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Prologue

(Percy POV)

Morning light fills the room, the sun shining brightly onto my eyes. I quickly cover my eyes with the back of my palm and groan, taking my hand back off my face. I throw off the covers and stretch. Changing into a new pair of clothes, I make my way out of my room for breakfast.

As soon as I leave the room the house feels.. off. Its eerily quiet, not just because my dad was away on another one of his business trips. I glance back at the clock on my wall. It's already 9 am? Mar's room should already be booming with laughter and noise.. I walk down the long hallway till I approach my sisters door, knocking lightly.

"Mar, you up?" I question, my voice still hoarse from waking up. There's no reply. Pushing the door open I see her standing at her window. Slowly making my way to her I call once more. I reach her and wrap my arm around her.

"Hey, everything okay?" I whisper. I look down at her tear stained face then at the window. That's when I realized it, that's the moment my life changed.

"Poet.. why are the humans eating each other?" She mumbles looking up at me, another tear rolling down her face. I glance back at the window and then at her before being able to speak.

"They- they aren't eating each other. They're playing a game of tag, it just includes ketchup." I murmur, grabbing her hand and walking towards the basement. Her face gets slightly brighter.

"Can we join them?" Mar bounces a little, her eyes full of hope. Glancing back over to her I freeze for a moment.

"We can't! Uh- it's rude to join into other peoples games. So if they try and tag you run away from them." I quickly lie, looking down at the ground. I quickly glance back over at her, a fake smile plastered to my face. We reach the basement door, so I quickly open it then turn on the overhead light.

"Oh! In that case I'll stay extra quiet so they won't find me!" Mar looks back up at me with a dopey grin. I walk to the other side of the basement, anxiety still making my adrenaline pump. Dropping down to my knees I look around for any sort of weapon. After 10 minutes of rummaging through boxes I locate 2 small pistols along with 3 or 4 boxes of ammo.

"Poet! Poet! Look what I found!" Imara says walking towards me, holding a bat.

"Mar, put that down, you might hurt yourself!" I tell her, keeping my previously shaky voice stern. She groans and puts the bat down; standing up, I make my way towards her and pick up the bat off the cold, concrete floor.

"Alright, Mar, I'm going to need you to grab as many backpacks as you can find and bring them to the kitchen." I say grabbing her hand once more and guiding her back up the stairs. We split ways. I head to the kitchen, and she heads to her room. I glance at the kitchen counter to find my phone buzzing with notifications. Oh shoot, I forgot Kyu and Meri. I grab it and quickly call Kyu, it only takes one ring before she picks up.

"Perc, jesus fuck! Those people, they're eating each other. Fuck! We're all gonna die aren't we?!" She yells into the phone, obviously consumed in complete panic and worry.

"Kyu, Kyu calm down-" I start to say before getting cut off.

"NO! I WILL NOT CALM DOWN! OUR LIVES ARE IN DANGER, WE'RE ALL GONNA FUCKING DIE." She chokes out.

"Kyu, if you yell those things might hear you!" I whisper, grabbing as much food as possible out of my cabinets. The line goes quiet for a moment before Imara rushes in with 3 backpacks. I quickly grab them from her and smile.

"Go grab some clothes and toys, some pillows and blankets too actually." I whisper to her as she runs off again.

"Perc, is your dad home?" Kyu finally speaks up. I glance down at the floor then go back to filling the backpacks.

"No, he left on another business trip less than 3 days ago." I reply, my voice starting to shake again.

"Well fuck, my parents aren't home either. They left-- like an hour ago for groceries." She whispers, quiet sniffles can be heard in the background.

"Listen, I'm going to get everything together then find a way to make it to your house. Call HC and Meri, find out who's with 'em for me, maybe even try and get them to your house." I say, glancing at the one full backpack then my gun. Before even getting a response I hang up already nervous about Imara. I glance back at the counter and grab a backpack and my phone. Surprised my phones even working right now.. While entering Imara's room I look around and spot her digging through her closet.

"Here," I start, throwing a backpack on the ground beside her, "take this, and put your stuff in it. We're going camping."