Child of Hades {Interactive Story} (PJO/HOO/TOA)

THIRTEEN: C'mon

Simon was a fighter. He packed weapons, a shield, and even a helmet from Capture the Flag. He grabbed some ambrosia and nectar from the infirmary and stuffed it in his bag, alongside two water bottles and protein bars. He'd stolen the cure from cabin six, crept back to the infirmary, and with the help of Fabia fending off the harpies and Eleo carrying me (you can laugh, but she was very strong and although it hurt when she moved me a certain way it was quite fun), we snuck into one of the camp vans, outside of the camp border. Fabia, upon Simon's insistence and my request, left her chariot at camp. This meant a few things: it would appear that she was still at camp, and it would take her longer to get to the River Lethe. Of course, her appearing she was still at camp was vital to our cover story.

Eleo was going to drop us off, and get back to camp as soon as possible. She'd keep people out of the infirmary somehow, and me, Simon, and Fabia would all allegedly be inside. Tiana would wake up for a session with Caleb and instead sneak away to hold position at the infirmary until Eleo came back. Eleo warned that the hardest person to fool should he ask himself was Chiron. She couldn't lie to him, she'd been here far too long, and if he asked, she wouldn't be able to keep him from getting inside. That was okay. As long as it gave us enough time to prove most of the camp wrong, anything Eleo did was amazing.

Meanwhile, I packed a crutch, the will to live, and a full set of heavy metal armour. Where Simon could seriously kick ass, like he had allegedly been doing prior to me seeing the Catoblepar, I was not a fighter in the slightest. On top of that, I was injured. Moving hurt, some times it got worse, others better, but I couldn't do anything if my life depended on it. I guess, since Tyler seemed to have been willing to use his sword on me before without hesitation, my life really did.

We had to get in the van as soon as possible, and leave as quick as we could. Once we were on the open road, we continued discussing the plan. I left one ear bud in, part because the music calmed me, and part because having a conversation and listening to music at full volume gave no room for my mind to wander. I'm not giving you the full extent of this, and I won't, but you need to understand. The most difficult thing throughout all of this isn't the monsters, the people who don't believe me, Tyler and his army, finding out I was slowly dying anyway, or even my mom... It's constantly wondering, constantly fighting with my own thoughts about if any of this was happening. If any of this was real.

Moving on, we figured this could happen a few ways. We were going to stick with Matt's idea to use my ability to control the Underworld to my advantage. To my knowledge, we'd have a leg up on the army because I and likely Tyler were the only ones who would be able to see the ghosts. This being said, us relying on this rag-tag group of ghosts who had only died recently or recently enough that they escaped the Underworld with their memories intact might go wrong. I could control factors of the Underworld, sure, and the dead seemed to be drawn to me - hence me 'hallucinating' most of my life, but Tyler was proposing a jail break, no forgetting their memories, free roam of the above ground... There was a possibility they'd stop fighting. If Tyler could make them listen to him, all bets were off.

Even still, talking about this made me think again to his plan, and how little sense it made. Let's say his plan worked. He got rid of Hades, took the title as god of the dead, and then what? You don't become immortal because you put a crown on your head (I don't think, mythology is weird though...), and the other gods wouldn't stand for it. That thought provoked another, and I remembered the first time I'd met my dad, the moment that provoked this whole quest and slew of problems. Hades was pleading with Zeus to help him with his problem, and the god of gods maintained that it wasn't his problem. Would the other gods care?

I was getting a headache. Simon told me to sleep, and with help getting into the back seats, I made myself as comfy as possible and heeded his advice. Of course I put the other ear bud in and turned up the volume before hand, so I could drown everything out.