The Survival of Four

Chapter 5

Sorry for the long wait! I have a feeling you are going to really enjoy this chapter:)

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After nearly twenty minutes, we pulled into the parking lot a small pancake house. We climbed out of the car and Kyle locked the doors behind us. Inside, Kyle requested a table and the waitress sat us down in a booth beside a window. "What can I get you to drink on this lovely morning?" the lady asked us with a smile.

"I'll take a small orange juice," I said. Nodding, she wrote it down on her notepad before looking at Kyle.

"I'll take the same thing, but make it a medium." She nodded and walked away, after telling us she'd bring the drinks back in a few minutes. "Did you write a letter to your father?" Kyle asked, recalling me looking for Hermes earlier that morning.

I nodded. "Yeah, I asked him to come to visit," I explained. "I'm not mad that I have a brother, I'm upset that Poseidon never told me about him."

Kyle nodded and crossed his arms. "That's understandable. I'm sure once Poseidon knows that Carson is at Safe Haven, he'll come," he assured me.

I shook my head. "Carson said Poseidon visited him every week. I think dad already knows he's here."

Two glasses were abruptly placed on the table in front of us. "Thank you," we spoke in unison. The waitress smiled and asked what we wanted to eat.

"I'll take two scrambled eggs, with a hash brown and toast," I told her. She wrote it down on her notepad and turned to Kyle.

"I'll take three blueberry pancakes, with extra syrup," he ordered.

She pushed a piece of her long black hair behind her ear, the grin never leaving her face. "No problem. Your food will be done in about ten minutes." She walked away.

Kyle rolled his eyes at me as a goofy grin settled on his face. "I can't believe you just ordered eggs in a pancake house. It's called a pancake house for a reason."

I chuckled. "I'm sorry, but I don't want pancakes." Smiling, he took a sip of his orange juice. "So, what do you think of Carson?" I asked, wanting his honest opinion.

He pulled away from the straw in his glass. "I think he's a brave demigod with anger issues." I chuckled at his response and he rolled his eyes. "Seriously though, I think he has a good heart. Once he's trained properly, I think he'll be just as good of a fighter as Dylan," he spoke honestly.

"Yeah, I've sensed his bravery," I agreed.

He sighed. "If only I could get him to trust me."

I smiled. "You just didn't give him a good first impression of yourself."

"I was confused." He laughed with a shrug. "The boy burst into the head house, implied he was your brother, and then demanded to see you. I thought he was crazy and wanted to kill you or something."

I laughed as the waitress showed up and placed a plate in front of each of us. Kyle's pancakes were stacked with a square of butter on top, along with a stream of maple syrup around it. My eggs were neatly bunched on my porcelain plate, along with my pile of hash browns and two pieces of toast. "Thank you," we told the waitress.

She smiled. "Enjoy your food." She departed from us and we began to eat what was delivered to us.

Twenty-five minutes later, we handed the waitress the check, along with a tip. I trailed behind Kyle as we walked out of the pancake house. A bell sounded as the door closed behind me. We climbed into the car, and soon, Kyle began driving down the road to a familiar path in the woods.

"So I've been thinking," Kyle started.

I chuckled. "Oh no, that's never good."

The son of Hades rolled his eyes and grinned, still keeping his eyes trained on the road. "Whatever. I want to take Carson monster hunting," he mentioned. "Just me and him—after he is trained, of course."

I nodded. "Okay, but why do you want to take him by yourself?"

Kyle paused for a moment before answering. "I need him to trust me. I figure the best way to do that, is to be in a fighting situation. He will have to trust me to watch his back when we are fighting a monster; he won't have a choice."

"He will trust you in time, Kyle," I assured him. "You've only known him for a day. It will take longer than that."

Kyle sighed. "He already trusts Dylan, though. He acts like he's Dylan's best friend. They joke around and get along well, already."

I faced him. "Why is gaining his trust so important to you?" Before he could reply, his car began to unnaturally bounce up and down. My brows furrowed. "What's going on?"

He shrugged and shook his head. "I don't know. We aren't out of gas." He glanced in the car mirror. "I think we have a flat tire." I sighed as he stopped the car. We unbuckled our seatbelts and climbed out. "What in the world?" I heard him say on the other side of the car.

I walked around to the driver's side of the vehicle. "What is it?" Kyle was crouched down by the back tire, examining something. I got closer and what I saw shocked me. Kyle pulled a golden arrow out of the rubber tire. He looked at me with confusion. Someone had shot Kyle's tire with an arrow. "Only a demigod would have a golden arrow, Kyle," I told him.

He stood up. "I know." His eyes scanned the environment around us. Suddenly, an arrow came flying out of nowhere and stuck deep in the ground near Kyle's feet. It had definitely been shot fast enough to impale one of us. Before we could react to the first one, a second arrow was shot and flew past my head. The arrowhead hit the window behind me and shattered the glass. I shrieked from surprise and jumped away from the falling glass.

Kyle tightly gripped my hand in his and dragged me with him as he sprinted through the trees. We ran as fast as we could toward Safe Haven, where we knew there was refuge. A second later, a thump sounded through the air as a third arrow struck a tree beside us. If possible, Kyle ran faster. I was barely keeping up. We dodged bushes and logs and barreled around trees as we made a break toward safe grounds.

The border of Safe Haven was in sight. My heart raced and pounded deep in my chest. My mind was wired, scaling hundreds of reasons to why someone would shoot at us. We were getting close to the border. "Hey!" Kyle screamed, trying to get someone's attention. A few Ares demigods looked in our direction as we sprinted toward them. "Hey!" He screamed again.

We barreled onto safe grounds and Kyle darted toward the closest Ares demigod. "Someone shot arrows at us. Sound the alarm," he ordered. The demigod nodded and took off running toward the head house. The Ares demigods were trained for moments like this. They had chest plates hung over their shoulders and their swords were drawn. The Ares descendants faced the border and stepped off safe grounds, into the woods.

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I know I promised two chapters since I missed last week, but I couldn't make it happen. I have been too busy with school. However, I am doing my best to not miss another week:)

I hope you enjoyed!

Opinions? I appreciate both good and bad criticism<3

*Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed don't forget to VOTE and comment your predictions:)

**Until next time:)) ~Emily