In the Middle

Chapter Eight

     At precisely nightfall, the guards returned to the prison where I was kept and escorted me back to Luna's office. When Luna was done with me I was dressed in a plain, black gown that hung below my feet with my hair in a simple braided bun. Luna had made the bold decision to make me wear black heels which were a pain. Luna leaned forward, placing her hands on the white desk, inspecting my every move.

     "Can I help you?" Luna just narrowed her eyes and leaned back so she was standing up straight.

     "Turn." She made a circular motion with her index finger. I did what Luna said and slowly turned in a full circle. "Good. Now, here's how this is going to go done." A map of the building appeared on the empty wall where I had viewed her evil surveillance footage. The door was highlighted. These people sure had this down to a science. "Enter here, obviously. Find the boy," Luna never called Percy by his name and it severely irritated me. He was still a person, maybe not one that she could care less about, but a person nonetheless. And a person I cared about, at that. "Find a way to get him out and we'll take care of the rest." It sounded simple enough, but how was I going to be able to save camp and my friends imprisoned here and also save Percy without inflicting death upon anyone. I would have to figure out later because soldiers were already taking me to the entrance of the camp. We had to travel by elevator to even get above ground, the camp was so far below the surface. A dark car waited for me at the base of the snow-capped mountain. I trudged through the snow in the heels and sleeveless dress with no coat. I was going to make Luna pay when this night was over. When I reached the car, a pale man with no expression and tinted glasses hiding his eyes awaited me at the door. He opened it and I hitched the skirt of the dress just above my ankles and climbed in as gracefully as possible. As gracefully as possible for me meant with as much grace as a whale on land. I was seated in the back, a panel of glass cutting me off from my driver, which I wasn't too worried about. The man gave me a bad feeling. The driver eventually made his way around the back of the car to the driver's seat and got in and started the car. I paid close attention to the landmarks we were passing so in the case of a needed escape, I wouldn't be utterly clueless. I was thankful Luna hadn't thought to put a microphone on me because I would definitely need to exchange a few words with Percy. It seemed like forever had passed when we pulled into the extravagant driveway. As I exited the car I couldn't help but think why Percy would be in San Francisco. Maybe he was trying to make planes with Annabeth later but it seemed strange that Mrs. Jackson and Mr. Blofis would have any business in San Francisco. I came to the conclusion that it had been purposefully set up by the rebels or that it was merely a coincidence. The massive double doors swung open when I appeared in the doorway. I stepped into the astounding building that could've easily served as a mansion. I wandered aimlessly, half searching for Percy, half killing time. Unfortunately, I finally found Percy. Making up my mind about what I would do, keeping the thought that Luna had cameras everywhere in here in mind, I grabbed Percy's arm and led him up the spiral staircase, down the hallway, and behind a closed door. I shoved him into the room and locked the door behind us. Scanning the room, I spotted several security cameras, so I shut my eyes and willed my bow into my hand. Sure enough, when I opened my eyes, the smooth wooden bow was in my hand, a quiver of arrows slung across my chest, arrows in the back for easy access. I loaded the bow with two arrows, one for each camera on this side of the room and fired them, taking out the cameras. I turned around and did the same to the other side of the room. Percy had Riptide drawn when I turned back to him. A shocked look crossed over his face and he capped Riptide.

      "It's you." I raised one eyebrow.

     "In the flesh." I put my bow around one shoulder, in the same position of the quiver, with the string facing forward.

     "I didn't know you were so good with a bow." Percy remarked.

     "Yeah. So, here's the deal. Annabeth and Mavis are being held captive in the rebel camp and I'm supposed to be retrieving you for them so they don't kill Mavis and Annabeth and they don't murder everyone in camp." Percy had a look of fear in his eyes.

     "Annabeth...." He said it under his breath, but loud enough for me to hear the concern in his voice. "We're going to rescue them, right?" I nodded briskly.

     "Of course. Follow me." I unlocked the door and burst out of the room, proceeding to run down the hallway. Behind me, Percy shouted, "How can you run in those things?" I'm pretty sure he met my shoes, so I called back, "I've had a lot of experience with running. Sure you have too. It gets easier each time you do it."

     "I would beg to differ." Percy ran beside me now, as I had to walk down the steep, spiraling stairs. Together, we shoved through the crowds, me in a ball gown with a bow slung over my shoulder, Percy in a suit holding a sword. Just your average demigod sight. We burst through the front doors, bounding down the road. In my mind I kept track of all the landmarks we passed. When I saw the upcoming mountain, I knew we were in the right spot. I uncovered the elevator and pressed the button.

     "You ready?" Percy nodded.

     "'Course." When the elevator gave a polite ding and its metal doors opened it was another race for the cave that held Mavis and Annabeth. Taking out my bow, I turned around to face the crowd of rebels chasing after us. I slid my left arm through the crook of Percy's, to keep me going where I needed without looking. I handed off my bow from my right hand to my left and grabbed an arrow, all while running backwards.

     "I hope you know where you're going!" Percy just kept running and I took that as an agreement. "Make sure I don't run into anything. That'd be a bit counter productive." A slight nod was all the response I got so I returned to shooting the rebels in their shins, knees, or feet. Nothing that would kill them but enough to slow them down. I started to panic as I was on one of my last arrows. I shot it into the knee of a solider through the chink in his armor. I slung my bow over my shoulder once more and turned back around, unlinking my arm from Percy's. I spotted the trail of water trickling from the wall, then finding the cave where I was held. "Try the next cave, I'll look through this one." I ran to a cave farther away from mine to look for Annabeth and Mavis, but it was Percy who found them. They were both beat up and bloody, but they were both warriors, I knew they could make it. Percy allowed Annabeth to lean on him as they ran for the elevator and I did the same with Mavis. "I'm so sorry. This is all my fault." Mavis just gave me her best smile through her swollen lip and cheek. The sight almost brought me to tears. I had caused all this pain upon two of my closest friends. Still, they cared about me. It was a miracle they did. I mentally shook my head and made myself clear my thoughts. My only goal was to make it to the elevator. When we did make it into the elevator, my adrenaline wore off and I realized that I was trapped underground in a box that could halt at any moment and we would have no way to escape. My claustrophobia kicked in and I started panicking. I sunk to the ground, the dress billowing out around me. My breaths got shorter and faster and I let out choked sounds. I was trying so hard not to scream, but the sound escaped me. I wish I could claw my way out of this wretched metal box. I trembled with fear and didn't notice when Percy knelt next to me.

     "You okay?" I bit my bottom lip to keep it from quivering and I nodded.

     "I know, I'm sorry, I've gotta get it together." It was selfish of me, to let my fear get the best of me. This isn't about you, you've got to get Annabeth, Mavis, and Percy out of here, I reminded myself. You got them into this, you will get them out, I told this to myself several times. When I was able to push aside my fears, take myself out of he equation, I stood, ready to run.