Sorry I didn't update for a while! I have family problems, and it's just getting worse... So I think I'm going to slow down on updates for a while until everything gets a bit calmer. Thank you to everybody who stayed with me so far. :)

hermes child awesomness- Thanks for your review. ^^

bootyflake115- Haha. Thanks a lot. :)

I don't know when the next update will be, sadly. I'm really sorry that I'm slowing down on updates before school starts, but the family problems are kind of rough. Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

"Won't they notice that big hole in the middle of their wall?" I asked as we climbed the stairs.

"Rachel will probably figure something out," Zoë said.

"Look, there's the third floor," Grover said.

We peeked out the door and saw a dusty hallway.

"We're going to go check it out," Bianca said. "You guys stay here."

We nodded and stayed in place.

"Doesn't look like anyone's been here in a while," I muttered.

As if on cue, there was a clattering sound and a scream.

"Did someone drop something?" I asked. But that sound wasn't the sound of something dropping.

"No," Grover trembled.

Bianca and Zoë ran back out. Then a skeleton emerged from the hallway. It was dressed in the Goode uniform and it was moving. It was looking straight at us with a gun in its hand.

"Tell me that I'm dreaming," Grover gulped.

"Nope," I murmured. "I don't think anyone would like to dream about a skeleton."

The skeleton crept toward us. Its skull made it seem like it was grinning.

"Run," Zoë said. "It will chase us. I don't know how to kill it."

"What?"

They pulled us up the stairs as the skeleton started running.

"Are there more?" I asked.

"Dunno," Bianca said. "We only saw one of the rooms."

"There probably are," Zoë said.

The skeleton shot the gun, missing us by an inch.

"He's going to hit us sooner or later," Grover panted.

We had already ran up two floors, without even seeing what was in them.

"Here!" Zoë yelled. She pushed us onto the seventh floor.

The seventh floor was filled with weapons, but it was different from Chiron's. They were really sharp and looked like it could kill you with a touch. It just had a different feeling.

Zoë tossed us some shields and threw me a coat.

"What?" I said, catching it.

"Wear it," she said. "It was an experiment. It should protect you from the bullets."

I was about to complain about how hot it was, but the skeleton caught up to us. And look, more skeleton buddies. They started shooting and Zoë and Bianca raised their shields.

"You don't know how to kill them?" I asked.

"Our arrows go through their holes," Zoë said.

"Do we run?" Grover asked.

"Where?" I said. We backed up, shoulder to shoulder.

Bianca grabbed a bomb from the shelf and threw it on the ground where the skeleton were. A wall of smoke separated us while blowing up the whole floor.

We barely made it up the stairs to the next floor when it collapsed.

"How are we going to go back down? And did that hurt anybody below?" I asked.

"I don't know," Bianca said. "But we're safe from the skeletons… At least for a while."

"And we have other things to worry about," Zoë said. "Let's see what's here."

"But are you sure we didn't pass by Annabeth?" I said.

"Yes," Zoë sighed, as if thinking, Stupid boys. "I took a quick look in the floors we passed by. It didn't seem like a place to have people in."

Bianca looked out the eighth floor window. "Hey, look! It doesn't seem like we have that many floors left!"

We looked outside, and she was right. The sun wasn't up yet, and I craned my neck to see how much higher we had to go.

"One more floor and the roof," Grover guessed.

"What if Annabeth isn't there?" I asked, almost panicking.

"Calm down," Bianca said. "If she's not here, we'll check out the other building."

"Boys and their girlfriends," Zoë muttered.

"She's not my girlfriend," I said.

"You mean, not yet," Grover said.

"Yeah," I said. "Wait, I mean, no. What are you talking about?"

They laughed.

"I'm tired," Grover said. "Let's take a short nap."

"At this time?" I sighed.

"Well, it is," Bianca checked the clock placed on the wall—even though there was no reason for anyone to come up here anyway, "2:25."

I yawned. I hadn't realized how tired I was.

"Some rest it is then," Zoë said.

She moved us to a wider area, though I wasn't sure if it was so we had space to fight or she just wanted to stay away from us boys.

"Nothing's going to attack us, right?" I said drowsily.

"It's quiet," Grover murmured. "A bit too quiet."

I saw Bianca doze off in the corner. Zoë was asleep too, but she looked a bit stiff.

"It's fine," I said. "We'll probably hear them before they attack."

"Sure," he said, a bit doubtfully, but immediately fell asleep.

I looked at all of us. For some reason, I couldn't shake off the feeling that we would all make it back safe and sound. Suddenly, I remembered my promise with Nico, and winced. What if someone had to die? And even worse—what if someone had to die in place of me?

I sighed. It wouldn't do any good to think like this now. I fell asleep.

"Up, up!" Grover said, shaking me. "We're being attacked."

"What?" I groaned and stood up.

I stretched and saw what was happening.

There were monster carcasses on the floor by the girls' feet. The girls were shooting at some strange looking creatures, some that even looked like that dog.

"Hey, look who's finally awake," Bianca said dryly.

"This way," Zoë said. She slung her bow over her shoulder and opened a random door.

"It's like ten, Percy," Bianca sighed. "We've been defending ourselves for hours."

"But you still have arrows," I observed.

"Zoë went to go scout," Grover said. The door shook from the monsters banging on it.

"Yes," she said. "This floor and the next are filled with complete experiments—the ones that were successful. I think this building is where they keep those."

The door kept shaking. The hinges were shaking, and I knew that it would break soon. "It's going to break. It's just a matter of time," Zoë said, as if reading my mind.

"Then what?" I asked.

"The next floor is full of monsters," Zoë said.

"Annabeth probably won't be there. As for the roof, I doubt it," Bianca added.

One of the hinges broke off and a gunshot sounded from outside.

"Oh, no," Grover said. "The skeletons."

Another gunshot sounded and the door burst open. Monsters poured in, being lead by skeletons with their tattered uniforms.

"No weapons," Grover said weakly.

"Percy, you're the only one who can fight them," Bianca said.

"As much as I hate to admit it, it's true," Zoë said.

"But I don't have a weapon," I lied. My hand crept over to the dagger.

"The pen," Zoë said grimly.

"How's that going to help?" I asked, but the skeleton charged.

I uncapped the pen, and it grew into a bronze sword. The skeletons backed off.

"That's right," I said. "Back off."

I swung the sword, and it snapped in half at the rib. It fell in a pile on the floor.

"Nice!" Grover said.

I ran through the monsters, slashing them with my sword. I was aware of the girls shooting again, but I wasn't worried about them hitting me. They seemed to have pretty good aim, especially Zoë.

"Percy, watch out!" Grover yelled.

I turned around, only to be hit by a bullet in my chest. I fell backwards, but luckily all the other monsters were killed or ran off.

"Ouch," I said rubbing my head.

I saw Bianca pick up the knife that fell out when I fell. She spun it in her hands and stabbed the skeleton that stabbed me. It disintegrated into dust. On the other hand, the other skeleton that was in a pile at the floor reformed.

They started clacking their jaws to each other and fled.

"Percy, you're okay!" Bianca said.

"Of course," Zoë muttered. "The coat protects you."

I looked at the coat. It made me hot, but at least it was somewhat worth it.

"Let's get moving before more get here," Grover said.

We left the room and went up the stairs. Like Zoë said, it was filled with cages of monsters.

"The roof then?" I asked.

They nodded, and we headed up to the roof.

The roof was pretty empty. There was a big table and a computer to the side. Next to it was a big cage, like as in two or three times bigger than me.

"It looks recently opened," Zoë observed. "There's blood."

"But she's not here," I said flatly.

"So we go to the other building," Bianca said.

"But everyone's down there. They'll see us," Grover pointed out.

Sure enough, everyone seemed pretty happy about canceled classes and were playing in the grass down below.

"So?" I shrugged. "What if they see us?"

"Weapons," Zoë rolled her eyes.

"But we can't go down since we wrecked the staircase," Bianca sighed.

"We'll find another way then," I said and headed back down. I was hating my plan already.

"Uh… where are you going?" Grover asked.

"To find a ride," I said. I went to the eighth floor.

The monsters looked at me and shook their cages, no doubt wanting to kill me.

I tried not to look at them as I walked past them.

"You guys coming?" I asked. They nodded and caught up.

"It's like a maze of monster cages," Grover complained.

I wove around two massive snakes and saw two statues of angels in the center of the room.

"These look familiar," Bianca said.

"Oh!" Grover said. "They look like the ones from Hoover Dam!"

"What are the dam angels doing here?" Zoë muttered.

We started snickering, but Zoë didn't seem to understand.

"I want a dam coffee," Grover said.

"I need some dam water," I said.

Bianca just stood there laughing at us while the monsters growled.

Zoë shook her head. "Whatever the case, people rub the toes of these statues at Hoover Dam."

"So what do we do?" I said.

My arm was getting tired of lugging the sword around, and I had no idea how to turn it back into a pen.

Apparently that showed, and Zoë sighed. "There's the pen cap in your pocket. Touch it to the tip of thy sword."

I did what she said, and it worked. "Thanks. But what about these statues? I don't really want to fly with the monsters."

Zoë shrugged. "They might be normal statues."

I heard voices outside. "Are you sure they're here?"

"Yes, where else would they be?"

"Hurry!" I said. "We have to do something!"

"So should we rub the toes or something?" Grover said, shifting his weight from foot to foot.

"It's worth a try," Bianca shrugged and rubbed the toes.

I found myself praying, but I wasn't sure to whom. It would have to work. We might be caught and get killed or something.

"Hey, stay back! You're in cages for a reason!"

"We have to hurry," Zoë urged. "We'll get caught."

"We can always jump out of the windows as a last resort," I gulped.

The footsteps were getting closer, and the bronze angels stretched. "Hey, Hank, look at these people here! Where the heck are we anyway?"

I exchanged looks with the others who seemed about as surprised as I was. "Um, excuse me," I said. "Who are you exactly?"

"I'm Chuck," one of them said in a tinny voice.

"And I'm Hank," the other one said. "The one with the sense of humor."

"Right," Bianca said quickly. "Do you think you can give us a lift to the other building please? We might get in a lot of trouble if we're caught."

"Well, this is a restricted area," Hank pointed out.

"But there might be some lady statues in the other building," Chuck said wistfully.

"There are," Zoë said grimly as if disgusted by the statues. "They're still in development, but there are."

"That just makes it even better!" Chuck grinned. "What do you say Hank?"

He shrugged. "Could use a stretch."

They grabbed two of us each and punched through the ceiling.

"There they are!" someone said from below.

I risked a look below and saw Dr. Thorn along with someone else that looked familiar. But I couldn't place the name.

Zoë notched an arrow and aimed at a spot on the roof. It crumbled down on them.

"Nice," Grover said.

"Yes, good aim," Chuck said and winked at her. She gave him a good glare.

"That's the building right?" Hank said. "It looks really familiar."

"Oh, let's get all the statues and have a party!" Chuck said. "We'll drop you off on the roof."

They dropped us off on the roof. Zoë and Bianca had a graceful landing, but Grover and I had a bit of trouble landing.

Grover fell on his butt near the edge of the roof, and I fell on my face which really hurt.

"So we're working out way down then," I said, pretending that nothing happened.

Bianca laughed. "Yeah. Your face is red by the way."

The girls lead the way laughing while my face turned an even brighter shade of red.