Sign of the Times

QOTD: Can hunters be lesbians????????

We reached the Potomac when we noticed a military helicopter following us. Zoe sped up, how that was even possible I don't know, and wove throughout neighborhoods and parking lots trying to lose it with no success. 

"They know the van," Percy said. "We have to ditch it."

"And walk the rest of the way west?" I question.

"No, we won't need to. Pull into that parking lot," Bianca said. Zoe pulled off and into the lot. We all jump out of the car with our bags and follow Bianca down some steps. "Subway entrance. Let's go south, Alexandria."

"Anything," Thalia agrees.

We buy tickets and double check to make sure we weren't followed down here. With no signs of our friends raised from the dead, we filed into the subway and sat down.

"Good idea," I told Bianca. 

"Yeah, I remember seeing it last summer when Nico and I came through here. He pointed it out and I remember being pretty surprised to see it because it wasn't here when we originally lived here."

"Wasn't originally here?" Thalia asked and Bianca nodded. "This subway station looks pretty old though . . . "

"Yeah, but it wasn't here when I first lived here."

"Wait, not here at all?" Zoe clarifies.

"Bianca, how long ago was that?" I asked, but Bianca didn't get the chance to answer because the sound of the helicopter grew louder and louder making us all more on edge.

We switched trains to throw off the helicopter, but the helicopter found us again, so we switched trains a second time. After a while of just riding the subway, the sounds of the helicopter faded away, allowing us all to breathe again.

Unfortunately, we had reached the end of the tracks and ended up in some musty industrialized section of DC. We got out and the ground was covered in snow and the air was much colder. I was thankful Ms. Jackson had given me this sweatshirt because I think I would've frozen otherwise.

We walked through the railway of what seemed to be an abandoned station for a while. Losing more and more hope as each minute passed that there wasn't miraculously a train going west. 

Right when moral was just about as low as the underworld, a homeless man appeared with a fire going. "You kids need to warm up? Come on over!" 

We gratefully walked over and thanked the man. Grover only slipped up once by saying his hooves. We discussed what we could do next, but came up dry with anything that could actually get us west.

That is when the homeless dude spoke up. "You know, you're never completely without friends," he said, staring right at me. "You kids need a train going west?" We nodded eagerly. "What about that one?"

Remember when I said we wanted a miracle train going west? Well I guess the gods were in out favor because we got just that. 

"That was convenient," Thalia announced, saying what we were all thinking. We turned back to thank the man, but him and his fire were gone like they were never there. 

We all decided to just take this one and not question something for once. Within the half hour, we were on the train, barreling west.

The train was transporting cars, luxury ones that is. We all got to pick our own car. Thalia hotwired some Mazzaratie and was listening to some music. Zoe and Bianca were sitting in a little Lexus together. Grover chose the most expensive looking car he could find: a Lamborghini. I chose a big, comfy looking Porsche. 

I only had about a minute of quiet before Percy opened the door and asked, "join you?" 

I was hesitant to say no because I know what we would be talking about, but I nodded against my better judgement.