When Worlds Collide

Chapter Twenty-Four

 In the cells, everyone was slowly going insane. Annabeth was pacing back and forth, gripping her hair. She was muttering, saying, "I don't know what to do! I don't know what to do!" Almost everyone who had been doing perimeter watch or otherwise had been found, except for the Hunters and Posy, but they had no clue what had happened to them. Leo, Frank, and Brom were unconscious. Gale was leaning against the wall, staring at the barred door. Astrid was the only one allowed to be in a cell with another, and she was tending to Hiccup.

"Where's Posy? What happened? Why isn't she here? I'm glad she isn't here, but also worried that she's not." Gale said to himself, putting his head in his hands. He kept muttering, Katniss came by the bars of her cell and looked at him. She was in a cell across from him.

"She's fine, if she's not here, then she must be with the Hunters." Katniss said, he looked up from his hands.

"How do you know? She could very well be with that Drago guy. If she's not here. I should have made her stay! What was I thinking?" He said, putting his head back. "She could be dead, Katniss. She could be dead. Some big brother I am." He said, almost inaudible.

"This can't be happening!" Annabeth yelled in her pacing, leaning against the wall, sobbing.

"Annabeth, it's okay. We'll figure a way out of here." Percy told her reassuringly in the cell next to her. She couldn't see him easily because of that, but he was obviously afraid himself.

"What now?" Katniss asked. Percy and Annabeth looked at her, thinking what to do. Annabeth just shook her head, not sure of what to do or even how to escape everything. Astrid and Valka were panicking. The dragons had been confiscated, and they had no idea where they were. Just then, Hiccup started moving more. They all tried to look into his cell, where he tried to look around through blurry vision.

"How...?" he croaked. He could still hardly speak.

"Trying to find you, and we came across another group of baddies." Gale said, coming to the outside bars. He began to mutter again, closing his eyes and pressing his head against the cold bars.

" 'Iccup?" Alvin called, alerted to the sound of Hiccup's voice. Hiccup looked to Astrid, who yelled down the corridor to tell him that Hiccup was truly awake.

"Who is that?" Gale asked, coming out of his muttering again.

"It's Alvin the Treacherous," Astrid explained. "He used to be an enemy, but five years ago we became allies."

"Is 'e okay?" Alvin said, concerned.

Astrid and Valka looked at each other across the hallway. "No?" Valka said tentatively. It was true, but probably not what Alvin wanted to hear. Someone in a different cell suddenly burst out in ear-piercing yells, which included curses and insults tossed whoever the speaker could think of, apparently. Hiccup chuckled, and then coughed again.

"Is that Dagur?" Astrid asked quietly. Hiccup nodded.

"Does anybody --" Hiccup began, and then stopped, swallowing hard. "Does anybody have -- anything we -- could use for a -- wea --" He folded forward with coughs, and as he sat back, he was grimacing in pain. He tried valiantly to hide it, but Astrid noticed a small tear sliding down his cheek. She also noticed blood sprinkled on his hand and his clothes that he must have coughed up.

"Weapons?" Gale asked. Hiccup gave a tiny nod, and Astrid relayed it to Gale.

"No, they were all taken by the peacekeepers before we got here." Gale said, balling up his fists.

"If we did, it would be..." Annabeth started, but then her eyes widened, and hope showed in her eyes "Percy, do you have any pockets?" She asked him. He smiled a bit, searching his pockets until he pulled out his pen.