Storm Rising

Chapter 13

Percy's POV

Let's back up. Recap time- I was at camp, saw Annabeth cheating on me, ran into the woods and found a very bloody Bianca after killing a hunter daughter of Zeus. Most of Olympus wants to kill us and are tracking us right now. We have just traveled to Rome. No not Rome, Italy, Rome, New York. Time fast forward.

The black car came racing down what seemed to be the highway going into the city of Rome.

"Look out!" I yell to my friends. They all move except for Bianca who is a bit tired and stunned momentarily from shadow traveling. I pull her out of the way just as the car whizzes past. We weave our way through three lanes of early morning rush hour traffic, getting honked and yelled at by most of the drivers. After almost two more fatal accidents we make it to the side of the road and duck into an alleyway. Bianca and Nico slump against the wall of an old abandoned building, maybe a grocery store from the empty crates of fresh produce that we sit on.

"Really?" I ask them.

"What?" Nico says.

"You transported us to the middle of the road! So much for not getting noticed," Hazel says.

"I'm sorry," Bianca says. "Main roads are easier to shadow travel to."

"I hate to say this but we have to keep moving. Seven demigods is an extremely powerful smell for monsters," Ivory mentions. She looks a little sad, probably because she has been on the run for so long before now. She had finally just found a safe home in Camp Half Blood, but agreed to come with us when she heard the gods were hunting us. It was a risky move and I'm surprised but glad she came.

"Can you guys walk?" I ask, standing up and looking towards Nico and Bianca.

"Yeah," Nico says. "Shadows are my sixth sense now."

Bianca shrugs her shoulders. "I haven't ever really done that much shadow traveling before. I'm not sure," She goes to stand up but falls on her knees. Nico helps her stand.

"You must still be hurt from the hunter's attack," He says, balancing her.

"I'll slow you guys down," Bianca says, defeat in her eyes.

"I'll carry you," I say. "Can someone carry our backpacks?"

Frank takes mine while Ivory slings Bianca's over her shoulder. Bianca stands on a crate and gets on my back, piggyback style. We head down the long alley way, the rising sun just beginning to light the way. At a cross roads of alleys, Reyna consults the position of the sun.

"That way," She says.

"How can you tell?" Ivory asks.

"The mountains are north of Rome. I remember that from my trip here with ... him," Reyna finishes sadly, probably thinking of Jason. "The sun rises to the east so that way is north."

"Or I could just fly up and look," Frank mutters.

We continue down the alley for about half an hour until we reach a road that has a few shops on it. "We should get a bus to the mountains," Ivory says, looking at a map she picked up outside a shop.

"Why?" Nico asks. "Couldn't we walk?"

"Unless you want to walk almost a hundred miles carrying two backpacks," She replies. "The buses have a higher chance of having monsters, but we will move quicker and be harder to track."

"What bus would take seven underage kids on a hundred mile to some mountains?" Frank asks.

"Maybe that one," Hazel says pointing to a huge green bus that is currently coming down the street. The side reads Your Mountain Express Way, the right way to go and has large mountain animals stickers all over the bus.