Hey everybody! So this isn't a quick nor a long update. (I'm sorry, no excuse besides that swim team is taking all of my time this summer. Ugh.) Really hope you like it though, I'm starting to get the groove for this story and I really like what I have planned! Thanks for reading!

Enjoy!

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The bus Annabeth, Reyna, and Leo took smelled like a sickening mix of old socks, dirty underwear, and vomit. T

he relief they felt when it finally pulled up to their stop and they were able to stumbled out of the public transportation vehicle was tangible. Fresh air had never smelled so fantastic.

"I'm never riding another one of those things again as long as I live," Reyna stated loudly. Everyone knew that the camp bus put a new definition to nasty, but they didn't have any other choice. A trip to northern Virginia from Long Island took a full day's drive. And none of them were willing to drive the whole way there and none of them had cars anyway.

Leo laughed. "Tell me about it. I'm pretty sure I contracted head lice."

"Are you sure you didn't have it before?" Annabeth joked while Leo placed his hands over his short curly hair and acted offended.

They checked their cell phones, made sure they had connection and that their batteries were full. They checked their bags for their wallets and fake IDs. Everything was there. Annabeth gave a half hearted wave at the bus driver, a grumpy Satyr who nodded gruffly and drove off without a second thought.

"Well, someone woke up on the wrong side of the meadow," Leo snorted.

Annabeth resisted the urge to face palm.

They were in the middle of a small town in northern Virginia, one called Purcellville judging by the shop signs in the ancient looking buildings surrounding them. It was a quaint area, surrounded by beautiful Virginian mountains and some vague dustings of snow left over from the last storm.

It was cold, but not as cold as it had been back in Long Island. It had been snow free at camp so far this year, which was great in the minds of the older campers, no snow to shovel, but all of the younger kids were vastly disappointed. Annabeth wondered if it was going to snow again anytime soon here.

She pulled her jacket tighter around her shoulders and wondered how those two demigods had been living in this freezing weather. She couldn't imagine how cold it got here at night. Especially if they were sleeping at the foot of a mountain.

She noticed an older lady closing her shop up for the day; a burger joint. Annabeth figured it would be a good start to ask her if she'd seen the teens they were searching for, maybe even spoken to them.

"Come on," she motioned over her shoulder for Leo and Reyna to follow.

"What are-" Reyna started, but Annabeth cut her off.

She pulled the photos she'd been eyeing for the last hours on the bus from her pocket, "Excuse me, but have you by chance seen these boys? Their names are Percy Jackson and Jason Grace."

The woman gave Annabeth a suspicious look before finally glancing at the pictures. "I saw the dark haired one earlier today. He came into my husband's store and bought a bunch of jackets, gloves, hats, and other cold weather stuff. Why? He a felon or somethin'?"

Annabeth shook her head and tried to hide her puzzled expression. Why had only one of them come into town? From her personal experience on the road, she knew that splitting up was the last thing to do. If these two had been on the road for seven years, they'd know that… "No, just a friend of mine I can't seem to find."

Reyna swore under her breath as they trudged away. "That's not a good thing that only one of them came to town."

Annabeth shook her head as she searched the street for someone else to question. "It's definitely not good."

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Percy ran into town before they'd started moving again, just to grab some new not frozen clothes and a new backpack before they started moving again. They had no clue where they were going, only that the more they moved around, the less monsters came after them.

Jason would've gone too, but he just made up an excuse of not feeling up to it. Technically it was true, but he didn't feel like telling Percy everything. He had blamed it on hypothermia, even though that wasn't really the case.

His leg was currently sporting its own heartbeat but since he had no urge to become pitied, he hid that small detail from Percy.

A few minutes after Percy had disappeared, he gently pulled the leg of his pants up and glanced at it.

It wasn't a deep gash, like he'd expected, just a long scratch. It didn't hurt that muchnor that he really thought about it, but his leg felt sore. Both of his legs did. What was wrong with him? His injuries seemed to changing with his mind.

He examined the other one, but there was nothing there. It didn't make much sense; they hadn't done anything even vaguely straining recently. Yesterday had been a relaxed day, they'd only walked a few hours and hadn't even had to smuggle a meal. Percy had decided to spend some of their emergency money on meals. Same as he was doing today.

Jason grabbed onto a low branch along the side of one of the many trees surrounding their pitiful camp fire and pulled himself to his feet; it was probably just all in his head. He was going crazy.

It wasn't all in his head. Standing up made pain flare up his legs violently, like someone was stabbing them from the inside out. He caught his breath and refused to slide back to the ground. He wasn't going to let a little thing like being sore stop him from doing something constructive.

He stood up straight, the pain just intensifying until his knees locked. He couldn't remember being sore ever hurting this much. But what else could it be?

###

The woman behind the counter must've thought Percy had already crossed the line separating insanity from sanity. Apparently buying every sort of winter apparel at a thrift shop was weird. Maybe she just had an issue with teenagers. Probably the later.

He had bought everything they'd need for the whole winter, even a small and easy to pack tent. Their last one had broken over the summer. Not that sleeping in the open bothered them; they'd been forced to do it for years.

He'd replaced everything that had been in Jason's backpack. A sleeping bag, new clothes, blankets, even a few cheap books with random literature awards announced on the front covers.

One of the many many downsides to being runaways was that there was very little to do when you weren't sleeping, eating or moving. Reading had become a pretty enjoyable pastime. They had even used to have some schoolbooks. Mostly science and math, but they'd given up on education last year.

The woman at the register continued to scowl as she rang up all of Percy's items. She looked up and squinted at his forehead. "Is that dirt?"

Percy felt the color drain from his face. Had she figured out something? Was he really being that strange? Had she seen his picture somewhere and recognized him? He attempted to slyly take a deep breath and wiped his forehead with the back of his even dirtier hand.

"A friend of mine and I were playing in the woods earlier," he bit his tongue as soon as it came out. He had just given away their location. So if she had recognized them and knew who they were, she now knew where they were.

The woman scowled. "Wouldn't do that, too many bugs and way too cold. You'll get Lyme disease and hypothermia."

Yeah, like he hadn't thought of that. Percy passed her some of his dwindling money supply and left without another word.

When he exited the shop, letting the door slam in his wake, he heard something crack. It was a loud crackling coming from the sky. He glanced up at the gigantic swarms of dark gray mist swirling above him, watching lightning begin to crackle in the distance.

Something wasn't right about the storm. Percy could feel the dryness of the air, something that wasn't common with huge rainclouds. Which could only mean one thing; Jason had made it.

Something was wrong.

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... tada!

I'll try to post the next chapter soon! Reviews are encouragement, so the more reviews the quicker I work! I love you guys!

Thanks again!

~Ann