The Battle of the Conflicted

IV - Percy

We bolted down the left corridor before coming to an abrupt stop in front of a giant boulder. The sounds of something coming up behind us was enough to put my mind to work. I turned to my friends.

"Tyson," I said, out of breath "Can you-"

"Yes!" he bellowed in response.

Tyson threw himself, full speed ahead, into the boulder. I felt the tunnel shake around me. Annabeth had to regain her balance. Grover actually fell over. The boulder didn't dislodge, but some pebbles and dust fell from the ceiling.

"Hurry!" bleated Grover "Don't bring the roof down, but hurry!"

With one more slam, the boulder broke free of it's stone bindings. Tyson haved it into the next room. I have to give the guy credit - no average person can launch themselves at a boulder and push it through an entrance within two minutes.

"Close the entrance!" Annabeth yelled, straining her eyes in the darkness to try to see whatever was following us.

All of us got on the opposite side of the boulder and pushed it back into place. There was a strange whimper-like sound from whatever we had trapped. I would've felt bad for the thing, had it not tried to kill us a few seconds ago.

"We trapped it." I said, maybe even a little proudly.

"Or trapped ourselves." Grover announced with one of his nervous bleats.

I turned around.

We were stuck in a standard sized prison cell. The stone was cold and hard. There were metal bars in front of us. Annabeth went to examine them. I thought about saying 'looks like my old school Yancy Academy.', but I figured it wasn't the time.

"What in Hades?" said Annabeth, pulling lightly on one of the bars.

I stood on my toes to look over her head. I saw rows of cells for what seemed like forever. Each one was pretty much identical. There were catwalks that seemed so frail, and yet so daunting.

"A prison," I stated "Maybe Tyson can break-"

"Shh," Grover hushed "Listen."

We fell silent. Somewhere off in the distance there was a crying sound. No, a sobbing sound. Whoever was making the noise, they must've been very upset. In between long, sad sobs there was what I think was talking. It sounded like rocks in a tumbler.

"What's that language?" I asked, mystified.

"Can't be..." Tyson's eye widened as he inched forward to the edge of the cell.

"What?"

I watched as Tyson lumbered forward and grabbed two of the metal bars. He bent them in opposite directions so that all of us could easily slip through to the other side. Tyson took off running down the hall of cells.

"Wait!" exclaimed Grover

But I knew Tyson well enough to know that he wasn't about to just wait. Especially if he was this passionate about something. He knew something we didn't and it was clearly important. I caught sight of Annabeth through the corner of my eye. Her blonde ponytail soared effortlessly through the air as she sprinted.

"I know this place," said Annabeth, slowing slightly so that I could hear. "This is Alcatraz."

"You mean that island near San Francisco?"

"Yes. My school took a field trip here. It's like a museum."

I thought for a moment. That means that we came out of the Labyrinth on the other side of the country. Under normal circumstances, I would've called Annabth a liar. Except these definitely weren't normal circumstances. We continued running, keeping Tyson within view.