Escape from camp half blood

Chapter1

Carter and Sadie were running for their lives, and the worst part about that was that it was nothing new.

"We'll talk with the curator," huffed Sadie as she ran, somehow still managing to be sarcastic. "He might know something that can help us. His exhibit's full of scrolls about Egyptian family trees. There's no chance he might actually be a member of the House of Life in disguise!"

"Shut it, Sadie," said Carter. "We had no reason to think he was!"

"Oh come on! Haven't you ever watched The Mummy?"

"Less talking, more running, both of you!" said Bast sharply. "This way!"

The Smithsonian Museum of Natural History was crowded, as was to be expected. It was spring in Washington DC, so the city was full of tourists there to see the cherry blossoms, school groups on their spring field trips, and families whose kids were out for spring break. At first Carter thought that the crowds were a problem, but he quickly realized that Bast was making them work in their favor.

"Coming through!" shouted the goddess as she cut through the packed lobby. "Sorry! We're going to miss our bus! 'Scuse us, coming through!"

Their pursuers, a group of large, burly men who hadn't yet stashed their staffs in the Duat, did not have as easy of a time. Carter glanced back over his shoulder just in time to see one of them trip over a child who started screaming, then the kid's mother advanced on him, giving the House of Life freak a piece of her mind.

"Carter, come on!"

They burst out the main doors and kept running down the steps. "You two keep running," ordered Bast. "Get to the monument and get out of here. I'll hold them off."

"But Bast -" protested Sadie.

"Child," said Bast, her eyes glittering wickedly. "Do you really think they'll have an easy time catching a cat on a busy street?" With that, she changed into her other form. One moment she was a statuesque knockout of a woman, the next she was a four legged feline, complete with collar and arched back.

"Let's go, Sadie!" said Carter, grabbing his sister's hand to drag her along.

Sadie immediately yanked her hand away. "I don't need you to hold my bloody hand, Carter!" she said in that ill-tempered way of hers, but she followed him.

There was a convenient row of tour buses lined up against the curb. Carter wove between two of them, then kept running down the street, keeping the line of buses between himself and the museum doors so he and Sadie would be out of sight to anyone exiting the museum.

"That cat! There!"

"It's the goddess! Follow it!"

"What if we ambush them from behind?" asked Sadie. "While they're distracted I could wrap them up with bandages so tight they -"

"No," said Carter. "Bast told us to get out of here, so we're getting out of here. She doesn't need our help. Not with a bunch of lug-heads like them."

"Lug-heads?" asked Sadie. "Who says that?"

"Just come on!"

The siblings raced down the street, away from the museum. The Washington monument loomed before them on the other side of the mall. If they could just get there, they'd be home free, provided that the House of Life hadn't contacted its New York agents to make sure someone was waiting for them at the obelisk back in Central Park.

"Sadie," he said, "I just thought of something."

"That's very nice, Carter. I'm happy for you," muttered Sadie.