The Eclipse, Percy Jackson

Chapter 9

I'd love to tell you I had some deep revelation on my way down, that I came to terms with my own mortality, laughed in the face of death, et cetera.

The truth? My only thought was: Aaaaggghhhhh!

The river raced towards me at the speed of a truck. Wind ripped the breath from my lungs. Steeples and skyscrapers and bridges tumbled in and out of my vision.

I had become untangled from Perseus during the fall leaving me no chance of survival.

Then I felt as though I was slowing down. I didn't think it was possible but I guess anything is with the gods.

And then like a feather I floated down.

The sunlight was beaming. More so than usual. I supposed that that was Apollo helping me not die. But I still had the poison in my heart.

Although the more I thought about it, the less my body seemed to be in pain.

Apollo I thought. He was somehow passing his power of healing through the sun. Therefore getting rid of the poison and restoring my energy.

That was when I noticed Perseus wasn't with me.

I wasn't worried though.

“Andy, what the heck happened and where's Percy?” Annabeth asked with wide eyes.

“Fell out of the arch. Perseus is missing though I imagine he's in the river with his father or something like that.

“And you're not worried! I know you care about him a little. You don't have to be so heartless.”

“I'm not being heartless, he's in his safest element.”

I just sat down while Annabeth forced Grover to go look for Perseus with her.

After a little while, he finally came up from the river.

“Huh, took you long enough. I'm glad you survived though.”

“That's the closest thing I'm going to get to a compliment from you isn't it?”

“Yep.”

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.

A news lady was talking for the camera: ‘Probably not a terrorist attack, we're told, but it's still very early in the investigation. 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.’

Survivors. I felt a surge of relief. Maybe the park ranger and that family made it out safely. I hoped Annabeth and Grover were going to come back here soon so we could leave.

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 going wild 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…”

We backed away, trying to keep my head down. We had to go a long way around the police perimeter. Uniformed officers and news reporters were everywhere.

Grover bleated. “Perrr-cy!”

Finally, they were back.

He turned and got tackled by Grover's bear hug - or goat hug. Grover said, “We thought you'd gone to Hades the hard way!”

Annabeth stood behind him, trying to look angry, but she was relieved to see Perseus. “We can't leave you alone for five minutes! What happened?”

“We sort of fell.” He said sheepishly.

“Percy! Two hundred metres?"

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 and girl jumped out of the hole and the monster disappeared.” Then she saw us. “There they are! That's the boy and girl!”

We turned quickly and Perseus pulled Annabeth and Grover after us. We disappeared into the crowd.

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

Perseus told them the whole story of the Chimera, Echidna, his high-dive act, the underwater lady's message.

Then I was going to say what I experienced but nobody cared. Not after Percy's story. Grover had interrupted before I could speak.

Annabeth noticed but didn't say anything and pretended not to. I guess I should get used to being ignored on these quests.

“Whoa,” said Grover. "We've got to get you to Santa Monical 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 the authorities for a serious New Jersey bus accident three days ago. And the boy is believed to be travelling west. For our viewers at home, here is a photo of Percy Jackson.”

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

“First things first,” he told Grover. “We've gotta get out of town!”

Somehow, we made it back to the Amtrak station without getting spotted. We got on board 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.