In My Shoes, A Walking Sleep

Rachel

After Rachel's recollection in the baths that she needed to inform Apollo about what she'd seen in her vision, Reyna convinces her to spend the night at Camp Jupiter first.

"You've had a rough day and honestly, I'm not comfortable beginning a cross-country drive without resting first."

"Yeah," Rachel says with a yawn. "Driving will take too long anyway. I think we should just head out early tomorrow, then charter a plane on our way to the airport. For something like this, I'm willing to dip in to the stupid trust fund."

They spend the night in Reyna's old room, packed and ready to leave at the crack of dawn.

XxxX

They meet Frank at the principia gate in the blue glow of early morning, the ground wet with dew, and the chill of fall evident in the misty vapor they exhale.

Frank absently rubs the back of his head, his bow and quiver strapped to his back.

"This visit to Camp Half-Blood," he says, his quiet voice drawing Rachel's attention away from the interesting patterns in the dirt path. "You're just delivering a message to Apollo, right? I'm just wondering why you don't send him an Iris-message."

They reach the tunnel and keep walking. She hasn't thought about trying to send an Iris-message. When she does now, her stomach sinks. "I'm not sure," she tells Frank. "It feels wrong. Usually I can communicate with him by praying or in a dream, but lately …" she searches for the right words, not wanting to sound ungrateful, but still expressing some of her frustrations, "… he's been distant. I think what I need to tell him is the sort of thing that needs to be done in person."

"Makes sense," Frank replies. His face is shadowed by the light of the dim torches, giving him a pensive sort of look. When they reach the more modern half of the tunnel and the torches make way for electric light-bulbs in wire cages, Frank seems more nervous than thoughtful.

"It will be a quick trip, Frank," Reyna says, speaking for the first time since they'd greeted him. "I'm leaving my things with Hazel, and after we see Apollo, we'll be coming back to pick up Piper and return to Berkeley."

Rachel can't help cracking a smile. "I don't think Piper was too upset about having to wait a while longer. She and Jason left the baths rather quickly after finding out."

Frank's cheeks, already pink from the cold air, grow redder as they reach the end of the tunnel. Rachel spots Reyna's SUV where they had left it, behind a bush, hidden from the view of the freeway.

Reyna claps Frank on the shoulder, and then salutes him. "Thank you for escorting us, Praetor Zhang. We'll be back before you know it."

Frank smiles at her and returns the salute.

Rachel buckles her seatbelt as Reyna adjusts the seat and mirrors, shifts the car into reverse, and then starts the trundling drive down the slope to the freeway. The knot of bitter emotions that had grown since Rachel's vision seems to finally loosen. They're on their way. Soon she'll see Apollo in person and tell him exactly what she thinks of his lack of attention.

Dread hits her like a knife to her heart and she covers Reyna's hand on the steering wheel with her own hand. "Stop."

Reyna hits the brakes, only a dozen feet from the freeway and looks at Rachel. "What?"

And then the earthquake hits. A sound like ripping paper magnified times a million hits her ears, rattling the car windows and resonating through her bones as the car begins to shake. A deep rumbling follows and dirt fills the air in a thick cloud, coating the windshield as the seatbelt bites into Rachel's chest and steals her breath. The only thing she can do is hold on to her seat in the rattling car and wait. Her imagination spins with the sounds of monstrous crashing, rocks on rocks – more offensive to her ears than fingernails scraping against chalkboards – screeching tires, distant screams.

It stops as quickly as somebody snuffing a candle flame, Rachel's ears ringing with the sudden silence. She jumps when Reyna turns on the windshield wipers, her eyes bugging out at the devastation in front of them.

The southbound freeway, normally five lanes of endlessly moving traffic has split straight across. A gap about ten feet across at the widest point stops traffic. One car teeters on the edge of the gap while a smash of cars piles up behind it.

"We need to go back," Reyna says, the determination in her voice barely concealing a tremor of fear. Rachel catches it anyway.

Reyna turns the engine back on and shifts into reverse, pushing down on the gas pedal. The wheels spin, but they don't move. Purely on instinct, Rachel unfastens her seatbelt and Reyna's as well.

"Get out! Right now!"

She pushes her door open and leaps outside, stumbling backwards as the ground rumbles and the split in the freeway spreads, swallowing the SUV. She climbs back up the hill, her heart hammering in her chest. She turns back, relief crashing over her as Reyna pushes through a cloud of dirt, her eyes focused, her body moving with the strength and grace of a panther.

"I'd say that was not an auspicious beginning to our journey," Reyna says drily as she approaches.

Rachel doesn't care that it's a ridiculous time to find humor in Reyna's statements. She laughs and throws her arms around Reyna's waist. Reyna returns the embrace, her cheek pressed against Rachel's neck.

"Are you okay?" Reyna asks.

"I'm fine. We need to …" She stops, her eyes widening. From inside the crevice, skeletal figures: zombies with half-rotted flesh and creatures that the Oracle tells her are Spartoi climb out and join the mass of hysterical mortals. "Oh shit."

Reyna releases her, then spins, her sword in hand. Her eyes fix on the undead rising like ants from a colony, more numerous than should be. "They don't –" She narrows her eyes. "They don't seem to be attacking. The mortals can't see them."

Another rumbling sound fills her ears and Rachel braces herself for an aftershock, but the ground remains steady, the rumble turning into a roar.

"There!" Reyna shouts, pointing due north of the crevice.

A motorcycle with a single rider dressed in black leather, speeds toward the crevice, going the wrong way on the freeway. Before they hit the split in the road, they disappear. Reyna and Rachel turn around as the roaring engine sounds behind them, sputtering as the rider parks it, and then kills the engine.

The rider pulls off their helmet, shaking out long red hair before turning and fixing fierce green eyes on them. Rachel's heart thuds, nearly stopping. "Mom?" It's impossible. There is not a single circumstance she can imagine that her mother would be seen dressed as a biker, let alone anywhere near a motorcycle.

The woman grins, her teeth gleam brighter and look sharper than they should.

"CC is your mother?" Reyna asks, her brow furrowed, dark eyes fixed on the woman. She points at the split in the freeway, at the dead crawling out of it en masse. "Is this your doing?"

The woman rolls her eyes and clicks her tongue, then folds her arms across her chest and stares them down. The message she intends comes off clear as day in her posture: earthquakes? Oh please. If I did it, the destruction would be far worse.

The answer pops into Rachel's mind as if the Oracle whispers it to her. She can appear as any person you harbor a grudge against. "Nemesis. That's who you are."

"Hey!" Frank calls, pushing a rock nearly half his size from the entrance to the tunnel. "Are you okay?" He waves his hand through the dust, his face draining of color as he spots them talking to Nemesis.

Nemesis gives them a sharp nod, paying Frank no mind. "Yes. I'm here to give you a ride to Camp Half-Blood, Rachel Elizabeth Dare."

Reyna steps forward, half-blocking Rachel. "Not without me, you're not."

Nemesis scuffs the ground with her boot. "Oh, but you see, there is only room for one passenger on my bike, and it is Rachel who has earned it." She climbs back onto the motorcycle's seat, then twists her hand, creating a helmet out nothing. She tosses it to Rachel.

"You don't do favors without a price," Reyna argues. "What are you asking?"

Nemesis addresses Rachel when she answers. "While revenge is my typical M.O. Today another scale needs balancing. Rachel, how long have you suffered your body to house the Delphic Oracle?"

Rachel squeezes Reyna's elbow to let her know that she can handle this conversation. The Oracle seems to be guiding her to accept the ride. "About three or four years. Why?"

Nemesis tucks her helmet under her elbow. "Right. And how many times – now, for instance – have you called out to your patron and have it fall on deaf ears?"

Rachel's face flushes. She has been increasingly frustrated with Apollo. He never seems to come when she needs him, instead he'll turn up after she's already dealt with the problem, or at very inopportune moments: between classes when she has to cross campus and can't stop to talk, or when she's using the toilet, or the one time when she and Reyna were getting frisky under the sheets. "Too often," she says. "But I don't want to bring any sort of bad luck down on him."

Nemesis cackles. It's unnerving to hear the sound coming from somebody wearing her mother's face. "I wouldn't worry yourself over that. He brings misfortune down on himself often enough, I don't feel justified in doling out more. Thing is, kid. I'm tired of always being remembered as the bad guy in the quests of heroes. Doing you a solid will balance the scale for me, as well as getting you to Apollo."

"But –" Reyna interjects before Nemesis stops her.

"You are needed here, former praetor. Hazel Levesque is the only person nearby who has the power to send these souls back where they belong, and her power is cloaked. She needs you to help her access it again."

Reyna meets Rachel's eyes. "Is this what you want to do?"

"It's not my first choice," Rachel admits. "But yeah. Go help your camp and I'll deal with Apollo. Be back before you know it."

Reyna nods and pecks Rachel's lips with a quick kiss.

"Tick tock," Nemesis drawls. "Time is of the essence." She slips her helmet on, concealing her face, and revs the engine.

"Love you," Rachel whispers, then climbs onto the bike behind Nemesis. She puts on her helmet and holds onto Nemesis's waist.

Frank catches up to Reyna before they take off, his words putting a smile on her face as Nemesis kicks the bike into gear and they take off, flying down the empty freeway faster than a bat out of hell.

"Grandma? Reyna … Those skeletons …"