Chapter 29

Percy

I saw everything in slow motion. I looked over to Sarah, and she looked back. We gave each other a slight nod. We knew the plan, we've gone over it so many times, but I was always afraid that it wouldn't be enough. Well, today was the day we find out if it works.

I kicked the guy behind me in the knee cap. There was a loud crack and a shout of pain. I had no time to see if Sarah did her part. I hopped up to my feet and pulled the machete from the goon's belt and quickly head butted him, knocking him out. I then used his body as a shield for the incoming flurry of bullets, but it never came.

It gave me just enough time to get behind a brick wall. The shots stopped, but I couldn't. I crouched down and vaulted over the wall, since it was only a few feet high. I flew feet first into a man's chest, but and, attempted to knock over the woman, but she kicked me in the head as I landed, stunning me.

Before I could regain my composure, I caught a glimpse of a shiny objet. It was a knife coming right toward me.

"STOP" I heard the man yell. She almost didn't, but she stopped about an inch from my eye. She held it there for a moment. I didn't move. If I did, it would be over for me.

"That's not who we are" said the man, gasping for air. I must have landed a good kick because he got the wind knocked out of him.

"Who the hell do you think we are" replied the woman as she took a step back from me. "you don't know me"

"We've been together since the beginning. I know you"

The argument began to get really heated. I had no clue what was happening, but I was glad it did happen. I would be dead otherwise.

"He broke Jack's knee" said the woman

"In self-defense," I said, but I was unfortunately cut off by her menacing glare. I put my hands up in surrender, but never let my guard down. They argued for a while, and I just sat on the ground awkwardly.

I understood a little bit of the situation, but not all of it. They were together for a long time. They've lost a lot of people and she was on the brink of insanity.

I used this time to look for Sarah. I didn't see her. Thank the Gods. I didn't know if she would run, like I told her to, of try to come back and try save me.

I raised my hand, trying to tell them that I had a question, like in school. The man looked at me and asked, "What do you want stumpy?"

"Um… can I, like, go or are you holding me hostage." They looked at me as if I was an idiot. "I'm ok with whatever, but I'm just a little confused and I want to know if I can go find my friend."

After a momentary pause, the man said, "yeah, fine. go"

"Awesome." I said as I stood up. "I'd like to thank you for these exciting few minutes. And uh… yeah. I like you guys."

They stared at me, and the woman asked, "Are you retarded or something"

"I get it." I said, hands held up in defeat. "I'm out of here"

I walked away, but kept my eyes on them. They were good people, but you can never be too sure.

Once I was a good distance away from that lovely experience, I began looking for Sarah. I remember telling her the best place to be is in a suburb because there were lots of houses not searched yet it was the best place to look. Eventually, I found a map of the outlying area. It would take a while to find her, maybe a few hours

Boy was I wrong. The next two days were the hell for me. I knew she got away, but I had no clue where she was, who she was with or anything.

I searched the outlying area for her. I was almost done with a full sweep when I saw something odd, the ruined remains of a large, concrete building. I remember passing it on the way to… wherever, but this struck me as odd.

I saw faint tire tracks heading up the road, a large pile of dead zeds and blood on the ground. The blood looked at least a day old, but that's hard to tell. I didn't have time inspect it since zeds were swarming the area. I decided to follow the tracks since that is what Sarah probably did.

I followed the direction the tracks were heading. They didn't tell me where the car was, but it pointed me to a neighborhood. I looked in a few houses, but I couldn't find her. I began to really lose my mind at this point. What if I didn't find her! I know she can survive on her own for a while, but there were still some creepy and dangerous people out there.

Then I approached something strange. There was a red pickup truck almost fully loaded with supplies. I havn't seen that much food since before everything happened. Whoever the owner of that truck was part of a large group. Maybe 15-ish people.

I approached the house it was parked in and peered inside. I could only get a look at the top floor as the bottom floor windows were covered. What I saw blew my mind.

It was Jason. That son of a bitch made it out alive. He was talking to someone who I couldn't see. The other person was either sitting down or a lot shorter than him because he was looking slightly down as he talked. He then turned around, showing someone something of a desk. I couldn't see who it was, but a flash of short blond hair gave me the feeling that it was Sarah.

I sneaked around to the front of the house to try to see inside. There was only one window that I could see through. I had to crouch slightly and wipe of a layer of grime with my shirt sleeve. I saw piper talking to someone. I had a feeling Jason wouldn't leave without her.

I adjusted slightly to try and get a view of who Pipes was talking to, but I could only see a mess of blond hair lying on the couch. At first, I thought it was Sarah, but then I remembered the blond upstairs (not Jason). Besides, she definitely looked older, maybe late teens early twenties.

Was it possible? Did Piper and Jason find Annabeth after the herd? Just then, Sarah walked into the room. I smiled and sighed of relief for a moment. Then my world turned upside down. The person lying on the couch was Annabeth.

I was about to smash through the window and hug them both, but I realized that I would probably get shot or stabbed before any of the realized it was me. I fell to my knees and rubbed my eyes. My heart was bursting from my chest.

When I finally looked back through the window, Jason was in the room talking with them. I knew there was only one way I could get in the house without getting shot.

I stood up, walked over to the door and took a deep breath. I've been waiting for this moment for a long time, but I never thought it would happen. Annabeth and I were about to see each other again.

I hit my fist against the door three times. The voices stopped instantly. There was a long pause before I heard Jason's muffled voice at the door. He opened it slowly until the room could see me.

As I slowly walked in, Jason gave me a pat on the back and his "handsome guy" grin. Piper looked at me and I could tell she was thinking, 'da fuck'. Annabeth stood up and walked over to me, never taking her eyes off my dirty, scarred and smiling face. I stepped forward too. I had my arms out for a hug, but, instead, I received a slap.

I kept my head facing the direction of the slap, and slowly turned back to face, totally and utterly confused. The whole time, she never took her eyes off me. it was clear the shock hadn't worn off yet.

"Sorry." Annabeth said. "I just had to make sure you were real."

"That makes sense." I responded, and received another slap.

"What the fuck happened to you" Annabeth half shouted, preceded by another slap.

"I was…" slap

"Why the fuck didn't you try to find me sooner?" Annabeth shouted again

"I looked but," slap.

Out of nowhere, she hugged me, or tackled me. I wasn't sure which. Once we were on the ground, she got on top of me and I was met with a barrage of kisses. I put my hand on her back and kissed back.

It was, honest to the gods, the best damn reunion I could have asked for. When we separated, Annabeth looked at me with her grey eyes fiercely. I wasn't sure if I was about to receive another slap or kiss. I would have preferred the latter.

In the moment of silence, I asked, "so can I talk now, or…?"

She smiled and said, "Yes. First off, what happened to your hand?"

I just realized that my stump was trying to get its non-existent fingers tangled in her hair.

"Oh, yeah. Funny story. I cut it off." I said bluntly.

"Why?" she asked, still on top of me, her hair dangling down her face and tickling me slightly.

"Well I was bitten there, so I had three choices. A) Let it consume me and turn, B) kill myself so I don't turn, or C) cut it off and possibly live. I went with that one."

Annabeth didn't take her eyes of it the whole time I was talking. Finally, she got up and then helped me up. I just remembered that Jason and Piper are in the room with us.

Once I stood back up, Piper gave me a quick hug, and Jason said, "man, we just can't get rid of you can we."

"Not a chance." I responded with a slight chuckle. Now that the main shock was over, I asked them, "Is there a little girl here? Name is Sarah, short blond hair?"

Piper nodded and said, "She's upstairs right now. How do you two know each other?" Piper began leading me upstairs. Annabeth followed very closely, as did Jason

"Her father saved my life. He patched up my stump when I was unconscious." I told them. "I've been taking care of her since then."

"What happened to the dad?" Jason asked, but before I could respond, Sarah walked out of the room she was in; she stopped for a moment, and then ran to me. I knelt down and gave her a hug as she collided into me.

"I'm glad you're not dead." she said quickly

"Me too."

"So you were causing all the commotion down stairs." Sarah said.

"Yup. You just so happened to run into some old friends of mine." I said with a grin.

Jason went into another room and dragged out Leo, whose foot was wrapped up as if it was broken or just hurt badly. He looked at me and said, "You're alive? Dude, I'd shake your hand if still had it."

"You know, he still has his right hand, normally, that's the one you're supposed to shake with." Annabeth said.

"Eh. He's all the way over there and I can't move very quickly, so I'll just settle for a high five later." Leo said

"I wouldn't have expected anything else." I said.

I met 2 new guys who were with the old gang. Everyone told me about their camp: 40 people, tents and fire pits, most of a wall built and how they ran security. It seemed like a good area . Jason told me about his sister and how she ran the whole operation.

Everyone piled into the two cars that they had, and it was a tight squeeze. Sarah had to sit on my lap and they had to move Leo to the trunk because there was no room for anyone else. The pickup was full of supplies and there were only two seats that were taken up by the brothers. Leo was ok with it since it gave him more room for his leg.

The whole ride back, everyone was catching up. Annabeth told me about her run in with Nico and her exciting trip to the city, Jason and Piper recounted their tale with Timmy, and I told them about Sarah's father, my hand and our adventures. I say that like it was all happy, but they were all sad stories.

The whole ride to the new camp, Annabeth kept her head on my shoulder. I had one arm around her and the other around Sarah. Sarah and Annabeth got to talking, but it quickly turned into them making fun of me and telling some of the stories about the stupid shit I've done (and there were plenty).

I still haven't gotten over the shock of seeing them all again, but I found myself telling inside jokes, chatting and planning, just like we used to. Everyone told me about how Frank, Hazel and Calypso were all back at the camp. I'm pretty surprised that everyone lived.

Once we were about a mile from the camp, the engine shuddered and died. Jason hit his hands against the steering wheel and said, "Out of gas."

The other car pulled up alongside us and rolled the window down. One of them asked, "What's up?"

"The tank is empty." Replied Jason.

"That sucks for you. But we can't fit everyone in the truck."

Jason thought about this for a second, and then said, "Just take Leo since he can't move. The rest of us will walk."

"Alright-y then." He replied. Jason and I helped load Leo into the car. They drove off and left the five of us to walk. I began to grow dark when we made it to the camp.

Unfortunately, there was gunfire and yelling coming from the camp. Jason sprinted over, weapon drawn and ready to kill. I followed along, as did Annabeth. Piper stayed behind to protect Sarah.

I was the first one to get there, Jason was only a second behind me, and couldn't warn me about the fist that knocked me to the ground. Jason tried to shoot, but the other guy was to quick on the draw. He shot Jason through the side. He collapsed on the ground in pain.

The man who shot Jason grabbed me be my hair and forced me to look at me.

"Well hi there. You must be new around here, so allow me to introduce myself." The man said with a cocky grin that showed he didn't give a shit about anyone.

"I'm Adrian. Nice to meet you."

Hello everyone. I have a question to ask you. The next chapter will end the current plot arc. I have an idea for another one but I must warn you, it is not happy, it is not fun, and it may very well destroy you. I can end it either way, I am okay with it. Just let me know if you want me to continue or begin a new fic. I have a few ideas. Less violent though