BLOOD BROTHER

PERCY

I sat at the head of the dining room table, eating breakfast with my remaining friends. It was the worst breakfast that we've had in a long time. Without Grover and Juniper, no one knew how to make something as simple as scrambled eggs.

"Come on Reyna. You're a girl. You have to know how to make something." Will groaned.

"Will, don't talk to me." Reyna warned. Will put his hands up in surrender.

"But seriously, no one here knows how to make any breakfast food?" Will asked.

"What are we going to do?" Piper asked. "We can't eat ramen noodles for every meal."

"Guys there's something I need to tell you." I said gathering everyone's attention.

"Wait, Percy, why are you wearing sunglasses?" Annabeth asked.

"Captain, over here decided to get hammered last night." Zoe said.

"You cannot seriously have a hangover." Annabeth said angrily.

"Thanks Zoe." I said.

"Anytime." She responded.

"There really is something I need to tell you though." Everyone went quiet to hear what I had to say. "I got a call last night." That seemed to surprise a few people.

"That's great." Piper said. "I was beginning to think we were the only ones left."

"Who did you get a call from?" Thalia asked.

"My brother." That surprised everyone.

"Fisher? As in, your twin brother Fisher?" Jason asked.

"Yea, he called me last night. He wants to meet in Central Park."

"Is Juliet with him?" I lowered my head sadly.

"I don't know. He didn't say. Jason, Piper and I will go meet them since none of you know him. We will leave in an hour. I can't wait till noon." I left to go get ready. I went for a quick swim. I did a few laps thinking about how much Fisher would enjoy the pool. Annabeth dove into the pool with me.

"Percy, I just want you to know that I'm really happy that you found your brother." She said.

"Thanks Annabeth." I said and kissed her on the cheek. "We should probably be heading out soon." I went to get out of the pool.

"Percy, wait." Annabeth said. "Just don't get your hopes up. We lived in a messed up world. You don't know what they're going to be like."

"I know but I need to believe that they're okay. I need my family back."

"I know but just remember. We're your family too."

"I know you are. That's one of the only good things about the end of the world. I met you." Annabeth crashed her lips on mine.

"Just be careful, okay?"

"I always am." I changed and met my longtime friends Jason and Piper at the door. We all wordlessly walked outside and made our trek to Central Park. Piper was the first to break the silence in an annoying way.

"Percy, are you okay?" Piper asked.

"Of course, why do you ask?" I replied.

"Your best friend died last night and you acted like you didn't even care." Jason nodded in agreement.

"You think I didn't care?" I asked angrily. "I'm sick of losing people. It was okay before when I had Nico and Grover and my other friends. I could believe that my siblings were okay out there. I could believe that my friends Jason and Piper were still alive. I found you and I'm thrilled about that." I paused. "But I lost Nico and Grover and so many others and I'm scared about finding out that my sisters dead. I'm just really scared. I don't think I could take it if something happened to one of you." Piper engulfed me in a hug.

"We're not going anywhere Percy. We will be at your side until your final breath." I returned the hug.

"Thanks Jason. We're spilling our inner most thoughts and you're just standing there." Jason was staring at something in the distance.

"Fisher." He said. Piper and I looked to where Jason was staring. My twin brother, Fisher, was sitting on a bench alone. We ran over and the three of us hugged him at the same time.

"Thank the gods you're okay." I said.

"I'm glad to see you too bro." Fisher said. "Please tell me Juliet's okay." Fisher dropped his head. "No, no, no, she can't be." Fisher raised his head quickly.

"Whoa, wait, she's still alive." Fisher said. "She's just not in good shape. She really misses you. She's not coping with all this very well."

"Who could blame her?" Piper said. "She's only eight."

"Where is she?" I asked. "Where are you staying?"

"Dad's house." Fisher answered. I frowned at that. "I'm guessing you don't want to stay there."

"You could say that."

"What's wrong with your dad's house?" Piper asked.

"Percy and our father had, let's say, a falling out." Fisher answered.

"Percy, you never told us that." Piper said.

"Dad's a little crazy." I said.

"Dad isn't exactly father of the year, but his craziness did end up saving us." Fisher said.

"How?"

"Dad was a prepper."

"A what?" Jason asked.

"A prepper, as in, prepared for something. In this case, the apocalypse. Jules and I have been living in his basement since it went down. I was too much of a coward to call you. I didn't want to find out that you were dead but Jules kept asking so I just went for it."

"Well, we're glad you did." Piper said.

"Let's go get Jules and head back to the hotel." I said. Fisher led us to dad's house and I ran through the front door to see my little sister. I knocked on the basement door.

"Who is it?" A frightened voice asked.

"A zombie." I replied. Jules opened the door.

"You're not funny Fisher." Jules said.

"Can you still not tell us apart?" I asked. She looked into my eyes.

"Percy!" She yelled and tackled me in a flying hug. She started crying. "I missed you."

"I know. I missed you too, but now we are going to our base to meet all my friends okay?"

"Okay." Jules said. I picked her up so she was riding on my shoulders. We met everyone outside.

"Hi Juliet." Piper said.

"Piper!" She yelled. I set her down so she could give Piper a hug.

"What, Jason doesn't get one?" Jason asked. Jules ran over and tackled Jason. Jules climbed onto Jason's back and we started walking back to the hotel.

"Juliet, you look different now." Piper commented. It was true. Juliet's dark hair grew longer and her sea green eyes weren't as bright.

"Fisher said that I grew up." Juliet said.

"You know, usually when people grow up they become less annoying." Jason said. Jules slapped Jason on side of his head. Suddenly, we heard a moaning coming from behind a bush.

"Juliet, don't look." I said. Juliet nodded and put her hands over her eyes. A zombie walked out from behind a bush. I let out all my fury and cut off every limb it had before severing the head. I looked behind me. Jason and Piper had a neutral expression while Fisher looked mortified. "It's the world we live in, Fish. Survive or die." Fisher expression hardened and he took my sword. He found another random zombie and cut its head off with a single swing. "Good, you're a natural." He frowned.

"I don't want to be a natural." He said.

"I don't want you to be a natural either." I said. "We need you to be." I looked over at Jules who still had her eyes shut. "You can open your eyes now, Juliet." She opened her eyes and acted like nothing happened.

"Let's go. The hotel is right over there." Jason said. We walked through the front door. Everyone surrounded us immediately.

"Everyone, this is my brother and sister, Fisher and Juliet." I said.

"Wow, you look just like Percy." Thalia said. "Is it good that there are two of them now?"

"I think it's pretty good." Reyna said.

"Excuse me?" Annabeth demanded.

"Okay, let's go celebrate with cold pizza on the roof." I said. There were some cheers from the group. Within ten minutes we were all swimming and having a good time on the roof. I noticed Fisher and Reyna having a really good time, with each other that is.

"Yea, Fisher! Get some!" Will yelled. Fisher grabbed Reyna and they both jumped into the pool. For the first time it seemed like not everything was bad and we could still have fun. Annabeth sat down next to me on a beach chair.

"Your sister is adorable." Annabeth said. "It creeps me out seeing you make out with Reyna." She pointed towards Fisher and Reyna in the pool.

"Yea, it creeps me out too." I said.

"You seem happy. I'm glad." I nodded.

"My family's back. I have you and the others. Maybe it won't be so bad. We could leave, all of us could. We could go somewhere safe and just forget about this. Our kids would never even know what the rest of the world is like."

"So, you've been thinking about kids?" I smiled.

"I'd like to. One day, when everything dialed down." Annabeth smiled.

"Me too." Suddenly, fireworks started going off on the street. Everyone panicked and started frantically looking for the source. Annabeth and I peered over the roof. There were at least 100 zombies closing in on the area. I looked around for something that could have started them.

Or someone. My eyes locked on a figure on the roof across the street. Luke was standing there with a wicked scowl and pointed towards the front door. Zombies started pouring into the hotel.

"Percy! The front door is open!" Will yelled. I looked back over at Luke but couldn't find him. Jason ran over to my side.

"Perce we've got to go man. It's time for that emergency escape plan." Jason said frantically. Jason and I readied the zip line. Everyone gathered for instructions.

"There are two fully fueled cars waiting for our escape. Five in each. Don't look back, just go." Fisher grabbed Juliet and took off down the zip line. Reyna followed quickly after. Thalia and Will went next. Annabeth kissed me one last time and jumped. Zoe and Piper gave me a hug before following Annabeth down the zip line. As soon as they went the zombies broke through the door and charged at me and Jason. "Jason! Go!" Jason gave me an angry look for making him leave me but he went down the zip line. I killed the closest three zombies and took off my blood stained shirt. I took a running start and leaped off the building. I wrapped my shirt around the zip line and started speeding towards an opening in the building. As I got closer, I noticed my friends lying unconscious on the floor. "What the hades?" I said to myself. I dodged a random slash at my head and rolled out of the way. I unsheathed my sword and faced my attacker, Luke. Our swords collided several times, neither of us giving an inch. He made a mistake and I gave him a long cut going down his face. Luke screamed in pain and jumped into a black van driving by. Luke's new friends dropped a note out the window and sped out onto the road. The driver was wearing an eye patch and there was an unconscious figure sitting in the passenger seat. The figure had golden blond hair and closed startling gray eyes.

Annnabeth.