Anthízo, Percy Jackson

XX. an almost-execution scare

BEFORE THE GROUP of demigods, merged in with the larger group of amazons, walked down the hallway and into the staircase, they confiscated the four demigods weapons— except karina's necklace. she would've thought they'd have been smarter than to think her necklace was just a random piece of jewelry— but she didn't question it. she thought it was better that she had her weapon still on her, in case anything were to go wrong— which is most likely going to happen.

after that, they marched them down. so many flights of stairs, karina lost count, and was beginning to get dizzy at the amount of spirals there were.

finally, they emerged in a cavern so big it could have accommodated ten high schools, sports fields and all. stark fluorescent lights glowed along the rock ceiling. conveyor belts wound through the room like waterslides, carrying boxes in every direction. aisles of metal shelves stretched out forever, stacked high with crates of merchandise. cranes hummed and robotic arms whirred, folding cardboard boxes, packing shipments, and taking things on and off the belts. some of the shelves were so tall they were only accessible by ladders and catwalks, which ran across the ceiling like theater scaffolding.

karina had always seen ads on the tv about working in factories, and documentaries on certain places where you'd see how they made a certain product— but it was nothing compared to this, and almost all the work was being done by computers and robots. the only humans karina could see were some black-suited women patrolling the catwalks, and some men in orange jumpsuits, like prison uniforms, driving forklifts through the aisles, delivering more pallets of boxes. the men wore iron collars around their necks.

"you keep slaves?" hazel said in outrage.

"the men?" kinzie snorted. "they're not slaves. they just know their place. now, move."

karina raised a calculating brow at the amazon's response, but reluctantly followed her.

they walked so far, karina's feet started to ache. she thought they must surely be getting to the end of the warehouse when kinzie opened a large set of soul ke doors and led them into into cavern, just as big as the first.

"you've got to be joking," karina mumbled, inwardly groaning.

"the underworld isn't this big," hazel complained, and karina sent an approving glance at her.

"true that," she said, but then quickly realized her mistake, as hazel did a double take on what she just said.

"i- i mean, i would think the underworld would be this big," she quickly added, saving herself from almost revealing the one thing she didn't want anyone to find out about. "it's not like i've ever been there before. that would be crazy." she let out a awkwardly forced laugh, running a hand through her hair nervously.

hazel looked to her with confusion written on her face, but then proceeded to just shake her head in amusement, obviously used to the way karina could act at times.

kinzie smiled smugly at their overheard conversation. "you admire our base of operations? yes, our distribution system is worldwide. it took many years and most of our fortune to build. now, finally, we're turning a profit. the mortals don't realize they are funding the amazon kingdom. soon, we'll be richer than any mortal nation. then— when the weak mortals depended on us for everything— the revolution will begin!"

"what are you going to do," frank grumbled. "cancel free shipping?"

a guard slammed the hilt of her sword into his gut, and karina involuntarily flinched. percy tried to help him, but two more guards pushed him back at sword point.

this made karina's blood boil, as he stared at her helplessly, and she wanted nothing more than to fight all of them against her. but, she was smarter than that— and knew she was weaponless, or at least has to appear weaponless, and completely outnumbered.