The Forgotten Olympian |BOOK 1| PJO X HP | Alexandra Marine

Chapter 16 - Alex - A Choice To Make

At first I thought Beano had managed to sneak up on us again, but the old lady sitting in the bushes was even more repulsive. She looked like a hippie who'd been kicked to the side of the road maybe forty years ago, where she'd been collecting trash and rags ever since. Her frizzy mop of hair was gray-brown, like root-beer foam, tied back with a peace-sign headband. Warts and moles covered her face. When she smiled, she showed exactly three teeth. Lovely.

"It isn't a maintenance tunnel," she confided. "It's the entrance to camp."

CAMP. The magic words. Where Annabeth would be. Where we'd have lots of fun and we'd get to see Mom days later.

The gorgons were still on the roof of the apartment building. Then Stheno shrieked in delight and pointed in our direction. I rolled my eyes, and pulled the pendant, revealing my trident. I looked at Percy. Whether he decided or not, I was going into the camp.

The old hippie lady raised her eyebrows at Percy. "Not much time, child. You need to make your choice."

"Who are you?" Percy asked.

"Oh, you can call me June." The old lady's eyes sparkled as if she'd made an excellent joke. "It is June, isn't it? They named the month after me!"

"Okay.. Look, we should go. Two gorgons are coming. I don't want them to hurt you," Percy said.

June clasped her hands over her heart. "How sweet! But that's part of your choice!"

"My choice..." Percy glanced nervously toward the hill. The gorgons had taken off their green vests. Wings sprouted from their backs—small bat wings, which glinted like brass. They jumped and soared towards us.

"Yes, a choice," June said, as if she were in no hurry. "You could leave me here at the mercy of the gorgons and go to the ocean. You'd make it there safely, I guarantee. The gorgons will be quite happy to attack me and let you go. In the sea, no monster would bother you. You could begin a new life, live to a ripe old age, and escape a great deal of pain and misery that is in your future."

"Or?"

"Or you could do a good deed for an old lady," she said. "Carry me to the camp with you. Of course, I know you will go there, dear," she told me. "But it is your brother and him alone who can help me now. He will need you later."

"Carry you?" June hiked up her skirts and showed us her swollen purple feet.

"I can't get there by myself," she said. "Carry me to camp—across the highway, through the tunnel, across the river."

The gorgons were only fifty yards away now—leisurely gliding toward him as if they knew the hunt was almost over. I frowned and waved at Percy, telling him to hurry up.

Percy looked at the old lady. "And I'd carry you to this camp because—?"

"Because it's a kindness!" she said. "And if you don't, the gods will die, the world we know will perish, and everyone from your old life will be destroyed. Of course, you wouldn't remember them, so I suppose it won't matter. You'd be safe at the bottom of the sea..."

"No," I said quietly. The gorgons shrieked with laughter as they soared in for the kill. Percy looked at me. I shook my head.