May the people who lost their lives during the shooting in Connecticut rest in peace. I'm praying for their families.

Sorry for Typos/OOCness. Hope you enjoy!

Happy Reading!

Chapter 13

Percy

When Percy woke up, Annabeth was in his arms with a worried look on her face. He was ready to ask her what was the matter when he found out that she was still asleep. Wait… he had fallen asleep.

Crap. He hadn't wanted to do that. Had Annabeth persuaded him? Had she suddenly developed the power to charmspeak? Or had he just been a little scared of his girlfriend? He couldn't exactly remember. He hated that feeling. He'd had it for about six months.

Stretching, Percy sat up and Annabeth's head feel off of his chest. Before he could catch her, Annabeth's head hit the ground. Percy flinched; great, he had just added onto her list of problems. Her eyes cracked open. "Ouch…" she whispered groggily.

"Sorry?" Percy tried sheepishly. Apparently, having broken ribs and ankles didn't prevent her from having a good swing, because Annabeth knocked Percy in the gut with her fist. All the breath in Percy's body escaped him and he groaned. "Okay, sorry didn't work."

"You bet it didn't." Annabeth smiled at him. "Shall we get moving?"

"If you insist," moaned Percy, and they stood up and hopped in the car. Percy's sword was the only light that they had. "What happened to the hellhounds? I don't remember that much from yesterday… or whenever."

"And rightly so. You were exhausted. You fell on your face once you got out of the car. The hellhounds disappeared a while ago. I don't know where they went, but the chase bored them and they just vanished in the plains. I'm not even that sure on how we got into this tunnel system."

"Tunnel system?" asked Percy. "Is that what we're in?"

"I think so. I was asleep for a lot of the ride, but I can guess. I don't think it would be the smartest idea to turn around and head out. The dogs might be out there. I think we should keep going to forward. Who know? Maybe the Doors of Death will be down the road?"

"Yeah maybe." Percy didn't think so. Tartarus was huge. There were so many other places that these doors could be.

Annabeth threw her crutches beside her and raised her keg up to the dashboard. She gasped. The position wasn't good for her ribs. Percy leaned over and pushed her seat back so that it was like a bed. "Is that better?" he asked.

"A little bit," she answered, closing her eyes. "You don't think Tartarus has a hospital, do you?"

"Don't we wish," Percy scoffed as he eased onto the gas. He scratched his head and turned on the headlights. It didn't help much. He could still barely see anything ahead of him.

Annabeth shrugged her shoulders. "You never know."

Percy rolled down the window and listened to the howling wind and the sound of tires against stone. It freaked him out. He had the feeling that he wasn't alone… like there was someone watching him. But wasn't there always?

As an experiment, Percy called, "Hello?" Annabeth hit his arm, and gave him the That was stupid look. Percy put his finger to his lips, telling her to be quiet as he listened to his voice echo in the tunnel.

"Hello," a voice said back. It was the voice of Gaea.

As if he had been electrocuted, he jerked his head inside the car and rolled up the window. "Gaea's watching us," he whispered to Annabeth.

"I know, I was going to tell you. She said something before, but no one attacked. But really, what can you expect? We're in the earth. We aren't flying, we aren't on the sea. We are in her domain." She shivered. Percy rolled the window down a little bit. The sounds had stopped.

Percy made a left turn. They drove for a while in silence. Percy usually hated it, but he kept quiet and looked ahead. It did suck that they were having to be in Gaea's realm, but there was nothing they could do about it.

"PERCY!" Annabeth cried. An hour had passed since they had last spoken.

"What?"

"It's the end of the tunnel!" She pointed ahead and sure enough, Percy could see the outline of the cave opening. There was a small bit of light at the end. Percy seriously hoped that it was sunlight and they were back at camp, but that did not seem too likely.

They went through the opening, and something bright shone down on them. Percy looked at the sky and saw a giant moon, glowing a mixture of silver and green. The sky was cloudy and ominous, and it looked like there was going to be a storm.

"Well, what do you know?" Percy asked. He was smiling for some strange reason. "There is a sky in Tartarus."

"I bet there's no sun, though," Annabeth grumbled. "And it's impossible that there could be a moon in Tartarus. A moon is a satellite that orbits the earth because of its-"

Percy snored. "Annabeth, once again, I don't need the science lesson from you. Who cares how a moon got in Tartarus? I sure don't! I'm just glad that I can actually see what's ahead of us without having to turn on the lights or wave my sword around."

"Percy, where are we anyway?"

He was not prepared to answer that.

There were rolling hills in front of him and an asphalt path that he was driving on. Like before they got to the jungle and everything, the hills seemed to stretch on forever. They were going down a steep hill right now. It was more like a mountain range than beautiful hills. All of the grass was dead and burned. Animal carcasses littered the ground. A rotten stench was blowing in from the AC.

Percy turned it off so that they could breathe again without hacking. "No idea." Percy took a look in the rearview mirror. The was a giant range of black mountains behind them, with a few tunnels here and there going into the depths of them. They would need to explore the other tunnel soon, but Percy wanted to see what was beyond the valleys first.

Annabeth turned around to see what he was looking at. "Oh, WOW! We went through the mountains. No wonder there was no light inside."

The car jerked. A red light was flashing the letter 'E'. Percy cursed. Annabeth looked at him, then at the light, and smacked her hand down. "That's just great."

Not only was the car out of gas, but something weird was happening to it. The steering wheel turn and the car turned off of the road. "Whoa," Percy said, turning it the other way, safely putting them back on the road. "That was weird."

Then the car just came to a stop on the hills. It jerked forward one last time, throwing Percy and Annabeth against the windshield, but then stopped, completely dead. Percy slammed his head against the horn, like he usually did when he was frustrated.

Annabeth peeled his head off of it. "Quit, you're giving me a headache."

"You know, this is just our luck. First, we fall down into Tartarus. Then you break your ribs and we get attacked by crazy horses. After that, we get attacked by rogue hellhounds in a glowing jungle, and now, our car loses all of its gas, goes a little freaky, dies, and we're stuck in the middle of nowhere near a mountain."

"Yes, Percy, that pretty much sums up our little predicament. But we can't do anything. Might as well get out of the car now and start going on foot." Annabeth donned her crutches. Percy put an arm out a stopped her from opening the door. She relaxed back into her seat and looked him in the eyes. "What?"

"Shouldn't we make a plan first? You are the Queen of Planning!"

"Thanks, I'm honored. But there's no point."

"Are you sure you can walk?"

"No, I cannot walk, and this'll tire me out, and there's nothing we can do about it. Unless you feel like carrying me the entire way to the Doors of Death? I think I'd like that." Annabeth smiled at him.

"Well, if you ask really nicely, I m- Hey, what's going on?" Percy looked around. He could feel and see them moving slowly down the hill, picking up speed.

"Put on the brakes!" cried Annabeth. Percy slammed his foot down. The Fiat did not stop. He tried it again. Nothing at all.

"What are you doing? This isn't funny!" Annabeth was near panic. They were getting faster. "Stop the car! We're gonna crash!"

"It won't stop!" He slammed his foot down for about the fifth time. The car still did not respond to his efforts. "Why won't it stop?" He knew the answer. Somehow, Gaea was still toying with them. She was probably laughing at how ridiculous they seemed.

"Oh no." Annabeth gasped.

"What?"

"We have to jump out of the car. Now!"

"What? Why!" Annabeth opened her mouth, but the closed it, too shocked to answer his question.

Percy should have jumped. He hesitated too long. They reached the bottom of the hill, and their speed made them go right back up the other, smaller hill. The car flew off of it and into the air. Percy waited for them to land again.

He looked out of the car. His jaw dropped along with his stomach. Annabeth was screaming and gripping his arm, but he couldn't do anything. He couldn't even feel her touch. He was numb with terror. They were flying through the air. They had driven unwillingly off of a cliff. Percy had definitely not done that. Gaea had.

The front of the car dipped down, and not for the first time, Percy could only wait for the impact.

What's your favorite Christmas song? Mine is Carol of the Bells:)

You guys know my story on CodeName-Athena? The Asylum? I'll try to update soon, but ChildOfWisdom does not have a computer right now. We're working hard on updating!

Reviews/Ideas are loved. Check out my story, You and Me, Against the World. It's a PJO romance, only three chapters. I finished it last night!

-BBH