Deadly Waters | Percy Jackson

14. Jackson Becomes a Known Fugitive and Pez has a Bad Day

Most people would love to tell you that, after seeing their best friend fall, they then gallantly whipped out a sword – that they mysteriously didn't have before – and defeated both the Chimera and Echidna in an epic battle of revenge.

Pez, however, had no problem telling you she had been so mad that her vision had gone dark – or maybe the room had? – and she couldn't actually remember what happened.

All she knew, was that the Jackson, the monsters and the mortals were gone.

It would only be later that she would remember what had occurred.

She had caused the room to darken. She had been the one responsible for getting rid of the monsters. She had been the one to reach into their very lifeforce and crush them so suddenly that they combusted into monster dust.

Pez had been so consumed by her anger and worry that her powers had reacted and taken over for her.

And she honestly couldn't bring herself to give a shit.

Unable to focus on anything other than whereisJackson-hebetternotdead-hecantbedead-illkillhimmyselfifhesdead, she didn't notice the bone-deep exhaustion setting in as she stumble out of a shadow and into the crowd. Nor did she notice the little kid tugging on her father's arm to 'look at the girl that just came out of the shadows'.

"That's nice, honey," her father said, craning his neck to watch the ambulances. "But she looks like ascary skeleton!"

"That's nice, honey."

Somehow through her haze, Pez managed to stumble her way through the crowd until she almost collapsed against a news truck.

A news lady was talking for the camera: "Probably not a terrorist attack, we're told, but it's still very early in the investigation. The damage, as you can see, is very serious. We're trying to get to some of the survivors, to question them about eyewitness reports of someone falling from the Arch."

Survivors. Pez couldn't bring herself to feel a surge of relief. Yeah, maybe the park ranger and that family made it out safely. But what about Jackson?

She closed her eyes and tried to push away the sudden vertigo.

"... an adolescent boy," another reporter was saying. "Channel Five has learned that surveillance cameras show an adolescent boy going wild on the observation deck, somehow setting off this freak explosion. Hard to believe, John, but that's what we're hearing. Again, no confirmed fatalities . . ."

Pez opened her eyes, knowing that was what she was listening was. She stood up and stumbled away, blindly going the long way around the police perimeter. Uniformed officers and news reporters were everywhere.

She stagger and almost collapsed onto two teenagers, incoherent mumbles tumbling from her lips.

"Gde on? Gde . . gde Dzhekson?"

Once again, the world darkened – although this time, Pez was fairly sure it was just her vision. Someone lowered her to the ground and placed a cool hand on her forehead. Rapid-fire words flew over her head, but she would never mistake the cry of, "Perrr-cy!"

Pez struggled with the strength to open her eyes as – who she assumed to be Underwood – said, "We thought you'd gone to Hades the hard way!"

She wanted to laugh, but all she managed was a weak snort.

Blondie voice sounder from right above her, trying to sound angry, but even she seemed relieved to see Jackson. "We can't leave you alone for five minutes! What happened?"