas," I explained.
"You have to ingest the vitamins, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth said firmly.
"Wise Girl, we all ate our meals already including the cheese and avocados. What's the purpose of eating more?" I asked in frustration.
"Just do it, Percy. Trust me," Annabeth expressed.
I nodded even though I was still confused. I returned to the group before saying, "guys, no one had any better ideas. Maybe, we should eat the food."
"Percy, if we eat it, then we'll lose whatever clues that we have already," Jason commented.
"Yeah, that's true. However, Jason, the letter does specifically say to inject the vitamins to find the chylomicron," Will said as he reread the letter.
I sighed as everyone gathered around the food. Each tray was labeled with a name. Everyone evaded Luke's lunch out of instinct. Despite us being in a life-or-death situation, no one wanted to deal with Luke's wrath after eating his meal.
However, that's exactly why I took his tray.
Luke was conveniently not in the lunchroom today. However, he was always the first to eat his meals on a normal day.
Everyone started to eat hesitantly, and no one seemed to enjoy the food anymore. I quickly took a bite of mac and cheese. Jason ate the guac from Luke's tray.
"Does anyone feel anything?" I asked in between bites.
Suddenly, Jason started gagging. Jason immediately came to his feet as he coughed and held his throat. Shit, he was choking.
"GUYS," I shouted.
Will came to Jason immediately and slammed his palm against Jason's back. The hard slam was enough to force the substances out of Jason's throat.
He coughed in relief as the rest of us looked at his throw-up.
Honestly, it was gross, but it was also obvious why Jason choked. A silver sphere (the size of a marble) was glistening in the remnants of Jason's chewed food.
Nico crouched down and picked up the sphere.
"There is an engraving on it. It looks like a symbol: a Chinese character," Nico expressed before passing the sphere to Frank.
"This is the symbol for Money," Frank informed.
Everyone was confused about what it meant. There was no money in the cafeteria, so the clue was useless. Well, it was useless to everyone except Hazel.
"I know what this means. I'm not sure if we're allowed to use outside resources, but I saw that Drew had some money in her bag when Rachel and I were cleaning her things. It was just a few coins and bills," Hazel explained.
"Well, no one has any better ideas," I exclaimed as I rushed towards Annabeth and Thalia. Annabeth was glued to the door like our survival depended on it. It was strange.
"The clue revealed that we need money. Apparently, Drew had some coins and bills in her bag," I told them. I still felt awful about Drew's death.
"Thalia, can you get them? I can't leave," Annabeth said firmly. Thalia nodded before walking off. The wait started.
My gaze locked onto Annabeth's again.
"Annabeth, what are you not telling me? No one else is here," I said. I knew that my voice was probably quiet for her, but I couldn't be too loud. This was a private conversation.
"This room was designed to have people on both sides of the door. You guys need a key, but you also need my hand on the doorknob."
"How do you know this?" I asked seriously.
Annabeth dodged the question yet again. "Look, Seaweed Brain, while we wait for the coins, you guys need to find the clock in this room. A chylomicron is depicted as a sphere in most diagrams. The cafeteria is also a circular room."
"I have no clue what you're suggesting, Wise Girl."
However, she was correct that the cafeteria was a circle. It's what made this otherwise bland and empty room somewhat interesting.
"Ugh, Seaweed Brain, call Leo. He'll be able to understand," Annabeth snapped. We were running out of time with only about 20 minutes left.
Leo came over in a heartbeat. Everyone else was waiting for the next clue, which was for the coins to present themselves. Thalia was taking a while to simply find some money and bring it here.
"Annabeth, what is it?" Leo asked urgently.
"The room is circular, Leo. Don't question how I know this, but the room is meant to be a clock. A circle that is similar to the shape of chylomicrons. The coins will give you a code that corresponds with the clock numbers," Annabeth explained.
Leo's eyes expressed the gears turning in his head. A faraway look often entered his face when he was thinking seriously. He didn't question Annabeth though.
"Okay, and I'm assuming that we have to tap the areas of the room that correspond with some code," Leo said firmly.
Annabeth nodded before smiling gratefully. I was still a confused dummy as Leo ran along the circumference of the cafeteria.
"A clock has numbers. How do you know where to start?" I asked aloud.
"12 o'clock is someone in this room. We need to find it. We're missing some clue," Leo shouted as he felt the walls and tapped different areas.
"All right, guys, the walls are hollow in some areas and dense in other areas. Specifically, there are 12 hollow and 12 dense areas that are alternating evenly through this circular room," Leo shouted to everyone.
"We need to find a clue to express if the hollow or dense areas refer to the numbers. And, we need to know where 12 o'clock is," Leo continued.
Everyone was confused with Leo's instructions. Regardless, they followed suit and started experimenting with the walls. Leo was correct in his findings of the cafeteria wall.
"I have an answer to your first question, Leo," Will said. "Chylomicrons are a double layer of phospholipid molecules. Their surfaces are usually dense in order to provide protection and fluidity. As such, the dense parts of the walls are significant."
"Perfect," Leo shouted.
I walked around the perimeter of the room. The others were doing the same because we were trying to find any indication of 12 o'clock (or a north pole).
"I found 12," Nico exclaimed. I don't think that I've ever seen Nico so excited. He was actually smiling, which was so unlike his shy/emo persona.
"This is the only dense area of the entire wall that feels different," Nico explained.
I was totally impressed with Nico's analytical skills. Had trailed the perimeter of the wall while touching it with his right hand. He was a quiet, effing genius. Nico stayed positioned at 12 o'clock.
The rest of us spread around the room at various locations. I was on the right side of the door (near Annabeth), which coincidentally corresponded with 7 o'clock.
"What's taking Thalia so long?" Jason shouted towards Annabeth. "We only have 10 more minutes."
Suddenly, I saw Thalia's face in the window. She was panting hard as she held the coins and bills in her hand.
"Thalia, what took so long?" Piper shouted to be heard since she was standing across the room near 2 o'clock.
"I'm so sorry, guys. Luke was just-"
Her voice faltered off. My hands clenched into tight fists. He didn't do anything to Thalia, but he was clearly trying to stop her. He tried to stop us from passing phase 6.
"Anyway, I have the money. What are we looking for?" Thalia asked.
"What do we got?"
"A couple of random bills, a few pennies, and a quarter," Thalia answered. The best possibility was pretty obvious to everyone.
"Thalia, the quarter is probably the answer. Um, most codes tend to be four digits, so the date would be the best option," Jason acknowledged logically.
It was a 1978 quarter.
Piper walked towards the 1 o'clock area and slammed the wall. Frank slammed the wall at 9. I followed near 7, and Hazel finished at 8 o'clock.
Suddenly, a loud buzzer exploded through the speakers. A tile opened on the ceiling and dropped a package into the room. The hole in the ceiling closed immediately as we ran towards the package.
The box held a key. A silver key to mark our escape.
Annabeth and Thalia were standing on the other side, so they backed up. Jason pressed the key into the lock. While the doorknob turned, it didn't open. Jason frowned as he continued to try, but it was pointless.
We were all crowding near the doors. Annabeth's gaze locked onto mine before she started talking, "I told you, Percy. The phase was designed to have people on both sides of the door."
She came forward and touched the door handle.
Jason turned and pushed the door open. This time the door swung open, and a white flash exploded in front of our eyes.
"WISE GIRL," I shouted.
Annabeth was launched several feet through the hallway. Her body slid against the floor as she held her hand painstakingly.
"Annabeth," I shouted as I ran towards her.
I fell on the floor next to her. She was conscious and all right, but her right palm was burned. Blood was searing out of the blisters. I held her delicate hand in both of mine.
My eyes watered as I stared at the pain constricting her face. My heart hurt from watching her injured hand quiver.
"Annabeth, it's okay. I've got you, and Will can help," I said.
The others were watching us but also giving us our space. Everyone looked so worried. Will had run to the dorm room to grab the first-aid kit.
My sea-green eyes locked onto her gray ones. She took a shaky breath before leaning closer to me. Her head rested against my chest as I steadied her burned hand. No one else could hear our quiet conversation despite being nearby.
"I deserve this, Seaweed Brain," she whispered shakily.
"No, you don't. We wouldn't have escaped without you, Wise Girl. You helped us with all the right information."
I held her closer to me. My hand turned her face to look at mine. Her gray eyes were shaking as my sea-green eyes watered.
"Why would you say such a thing?" I asked tensely.
"I deserve this, Percy. I knew the information because I designed that room."
...