Living in A Demigod World

Percy

Percy and Zhan followed Frank as they wound on and on through the tunnel. Percy staggered under the weight of the old lady, who was definitely getting heavier. He didn't know how that girl Hazel would hold off the gorgons by herself, but he was too tired to argue.
The tunnel cut through solid rocks, about the width and height of a school hallway. At first, it looked like a typical maintenance tunnel, with electric cables, warning signs, and fuse boxes on he walls, lightbulbs in wire cages along the ceiling. As they ran deeper into the hillside, the cement floor changed to tiled mosaic. The lights changed to reed torches, which burned but didn't smoke. A few hundred yards ahead, Percy saw a square of daylight.

The old lady was heavier now than a pile of sandbags. Percy's arms shook from the strain. June mumbled a song in Latin, like a kill any, which didn't help Percy concentrate.
Behind them, the gorgons voices echoed in the tunnel. Hazel shouted. Percy was tempted to dump June and run back to help, but the entire tunnel shook with the rumble of falling stone. There was a squawking sound, just like gorgons had made when Percy dropped a  crate of bowling balls on them in Napa. He glanced back. The west end of the tunnel was Now filled with dust.

"Shouldn't we check on Hazel?" Zhan asked.

"She'll be okay---I hope," Frank said. "She's good underground. Just keep moving! We're almost there."

"Almost where?"

June chuckled. "All roads lead there, child. You should know that."

"Detention?" Zhan asked sarcastically.

He glared at his friend. "Could you for once stop being so shameless?" He just shrugged.

"Rome, child," The old woman said. "Rome."

Percy wasn't sure he's heard her right. True, his memory was gone. His brain hadn't felt right since he had woken up at the Wolf House. But he was pretty sure Rome wasn't in California.
They kept running. The glow at the end of the tunnel grew brighter, and finally they burst into the sunlight.
Percy froze. Spread out at their feet was a bowl-shaped like valley several miles wide. The basin floor was rumpled with smaller hills, golden plains, and stretches of forest. A small river cut a winding course from a lake in the center and around the perimeter, like a giant G.
The geography could've been anywhere in the northern California---live oaks and eucalyptus trees, gold hills and blue skies. That big inland mountain---What was it called, Mount Diablo?---rose in the distance, right where it should be.
But Percy felt like he's stepped into a secret world.  In the center of the valley, nestled by the lake, was a small city of white marble buildings with red-tiled roofs. Some had some and columned porticoes, like national monuments. He could see an open plaza with freestanding columns, fountains, and statues. A five-story tall Roman coluliseum gleaned in the Sun, next to a long oval arena like a racetrack.

Across the lake to the south, another hill was dotted with even more impressive buildings-temples, Percy guessed. Several stone bridges crossed the rivers as it wound hrough the valley, and in the North, a long line of brickwork arches stretched from the hills into the town. Percy thought it looked like an elevated train track. Then he realized it must be an aqueduct.
The strangest part of the valley was right below him. About two hundred yards away, just across the river, was some sort of military camp encampment. It was about a quarter mile square, with earthen ramparts on all four sides, the tops lined with sharpened spikes. On the walls ran a dry moat, also studied with spikes. Wooden watchtower rose at each corner, manned by sentries with oversized, mounted crossbows. Purple banners hung from the towers. A wide gateway opened on the far side of camp, leading toward the city. A narrower gate stood closed on he riverbank side. Inside, the fortress bustled with activity: dozens of kids going to and from barracks, carrying weapons, polishing armor. Percy heard the clank of hammers at a drive and smelled meat cooking over the fire.

Something about this place felt very familiar, yet not quite right.

"Camp Jupiter," Frank said. "We'llbe safe once----"

Footsteps echoed in he tunnel behind them. Hazel burst into the light. She was covered with stone dust and breathing hard. She'd lost her helmet, so her curly brown hair fell around her shoulders. Her armor had long slash marks in front of the claws of the gorgon. One of the moments tagged her with a 50% OFF stickers.

"I slowed them down," She said. "But they'll be here any second."

Zhan cursed like a sailor, the two kids flinched. Percy glared at him. "Zhan, these are kids for crying out loud. Control your cussing, bro!"

Zhan glared at him. "We need to get across the river, you're carting some old woman named June, we in some sort of camp that we think we might belong here but we don't, and you're worried about my cussing when there's two gorgons that are trying to kill you?!"

June squeezed Percy's neck tighter. "Oh, yes, please. I can't get my dress wet. And, Xiao Zhan, control yourself please."

Percy bit his tongue. If this lady was a goddess, she must've been the goddess of smelly, heavy, useless hippies. But he'd come this far. He'd better keep lugging her along.

*Time skip of the arguement*

They reached the riverbank, and Percy dropped to catch his breath. The current was fast, but the river didn't look too deep. Only a stone's throw across stood the gates in front of the fort.

"Not that deep Perc, we can get across." Zhan told him, as he tested the depth of the water.

"Go, Hazel." Frank nicked two arrows at once. "Escort them so the sentries don't shoot him. It's my turn hold off the baddies."

Zhan took something from his tunic. "Wait. Before you go killing those gorgons, take this." Zhan handed him a talisman. "If you're at deaths door, think the place where you want to be, and you'll be safe."

Frank nodded, and ran to kill the gorgons. Hazel waded to the river with Zhan, but Percy felt that this river wasn't just a normal river---it felt, ancient. Percy started to follow, but he really didn't like this river.

"The Little River," June said sympathetically. "It flows with he power of the original Tiber, river of the empire. This is your last chance to back out, child. The mark of Achilles is a Greek blessing (aka this sentence is important, please edit spill away spoilers Percy Jackson fans, remember thus sentence). You can't retain it if you cross into the Roman territory. The Tiber will wash it away."

Percy was too exhausted to understand all That, but he got the main point. "If I cross, I won't have iron skin anymore?"

June smiled. "So what will it be? Safety, or a future of pain and possibility?"
Behind him, the gorgons screeched as they flew from the tunnel. Frank let his arrows fly.

From the middle of the river, Zhan yelled. "Percy! For Pete's sake, get your legs over here, now!"

Up on the watchtowers, horns blew. The sentries shouted and swiveled their crossbows towards the gorgons.
Annabeth, Percy though. He forged into the river. It was icy cold, much swifter than he'd imagined, but that didn't bother him. New strength surged to his limbs. His senses tingled like he'd been infected with caffeine. He reached the other side and put the old woman down as the camp gates opened. Dozens of kids in armor poured out.

Hazel turned with a relieved smile. Then she looked over Percy's shoulder, and her expression changed to horror. "Frank!"

Here's chapter eight, it took me ten minutes to write this because of my chores I had to do. 😥

What happens to Frank?