Percy's POV.
Always listen to your heart. Listen to your instinct. Your mind is a vital part of your body, but instinct keeps you alive. Listen to that 'gut feeling', to quote Gibbs. That's one thing I have learned since when I was twelve.
I made that mistake when we were flying to Denver.
Okay, back to in the clearing with Annabeth, Grover, Thalia, and Jason. Porcha was assigned to Thalia. Porcha was a white mare, with blue eyes. Thalia seemed to like her. Aces was assigned to Grover. Aces was a brown stallion with a golden mane and golden stripes going up his legs. Porkiepie, a grey mare, was assigned to Jason. Her pure white wings and almost black ankles fascinated him. She was a beauty, like an autumn sunset. There were only four pegasi, so Annabeth and I had to ride on Blackjack.
We saddled up. Grover led us all- including our pegasi- to the clearing and took off. Our pegasi soon followed. I hadn't gotten over the thrill from riding on Blackjack. I felt a pair of arms grip tighten around my waist. I looked back to see Annabeth pressed tightly to me, a shadow of fear clouding her normally confident eyes.
"What's wrong? You're not scared of heights, are you?"
Annabeth shook her head. "No, but-" she stopped herself. She was debating with herself in her mind. She decided not to say anything. "Nothing."
I didn't believe her, but I turned to face the front. The sun was rising in the east. The sky was a bluish purple, tendrils of orange streaking across. The others flew ahead of us, not looking behind. Something was wrong. It was my gut feeling. There was something wrong with this picture. I whirled around, startling Annabeth so much, she almost let go of me. I found it.
"Is something wrong? You've gone paler than Nico."
I kept my eyes locked in the distance, not able to form words in my mouth. It was flying faster than all four pegasi combined. Annabeth caught my gaze and checked behind her. She let out a small gasp.
"Thalia! Grover! Jason! Move!" she yelled.
I was jarred out of my trance. I whirled around and urged Blackjack to go faster.
What's up, boss?
"They are on our trail."
Who is? The air police?
"There is no time to explain. Go faster!"
Grover had turned around to see what Annabeth was yelling at. His eyes widened and he yelled at Thalia and Jason's horses to go faster. We were behind them, but with Blackjack's pumping wings, we were gaining on them.
Grover looked behind him one last time. He yelled, "Percy, dive down!"
Blackjack understood. He took a steep dive, Annabeth's arms tightening around my waist, both of our voices raised in wordless screams of terror. A huge explosion sounded from where we had just been. The heat seared the back of my head and my shoulders. Blackjack stopped flapping for a moment and we plummeted about a hundred feet. I yelled along with Annabeth. The ground was coming up fast. Blackjack began to pump his wings again, and we soared higher into the air.
We shouldn't have done that.
The helicopter was waiting for us there. One of the people had opened a door and had thrown a rope down the side. They were sliding down the rope, guns aimed at me.
I didn't have to ask who they were. The flag on the side of their helicopter said it all.
The black belts on their waists gleamed in the sunlight. One of them blinded my eyes and I looked away. Blackjack was blinded too and fell a few more hundred feet. We were at the tops of the trees, and I pulled his reins for him to stop. He halted and hovered there for a few moments, flying in a tight circle to stay aloft. The helicopter blades grew louder as they tried to come closer.
"Tell Blackjack to fly in the trees!" Annabeth said.
I relayed the message, thinking why I was doing it. Blackjack shot forward and wove between the trees. A few leaves and branches scraped against my forehead and arms, but they felt like mosquito stings. The helicopter's blades grew fainter but came back all of a sudden when they began to gain on us.
"Don't worry, the helicopter can't go any lower without damaging its blades against the trees," Annabeth said, raising her voice to be heard over the roar of the wind and the helicopter blades.
"What about Grover, Thalia, and Jason?" I yelled back, twisting around to look at her.
"They don't want them. For some reason…"she wandered off into her own mind. Annabeth fell silent, retreating into her own mind like I had seen her do so many times before. She reached absentmindedly for her camp necklace. She fixed her stormy gaze on the ground as we flew over it, not wanting to meet my eyes.
"They want you," she finally said.
"I already knew that!" My voice was quickly approaching hysterical. I did my best to control it.
"Percy, it isn't like that. They want you for something… different. I can't figure it out."
We were silent for a few moments. The helicopter was fading into the distance and Blackjack was beginning to slow down.
"Land," Annabeth ordered.
Blackjack understood immediately and landed near a medium sized pine tree. Annabeth and I slid off his back. I kicked the dirt.
"Well, this sucks," I said.
Annabeth sat against a tree. She didn't say anything and looked off into space. What had gotten into her? I was used to the daydreaming, but this was to an extreme.
"They are torturing them," she said. Her voice was flat, dull. Not her matter-of-fact tone, more like she had just given up caring. She couldn't do that. Not Annabeth.
"Of course. We saw what happened at camp."
"Not like that. I have a feeling that there doing something much more… horrible."
"What could be more horrible than that?"
"I'm not sure… it was just an idea."
I sighed. "We're trapped."
"No kidding."
We sat in silence, listening to the whine of the helicopter get further away. How could we get out of here? Blackjack was tired enough from the speed he had to go. My lips felt dry. I wanted some water.
Water.
That's the answer. That was it.
Water.
"Annabeth! I have an idea," I exclaimed, jumping to my feet, electricity surging through my body.
"What?" Annabeth's voice was more wary.
"Stay here, I'm going to go exploring."
"Wait! Don't go alone!" She started to get to her feet.
"Don't worry, I'll be back soon. Nothing in these woods could harm me, anyway."
Annabeth sighed, easing back to the ground. "Fine, but I don't like it."
I smiled, nodded, and turned around to search for a creek. The sun was still not in the middle of the sky, so I guessed it was around ten o'clock. The tree's leaves shielded the sun's rays, so the bottom of the forest was dark. I walked on. We hadn't flown that far when the helicopter came, so maybe the creek was still around here.
I stopped. If we flew northwards and the creek was flowing eastwards… I turned around and walked the other direction. I was going the wrong way before. I came back to the pine tree where Annabeth and Blackjack were staying. I stopped dead in my tracks.
They weren't there.
Piper's POV
The bars unclamped from the truck. Will was whimpering by my side. I set a hand on his shoulder, trying to offer some kind of support. I didn't think it helped. Around five guards came marching into the truck.
"Come out, you brats! We have work to be done!"
None of us came out from our hiding places. The soldiers got angry and grabbed the nearest kid, who happened to be Will. He held a gun to his head and looked around at us.
"Get up or this kid is dead."
I didn't question it. I jumped up with around three fourths of the truck. Drew stayed down along with some of her Aphrodite crew. I glared at them, long and hard. Did they want to have someone's death on their conscience?
"Get up!" The soldier trained his gun on them and they stood up. He ordered us out and we marched off in two lines. One for male gods and one for female gods.
I gasped. It was a concentration camp. Happy logos floated around like, "The guns have been shot!" and "Drugs have been O'D." There were ten barracks, and they looked like they could only hold ten people each.
"Female gods go to the right ones! Male gods go to the left!"
We marched off. Unfortunately for me, that meant Will and Leo was going to a different barrack. I was stuck with Drew and her friends, a boy from the Athena cabin, Katie Gardner, and another boy from Demeter.
I decided to talk to Katie, since she was the only nice girl there.
"What do you think of this?" I asked her, jogging ahead to catch up.
She didn't reply for a long moment. Her shoulders were slumped, like the fight had gone out of her. Her face was turned away from me, but I noticed a lone tear trace its way down her pale cheek. "They killed Travis."
"No! They couldn't have!"
"I saw it. One of the soldiers threw a grenade at him and his brother and they blew up."
I gasped. "I saw that too!"
Katie stared on ahead at the barracks, eyes downcast. Her auburn hair was dull with dust from the truck. It was obvious she didn't want to talk about it.
"Well, nice talking to you." I winced the moment the words fell from my mouth. Nice? It wasn't nice. There was nothing about having this conversation that was nice. We were in a concentration camp! Travis and Conner were dead! I didn't know how I knew it was Conner who had died alongside Travis. But I did. It was inconceivable that he would have to live without his best friend and brother.
I decided to talk with the boy from the Athena cabin, but before I could, we stepped inside the barrack. There were five bunk beds with two for each one. I guessed it. Only ten people could fit in here. It was already crowded with people who got here before us. I spotted Lacy crying on Mitchell's shoulder. His arm was around her, a small offer of comfort. I ran over to them.
"Guys!" I yelled.
Everyone looked at me and I blushed. I sat down next to Lacy.
"Don't worry. Everything will be fine," I said to her.
She looked up at me with red rimmed, puffy eyes. The left side of her face was red, like someone had slapped her. "How do you know?"
"I-I-"
"Save it. Were going to die in this hellhole." Her usually sweet, innocent voice was bitter, terrified.
I couldn't comfort her. I couldn't help but feel that… she was right. The boy from the Athena cabin came over and sat next to me. I was startled because he had siblings in here.
"What-"
"Don't worry about it. My siblings are moping. I wanted to figure out a plan to get out of here, and you were the only one that seemed happy enough to do so."
I laughed, a little bitterly. "So are mine. What's your name?"
"Malcolm. I'm Annabeth's second in command. I have news. Percy and Annabeth are missing."
I gasped. "Are they okay?"
"We don't know. All I know is that they never showed up for the volleyball tournament."
"So… they might have escaped?" I asked, a little hope creeping into my voice.
"Exactly. But how will that help us?"
"They could rescue us! There might be hope after all!"
Malcolm shook his head. "No. They probably have no idea where we are. Also, the people who lead this army probably are looking for them, so they would be hiding right now. Even if they do know where we are, they're two of our best fighters. We need them out there, where they might be able to do some good."
I was amazed at what he just said. A little cynical, sure, but completely truthful. I guess he really was a son of Athena. "So… there is no hope…"
Malcolm cracked a weak smile. "Sure there is. We can trust our parents to get us out of here."
"But they can't interfere with their children," I reminded him.
"They can interfere with all of their children."
I slumped back against the side of the bunk. All around us, my half siblings were sobbing or Athena people were comforting the people sobbing. It didn't make sense. If they were going to kidnap us, wouldn't they know our parents would save us?
Large footsteps entered the room. Around five guards stood there, looking around at us. One of the larger ones that had more medals on his chest stepped forward.
"Alrighty then. Looks like all of you have gotten settled," he said with a twisted grin. "Sorry to break this up so soon, but we are going to have to take some of you."
Whispers filled the room.
"SHUT UP!" We all jumped back in surprise.
"Now, we already have the others from the other bunkers. We are just going to have to look through you now."
He looked around at us and thought for a moment. "All children of Athena stand up."
No one questioned him. To my right, Malcolm stood up. "Which one of you is the leader?"
They all looked around for Annabeth. Malcolm knew what was happening and said, "I am."
The man's eyebrows jumped in surprise. He turned around to his other partners and asked for something. He looked back with a clipboard. "Oh, really? It says here that Annabeth Chase is the leader of the Athena cabin."
Malcolm was confused for a second, but then immediately quickly put on a sad face. I felt a surge of admiration rise in my chest. Scared on not, anxious or not, uncertain or not, he was smart. He wouldn't give in. He would fight until his final breath. "She…she…died last week while fighting a hellhound."
His hands moved around behind his back so only I could see them. He pressed his thumb and his forefinger together and pulled them apart. Find. He then made a fist with his hand and kept his thumb out. A. Find A. Find Annabeth. Wait. He put his thumb back into the fist. T. Then he made a claw like symbol. E. He then put out two fingers. N. He was about to make another gesture when the guards came and took all of them. He shot me another desperate look like Understand?
I did. He used sign language to say "Find ATHEN".
Find Athens? Oh, wait. Find Athena. How? I was trapped in this hellhole and I couldn't get out.
"Fine. Name?" the guard snapped.
"Malcolm," Malcolm replied, back straight and voice confident. Trying to portray the attitude of a leader.
He couldn't match Annabeth. But he was good.
"We need you," the guard insisted., jerking his thumb toward the door. Two other guards stood there. Malcolm's eyes flickered to the rest of us, as if thinking about what would happen if he refused.
He evidently didn't want to take a chance with our lives. He walked out.
One of the girls from Athena clenched her fists, anxiety filling her grey eyes. Worried for her brother, worried for herself, worried for all of us. She was still standing, looking torn, indecisive.
Mere moments later, I cocked my head to one side, hearing some kind of disturbance from outside. I walked out and saw the guards were trying to keep a struggling Malcolm down. He looked at me and made two gestures. One pinky up. I. Hand in C. C. Fist with thumb sticking out. A. Two fingers down. P. Thumb under index finger while in fist. T.
"Hey, you!" the guards yelled at me. "What are you doing? Get back inside!"
I ran back inside the bunker.
Malcolm. Find Athena. I capt.
I capt. I captured? But there was more to it. If Malcolm was anything like Annabeth, then there was no doubt about it. I was missing something.