𝐖𝐈𝐋𝐃𝐄𝐒𝐓 𝐃𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐌𝐒 | P. Jackson, A. Chase¹

5. 𝘈𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘏𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘋𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘶𝘴 𝘍𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘕𝘦𝘸 𝘍𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥

Percy rolled his eyes and turned back towards the window. Alice looked up again, seeing that the helicopter kept coming. Easily finding them through the D.C. traffic.

Thalia closed her eyes and prayed hard. "Hey, Dad. A lightning bolt would be nice about now. Please?"

But rather than lightning, snow was all that fell upon them.

"There!" Bianca said. "That parking lot!"

"We'll be trapped," Zoë said.

"Trust me," Bianca said.

Zoë sped through two lanes of traffic and into a mall parking lot on the south bank of the river. Without hesitation, the group left the van and followed Bianca down the stairs into the subway.

"Let's go south," Bianca said. "Alexandria."

"Anything," Thalia agreed.

They hastily bought tickets and got through the turnstiles, constantly checking over their shoulders for any signs of pursuit. Just minutes later, they were safely aboard a southbound train, riding away from D.C. When the train came above ground, they could see the helicopter circling the parking lot, but it didn't come after them.

Grover let out a sigh. "Nice job, Bianca, thinking of the subway."

Bianca looked pleased. "Yeah, well, I saw that station when Nico and I came through last summer. I remember being really surprised to see it, because it wasn't here when we used to live in D.C."

Alice paused. "What do you mean? That station's definitely old as hell. I'm pretty sure Alisha was there when it was first built.l

Percy poked her arm. "Seriously?"

"What?" Alice demanded. "That thing was definitely as old enough to have been made at least twenty years ago."

"No, trust me," Bianca disagreed, "when we lived here as little kids, there was no subway."

Thalia sat forward. "Wait a minute. No subway at all?"

Bianca nodded. Everyone else passed around confused looks. "Bianca," Zoë called, leaning forward. "How long ago..." Her voice faltered. The sound of the helicopter was getting louder again.

"Next station, we switch trains trains," Alice ordered. Nobody argued.

They spent the next half hour switching trains. Eventually, they managed to lose the helicopter. The downside to that was that when got to the end of the line, they left the train only to end up in an industrial area with nothing but warehouses and railway tracks. And snow. Lots of snow. It seemed much colder here. Even Alice felt affected. They wandered their way through the railway yard, endless rows of snow covered freight cars surrounding them.

There was a random homeless guy standing at a trash-can fire, too.

They had to have looked pathetic, because even he looked at them with pity. He smiled at them, his grin toothless. "Y'all need to get warmed up? Come on over!"

They huddled around his fire, awkwardly trying to be polite. Thalia's teeth were chattering. She stammered, "Well this is g-g-g-great."

"My hooves are frozen," Grover complained.

"Feet," Percy corrected.

"Maybe we should contact camp," Bianca said. "Chiron-"

"No," Zoë said. "They cannot help us anymore. We must finish this quest ourselves."

"Alice?" Grover called, reaching out to her. "You okay over there?"

Alice shrugged. "Don't really like fire," she said. "Bad... bad memories."