Long story short, we couldn't get in. Kezi begged and pleaded and even demanded to see her medical record, but it didn't work. I have a feeling she'd stooped a lot lower with her actions than she had in a long time and I felt kind of guilty asking her to do that for me. She seemed nonplussed by that, just the fact that they didn't let her in.

"When's the last time Kezi's negotiating skills backfired?" Easton asked as he frowned at the notice of prohibition they'd shoved at us when they threw us out.

"I haven't failed yet!" Kezi insisted with a look of irritation and indignation as she plucked a leaf from an overhanging branch. "What time is it?"

"11:30, why?" Nico supplied.

"Damn it!" Kezi swore.

"What?" I asked.

"Taylor's longest class just started. It'll be four hours before we can get to him."

"Four hours?" I groaned.

"That's assuming he's the first person out and we're standing there waiting for him."

"Why is he even still in class? It's the end of May!"

"He wants to try to finish his MD early. Stupid overachiever." Kezi muttered.

Athan snorted. "You're more an overachiever than he is. You knocked a full year off a five-year degree, went to an Ivy League school, and graduated high school with a 5.0."

"That's not fair! I tested out of most of my first year, as did he; Pitt is an outstanding school for medical training; and he had a 4.95!"

"Maybe he's tired of barely getting shown up." Easton mumbled. Kezi glared at him. "It's annoying."

"So a pair of twins was valedictorian and whatever they call the second person?" Nico asked, seemingly impressed.

"They were not!" Easton protested. "I was salutatorian!"

"What was your GPA?"

"4.99!" Easton was irritated. "One test. I messed up on one test."

Kezi looked smug. "And I didn't." Easton growled at this and walked off.

Nico turned to Athan. "What were you? Third?"

Athan laughed. "No. Fifth. 4.88."

"What's with the whole better-than-4.0 thing?"

"Weighted classes." Kezi shrugged.

We ended up just walking around for a while, eventually getting back up into Oakland (which, I learned, was what they called the part of the city that consisted of college campuses, mainly Pitt.) and settling at a sidewalk café. Easton caught back up with us after a while but he wouldn't look at Kezi.

"So, what's the plan?" I asked as boredom started to take hold of the group.

Kezi looked up from where she'd let her eyes go out of focus and sighed as she started to tap her spoon lightly against the table.

"Taylor should be out in another hour or so. We can probably catch him on his way home."

"And until then?" Nico asked as he leaned back in his chair and folded his arms over his chest.

"I'm not sure what we could possibly do at 2:30 on a Wednesday…" Kezi trailed off and looked over to Easton, who refused to look at her. Kezi slammed her plastic spoon down on the table so hard it snapped in half. The table shook and liquids splashed over the sides of glasses.

"Grow up, would you?" She snapped at him.

Easton immediately stood up and glared down at Kezi. "Not everyone is as perfect as you, Blake."

Nico looked over and raised an eyebrow at me as Easton walked off. I shrugged and shook my head slightly.

Kezi clenched and unclenched her jaw, her eyes out of focus on her broken spoon.

Athan stood up as well, reaching for the broken spoon and other trash. "I'm going to throw this away and then we'll head over to the library."

The library was four floors of boredom. We did catch back up with Easton there, though he and Kezi walked as far away from each other as possible.

Kezi was actually first to complain (Annabeth never would have complained).

"Can we please leave?" She asked for the eighth time.

"Why? Can't somebody else learn something for a change?" Easton hissed over at her.

Kezi opened her mouth to say something but Athan wrapped his arms around her and cut her off. "You're cold, aren't you?"

Kezi just nodded and pulled his arms closer around her body.

"We really should be going if your brother gets out in ten minutes." Nico prodded after glancing at his watch. Easton slammed down his book and stalked out, leaving the rest of us staring after him. Kezi clenched and unclenched her jaw before she started to walk to the door with us behind her.

It was strange how the moment we walked out of the stone building the sky seemed to darken considerably. Everybody looked up and scanned the gathering clouds. I didn't doubt that it was going to rain, the only question was when.

Kezi spun slowly on her heel in a complete circle, her long red hair fanning out in the wind.

"We should go this way," She said quietly, explaining that she was adjusting for the 'wind tunnel' of a road we needed to avoid.

The buildings became more and more rundown as we walked. Greek-style buildings (Kezi explained that Oakland was supposed to have been modeled after the acropolis until they ran out of money during the World War) turned to row homes. Everything took on a dark and dingy tone, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't just the ever-darkening sky.

"Are we in the h- bad part of town?" I caught myself.

Kezi smiled. "No, we are not in the hood." She waved a hand around at the housing. "This is just where a lot of Pitt students live during the school year. Gotta watch the roaches."

The hill steepened and the houses appeared more and more crooked. A few guys wearing hooded sweatshirts stood across the street when we stopped at an intersection. It bothered me that their hoods were up and I couldn't see their eyes. I couldn't shake the feeling that they were watching us closely.

Kezi must've sensed this too because she abruptly changed directions and cut across the street to the left.

Nico moved to the middle of the group and, very calmly, made me panic.

"Why aren't there any cars?" He whispered.

I looked around and he was right, there weren't any cars on the road, not even parked alongside it. Not one.

Kezi nodded slightly. "I noticed that a while back. It's highly unusual, if not unprecedented." She threw a quick look over her shoulder. "And those guys are still watching us."

Easton jumped and looked up at this, obviously startled. The dark figures had crossed the street and were just a block and a half behind us.

We quickened our pace but they just walked faster themselves. At the next intersection another hooded man stood waiting across the street. The sky darkened still farther as he joined the first two.

By the time we got to the shelter of an alleyway, the sky had opened up and started to pour buckets. Streetlights had come on and it was dark enough to be nine instead of almost four. The alley was so dark I could barely make out the shape of a dumpster at the other end.

The number of creeps had increased to four and the distance had decreased to barely a hundred yards. We were practically running when three of us skidded around the corner and onto the gravel. Halfway down Nico came to a stop. When I turned to see why, I noticed Kezi and Athan still back at the entrance, Kezi refusing to come in. Nico yelled for them to hurry up, just as Athan gave up and yanked a terrified Kezi through the river of mud flowing towards a storm drain.

I started to run again but didn't get far because I ran into another body. That's how dark it was.

Easton cursed and slammed into the brick wall with a clank. Wait- a clank?

"Found it!" He shouted with triumph and shoved me towards the wall. I put my hands out in front of me expecting to feel the rough texture of brick but instead felt the slippery coolness of a steel ladder.

I started to climb just as I heard the crunch of gravel that meant Kezi, Athan, and Nico had caught up to us.

When I finally got to the top (That had to be a four-story building), Easton wasn't far behind me. But- nobody came up right after him.

We looked at each other in confusion for a moment before Nico's voice echoed up to us. "Astley! Watch out!"

Easton got back to the top of the ladder a moment before I did. Nico was all the way at the bottom with one of the figures holding him in a headlock.

"Why isn't he struggling?" I asked without getting an answer from Easton. A flash of metal at Nico's neck answered my question.

I looked over to the ladder just as Athan got ambushed by two of them. He managed to fight them off for a while, but he was more than halfway up and the ladder wasn't much more than a foot wide.

Kezi yelped and held close to the shaking ladder as Athan slipped down fifteen feet or so before he caught the ladder again.

"Go!" He shouted up to her before they ripped him from the ladder so all three of them fell the remaining distance to the ground. The fourth shadow guy stepped into view and started up the ladder towards Kezi.

She was just out of reach of the top when he caught up to her. Kezi screeched as he grabbed hold of her ankle and almost fell when he pulled on her leg.

Athan struggled against his captors on the ground when he saw this and Easton almost leapt down the ladder. Kezi, however, didn't need the help. She gripped the ladder so hard her knuckles turned white and she shifted her lower body, freeing her foot and slamming it down on her attacker's collar bone. I could hear the snap from here.

Kezi hurried up more of the rungs, but wasn't fast enough. The guy on the ladder below her made a low sound in the back of his throat and leapt up the ladder, catching Kezi around her thighs. She let out a real scream this time and her hand slipped off the top rung under the extra weight.

Easton barely caught her wrist in time. Kezi slammed her shoulder against one of the rungs and bit back a sound. I searched my pockets for Riptide but couldn't find it anywhere. It must have fallen on the way up.

Easton grunted as Kezi's hand began to slip. "My knife is strapped to my leg."

"A knife isn't long enough for this!" I hissed back at him, checking my pockets again.

Kezi's arm almost wrenched out of Easton's grip. I looked down to see the guy trying to grip her around the middle. His eyes gleamed when he discovered her swollen belly.

Kezi struggled again but this time there was a flash of bronze and a burst of red. A flash of lightning blinded me for a moment, but I could hear a blood-curdling scream through the thunder and afterwards a sickening thud on the gravel below.

Always wanted to leave a dramatic cliff hanger! Another first time in this story! So, who's blood and who's thud? Haha. That rhymed. But seriously, who do you think it is? Let me know who you think in a review!

I really need to get some reviews. I've gotten... 141 views and I've got nothing to show for it. Tell you what, if you review this story, I promise I will read atleast one of your stories and leave a review! How's that?

I also won't put up the next chapter until I get... 2 reviews for each chapter or a total of 6 reviews.

Review!

I do not own PJO! (However, I took the cover picture for this story. It's of the Fort Pitt Bridge, which is the bridge they are on when Percy turns around to see "an obscured view of the city as I'd seen it on my Google search." I took it from Point State park. I'm still debating whether or not I should include that location in this story or not. Tell me what you think if you actually read this far!)

Review and I'll love you!