The Harvest Trials

Chapter VI

Piper

I don't know how long we'd been standing here. I guess they decided to shove us into cells in groups of twelve. The Seven, Nico, Will, Reyna, Rachel, and Calypso happened to be the first people Everette tested, so we all got put into a cell together.

Before we got in here though, they gave us tattoos on our left wrists. We compared them and in bold letters, they either read HD, MD, or LD. Leo of course, was super excited to speculate.

"Mine is MD," he said, studying his wrist. Oh my gods! Maybe it means Monster Dick!"

"Leo!" Hazel shrieked, holding her wrist to her body. She also had MD.

Leo decided to go on with his speculations. "And Percy and Jason got HD. I bet it means Humongous Dick." Jason simply rolled his eyes.

"I have HD though," Annabeth frowned. "Well maybe you're just High Definition," He said.

"Rachel, Reyna, and I don't even have markings," Calypso said. I looked at my own wrist, tracing the LD.

"What does it actually mean?" I asked. Annabeth got that look in her eyes, the one she gets when she's thinking hard about something.

"Maybe it's a ranking. Like of how we contribute to Everette's plans? Like High, Medium, Low. But what's the D?"

"I told you," Leo interrupted, "it stands for..."

"No it most definitely does not," Will said, putting an end to the joke. "Demand maybe?" Percy theorized.

"Congratulations! You've figured it out!" One of the guards taunted. His badge read Ross. "They mean 'High Demand', 'Medium Demand', and 'Low Demand'."

"Why Demand though?" I asked, covering my 'Low Demand' with my right hand.

"It's basically Everette's label for your worth. All he cares about is what you can do for him." He said this all stoically, and if I caught onto the right wave length, I sensed a little bit of discomfort. Maybe not all of Everette's people follow him blindly.

"You and you, are to come with me immediately," he said, pointing to Annabeth and I.

"Um, no," Percy said, standing in front of Annabeth. Jason inched closer to me, his hand protectively finding my own.

"That wasn't a suggestion. It was an order," he lunged at Annabeth and stuck something in her arm. She hardly had any time to think about it, just to look at at the dart in her bicep before she collapsed into Percy.

He immediately scooped her up in his arms and backed away from the agents, backed up until he was against the wall, cradling Annabeth close to his chest. Jason pushed me behind him as everyone formed a protective circle around us.

That didn't last long though, because Ross's arm clamped around Nico's wrist and yanked him to his side, pulling a knife, about 5-6 inches, and pressed it into his rib cage.

"Nico!" Will and I screamed at the same time. Ross looked bored. "This can be a lot easier on all of us if you hand over the two girls. I'm sure Everette doesn't want them for long. They'll be back."

Nico shook his head slightly, his expression neutral. Percy's jaw clenched and he caught my eye. I sighed and stepped up, past Jason's protection.

"Leave him be," I said, motioning to Nico, "and we'll go."

Ross walked to Percy and held out his arms for Annabeth. Percy didn't give her up until he kissed her on the forehead and gave Ross a glare likely to give him nightmares.