Luke (sequel to 'Say You'll Remember Me')

Chapter 10

Three hours, two subway rides, and an uber later, we are finally on an empty Greyhound in southwestern New Jersey. We sat in the back so that no one on the bus would overhear us, but there's no one else on here, and we definitely aren't talking. I don't even know exactly where we're headed, I didn't bother to ask. It's amazing how much everything has changed in the span of 12 hours. I used to be in charge, I would make my own decisions, even if they weren't good or admirable ones. Now look at me: my husband's dead, my son's gone, I'm soon to be a fugitive, and now I'm blindly following a loose acquaintance from a decade ago across state lines. I've been in bad situations before, but I'm out of my level now.

I look over at my guide, and he doesn't look any more sure than I feel. While I've always been on the gloomy side, I remember Will as a ball of light, true to his father. He's not the happy, confident kid I went to camp with, he's hardened, and it isn't from age. But doesn't he have every right to be? During the school year, when most of the campers went home, Will always stayed at camp, and I can't imagine that changed after I left. That was his home, his life; he's lost just as much as I have. This new Will, I feel worse for him than I do for myself.

"How did they take the camp?" I ask trying to break the silence. It probably isn't the best subject to discuss, but I have to know what they did to him.

"You really wanna know?"

"No," not a lie, "but I need to know."

"You know about the Labyrinth right? Daedalus' giant magical maze?" I nod, I remember hearing it get tossed around by the Athena kids. "Well there was an entrance to it under the camp, and I guess her army figured that out."

I interrupt, "how does she even have an army, she's dead? I killed her 13 years ago in Canada."

"I don't know, but she is, and it's not just her. She wasn't at the attack, but there were others. It wasn't just monsters attacking, there were campers that died on quests. Silena Beauregard, Charles Beckendorf, Kelsey McMane, they had all died for the cause, and there they were, helping the enemy."

"I didn't even know any of them were dead." I lean back in my seat, stunned.

"You know how it is, Luke, our kind has never lived very long lives." He puts his hand on my shoulder, trying to comfort me. "We did what we could, but we were outnumbered, off-guard, and we were shaken from seeing the old campers. When he saw what was going to happen, Chiron rounded a few of us older campers and had us evacuate the youngest campers with the vans. He held them off long enough for us to drive away; that's when they captured him. I could see the smoke as we drove away; they burnt the camp to the ground."

What did you do with all of the kids?" I ask, scared that the story wasn't over. "Did you get attacked again, are they okay?"

"They're fine, we made it out. The army didn't even try to follow us. I think they wanted us to escape, to spread the message. The kids, when they're that young, usually aren't from too far away. The furthest kid lived in Rhode Island, so I got them all home safely."

"I can't believe it's all gone. How are we supposed to stop her if it's just the two of us left."

"It's not just us," he says, a little bit of hope creeping into his voice, "there were seven of us that helped evacuate, and we had five quests out when the camp was attacked. If we could just get in touch with them, then we might have a team. We just have to figure out how to get a message to them."

"How are we supposed to do that when I don't even know where we're going?"

"The camp has some land holdings in Tulsa, but we can't take the trains, it's too risky, so we're going to have to bus there. If we could figure out how to tell everyone to head to Oklahoma, we could figure out our next move."

A UPS truck passes our bus, and suddenly I have an idea. "I know how we can get letters to the survivors, all I need is a drachma and a fountain."

"What are you planning on doing?"

"Just going to call my dad. We haven't spoken in a long time, and I think he owes a favor."