The Gathering

Chapter Twenty Six

Chris POV

Come morning, we were all up as soon as the sun had risen and we're all nervous and antsy for what was to come.

"You realize the only way we're going to get anything from this is if we enter the arena and break out with other demigods, right" Adrian asked.

"Well it's a good thing you have two experienced thieves with you then" Westley said, with a laugh. That seemed to settle it, and we were all okay with being prisoner, if only for a couple days.

Confidently, we rode into the Nevada desert on our horses. Adrian and I, of course, left our horses in a secluded cave as we likely wouldn't be getting these horses back. Long before we saw anything, we heard the arena. There was the grinding of machinery, the primal cries of anguish from the victims and shouts of joy from the victors. We could hear the braying of angered horses as they were likely led to the arena against some terrifying foe. Most of all though, we heard the overwhelming roar of the crowd as they cheered on their favorites and booed when they didn't. You could always count on demigods to love their violence. Hell, even regular mortals loved it.

Once we got close enough, we dismounted and walked our horses the rest of the way. Not surprisingly, just as a large building, assumingly the arena, came into view, we fell into a hole covered up by wooden planks and covered again in sand. Johnson and I were in one hole while Westley and Adrian were in the adjoining hole, and we could hear their horses circumferencing the hole, trying to find a way out, the same as ours.

"Everything good over there?" I yelled over.

"We're peachy" Adrian replied.

Within the next minute, we began to hear a shrill beep and the wall behind Johnson and I opened up, revealing a glass crawling tunnel. With a shrug, Johnson headed in, and I soon followed after seeing he was safe.

We followed the tunnel about a half mile down until we came to an open cage. With nowhere else to go, we stepped in and the door closed quickly behind us shutting us off. Almost at the same time, Westley and Adrian were finding their places in their cage, just next to us.

As I scanned where we had now found ourselves, I was surprised how well kept these cells were. There was about two dozen cells in this large room, each with two inhabitants, and was equipped with two beds, a sink, and a toilet. The whitewashed walls were nauseating and left me with a sick feeling in my stomach, that they took the time to scrub this place spotless with every use.

As both pairs of us settled in our cells, forty-eight pairs of eyes immediately came to rest on us, inspecting the fresh meat. From the cell to the left of us, one of them began rhythmically tapping on the glass that separated us. "I think he's trying to use morse code" I observed, as the boy repeated the rhythm once again.

The boy nodded in confirmation, and resumed his tapping. My morse code was rusty, but luckily Johnson took off where I left off. "He's asking us what our parentage is" Johnson interpreted.

I didn't know exactly how to translate Athena and Ares, so I improvised. I pointed to myself, and then flexed my muscles, and then pointed to Johnson and took off my shoe, making it so that I was trying to show flight, for Hermes' pair of flying shoes that he was known to wear. The boy nodded in understanding, and then pointed to himself and his roommate, whom I now noticed looked exactly like the one we had been communicating with. They both had the same auburn hair and hazel eyes enhanced by the ivory pallor of their skin, and both just had that look about them like they were at such ease with each other after spending so much time together. The only difference was that the one we had not been talking to had a very brooding sense to him, whereas the other was still full of life, somehow untouched by the terrible world around us.

After pointing to the both of them, he pointed to a skylight and crossed his arms, while waving his fingers. "Oh, he's saying their children of Hecate!" Johnson exclaimed, after slight confusion on both our parts. Of course, she was known for her crossed torches that she fought in battle with.

Suddenly, the metallic doors buzzed in both mine and Adrian's cell and opened. The Hecate kid we had talked to suddenly looked scared for us, but didn't move to say anything, so we parted, and headed out our now open door.

Two men in grey combat gear came and led us out the main door, armed with spears on their backs, sword at the hip, and whip in one hand. Quite the combination. They led us through a maze of whitewashed hallways and I soon found myself dizzyingly sick. This place didn't suit me in the slightest, and the sooner we got out of here, the better.

Finally we were escorted into a room with actual color. Although it wasn't the most relaxing color. We had found ourself in their leaders office, assumingly, and he sure did seem to have a liking for blood. Not only had he set up the arena that we were infiltrating, but his entire office was painted in the Crimson red shade that blood takes. Every square inch was painted that, and it looked like real, honest blood. I was starting to reconsider how smart we were to come here in the first place.

"Hello newbies, and welcome to our home. I do hope you'll enjoy your stay here however short. Pray tell, what are your names?" He asked, as he swung around from his chair behind his laminate cedar wood desk.

"I'm Chris, and this is Adrian, Westley, and Johnson. We're all children of Ares. When we heard of what you were doing here, our blood churned with excitement and we came as soon as possible to show our worth to you and your people" I said, stepping forward. I didn't want him to know Johnson and Westley were Hermes' kids, since he had taken most of them already and it might seperate us.

"Oh that is wonderfully exciting. I think you've earned yourselves the starting match for tomorrow. I'm Wick, but you already must know that" He said joyfully. "Just for fun, I'll let you choose four others to bring with you"

Well we'd have to plan our escape quick, if we were to make it out during our debut first thing in the morning.

"Please, Alex, Braxton, lead our wonderful volunteers back to their cells. And may I say, I wish you the best of luck tomorrow" Wick ordered. When I looked to our two guards, I was surprised to see a look of resentment pass from the redheaded girl guard pass to the brunet boy guard.

As we were led back, I decided to act upon my suspicion that most guards here resented Wick in his leadership position. As we approached the final door to get back into the room with our cells, I stopped. "I have a proposition" I said simply, although it served its purpose in getting their attention.

"What would that be?" The brunet, Braxton asked, condescension clear in his gruff voice. Adrian looked at me questioningly, but I didn't have time to explain myself.

"My friends and I plan to break out of here with as many people as possible. If you can gather all the prisoners outside the main gate during our fight, we will start the escape and you can follow us with all the prisoners and put Wick out of business. I saw the look you two exchanged, so I know you don't like Wick" I said.

"We'll talk about it. Now you four should worry about not getting killed first" Alex said, opening the door to our room and then guided us to our cells without a word.