The fourth chapter is now ready!

This might be a little shorter than the last chapter, but then again the last chapter was long and I'm proud of it!

Anyways, let's get on with the story!

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Percy POV

4

3

2

1

…0

Quiet. Then…

Someone screamed and everything erupted into an explosion of sound. People ran like crazy over to the cornucopia. I saw the rest of the camp half blood campers that were thrusted into this effed up game as well, all running toward the cornucopia.

I should have suspected as much. I couldn't have good luck for that long anyways; something bad was bound to happen. Last year, everyone's lives had been in danger from the war with kronos. Now their lives were in danger yet again. At least in the last war, we knew who the enemy was.

The thing that surprised me was when I saw Luke in the circle of tributes. It was just a little bit strange considering he died last year. How could he have just gotten up and became alive once again?

Him being there wasn't the only strange thing. When the game keepers had finally said zero, I looked around to all the half bloods. I saw everyone-except Luke. He had just disappeared. Everything about Luke was exactly the way at was when he was alive. He had his sandy blond hair, his scar, everything. He couldn't be a ghost could he?

Though, since he was alive, he could be an addition to our little team. The rest of us had already had an unspoken decision that we would team up of course. But since I couldn't see him anywhere at all, I doubted he was good at all. After all, these gamekeepers would at least put someone that was our enemy here. They wanted a show. The so called "avengers" probably had an enemy here too.

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As soon as zero had been called, I ran from my podium. I didn't have a moment's hesitation. I knew exactly what to do, and I was going to do it. I've been in too many battles to know never to hesitate.

As I was just about to go over to the cornucopia to get my sword, I looked over to Annabeth who had been across from me in the circle of tributes, and saw that she was still standing on her platform, not making a move to get off. I looked over to the rest of the half bloods and saw that they were already at the cornucopia, getting their things.

"Hey prissy, get over here!" I could tell who that gruff voice belonged to without even looking-Clarisse.

I ignored her and ran toward Annabeth. I had to get to her before somebody else stole her knife from the cornucopia.

After what felt like an eternity, I finally got to Annabeth.

She was wearing a gray jumpsuit that matched the colour of her eyes perfectly. She had an owl on her jumpsuit that also matched her owl earrings. I saw that she had a blank stare on her face, whilst looking at the cornucopia.

I put my hand on her shoulder. She looked at me startled, as if she just noticed that I was there. She shook her brain like she was trying to clear her head.

"Lets go." I said softly.

I pulled her away from the podium and we both ran to the cornucopia. She seemed to have gotten over her temporary shock.

Once we got there, I looked around frantically for my pen, and Annabeth's knife. There were only a handful of people at the cornucopia now. I hoped with all my life that no one had taken our weapons.

Finally, on a table in the corner of the cornucopia, I saw riptide. I shoved the pen into one of the pockets of my jumpsuit as I looked around for Annabeth who was looking for her knife as well. She was looking for it at a table where two men, one who looked really muscular, and another who looked strangely familiar and with a strange looking goatee, were picking up a strange shield.

The muscular man had picked up the shield, and now the other man was pointing vaguely in Annabeth's direction. I ran over to Annabeth as I uncapped my sword. I didn't want them, doing anything to Annabeth. They could be friendly, but I could never know here. I didn't know these people, and for all I knew, they could be the enemy. I didn't want to take my chances.

As I got over to them, I raised my sword over the man with the goatee, about to slash down, hard. The man didn't seem to react much. Either he didn't notice or he didn't care much. The other man did notice though. With the reflexes of a cheetah, he brought his shield in between my sword and the man's head. There was a loud bang as my sword and his shield connected.

I glanced back at Annabeth behind me. I noticed that she now had her knife in her hand. I didn't want to get involved with the other two men anymore, so I doubled back to Annabeth, picked up a few items from the table beside her and I grabbed her hand as we ran away from the cornucopia.

We ran as far as we could from the cornucopia. I couldn't see where the other two men had gone, and I honestly didn't care much. The bad news was, that I didn't know where any of the Half Blood's had went either. There was no one in sight at all.

"Where is everyone?" Annabeth asked frantically as we finally stopped once we had gotten far enough away.

"I don't know. When I went for you, I think they left. I couldn't find them."
"This is bad. Really bad." Annabeth said.

I turned around slowly, taking in the entire desert and saw nothing. No cacti, no animals, nothing at all. It would be hard, next to impossible to get food or water around here.

"If we lost them, we'll just have to trust that they'll survive for a while. Right now, I think we should worry about us being able to survive."

I laid out all the items I had gotten from the table, in a row on the ground. Annabeth did the same.

"Ok, so we have two water bottles, a backpack, you're sword, my knife, and four bags of food." Annabeth calculated. "Let's see what's in the backpack."

I looked at the blue backpack on the floor and picked it up, messing up the line of items on the floor. I unzipped the bag and peered inside. Inside was a gun, another full water bottle, a weaved bowl, a pillow, and a blanket. Unfortunately, no food.

"So, we could last six days for sure on those three water bottles. Probably the same amount for the food if we ration it." Annabeth stated. "We can share the blanket and pillow. If this was even a bit like a normal desert, it would get really cold at night. The weaved bowl to hold food…and the gun," she picked it up and clacked it. "Always useful."

By the end of her little speech, I was looking at Annabeth in amazement.

"Whoa." I said.

She smirked. "Don't I know it?"

I smirked back at her, punching her playfully in her arm.

"Whatever you say…" I trailed off as I got an idea. "You know what? I think we should pick a direction we want to go in and start walking in that direction. Maybe if we walk far enough, we'll get somewhere." I suggested.

Annabeth thought about the idea for a while, until she finally said, "That's actually a good idea seaweed brain! That's a first."

"Hey, I'm full of ideas!"

"Whatever you say seaweed brain."

"Don't call me that!" I snapped.
"Sure seaweed brain."

I sighed, defeated, and said, "Fine whatever, let's go…," I turned around in a circle and stopped suddenly pointing in a direction in the desert, "that way."

Annabeth shrugged and said, "Sure."

I picked up the backpack and put the water bottles and food in it and slung it over my shoulder. Five minutes later, Annabeth and I started walking into the desert.

As we walked, I had a strange feeling of dread in my mind. I couldn't place it, so I ignored it, only focusing on the hope I had of finding food, water, or maybe even the other campers.

There we have it!

I know its short, but I promise the next one will be longer!

In other news, my USB broke! Now all my files are gone! Yippee! *sarcasm* I had to write this chapter a second time it was soo annoying. Even all my school files are all gone and I have to type them all over again.

Stupid good for nothing Duracell USB…

Anyways until next time folks!

-detective DG