Riptide by Annabeth Chase

Chapter Five: Camp Half-Blood

We spent the next few days running and fighting more monsters than I had ever seen before. If I had the energy for it I would have been very angry that my life had once again turned into a waking nightmare instead of feeling safe with my new friends. But anger took too much energy, so I had to settle for being vaguely annoyed. We had made it all the way to New York City, but Grover didn't seem to know for sure how to get to this camp he had promised us. We had been wandering the city all day. As the sun was setting Luke was carrying me on his back and I could tell that even he was starting to slow down.

"Maybe we should take a quick break," Thalia suggested. She knew as well as the rest of us that we didn't really have time, but Grover seemed hopelessly lost and we desperately needed a quick rest.

"Good idea," Luke said, "if we find a place to lie low for a bit, maybe Grover can figure out how to get us to this camp." He said Grover's name like he was angry at the goat boy, but we had trusted Grover this far and whenever monsters got too close, he tried to fight them off just as fiercely as the rest of us.

After a few more blocks we found a small building that looked very abandoned and went inside to rest for a bit. Luke, Grover and I set up a small camp, and Thalia went to look around to ensure we were alone. I fell asleep almost instantly and had an odd dream that ended up being hugely helpful.

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I was in a strange city I had never been to before. Nothing looked like it had been made by humans. The shapes were all wrong and too many of the buildings seemed to be upside down. I got up to look around and realized that Luke and Thalia were holding my hands expecting me to lead them. Some how they had gone from being teenagers to toddlers. I didn't know if I could lead them to safety but I wasn't going to let them down now. They had always been there for me and now it was possible for me to return the favor.

I had to find a way to keep them safe. But how? I had absolutely no idea where I was and the more I tried to look around and take stock of the area the more confused I became. All sorts of creatures were moving up and down the streets of this weird city. Some were walking on the ground and walls, but most were flying, swinging from the ceiling or just disappearing only to reappear five feet to the left. My brain couldn't take in everything happening much less figure out how to find a safe space for me and my friends.

Without warning the door to the roof we were standing on swung off it's hinges, flew over my head and revealed a creature that looked somewhat like a human but he had two faces. It only had one head but two faces, one facing each side. He was maybe twice my height, and he was dressed in some sort of uniform that looked far too stiff. He had three small backpacks and tried to rush over to where I was standing. The way he walked was odd and made rushing seem almost impossible. His legs seemed to move normally but he couldn't see in front of him due to how his faces were shaped. So instead of running towards us he kind of moved in a zigzag pattern.

"Quickly, you must take these and run," the creature said with both mouths speaking in unison as he shoved the largest pack into my hands and gave the other packs to Thalia and Luke. "It is not time for you to make your choices."

"But maybe," the left face said. "We could force them to choose now."

"No, you imbecile, it will be better if they survive," the right face said. "We can make them choose later and it will be even more difficult."

"Yes, that is a good plan," both faces said but they spoke in harmony instead of as one.

"Get out of the city as quickly as you can, danger lurks around every corner," the faces once again seemed to speak as one person.

"We'll get in trouble for helping," the right face said. "She is not supposed to know yet."

"But it will be fun," the left said, "we can make things more complicated."