Chapter 5

Andrew Reckinson

August 18, 2014

2:49pm

Allentown, NJ

….

….

Ouch.

Trains hurt.

Especially when they fall on you.

My nose felt like it bent 90 degrees, though that pain was nothing compared to my ankle screaming,"YOU HURT ME! YOU HURT ME!"

In my state of deliriousness, I noticed that the plastic bags from Wally's Subway sandwiches made really nice pillows.

I only snapped out of it when I saw Astrid, her eyes glassy and a trickle of blood flowing out her forehead.

I army-crawled over to her, not caring if those old hags saw me through the gaping hole in the train, and pulled her out from the rubble.

She was still breathing, though raggedly, and her pulse was fine, but as I got closer, I saw a fragment of fang from our encounter with the hellhound lodged in her shoulder.

"She's tough." I thought, "She didn't even complain."

"It won't matter if she's tough or not if we don't live." said a voice in my head.

I looked around, noticing for the first time that Wally, Grace, and Amber were nowhere to be seen.

"Stupid stupid stupid." I thought to myself.

"You got that right." said a different voice. Amber?

"Get out of my head. " complained Wally's voice

"All of you! Shut up! We have a freaking train on us." said Amber's voice. "Where's Astrid?"

"Right here." I responded, not mentioning her injuries.

A screech… ugh… like nails on a chalkboard times 1,000, filled the silence.

"What the Hades was that?!" questioned Wally.

"Whose Hades?" asked Amber.

"My dad." I responded.

"What?!" she demanded,

"I'm pretty sure he's a god, so, no." said Grace's voice in my skull.

"Exactly." said Wally.

"That is one of the stupidest things I've ever heard." responded Amber.

"Oh, so my family is stupid? What about your family, huh?" I questioned .

"Don't you dare."

"Oh I dare."

"I swear, I will -"

"SHUT UP!" echoed Grace's voice.

Suddenly, the entire train lifted off of us.

To my left, Wally and Amber were paused in mid-strangle of each other, while Grace sat off to the right, eyes pure gold and hands extended in the direction of the floating train, her face scrunched up in concentration.

She made a fist, and the train ruins crumpled up into a steel and glass ball of about 120 tons, then made a throwing motion forwards a blank field, and what remained of the train sat in a huge crater. Out of breath, Grace sat down, not caring at all that the demon grandmas were still lurking somewhere.

Correction.

They were here.

What should've been the old ladies transformed into shrively (more shrively) hags, kicking aside random panicking mortals and stalking towards us with fiery whips in hand.

The Kindly Ones.

Percy Jackson had told us a story about how on his first quest the Furies had ambushed him and his friends on a bus, and I'm pretty sure they weren't that friendly to them either. I'm pretty sure they didn't earn t

"Amber! Fires!" I yelled. Some small ones were popping up from where their whips touched the ground, and we'd only be in more trouble from Chiron if we let so innocent mortals get B-B-Qed.

Amber nodded and summoned the water from a small river on the side of the tracks and doused most of the fires and the Furies themselves.

"ECCK! Wretched girl! You will pay!" the first screeched.

"Wretched girl!" said the second.

"You will pay!" added the third.

"Great." mumbled Wally, "They can talk."

As Amber finished up with the water, I heard a little girl with mousy brown hair mutter, "She's a waterbender!"

As I wondered what the heck that was, "The Waterbender" hit away a fireball inches from my face.

"Welcome!" she yelled as she challenge the beasts.

Grace had caught her breath and rose from the ground to join the fight, as I moved an unconscious Astrid behind a tree as to make sure they couldn't grab her.

As I turned back, I saw Amber go flying into Grace, her jacket on fire.

She pretty much looked like a flaming cannonball.

I felt bad for Grace.

Wally sped around them, causing the mortals to scream, "Tornado! Tornado! It's a red and yellow tornado!"

I ran through his mini-storm and got a lucky stab at the second hag in their confusion.

"PAY!" screamed the first and third in unison.

"NAY!" screamed back Wally, punching at the third hag.

The third screeched curses upon us as she knocked Wally into a bush with her whip.

Grace and Amber were back in the fight slashing and hacking until there was only one demon lady left, Alecto, the first fury.

She hissed in disgust,"You fate is worse than ours. Be warned, foolish children."

She gave Grace a special look of hatred and said, "Traitor. You father will not be pleased."

We naturally, let her stab Alecto in the face.

She dissipated into a clump of angry sand, and blew away in the wind.

"What was that all about?" asked Wally. "They especially hate your godly father?"

She shrugged."Maybe."

She obviously didn't wanna talk about it, so I changed the topic,"Where are we?"

"Somewhere in New Jersey." replied Amber as she dragged Astrid out from behind the tree.

"It's 4:12:08pm" responded Grace numbly before we could ask,"The sun sets at 5:04:58pm. We have 2 hours to get to New York."

"By foot?" asked Wally,"I can't carry all of you."

"You can't…" started Amber,"But maybe something else can..."

"I don't like where this is going…" started Wally.

"We need to get Astrid medical attention." I said.

She was paler than she was an hour ago and the cut on her head was still bleeding.

"Agreed… but how?" Wally asked.

"How do you feel about pulling a makeshift chariot?"