Struck by Lightning

VIII

Percy sliced through one skeleton. Thalia stabbed another, breaking it into pieces.

Still, more came towards them. And the ones they had destroyed reassembled themselves with speed. The two demigods were getting slowly overwhelmed by the sheer weight of numbers the monsters had on their side.

"We should run," Thalia grunted, deflecting a heavy baton blow from a skeleton with her shield.

"Yeah," Percy agreed. Disengaging from combat, both turned and sprinted down a set of stairs, blowing right past the security entrance and setting off the metal detector. Behind them, a security guard yelled, "hey!", but they ignored it as they barreled right into a nearly-full elevator just as it closed.

The tourists in the tour group looked annoyed at the two winded teens who had pushed and bumped them in their hasty entrance, but the tour guide was unperturbed and still droned on in a neutral voice about the history of the Hoover Dam and random fun facts.

"We will be going down seven hundred feet. Do not worry, ladies and gentlemen, this elevator hardly ever breaks." To Percy, that'd normally be rather not reassuring, but given the situation he and Thalia were in, he ignored it.

"Does this go to the snack bar?" Percy asked. Thalia looked at her friend incredulously, her expression being the non-verbal equivalent of "are you serious?". Some of the other tourists chuckled, while many likely did a mental facepalm.

The tour guide turned to look at Percy. "We are going to the turbines, young man. Were you not listening to my presentation upstairs?"

"Is there another way out of the dam?" Thalia asked, cutting off any potential reply from the son of Poseidon.

"For heaven's sake," a tourist in the back of the elevator huffed. "It's a dead end. The only way out is the other elevator."

Before anyone else could say anything, the elevator dinged and the doors opened, leading to a flood of tourists pouring out of the elevator. Percy and Thalia went along with the flow, not being able to do much else.

"Go right ahead, folks," the tour guide continued. "There will be another ranger waiting for you at the end of the hall."

Percy and Thalia were left alone by the still-open elevator as the rest of the tour group walked away, both unsure exactly where to go or what to do. The sound of someone clearing their throat caused both demigods to turn around.

The tour guide had pulled off her sunglasses, revealing a pair of gray, stormy eyes. She looked at Thalia.

"There is always a way out for those clever enough to find it." Looking at both of them, Percy felt the intensity of the tour guide's gaze as it fell upon him. "And usually, there is more than one way out."

She looked over them both. "I expect... very much from the two of you."

The elevator doors slid shut, leaving Percy and Thalia alone, the whine of turbines a distant but constant sound. Both of them stared blankly at the closed silver and reflective elevator doors.

"What... was that?" Thalia breathed, her voice barely above a whisper. Percy shook his head, unsure of what had just happened.

A ding down the hall snapped both of them out of their respective reveries. As the second elevator's doors opened, the clatter of skeleton chatter echoed throughout the corridor. Without a second thought, Percy grabbed Thalia's arm and ran, dragging her along before she came to the same conclusion a split-second later and began running herself. After going down the hall and through a rocky tunnel, the pair came to a balcony that overlooked the turbines and warehouses. The tour group from earlier was there, as was another tour guide.