Rising Storm (Percy Jackson Fanfiction)

Chapter 35

Chapter 35: Leo

Alex didn’t say what else Artemis had told her. All I knew was that she wasn’t a hunter and she had a cool blessed knife. We ate with them, then were on our way again. Everything for the day or so was uneventful, until we landed in Miami. That is when everything went bad. It started with the undead rising and trying to kill me.

“Grover, Leo,” she warned. We had landed today to get some extra supplies for the trip into the sea of monsters. It was near sundown, and we were just walking past a graveyard when I could hear the voices again, only I knew Alex and Grover could hear it this time too.

“Olympus is calling, Olympus is calling, Olympus is calling,” I cursed, peering into the graveyard. The tombstones were shaking, and the autumn leaves trembled in fear. The grave closest to us shook violently, and then stopped suddenly. A single boney hand outstretched from the earth, feeling around the ground, brushing the leaves around like one might do if they were looking for their glasses. “Is this some sick Halloween prank?” I demand. We still had a few more days until Halloween, and this was not helping with the creepiness.

A body, similar to a skeleton, with ghostly shin and faces and sunken eye sockets rose from their graves, all armed with battle axes, regular axes, knifes, swords, chainsaws, and an assortment of other things that could kill us in a heartbeat. I had to peel my eyes away from the undead army, and turned to Grover and Alex.

“Run?”

“Run.” Grover yelled back. We armed ourselves, and bravely ran away. Unfortunately, dead people are pretty fast. They chased us through the deserted streets, and through a park. Alex led us into the woods, hoping for some shelter to hide from them until we could figure out how to defeat them. But our problem was, how do you kill the dead?

Hiding in the shadows, we were abled enough time for a quick chat.

“Grover, how do you kill dead people?” Alex demanded in a hoarse whisper.

“I don’t know! I’ve never fought dead things before! Well, you know, it’s complicated with the whole tartarus…” his voice trailed off and Alex grunted.

“How is this even possible? Is it some strange Halloween magic that I don’t know about?”

“No,” I confirm. “There’s only one person I know who has the power to do this, and if my assumptions are correct…” I didn’t want to think about it. Having him as an enemy was dangerous, and even though the kid creeped me out, I really didn’t think he would ever join Circe’s side, right? The thought was not pretty. Grover seemed to be thinking about the same thing.

“No… no! it couldn’t be him, that’s impossible. It has to be something else.”

“Who?” Alex snapped. I looked up at her, and her face fell, understanding what was going on. “Nico.” She whispered.