Chapter Six- Romans are Zombist?
Roger and Adonis sang Lady Gaga songs loudly as we rolled through the Golden Hills of California.
"Strike me down Zeus." Jackie muttered and the sky rumbled.
I moved towards the open window and shook my head quickly and raised my hands,"She was kidding."
The sky stayed silent that time but I could tell he probably chose to ignore me.
Roger turned down the volume and Adonis frowned at him, "Why does this other Camp need our help? If they're anything like us then they'd already have dealt with it."
That question caught Jackie off guard, the look on her face afterwards was a funny contorted look of confusion.
"Maybe they're busy with something else?" I suggested and Roger nodded, turning back and raising the volume again.
The Van was once again consumed by loud pop rock, mainly consisting of Lady Gaga.
We rode through the hills, they looked like those pastel artworks you'd see in a museum.
I noticed we were slowing down and I looked towards the front of the van. A long line of traffic was strung among the road.
"I thought this only happened in L.A." Roger muttered.
"Do not worry my friends," Adonis turned back at us and grinned. "We've still got two options."
This didn't sound good at all.
"What are they?" Jackie snapped out of her focused state.
"I can try to drive over those hills," He pointed toward Rogers' window, almost nicking him with his finger. "Or we go on foot over them, either way, we're close!"
"There is absolutely no way you're driving over those hills." Jackie narrowed her eyes toward him. He shrugged and maneuvered onto the side of the road. We all got out and stretched, the walk looked troublesome.
We started our walk over the hills and after our third one Roger was calling for water.
"Gods I thought you'd be used to the heat," I grumbled as I handed him one of my water bottles from my bag. "You live in a forge!"
He shot me a dirty look and chugged half of the bottle. We continued on and came to a halt on a hill overlooking a highway and a shallow line of water separated them from a tunnel on the other side.
There were two figures, one on each side of the tunnel.
"Oh look! Our friends!" Adonis grinned and made his way down the hill.
I started after Roger followed Adonis but Jackie stopped me, "Do me a favor and fly down there to explain what we're doing here…they might not like our little friend."
That seemed reasonable so I stepped to the side and tried using my wings like before.
It looked like I had a bad day at Taco Bell so I looked at Jackie with eyes of plea.
"Imagine you're falling." She sighed.
I stuck a thumb up and imagined I was falling, the sensation felt all too real as I felt my wings sprout from my back.
"That felt real." I frowned.
"Kids of Morpheus are more sensitive to dreams and daydreams," She shrugged. "Now get!"
I flapped my wings and rose to the sky, a grin on my face. The highway seemed smaller than it did before as I continued flapping, then diving towards the ground as I saw Adonis and Roger approach the two. As I got closer I saw that the two had their weapons drawn at my friends.
They were dressed in Roman Battle Gear with shields and spears.
I grit my teeth and stuck my arms to my sides, curling my wings and increasing my dive speed.
As I approached I saw my shadow get smaller, the guards looked up and one screamed at the other indiscriminately. They jumped backwards, landing on their butts.
I opened my wings and bent my knees as I approached the ground. A wave of dirt and wind flew away from my landing spot.
"Woah." Roger exclaimed behind me.
"You guys alright?" Jackie finally caught up with us, her clothes soaked like the other two.
I turned and saw them nodding, Adonis seemed a bit down about his pajamas.
"We don't want any trouble." I turned back to the two guards. One was in shock and the other had a sour look, his hands gripping a golden spear.
"You're asking for it, traveling with one of them!" He hissed as he pointed at Adonis.
I glanced at Adonis who seemed a bit more hurt, this time it didn't look to be the pajamas.
"What's wrong with him?" I frowned.
"Romans don't like Zombies, or any sort of monster," Jackie hissed. "Just like us."
Wait, Romans?
I inspected the two guards closely and suddenly remembered their Roman Style Gear.
"She is right," The mean looking blonde scanned us with his blue eyes. "So if you're with him then you're traitors to New Rome!"
He lunged up off his butt and jabbed at me with his spear, quickly unsheathing my daggers from my side. I caught the spear in a scissor motion.
The Roman growled and let go of the spear, drawing his sword and jabbing at my side. I dodged sideways, his blade striking a piece of my wing. I winced and flapped at him with them, causing him to fly backwards.
His shield and sword strung on the grass.
I approached him, my silver and purple daggers gleaming as I instinctively struck at him.
Another spear jabbed out and my daggers swiped through the wooden shaft, and someone caught my arms before they struck the terrified Roman.
"Morf!" Jackie's voice rang out and I snapped out of it.
Blinking then looking at the two on the ground, the blonde looked terrified and shocked with his blue eyes wide open. The other with long brown hair, her green eyes gleamed of fear.
I frowned and stumbled back, surprised at my intent to kill.
"S-Sorry." I forced out and sheathed my daggers.
The girl stood and helped the blonde up, "We must get back to Camp, the winter night will get us if we don't."
"Wait," Jackie approached them. "We're very sorry about the incident, we're here to help…with your North problem."
The two looked at each other sternly and they beckoned us into the tunnel, we followed. The lights were slowly dimming as we walked through, the sun was setting.
"It's barely six and it's already getting dark," Roger muttered. "I hate the west coast."
I walked in silence, and we got out of the tunnel. It revealed a lit up colosseum and giant wooden buildings in the distance.
"Impressive." Jackie said and the two Romans smiled slightly.
Roger snorted and sulked as we made our way down the path, a bridge came into the clearing. Adonis looked at me nervously, his pale skin seemed to have gotten paler.
"What?" I whispered next to his ear.
"They're going to kill me," He hissed. "I'm a dead man."
"You're already dead," I frowned. "Plus these guys seemed to understand."
He shook his head and pulled at his skin a bit, it stretched abnormally before almost ripping off.
"I mean again, they'll kill me," He glanced at the others who were still walking. "Romans don't like my kind, the only reason they spared me is because of the weather."
"Don't worry about it," I grinned. "If that really is the case then we'll cover your escape or something."
Adonis cursed, "You're gonna get me killed."
His blue and white pajamas dragged on the stone bridge as we started our crossing. I grinned at the white tiny bears that were patterned across his pajama set. Then suddenly I had a falling feeling, a blink and I was in the air.
"MORF!" Roger screamed from below me and I looked down.
There was a large shadow across the water, it was barely visible as the sunset drew closer. I heard a snarl and I turned, there I was.
Face to face with a Dragon.
It's long scaly neck had turned back to face me, its red eyes peered into my soul, it's ugly yet beautiful face was contorted into a snarl, and it's teeth were made of pure black material.
"What the actual fu-" I started and then began screaming. It had let go of me, causing me to fall through the air. We were about 3 stories high from a building standpoint, so I had just enough time to look below me again and see I was approaching the water.
I curled into a ball like a little kid jumping into a pool, the ice cold water surrounded my entire body. The light above me while I was submerged was barely shining through the water as night drew closer.
A shadowy figure was flying around in the sky, making my way up to the surface I saw the figure fall. It landed in the water about 15 feet away from me, it was the Dragon. It had a burn mark on its side, the dragon recovered from whatever had knocked it out of the sky and bolted to the shallow side of the water.
I continued up to the surface and broke the waterline, there was instant shouting and cursing in different dialects. One I knew was English and the other a form of Latin, barely understandable.
There was a roar and a crashing sound as I approached the shallow side of the water, my eyes still trying to clear the blur out.
"Morf!" I heard and rubbed the water out of my eyes, it was Jackie. She was standing on the grassy shore.
She pointed and I turned, the Dragon was fighting with figures dressed in Roman armor. It growled and spit out flames of fire, setting the warriors aflame.
They screamed in pain as they dove into the water and rolled around, the Dragon snapped at another warrior which held a shield. Causing the shield to splinter and the Roman to scream in pain, holding his hand. It appeared the bite barely caught him, but there was some kind of effect.
"Poison." A voice next to me said and I turned to find a figure with a brown beard and brown hair, his eyes were sky blue. "That's the Colchian Drakon."
"Zeus." I muttered.
"Ah ah," He hushed. "Jupiter…now might wanna deal with that."
I turned back then glanced at where he was, nothing was there.
"Gods I hate when they do that," I scowled and drew my blades. "Think of something…what is a Dragon afraid of?"
I closed my eyes, blocking out all the screams and clanging of metal.
Entering the Dragon's head.
Standing inside a dark space, I looked around.
A Man, his hair was brown and curly, wearing greek armor with a sheepskin on his shoulder.
He turned to me and bowed his head, fading away.
I opened my eyes and grinned, "I appreciate you Jason."
Pointing at the bridge a figure formed out of a lightning strike, the sky had turned dark gray.
The Man stood, raising his hand which held a glass with a cork.
"Interesting," I glanced back and saw Jupiter again. "Not only did you manage to summon one of my Godly sons…but now my other Half-Blood."
"I'm just getting started," I grinned and suddenly I felt lightheaded. "Or…not."
I fell back, my knives clattering to the rocks under the water and returning to my side.
"Looks as though your energy is greatly impacted…something like, the greater the ally the greater the cost." Jupiter chuckled. "You have impressed me…goodbye Morf Lane…for now."
I blinked, my vision blurred and he was gone again. A slight shine was left behind but it quickly faded almost like a Dream.
The screaming had stopped, quickly realizing the fight was probably still going on. I turned.
I stood there in surprise, the Dragon had been put to sleep. The Man was now collecting its teeth and glanced at me, saying nothing. He walked over and handed me the pouch which held the teeth, bowing his head once more and fading.
I grasped the pouch in my hand, still sitting in the water.
"Morf!" I turned and was immediately tackled by Jackie.
"Uh…Hello." I smiled weakly.
"How did you summon Jason?" Adonis followed behind her with Roger.
"Who?" I frowned.
"The Argonaut…how did you do that?" He demanded once again.
Roger grinned, "Not the first time he's done something like that…he once summoned a God…well sorta, the God was kinda black which meant it was just a figure I'm guessing."
Jackie loosened her hug and looked back, nodding.
"The more color and accuracy of the figure then the more power and life it has," She nodded. "Ares was just a figure with no combat experience…if ivory realized that then she would've won."
I nodded, "Good thing she didn…"
The lightheaded feeling returned and I saw my vision fade as I fell towards the water.
