{BOOK 2} Percy Jackson's Sister

Don't Touch Me, You Pig

       You'd think two skeleton warriors would be slowed down by the fact that they were dead. Sadly, they trudged on with their yellow sunken eyes and translucent skin. They wore police state uniforms over their lifeless bodies. Included in the uniform, the guns.

       True, I'd been shot not even a week earlier by one of the helicopter's machine guns, but that was different. It was in the arm, it wasn't a fatal wound. And this was a hand gun, the same weapon that killed my mother. It terrified me.

      We made it to the edge of town before accepting we wouldn't outrun them. We all drew our weapons, my hand felt shaky.

     "How did they find us?" I asked.

     Thalia didn't offer an answer but Zoë looked like she wanted to throw herself off a cliff.

      "The coffee shop," she said. "The demigod, he must work for thy enemy."

       I muttered a curse. Of course he worked for Luke. I was stupid to tell him the truth just because he had on a camp necklace.

      "Back up!" Thalia held up her shield. She was speaking more to us than to the zombies, they didn't seem to be affected by Aegis like everyone else was.

      We tried backing up but Grover was still out of it. He leaned against Bianca for support and kept groaning something about a gift.

      On top of that, two more skeletons emerged from the bushes behind us. Now we were surrounded.

     The skeleton in front of us raised a phone to his mouth.

      "How come he can use a phone and we can't?" I complained.

       The skeleton chattered his teeth, making a sound that chilled my bones.

       "He's calling for back up," Percy said.

       "It's near!" Grover announced.

       "It's here," Percy gestured around him, reminding Grover of our terrible situation.

       "No," he insisted. "The gift. The gift from the Wild."

       Grover didn't seem to be in the same place we were. If this was our gift, I really hoped it came with a receipt.

      "We'll have to go one-on-one," I suggested. "I'll take Grover and try to get him back to sanity."

       Percy eyed me suspiciously, he knew I wasn't one to back away from a fight. Instead of arguing he nodded.

      "Agreed," Zoë said.

      "The Wild!" Grover cried.

       "Hey dude," I said, trying to lug him away. "If you could please speak English, that'd be real helpful. Or Spanish. I'll even take Ancient Greek, anything, but you're really not making any sense right now."

       "It's near!" He gripped my shirt.

        I turned to see how they were doing, my mistake.

       Percy had sliced one of the skeletons in half but it was starting to reform. His partner raised his gun but Percy knocked it out of his hand with his sword.

      He had forgotten about the other two, which raised their guns also.

      I heard multiple shots and saw Percy fall to the ground as the impact hit him in the back.

      "No!" I yelled, losing my breath. It was no use fighting it, I heard those dreaded Latin words leave my lips and knew I had just made a bad situation worse.