It was dark by the time Percy landed back at Camp Half-Blood. After they landed at the air base in Florida, he and Annabeth had hitched a ride on a truck back to Georgia. This time, it wasn't only the two of them coming back. Pretty much every soldier had been ordered onto the trucks, as well as a few others deemed useful in fighting the apocalypse, like Will Solace and his medical corps.
The wind whipped against Percy's face as he looked out the back of the truck they were in, the red rear lights barely illuminating the dirt road they were driving down. Darkness surrounded the truck, he was so glad they were in a safe zone, he wouldn't have felt alright if he knew there were zombies lurking in that darkness. However, there was a small part of him that always reminded him that there was no guarantee that there wasn't a couple of zombies who'd survived the military's efforts.
Will sat across from him, shifting nervously in his seat. Percy couldn't blame him, he would've been nervous too.
"So, is this like some sort of refugee camp I'm going to or something?" Will asked.
Annabeth answered before Percy could even make a joke, "No, you'll see when you get there. They would've put you on those other trucks at the airport if they were sending you to a refugee camp."
Percy remembered that scene very well. As soon as he stepped outside the plane's cargo bay, he watched as soldiers herded the civilians off the passenger planes and onto trucks, no doubt sent to those splinter towns Annabeth had mentioned a while back. They'd put everyone on those trucks, even the cats and dogs. Luckily, families weren't separated, he would've hated to see that.
"Listen, I really owe you guys." Will said, "If you hadn't been there…" He shuddered.
Percy knew exactly what he was thinking. If he and Annabeth hadn't been there when they were, things could've turned out a lot worse. There was a chance the whole town could've been wiped out. That horde that swept through the town was nothing to joke about, he knew he didn't have enough ammo to make a dent in it.
"Don't worry about it." Annabeth assured him, "I'm just glad you all had plans to leave in case the infected got in. I have to ask though, why'd you guys choose to stay there? Why didn't you guys take the planes and just leave?"
Will shrugged, "We didn't know where to go. There were rumors that there was a safe zone in California but I wasn't about to move everyone there based on a rumor, we had pregnant women and the elderly to worry about, I preferred we didn't move if we could help it."
Percy tried not to think about the people who hadn't made it to the planes. Anyone who'd been caught by the zombies met a brutal and painful end, there was no sugarcoating it. He honestly believed if the zombies caught him, he would've just turned his gun on himself rather than let himself get turned. Becoming a zombie was a fate worse than death.
As he looked at Will, he couldn't help but wonder why he was the leader of Gator Town, he didn't seem like the type to step up and take charge. To be fair though, this apocalypse had shoved so many people into roles they didn't want, he didn't doubt Will having been forced to lead.
Out of the corner of Percy's eye, he saw a bright white light. He looked ahead and smiled, they were at Camp Half-Blood. They were safe, he and Annabeth were home. He never thought he'd miss the sight of auto turrets and patrolling guards so much, now it was like pulling onto the street your house was on, he just wished the truck would go faster but of course, they just happened to be in the middle of the convoy.
"What is that?" Will said breathlessly as he stared at the camp.
"That's Camp Half-Blood." Annabeth said, "And depending on what Chiron says, your new home. I'm pretty sure he'll be glad to take you in though, we have room after all anyways."
Percy offered Will a reassuring smile, he had no doubt the guy was stressing out at the moment. It was pretty much expected, Will had no idea what was in store for him, his future practically hung in the balance. He could either love or hate what he got but there was no escape, the refugee camps probably wouldn't be any better.
The truck stopped with a jolt, letting everyone know they'd arrived. Percy was the first one of the truck, hopping off and making his way to the gate. Annabeth and Will followed him, though he wasn't sure why since he was definitely heading back to his room and passing out, he'd had enough excitement for more than one day.
Of course, it just so happened to be that his day would get so much worse before it would get better.
Standing at the gates was none other than Clarisse and her marines but it wasn't that which made his skin crawl. No, it was the fact that she was wearing a gray uniform just like him, a boar patch displayed proudly on her right arm. She was barking orders to everyone, even the soldiers who weren't under her command.
Her eyes locked onto him as soon as he walked up to the gate. A devilish smile spread across her face, "Well, fuck, you're not dead."
"Yeah, no shit." He muttered, "I guess you didn't pray hard enough."
"I guess I didn't." She agreed, her eyes turning onto Will, "Who's this goofball?"
"Hey." Will sounded offended as Annabeth placed a hand on his chest to keep him from getting any closer to Clarisse.
"This is Will Solace, he's a doctor." Annabeth introduced him, "Will, this is Clarisse."
Clarisse looked Will up and down, like she was sizing him up to see if she could take him in a fight. Percy could say with one hundred percent certainty, she would beat the brakes off of him. He always thought she looked a lot like a female MMA fighter, she just had that mean look to her.
He guessed Clarisse was feeling lazy tonight because she looked away and instead turned her attention on the soldiers who were now coming towards the gates. She let out a tired groan, "Great, now I got more boneheads to house." She walked out and shouted, "All military personnel, follow me!"
A lot of the soldiers shrugged and went ahead with following her. They didn't seem too intimidated by the fact they'd just been dragged to some new camp all in the span of 24 hours. The soldiers mumbled amongst themselves as they moved through the gate, following Clarisse's thundering voice.
That was until the last few soldiers stopped and turned to Percy. One of them, a sergeant, stepped up to him, "Sir, do you want us to follow them?"
Percy frowned, were they confusing him for someone else? He wasn't their commanding officer.
"Uh, yeah?" He said, "Why ask me? I'm not your CO."
"You fought with us to hold the gates and then when it was time to leave, you took us with you, we'll follow you anywhere you need us to." The sergeant said, the other soldiers nodding along.
Percy looked over at Annabeth and Will. Will was too busy nervously eyeing the auto turrets but Annabeth was giving him a smirk with an intrigued look in her eyes.
He turned back to the sergeant and nodded, "I'm glad to hear it, follow the crowd Clarisse can tell you guys where to stay."
The sergeant nodded, turning to the other soldiers and ordering them to leave.
Percy turned to Annabeth, "So, that happened."
She smiled, "Yeah. Now you have a bunch of soldiers to help you fight Clarisse whenever she decides to start acting up again."
He let out a huff, "Me and a few soldiers versus Clarisse and her entire company of marines, yeah, we'd win."
Oh who was he kidding? They'd get their asses whooped.
"Did you see Clarisse's new uniform though?" He asked, "Is she…you know?"
"One of us?" Annabeth raised her eyebrow, "Probably, I guess Chiron figured she'd make a good leader on missions."
Percy kicked a pebble off to the side, he wasn't sure if he could handle going on a mission with Clarisse. They'd probably go five minutes without shooting each other, after that, all bets were off. Sure, they hadn't fought since he'd become a part of the special unit but she still did things to make it clear that she didn't like him. The feeling was mutual.
In the distance, he heard a jet engine roar. Whether that was a fighter jet speeding towards its target with bombs underneath its wings or a passenger plane full of desperate civilians heading towards the nearest airport, he wasn't sure.
"I'm going to my room, wake me up if anything interesting happens." He told Annabeth, who nodded before she started leading Will away.
For the rest of the night, no one saw Percy, for no one dared to follow him into the creepy building that was Building Three.
Ω
When Percy sauntered into the mess hall in the morning, he noticed Annabeth was absent. In fact, he hadn't seen her all morning. She wasn't at the camp's gym and there was no one at the shooting range this early, he wondered if she'd slept in. Even thinking that felt wrong, it just seemed so outlandish for a woman like Annabeth to sleep in, he always felt like she had everything planned hour to hour.
Either way, he gave up looking for her, not that he really tried to. It wasn't like he needed to know where she was at all times, she usually let him go off and do his own thing anyways. After hitting the gym for a while, he decided to go ahead and get breakfast, he'd find out where she was later.
After grabbing a tray and getting in line, his eyes narrowed at the person ahead of him. He realized too late who it was when they turned around. Out of all of the people he could've ran into, he just had to run into Clarisse.
Clarisse glanced at him and muttered under her breath, "Jackass."
He pointed at her tray, "Your tray is upside down." As soon as she looked down at her tray, he flicked her forehead.
"Oh, you motherfu—" She paused when the line started to move. She glared at him before begrudgingly moving forward, "You're lucky I'm hungry."
"Yeah, sure." He said mockingly.
He tried not to look at her patch too often, the last thing he needed was for her to think he was checking her out or something. If he was being honest, he could see why Chiron made her a part of the unit, she was an extremely good shot and she could definitely put up a fair fight against Annabeth if it came down to fists.
Clarisse sighed as she plucked an apple from the kitchen line, "I don't know what you and Chase were thinking when you brought that Solace guy and that black shit here but you guys clearly weren't thinking at all."
Percy glared at her, "Why's that?"
"Well, first off, the guy's a fucking freak. He knows way too much about cutting people up. Not to mention, he's obsessed with that black stuff." Clarisse said.
"He's a doctor, he's supposed to know that kind of stuff." He rolled his eyes, "Plus, he's probably interested in seeing if he can find a cure with the black stuff."
"So you didn't hear then."
Percy gave Clarisse a look, one that was more confusion than anger. It wasn't uncommon for Clarisse to know more about camp affairs than him because she was around camp more than he was and she happened to be friends with the head nurse, some woman called Silena Beaureguard, and if there was one thing Percy could say about the nurses aside from the fact that they were beautiful, it was that they were horrible gossips.
Clarisse shook her head at his look, "That black stuff is deadly to both humans and zombies. Funny enough, any other animal can eat it and be just fine but us? Nope, just get a little in your mouth and it's game over. Apparently, the stuff doesn't even turn you into a zombie either, it just straight up paralyzes you then kills you by stopping your heart. Chiron's calling it the Medusa Effect."
"Medusa Effect?" He raised an eyebrow, "Isn't that the chick who eats little kids?"
"That's Lamia, moron." Clarisse scoffed, "Medusa is the lady who turns people to stone just from looking at her."
Percy ignored her 'moron' comment. He had to admit, the name fit, for the virus that is. He just couldn't wrap his head around why the virus would develop something like that.
"Where do you think it came from?" He asked, setting his tray on the counter so the cooks could fill it.
"Fuck if I know." Clarisse shrugged, "Solace kept on shooting off theories like a nutjob. He said his best guess is maybe the zombies who develop it had Parkinsons or something. Either way, I'm staying far away from that stuff."
"Well, as long as you don't get it inside you, you're fine, right?" He asked.
Clarisse gave him a look of disbelief, "Are you kidding? Jackson, that stuff is worse than napalm. They tested it right in front of me, that stuff will burn and it'll burn hard. You can dump water on it, it won't go out. Just stay away from it, or don't, I don't care, just don't get any on me."
Did Percy ever say how charming Clarisse was?
"Here's your food." A cook said, placing Percy's tray on the counter. Aside from the typical eggs and cereal cup, there were two steaming cinnamon buns sitting perfectly on the tray.
"Hey, what's the deal?" Clarisse's eyes widened, "You guys gave me celery but you give this jackass cinnamon buns?" She pointed at Percy.
The cook ignored her and walked back to the kitchen.
"See, this is why I hate the fucking Army." Clarisse said to Percy, "Assholes."
Percy tried not to remind her that the rivalry between the Army and Navy was just as bad. He figured the cooks just didn't like Clarisse or something. Maybe they were trying to send a message or something without getting socked in the face.
As Percy started walking alongside Clarisse, he couldn't help but ask, "Have you seen Annabeth anywhere?"
Clarisse rolled her eyes, "Yeah, that brainiac is busy right now trying to establish comms with her little boyfriend. Apparently at like three in the morning last night, Chiron got an email from some guy named Luke who needs a pickup. She's been in the communications room for the past few hours. Looks like she's going to replace you soon."
Percy looked away before he said something back to Clarisse, she was just trying to rile him up. Annabeth wouldn't replace him like that, they were friends. At the same time, part of him believed her, what if this was Annabeth's plan all along? Use him to get Luke back then replace him? Annabeth seemed like the type of girl who knew how to hide her plans.
Percy watched as Clarisse turned and walked towards the table where all her men sat. Clearly, she still wanted to sit with them rather than everyone else in the special unit, not that he blamed her. She was probably more comfortable around them. He noticed a few new faces over at that side of the cafeteria, like the sergeant and the soldiers who he'd fought with yesterday.
When Percy sat down and started eating, he couldn't help but think to himself about Annabeth and Luke. For some odd reason, there was a tightness in his chest about the whole situation. He wasn't sure what it was, he honestly wasn't sure why the idea of Annabeth having a boyfriend disturbed him so much, it wasn't like she was his girlfriend in the first place. In fact, technically she was his boss.
Eventually, he resigned himself to the fact that no matter what happened, he'd still do what he needed to do, his family was depending on him.
Ω
When Percy found Annabeth hours later, he noticed she was in a considerably good mood. She was practically bouncing as she walked, a wide smile blossoming on her face like someone had told her they were taking on a date with ice cream and cotton candy. It certainly wasn't Percy's doing since he hadn't even meant to find her this time.
Actually, he was just taking a walk after watching a bunch of horror movies and now he was too scared to stay in Building Three. Even during the day, it was still terrifyingly dark in that building.
"Percy!" Annabeth spotted him as she started walking over, "I was just about to come and get you."
Percy looked her up and down, noticing she wasn't wearing her typical gray uniform, though to be fair, neither was he. She was wearing a pair of shorts and a black shirt, definitely not something he'd expect her to wear. Even he was still somewhat dressed in a military fashion, especially with his gray combat pants and a black shirt.
"Why, what's up?" He asked.
She grinned at him, "I want you to help me plan something. I finally got in touch with Luke. He's given me a location and Chiron's already approved a rescue mission, I just need to figure out how we're going to get him out."
Percy once again felt a tightness in his chest. He silently scolded himself, he should've been happy for Annabeth yet all he could think of was how happy she was over this, he'd never seen her this happy before.
"Well, what's his situation looking like?" He asked, starting his walk towards the operations building with Annabeth right next to him.
That's when Annabeth's happy mood faded a little, "Not good. He's in some old run-down farmhouse in North Carolina. He said he can't leave, he's pinned down by infected."
"How many?" He asked.
"Just one."
Percy frowned, what the hell was the point of rescuing this guy if he couldn't even deal with one zombie? Sure, he'd understand it if he were wounded but even then, Luke had to be armed to some extent. He found it hard to believe he wasn't armed at all. Even a kitchen knife was enough to kill a zombie.
Annabeth noticed his look, "It's not the regular infected type. This one's different. He was able to give me a picture through one of the windows, it's a lot bigger. I'll show you when we get to communications."
Percy shrugged, he wasn't betting much on Luke's value. Sure, he understood the infected were strong, hell, he was still a little afraid every time he had to face one, but to become a damsel in distress over one infected seemed ridiculous. At that point, Luke had to either be sick or wounded.
During the walk to the operations center, he couldn't help but look over at Annabeth. Clarisse's words kept coming back to him. What if he really was expendable? What if he was just a stop-gap measure, a rebound to make Annabeth feel better? He wasn't sure what that would even mean for him. Whether that meant he had a place at Camp Half-Blood or not, he didn't know.
After going through three security checks, something which kind of irritated Percy since they hadn't had a single issue with spies, they were finally in the communications room. He understood why it was heavily defended, intelligence was an insanely valuable thing during war time, he just didn't see why there had to be so much defense now since the enemy wasn't even human.
Now that he thought about it, there were a lot of things that didn't make sense around camp, like the Patriot air defense system set up inside camp. Last time he checked, zombies couldn't fly.
The communications room was possibly the busiest room in the entire operations center. Soldiers ran back and forth, passing messages and getting orders. The sound of keyboards clicking and clacking away sounded like the distant chatter of machine gun fire. A large screen of the entire U.S stood in the front of the room, a good portion of the states were colored red while a few were either green or yellow, it reminded him of those war movies where they showed off NORAD and their war room. He wasn't sure if they were accurate but this room definitely looked like one of those rooms.
"Ma'am." A soldier greeted Annabeth, rising up and saluting her.
Percy didn't fail to notice a few other soldiers doing the same, though not for him. He wondered if this was part of Annabeth's role at camp. He'd learned long ago that some people in his unit had different roles, like Charles Beckendorf who was not only a soldier but he also was the armorer at the camp armory and the chief mechanic for the camp's few Apache helicopters. If he had to guess, Annabeth was probably some high-ranking intelligence geek, which made sense considering her virology degree, she'd know more about the virus than someone like himself.
A guy with blonde hair, just like Annabeth, walked up. He wore the same exact uniform as Percy and Annabeth, though he wore the same patch that Annabeth wore. Percy figured they lived in the same building.
"I thought you were going to go get some help?" The guy asked.
"I did." Annabeth said, pointing to Percy, "This is Percy. Percy," She motioned to the guy, "This is Malcolm, my second in command."
Percy studied Malcolm, he'd seen him sitting in the cafeteria a few times but he never really made an effort to get to know him or anything. They usually just passed each other without saying much.
"I'm warning you, Annabeth, you really should be taking this seriously." Malcolm cautioned, "I recommend you take a few dozen soldiers with you."
"First off, I am taking this seriously." Annabeth sounded offended, "Plus, Percy is a good shot, if there's anyone who can take that thing down, it's him."
Percy intervened before Malcolm could say anything else, "Hey, if you don't mind, can you show me exactly what I'm supposed to take down?"
Malcolm sighed and walked back to his monitor, pulling up a photo of what exactly Percy was up against. Needless to say, Percy didn't blame him for recommending Annabeth bring more soldiers.
Malcolm widened the picture, "Say hello to the Iapetus variant."
The photo was blurry, clearly Luke had taken it while he was running, but he could see the infected in the picture clearly enough. This zombie was far bigger than the regular zombies, this one was about seven feet tall, lean and muscular, and had very long and sharp teeth. That wasn't even the worst part though. It was the arms. Instead of normal hands, this…monster, had bloody stumps with jagged pointy bones jutting out. The eyes were different too, they weren't the standard jet-black color Percy was accustomed to when it came to zombies, no, this zombie's eyes were silver.
"Man, what the fuck?" Percy said as he studied the picture, "What part of hell did that thing crawl out of?"
"The part that likes to genetically mutilate corpses, apparently." Malcolm offered, "Those bone spears are going to be your biggest worry. From what Luke was able to tell us, this thing is fast and can jump much higher than the average person. If you must fight it, I recommend shooting it from a helicopter."
"Why not just call an air strike and call it a day?" Percy asked.
"Yeah, call an air strike and kill Luke, that's a great idea." Annabeth said sarcastically.
"Hey." He warned, he was just trying to be helpful.
"An air strike might not work." Malcolm said, "It appears this thing is highly intelligent. Any other infected would've just rushed through the house to Luke but it looks like this thing is waiting him out, it's like it knows he can't stay in there forever."
"Either that or it's killed people like this before." Annabeth said, her voice grim.
Percy rubbed the back of his neck as he turned to her, "Annabeth, don't get me wrong, but what exactly made you think I can take that thing out?"
She sighed, "Percy, all it takes is one good headshot and that thing is dead."
"And how do you know that?"
"We had Will look at the picture." Malcolm supplied, "He said there appears to be soft tissue around the head. If the brain is destroyed, it'll shut this thing's functions down completely. It's stronger and scarier but it's not immune to headshots."
"Oh yeah?" Percy raised an eyebrow, "Then tell me why Luke hasn't shot it then?"
"He's out of ammo, moron." Annabeth hissed, "Why are you acting like this?"
"Acting like what?" He raised his hands in exasperation.
"Like Luke is some sort of dumbass who can't do shit." She said, "I caught that look earlier, you have no right to judge him for this. I bet if you were in his position, you'd be calling for backup too."
Percy clenched his fists, it was like she'd forgotten that he literally stayed behind with a few soldiers to hold back a horde at Gator Town, he wasn't even sure if she'd come back for him there. He knew what it was like to be in a shitty situation, this whole apocalypse started with him being in one.
"Can you two not do this in here?" Malcolm asked, "I mean, there's sensitive computers in here and people need to hear messages."
The entire time, Percy's eyes never left Annabeth's, there were locked in a fierce staring contest and it was clear neither of them wanted to back down. Maybe he just didn't understand Annabeth's attachment to Luke but this just felt stupidly risky for such a small thing.
"Are you going to help me or not?" Annabeth asked, her eyes still piercing his, "Luke is the only one who has direct access to his research on the virus, do you really want to throw all of that away?"
Percy looked away, way to guilt trip him. If he said yes, he'd look like a jerk in front of everyone. If he said no, he'd have to go on this mission. He weighed his options, he couldn't just leave Luke there, the guy clearly needed help. If he went, there was a chance he wouldn't come back though. If he didn't go, however, Luke would certainly die and Annabeth would hate him forever.
He sighed, "Fine, I'll help."
Annabeth smiled, "Thank you."
A/N: I actually had a little fun making this chapter, have to admit though, i really wasn't planning on having Clarisse/Percy banter show up in this but it was fun to write. On another note, i've noticed FFN has had issues with chapters not showing up or if you go to the chapter, it give some error. I have no idea what is up with that and i doubt there's anything i could do to fix it. The only thing i can say is that this is being cross-posted on AO3 so if you can't read a chapter here, it's available on AO3. Also, thanks for the reviews, they really help keep me focused on trying to make this story even better.
