JUPITER'S BAR
PERCY
"For those of you who don't know that was one of my closest friends, Jason Grace." I announced to everyone after the conversation ended. "They have a group hiding in Jupiter's Bar and we are going to help them."
"Did you say Jason Grace?" Thalia asked.
"Yea, so?"
"My name's Thalia Grace. You announced it to everyone like five minutes ago. Jason's my long lost brother."
"Oh yea, how didn't I put that together?"
"Maybe because your head is filled with seaweed." Annabeth suggested. I faked a laugh.
"Cute. Anyway, we're going to save them. Any questions?"
"Yea, who made you leader?" Luke asked.
"I've been the leader. I understand you're new here but we have been surviving well because we have rules and jobs we get done. I suggest you follow them. You wouldn't like the consequences." I threatened.
"You're all fine with blindly following this guy?" Luke asked my friends. Beckendorf looked like he was about to kill Luke.
"Percy is family and he has saved all our lives at one point or another." Beckendorf said. "He saved yours too. I hope you remember that."
"What if I don't follow your rules?" Luke asked tauntingly.
"I'm not ruling anyone or anything. We're family here. We make decisions together but Jason is my friend and we're going to save him." I said. "If you don't like it here, you can keep limping down the street until you run into another horde of those things."
"I'm not doing anything you say. You're not my leader."
"Luke, what are you doing?" Thalia asked.
"If you don't want to help us or at the least show us some respect then you can leave." I told him. "It's that simple." Luke stood up to leave.
"Thalia! Annabeth! Come on! We're leaving." Annabeth and Thalia didn't move.
"I don't think they want to leave Luke. They're being smart." Nico said. Luke stormed over to Nico and got right in his face.
"First, you spy on my girlfriend and then you tell me that I'm not smart." Luke said. "You have a death wish." Luke punched Nico across the face. Nico spit blood onto the floor and gave Luke a haunting glare. Nico punched Luke with more force sending him to the floor. Luke stood up to hit Nico again but I intercepted him. I pushed him into Beckendorf who was standing at my side.
"Lock him in the basement until he calms down." I commanded.
"Try something, you ugly…" Luke's sentence was cut off by Beckendorf's strong punch to the face rendering him unconscious." Beckendorf dragged Luke out of the room. I turned to face Thalia.
"You should get your boyfriend under control." I told her.
"I'm sorry. He's never like that. He's really a nice guy." Thalia said and Annabeth nodded in agreement when I looked at her.
"Somehow, I doubt that." Nico said and spit up more blood.
"We should focus on finding my friend and your brother." I told Thalia. "Jupiter's Bar is only about three miles from here. Jason and Thalia's dad, Jupiter, owns the bar. We used to hang out there a lot. I know how we can get them out."
"Okay, what's the plan?" Annabeth asked.
"This is more of a stealth mission. We will go in with a small group." I said to the room. Grover and Juniper will stay here as usual to tend to the plants and such. Silena, you're on surveillance as usual except you and I are going to stay in constant contact. Will, you are staying here too. We can't risk Will, Grover and Juniper." Everyone nodded in agreement at their jobs. "Normally, we would have Nico, Beckendorf and I go on the raids but Beckendorf needs to stay and keep an eye on Luke. Thalia and Annabeth, you can help Silena with surveillance." The two girls looked at me incredulously.
"He's my brother. I'm going." Thalia said.
"You can't leave me out of the fight." Annabeth agreed.
"Fine. Annabeth, Thalia, Nico and I are going. Meet at the front door in five minutes." I told everyone and went to prepare. I grabbed my trusted bronze sword, Riptide, and an earpiece to communicate with Silena. I dressed up in dark jeans and a black t-shirt to remain hidden. Nico and I met at the front door at the same time. Nico had his usual steel sword at his side and typical black attire. Nico was wearing a backpack which contained everything we would need for the plan, backup plan, and backup plan to the backup plan. Annabeth and Thalia joined us a few minutes later. They were both wearing bright shirts and had guns in hand.
"You guys ready?" Annabeth asked.
"Are you?" Nico replied.
"What do you mean?"
"You guys are breaking about every survival rule there is right now." I told them. Annabeth looked surprised like she wasn't used to being wrong.
"Like what?" Thalia asked.
"They're attracted to light. No bright colors." I pointed to their shirts.
"They're attracted to sound. No loud noises." Nico said and pointed to their guns.
"Swords and bows are the best bet. Trust me on this." I told them. They nodded in understanding and went to change. They returned a few minutes later in matching black clothing. Annabeth was wielding a bronze dagger and Thalia was holding a bow.
"Perfect." Nico said with a rare smile. I opened the door for my new friends.
"Ladies first." I said sarcastically.
"What a gentlemen." Annabeth replied equally sarcastic. Thalia punched me while walking out. We all stood in front of the hotel.
"So, are we going to walk there?" Annabeth asked.
"Nope." I replied and walked into an alley next to the building. I emerged with four bikes. Green, Gray, Black, and Blue for each of us. We wordlessly jumped on the bikes and made our way to Jupiter's. I stopped about 100 yards from the bar and my friends followed my example. Down a hill, trying to break into the bar was a horde of zombies banging on the glass windows. I could see cracks forming with each hit.
"What now?" Nico asked me.
"We need a diversion." I said.
"Leave that to me." Nico pulled something out of his backpack. He hopped on his black bike and taped an air horn to the handle bars. "Wish me luck." Nico made the horn sound and taped it so it was constantly making sound. Nico drove down the hill and right past the zombies standing at the window. All but a few followed Nico hopelessly into the night.
"Come on." I said. Thalia, Annabeth and I rode down the hill and beheaded the remaining zombies. Jason's group opened the front doors and we walked into Jupiter's bar. Jason and Piper stood next to each other at the entrance. "Jason, Pipes, it's so good to see you guys." I hugged my two friends. Piper was getting emotional at the reunion. Thalia stepped forward and hugged Jason. Piper's eyes burned with jealousy but I gave her a look saying to calm down which she returned with a look of confusion.
"Jason, I'm your sister, Thalia." Thalia said. A look of realization crossed Jason's face and he hugged Thalia back. Piper looked shocked by the development. I now noticed that Silena hadn't said a word during the entire mission. I tapped on the ear piece.
"Silena, can you hear me?" I asked. I only received static. Silena always answers. Always. I turned to Jason. "Something's wrong. We need to get you guys out of here. How many?"
"We have eight but there's a problem." Jason said.
"What kind of problem?" I asked.
"Gwen is hurt and Dakota is too drunk to move."
"I'm sorry. I could've sworn you just said that someone was drunk when we are trying to save their lives!"
"I'm sorry but we can't just leave them."
"I know. You're right. Where are they?" Jason pointed me to a back room. I walked through the doors to see an infected girl devouring a guy passed out on the floor. I closed the doors before either of them noticed me. "Jason?"
"Yea?" Jason responded.
"Did Gwen's injury happen to be, oh I don't know, a bite from a zombie?"
"Yea, it was."
"I'm not sure how much you know but when someone gets bitten by a zombie they turn into a zombie. Come on man, that's classic horror movie 101 right there."
"Oh no, poor Gwen." Piper said.
"I think you mean poor Dakota. You laid him down right next to a flesh eating freak." I said.
"Is he…" Jason asked.
"Yea, I'm afraid he is. We need to get going now. Where are the others?" I asked. Just then two girls and a Hispanic guy came in carrying a moaning Asian guy with serious burn marks.
"What happened?" Jason asked.
"Leo accidently burned him." A girl with dark hair said.
"Eating and burning each other? What kind of base do you have going here, Jason?"
"This is Leo…" He pointed towards the Hispanic guy. "…Frank is the guy who got burned, Reyna is the scary girl with dark hair, and Hazel is the other one." Jason said.
"I am not scary." Reyna said. "And what do you mean by eating each other?"
"I'm really sorry but your friends Dakota and Gwen are dead and we have to leave." I told them. They looked devastated and scared. "We have someone who can patch everyone up but we need to go right now." Everyone followed me as we left the bar. I pulled Annabeth to the side. "Do you know how to get back?" I asked her. She nodded confused. "Lead them back there. I'm going to find Nico."
"No, you can't go out by yourself. I'll come with you." She said.
"No, go with them. I'll be fine. I promise." She didn't look like she believed me and I could see tears gather in her eyes. Suddenly, she leaned in and kissed me. She pulled away after a few seconds.
"Just in case." She said and made her way to the group. I grabbed my green bike and set out into the night looking for Nico.
Nico and I do this kind of thing a lot so we have a special rendezvous point. Usually we do rock, paper, scissors for who has to be the zombie bait but I think he was trying to impress our new friends. I met Nico at a special bench in Central Park. Nico and I still get around a lot during the apocalypse. I sat down next to Nico.
"You alright man?" I asked him.
"Yea, just thinking." He said.
"About Bianca?" I guessed. He nodded. Bianca was Nico's older sister and my cousin. She was with us when everything started. The others think that Travis and Connor were the first deaths we witnessed but in truth we've seen much more. That's what makes Nico and I leaders. We've gotten used to this and we kill without regret.
"I miss her Percy. I miss her, my parents, your parents, Tyson, Fisher, Juliet; I'm just tired of it." Nico said with tears in his eyes.
"I know. I miss them too." I said. "Let's go home."
"Home." Nico said bitterly. Nico and I arrived at the hotel at about three in the morning. We put our key in and opened the front door. Immediately, Jason was in front of me panicking.
"Jason, what's wrong?" I asked trying to get my friends breathing under control. Jason calmed down enough to get one word out.
"Beckendorf."