¹𝐒𝐎𝐋𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐒 ! - percy jackson

-005

THE GOOD NEWS: THE left tunnel was straight with no side exits, twists, or turns. The bad news: it was a dead end. After sprinting a hundred yards, they ran into an enormous boulder that completely blocked their path. Behind them, the sounds of dragging footsteps and heavy breathing echoed down the corridor. Something—definitely not human—was on their tail.

"Tyson," Percy said, "can you—"

"Yes!" He slammed his shoulder against the rock so hard the whole tunnel shook. Dust trickled from the stone ceiling.

"Hurry!" Grover said. "Don't bring the roof down, but hurry!"

The boulder finally gave way with a horrible grinding noise. Tyson pushed it into a small room and they dashed through behind it.

"Close the entrance!" Annabeth urged.

They all got on the other side of the boulder and pushed. Whatever was chasing them wailed in frustration as they heaved the rock back into place and sealed the corridor.

"We trapped it," Percy said, a hint of relief coloring his voice.

"Or trapped ourselves," Grover countered.

Stella turned. Her gaze swept across the twenty-foot-square cement room, her heart sinking as she realized their predicament. The walls seemed to close in around them, suffocating in their solidity. And then her eyes landed on the opposite wall, covered with metal bars. They had tunneled straight into a cell.

"What in Hades?" Annabeth tugged on the bars. They didn't budge.

Stella approached the bars, her fingers trailing along the cold metal as she peered through them. Rows of cells stretched out before them, circling a dark courtyard; there were at least three stories of metal doors and metal catwalks.

"A prison," Percy gathered. "Maybe Tyson can break—"

"Shh," said Grover. "Listen."

Somewhere above them, deep sobbing echoed through the building. There was another sound, too—a raspy voice muttering something that Stella couldn't make out. The words were strange, like rocks in a tumbler.

"What's that language?" Stella whispered, her voice barely audible over the unsettling sounds surrounding them.

Percy's gaze flickered to hers, his expression unreadable. But instead of offering reassurance, his silence only added to the growing unease that gripped her.

Tyson's eye widened at the strange muttering. "Can't be."

"What?" She asked, her heart racing with a mix of fear and curiosity.

Tyson grabbed two bars of the cell door, his fingers curling around the metal before bending them wide enough for even a Cyclops to slip through.

"Wait!" Grover called.

But he wasn't about to wait. He took off, and they ran after him, their footsteps echoing in darkness as they hurried to keep up with him. Only a few dim fluorescent lights flickered above, casting eerie shadows that danced along the walls.

"I know this place," Annabeth informed them. "This is Alcatraz."

"You mean that island near San Francisco?" Percy questioned.

She nodded solemnly, her gaze distant as memories flooded back. "My school took a field trip here. It's like a museum."

The idea seemed almost surreal—that they could have popped out of the Labyrinth on the other side of the country. Yet, Annabeth had been living in San Francisco all year, keeping a vigilant eye on Mount Tamalpais just across the bay. She probably knew what she was talking about.