The Demigod Games (PJO/THG)

27 - Blame The Italian Lady CCTV

- Percy

You know how I knew we were screwed?

The Italian senior women.

It sounds really weird, but gods, these ladies can be freaky. You guys might have been to Rome or Florence or any Italian city really, you'd be bound to notice these women at their windows, pretending to water their plants but actually carefully eyeing the street, always watching, always aware, shooting devastating looks at every Japanese tourist.

C'mon. You know what I'm talking about. Right?
Right?

Anyways, it seemed Panem wasn't an exception to this rule. Every street had its personal old lady security camera, so we were sure to be constantly watched.

Which wasn't so bad... until ten hovercrafts passed overhead, our three beautiful faces displayed in a huge banner flying through the air.

Yep, you got it. Trouble.

You know that feeling...? That feeling someone's watching you... that behind your back, people are whispering between themselves and pointing at you.

Very soon, Jason, Piper and I exchanged worried looks as people started looking up into the air towards the hovercraft... and back down at us.

We rounded a corner, then another, circling the streets, trying to lose the main avenues... to little avail. This city, apparently the capital, seemed to be full of endless huge streets, every apartment spacious and well-lit, the streets proper and organized... the people.
Gods, the people.

Every single person in this godforsaken place, man or woman, looked like Lady Gaga going through an identity crisis. Orange makeup plastered like Nutella over their botoxed faces, ridiculously ugly hairstyles colored in shades of green, red or blue, overly luxurious earrings... gold. Gold everywhere, in their clothes, their jewelry, their sparkling lipstick... like the yellow shade reassured them about their status. As if being plastered in the color made them richer than everyone else, more successful than everyone else, more important than everyone else.

Even the city itself seemed to make it's best efforts to match its hideous population. The streets all perfectly groomed and clean, sickeningly ordinary, their painfully white pavements making me want to vomit.
It was like they'd taken a rich Las Vegas villa - the kind owned by a 50-year old woman with six shaved chihuahuas - and stretched it out into a huge city. Ugh.

Anyways, now that I'm sure I've given y'all a craving for this beautiful vacation destination, we can get back to the story, shall we?

The looks on our backs grew more and more oppressing as we rounded corners into ever larger streets filled with an increasing number of people. We needed to find a hiding place - quick.

I started to turn to Piper. "Hey, should we maybe-" I started.

But it was too late. Abruptly, a forty-year-old man with a drunk surfer haircut yelled, pointing towards our direction. "Fugitives!"

Piper shot him an offended look like 'cause me my dear sir then probably realised it was pointless to act innocent, since more than twenty people had already recognized us and were starting to call the police.

Jason shook his head. "Let's go." We dashed to the side back to where we came from, the crowd staring after us, no-one moving to interfere. How brave.

We ran through the streets, panting heavily, hovercrafts even more frequent above our heads, scanning the area with their powerful headlamps.
Regularly, we spotted one of those elder women squinting out her window in a disapproving look, muttering something like Chuldren these days, and reporting our position to the police. We were getting tracked.
At one point, we almost thought we'd successfully lost them...
Then we turned a left, and there they were.

Two barrages of Peacekeepers on either side of the enormous boulevard, the street empty of any citizens and incredibly silent... if there were any birds in the non-existent trees, they surely would've stopped singing.

Then all at once, they clanged their enormous bats against their shields and slowly advanced... closing in on us.

We tried turning back, but that street was blocked too. Glancing at each other, we had to face the evidence in front of us... we were trapped.

The rhythmic clanging of their bats resonated like a judge's hammer, pronouncing our death sentence.
Clang. Clang. Clang. The rythm started to accelerate, my heartbeat picking up as a sort of strange fear overwhelmed me... like an animal trapped inside a cage, with no escape possible.

Unless...
I glanced at Jason, knowing he had the same idea as me. He shook his head slowly. I can't. I responded with a slow nod towards the peacekeepers - What choice do we have? Jason gave a little sigh, nodding, and took hold of Piper and me in his free arms. He breathed in...
And the next second, we were in the air.

Jason's blonde hair caught a ray of sunlight, making it glisten with an otherworldy light as he led us two above the ground. The peacekeeper's reactions were priceless. Some dropped their shields with a thud to the ground, stopping to gawk at our selves rising above the ground at a steady rythm. We were getting out of here! Out! It was settled, we'd flee towards the woods I saw in the distance, elaborate a plan, make a map-

But no. Of course, Tyche had decided to be in a bad mood today, and the Capitol had somehow expected our move - I figured Jason had used his powers as an escape before - and helicopters flew towards us, their blades chopping menacingly in the woods.

"Holy shitzels, they're gonna chop us!" I yelled quite unhelpfully as Jason swerved to avoid them while trying to keep his, a bead of sweat trickling down his forehead. We weren't going to make it - but there was no turning back now, we were more than two hundred feet above the ground.

Two other helicopters joined in, closing in on us in a circle - we had to go further up to avoid them, and Jason yelled in pain as we shot further up, rising above the nearby buildings, the peacekeepers now the size of small, angry Lego.

Jason had visibly never tried going so far up with three people, especially since we'd past the last hour running through the streets, and the hour before that escaping a prison. He blinked twice, starting to lose consciousness.
"Jason!" Piper yelled, to no avail. His hand slowly released his grip on mine. I grabbed hold of his foot and he slid off my grasp as we fell into a very precarious position, Piper hanging on to me loosely by the waist, me holding Jason by the shoe. We stayed in he air for a few seconds, where the air seemed to stay absolutely still...
and then we plummeted towards the ground, the Peacekeepers outstretching what looked like a net below us as we fell through the air.

This time... we weren't making it.