Road Trip
An adrenaline crash can always be expected once you've reached a somewhat safe space.
Traveling through Utah ended up being fairly boring. There were no monster attacks, no more extra demigod children, not even a speeding ticket. They drove late into the night, and found a hotel near the border of Colorado, where they purchased one of the nicer rooms for the night and slept until morning. They followed this routine two more times, stopping first in Kansas and again Ohio. They were now on the final stretch of their journey, and hopefully wouldn't have to stop to sleep again until they reached the camp in Long Island. Unfortunately, their good luck was about to run out.
After realizing that Ethan was also a demigod, they decided to try to take him along to camp half blood as well. He had told them that he had run away from his drunk and abusive father, and couldn't figure out what to do afterward, so he stayed near gas stations and hitch hiked with anyone who didn't seem like they'd call the cops about a twelve year old kid without parents around. It was not a healthy way of life, and one that no gold should be subjected to. Ethan seemed shy and irritated anytime he answered their questions, but begrudgingly did so anyways. He figured that he'd have realized by now if these people had malicious intent. He was good at reading people like that. It's the reason he hadn't been turned over to cps yet.
The days were long and the nights short, trying to get in as much distance as possible before definitely having to rest, or risk an accident. Everyone was getting antsy from so many days on the road, Ethan and Danica were especially restless. "Can we stop dad?" She asked. "I need to get out of here. Please?"
"All right, we'll find someplace to walk around, stretch our legs." Tony responded. "But we can't stay for more than ten minutes." Tony could see how restless they were getting. They had already eaten all of the food, and we're starting to make (very bad) origami from the chip wrappers out of sheer boredom.
Stopping was a bad idea. As soon as they were out of the car and standing in the Target parking lot, Clove said, "something isn't right, we should keep moving." Unfortunately, nobody believed him
"Shut it Clove. You don't have ADHD. You don't know how awful it is cooped up in there all day." Ethan snapped at him. "We'll just go if we see a monster."
Danica was happy to agree with Ethan. After being in the car for practically three days straight, she was at the point where she'd rather deal with Mrs. Morton again than keep going. "Come on guys. There's a Starbucks nearby. We can get some hot chocolate!" She was already sprinting to the cafe from where they stood. When her Dad, Ethan and Clove finally caught up to her, she was already inside the store, and ordering food for everybody. "Two blueberry muffins, a coffee cake, and a brownie, as well as four venti hot chocolates please!" She asked the young woman behind the counter. Her dad (wearing sunglasses and a hat) gave the teenager his credit card before Danica could dig into her pocket change.
As the group was walking outside with their snacks, Clove once again noticed something unusual. "Um, guys." He said
"What! Clove!" Ethan yelled. "What is going on with you today?! Can you not tell that we're finally doing well?" Ethan definitely had a temper. Danica shot him a look for his behavior, which he ignored.
Clove, being more emotionally mature than her, just ignored his tone. "Something's coming. It's strong."
"Stronger than Mrs. Morton?" Danica asked him, becoming scared. Again.
"Way stronger."
Her dad was the first to respond. "Let's get going then. Get to the car!" As
When they reached the place that the car was supposed to be, they instead found a giant five headed monster, and it was looking right at Danica.
"Do immortals! That's the Hydra!" Now even Clove was terrified. Not a good sign. "Run!" He yelled, dropping his food and drink.
Everyone did the same, and they ran as fast as they possibly could.
Unfortunately, projectile acid spit tends to be faster than humans on foot. Danica, who was in the back, barely shot out of the way before she got incinerated. She screamed. "Aaaaaahhh!!! It hurts! Help me!!!" She did get hurt though. The acid had hit her leg and burned a hole in her jeans. It was starting to work it's way through her skin as well, and just spreading out more.
It was the most excruciating pain she had felt in her life. It was centered around her calf, but the pain radiated through the rest of her body, and it just kept getting worse. She fell to the ground, and stopped paying any attention to her surroundings. At some point, she felt herself being moved but wasn't sure if she was doing it on her own, if someone else picked her up, or if the Hydra had started to try eating her. Whatever it was, it hurt so much that she blacked out for a second. When she opened her eyes, she was just a little bit more aware. She had stopped screaming at this point and was instead sobbing hysterically into the shoulder of whoever was carrying her on their back.
Ethan, who was the closest, came to her rescue. He didn't even bother trying to help before grabbing her and practically dragging her across towards her Dad and best friend without losing any speed. Eventually, he managed to get the sobbing girl onto his back biggy back style, and kept running.
He noticed her starting to become limp, and quieting down and decided to try keeping her awake. It's bad to pass out right after a major injury right? So he talked to her "Please don't pass out! There's a taxi we're going to take for now. We'll get away and to a hospital to get you some help. You're going to be ok." He thought she was trying to pay attention to him. At least, she stiffened up a bit more and started attempting normal breathing. He didn't appreciate her screaming and crying in his ear, but it was better than the potential of watching her die, so he kept talking. "We're getting away. That monster won't hurt us now." His voice was pleading now. He was scared about what might happen if she did faint. Would she be ok? Would they have to do CPR? He didn't know, so he kept trying to talk to her all while running to try to catch the taxi he saw Mr Stark hail down.
When Ethan reached the cab, he began to situate Danica in the backseat with the help of Clove. The girl was barely conscious, but obviously in pain. Her face was scrunched up and she grunted every time he or Clove touched or moved her leg in the wrong way. He could hear Mr Stark in the background telling the cab driver that he'd pay triple his normal rate to get them to Long Island as fast as possible. And although that conversation was kind of cool, he needed to focus on making sure that they were all safe and buckled, and that Danica was as comfortable as he could get her. As soon as the car was moving, she officially passed out.
He was about to freak out, but clove took a baggie of what looked like lemon bars from his pocket, and shoved one into Danica's mouth. He was so confused that he momentarily forgot about his fear. "What did you just feed her?" He asked.
"Ambrosia. It's the food of the gods. I don't have very much, so I was saving it for something like this. In small doses, it can heal demigods." Was Clove's response. "She should be ok in a couple of hours."
Ethan felt like he could finally relax, and said. "So, we totally lost our lunches back there."