Percy Jackson Back in Time

Chapter 13

Chapter 13

I am sorry for the short chapter. It should be longer next time and I'll try to post the next chapter during the weekend.

I laughed on the way down. The feeling of being free and having the wind blowing in your face was such a liberating experience, even if I was in Uncle Z's domain, it didn't affect my feelings on the matter.

I looked sound and noticed that the Mississippi river was racing toward me at high speeds. The wind rippled all around me circling around my body slowing my fall into the river. Steeples and skyscrapers and bridges tumbled in and out of my vision.

I called for the water to rise out of the river and slow my descent before I became a Percy-pancake.

The water shot towards me quickly and gently sat me down into the dirty water. I slowly sank through the murk, bubbles trickling through my fingers. I stopped sinking when I reached the bottom of the river. A catfish the size of my stepfather lurched away into the gloom. Clouds of silt and disgusting garbage swirled all around me.

I stood up, thigh-deep in mud. I heard a woman's voice that sounded a bit like my mother. She said, “Percy, what do you say?”

”Thank you miss." Underwater, I sounded like I did on recordings, like a much older kid. "And Thank you Father."

There was no response. Just the dark drift of garbage downriver, the enormous catfish gliding by, the flash of sunset on the water's surface far above, turning everything the color of butterscotch. I faintly heard the sound of a river boat's paddlewheel churning above me, swirling the silt around. 

I heard that woman's voice again, “Percy, your father believes in you.” Her words seemed to come from everywhere, rippling through the water like dolphin sonar.

 "Where are you?" I called aloud looking around.

Then, through the gloom, I saw her—a woman the color of the water, a ghost in the current, floating just above the sword. She had long billowing hair, and her eyes, barely visible, were green like mine.

“Go to Santa Monica beach. Your father wills it so. Before you descend into the Underworld, you must go to Santa Monica. Please, Percy, I cannot stay long. The river is too foul for my presence. I mustn't stay here any longer, brave one. You must go to Santa Monica. And, Percy, don’t trust the gifts...” She said, fading.

I looked down in thought. ‘Which gifts was she warning me about? Was she warning me about the shoes I got from Luke, the backpack with the masterbolt from Ares or both, but if she knew that I shouldn't trust the them why didn't she tell anyone what the gifts were. And if she knew what they were, Poseidon probably did too which means that the other gods did as well. She must have known Luke was working for Kronos if she knew about the shoes. But if she wasn't saying anything about the shoes then she knew that Ares had the bolt. Why didn't she say anything and why am I being blamed if they already knew about the gifts?’ I think confused.

I shook my head from all of my thoughts swirling around and kicked up through the muck and swam to the surface.

I came ashore next to a floating McDonald's.

A block away, every emergency vehicle in St. Louis was surrounding the Arch. Police helicopters circled overhead. The crowd of onlookers reminded me of Times Square on New Year's Eve.

A little girl said, "Mama! That boy walked out of the river."

"That's nice, dear," her mother said, craning her neck to watch the ambulances.

 "But he's dry!"

 "That's nice, dear."

A news lady was talking for the camera said, "-probably not a terrorist attack, but it's to soon in the investigation to tell. The damage, as you can see, is very serious. We're trying to get to some of the survivors, to question them about eyewitness reports of someone falling from the Arch."

I tried to push through the crowd to see what was going on inside the police line.

"... an adolescent boy," another reporter was saying. "Channel Five has learned that surveillance cameras show an adolescent boy getting attacked on the observation deck, somehow setting off this freak explosion. Hard to believe, John, but that's what we're hearing. Again, no confirmed fatalities ..."

I backed away, trying to keep my head down. I had to go a long way around the police perimeter.

Uniformed officers and news reporters were everywhere.

I'd almost lost hope of ever finding Annabeth and Grover when a familiar voice bleated,

"Perrrrrcy!"

I turned and got tackled by Grover's goat hug. He said, "We thought you'd gone to Hades

the hard way!"

“Actually it would have been the easy way since we wouldn't have to go through Hades.”

Annabeth looks at me oddly. “I-er I guess.”

She shook her head at me and tried to look angry, but even she was relieved to see me. "We can't leave you alone for five minutes! What happened?"

"I sort of fell."

 "Percy! Six hundred and thirty feet?"

Behind us, a cop shouted, "Gangway!" The crowd parted, and a couple of paramedics hustled out, rolling a woman on a stretcher. I recognized her immediately as the mother of the little boy who'd been on the observation deck.

She was saying, "And then this huge dog, this huge fire-breathing Chihuahua-"

"Okay, ma'am," the paramedic said. "Just calm down. Your family is fine. The medication is starting to kick in."

"I'm not crazy! This boy jumped out of the hole and the monster disappeared." Then she saw me. "There he is! That's the boy!"

I turned away quickly and pulled Annabeth and Grover after me. We disappeared into the crowd.

"What's going on?" Annabeth demanded. "Was she talking about a Chihuahua on the elevator?"

I told them the whole story of the Chimera, Echidna, my high-dive act, and the underwater lady's

Message, but left out the bit about killing the Chimera.

"Whoa," said Grover. "We've got to get you to Santa Monica! You can't ignore a summons from your dad."

Before Annabeth could respond, we passed another reporter doing a news break, and I almost froze in my tracks when he said, "Percy Jackson. That's right, Dan. Channel Twelve has learned that the boy who may have caused this explosion fits the description of a young man wanted by authorities to be questioned on his mother's disappearance. And the boy is believed to be traveling west with two companions. For our viewers at home, here is a photo of Percy Jackson."

We ducked around the news van and slipped into an alley undetected.

"First things first," I told Grover. "We've got to get out of town!"

We successfully made it back to the Amtrak station with-out getting spotted and boarded the train just before it pulled out for Denver. The train trundled west as darkness fell, police lights still pulsing against the St. Louis skyline behind us.