The Harvest Trials

Chapter XVI

Calypso

Everything was going fine until we heard the chopper. It was the day after Reyna had revealed to us the skeleton of her plan. I had to admit, it was pretty brilliant. But we would need help to pull it off. 

But anyway, I hadn't heard the chopper since Reyna arrived. We had thought that Harvest stopped sending people to the drop zones. Having someone come today totally violates the pattern. So at first I thought they must be sending something to kill us. 

And I was really scared. Because right when we had found a new hope, we were going to die. But then Rachel spoke. "Hey wait, it's a person!"

So I took another look and sure enough, someone was stumbling through the sand. "Should we..." I started, but Reyna was already jogging to meet whoever had just arrived. "Well then, we might as well go."

When we got a little closer, I heard Reyna gasp, "Piper?" and run faster. When we got to her, tears were carving tracks on her sooty face. Her face split into a grin when she saw us though and she collapsed into Reyna's arms, embracing her and crying. 

"You have no idea how great it is to see you guys," she said. "Ditto," Rachel laughed. We walked back to the shelter I made when I first arrived and sat down around our makeshift hearth. "So what's new at the compound?" I asked. 

Her smile faltered. "Everyone's getting worse. We're getting restless. I guess Everette realized after Damien White was sent out that every demigod had a use, whether or not it be in a Harvester. He halted all transportation to the Drop Zones. Until I got caught."

"Got caught doing what?" Rachel asked. "Well the brainwashing didn't work on me, but I wasn't about to let Everette know that. So I went along with what he wanted me to do, charmspeaking people into doing things," she shuddered. "And then I would sneak away to get more information on the background of Harvest and where they were keeping Annabeth. But I got caught and Everette sent me here. I didn't even get to say goodbye..." She looked awfully close to tears again and it reminded me of when I was separated from Leo early on.

It's been so long since I've seen him. I'd do anything to see him again. Even better, I'd do anything to save him. 

"Don't worry," Reyna assured. "I have a plan." Piper perked up at this. "Wait, you mean we can get out of here? We can do something to help?"

Rachel smiled. "Hell yeah." 

Piper sat up a little straighter. "So what's the plan, Captain?" she asked Reyna. Reyna smirked. "You can help with the planning. We'll need all hands on deck. So far I've got steps one through five."

"Okay, what's step one?"

"Step one is: get out of the freaking desert," Reyna deadpanned. Piper laughed, "Alright, it's a start."

"Yep. Step two is to find the nearest city. We know we're in the Sonora Desert, which is in Mexico and some of the States. According to Piper's findings, we are in Mexico. So that means we head North. We aren't sure where exactly the compound is, but we know it's in the States."

"Alright," Piper said, nodding. "And from there..."

"We get information on what's happening, where the compound is, etc.," I explained. 

Rachel said, "And then we'll hack into the database. Calypso here's quite the hacker."

"Really?" Piper asked, "I didn't know that."

"Yeah, Leo taught me and then my skills overshadowed his own."

"Awesome," Piper whispered. 

"And step four is studying the layout of the compound, finding ins and where cells are. We'll need to know where everyone is and schedules so we know who is where and when. We won't be leaving anyone behind," Reyna continued.