Chapter one- Thalia

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Thalia stumbled out onto the road and stopped, hunched over, trying to catch her breath. She glanced over her shoulder, there was movement in the corner of her eye. They were coming. She heard a muffled thump, like a tree branch hitting hard packed dirt. No, she was wrong, they were here.

Thalia scanned her surroundings. She wasn't the type to run from a battle, but she wasn't stupid. What ever the creatures chasing her were (she hadn't stuck around to find out) there was a lot of them. It was obvious that staying where she was meant certain death. Where to go?

Cars sped along the road blowing her black hair into her eyes, she brushed it away impatiently. To her right, on the opposite side of the traffic, was the Caldecott tunnel, on her side a steep hill, too steep to attempt to climb, no chance of getting away there, to her left, on the other side was meadows, there was no cover, nothing to duck behind, on her side, a long stretch of trees, that would be her preferred escape route but the monsters were there. That left the Caldecott tunnel .

Thalia ran along the road tripping a few times before getting into the rhythm and lengthening her stride. The noises were getting louder. She cursed in.. well she didn't know what language it was but it felt right that she could speak fluently in it. She was only halfway to the tunnel and whatever respite it could offer her. Three quarters of the way. There was a lull in the traffic and she sprinted diagonally across the road. A car swerved to avoid her and almost hit a truck and she took the last few steps as a leap to avoid a motorcycle. Behind her the monsters swarmed out of the woods.

She risked a glance at them, racking what was left off her memories to try and find out what they were. The only explanation that she had was that she was hallucinating but the various injuries all over her body and the pain she felt when ever she moved from previous fights were proof she wasn't, if those other monsters were real, why not these? They were each like storms, that was the only way to put it. Their bodies swirled like steam, and their eyes flickered with electricity. They were too fast. They were going to catch her. But Thalia didn't give up easily.

She put her head down and ran. Concentrating on not falling over. There wasn't a chance of her surviving, she could stop and shoot them, she had her bow and her quiver of arrows but there was to many of them and she had already used all but nine of her arrows on various monsters over the last couple of months. After that she only had her two daggers one of which had no handle after an encounter with a fiery creature which spat lava. 

She was nearing the tunnel but the monsters were already directly behind her. She skidded to a stop and turned, pulling her bow out of its sheath and launching an arrow at the nearest one. It vanished, exploding into hot air which pushed her back a few steps. She had barely regained her balance when another one lunged at her

She moved backwards as fast as she could cutting down storm creatures as she went. Arrow after arrow sliced through them before falling to the ground, broken was it her imagination? Or was there just as many as there was at the start of the fight? She reached behind her for another arrow and grasped only air. Thalia swore in the language  she didn't recognize, before dropping her bow on the ground and drawing her twin daggers, one of the creatures swooped down on her and she buried her knife up to the hilt in it. The resulting  blast of air tugged it out of her hand and it skidded across the road.

Thalia slashed through three, one after the other, but there was at least another few  dozen surrounding her. And then... "No!" She yelled, her voice cracking with fury "This CAN'T be possible!" The monsters she had killed were reforming even as she watched. She couldn't kill them. But they could kill her.


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Hi! This is my first attempt at a fanfic and I'm not used to writing so please tell me what you think and what I can do to improve.  If I get a single review saying that I should continue them I'll write more. 

Thanks for reading :)

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