The Last Boeotian (Percy Jackson)

Chapter 3: The Worst Taxi I've Ever Been On

The Gulf Of Mexico?

I brushed my thumb slowly across the inked papyrus font above the pinpoint. The black lines didn't smudge or run. How was I supposed to get across the country? It had to be important if Pholos had given me the map, but how much time would I have?

I swallowed the rest of my latté thickly and tossed out the cup. I looked down at the few drachmas in my hand, then thought about what Pholos had once told me.

"If you ever need to get somewhere in an emergency," he said seriously, "Just throw a drachma in the road and chant these words..."

I decided to take my chances, and folded the map into my back pocket before tossing the drachma into the road. It glimmered and shined in the sunlight. "Ste... Stêthi 'Ô hárma diabolês."

It wasn't even seconds until black smoke instantly flooded the area around the drachma. The smoke compacted slowly until an old rusty yellow taxi sat in the middle of the road, mechanically growling loudly. The back doors flung open.

Three women sat in the front seats of the taxi, a dark aura protruding from them. "Welcome to the Grey Sisters Taxi," the driver said in a slimy voice. She blinked at me, but something stuck out to me. She only had one eye. The others didn't have any, just empty sockets.

This was the Chariot of Damnation. I had summoned the fastest-moving mythological transportation in the world. They could get me to the coast of the Gulf in minutes.

"How much to get to the coast of the Gulf Of Mexico?" I asked quickly.

"Oh, that's pretty far, deary," the middle grey woman said. "Probably three hundred drachmas."

I searched through my wallet "Can you make it two?"

The three beastly women clacked heads to talk before they turned back to me. "Get in," one snarled with a snaggly-toothed grin.

I quickly sat in the backseat of of the old car, the putrid smell invading my nose. Gods, it made me want to throw up. I paid my heavy toll and there was a loud cackle before the car loudly shifted into gear.

The car sped down-or through- the road, going hundreds and hundreds of miles an hour. I cleared my throat nervously and held tightly onto the seat and armrest. My face felt like it was being peeled off as images blurred by. My teeth clacked against each other painfully. My heart pumped hard against my chest as wind pelted my face. 

The ride only lasted minutes, and it went by pretty silently other than the loud clanging of the car and the wind outside. I was thrusted into the back of the front seat as the car jerked to a stop. My head spun, and I became dizzy. I peeled my face off the rotting leather seat, groaning as I sat up.

"Coast of The Gulf Of Mexico in Mississippi," the driver stated in her slimy tone.

I felt the seat move up forcefully, and I was pushed out of the car. I landed on my side on the asphalt with a thump. My bag landed next to me right after, and the car sped off to disappear.

I groaned and rolled to sit up, brushing off the dirt and debris on me. I wiped at the blood on a small scrape on my hand, then lifted my bag as I stood.

This place better be important if I just used up all my money to get here, I thought as I stared out at the ocean. The exact location was still somewhere in the middle of the sea, which I would have to get to.

Fortunately, I knew exactly how.

It was easy to sneak through to the underside of the deck of a beach, where I knew canoes would lie, waiting to be rented. I slowly lifted the edge of one of the small wooden boats, seeing oars underneath. I twisted the upside-down canoe to lie in the sand, then placed the oars inside and began dragging it across the ground. I stayed under the deck before I reached the water, going directly around and sitting in the boat, watching for any observers. I was quickly able to paddle out of the beach and into the sea, where I could recognize where I was. I read the mental map of where I was, and recalled where I had to go.

27° N, 91° W, on the dot.

The oars were heavy and hard to push, but I managed to paddle the boat towards my location before the coast was almost completely out of sight. With a loud sigh to myself, I lifted the wooden oars up and placed them in the boat. I sat on my heels in the middle of the boat, pressing my hand on the interior bottom. My eyes closed and I exhaled deeply.

Focus. Focus.

I felt the boat move again and opened my eyes. A wave pushed the wooden canoe along, focused by the manipulation of my hand.

Keep focusing, I told myself.

The wave was small, but strong enough to keep the boat moving. Small fish and birds flopped about the surface as I moved, and I kept a track on my mental map.

Twenty-eight degrees, sixteen minutes North. Eighty-four degrees, fifteen-minutes West.

I took another deep breath, focusing harder on the location. A few minutes later, I no longer had to worry about where I was going. I knew exactly where the map was leading me.

Smack in the middle of where the map told me to go was a beast. Hundreds of feet tall at least, with huge dragon-like heads. It snapped and thrashed angrily in the water, wrapping itself around a ship. It was Scylla, and it wasn't here by accident.

I knew Scylla always lived in narrower waterways, like straits and canals, across from Charybdis. To have Scylla in the middle of the ocean meant somebody had to have moved the beast.

It roared and shrieked, chomping at the people who ran about the ship. Some fell off the tilted boat, some held on, and some were eaten. Many of the people were trying to fight it. They had weapons, much like the swords and bows and spears that the Base had. This was some type of demigod ship.

My body froze, and I couldn't focus on the movement of the water anymore. The roars and screams echoed in my ears, and options ran through my mind. I knew I was brought here for a reason. I absolutely had to help save the demigods on that ship.

And I only had one idea, but there was no sure chance it would work.

I wasn't sure if it would work- in fact, I was pretty positive that it wouldn't, but I summoned all my internal willpower and focused on the sea. I felt my brain hurt with the focus on moving everything, but it wasn't long before a large wave pushed me up several feet in the air, and I travelled forward quickly towards the beast.

I was almost eye-level with Scylla, and I closed my eyes before taking a deep breath. I knew I probably wouldn't make it out, but that was okay. I had just survived the Base attack for a reason.

I'm ready, I told myself.

I let out a puff of air and thrusted the wave towards the beast. The hard water hit Scylla with great force, distracting it with a roar. Its grip loosened, but that was the only thing I could see before I forcefully fell face-first into the dark water.