Chapter 23: Route 66(6)

When I woke up I felt sick. What I had seen was horrible. The only good thing was that if that dream was recent, Phthonos didn't have Messor yet. That gave us a little more time. Maybe enough to get to Hades and get some sort of help. I wondered if he would help us, and what help he could offer. He had to be willing to help, after all Phthonos killed his daughter. I figured Hades had to have some kind of feelings for her. Maybe not, he was the lord of the dead. Maybe his heart had grown as cold as the corpses of the dead. If so...we were screwed. Without Hades' help we couldn't defeat Phthonos. There was no way the three of us could stand against a god. We could probably defeat Samael, one of us would. But Phthonos, no way.
"Look, I get that you're happy that Phthonos isn't very far in ending the world but where does that leave us? Do we find the dagger before here does or defeat him or what? Look man we never really had a clue what this was all about and now what we did know has been messed up." Luke and Max didn't show much enthusiasm to the fact that we still had time. Luke had a point no doubt about it, but a point I didn't agree to.
"Nothing has changed. I mean the prophecy still says that we go to Hades. Only it means that we have some more time to do all this." I said. Ever since we left I was afraid that Phthonos would have unleashed a titan juiced up Samael before we even got to Los Angeles. But now there seemed to be hope that we could beat him before he killed all of us. So to me there was a sense of relief.
"Look man, I don't know if we should. I mean Hades isn't a good friend of the demigod species and going there is really a last resort." Luke said. To me there was no question. Athena told me to go to him for help and even though he wasn't the nicest of immortals he had to help us. If Athena believed he would, I believed it. But the others weren't that naïve. I was still in between hating and worshipping the gods while they had less love for the gods. They knew that there was a chance that what Athena told me wasn't all true. I on the other hand trusted her word. The gods were new to me and she had shown in interest in what was happening in the world and she was Jake's patron. I didn't see a reason why I shouldn't trust her.

It would take a few more hours to get to Chicago. But we made it. We were exactly on time to meet Maria's dad. Now when you had to steal a car to be on time for a plane and find out you're not getting the tickets...you get kinda mad.
"What do you mean you don't have our tickets?" I said. Luke didn't say much. This was his father in law sort of, he couldn't really say anything stupid. I on the other hand wasn't really held back by anything.
"Didn't Maria tell you? I told her yesterday evening that I can't afford it. These tickets cost a fortune." For Luke's sake, I didn't punch the guy in the face. But oh I wanted to. We were counting on the tickets and they just weren't here.
"Damn it!" I didn't even care to say goodbye. I just walked off. I didn't really care about being friends with Maria' dad. Maria didn't like me why would her dad? I was only supposed to pick up the tickets and walk off. Maximus and Luke even stayed in the car. When I got back to the Celica I punched it so hard I nearly broke my hand.
"Dude! Watch the car." Luke said as if he paid thousands for it.
"It's a stolen car...what do you care?"
"Well..." Luke had to think about this one. I figured it was just because it was a pretty sweet ride and even though it wasn't actually his he kinda liked it. "what if we want to bring it back?"
"Trust me, if we bring it back the guy who owns it is going to be happy enough with it being back with a dent then not being back at all." And even though I got a good punch...I barely even left a dent. My hand hurt like hell though I couldn't really show that.
"I guess." Luke said as I got in shotgun. Maximus had taken his place on the back seat again after Luke took over the wheel.
"Seriously you two? What about the freaking tickets?" Maximus didn't really care about the car obviously.
"No luck, he doesn't have them."
"What?" Maximus said. For some reason Luke didn't seem all too surprised.
"Luke tell me you didn't know." Now I also figured out why Luke was so freaked out when he saw me after Iris Messaging Maria.
"I knew." I felt like punching the car again, or Luke I didn't really care either way.
"What else didn't you tell us?" I was furious. Luke knew that we were going to Chicago for nothing. We could have gone towards LA instead of move towards the north first. We wouldn't have wasted this time.
"There's a motel with a spare room just outside Tulsa Oklahoma."
"Tulsa Oklahoma?" It took me a few seconds to realize. I knew where Oklahoma was, I knew where Tulsa was. Chicago to LA. That's when I had it. "You want to take route 66? You want to take route 66 aka the highway to hell while we're going to the underworld? Are you trying to jinx this?" I asked. It didn't seem very smart to challenge sods law like that. What's sods law? If you take the train with a ticket everyday and only get checked one out of ten times and then you ride without a ticket one time. That day you'll get checked. You can't beat sod's law, you can't challenge it, it's a supernatural force that can't be destroyed, fear sod's law!
"Why not? A lot of people travel over route 66. It's like a bucket list thing." Luke said in his defence.
"Most people aren't going to the underworld!" Yes I'm kind of superstitious about these kind of things. It wasn't smart to take route 66 on a travel like this...I knew it wasn't.
"Well actually." Maximus seemed to have found a reason to interrupt. "On a long enough time line everyone dies so wherever one is going in the end everyone is headed for the underworld." Luke and I stared at Maximus for about a minute before he seemed to realize that what he said was kinda weird.
"Do you see the good in anything?"
"So depressing sometimes."
"What? It's simple logic." He tried. So we left for Tulsa Oklahoma, route 66. Even though I was against it I figured if we were in Chicago might as well take the road to hell. And hell at least I could say I took route 66 all the way, stripe that off my bucket list.

Getting to Tulsa was about 12 hours. We switched off driving every hour or so. Luke seemed to enjoy driving the most. Real son of Hephaestus I guess. After we all had two turns we stopped at a road restaurant to grab something to eat and just chill out for a minute. It was three PM and in the real world people were working or enjoying their summer. Here we were making a possible one way trip to hell. During lunch we barely even talked. We just ate our lunch and were happy to be out of a moving vehicle for a while. The restaurant had a little store section selling DVD's and CD's. The truth was we didn't really have any tunes in the car. So I had a look. I had no idea what music the others listened to, I wasn't even sure if Maximus listened to music ever. He was pretty much raised by Phthonos and if he listened to any kind of music it would be when you're evil by Voltaire. There were loads of CD's I liked, Metallica, Rise against, Black Sabbath. That's when I saw it. A little yellow plate saying 'sale' in red letters. 'Every CD for two bucks, 10 for 10.' Now if you're a music geek like me and you see that plate and have ten dollars in your pocket...you freak. So before I knew it I had ten albums in my hand and went to the counter when a voice called me.
"Hey Angel? Do you still have that ten bucks?" I knew I had to give the money...it was team money. But the albums...I had to have the albums. The girl at the counter looked at me with a sly smile. Not a smile like: just buy those albums already but : if you're not buying them I'm going to kill you, if you do I'm going to do the same. It seemed like a bad way to sell. But there was something weird about it other than the obvious lack of selling skills. She seemed to be different than what I believed. I looked at her for a long time, staring I guess. And the more I looked the less human she seemed. I looked until she didn't look human at all, that's about when she tried to kill me. From out of no where the broom that was standing not far from the counter had turned into a spear and this thing was trying to kill me. At first she looked like a totally normal girl now I was fighting some half woman half snake thing. Other than the freakish yellow eyes her top half was normal, her bottom was freak of the year award nominee though. Instead of legs she had two snake trunks. Now things like that were quite common with monsters but this was pretty new to me. Now with two snake trunks instead of legs you don't expect a thing to be too fast. Sadly this thing was. She moved lightning quick and I had a hard time dodging her attacks. She didn't even give me a chance to reach into my pocket and get my lighter/weapon out. I looked a cross the room to find Luke and Maximus fighting their own problem. Another monster was trying to kill them, these things killed in teams. In that split second my random mind wondered if they made a sport out of it. Maybe this was a very important match for the championships. When something is trying to poke you with a spear these thoughts don't linger for long. When I got one moment of free time because of throwing a plate at the thing I reached into my pocket and took out the black Zippo otherwise known as Shadow-edge. I held the sword in my hand and charged the monster. Dumb idea since I had never fought anyone with a spear. As soon as I came within 6 feet I was in stabbing range. I side rolled, ducked and jumped and it kept me alive but not very close to this thing. I had to get close very quickly. When she stabbed at my head I ducked and as fast as I could I toed forwards and drilled Shadow-edge straight through her chest. Like any monster it disintegrated into dust, very rewarding. Luke and Max had also dealt with their monster...although they had been a little faster than I had.
"You know usually when you're finished killing your monster you help a fellow demi out." I said still panting.
"Usually yeah, but come on it was only a Dracanae. No big." Luke said. Of course to me this thing had been quite a challenge...maybe I wasn't as much of a fighter as I thought I was or Luke acted like these things were easier to kill than I thought.
"Yeah no big...wait now that there are no clerks can we take a couple of albums?"

The rest of the trip was what others would call boring. The music didn't change, the scenery didn't change and we ran out of road trip game on the first halve of the trip. To Luke and Max it was boring. I was happy to have some peace and quiet. No things trying to kill me, no need to watch my back no Luke trying to get my backpack because there were still some Reese's in it. While driving we kept the back packs in the trunk which we greatly regretted whenever one of us felt like a snack. For me the remaining hours were nice and calm. When I wasn't driving I was sleeping. I knew that this serenity in the car wouldn't last long. And soon I would end up not sleeping at all again so might as well sleep as much as I could. I was actually pretty amazed when we reached the motel without getting attacked. Of course I was also amazed that this motel was still in business. The lobby looked like any motel but the bear sized guy behind the desk looking like he hadn't taken a shower in months.
"Room for three please." Luke said. The guy looked at him with dull eyes and snorted. He turned back to the wall with keys and picked number 19.
"It's thirty a night, take the stairs at the end of the hall." We did what the guy said. The room was simple but nothing more than we needed. The thing was though there was one bed with a top and bottom bunk and one king sized bed.
"Dibs on the king sized!" We all said something like that. That's when we all started pushing and pulling to get to the bed first. Luke eventually got his backpack on it, he had the bed.
"Bottom bunk." Max said.
"I wanted top anyway." Being near the roof seemed better than sleeping underneath someone else.
"Look guys. Maybe I'm saying this cause I have the good bed." Both me and Max looked at Luke with a 'I'll kill you if you say that again' look. "But I say we get an early night. If we drive through the night we'll be in Los Angeles the day after tomorrow." Even though we didn't like how he started his story he was right. Max and Luke were asleep pretty quick, I on the other hand was not. I knew why, son of Erebus the night was my time to be up. Sadly civilization didn't agree with me. I wondered if all children of Erebus, Nyx and Hades had this problem. Maybe it was just me. I didn't know, what I did know was that I wasn't going to get to sleep at the moment. I took the keys and walked downstairs. The guy was still standing behind the counter with the same dull look. I went outside and walked to the Celica. The night was dark, barely any stars and I couldn't find the moon anywhere. I sat on the hood of the Celica with a can of coke and just waited for me to grow tired or for dawn to wake the others.
"Angel, want a real drink?"
"Max?" When I left the room I was sure he had been asleep. Either I woke him up or he wasn't asleep at all. Either way he sat next to me and passed me a beer.
"How did you get this?" I had beer before and if you knew where to look it wasn't tough to get when you were under 21. But I knew Max wasn't 21 so I just wondered.
"Does this place look like it has many customers? The guy didn't even ask me for ID." I shrugged. If he didn't ask then he didn't need to know.
"In that case, cheers."I hadn't had beer in a while. But at times like these it tasted pretty good. "So what's on your mind mate?" I asked him.
"Nothing really." He lied.
"Come on. You're seventeen I'm sixteen, you wouldn't pass me a beer unless you had something to talk about."
"Look, I know Luke's been talking about driving in one time but I want to go to Oklahoma city tomorrow."
"Why? Want to have a good old Oklahoma barbecue?" I got hit on the back of the head for that. No one seemed to find my jokes funny any more.
"About two months ago not long before I came to camp Phthonos told me to get this package to the bank. I think I knew what was in there but I can't remember. I think it has something to do with Messor though." I doubted for a second. It seemed kind of weird to me. I thought it was better to go to Los Angeles but if Max thought it was important I should give it a shot.
"Okay. Can you get the package without Phthonos?"
"It was put on my name...well one of them."
"One of them?" I should have known that he had some aliases. I mean raised by Phthonos and usual killer, thief and what not. He would have needed some good aliases.
"Yeah...I have like ten." Maximus said.
"Ten? That's quite impressive." I said. "Do you ever forget them?"
"All the time." We chuckled a bit. It wasn't funny enough to laugh about but we had to take everything that was slightly funny and try to laugh. The road was still long and the laughs might disappear.
"So is it weird? Travelling with us trying to defeat Phthonos?" I had wanted to ask him this for a while. I never really had the chance, not that I thought anyway.
"I guess so. I mean I have known the guy for ten years give or take. I can barely remember how you got me into this."
"I beat you up in the woods." That wasn't actually true.
"You were the one that was on the ground."
"I thought you didn't remember?"
"I don't remember losing." This wasn't going anywhere.
"We're getting off topic." I said.
"Look just let it go Angel. It's not important." I wanted to keep asking but in the end I did as he asked. Not long after that he went back up, I didn't go until after three AM. Luke hadn't even noticed we had been awake that night. He woke up in the morning, woke us up and we left.

"Why do you want to go to Oklahoma? Seriously what is there that's so important?" Luke really didn't like the idea. He thought the faster we moved to Los Angeles the better. No more stops longer than an hour seemed best in his opinion.
"I can't remember for sure." Maximus said. He seemed honest enough.
"Then how are you sure that it's important?" They kept arguing like that. I kept myself out of it. I thought it wouldn't do much harm to go to Oklahoma City. I just sat there looking outside of the window when I saw a big black SUV near us. Route 66, the highway to hell. Known for the most traffic related accidents in America. Of course this wasn't an accident. I can't really remember the collision itself. Just the car nearing and then our car being upside down. I don't know if I blacked out or just suppressed the memory. Either way when I regained my senses I felt horrible. My head was turning, my sight was blurry and my whole body hurt. I didn't know how the others were, but I knew I had to get them out. Someone else had other ideas. I got pulled out of the car by what a first believed was a helpful soul. Instead the person that I saw, and the person that had tried to kill us, was Samael.
"Hey Michael."
"Samael?" I could barely speak. I was in so much pain.
"I can't really kill you yet. Daddy dearest says he needs you for something. Seems like bullshit to me. You can barely stand after a simple collision. Anyway, just thought you'd want to know that I'm right behind you. Nighty night." The next thing I felt was the bottom of his shoe in my face. Then everything turned black. I didn't know if the others were alive, I didn't know if I was alive, not for sure anyway. One thing I knew for sure, never take route 66 on a road trip to the underworld.