I wake up on a deck chair.

Can't say I've done much sleeping since Annabeth was bitten. I was just sitting down for a minute and then I think I was supposed to getting food. It was only going to be for a minute. Just until I could talk Piper into letting me back in the room.

If…if anything happened, I wanted to be close at hand.

But here I am, waking up on a deck chair. With a blanket over me.

"Hey, there sleepyhead." Calypso is lounging under the shade on a sofa. She closes her book and picks upsomething from the nearby table. She comes over to me, a glass in one hand and a plate with a sandwich in the other. "You should eat."

Sitting up, I toss the blanket to the side. "I should get back down there."

"You should eat," she repeats. "And try to get some more rest."

I shake my head. "I've got to make sure that nobody messes with Annabeth. Clarisse—"

"You've got Thalia and Jason and Grover and the rest of us for that," Calypso says. "We'll make sure no one messes with her."

Not good enough for me, but at least she doesn't try to tell me it's pointless. Calypso and I can't help but notice how good she smells. Not like the sick and death that I've breathed for the last five days. She smiles at me, her brown hair brushing at her cheeks.

"I need to be there, Calypso," I say, but I do take a bite out of the sandwich.

She reaches out, her hand brushing at my hair. I shy away. Annabeth was right. If I had any doubt, the hurt look on Calypso's face confirms it.

"Calypso…"

There's tromping from below. Jason's head pops above the landing of the stairwell; he looks flushed. Whatever just happened flies from my mind. Jason opens his mouth, but I'm headed down the stairs two at a time before he can speak. I nearly run over Leo in my haste to get to the crew quarters.

The door to Annabeth's room hangs open. She's alone, her eyes closed. She looks like a corpse. The tan has drained out of her skin. And she looks so thin. We've tried to keep her hydrated, but she's never been conscious enough to eat.

I swallow.

My feet are glued to the threshold. I should check her pulse. I should have waited for Jason to tell me what had happened. I should have grabbed a weapon—just in case.

That thought leaves me clutching the doorpost for support.

"Oh, hey, Percy."

Piper walks past me, a pitcher with water in her hands. I look back to the bunk, Annabeth's eyes are open. Even with the dark shadows underneath, they are that same all-knowing gray. And very, very alive.

I can't help the smile that spreads across my face.

"Hey," she says. She coughs and Piper helps her to sit up in the bed, placing a glass of water in her hands. She has to use both of them to keep the glass from shaking.

"Hey," I say back.

"You need food," Piper tells Annabeth. "Percy, keep an eye on her." Like I need to be told twice.

Feeling like a zombie myself, I shuffle over to the chair she's just vacated. "How do you feel?"

"Human," she says. "Which I'll admit, surprises me." She holds the glass of water out to me. I put it back on the table and lean back in my chair. This is familiar territory.

"Told you so," I say.

"I'm still sick, Percy," she says.

"Nope. No odds. No Negative Nancy-ing."

She glares at me. I cross my arms and hold her gaze.

"Fine," she says finally. "I'm alive. Yipee."

"Gosh, Wise Girl, way to make it sound like a good thing."

I should take a minute to explain about the nicknames.

As a little kid, Annabeth was kind of a snot about the whole really smart thing. I mean, she's dyslexic, but she was probably reading before Thalia and I had even grasped the concept of books. Can't say she was my favorite person when I was six and seven. But she was Thalia's friend and so I had to play with her if I wanted to play with Thalia and Jason. Her natural snottiness expressed itself in her calling me Seaweed Brain (And let's face it, sometimes my head is full of kelp). I started calling her Wise Girl with all the snark I could muster, because it sounded like a good sneer with the right inflection.

Only, this is Annabeth we're talking about. Some girls might let other people make them feel self-conscious for being so smart, but she kind still took it as a compliment. And at some point, her calling me Seaweed Brain stopped being an insult and just became what she called me (although, she is the only one that gets to use that name-Thalia tried it one time and only my mother's previous lecture on how "you don't hit girls even if they're your cousin" kept me from decking her. I was a violent child).

It may sound silly, but those names feel like our secret code. Like, we can put all the meaning of the words we don't know how to say into those names. They still connected us, even after all these years.

Annabeth frowns at me. "Just trying to be realistic."

"I'll take hope over realism any day." Especially if being realistic meant thinking about her dying. That was something I had studiously tried to avoid thinking about over the last five days. A difficult task when most of that time had been spent watching her try to not die.

She's going to say something, but then there are footsteps in the hall and Tyson races in.

"Annabeth!" Tyson races in, a grin so big I'm a little jealous. Rescuing me has turned Annabeth into some sort of hero in my little brother's eyes. He thinks she's better than Batman. He bounces onto the bed before I grab him.

"You're okay," he shouts. "Percy said you'd be okay, but Thalia said that Percy was in a sundial."

Annabeth's eyes crinkle as she tries to translate what Tyson just said. She must figure it out because she starts laughing and then Tyson is laughing. I join them, I can't help myself. It just feels good.

"I guess we all underestimated the power of your brother's optimism." She rubs tears from one of her eyes

"Okay, Big Guy, come sit with me," I say.

Tyson climbs off the bed, hesitating between us. "Can I have a hug?" His voice is soft.

Annabeth nods. Tyson leans over and hugs her carefully. She squeezes him tight.

"Thank you, Annabeth."

"You're welcome."

"I'm next," Grover says from behind me. Sitting on the edge of the bunk, he gives her a quick hug before making room so Juniper can have her turn. Without me knowing it, the room has filled up. Thalia, Bianca, Frank, Jason, Clarisse, Leo. And not all of them are here just to see that Annabeth is awake.

"Anyone care to explain why Chase isn't undead?" Clarisse asks.

We all look at Grover.

"How would I know? There's nothing like this in the shows."

"Maybe she's immune," Juniper offers.

We all look at her.

"What? It was in a series I read."

Annabeth shakes her head. "It's probably just like every other virus. It can't succeed without taking out the human immune system."

"So what, you have a super immune system?" Clarisse asks.

"I don't know." Annabeth shrugs. "I mean, we haven't seen anyone that wasn't killed in the attack so far. Maybe everyone who doesn't get torn apart gets the same chance." Her eyes flick up to mine and I can read another admission in her glance. Maybe Percy was right, they say.

"Okay, Wise Girl, less talk of tearing people apart," I say. I tilt my head towards Tyson. His nightmares are bad enough without people adding to them.

"Sorry."

I stand, facing everyone else in the room. "What are you guys all doing down here?"

Although, I think I already know. We've developed a core group over the last couple of days. I've kept them waiting while we watched Annabeth.

"What's going on?" Annabeth asks. Though she probably already knows.

"We need to go to shore," Grover says.

"Where are we?" she asks.

"Near Tampa," he says. "We've been anchored offshore for a couple of days. We're low on fuel."

"Then why haven't you gone yet?" This time she looks at me.

Now, I could state the obvious answer, I didn't want to take all the people I trusted away while Annabeth was unconscious. If we changed the balance of power, who knew what would happen. I wouldn't put a coup past Clarisse. But then Clarisse would start arguing about how I don't trust her and people would get angry and this would get us nowhere.

"Grover and I wanted to try for somewhere with a smaller population," I say. Granted, Tampa and St. Pete aren't as packed as NYC, but they're still metropolitan areas. We have just over a dozen fighters. "We thought we should avoid areas that could be zombie-dense."

Leo holds his hands up to the ceiling ."Anywhere that would have enough fuel for this thing is going to have a larger population, Jackson."

Annabeth nods. "Then I guess this will do as well as anywhere."

Well, if she thinks it's worth a try.

"We'd have to get everyone off the boat to fuel it," I tell her. "Safety." Everyone else gave me their shocked looks three days ago. A few of them grumble again, but I have Jason and Leo backing me up on this, so they don't argue. Annabeth looks surprised. I expect her to question me. Questions are her thing. Teachers had to tell her to let other students ask questions.

"Okay," she says. "Tomorrow, we get everyone off the boat and refuel." She quirks her mouth in a little smile that says, I trust you, Seaweed Brain.

"O-kay," I say. And then I leave.

I know I should wait and talk with Annabeth. I was going to wait and talk with Annabeth. I have so many questions. Like what was that kiss in the stairwell? What is this? But I can't. Now that she's conscious, all of the things I wanted to tell her when her eyes were closed are sticking in my throat.

I don't sleep well.

The next morning, we unload. Most of us take our important stuff off the boat. Theoretically, we will be returning to the yacht, if I don't blow it up trying to fuel it. I mean, I've never seen that happen. But my dad has. He's told me stories.

"Get it secured," I tell Jason once we're at the fuel dock. Thalia is already organizing the supplies.

"Come in," Annabeth says when I rap on her door. She's sitting on the edge of the bed, pulling her sneakers on. There's more color in her cheeks than yesterday, but the rest of her face looks a little gray.

"Ready to blow this joint," I ask.

She looks up at me.

"We should probably get supplies while we're ashore," she says.

I hold my hand out to her. "We talk about that when everyone is situated in the yacht club."

Annabeth grimaces.

"I'm not going to be able to walk all that way," she says. "Just having Piper help me to the bathroom is exhausting." She looks down. In her lap, her fingers twitch, fingernails scraping together.

It takes me a moment to realize what she's saying. I bite back the laugh. Annabeth and her pride. When I pick her up, I can't help but notice that she feels like she weighs half what she did when I had to carry her onto the boat. I try to keep my face calm.

"Stop worrying," she says.

But I can't help but think that Annabeth Chase willingly being carried off the boat in front of all of her friends is something I should be worried about. But the way her glare silences anyone who thinks about opening her mouth does make me feel a little better. Once we're back inside the building I put her down and help her to a chair.

"Annabeth thinks we should get supplies while we're on shore."

"Are you sure?" Bianca asks.

"If we're already exposing ourselves..." Annabeth shrugs. "Percy, who do you want?"

"Uh—Thalia, Luke, the di Angelos, Grover, Frank, the Stolls and La Rue and Rodriguez." Having that many of Clarisse's minions with us makes me nervous, but I want to keep my eye on her. Plus, if I let her smash things, maybe she'll be less likely to mutiny. The Stolls will mutiny if we leave them behind on another raid.

"Okay," Annabeth says. "Let's do what we can to make this place secure."

It only takes a minute to make sure Jason and Leo know what they're doing. (I know Jason does, but I can't help feeling paranoid. Annabeth must be rubbing off on me.)

"Be careful, Percy," she says. She's leaning against the door, watching the others as they go in and out. I think sitting when everyone else is standing is getting to her. The effort shows in the way she breathes, though.

"C'mon, Jackson," Clarisse calls. I wave the traditional gesture for, 'in a minute' at the group.

And then I lose my mind.

"Don't I get a kiss for luck," I ask Annabeth. "It's kind of tradition, right?"

I kind of expect her to punch me. But she doesn't, she just looks at me for a long time.

"Come back alive, Seaweed Brain, then we'll see."

It's probably the best offer I'll get. So I turn and follow the others. My feet don't take me very far before I turn back to Annabeth.

"I'll make you a deal, Wise Girl. You guys stay alive and we'll stay alive. Sound good?"

Annabeth doesn't give me a snappy comeback. Or even a smile. She just nods and watches me until I turn around. Maybe she watches me after. It feels like she does, all the hairs on the back of my neck are standing on end.

But I don't look back. I'll be back and everything will be fine.

Won't it?

Ya'll are so awesome. Thank you to all my regulars and welcome to the newbies.

No worries, I still have plenty more to go. Every time I think, hmm, I don't know where to go from here, I think of new ideas. I've got the next couple of chapters planned out, so I just have to get them from my brain to a blank word document. I know where it's going and I actually know how it's going to end, I just have to figure out how to get there. But no spoilers. You'll just have to wait and see.

No I'm off to go research strange things and possibly watch the Walking Dead. No sure about that one though.

Hope you had fun with this chapter. =D