Prologue: The Outbreak

A horrible disaster had happened. We had a war, a drought, and worst of all, a disease that killed millions. More than the Black Plague, more than the Bubonic Plague, more than the Spanish Flu. We have to salvage anyone we could. Our camp was nearly in ruins.

The disease was caused by Apollo, he had accidentally knocked his disease over and sent it to the mortal world. He was fighting with Ares, probably about who was better and Apollo had bumped his table he was working at and knocked the disease to the mortal world. Zeus was mad at him, but of course, he didn't send him down here to fix it. We needed help, but no one sent it. They made us suffer, and we had to kill loved ones to stop the spread of the disease.

Now we're stuck, with a lot less of the population of the world left. We forge for food and we survive the cold, harsh nights, where we have to fight for our lives every dam minute. We don't get a break and we bet the gods are trying to figure out what to do.

Annabeth has been busy, finding ways to save civilization, while Jason and Percy see if there's any sort of life left, besides some people at camp and a few in New York. Piper had been working with a few campers, helping with finding supplies, hunting, even though she wasn't the greatest, but she helped by grabbing the game.

We have been doing this for about half a year, ever since the disease took over the world and changed how we live. We have to live like ancient Greeks. We haven't found out how to fix this, and how to repopulate. None of us wanted to be parents at age 18. It seemed weird.

We don't have much of any Apollo kids, since a lot was embarrassed about what had happened. Their dad didn't seem like he wanted to fix this, he made this problem, he should fix it, but demi-gods and mortals aren't worth the gods' time. They ignore their children and don't make any sort of appearance. The land is almost dead, not much to plant since we haven't had a lot of rain.

Demeter kids are trying their best at farming, but not having much luck. The plants die or take over and get out of control of the Demeter kids. We barely had any food, the weather didn't help much. Some animals died and some were infected with some weird disease. We didn't take any chances.

The only animals that were unaffected were rabbits, fish, and squirrels. It made no sense, but it was better than nothing. Some plants did grow, but that was inside. Those plants were wheat, potatoes, basil, carrots, and beets. We mainly survived off of bread, fish stew, rabbit stew, beet soup, cereals, and such. It took a lot to master those foods, but we're still learning. We eat whatever we can since food is pretty scarce and freshwater is poisoned. We have to boil the water to drink the saltwater.

Some Giants or Titans come along and murder some more demi-gods, but The Seven takes care of them, with the help of The Hunters of Artemis. They only come by for food, water, and supplies. A lot of people had to figure out how to survive or they'd have to die. It wasn't an easy life, but we made it. It wasn't new for demi-gods, but it was for mortals. They weren't used to having to defend themselves and have to be on watch 24/7. That's how we felt, mortals. You thought life was hard, until now. Your old life seemed much easier than this, doesn't it?

We used to complain about how we had to save the world so many times in our lives, that defeating Gaea or Kronos seemed like an easier option than trying to save the world from The Outbreak, we call it. We can't let The Outbreak take our world we'd saved so many times. We can't let Apollo's mistake take our world. The gods still need the world to thrive, so they're relying on us, demi-gods to find a way out of this. It's sad, yes, but I'm guessing Apollo doesn't have a cure for this.

Some symptoms are coughing, vomiting, bloody noses, shortness of breath, and random blisters. The way it is spread is by contact and air, that's why we had to kill off the people with it. We had to slow it down somehow and that was the way we had to do it. Some people were upset that we'd killed their loved ones, but as we said, it had to be done. The Outbreak must be stopped. It has caused too many problems, we need to fix our home. There is no other way unless we want to die and end our world right now. We need to, we have to, we have no choice.

We're running out of supplies, like ambrosia and nectar. That is like candy and soda now. It has been clearing up some symptoms like blisters and coughing. We had to keep robbing areas where ambrosia and nectar had been supplied. We're having problems with finding more.

I flipped the page over, finding no more information. What is going on down there? It was a harmless disease! It was just the common cold, not the experiment. Why is everyone freaking out? It only has been two years since the fight!

I trudged out of my room and went up to Zeus, "What the heck is going on down there?"

"Son, you have no right to know," Zeus replied.

"I think I do," I said. "Why wouldn't I?"

He sighed, which came out like a cool breeze, "Why do you need to bug me about this at the hour?"

"Because I have this slip of paper!" I waved the sheet of yellowed paper, "I want info!"

"If you want information so bad, go down to the mortal world," Zeus threatened.

I stomped my foot and turned around and went back to my room, I ran into my sister on the way there, "Hey!" She yelled.

I ignored her and continued to my room, why does my father have to be so annoying! I want to know! Why is that a problem? I need to know what is happening down in the mortal world. I need to know if it's as bad as this paper says!

I stomped down the hall and opened my door and slammed it behind me. I sat down in my desk chair and looked at my messy desk. There were a few vials of bubbling liquid, some random papers and quills, some ink canisters, and other random things. The bubbling liquid sometimes made sparking noises or gurgle noises.

I sighed and looked at a dark purple liquid that was in a clear, broken vial. Wait, that vial shouldn't be broken, it can't be! This vial had the deadliest disease, a disease that could wipe out humanity, this shouldn't be broken. How did it break? Did Ares knock it over?

I stood up and bumped into the desk, which caused the vials to shake. I had to catch two before they fell into the mortal world, that was close. I stormed out of my room and found Ares' room and knocked at the door.

"Ares!" I bellowed.

Ares opened the door, "What, Apollo?"

"Why did you knock over my experiment!" I demanded.

"What in the Underworld are you talking about?" Ares asked.

"The mortal world is falling apart because you knocked over my experiment 25-B!" I shouted.

"25-B?" Ares asked.

"Yes, you dimwit!" I screamed. "You have to fix this!"

"Fix? You want me to fix your problem?" Ares asked, "No way I'm going to do that for you. It wasn't me who knocked your little experiment over, it was you."

"Me? How could it be me?" I shrieked.

"Go away, Apollo. You won't believe me either way," Ares slammed the door in my face.

Oh, I just wanted to punch him, but that was also his aura. I went back to my room to ponder what I was supposed to do. I need to fix this mess, but also, really, I don't have to. Most of my family don't care for the mortals, but I can't let humanity be destroyed because of a spat between me and Ares.

I got to my room and sat back at my desk, fiddling with the broken vial of the dark purple disease. I wondered if the mortals got dark purple blisters on their skin or dark purple in their blood. I was curious and I wanted to know, so I brought someone who had died of the infection recently and dissected them.