The Revivers

Chapter 6

Percy POV

We all squished ourselves as close to the far wall as we could as the broom cracked again. Annabeth had her shoulder pressed against mine; she was so close I could smell the lemon scent of her hair.

"Percy?" She said, a slight tremor in her words.

"Yeah?" I breathed, wincing as I heard another crack. Annabeth turned her shoulders so that she was facing me. Her eyes were shimmering with fearful tears. In one swift movement she gripped the back of my neck, and pulled my face down to where it was level with hers. For a second, she just stared at me, her eyes not faltering for one second as they looked directly into mine.

And then she kissed me. Right there, in front of everyone. Including the zombies smushing their eyes against the doors.

Her arms wound themselves tight around my neck. Unconsciously, I hugged her to my chest and kissed her back. Every single thought I'd ever had suddenly flew out of my brain. Those doors could have broken open, and I wouldn't even have noticed. Lucky for us, they didn't.

It was Annabeth who broke the kiss (much too early, I might add), but our noses were still touching. She looked up at me through her eyelashes, her breathing as unsteady as mine.

"Just in case I never get the chance again," She whispered. I nodded.

"Just in case," I repeated.

And that's when all hell broke loose.

The broom gave way, and a couple dozen undead cannibals came barreling into the cafeteria. I winced, realizing that I recognized a few of them from my years in Goode Middle School.

We all burst into action. Beckendorf ran through the crowd, slashing as he went along. A couple of zombies got their hands on him, but before long all their limbs were chopped off and their heads were rolling.

"Get up on the tables!" Thalia yelled over the loud moans and groans of the zombies. They could climb, but it would take them a little while to figure that out. Nico jumped up onto the counter they used to serve the food on. Jason and Beckendorf each took tables on separate corners of the room to cover more ground. Thalia hopped from table to table, cutting a path through the crowd.

Annabeth and I stood back-to-back on a circular table in the center of the room. A lot of hands grabbed at our ankles, but they were soon chopped off at the wrist.

"Percy, to your left!" She called. I swung my sword and it impaled itself right into the skull of Nancy Bobofit, the class bully. As cruel and mean to me as she was, I couldn't help but feel guilt and sorrow as I finished her off, and her body fell to the ground with a thump.

The fight turned into something like one of those video games where you shoot at as many meteors as you can before they can damage your ship. Hack away at as many zombies as you can before they bite your foot. And to think there were actual games that looked exactly like this back in the old world…

"Annabeth, to the right!" Within a second her knife had plunged into the eye of a long-dead zombie. She held it steady while I used my blade to sever it's neck.

"Nice shot," I complimented her as I hacked at a nearby zombie hand.

"Thanks," She said breathlessly as she kicked an oncoming flesh-eater. The two of us danced around the table for quite some time, picking away at the crowd of hungry dead people.

Hokey as it sounds, Annabeth and I could practically read each other's minds while we fought. We shifted around the table, covering the weak spots that the other couldn't get to. If I swung my sword at a zombie close to her, she'd automatically move just far enough that the blade didn't hit her. It was almost like a tango of sorts… minus the blood and guts flying everywhere.