Chapter Seven: Escaping Central Park
My heart swelled with relief as Hecate's disappearance broke the spell on my family and new friends.
"I suggest we get moving. I don't like the implications of their predictions," my mom shuttered.
"Right! I'll scout ahead!" Lyra broke out into a sprint down West Drive.
I gripped my sword's rubber handle as we jogged. Lyra's frosty blond ponytail swished back and forth ahead of us. Any other day she would have appeared to be a regular NYC jogger, but today was different.
Janus's prediction made a chill crawl up my spine. What if he was right? I couldn't stand it if something happened to my mom and brother. They were my world.
I began to wonder how long was it going to take to get out of the city and how long were we going to be able to keep this pace up. I couldn't count how many claw marks, cuts, and bruises I had on me even if I tried. My entire body was numb with pain. I guess that's why my mind kept drifting.
My senses kicked in as Skylar raised his arm and whipped a knife into the shadows to the left of Lyra. She stopped and turned towards us. "Ewe, super big snake." She picked up the knife after the monster turned to sulfur dust.
"Hey, at least Zillah won't have to tango with that one!" Trent grinned as he received a shut up smack from Zillah. "What?" He rubbed his arm as if she caused him a great deal of pain.
"Trent stay focused." My mom ordered from behind us. "Let's get off on Central Park West as soon as possible. This way we can keep the park to our left and hide in the trees if we need to."
"Sounds like a plan." Skylar agreed. "Staying on this path might make the trek longer than it needs to be anyway."
"After that we'll stay on 8th Avenue and head up 38th Street to get to the Lincoln tunnel."
"Too bad we can't just 'borrow' someone's car or a city bus and drive ourselves out of here." Trent suggested.
"That would be great," I said, "But whatever magic is at work here, it turned off all of the car engines when it put their drivers to sleep. We can't just hop on a bus and expect it to work. Besides, that's way too risky, it would be like sending up a flare, 'hi monsters come and eat us.'" I sighed as my sword felt like it was getting heavier and heavier. I realized my adrenaline rush must be coming to an end. From what I could tell by the looking around, everyone was feeling the same way, but no one was willing to admit it.
"Not to mention all the other cars and busses in the way." Lyra added in after making her way back over to us. She handed the dagger back to brother, and then she grabbed his wrist to check the time. "It's about midnight."
Zillah got that look in her eye again. She tilted her head and frowned. "It doesn't seem like there are too many stragglers around anymore. Let's hope..."
Fireworks went off in my brain. My knees buckled and my sword clang to the ground. Falling forward I couldn't help but feel an overwhelming pain in my shoulder.
"Meredith!" My mother's voice sounded muffled in my ears.
"Surrender or the next one will be through the heart." A voice from the woods called out. If I could think a little straighter I would have guessed it was a kid trying to sound like a man.
My family and friends formed a tight circle around me.
"Show yourself, coward!" Lyra's voice boomed. I lifted my eyes towards her and could swear her hair was turning grey. Not like when you're older and the color starts to fade, but more like when the clouds start change before a storm.
"Oh, you shouldn't have done that." A snotty female's voice commented from the opposite direction.
"Shut up Lindsey!" Another girl whispered way too loudly.
"No Brielle, you shut up." Lindsey spat back.
"Both of you shut up!" The first kid yelled in his normal voice.
"Oh, by the way, nice shot Paul." Lindsey sarcastically commented loud enough for him to hear. Then to Brielle in a harsh loud whisper, "No wonder Apollo never claimed him."
"Go paint your nails!" He growled and said something along the lines that she was too ugly for Aphrodite to ever want her as one of her brats.
White spots danced across my eyes. I looked down at my arm and saw that it glistened with my own blood.
"Paul, just kill them already and be done with it." Brielle begged.
"No, I got a better idea."
"But we're under orders..." Brielle whined.
"Slaves. There are six, assuming the brunette survives. We'll have two each. You can't beat that."
Lindsey reminded him, "We'll be able to have a whole city of slaves once Kronos takes over. Just kill them, so that we could report this in."
"Yeah, but these are half-bloods..." Paul continued to list why it would better to have a demi-god as a slave as opposed to a mortal.
I was sitting back on my heals trying to maintain some level of focus when Lyra looked back at me. Maybe it was the loss of blood, but her electric blue eyes appeared to be sparking out of control. Her hair was no longer grey, it had turned jet black.
I shifted my eyes as far around the circle as I could possible look without moving my shoulder. Each person seemed to have grown a new aura of energy.
Suddenly the circle broke open, and my family and friends rushed toward into the trees. Lindsey, Brielle and Paul were so distracted by their own bickering that they were caught completely off guard.
Paul released one arrow before Skylar dove on top of him. The arrow sailed in my direction. I tried to move out of its way, but was too slow. It punctured my calve muscle. I screamed out of pain before the world shifted into blackness.
"Work, damn it, work!" My mother's voice sounded terrified in my ears.
"Miss Glew, look!" Zillah sounded relieved.
The pain in my shoulder and calve faded. A wave of tingling sensations spread through my limbs. I opened my eyes to see my mother's worried expression melt away. "Oh, my Mermaid! You had me so worried!" She embraced me and started to kiss the top of my head.
"I'm okay, mom, really." My voice sounded weak and distant as I tried to reassure her. For the first time I realized I was submerged in water. Zillah, Trent, and my mom were waist deep in the water as well.
Sponge ran out of the polluted lake, "She's okay!" He nearly shouted loud enough for any monster near us to hear.
"Nice to have you back in the land of the living." Zillah smiled, and then walked off as well.
"Sweetie, can you stand?"
Put my feet down into the mud. "I think so." I shifted my weight and stood. My knees did not buckle. Instead, I felt like a million bucks. I couldn't remember the last time I felt this refreshed.
"Wonderful!" My mom gave me another hug, and then started pulling me toward the shore.
"What happened to the other kids?"
"Oh, they're tied up to a tree."
"Really?" I wondered if they were going to get in trouble.
"Yeah. Now you know why I always tell you to stay focused." She said as if it were my fault that I got shot. Well... I guess it was. Maybe if I had been more focused I could have seen Paul in the trees or noticed Lindsey and Breille in their hiding places.
I stepped out of the lake and stopped as my head grew fuzzy once more. I staggered unevenly for several feet. I could only imagine that I looked drunk.
"Do you need me to carry her?" Skylar walked toward us. His brows were knitted together as if he were actually worried about me.
"She'll be fine." My mom squeezed my hand for a split second before letting go.
I heard doubt in Skylar's voice as he said, "if you insist." His button down shirt was covered in my blood and his jeans were partially soaked. I thanked him for caring me to the water and promised him that I would make it up to him someday.
My brother brought me my sword and he asked, "Can you hold this?"
I gripped the handle. "Yeah, we better get moving."
"I'm glad you're okay." Lyra appeared out of the trees. Her hair was back to normal, and her expression looked fairly cheery. "I was so mad, I thought... I thought..." She shook her head, "Never mind." She turned and took the point position in our line once again.
The rest of our trip out of the park went rather smoothly. We hardly ran into any monsters, or crazy kids. It was just after one when we reached Columbus Circle the ground began to shake.
"Earthquake?" Lyra suggested.
"Worse," Zillah's eyes filled with fear. "Several large blue giants are heading our way."
