Thankfully, the tunnel they'd chosen wasn't nearly as bad as the mind blender that the previous network of passages had been. That was good for Mari, because it gave her much less of a headache. Unfortunately, it meant that the monster on their tails had just as easy a time. Even as they sprinted, the monster followed at a steady pace.
Eventually, they hit a dead end: a huge boulder blocking their path. Mari glanced backwards at the sound of the footsteps still echoing through the corridor. Her heart sped up.
"Tyson," Percy said. "Can you-?"
"Yes!" Tyson slammed his huge shoulders against the boulder, effectively doing double duty as a battering ram. There was a cracking sound from the walls, and parts of the ceiling fell down. Mari had to dodge out of the way of a particularly solid-looking clump of rock.
"Hurry!" Grover swatted off a rock of his own. "Don't bring the roof down, but hurry!"
A few more punches, and the boulder finally loosened, rolling forwards into what looked like a small room. Mari and the others ran in as fast as they could. "Close the entrance!" Annabeth yelled. They all got on one side of the boulder, and pushed with every ounce of their strength. For a second, Mari was terrified it wasn't going to work. Tyson was already tired from pushing the boulder the first time, and he was the strongest of all of them. But, to her immense relief, after a few seconds of heaving, the boulder slowly rolled back into place. The monster behind it let out a frustrated squeak.
"We trapped it." Percy sounded relieved.
"Or ourselves," Grover said.
They were in a small room, made of cement, with a ratty-looking bed in the corner. One wall was made up of metal bars. It gave Mari a horrible second of deja vu - as if she was back on Circe's island, in that gods awful guinea pig room, with the huge missile-proof windows.
"This is a prison cell," Mari whispered.
"What in Hades?" Annabeth tugged on the bars, but they didn't give.
Mari peered out of them. Their cell seemed to be part of a ring of others, all facing towards a barren-looking yard. There were 'floors' above them which were really just metal walkways, each containing yet more cells.
"Okay," said Percy. "Maybe Tyson can break-"
"Sh!" hissed Grover. "Listen!"
A loud, terrified-sounding sobbing filtered through the ceiling above them. It sounded as if someone was begging, but Mari couldn't make out what the words were. Another voice came followed the weeping, a harsh, high rasp. This second voice was speaking a language Mari couldn't understand, but she'd heard it before - Adela had used it in front of her.
"What's that language?" Percy asked.
"I think it's Minoan," said Mari.
"It can't be," Tyson whispered.
"What?" Percy turned towards his brother, but Tyson was too preoccupied to give Percy an answer. He clasped his hands around the prison bars and bent them back, making a horrible SCREECH that echoed through the rest of the complex. The space he left was big enough for all of them to comfortably fit through, and Tyson was already running. They bolted after him, which was harder than it looked. Young as he was, Tyson had big legs. The lights flickered as they ran, like in a horror movie.
"I know this place," Annabeth panted. "It's Alcatraz."
"You were right!" Mari whispered. "Drew told me about that theory you had, when you were little - Annabeth, you're a genius!"
YOU ARE READING
Melpomene (PJO)
Fantasy𝔹𝕆𝕆𝕂 𝟚 As it turned out, Mari was actually living a nice, normal and more importantly safe(ish) life somewhere sunny. Most of the time. Nobody was more surprised about this turn of events than she was. Problem was, things aren't ever that simpl...
