Jake Mason and the Human

Jake Is About As Useless As Natalie Is Stubborn

"How about you stay in the car."

"...and run monsters over?" she finished.

I groaned. "Sure."

"How will I keep from hitting campers?"

"They're the ones in orange shirts," I answered.

I watched the road we were driving down and the turns she was taking.

"How do you know where you're going?" I asked.

Natalie kind of smirked at that. "My step-brother is a demigod who goes to an awesome camp. Austin and I have tried to smuggle myself in more than once."

"Really?"

"I mean, yeah, but we did it to see if we could. Not because I had a burning desire to go to your camp."

"I feel like that should have set off an alarm or something."

She shrugged. "That's neither here nor there. What we need to focus on is what our plan is for when we get out of my car."

"Seriously, you should just stay in the car."

"Okay, so let's pretend like I'll do that. What will you be doing?"

"Seeing who needs help. We don't really know what we're up against."

Natalie didn't have anything to say to that.

I was starting to worry that the fighting would be inside camp boarders and I'd have to leave Natalie behind, but my concern was for nothing. Before we could reach camp boundaries a flaming tree was being thrown over our car.

"What the..." Natalie muttered, casually easing into the brakes.

"You should," I said, "You should stay here."

"Sure thing."

I couldn't tell if she was sassing me or not. The both of us were looking to the sky in case another flaming tree decided to pay us a visit.

When I opened the car door Natalie opened hers.

"Where are you going?" I questioned.

"Chill," she told me. "I'm just trying to find places to hide. Trying to figure out where I am."

I was okay with that reply so I walked around to her side of the car to meet her.

"Don't believe everything you see," I told her. "The Mist is weird. It alters your brain to make you see things that could be worse than they actually are. If it's too much, leave. Got it?"

I could tell she was getting frustrated with me, but she nodded anyways and got back into the car. Once the door was closed Natalie rolled down the window.

"Where will you be?"

I turned to look down the road. Through the trees, I could see a few people in orange shirts running around. I pointed to them.

"Over there."

Natalie sighed. "Don't do anything stupid."

I leaned towards the window. "Can't make any promises."

I was pretty sure Natalie was going to kiss me again, but something hit the back of my head and the lights went out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When I woke up, I was in the forest. There were screams around me and the the smell of smoke. It made me miss campfires.

About fifty yards ahead of me I could see a camper rolling away from a line of fire. I couldn't tell who it was or what kind of monster they were dealing with, my eyes were too blurry. I tried listen for different voices, but the only sound I heard was the throbbing of my head.