They are all staring at me.
Percy has called everyone back into the dry cleaner's lobby to explain the situation and now everyone is staring at me, waiting for me to come up with some brilliant plan.
Well, I am brilliant-planned out.
"Does it have to be that van?" Thalia asks. "We could sneak out the back and keep going."
Percy shakes his head. "I saw when Annabeth opened the door; there are dozens out there and probably more now. We wouldn't get very far."
"What if we made a run for it?" Grover asks.
Jason backs him up, "It's only twenty feet or so."
"Twenty feet is a long way to go if the zombies decide to crowd you," I say.
Everyone is quiet. We all stare at the ground.
"Noise, scent and fast movement is what attracts their attention, right?" Juniper says. "What if we fooled all those sense. " We at look at her in surprise. "What, I date him." She points to Grover. Of course, our resident zombie expert. And by zombie expert I mean he's seen every episode of The Walking Dead.
Huh, guess there won't be any more of those coming out any time soon.
"That could work. Could." I draw out the last word. There are no more certainties in this new world. "But who would go?"
"Me." It's Grover. "I'm the fastest runner. If it comes down to it." This is true, he runs track…and we've all seen him book it to the lunch line on enchilada day.
"Are you sure?" I ask. His eyes meet mine. If I was worried that he didn't know all of the risks, the steel in his glance tells me that he does. "Right. Then we need a zombie and some gloves."
The others look at me. Five pairs of eyes looking at me like I'm crazy. Hey, this is what happens when I run out of good ideas. Grover did make me suffer through the first couple of episodes of that show. A fact that he is currently remembering if the look on his face is any sign.
"Oh heck no," he says. "These are the only clothes I have. You are not putting zombie guts on them."
"Then find some new clothes," I say. "The zombies don't care what you're wearing."
Grover disappeared into the back of the shop. I looked at Percy, Jason and Thalia. Two pairs of blue eyes and one of green look back at me.
"You guys up for this?"
They nod. I leave them with Juniper and Frank to guard the door and head for the bathroom. The idea of dealing with another zombie makes me want to puke all over the tacky, linoleum lobby. What if one of the things out there is my mom? I'll probably never know what happened to her. And that's the worst part, because unless I know, I will always be looking for her.
I search through the supply closet for cleaning gloves. I'm lucky, cleaning supplies weren't very high on the list of priorities when people ran.
I don't think about my father and what he might be going through on the other side of the country. Or about my stepmom who's expecting twin boys soon.
Gods, if I had been over there when all of this started, I could be dead already.
It hits me then, that I might be an orphan now.
Oh.
Gods.
"Annabeth?" Percy stands at the open bathroom door. "We've got one." He sees the look on my face and takes a step inside, a crease appearing between his eyebrows. I brush past him and head back to the lobby. Focus. They've already beheaded the zombie and they all stand looking at Percy and me as we enter. The zombie is disgusting. He was a big, meaty man. Now his skin is yellow and blood-flecked. Skin and muscle are hanging off of his face like fringe. One arm ends in a sharp, bloody spear of bone. His forehead had been caved in and brains are splattered on the floor. I wrinkle my nose and open my mouth to tell them what we have to do next.
And then, Grover walks in from the back.
And despite everything going on in my head, I cannot help but laugh.
Thalia, Jason and Frank look at each other. Their questions about my sanity disappear when I point behind them. Beside me, Percy is laughing too.
"Grover, is…that…a wedding dress?" I'm laughing so hard, that it's hard to speak and breathe at the same time.
It must be a throw back from the eighties because it looks like the kind of dress that my mom's friends wear in their wedding pictures. It has big puffed sleeves and the bodice is bedecked with pearls and beading. The waist slopes into a deep 'v' that is surrounded by a skirt that resembles a marshmallow. Grover glares at us.
"They were short on lab coats."
"Just be glad my phone is low on juice," Percy says, swiping at his eyes. His other arm is wrapped around him like he might just laugh himself to pieces.
It's probably the best thing that's happened all day-in several days. To any of us. Grover stands there as we all laugh our asses off. He crosses his arms, crinkling the puffy sleeves, and looks down his nose at the six of us as we giggle like the maniacs that we've become. I mean, who smears guts on their best friend and sends him out into crowd of zombies.
I stop laughing.
Grover's eyes meet mine. Two steps and I'm wrap my arms around him. I'm not ready to lose someone else today.
"Thank you," I say. He hugs me back.
With a look at Percy and Jason and Thalia, I turn to the zombie lying motionless on the floor and pull out my knife. A hand covers mine. It's Juniper. She's already pulled on a pair of the gloves that I'd brought out of the bathroom. She holds out her other hand for the knife. I give it to her. With her lip between her teeth, Juniper kneels beside the corpse and cuts into its gut. We're all around her, pulling on the gloves as she scoops out a handful of nasty that's been festering underneath the skin for a day or two. And then she walks up to her boyfriend and smears it all over the front of the wedding dress.
Grover crinkles his nose.
"Great. This'll be all I can smell for days."
"But if this works, you'll still be able to smell," Juniper says. She turns and heads back to the corpse for another handful. The rest of us approach Grover, all of us with blood and guts cupped between our two hands and continue to defile the pristine surface of the wedding dress. Grover swallows convulsively and I can tell he's trying not to vomit. Because I'm doing the same thing. We all are.
Jason lasts five minutes before he's bent over a potted plant, dumping the contents of his stomach. But then, he wipes his mouth on the back of his sleeve and he continues helping. Pretty soon, Grover is covered. The bodice of the dress looks like someone finger-painted on it with blood and gore. Unidentifiable chunks have lodged in the beading and pearls. The skirt is streaked with red and black, bits of it falling off when he moves.
"You ready?" Percy asks. Grover gives him a look as Thalia and Jason flank the door.
"Head straight for the van," I say. "Don't move too fast. Don't make any noise that would draw their attention..."
"I know, Annabeth. Don't forget, I'm the one that tried to get you into the zombie scene." He turns to look at Juniper. She smiles at him.
"You'd better come back," she says. "Because I am not kissing you while you smell like that."
"I'll meet you guys in the alley."
Grover grins at her and grabs her hand. He presses a quick kiss into the palm and then he's slipping out the door, the skirt of his dress brushing either side and leaving traces of blood. Jason lets the door almost close and I watch for a minute as my best friend slowly, slowly moves towards the van.
So close and so far.
"Close the door," I say.
Jason looks at me. I'm about to explain how we don't want them to smell us or hear us when a zombie near Grover pauses, sniffing. His head is turning in Grover's direction. He sees and freezes.
Maybe he would have passed Grover over, maybe Grover would have had to make a run for it. I don't know. Someone shoves me aside.
"Hey!" Percy yells, yanking the door wide open and running outside. "That's right you moldy corpses. Fresh meat right here." His sword slices through three zombies. He retreats quickly as the rest of the crowd begins to turn in his direction. Grover picks up his pace, stripping the wedding dress and walking out of it as he reaches the van. Percy is back inside and we throw ourselves on the door as six or seven zombies press against it. An arm makes it through, but it snaps and slops onto the floor, no match for the weight of several teenagers.
I turn the lock. The frosted glass grows dark as more zombies crowd around the door and giant window.
"Genius move, Percy," Thalia hisses. "That door won't hold if enough of them gather together."
"I know," Percy says. There's the roar of an engine. "But at least we have a ride now."
A hand smacks against the door. Then something else that leaves the bloody smear of an eye socket and cheek behind. We run, grabbing our things and the pile of clothes that we've gathered. Jason leads the way to the back door. The alley looks clear. The moaning of the herd at the front door is audible behind us. It's probably attracting every zombie within hearing range.
And we wait.
There's a loud crack from inside the store.
Did something just give way? Would we hear the sound of glass hitting the floor over dozens of moans? I look at Percy. He looks grim. We've all aged years in the last two days. Tires squeal against the pavement. The van rounds the corner and I swear the two of the tires leave the ground. The van is long and white. A fifteen passenger-except there are no doors on the side. A black smear splits the dry cleaners logo in half.
Grover only took five minutes to make to the alley.
It felt longer.
He pulls up next to us, looking a little rabid and disappears into the back of the van. We're waiting when he throws the double doors at the rear open. We pile in, grabbing clothes that hang in crisp plastic bags and dumping them onto the grimy alley.
"Alright," I say, looking at the cousins as I sit in the passenger seat. "Which of you is driving?" Thalia squeezes between the seats and sits next to me. Everyone else hunkers down in the back.
"Hang on to something." And she guns it. We shoot through the remaining distance of the alley.
Out on the street, it's quiet. As quiet as it can be with a horde of zombies just down the street. We don't run into much trouble as we head to the nicer part of town. Soon the storefronts and pack apartments give way to high-rises that are painted white or made of glass. Everything looks cleaner. More regal.
We pull up in front of a shiny condominium.
From what I remember, the Big Three disagree on just about everything. If I had to give it a percentage, I'd say 97%. But I can see why this building appeals to them. It's massive size would please Zeus. The other buildings around it seem antiquated and old. The rich, metallic exterior would obviously appeal to Hades. And Poseidon probably was drawn to the clean, strong lines of the architecture. Thalia throws the truck into park and starts to get out.
"Wait," I say.
She pulls her hand out of my grasp.
"We don't know how much time we have," she says.
"I know, but we need some sort of vantage point." I gesture to the parking garage across the street. Probably still full of the resident's Jaguars and Mercedes-Benz. "Pull it in there."
She looks at me for three seconds and then she nods. We pull into the garage and then I direct her to turn the van around so that we're facing out. Pretty soon we're grouped in front of the van, scanning the street. We're lucky this part of town seems pretty clear.
Again I tell them to wait. Then I assign each of them a position. Percy, Jason, Juniper, Frank, and Thalia will retrieve Nico and Bianca. Grover waits with the car.
"What about you?" Percy asks.
Good question. First I need coordinate a few things.
"Did you get ahold of Bianca?" I ask Thalia. She nods. "Frank, do you have a cellphone?" He grins. I think he knows where I'm going already.
"Gimme a sec. I have one better." He disappears behind the van for a minute and reemerges with several black radios. He hands one to me. And one to Grover. That leaves two for him and someone else in the apartment group.
"That works too. I'm going to the top level to keep a look out." I look at the condo. Judging how far up they'd need to go to have a better vantage point. "One of you needs to post a lookout on the 12th or 14th floor. If you think they'll need back-up, one of you stay behind. The rest of you go get the di Angelos and Hazel. You have fifteen minutes to get to them, grab any supplies you can-Percy, can you make sure we get a couple of cellphone chargers-and get back here. If we see anything suspicious, we'll radio you."
They nod.
Grover and Juniper exchange a look.
"Annabeth," he starts.
"I know," I reply, "but I need you down here." I pull him aside as the others run across the street. "I'm going up. You see anything weird you go. Do not wait for me, you got it?"
Grover's eyes widen. This is the clincher. I could have picked anyone. But I trust Grover.
Grabbing my crossbow from the back of the van, I head to the stairs.