Solo Player (A Percy Jackson AU)

Chapter Six

Sorry it's a bit short XD

Percy was cursing himself even before he was running towards the noise

He sprinted away from the bike. His heart thudded in his throat. Where had it come from?

For some reason, Percy could only picture -Chasing- lying face up on the ground somewhere, blood splattering the ground and her hypnotizing grey eyes staring at nothing. His hands shook, finding his sword hilt. She couldn't.....She couldn't be dead.

She was his only friend.

His shoes slapped the asphalt echoing around him, in a haze of sound. Whatever was lingering about in this section, let them come.

Percy would slaughter them all to save -Chasing-.

Was that normal? Percy didn't spend the time to figure it out.

He moved at a speed he hadn't thought he could do in his avatar, much less his real body. He focused on the thought of that mysterious blonde girl. The one he suddenly seemed to care so much about. Just thinking her user handle made his heartbeat faster, his blood roar. He swore she even made his step longer.

Anything to find her sooner.

He leapt over a discarded trash can and bounded around the street corner. There was a figure lying on the ground. Percy's stomach was in his throat. The body was fully visible in the moonlight. He could see the shredded fabric of the clothes and the dark liquid of the blood under the body. Percy couldn't move for a second.

Who was it? Who else had been in the city?

No floating text remained by them. If Percy was going to find out he was going to have to walk up to the body and and look down at the once living person. Cold sweat broke on his neck as he scanned the area.

What had killed them? Had it been Kronos?

Percy took the first step forwards, his feet feeling like he was marching through tar to his grave. The wind blew frantically, a warning that he wasn't heeding. Somewhere nearby the buzz of a camera hummed.

This street was nearly identical to the one he'd just been down. Broken, abandoned houses that glittered in the moonlight. No street lights were lit. The air seemed frigid around here, making it hard to believe that once this had just been a game. Everywhere he looked, Percy felt like he could see someone standing in the shadows, training a bow and arrow, a gun, a laser attack right at his body. The grass was peaked and yellowed, Vines conquering dominance over the buildings. Old cars lined the parts of the driveway, still waiting for an owner who wasn't coming back for them.

Percy stopped again, his nervous on high alert. The body....

It was a girl. A girl with dark hair. Her head was tilted away from him so he could only see part of her face. Her eyes were closed, her mouth open in her last scream. Blood was puddled around her, reflecting the moonlight, in a humourless glow.

But something was wrong

It wasn't one of the players.

Percy yelled out as the dead body leapt to life. In a swift motion it's boney fingers wrapped around his ankle digging the decayed nails into his skin. Percy's brain short circuited on panic. He scrambled back, yelling bloody murder. The girl hung on tight, half her face was already eaten away, exposing the bone of her skull. Her eyes were bright yellow, and unnatural. She lunged for him, and Percy landed a solid kick to her face throw her back into a junkie car.

She hit with a heavy sound leaving a dent in the side door.

Her hand remained clasped to Percy's leg. The feeling was like ice, freezing his entire being. The girl got up her bones, chafing each other in a shhft shhfttt sound. Her jaw was slack, broken, and swinging grotesquely by one side with her sloppy uncoordinated movements. The grey skin across her body had ripped upon her landing all the skin off her side were peeled and hanging off her body as if they were just another layer of fabric to her ruffled shirt.

Percy scrapped the hand off his leg. His own blood was dripping down his leg. The sight of the scarlet color scared him to his core. His hands were shaking so bad he could barely hold his sword. Nausea clawed its way up his throat but he couldn't take his eyes off the inhumane thing in front of him.

He wanted to scream. He wanted to scream so bad he engaged the automatic logout and pulled himself out of the game. The Titans had disengaged the auto logout. Otherwise Percy would have been logged out when he hit 5% health and his brain decided to shut off.

When had been the last time he'd fought with Zombies? Year ago. It had been the first game Grover told him to play, Sanction Island. Percy hated that game. It was too real. It was too horrifying. The coding had been done too well. Even before it had been hacked by that one guy, people had stopped playing because it was too realistic. It was a nightmare.

Sanction Island had been an amo game, with guns and pvp play. Percy could shoot a gun to save his life. The idea was horrifying to him. He could take someone's life even in a game before they even knew he was there. Guns didn't give warnings the only time you could dodge was if you saw the gunner before he shot.

If Percy was going to defeat someone, he'd rather it be by Riptide's blade. He'd rather it be by his hands, knowing that this person was just a series of complex coding that made an avatar. Besides he couldn't hit a target even if his life depended on it. A pit in his stomach reminded him that it was very possible that he could end up real life dead because of this.

"Pla....yers....." The Zombie girl moaned out. Percy felt his body chill at the sound of her clattering broken jawed, english. Her voice was whispers, her torn vocal chords making the sound seem like part of the wind. "Pla....yers...."

"Well," Percy swallowed hard, "You got the creepiness going for you." His voice was feeble, shaking, but he couldn't catch his breath long enough gather his fleeting courage.

"Rip....tide...." Her eyes sparked that eerie yellow.

The urge to run was swelling in his chest. But another scream broke the air. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up on end. Zombie Girl's head tilted to the side like she was listening to harmonic music.

"-Chasing-," Percy whispered.

The girl moved with a clumsy swiftness. No grace involved. Percy had no trouble slicing her body in half. His blade cut through her decaying shirt and her empty body like warm butter. Bile rose in Percy's mouth.

Her torso dropped to the ground, like a pile of wet sand. Blood dripped off the edge of his sword, the color almost as black as the sky. She must have been one of the earliest coded ones. Percy gagged, stumbling back.

"Rip...tide..." The zombie hissed. Her head snapped up to him, her jaw dragging across the road. Her fingers on her one hand clawed the ground dragging her half a body towards him. "Rip...tide."

Percy took another step back and emptied his stomach on the front lawn of some long gone family. The Zombie let out a chattering of noise, as she lost the rest of her jaw. Percy turned and ran as fast as he could.