Percy was genuinely surprised by how fast the flight from Florida to Louisiana went by. What should've been a two-hour long flight felt like thirty minutes to him. He figured it was because he and Annabeth were chatting non-stop the entire flight. They weren't even talking about anything in particular, it was like they molded together perfectly when they talked.
If there was one good thing he could say he got out of this zombie apocalypse, it would be that he got to meet Annabeth. She'd easily become his best friend in this whole thing, the silver lining to his shitty situation.
A situation that was about to get so much worse.
"Alright." Annabeth nudged him, "We're landing. Remember, these people don't trust us, try not to spook them."
Percy nodded, "Got it."
He closed his eyes as he felt the plane start to descend. Months ago, he wouldn't have felt a thing but now it was like he hadn't ever been inside a plane. If someone asked him to, he could definitely fly a plane, it just wouldn't feel the same. He was more used to being on the ground now.
He looked out the window. He could see the sun starting to set, he counted themselves lucky that they didn't have to come in at night. Night landings were a different ballgame compared to landing during the day.
Through the window, he could see the airport they'd landed at. It wasn't a big airport, not like LaGuardia, but big enough to hold a couple of passenger jets, which he saw parked near the tarmac. He didn't miss the four or so military helicopters near an open hanger, they weren't armed but they could be useful in a bad situation. A few trucks drove to and back from the various buildings, some with soldiers riding in the back.
The plane groaned as it came to a complete stop. He looked over at Annabeth. She nodded, checking her rifle. He sighed and checked his rifle. He didn't need words to understand her, she was telling him to get ready for anything. There was no guarantee the soldiers wouldn't just shoot them as soon as the cargo bay opened.
The red light turned green as the cargo bay opened, revealing the crowd of soldiers waiting for them. Luckily, Annabeth was right about them not having tanks. Unfortunately, they all had guns and those guns were aimed right at Percy and Annabeth.
Now that he was able to get a close enough look, he noticed not all of them were soldiers. Some of them looked like civilians, this was only reinforced by the fact that some of them were holding hunting rifles and double-barrel shotguns. Regardless, that didn't make them any less dangerous, if anything, it worried him even more.
"Are you the guys from Camp Half-Blood?" A sandy-haired guy asked as he stepped onto the plane. Percy noticed he wasn't military but he was wearing a lab coat with a stethoscope wrapped around his neck. He looked friendly enough, considering he had his pistol down.
"Yeah." Annabeth said, "Chiron told us you have someone from the CDC here?"
The guy nodded, "Correct but before I tell you anything else, I want to make sure you're exactly who you say you are. Names?"
"Annabeth Chase." She said.
He looked over at Percy.
"Percy Jackson."
He nodded, "Alright, good, Chiron gave me a list and I just wanted to make sure this guy's friends weren't coming to break him out." He offered Annabeth his hand, "I'm Will Solace, welcome to Gator Town."
Annabeth shook his hand, "Nice to meet you, Will." She got to her feet, Percy doing the same, "Now, you mind telling me what exactly happened here?"
Will nodded and started walking off the plane. Annabeth walked right next to him with Percy watching both of them. The soldiers lowered their guns but there was no way in hell Percy was going to let go of his. He had his hand wrapped around the grip of his rifle, he was secretly cursing himself for not switching out his sniper scope and bipod for a smaller scope and a flashlight. He could do it when they were somewhere safe, he wasn't stupid enough to not bring his attachments with him.
Stepping off the plane, Percy was instantly hit with a funky swampy smell. He knew they were in Louisiana and that he should've expected it but it still nearly made him gag. It didn't help it was humid too, something he wasn't used to being from New York and all.
He listened to Will as he explained what happened.
"A patrol caught this guy near one of our water tanks." Will pointed towards the East, "They found him in the east side of town, not much light there. I wasn't there but the patrol leader told me they found him with a bloody bag of arms, blood, and flesh. Apparently, he was trying to dump it all into the water supply."
"Did he give any clue why?" Annabeth asked.
"Nope, he's been quiet since we captured him." Will shook his head, "We searched through his things and found his ID, that's when I decided to call CDC headquarters. I guess your techs rewired the number?"
"Yeah, the headquarters in DC is gone." Annabeth said grimly, "We're about all that's left."
While Will and Annabeth talked, Percy looked around. The airport was surrounded by the ocean, save for the land bridge that connected it to the rest of the town. He could hear the sound of a busy town up ahead, far from the militaristic noise he was used to from Camp Half-Blood. He could hear kids screaming and laughing along with dogs barking. It literally sounded like there wasn't a zombie apocalypse going on.
After following Will through a set of gates, he was finally able to see what Gator Town looked like. When one thought of a town, they expected buildings and houses. Instead, he saw hastily set up trailers, tents that looked like they belonged in a Roman camp, and living accommodations held up by wooden planks and beams. The roads weren't even asphalt, they were just paved. He could smell a hint of sewage in the air, he couldn't say he envied these people. He actually felt bad for them.
"Welp, this is Gator Town." Will turned to them with a smile that looked more like a grimace, "This is where we've been for the past few months."
Percy looked at Annabeth, who shared the same look of slight disgust. This place made Camp Half-Blood look like Heaven.
"Now, we're a little overcrowded here so we can't have you guys stay here." Will said, "I can take you guys to the prisoner since I assume you guys came here to get him."
"No, we came here to shoot him." Percy said.
Annabeth punched him, "Sorry about that, he's an idiot. Yes, we're here to get him."
Will smiled, "I would've preferred if you guys came here to kill him. It's almost insulting that we have to feed this guy after what he did."
Percy couldn't imagine how angry all these people were when they found out some guy was trying to turn them all into zombies on purpose.
He followed Annabeth and Will as they walked towards a trailer that was in the heart of the town. He tried to ignore the suspicious looks he got from the citizens as he walked by, he knew they didn't trust him and he didn't expect them to.
They passed a couple of soldiers arguing over a power generator, a few different colored gas cans sitting on the ground next to it. Their bickering faded into the background as they continued walking.
"Our people are struggling enough as it is and then we just had to have something like this happen." Will shook his head, "We never hurt anyone, there's no reason for someone to try to kill all of us. We even tried to ask the guy what his deal was but he's been quiet since we locked him up."
"Don't worry, I'll make him talk." Annabeth said, her voice darker than usual.
Percy ignored her weirdness. If she wanted to turn into Batwoman then by all means, she could go ahead, as long as it didn't get them killed.
When they reached the trailer, Annabeth stopped and turned to him, "Stay out here, Percy, make sure no one comes in."
"Yes, ma'am." He said sarcastically, nearly chuckling at her when she narrowed her eyes at him.
"Don't worry, we don't have that many nosy types around here." Will said.
She shook her head, "Doesn't hurt to be safe."
Percy sighed as he watched them go into the trailer, the door shutting behind them. He looked around as he stood guard, there were definitely less soldiers in this town than there were around Camp Half-Blood, though to be fair, camp was literally filled with soldiers and scientists. This town was filled with civilians who clearly were just trying to survive.
Standing around all day wasn't exactly what Percy had in mind when Annabeth told him that the missions he'd go on would be hard. He was more bored than anything at the moment. While she was having fun interrogating a traitor, he was standing out here like a dumbass.
It was about ten minutes later when Annabeth emerged from the trailer. Will stood next to her, looking back at the traitor who was now being held by two soldiers. Percy reckoned those were the guards to this guy's cage. He couldn't help but pity the guy, he looked like he'd been through it. He had scars all over his neck and arms. His black shirt had a tear in it, like he'd tripped while he was running from someone or something.
"The guards will put him on your plane, now come on, let me show you the infirmary." Will said.
"So, did he talk?" Percy asked as Annabeth walked past him. He started to follow alongside her.
"Yeah." She nodded, "He practically told me his whole life story. His name is Chris Rodriguez, joined up around a year ago, he was a part of the analysis crew when Luke brought back the samples of the virus. He didn't want to tell me why he wanted to poison the water supply but I managed to get him to tell me who he was working for. Some guy named Kronos is calling the shots."
Percy stared at her, his eyebrows raised with an impressed gleam in his eyes, "How'd you get him to tell you all of that?"
Annabeth smirked at him, "I have my ways."
He had no idea what she meant by that but he didn't bother to ask. If there was one thing he knew, it was that Annabeth was good at a lot of things. She could recite Shakespeare off the top of her head while working out a math problem at the same time, all while fighting someone in a boxing match. Okay, he was exaggerating a little but still.
"Where are we going now?" He asked.
Annabeth brushed a strand of her hair out of her face, "The infirmary. Will wants to show me a sample they were able to get from the infected meat that Chris brought in. From what it sounds like, it's not the regular virus."
Percy wasn't sure what exactly could be in the meat aside from the virus but regardless, he still followed Annabeth to the infirmary.
The infirmary sat in a large tent near the storage area with a red cross painted above the entrance. Percy glanced at the bloody stains on the canvas as he followed Annabeth inside.
The inside of the infirmary wasn't exactly what Percy would consider nice. Cots were squeezed in wherever they could fit, some were so close it would be impossible to go in between them. There were buckets for collecting blood underneath each one, he couldn't imagine that was sanitary at all. He didn't see anywhere to wash the medical tools, he just hoped there was something outside for that.
Luckily, the infirmary wasn't being used. There were a few medics inside. One of them counted off their supplies while the others designated shifts. They looked at Percy and Annabeth with curious eyes before going back to minding their own business.
Will walked over to a black crate sitting alone on a shelf. He took it down and popped it open, reaching inside and plucking out the small vial. Percy stared at the vial, inside was a thick black liquid, it was too thick to be blood and not to mention, it was pure black, like oil or ink. Whatever it was, it looked nasty.
"We don't have a lab around here but I had my people get some samples of this stuff anyways." Will said as he handed the vial to Annabeth, "We've seen that stuff before on some of the infected. I don't know what it is but every infected that we've seen that has it isn't aggressive."
Annabeth tilted her head, "Hm?"
"It's weird, it's like they're frozen or something." Will said, "We saw an infected get some of this stuff in their mouth and the next thing we know, it's seizing up in the middle of a field. We come back and it's just sitting there, it's like it didn't even see us. We would've gone back for a sample if it weren't for a horde coming in."
Annabeth opened a pouch in her vest and slipped the vial inside, "I'll take this back to Chiron and see what we get out of it."
Will nodded, "I'd be grateful if you—" He paused for a second, holding his finger up as if to tell everyone to be quiet.
For a moment, Percy wondered what was going on. That was when he heard it. The screaming.
"Shit!" Will yelled, running past them and out the tent.
Percy looked at Annabeth, who shrugged and ran out the tent with him following close behind.
Outside the tent, it was pure chaos. People were running all over the place, women and children were screaming in fear as they ran for their lives. The sound of gunshots could be heard in the distance, not towards the airfield thankfully. Trucks full of people roared down the paved roads, soldiers were hanging off the side with their rifles.
"Will, we've got a breach!" A soldier cried as he ran up to Will, "Someone opened the gates and now there's infected everywhere!"
"Who?" Will angrily asked.
The soldier shook his head, "We don't know, Lee was supposed to be on guard but we found him dead, someone slit his throat and opened the gates."
"Lee Fletcher?" Will asked. The soldier nodded, causing Will to curse, "He was our best shot. Listen, get Yew and the rest of the guards, tell them to regroup at the airfield, we're taking the planes out of here."
"We've already started evacuating, we just don't know where to go."
"Follow us." Annabeth butted in, "We're headed back to camp, everyone should be safe there."
"Alright, we'll do that." Will said, his eyes full of gratitude, "Come on, we gotta get you both back to your plane."
Percy's heart beat faster than a machine gun as he stuck close to Annabeth, occasionally looking over his shoulder to make sure the infected weren't already on them. He heard the gunshots get closer and more frantic, that couldn't have been a good sign.
Annabeth yelled into her radio for the pilot to get ready. She was trying to stay calm but he could hear the panic creeping in her voice.
Normally, the walk to the airfield would've taken about thirty minutes but considering the fact that Percy sprinted there, it only took about fifteen. The guards at the gates were ushering everyone inside while some of them reloaded their guns and ran along the catwalk. Entire families rushed into the airfield, dogs barking and children screaming.
In the distance, the passenger planes and their engines started coming to life. He could see the C17 he and Annabeth had come in on parked at the front, at least they'd be the first ones out.
That was until Annabeth stopped him, "Percy, can you hold off the zombies with those guys up there?" She pointed to the guards on the catwalk, "Just buy us ten minutes to get everyone out of here."
He gritted his teeth, depending on how bad things were, he wasn't sure if he could even buy them five minutes. He still nodded and said, "Alright, fine."
While Annabeth and Will started directing the crowd, he ran over to a rusted ladder that led to the top of the catwalk. He climbed up the ladder, checking his rifle was loaded at the top before finding a good spot and putting down his bipod. He was so glad he hadn't changed his attachments, otherwise he'd be in a tough spot.
Looking through his scope, his heart dropped. There was a giant horde of zombies rushing towards the gates. He saw a few people disappear into the crowd after getting grabbed, their terrified screams getting cut off by the infected and their screeches.
Unlike the guards next to him, who were seemingly waiting until they were within range to score perfect hits, he started taking pop shots at the horde. The crowd behind him screamed as they heard the gunshots, he honestly wished they spent less time screaming and more time running.
Percy's rifle cracked as bullet after bullet ripped through the zombies. Every shot he fired hit a zombie, it was practically impossible to miss considering how big the horde was. The guards next to him started firing, though if he was being honest, they should've done that long before. Either way, he focused in and kept shooting, casing after casing clinking against the metal boards underneath his boots.
As Percy reloaded, he looked behind himself to see one of the passenger planes screaming off the runway. He was certain they'd have to circle around and wait until he and Annabeth took off but they probably had enough fuel to make it anyways.
"Controlled bursts!" One of the soldiers scolded his gunner, "You're going to jam the gun if you keep firing like that!"
"If I stop shooting, we'll get overrun!"
Percy ignored their bickering and went back to shooting. He wasn't keeping count but he was certain he'd killed at least twenty zombies since he'd had to reload once and his magazines held twenty bullets each. He wasn't sure if the zombies he shot died but they all went down so he assumed they were dead.
Another passenger plane roared overhead. Percy wished he was on one of those planes, the horde was getting closer and closer. The gate was shut now underneath him but he wasn't sure how long it would hold.
The next five minutes were perhaps the scariest Percy had ever had the displeasure of going through. He kept firing and he tried to control his breathing but it was getting to the point he could see the zombies and their wounds through his scope like they were right in front of him.
His radio crackled as he heard Annabeth's voice call him, "Percy, you can come down now!"
"Got it." He turned and looked down, seeing Annabeth in the driver's seat of a truck. He turned to the other soldiers on the catwalk still firing, he couldn't just leave them there. He jogged over and tapped one, "Come on, we're leaving!"
Word went around quick because the next thing Percy knew, he had all of the soldiers following him to the truck. A few turned and fired at the zombies through the gates but everyone was more focused on climbing into the truck. He waited until the last one was onboard before he turned to Annabeth and yelled, "We're good, let's go!"
As Annabeth sped towards their plane, he couldn't help but smile as he noticed all of the passenger planes were gone. The helicopters were gone too but he didn't feel as good about them. Even with full fuel tanks, he doubted they'd be able to make the flight to Georgia.
"Good God, look!" One of the soldiers exclaimed.
Percy looked towards where the soldier was pointing, his eyes widening when he saw the infected had broken through the gate and were now sprinting towards the plane. They had about five minutes to leave before the airport was overrun.
"Annabeth, they're coming!" He urged.
"I know, I'm going as fast as I can!" She snapped.
Once they were around the back of the plane, everyone jumped out of the truck and booked it inside. He counted about ten or so soldiers and guards, he pitied all the guys who'd tried to hold off the horde, they'd definitely died back there.
Just as Percy sat down, the cargo bay doors closed. Before they closed, he could hear the infected getting closer. He couldn't see the horde from his window but he could see the plane starting to pick up speed. The next thing he knew, they lifted off the ground. That was when he saw the horde still chasing after them, the truck they'd come in on was utterly swarmed.
He looked over at Annabeth, he was panting in the seat next to him. He nudged her and nodded towards Chris, who was sitting quietly at the very end, "I hope he was worth it."
She shook her head, "I hope he is too, for his sake."
