CHAPTER 6 – NOAH
The journey was going quite well until the giant attacked.
They were driving down the highway, heading for San Francisco, when Noah heard a loud thudding sound. He looked around worried, because he had no idea what it could be. He opened the window and leaned out to get a better view of his environment, and he saw it. Big and blue and running straight for them, a Hyperborean giant stomping down the highway behind them, knocking cars aside and occasionally flipping them over. Noah panicked and almost fell out, but he managed to get back in to tell Connor and Fay. Connor didn't say anything, but he bit his lip and floored the accelerator. Fay suggested that he should use the Epirus bow, and he grabbed an arrow and the bow, leaned out of the window again, and took aim.
Or that's how he'd have liked to do it. Instead, when he nocked the arrow and pulled the string, the arrow started to glow and it distracted him so he didn't really aim properly, and he fired it accidentally and it hit one of the cars in front of the giant. The glow turned out to be a kind of explosive energy that… exploded, when it hit its target. When it hit the car, the power of the bow sent it rocketing backwards, slamming straight into the giant's head. It staggered and ripped the car from its face, scowling at Noah. It took aim, and threw the car straight at him. He ducked back inside and it clipped the wing mirror, and instead hit a car in front of their van, sending it careering into them.
The van smashed straight into the car, sending it into a barrel roll. They all curled up in the van to minimise the damage to them, and as the van rolled, they rolled with it. It came to a stop after a few rolls, and they hurriedly got out, just as the giant smashed into the van and sent it an additional few metres. Out of options, they turned to fight it.
Noah drew another arrow, noting with satisfaction that the used arrow had appeared back in the quiver – an infinite supply of magic arrows – just what he needed. He nocked the arrow, careful not to let the glow distract him, and he fired. The arrow was straight on target, and hit the giant square in the chest. The concussive force of the arrow flung the giant back across the highway, onto the other side and into oncoming traffic. Several cars hit it in the head and chest before it could stand up and brush them off. By the time it spotted the demigods, Noah had let another arrow fly. This one hit it straight in the forehead, and was sent somersaulting off the highway. He hoped it didn't clamber back up.
The demigods cheered, but they were now without a ride. Connor went back to the overturned van to grab their packs, whilst Fay looked for a car to hijack from the traffic jam of abandoned vehicles that had fled once the cars started flying. Noah stood watch with the Epirus bow in case the giant made a return appearance.
After a minute or two of searching, Fay managed to 'secure' a sedan and they got in and took off. Noah was pretty sure he saw giant blue fingers on the edge of the highway as they left.
Back on track, they had no more interruptions as they passed through Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana, until they got to Illinois where they stopped off to rest and refuel. They had to change the license plates of the car since the owner would have reported it stolen by now, and they needed to be discreet. They stopped at a motel to sleep for a few hours, and to refuel at the gas station next to it. When they were ready again, they set off. They piled into the sedan, throwing their packs with their supplies and weapons in on the back seat. Noah kept his bow next to him and his quiver on his lap. Connor started the sedan, and they left in a hurry, the accelerator pressed flat to the floor.
They got through the rest of Illinois without a problem, and had quite a nice time sightseeing as they drove. All the places they passed through, and the different scenes that they saw that nobody else could, like a pack of wild centaurs running through a field, a baby Cyclops curled up in a box in an alleyway, and other things that mortal eyes could never see that were all open for them to gaze at.
They drove through the next state in much the same way, stopping once to grab some hot food from a drive-in, and spent the rest of their time on the road eating or sightseeing. They had a great time, and they were making good time to San Francisco, being only a few states away now. They'd stop when they reached California once more to sleep and resupply, and then they'd hit Mount Tam, and find out if Heracles was actually making for it, or not.
It was all going fine until they crossed the border into California. They had just cleared the checkpoint successfully when they heard an explosion. Alarmed, Connor floored the accelerator, taking them away from the checkpoint and the explosion as fast as he could. It didn't work though. They were standing in the middle of the road, right in front of them. Telkhines. Half-human, half-dog, they stood with jars of Greek fire, ready to blow the sedan, and them, into a million pieces. When Connor saw the Greek fire, he veered the car so it went into the oncoming traffic. Thanks to his driving skills, he managed to avoid hitting the cars that were roaring past them, and managed to stay on the road and in one piece. Unfortunately, the telkhines had transport. Connor saw it before they did, a black SUV was powering along parallel to them on the right side of the road, one telkhine leaning out of the window with a jar of Greek fire. Connor slammed on the brakes as it threw the Greek fire, and it missed and hit the road ahead of the car instead. Connor reversed the sedan and pulled off a sweet J-turn, heading back the way they had come. They had lost the sedan, but Noah wasn't sure if there were more.
They found an exit a little further on that turned them around and put them back on track towards their final rest stop. He was making good time, and only had an hour to go, until the telkhines found them again. Once again the SUV was behind them, but Noah was ready this time. He leaned out of the window, bow and arrow in hand. He took aim at the front tyre, nocked an arrow back, and fired. Chiron was right – the bow never misses its target – because the front tyre was blown off the SUV, and the entire car was flipped onto its back from the force of the arrow. They cheered in their sedan, hopefully seeing the last of the telkhines, at least for now.
Not long later they had reached their rest stop – a motel just outside San Francisco. They all got some more sleep, and after that Noah went to grab some food from a takeout nearby. When they had slept and eaten, they once again got into the sedan for the last leg of their journey.
/
PLEASE REVIEW!