Grover's POV
I woke up later, in the middle of a storm. I saw Annabeth snuggled into the crook of Percy's neck, her hair matted from the rain, and smiled. They're cute together. I wondered why I had woken up and then I realised what I smelt. Monsters. Loads of them. I looked over at Tyson, who was also awake. "Do you smell what I smell?" I asked him.
"Yes. Monsters. What do we do?" He looked to me desperately, rain dripping of his chin.
"Well, we can't stay here, we're gonna have to wake up the others and run." I told him. He looked around scared before nodding determinedly.
We ran around, shaking the others awake. I was nervous to wake up Luke and Thalia because they still didn't trust me, but the result would definitely be worse if Tyson did it. We told them the situation.
"We're never gonna get to the hideout at this rate." Luke said anxiously.
"This is all my fault. You guys just leave me, I can get along on my own." Percy said, sad but determined.
"No!" I shouted.
"We are not leaving you behind." Annabeth said, frustrated, "We just have to think of a new way there.".
"Gabe has a car we could borrow. We could drive that to this hideout."
"Yeah. Yeah, that could work. Anyone know how to drive?"
[time skip]
We found a '78 Camero in the parking lot and Luke went to hotwire it. There weren't many people around and the ones that there were ran with their heads down trying to hide their faces from the storm. Percy looked up from the car, "Gabe almost never let us drive his car. Whenever he did, he'd remind us 'not one scratch'.
Thalia looked up at him "Gabe? You mean the walrus we met in your apartment?" She asked.
"Yeah." Thalia pulled out a key and scratched it along the body work of the car. Percy smiled at her.
Luke opened the car door and activated the ignition.
"How did you do that?" Percy asked.
"Son of Hermes. It's a gift," Luke replied.
"Please tell me you can drive this thing," I begged.
He smiled at me in a way that did not inspire confidence. "Hermes is the god of travel. Let's find out."
As it turns out, he couldn't drive. We shot down the road, swerving to narrowly avoid cars and pedestrians but, to be fair, he fitted right in with the New York commuters. Tyson looked pale and nauseous.
When we finally got out of the New York traffic, Luke started driving down Long Island. Lightning flashed across the sky as made our way to wherever our destination was. Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant, tortured bellow. "He's coming," I muttered to myself but Percy heard.
"Who's coming?" He asked. "Who's coming after me now?"
"Luke, could you please drive faster?" I asked, avoiding the question. I didn't want to worry him.
"Who's coming, Grover!" He demanded as the car picked up speed.
"Pasihpae's son." I told him and he just looked at me confused but Annabeth gasped and Luke floored the accelerator, throwing all caution to the wind, while Thalia looked anxiously out the window as if the monster was right behind us. Percy seemed to pick up on the tense atmosphere and leaned forward as if anticipating our arrival. Another bellow, this time closer. I heard Luke mutter to himself "c'mon, just a couple more miles."
A couple more miles later he started to relax, but too soon. There was a blinding flash and a jaw-rattling boom. The car seemed to explode. I felt weightless for a moment before everything went black.
Percy POV
I was having a strange dream before Grover woke me. I'd been standing on a beach with a hurricane blowing around me. I saw a horse and an eagle battling in front of me. The eagle swooped down with its talons outstretched but the horse reared up and kicked the eagle's wing. The ground beneath them rumbled as a monstrous voice somewhere beneath the earth goaded tgem to fight harder. I knew I had to stop them. I ran forward but the wind just got stronger and the distance seemed to stretch the more I ran. The eagle swooped down with its talons, faster this time. The horse's eyes widened.
Before I could shout, I was shaken awake by Tyson. He was staring down at me, worried. It was really storming and I felt a bundle of wet hair in my neck. I looked down and found Annabeth snuggled in. I gently shook her but she nearly impaled me anyway. She glared at me angrily before turning her attention to Grover, who told us about the monsters heading towards us.
~~~time skip to the car crash~~~
Lightning. That's all it could've been. I peeled my head off the front seat and looked around. Grover was out cold and Thalia wasn't doing too well herself.
Grover moaned "Food," and I knew he'd be alright.
"Percy. Are you ok?" Luke asked.
"Yeah. Where to now?"
"You and Tyson take Grover and me and Annabeth can take Thalia. If we run, we might be able to make it." Luke told me and I nodded.
I looked back. In a flash of lightning, through the mud-spattered rear windshield, I saw a figure lumbering toward us on the shoulder of the road. The sight of it made my skin crawl. It was a dark silhouette of a huge guy, like a football player. He seemed to be holding a blanket over his head. His top half was bulky and fuzzy. His upraised hands made it look like he had horns.
"Percy, get out," Luke said urgently. I climbed out of the passenger side door and pulled Grover out. Tyson took the other arm and we followed Luke and Annabeth up the hill.
Glancing back, I got my first clear look at the monster. He was seven feet tall, easy, his arms and legs like something from the cover of Muscle Man magazine-bulging biceps and triceps and a bunch of other 'ceps, all stuffed like baseballs under vein-webbed skin. He wore no clothes except underwear-I mean, bright white Fruit of the Looms-which would've looked funny, except that the top half of his body was so scary. Coarse brown hair started at about his belly button and got thicker as it reached his shoulders.
I realised he couldn't be holding a blanket over his head, because his hands-huge meaty hands-were swing-ing at his sides. There was no blanket. Meaning the bulky, fuzzy mass that was too big to be his head ... was his head. And the points that looked like horns ...
His neck was a mass of muscle and fur leading up to his enormous head, which had a snout as long as my arm, snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes, and horns-enormous black-and- white horns with points you just couldn't get from an electric sharpener.
I recognised the monster alright. It was one of the first monsters mom had taught me.
"That's the Min-"
"Don't say his name." Annabeth interrupted me. "Names have power. If you're going to refer to him, call him Pasiphea's son."
The creature bent down over the car and started snuffling around it. "Can't it see us?" I asked.
"It can't see very well but once it's got our scent…" As if on cue, the Minotaur picked up the car and roared. It threw the car, which skidded for about half a mile before coming to a stop. The gas tank exploded.
'Not one scratch'-whoops.
"Percy," Luke said, "When he sees us, he'll charge. You need to jump to the side. He can't change directions quickly." I nodded to show him I understood. The bull-man bellowed and started charging up the hill. Just before he reached us, me and Tyson jumped left and Luke and Annabeth jumped right, pulling our respective charges. The monster barrelled straight past.
"Luke. Take Thalia and Annabeth to your hideout. Tyson will follow with Grover," I told him.
"What about you?" He shouted over the wind.
"I'll stay and fight it. Hopefully I can distract it long enough for you to hide."
"No!" Annabeth shouted. "Your mum trusted me to protect you. I'm not losing you on day 2!"
"There's no other way! Luke won't make it without your help."
Luke looked pained but he nodded. "Good luck, Percy. You're going to need it."
I looked at Tyson and it looked like he was almost crying. He wrapped me in a tight hug before throwing Grover over his shoulder and running up the hill. Luke and Annabeth followed but Annabeth kept looking back.
I turned my focus back onto the bull, which seemed to have recovered its senses and turned on me. I pulled out Riptide, ready to defend myself. The monster started forward but I heard someone shout, "Percy!" The monster and I both turned toward the sound and I saw Annabeth running back down the hill.
"Annabeth, what are you doing?"
"I'm not letting you do this alone," she told me as she reached my side. I nodded, knowing I couldn't convince her otherwise. We faced the monster together as it charged. I waited until the last minute to jump out of the way but the monster was ready. It reached out and managed to grab me by the ankle, crushing it in his grip. I felt my ankle snap and I screamed with pain. Riptide dropped out of my hand as Annabeth analysed the situation, trying to figure out how to kill him.
The monster threw me against a tree and got ready to charge. I pushed myself up using the tree as a support, trying to think through the blinding pain in my ankle. Annabeth was running towards me but she was nowhere near as fast as the Minotaur. The Minotaur had both his hands out to prevent me from jumping to the side.
Time slowed down. My legs tensed. Using my good leg, I leaped straight up, kicking off from the creature's head, using it as a springboard, turning in midair and landing on his head. Annabeth faltered as she looked in amazement at what I had just done. How did I just do that?
I didn't have time to figure it out. A millisecond later, the monster's head slammed into the tree; the impact nearly knocked my teeth out.
The bull-man staggered around, trying to shake me off. I wrapped my arms tightly around its horn, trying not to get thrown off. Thunder and lightning were still going. The rain was in my eyes. The stench of rotten meat burned my nostrils.
The monster bucked like a rodeo bull. I wondered why it didn't just back into a tree but I started to realise this thing only had one gear, forwards.
I saw Annabeth pick something off the grass. She shouted "Percy," and tried to throw it to me but it sailed right past my head as I held on for dear life. The bull stopped shaking himself and rounded on her. She started to back up as the beast pawed the ground. I thought about the promise she'd made to my mom after knowing me for about half an hour and how readily she'd offered me her sleeping bag. I thought about how they'd all welcomed me in readily and rage filled me like high-octane fuel. I couldn't let them die. I wrapped my hands around the horn and pulled back with all my might. The monster tensed, gave a surprised grunt, then-snap!
The bull-man screamed and threw me off. I landed flat on my back in the grass. My head hit a rock and my ankle gave another burst of pain. When I sat up, my vision was blurry, but I had the horn in my hands. A jagged, bone weapon about the size of a knife.
The monster charged.
Without thinking, I rolled to the side and came up kneeling. As the monster barrelled past I drove the horn straight into its side, right under its furry rib cage.
The bull-man roared in agony. He flailed, clawing at his chest. He began to disintegrate like crumbling sand, blown away in chunks.
I collapsed on the ground, exhausted as Annabeth rushed to my side. "I'm sorry, Percy, I don't have any ambrosia on me. I'm so stupid."
"No, you're not," I managed. She looked at me gratefully.
"Come on, let's get you to the cave."
I don't know what I was expecting but it really was a cave. Nothing special. Just your average, run-of-the-mill cave. With a small armoury and a couple of beds. I collapsed on the floor as we entered and the last thing I saw before I blacked out was Luke and Thalia looking down at me in amazement.
