☆｡LEGENDARY｡⁠☆ | apollo |

xviii: heartache and bloodshed

When Ash finally regained consciousness, she was greeted with the pleasant image of Percy's face looming over her "Wake up! We're going in the subway- south- to Alexandra!"

She groggily rose to find herself in the back of the van she swear she wasn't in before. "What the hell happened?"

Thalia peered in, "Your magical boyfriend apparently." She laughed at the blush of her friend's cheeks and helped her get out.

"Huh?"

Ashlyn turned towards Thalia waiting for her to explain, when the older girl said nothing, and Percy went pink as he tried to explain. "Well, you kinda um...fainted..."

Ash grew more concerned as he continued. "The vines you made, after they broke- you kinda fell and- yeah."

She raised an eyebrow; gesturing him to continue. "Then after the whole thing- I kinda picked you up and we all ran..."

"Huh, okay, what's the plan now?"

Zoë waltzed in with Bianca following at her heels. "We must leave, time is of essence here."

Ash rolled her eyes and smiled slightly. She got up and off they went.

They bought tickets and got through the turnstiles, looking behind us for any signs of pursuit. A few minutes later they were safely aboard a southbound train, riding away from D.C. As the train came above ground, Ash could see the helicopter circling the parking lot, but it didn't come after them.

Grover let out a sigh. "Nice job, Bianca, thinking of the subway."

Bianca looked pleased. "Yeah, well. I saw that station when Nico and I came through last summer. I remember being really surprised to see it, because it wasn't here when we used
to live in D.C."

Grover frowned. "New? But that station looked really old."

"I guess," Bianca said. "But trust me, when we lived here as little kids, there was no subway."

Thalia sat forward. "Wait a minute. No subway at all?"

Bianca nodded.
Now, Reha knew nothing about D.C., with the whole part of the Hunters thing but she didn't see how their whole subway system could be less than twelve years old.

Everyone else seemed to be thinking the same thing, because they looked pretty confused.

"Bianca," Zoe said. "How long ago…" Her voice faltered. The sound of the helicopter was getting louder again.

"We need to change trains," Percy said. "Next station."

Over the next half hour, all they thought about was getting away safely. They changed trains twice. Ash had no idea where we were going, but after a while they seemed to have lost the helicopter.

When they finally got off the train they found themselves at the end of the
line, in an industrial area with nothing but warehouses and railway tracks. And snow. Lots of snow. It seemed much colder now. 

They wandered through the railway yard, thinking there might be another passenger train somewhere, but there were just rows and rows of freight cars, most of which were covered in snow, like they hadn't moved in years.

A homeless guy was standing at a trash-can fire. Ash must've looked pretty pathetic, because he gave her a toothless grin and said, "Y'all need to get warmed up? Come on over!'

They huddled around his fire, Thalia's teeth were chattering. She said, "Well this is g-g-g- great."

"My hooves are frozen," Grover complained.