Percy Jackson Scenarios

11 ~ The plan is simple and it all goes wrong

The plan was simple. But just in case anyone hadn't memorised it the past hundred times she'd explained, Annabeth ran through it again as Argus drove them back to the zoo in the Delphi Strawberries van in the dead of night. Unfortunately, Leo was too busy feeling like an awesome ninja in the black clothes they were all wearing to blend in with the dark, to listen. 

Gravel crunched as the van pulled into the car park, and parked in a shadowed corner. The back door slid open, and Jason squeezed out, regarding the ornamental gate. His job was to scout and make sure the coast was clear, before reporting back so the rest of the demigods could sneak in. Easy, right?

Wrong.

Jason focused, and felt a platform of air materialise beneath his feet. He moved upwards in unsteady lurches, and dropped over the gate. He hurried along the ground to the row of ticket booths, and floated over those, too. 

You would expect that a zoo at night would be quiet, dark and empty. Perhaps the occasional noise from a nocturnal creature, but other than that, no sound or movement save for the breaths of slumbering animals. That was what Jason was expecting, anyway, so when he rounded the corner into the zoo proper, he was so stunned by the wall of noise and utter chaos that it almost knocked him off his feet, and he barely got out of the way of a stampeding anteater. He sped back into he air again for his own safety, and stared around in horror. 

The animals were rebelling. It was a full-scale zoo break, and the worst thing was, it seemed organised. Jason watched as larger animals that had somehow gotten free rammed into cages and glass dividers, creating escape routes for the animals inside. A colourful bird clutching a ring of keys soared beneath Jason and landed on the control centre for the rhino habitat. It cocked its head at the buttons, then hopped onto the board and punched a sequence into the PIN pad with its feet, before inserting a key into a manual override slot and turning it. The huge entrance barrier began to roll up, but Jason didn't see what happened next as a gaggle of exotic geese barrelled into him in a military formation, squawking bird war cries. He felt himself tumble out of the sky, then a sharp pain on the back of his head, then nothing. 

Back in the van, Annabeth was beginning to worry. It had been almost fifteen minutes, and Jason still wasn't back. The scouting mission shouldn't have taken more than a few minutes. There should have been nothing to report anyway, and even if there was, Jason was under instructions to hurry back if he saw anything remotely odd.

But still, nothing.

"Alright," Annabeth announced eventually, standing up from her cramped position on the floor (It wasn't easy to fit six demigods in the back of a small van meant for strawberries). Percy, who was sat beside her, stood up too, grateful for the chance to stretch his legs, and promptly bashed his head off the low ceiling and toppled back down on top of Hazel and Piper, who complained loudly. Annabeth scowled and waited for some semblance of order to return. When it did, she told her companions to stay and slipped out of the van. She snuck up to the gates, sticking to the shadows. It was probably unnecessary, but if something had happened to Jason, she did not want to meet the same fate. She climbed over the front gates in a few deft movements, and hurried across the courtyard. She hesitated before crawling under the turnstiles. She could hear an unusual amount of hooting and screeching coming from ahead. On a whim, Annabeth donned her Yankees cap before continuing.

When she saw the scene inside the zoo, her jaw dropped. Animals of all descriptions crowded in the walkways. Through the melee of stomping hooves, bright feathers and fur, Annabeth thought she could see an unconscious Jason being trampled underfoot. 

Staying out of the crowd, Annabeth considered her options. She should probably report back to the others, but then they would want to come, and it would probably be better for her to go alone - slip in, slip out, without any of the animals seeing her. Yes. Hazel had told her where she thought Frank was, and she'd get him back before the others started to worry.

Percy was starting to worry. If something had happened to Jason, a powerful son of Jupiter, then Annabeth didn't stand much more of a chance. It had been at least five minutes, and there was still no sign of either of Percy's friends. He stood up again, and winced as his head collided with the ceiling again. 

"I'm going after her- them." It was hard to look commanding when you were stooped over in a van, and had just hit your head, but Percy thought he'd pulled it off. On the floor, knees pulled up to her chest, Hazel raised her head. 

"So far they've both gone alone, and neither have returned. Surely it makes more sense to go together?" 

Percy considered this. If they had to face a monster that had potentially taken down Jason and Annabeth, there would be strength in numbers. "You're right," he conceded. "Argus, can you look after the van?" 

Argus grunted an agreement, and the four remaining demigods scooted to the door of the van. 

"I think we should stick to Annabeth's plan as much as possible," Percy told the others as they headed towards the front gates of the zoo. 

Leo lifted a hand. "What was Annabeth's plan?"

 Percy rolled his eyes. "We just need to stay together, and get Frank."

That plan failed almost immediately as a rhino burst through the iron gates and the demigods scattered. 

Piper dove to the ground and rolled out of the way of the herd of animals that followed the rhino through the busted open gates. Leo wasn't so lucky. It looked like he'd been right in the way of the escaping animals, and was currently being trampled by the seemingly endless horde. She had no way of helping him, and she couldn't see where Percy was, so she headed over to where  Hazel was clearing a tunnel under the fence a few metres away from the gate. It wasn't very deep - less of a tunnel and more of a dip in the ground just deep enough for the two girls to shimmy under the gate. Once they were inside the zoo, they ran over the wreckage of the turnstiles and hurried towards the the place where the storage facility supposedly was. 

Halfway there, they spotted Annabeth coming towards them. Hazel gasped hopefully, but her smile faded when she saw that Annabeth was alone. Annabeth sped up to meet them, and smiled ruefully at Hazel.

"Turns out the field was just a field. So now we have no idea where Frank is."

As if Annabeth's words had caused it, the girls span around in synchrony as a shrill scream broke through the animal noises. Piper caught Annabeth's eye. It was too shrill to be one of the boys, which meant that there was still a mortal on sight.

Annabeth frowned. Piper knew she'd studied the staff schedule she'd slipped out of a worker's pocket and picked a time when the zoo should be empty. So why wasn't it?

Piper looked up and realised that Annabeth and Hazel had already taken off in the direction of the scream. Bracing herself, she followed them.

Leo hurt. It wasn't everyday you got trampled by a herd of escaping animals, and Leo was glad, because he felt like his entire body was on fire - and not the nice type of fire that didn't hurt him. If he didn't have at least 3 broken bones, he would be surprised. 

Leo lay on the floor until the flood of escapees reduced to a trickle, then dissipated entirely, save for a few birds of pray wheeling high above. He heard a crash, followed by a manly yelp and a string of curses in Ancient Greek. Footsteps neared, and Leo heard Percy's intake of breath. 

"Man," he whistled. "You don't look too good."

Leo would have laughed if he hadn't been in terrible pain. He felt something cool touch his lips, and he let Percy dribble nectar into his mouth. He felt the pain dim, but when he tried to move it felt like his bones were being poked with white-hot blades.

Percy helped him up, and together they stumbled over to the van. They'd barely made it ten metres earlier, but at least that meant they didn't have to travel as far now.

Leo collapsed into the van, and Percy made to leave.

"Where you going, man?" Leo asked with a groan.

"I'm going to find the others, see if they need a hand. We still need to find Frank."

"Huh, I almost forgot that's why we were here." Leo closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them, Percy was gone.