Kidnapped

4: The Green Button

Percy POV

128 degrees.

"Are you guys okay?" Thalia asked as she rubbed her stomach. I was still wheezing from all the smoke that I inhaled during the explosion.

"Does anyone have some water?" I asked hopefully.

"No, there isn't any water. The water was tainted, remember," Jason said. He came forward and patted my back before pulling me up. "Glad that you're okay, bro."

I looked at Jason in surprise. We didn't know each other for that long, and we didn't know each other that well either. Regardless, I could tell that we shared a mutual connection. Jason was a good guy, and we could definitely be good friends.

"Yeah, me too. Um, how's Ethan?" I asked.

I was sitting on a nearby bed with Annabeth and Piper. Jason and Thalia were trying to make sure that we were okay. After all, we were in the locker room when the bomb went off. Everyone else was crowded around the locker room doorway.

"HE's DEAD," Luke affirmed roughly.

Then, Luke came out and kicked the couch in frustration.

Silence filled the room. Some people went into the locker room and gently pulled Ethan out of the debris. Ethan's physical appearance was clouded with ash and dirt. Frank and Will carried his lifeless body and set it on the ground near the door.

My throat dried as I stared at everyone's expressions. This was awful. Someone actually died right in front of us.

"Guys, Elysium did this on purpose. It could've been anyone," Thalia expressed. "Whoever opened that locker was doomed unless we missed a clue beforehand."

"It's possible or they simply don't care if we live or die," Hazel said quietly. "We are a source of entertainment after all."

Everyone remained silent as a hard truth fell upon us. All of us were just pawns in a game that Elysium was managing. However, none of us wanted to die.

Annabeth stood up. I grabbed her hand without thinking. She looked at our intertwined fingers before looking at my face. "I'm all right, Percy."

Suddenly, a loud buzzer rang through the speakers, jolting everyone back to reality. "Critical temperatures," the monotone voice repeated. "Critical temperatures."

132 degrees.

"Okay, everyone, I have no interest in joining Ethan in the land of the dead. We need to get back to solving this room," Luke snapped.

He rushed over to the locker room, where we were sure the next clue hid.

Annabeth's hand slipped out of mine as she walked towards Ethan's body. She gently crouched next to him. I followed her with a few others. The rest of them followed Luke into the locker room to find the next clue and/or solve the puzzle.

"I'm so sorry, Ethan," Annabeth whispered. She reached forward and closed Ethan's eyes out of respect. I nodded at Annabeth's actions.

Her tone was different. It was sad and appropriate, but there was something more. It felt as though she was somehow personally connected to the situation. She felt truly sorry about the situation that we were stuck in.

However, it wasn't her fault. We were all victims here.

"All right, we found something," Luke barked. "Someone needs to figure this out because we came up empty."

Luke came out of the locker room with the others in tow. The group met up near the central table. Luke was holding an ashen piece of paper.

"Can you read us the clue?" Thalia asked as she sat down.