UnStoppable [Book 2]

One Too Many

You're going to freaking kill me...

Chapter Quote:

"If you have a sister and she dies, do you stop saying you have one? Or are you always a sister, even when the other half of the equation is gone?"

~My Sister's Keeper

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Chapter 18: One Too Many

Derek

When he got back to Luke and Silena, Luke was conscious and rambling about something incoherently. He had a crazed look in his eyes. Silena looked up sadly at Derek. She must've never seen her brother like this before.

"Where's Bryn? I heard a lot of rumbling," she said, trying to get Luke to stand up.

"We got separated... again. There was a rock collapse and it sealed off the left tunnel. Bryn's trapped in there but she's finding her way out. We need to get going. Come on," Derek insisted, helping Luke up.

"Bryn's by herself?!" Luke screeched.

"If anyone can survive by themselves, it's her. She'll make her way out of there. She said she'd see you soon. It's you we're worried about Luke. You're not thinking clearly. Please let's just go," Derek told him firmly. The Jackson boy started mumbling frantically to himself. Derek tried to understand what was being said but it was to no avail. It took them around fifteen minutes to reach the area where the tunnels all met. The rocks sealing off the left tunnel were jagged and ominous. And to think he'd almost been impaled by one...

"Derek! Footsteps!" Silena hissed. He instinctively drew his bow and notched an arrow at the direction of the sound. With bated breath, they waited to see who it was. Four figures came into view: a blonde, a black haired person, a horned person, and a red head.

"Mom! Dad!" Silena exclaimed in surprise.

"Oh my gods!" Annabeth gasped, rushing to her kids. Percy wasn't far behind her. Grover and Rachel skidded to a stop. Percy took Luke into his arms and relieved Silena of her brother's weight. Annabeth swept her daughter into a hug. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Luke needs help. He's not in his right mind," she said.

"Bryn..." Luke croaked, staring at the blocked left tunnel.

"What happened?" Rachel asked, expressing evident worry.

"Cave in. Bryn pushed me away so I wouldn't get hit by a rock and then she dove to the side to make sure she didn't get hit. She ended up getting locked in the left tunnel. She's already trying to find a way out of there. We need to go down that one," Derek said, pointing down the right tunnel. "It's the way out of here. Don't ask how I know, I just do. I know this isn't my quest but with Bryn not here right now, I'm her adopted brother and I know how she thinks. She would want us to get a move on right now."

"Derek's right, Perce," Grover agreed. "The right tunnel smell right. We need to get going."

Grover and Rachel took up the responsibility of carrying Luke while Derek and Silena lead the group and Percy and Annabeth took up the rear. As the group headed down the right tunnel, Derek developed an unsettling feeling in his stomach. Something was wrong but he couldn't quite pinpoint just what. When Luke let out a cry of pain, Derek decided he was just worried about the oldest Jackson legacy. The guy looked like he was dying. If he did die... Derek had just found his best guy friend. Luke couldn't die on him now. Besides, Silena needed her brother. Bryn needed him too. For some reason, he seemed to calm the daughter of Zeus (which who knows how that works). And this is when Derek started to think he was the expendable one again. His powers weren't what everyone else's was. Sure no one could beat him at archery, and sure he'd led them down the right tunnels, but Silena had led them down Hoover Dam underwater for hours in an air bubble, had raised a boat from the River Acheron, had thrown two monsters with water fists into a river in Cincinnati, and had prevented them from dying on the River Acheron. Bryn had flown them out of Camp Jupiter, gotten them out of the Lotus Hotel and Casino, gotten them out of Hoover Dam, led them to safety from their police chase in Laughlin, and had figured out where Luke was. Rachel was the Oracle. People simply needed her.