THE MESSAGE
ANNABETH
"I can't go on any further. We've been walking for two days straight." Thalia complained and leaned on Luke for help. Luke has always been the brother that I wish I had and Thalia is the sister I never got. We've been through everything since day one of the apocalypse and it looks like the end.
"Thalia, we have to keep going. We'll die out here." I urged. I looked to Luke for support. He gave me none. Luke has always been our rock and I've never seen him so drained. Luke and Thalia stopped and lay down. Thalia lying on her boyfriend's chest. I looked at our surroundings. We were in the middle of Manhattan and all around us were towering buildings. Then I noticed something that made my blood run cold. About 100 yards away was an army of flesh eating freaks. There was at least fifty all walking towards us. I looked behind me only to see the same thing. We were trapped.
"I think this is it." Luke said. "I love you guys."
"I love you too, Luke." Thalia said.
"Stop saying your goodbyes." I commanded. "We can't just give up." Thalia and Luke just continued to stay in each other's arms. I realized that I was going to die and I was scared. I started sobbing as the infected were only ten yards away. I dropped the knife I was holding and fell to my knees has tears streamed down my face. The closest one walked right up to me and reached out to grab me. I didn't have the energy to fight. Suddenly, an arrow pierced through zombie's head and more heads dropped by the slice of a sword. My vision blurred and the last thing I saw was a pair of sea green eyes shimmering with worry.
I woke up next to an unconscious Thalia and Luke on what appeared to be a dentist's chair. A man with blonde hair walked into the room and noticed that I was awake.
"Sleep well?" He asked. I stared at him confused.
"Who are you?" I asked.
"I could ask you the same question."
"My name's Annabeth Chase." I told him.
"My name's Will Solace." He said. "What are your friends' names?"
"The girl with spiky hair is Thalia Grace and the boy is Luke Castellan."
"Grace? Castellan?" He seemed surprised by the names.
"Yea, why?" I asked. Will grabbed a clipboard with some medical papers on it. He seemed like he really knew what he was doing.
"Is Thalia related to a Jason Grace in anyway?" Will asked. That surprised me.
"Yes, that's Thalia's long lost brother. They've been apart since they were kids. She's going to be so excited to see him."
"Oh, he's not here."
"Then why did you ask?"
"Percy and Jason are really good friends. Percy has been looking for him for a long time." Will started searching for something on a laptop.
"How do you have a working laptop?" I asked. He smiled.
"Our group here is pretty good at what we do."
"This Percy guy is he your leader or something?"
"You could say that." He said while staring at the screen of the laptop. "Ah, here we go your medical records. You're all sixteen. That's a happy coincidence."
"Why is that a coincidence and why do you need our medical records."
"It's a coincidence because everyone here is the same age, sixteen, and I need you medical records for two reasons."
"That's cool. What are the two reasons?"
"One, I need to know you blood type and stuff in case you get hurt and two, I wanted to check if the Stoll brothers were related to Mr. Castellan and they are."
"Luke will be happy about that." Will looked at me with the same look as before.
"Seriously, stop bringing them up if they're not here." Will got a sad look on his face.
"They were here a few days ago but a raid went wrong."
"I'm sorry." I said.
"It's okay. It just hit us hard. They were the first one's we lost."
"We've all lost people. I know how you feel." Thalia and Luke arose from they're chairs.
"Annabeth, why don't you head across the hall and find Percy. He can show you where to shower and stuff. I'll fill your friends in." Will said.
"You have showers here?" Thalia screamed. I bolted out of the room in hopes of taking a long overdue shower. In the hallway, I noticed that all the rooms were boarded up except for the one room directly across. I knocked on the door and a girl with black hair answered it.
"Hello, I'm Silena." The girl said.
"I'm Annabeth." I told her.
"Let me guess. You're in desperate need of a shower?"
"Please."
"Right this way. I'll get you some of my clothes to change into."
"Thank you." I walked into the room to find a zombie apocalypse wonderland. To my right was a miniature laboratory with about ten computers and papers laying around. There were a few large monitors on the wall showing images from security cameras outside. To my left was a comfortable living room with a television and a few large couches. A large guy gave me a friendly wave from the couch and was obviously watching a movie. Attached to the back of the living room was a small kitchen loaded with food. Directly in front of me was a large hallway with about six doors on each side and one directly at the end of the hall way. All the doors had a name on them. I read Grover and Juniper, Beckendorf and Silena, Will, and Nico. There were two rooms labeled showers and two empty rooms. The room at the end of the hall was labeled Percy. I got curious and cracked open the door to see the insides. It was a large bedroom except for an office area sticking out of one side and a personal bathroom on the other. The door to the study was open and I could see the guy with beautiful sea green eyes staring at a computer screen.
"So, you must be one of the new recruits." Percy said jokingly without looking up from the computer. How did he know I was there? "When you live in a world like this, you have to learn to listen for intruders."
"Sorry, I just got curious." I said.
"It's fine. My room's no more special than the others."
"Except for the personal bathroom and study."
"I was here first."
"Wow you're so mature."
"Don't you forget it." I laughed.
"I'm Annabeth."
"Percy. Well, I don't know about you, but I'm starving. You want to get something to eat."
"Do you have enough?" I asked. Percy laughed.
"You're going to like it here."
"So, that means we can stay?"
"Of course."
"I'm actually going to take a shower first. I look disgusting."
"I think you look beautiful in an apocalypse survivor kind of way."
"Thanks?"
"Anyway, just come down to the first floor when you're done. You'll find it. It's one of four doors that aren't barricaded."
"Thanks Percy."
"See you later." Percy walked out of the room. I stepped out into the hallway and headed to the bathroom where I took the most refreshing shower of my life. When I got out I saw that Silena was watching a movie with the large guy from before who I now assumed was Beckendorf. The movie ended as I reached the living room.
"Annabeth, how hungry are you?" Silena asked me.
"Extremely."
"It's six o'clock. Grover and Juniper probably have something ready by now. Let's go." Beckendorf said. We walked down a few flights of stairs to the dining room. I wasn't used to this kind of luxury since the apocalypse began. I took a seat next to Silena at the large table. Percy was seated at the head as expected. Luke and Thalia walked in and sat on the other side of me.
"How amazing is it here?" Thalia asked.
"It's so great." I said. "We really got lucky." Percy cleared his throat.
"I would just like to welcome Thalia Grace, Luke Castellan, and Annabeth Chase to our humble abode. Welcome to the family." Percy announced. There was a round of cheers from everyone at the table. Grover and Juniper put trays of some of the most mouthwatering food I've ever seen out on the table.
"How do you even have this?" Luke asked.
"We go on raids for all our supplies and Juniper grows most of the food on the roof." Percy explained.
"That sweet you guys have, how come it's the only one open?" Thalia asked.
"We like to keep tabs on everyone. It's kind of our headquarters. When we first got here, we all slept in one room together anyway. It's just more…secure."
"So, you got rooms for us?" Thalia asked.
"We have two available rooms so you have to share. There's a male and female bathroom and you saw the rest of the sweet. We can have whatever we want."
"I learned about the bathrooms the hard way." Thalia said.
"Yea, I should probably label those. What happened?"
"Nico walked in on me."
"Nico! Nice!" Will said before Nico punched him in the stomach. Luke's face twisted into one of anger and jealousy. It scared me for a second. Suddenly, there was a buzzing sound that a phone would make. Percy pulled out his phone like it was the most foreign thing he had ever seen. Everyone went completely silent. Percy placed the phone on the table and put it on speaker.
"Hello?" Percy asked.
"Hey, Percy, is that you?" The voice asked. Percy eyes got misty for a second.
"Jason! You have no idea how good it is to hear your voice." Percy said.
"Thank the gods. It's great to hear you too Perce." Jason said.
"Where are you?"
"Jupiter's Bar."
"Is anyone there with you? Is Piper there?"
"Yea Piper's here and a few others, but Percy…"
"What is it Jason?"
"…we need your help."