Chapter 13 Search and rescue

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Leo, Percy, Jason and Frank are all feeling restless after so long with still no results from the searches for their missing friends in the news Leo picked up on his radio, they knew that no one in their group would be able to sleep that night so they waited for the nightly check to be finished and another ten minutes before they left their tent with flashlights and packs in hand.

Earlier that day when they had had free time they had worked out a plan to head out on their own and do some sort of search themselves, no one could say for sure why they were so set on searching the woods around camp but they didn't have any other plan, plus as far as movies went it was the perfect place to hide out while on the run so why not?

No one was surprised when Percy had been the one to come up with the crazy idea but they just needed to feel like they were doing something to help so no one said anything against it. Once it had been agreed that they'd sneak out after dark they packed their backpacks with anything that would seem useful and they left them in their tents when it was time to get back to camp activities.

Once the coast was clear they quietly snuck out of their tents hoping that there weren't any councillors on patrol nearby and were to keep close together until they were far enough into the trees where it would be safe to turn on their flashlights.

Everything had been going according to plan until three quarters of the way to the trees Frank had stumbled and ended up falling to the ground managing to knock someone down with him, everyone stopped dead in their tracks when the quiet cries of surprise came from the two that now lay in a heap on the ground, one had been Frank but the other had been more higher pitched.

Jason threw caution to the wind and flicked on his flashlight and they saw that Frank had tripped bringing down a girl with cinnamon curls and cocoa skin with him when he fell.

Frank's face went bright red as he scrambled to his feet and quickly helped the girl to her feet as well. "I am so sorry about that! Are you alright? Are you hurt anywhere?" Frank started babbling as he stood there clearly embarrassed but the girl just smiled reassuringly at him.

"I'm okay, sorry I should have brought a flashlight but I thought I could make it to and from the bathroom without one." she looked around at the other three boys standing there. "Where you guys also going to the bathroom?" she raised her eyebrow when she noticed the backpacks they all had with them.

We're busted… Leo thought knowing that they were caught; he wondered how much trouble they would be in when the councillors were finished with them.

"Please don't say anything to the councillors! We can't get caught yet, we need to go help our friends!" Leo begged, well could you blame him? It was a serious situation and pride wasn't needed right now, just stealth.

The girl's other eyebrow shot up to match the first one. "Your friends are in trouble? Is there anything I can do to help?"

They were all caught off guard by the question, none of them had expected to get caught so soon and they definitely had not expected someone to offer to help.

"Um well we uh…" Leo looked at the others but none of them knew how to react either, "Uh sure?"

The girl smiled sweetly. "Great!"

Then they heard other voices calling out. "Hazel? Where are you?"

Jason turned and the light from his flashlight showed three other girls coming from a nearby campsite.

"What's going on?" the tall blonde girl asked as she saw the four boys standing there in the middle of the path and Hazel standing with them.

"Annabeth?" Percy asked when he saw her and she looked at him.

"You didn't answer the question, what's going on?" Annabeth asked but she didn't seem angry just wanted to know what they were all doing standing there in the dark like that.

"Uhhhh…" Percy seemed lost for words so Hazel spoke for them.

"They said that they needed to help their friends."

The other girls looked at her then back at the boys.

"What happened?" asked a girl with choppy brown hair tied in a braid.

"They're missing." Jason said.

The girls all seemed shocked by that.

"You know that news story about the missing boys?" Frank asked and Annabeth nodded, the story had become common knowledge.

"We were sick of waiting around for something to happen so we thought we'd look ourselves, we know it's not likely that they're anywhere in the area since the first time it happened they made it all the way across the country but we thought that since there's so much police involvement this time that maybe they didn't get too far yet, and so we thought we'd search the woods around here." Jason said.

"We just couldn't sit around waiting anymore, they're our friends and we want to help them." Percy added.

The girls all shared a look and then Annabeth spoke up. "Okay, we'll help you."

Percy was so happy by this that he pulled her into a hug. "You're the best Wisegirl!"

Annabeth blushed but didn't fight the hug. "Where were you planning on looking? And even if you did find them how do you plan on helping them?"

Annabeth asked when Percy let her go.

"I've been training to be a lifeguard so I have some first aid training." Percy said, it was the best they had but hopefully it counted for something.

"Oh me too." said the girl with the braid. "I'm Piper by the way, and you already know Annabeth and Hazel, this over here is Calypso, we call her Calie."

The other brunette waved. "Hi. I also have some first-aid training."

Leo let out a sigh at the turn of good luck. "That's great!" he noted that the girls seemed to have already changed for bed. "Uh if you guys are going to be coming along you might want to change first."

They girls looked at one another and agreed.

"Good idea." Piper said.

"You guys hangout here in the trees with the light off and we'll be right back." Annabeth said as the girls headed back to their tents to change.

…

Only a few short minutes later the girls had joined back up with them and they were far enough into the trees that they could turn the flashlights on.

"Okay, so now that there's more of us that should help things but where do we even look?" Jason asked looking around at the group of campers.

"We've hiked these trails a lot so we know this area pretty well; there is a stream not too far to the East of here. If we follow it we would be leaving camp borders but there are some cabins in the area." Annabeth said.

Leo sent up a prayer of thanks that the girls had come along with them because they probably wouldn't have been able to find their way on their own. "Great let's go check it out!" he said and that settled it.

They walked for maybe ten minutes before the tree line broke and they could hear running water close by.

"Looks like we've found the stream." Percy said and they headed towards it shining their lights ahead of them so that they didn't trip over rocks or roots as they went.

"Hey what's that?" Hazel asked as one of the beams of light flashed on something near the water.

All lights were directed towards where she had seen something and they all let out a collective gasp as they saw the unconscious figure lying on their back half in the water at the edge of the stream.

"Will!" the boys cried out as they all ran towards the edge of the water and together they hauled the boy out of the water and Percy set to work making sure that he hadn't already drowned, when he found that Will was still breathing he let out a sigh of relief.

"He's alive!" he told the others who were standing back, they also let out the breaths they had been holding.

Hazel was in tears. "Oh thank goodness!"

Percy and Piper stayed with Will while the others spread out and searched around to see if they could find any trace of Nico but they came back empty handed and dejected.

The boys had brought along extra clothes and blankets in their backpacks just in case and they wrapped Will up to keep him warm and help dry him off a bit, now all they could do was wait for the boy to wake up.

We're getting close! I told you the girls would make an appearance in here didn't I?

Also Happy birthday Nico!