Hello loyal readers! Few announcements to make before we start.
Thank you to lordphoenex10 for favoriting me as a user and following this story.
Thank you to BloodandFire-2-1-8-7 for favoriting, following, and leaving a review. Let's hope the rest of the story is as good as the start.
Thank you to AdaltnHazel for following me as a user, I don't know if it's because of this fanfic or my other one, Omniverse Tales, but either way I hope you enjoy.
And finally, thank you to ayerdehoy for leaving a review. I'm glad I could introduce you to a new book series, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Please favorite and follow if you haven't already, and also please go check out my other fanfic, Omniverse Tales, a crossover between Ben 10 and a YouTube series called Multiverse Tales created by the channel PopCross Studios.
But anyway, please enjoy!
Sam saw his mother. She was sitting on the water just beside him, her chin resting on her knees. She wasn't looking at him.
"What?" he asked her.
"It smelled like fried chicken." she said.
"What?"
She reached over and slapped him hard across the face. His eyes flew open.
"Sorry," Astrid said, "I needed to wake you up."
She was kneeling beside him and placed something against his mouth. A plastic mask. Oxygen.
He coughed, and breathed. He pulled the mask away and threw up, right on the sidewalk, doubled over like a drunk in an alleyway.
Astrid looked away discreetly. He'd probably feel embarrassed later, but right now, he was just glad to be able to throw up.
He breathed more oxygen.
The bearded kid, Sam thought that the other kid called him Grover, was holding the garden hose. Edilio was racing to hook up one of the big fire hoses, Quinn and the other kids holding the hose at the ready. There was a trickle, then, as Edilio worked the long-handled wrench and opened the hydrant all the way, a gusher. Quinn and the others had to wrestle the hose like they were fighting a python. It would have been funny some other time. The other kid who went into the building with him was sitting nearby.
That kid. He had seen the little fire-starter. And he had seen Sam's secret
And he had seen Sam's secret.
Sam sat up and looked at the kid. He nodded to Sam. Others might take it as an affirmation that he's there, but Dam understood the true meaning of the nod: I won't tell anyone. Your secret's safe with me. Sam returned the nod.
Sam looked to where half a dozen kids knelt around the little fire-starter. She was black, black by race and from the coating of soot. Her hair was gone on one side, burned away. On the other side she had a pigtail held up with a pink scrunchy.
Sam knew from the reverential way the kids knelt there. He knew, but he had to ask anyway. His voice was a soft croak.
It was the other kid who spoke up, "She's dead."
Sam looked into his eyes. They were dead eyes, empty of emotion. They were eyes that had seen death before. This kid had a story to tell. Maybe several.
"Her parents probably left the stove on when they disappeared," Astrid said, "that's probably what started the fire. Or maybe a cigarette."
No, Sam thought. No, that wasn't it.
The little girl had the power. The same power Sam had, or something like it.
The power he had used in a panic to create an impossible light.
The power he had used once and almost killed someone with.
The power he had just used again, dooming the very person he was trying so hard to save.
He was not the only one. He was not the only freak. There was- or had been- at least one other.
Somehow, the realization wasn't comforting.
The other kid looked over to Sam and said "I don't think we got proper introductions. Name's Percy. Percy Jackson." He held out his hand.
Sam took it and shook gently. "Sam Temple."
•••
Night came to Perdido Beach.
The street lights turned on automatically, doing little to push back the darkness, doing a lot to cast deep shadows on frightened faces.
Close to a hundred kids milled around the plaza. Everyone seemed to have a candy bar and soda. The little store, the one that sold mostly beer and corn chips, had been looted. Sam snagged a PayDay and a Dr Pepper. The Reese's, Twix and Snickers were all gone by the time he got there. Percy grabbed two Sprites, a Three Musketeers, and, for some reason, an empty aluminum can that was on the floor. They left money on the counter, but it was gone within seconds.
The apartment building had burned half away before the fire had run out of energy. The roof had collapsed. Half the upper floor was gone. The ground floor looked like it would survive, though the shop windows were smoke-blackened on the inside. Smoke rose now in tendrils, not billows, and the stench was everywhere.
But the hardware store and the daycare had been saved.
The body of the little girl still lay on the sidewalk. Someone had put a blanket over her. Sam was grateful for that.
Sam and Quinn sat on the grass near the dead fountain, towards the center of the plaza. Percy sat by Grover not too far away, handing him a soda and the empty can. His friend nodded appreciatively and started chewing on the can.
Bouncing Bette came over and stood awkwardly in front of Sam. She had her little brother with her. "Sam, do you think it's safe to go to my house? We have to get something."
Sam shrugged. "Bette, I don't know any more than you do."
She nodded, hesitated, and walked away.
All the park benches were taken. Some little family units draped sheets over the few benches, making limp pup tents. Many kids went home to their empty houses, but others needed people around them. Some found comfort in the crowd. Others just needed to know what was going on.
Two kids Sam didn't know went up to Percy and asked him "Do you know what's going to happen?"
Percy, for his part, was handling things well. He calmly responded "Sorry guys, I don't. Until we do know, the only thing I can suggest is either going to your house or hanging around here. As soon as I do know what's happening, I'll let you know."
"We're not scared or anything."
"Really?" Percy asked dubiously, "You must have guts of steel. I'm so scared I wet myself."
One kid grinned. "No, you didn't."
"Yeah, you're right. Just sayin', it's okay to be scared. Everyone's scared."
This was happening alot. Kids coming to Sam or Percy asking what they should do, what's going on, questions Sam had no answers for.
Sam wished they would stop. Percy took his role in stride. Clearly, he wasn't new to leadership.
Orc and his friends dragged lawn chairs out of the hardware store and set themselves up in the middle of the formerly busiest intersection. They were just beneath the stoplight, which continued changing from green to yellow to red.
Percy came over to Sam and said "What's the story on those guys? Local bully squad?"
Sam nodded. "Yeah. The big eighth grader is Orc, he's basically your head bully. Wormy kid is Howard, currently Orc's number one toady."
Percy nodded, watching Howard berate some lower toady who had lit a Prest-O log and was now trying to start a bonfire. Orc's crew brought a couple of wooden axe handles and baseball bats from the hardware store and tried, unsuccessfully, to burn them.
They also carried metal bats and small sledgehammers from the hardware store. Those they kept.
Percy just watched them with disgust. Orc hadn't exactly made the best impression on him, laughing about a kid being stuck in a burning building.
Sam didn't bring up the little girl, how she was just lying there. If he brought it up, it would be his job to do something about it, to dig a grave, to read the Bible or something. He didn't even know her name. No one seemed to.
"I can't find him," It was Astrid, reappearing after an absence of nearly an hour.
"Who?" Percy asked.
"My brother, Little Petey. He's not here, and nobody's seen him."
Sam handed her a soda. "Here. I paid for it- tried to anyway."
"I don't usually drink this stuff."
"You see any 'usually' around here?" Quinn snapped.
Prrcy looked at Quinn annoyed. Quinn didn't look at him, or Astrid. His eyes were restless, going from person to person, thing to thing, like a nervous bird, never making direct eye contact. Percy saw this, and his gaze softened. He put a reassuring hand on Quinn's shoulder, and he seemed to calm a little.
Astrid let Quinn's rudeness slide and said "Thanks, Sam." She drank half the can but didn't sit down. "Kids are saying it's some military thing gone wrong. Or else terrorists. Or aliens. Or God. Lots of theories. No answers."
Sam saw Percy look slightly away at this, as if he knew something about what really happened, but wouldn't - or couldn't - say anything.
"Do you even believe in God?" Quinn asked skeptically.
"Yes, I do," Astrid said. "I just don't believe in the kind of God who disappears people for no reason. God is supposed to be love. This doesn't look like love."
"Gods aren't always kind and benevolent. They can be selfish, petty. They cheat on their immortal wives and husbands without a second thought, and turn people to ashes just because they were mildly insulted. If they wanted to, I have no doubt that a god would do this."
They all looked at Percy as he finished his short and confusing speech. After a moment, Astrid spoke up.
"I'm not talking about gods, I'm talking about God. Gods from mythologies around the world are just stories made up by cultures trying to explain the natural phenomena of the world. They aren't real. God is. Or at least I believe he is."
"Sure, sure," Percy said, looking off to the side. Sam still thought he was hiding something, and Astrid seemed to be thinking that too. But before either of them could comment on it, a little boy no more than five years old and carrying a sad-eyed grey teddy bear came over. "Do you know where my mom is?"
"No, little man, I'm sorry," Sam said.
"Van you call her on the telephone?" His voice trembled.
"The phones don't work," Sam said.
"Hey," Percy reached over and put a reassuring hand on the kid's shoulder. "You know what I bet? I bet they have cookies over at that daycare. It's just across the street, see?"
"I'm not supposed to cross the street."
"That's a good rule to follow most of the time," Percy responded calmly, "but just this once, I think it'll be okay. I'll watch you."
The little boy stifled a sob, then walked off towards the daycare, clutching his bear.
"How do you do that?" Sam asked. "How do you just, take charge and be all calm and stuff in a situation like this?"
"Same way you took charge when the hardware store was on fire. I don't really think about it, I just go eith my gut and trust my instincts."
"Perrrcccy has good instincts," Grover said, coming over to them.
"And you do too," Percy said, gesturing to Sam. "Not just anyone can take charge as well as you did. You're a natural leader. Ya just gotta trust yourself."
Percy digested his words for a moment, then stood up. The movement drew the gaze of dozens of kids nearby, making him instantly regret standing. But still, he listened to Percy's advice and spoke in a voice loud enough to be heard for a few feet.
"Look, all we have to do is hang tight. Someone is going to figure out what's happened and come find us, OK? So everyone just chill, don't do anything crazy, help each other out and try to be brave."
It didn't seem like much to him, but to his amazement he heard a ripple of voices repeating what he'd said, passing it on like it was some brilliant remark.
"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself," Astrid whispered.
"What?"
"It's what President Roosevelt said when the whole country was scared because of the Great Depression." Astrid explained.
Petcy chuckled. "I may not have Annabeth around, but now I got someone else to make me feel stupid."
Sam laughed. He didn't completly understand, since he had no idea who Annabeth was, but it was nice that someone still had a sense of humor.
"I have to find my brother," Astrid said.
"Where else could he be?" Sam asked.
Astrid shrugged helplessly. She looked cold in her thin blouse. Sam wished he had a jacket to offer her. "With my parents somewhere. The most likely places are where my dad works or else where my mom plays tennis. Clifftop."
Clifftop was the resort hotel just above Sam's favorite surfing beach. He'd never been inside, or even on the grounds.
"I guess Clifftop is more likely," Astrid said. "I hate to ask, but will you guys go with me?"
"Now?" Quinn asked, incredulous. "At night?"
Sam shrugged. "Better than sitting here, Quinn. Maybe they have TV there."
Sam turned to Percy, and before he had to ask, Percy said "You guys go. I'll hold down the fort. Keep Orc and his goons from taking over, ya know?"
Quinn sighed. "I hear the food's great at Clifftop. Top-notch service." He stuck a hand out and Sam hauled him to his feet.