Inspired by NightSpark1's fic called "Chrion's List of Camp Rules" (this was rule 2) - I recommned the fic it was really funny! :)
A shrill scream cracked through the quiet of Camp Half-Blood, and several people woke with a start, including Lacy, a daughter of Aphrodite.
She shot up in bed, heart thumping almost as fast as it had when she'd practiced her skipping the other day (almost). Other members of her cabin were also sitting up in their bunks, hair messy (for once), and blinking blearily, muttering in a confused fashion.
"What was that?" Mitchell asked through a yawn from below Lacy.
"Not sure-" Bella started but was cut off by a second shriek. Lacy swung her legs over the side of her bunk and climbed carefully down the ladder. Her other siblings were also jumping out of bed, their eyes wide.
One of the littlest girls burst into tears, in the bed next to Lacy. So the older girl tiptoed over to her and gave her a comforting hug. The smaller girl's hair was a long blonde bird's nest, and she was mewling about how scared she was.
"It's okay," Lacy said gently. "I'm sure everything is fine."
"I'm going to go and check outside," Thomas piped up, his face scrunched up in apparent bravery.
A third scream echoed around the camp as Thomas pushed the door open. The girl that Lacy was holding wept harder, so she was pulled in for a tighter hug.
"Don't worry," she whispered, rubbing the girl's back. "What's your name?"
"S-Sara," she choked out, scrubbing at the tears dripping down her face.
"Well then, Sara," Lacy sent her a warm smile. "How about you climb back into bed, and cuddle into your blankets, and we'll make sure everything is all good?"
Sara nodded slowly, sniffling, and hopped back into her cocoon, drawing the duvet up to her chin, eyes wide in her tired face. Lacy gave her a quick kiss on the forehead, blushing, then headed over to the door too, following Thomas outside.
Her heart was beating faster, but she was pleased that she'd managed to calm down a younger sibling. She remembered vividly feeling like little Sara had, upset and terrified about her new life. But now she was 13 years old, and she had to take a little more responsibility in the cabin.
She was one of the big ones now, and now she had figure out who, or what was screaming, for Sara.
Nyssa stepped out of Cabin 9, screwdriver in hand, held out in front of her in a menacing fashion. No one would dare mess with her, because she had a freaking screwdriver.
She pawed at the sweat collecting at the back of her neck; she'd been working late at the camp forges, welding a new project, and was still incredibly hot from the flames. She had heard the ear-splitting screams, and had volunteered to go and find out what was happening after her siblings had gotten up, panicked. Leo and Jake had been peacefully sleeping (for once) and were currently scrabbling to find clothes before they came out to join Nyssa.
The 16-year-old prowled through the shadows of camp, towards the dining pavilion, where she could see a flash of silver. Maybe an enemy had managed to get through the camp's magical boarders? Doubtful, but probable, so Nyssa edged closer, feeling like a child of Hades about to shadow travel.
She slowly climbed the stairs to the raised pavilion, moving towards the glint of silver. She moved closer, and closer, and-
Percy yelled in fright as something was thrust into his ribs. He clutched his side, groaning, fumbling to get a good grip on Riptide as he swung it wildly towards his attacker. They grunted in surprise, but side-stepped, so his slashing arcs fell short.
Percy peered at the figure shrouded in darkness.
"Um, Nyssa?" he said, eventually. "Is that you?"
"Y-yeah," she said, slowly. "Hey, Percy."
"Did you- did you just try and kill me with a… with a screwdriver?"
Nyssa stepped into the light from the lamp, so her face was cast into light, and her cheeks were bright red.
"Yeah," she muttered. "It was the only thing I had on me, okay?"
Percy laughed gently. "Fair enough. You got a good hit in, at least."
There was an awkward pause. Percy hadn't really interacted with this particular child of Hephaestus, mainly just because they hadn't crossed paths very often, but he was aware of her strength and skills (he was more than aware, he was slightly intimidated). Nyssa was also incredibly muscular, and the tattered tank top she was wearing only emphasized her biceps. Percy felt daunted by her physical presence, especially because she had the one and only screwdriver.
"So, er, did you hear that scream?" he asked finally, ears burning red after the long silence.
"Yeah," she said, for the third time. "D'you know where it's coming from?"
Percy pointed vaguely over to the training grounds. "Over there, I think. I said I'd wait for Annabeth before going to check it out though. She's just grabbing her knife. Want to come with us?"
Nyssa shrugged, before bobbing her scarred face.
They waited in silence once more, but it was more content.
Reyna had bumped into Hazel as they made their way over to the training grounds. They'd seen people running around, whispering, and occasionally screaming, so knew something was up. Reyna had slipped out of the Big House, successfully evading Chiron, who as panicking, and demanding everyone stay in their cabins while he sorted it out. Like hell she was going to stay put. But she'd literally smashed into Hazel, as the smaller girl had crept out of the Hades cabin.
They'd sent each other sprawling into the dewy grass, Reyna's forehead protesting in pain from where she's hit into Hazel's skull. The praetor climbed to her feet as fast as she could, unsure if she was being attacked or not.
"Oh. Hazel," she sighed in relief, as the curly-haired girl jumped up, rubbing her head. Her mocha coloured skin was paler than normal, and her golden eyes were shining.
"Nico's missing!" she said, by way of greeting.
Reyna's heart dropped. "Right. Well, keep your head," she said shortly, resting a hand on Hazel's shoulder, which was trembling. "Don't panic, and we'll find him. I think we've been attacked. Come on."
She lead the way through the rest of the cabins, sticking to the walls and the shadows. She heard voices echoing from the dining pavilion, and could have sworn one of them was Percy's, but didn't hang around.
They reached the edge of the training area, and immediately Reyna noticed a dark figure slumped on the floor in the middle of the arena. Nico?
Hazel rushed towards them, but as she got closer, her Imperial gold sword raised in preparation, a groaning sound filled the space. Humanoid forms shambled towards Reyna, towards Hazel, from every angle they possibly could, hobbling as they made that terrible moaning noise.
As they got closer, their faces and bodies could be identified. They had greyish skin, lamp-like yellow eyes, and ratty clothing, hanging off their skeletal limbs. They were… zombies?
Reyna yelled a battle cry and launched herself at the nearest enemy, retracting her own sword from what looked like nowhere, and slicing off its head.
The zombies poured in from who knows where. She could see that Hazel was fighting too, placing careful strikes in strategic places, like the zombie's neck, who was now (sadly) decapitated. She made sure to stay by the body on the ground. From where Reyna was fighting, she couldn't tell if they were alive or not. But she kept fighting as the zombie bodies piled up around her.
Hazel was exhausted. She'd had trouble getting to sleep, and then just as she had drifted off, she'd been woken up again by that gods-awful screaming. The zombies acted as her own personal anger management toy.
She was trying to protect the girl on the floor. Her blonde hair was splayed around her head, like a halo. Her eyes were closed, but Hazel knew she was breathing. She couldn't manage to make out any other details (she was too busy slaying those zombies), so didn't know who it was – perhaps a camper, or perhaps not.
There was another shout from nearby, and Percy, Annabeth and a girl Hazel didn't recognise joined the fight. Percy ripped the zombies to ribbons with Riptide, and Annabeth jabbed at them with her deadly dagger. The other girl stood, dumfounded, for moment, before attacking the intruders with what looked like… a screwdriver?
Hazel fell back, limbs aching, letting them take up the front lines. She felt guilt worming its way into her stomach as Reyna finished with the zombies at the edge of the training area, and sprinted over to Percy and Annabeth, where the rest of the enemies were. She knew she should be helping out, but if she did too much more she might collapse.
Anyway. She had to look after this girl.
Hazel dropped to her knees, scrabbling to find a pulse. There was one, hearty and steady. So that was good. Hazel rested her hand on the girl's forehead. She was cold, but too cold, and warm, but not too warm. It felt like she had a regular temperature. Puzzled, but determined to figure out what was wrong, Hazel's eyes traced down her body, scanning for injuries.
Nothing.
And then suddenly laughter rang out across the arena.
Hazel's head sprung up, her eyes wide, but then she realised that the laughter was coming from beneath her. The girl had sat up and was laughing her head off.
Hazel was confused, to say the least.
The zombies had seemingly melted – they'd oozed into the ground in dead silence. Reyna, Percy and Annabeth stood with their weapons drawn, looking equally concerned.
Two figures made their way out of the dawn shadows towards the little group. The girl was still laughing raucously.
"Are you okay?" Hazel asked cautiously. She nodded, tears streaming down her cheeks.
"WE GOT YOU!" The two people had reached the group.
It was Connor and Travis Stoll.
Percy swore loudly, his New Yorkers accent cutting through his chosen words. Reyna's mouth was agape, Annabeth was groaning, and the other girl was rolling her eyes.
"I should have realised," she held her head in her hands.
Conor burst out laughing, in unison with the girl on the ground. Travis grinned manically.
"We got you so good," he crowed, brown hair dishevelled.
"You're gonna pay," the girl Hazel didn't know threatened, and although Hazel hadn't done anything wrong, she shivered at the look on her face.
"Shut up, Nyssa," Travis scoffed, trying to mask his fright.
"W-wait," Reyna, attempting to regain control, confusion written across her face. "What- that was you?!"
Travis nodded proudly. "Yep. You just fought fake zombies for a whole 20 minutes!"
"Fake?" Annabeth said sharply.
"Uh huh. We wouldn't spring for real zombies, too much of a hassle. But you can get pretty good fakes when you've got a son of Hades on your team!"
Hazel stood finally; her fists clenched. "Son of Hades, huh?"
"Hey, Haze." Nico materialised behind her, stepping out of the shadows, a smirk playing on his face.
Hazel whipped around and slapped her younger brother.
He stumbled backwards, clutching his cheek, where a red mark was forming.
"How dare you," Hazel growled, unnaturally angry. "How dare you wake me up and do… do this!" she spread her arms wide.
Nico rolled his eyes, cheek still red, but smirk still there.
"It was just a harmless prank," he shrugged.
"I'll give you a 'harmless prank'!" Hazel raged, rushing towards him. He, in turn, sprinted away, and was chased by his sister throughout the whole camp.
Percy and Travis got into a fight, the son of Poseidon fuelled by exhaustion and anger, but it was broken up pretty quickly. The girl who had been on the floor was Emily Hilt, another Hermes camper. She'd been in on the prank, of course, and had been chosen to be the "bait". She'd been the one screaming – she had a weirdly high voice. She, Nico and both of the Stolls were grounded by Chiron for a few days, before Reyna and Annabeth pushed him to bring it up to a week. They were half amused, two thirds frustrated, regardless of the maths needed to calculate that.
Nico bore the brunt of Hazel's rage when he was released from his week's grounding, but eventually all was well.
It was only a harmless prank full of zombies, anyway.