A.J

            I come over the hill, and Utah valley comes in sight. A deserty suburb rolls down from the hills to a lake that spans out South.  Other buildings of some sort make the distance between the houses that span East to the mountain range that rolls along the valley, that juts clear up into the sky. Southeast is a city mostly covered with trees, making the valley look like a dark green and blue painting. 
      "So where is American Fork?"  Jack walks up beside me.
       I point to the neighborhoods right above the right North of Utah Lake. "Right there. They have a large group there living in a house with a See-er watching over them,"
     "See-er?" Stan wonders.
     "A mortal who 'sees' the other world." Jamaal answers. He has been quiet this whole time. I almost forgot about him with how loud Jack and Stan have been. 
      "How the hell do you not know this stuff Stan," Jack insults him.
      "No one ever talks about it," Stan says.
       "You just don't listen to anything," Jack says.
      "Okay shut up guys," I say. "We have to find Lance and them,"
     "So they should just be like eight at the top of the lake?" Jack asks me.
     "There is a house right in the middle of those suburbs. We have to go there and wait for them," I tell my guys.
   "Well let's get going," Jack says. He starts off, but I stop him with my arm. "What?"
    My signature move must be rubbing off of my guys. "Nope," I start off down the hill

>>>

     I fall on the ground into grass, losing my balance and falling to the ground face-first. Jamaal falls beside me but lands on his feet.  Jack and Stan crack up.
     "A.J, what the?" Jack laughs I give him a dirty look and motion for him to jump over the fence already. He does and Stan goes right after him. I turn around and look at where we are.
    A large grass field spans out until a large building stops it. A poster is draped over by the top. Buena Vista Middle School.
    "Let's get outta here," Jack says.  "I hate school,"
   "Did you ever go?" Stan asks
   "I thought I told you guys what happened in sixth grade," Jack said. "When the giant snake attacked my school and I ran away,"
   "Yeah you told us about that," Jamaal says. "Stan just never listens."
   "Yeah I don't get how Stan survived with how oblivious he is," Jack inquires.
   "Shut up I would beat your face in five seconds," Stan taunts Jack.
   "I could beat ur entire body in one second," Jack counters.
  "K, I'm going to just let you guys handle this yourself and Jamaal and I are going to find Lance and stuff," I say to them. That gets them to stop bickering. We start walking across the field, toward the school. A football field away there is another field and another large building, like a hospital or a highschool.  We walk generally southeast toward our destination.
   We go around the school. On the other side, there is a road and a large crop field with a thick green vegetation. We decide to cross it.
   As we walk through it the vegetation gets higher and thicker. I sense now this was a bad idea.
    "Hurry," I say to my guys. We are about halfway through the field when Jack screams out,
   "Somethings in here!" He screeches.
   "You woose you're just trying to freak us out,"  Stan accuses Jack, and he does do that stuff. This time I believe him though.
   "Jamaal," I hold my hand out and look at Jamaal, "Sword!"
   Jamaal unsheathes the sword we have from his belt and tosses it at my hand. I catch it. It is a Greek Broadsword, made of Olympic Steel. At the base of the blade, an etched Medusa head helps balance out the handle and the blade. The handle is just wood attached to the blade. We got it from Lance, who scavenges for weapons for demigods all over. He even has me forge some when he finds scrap steel.
    "Everyone by me!" I yell out. Everyone hurries toward me and stands by me so I can protect them.
   "Who votes I get the sword this time I'll do a better job!" Jack says. No one raises their hand but himself. We stop and listen. I can hear a slithering through the vegetation. It gets louder.
   "Shit," Jack says under his breath.
   "AAH!" Stan falls over and is dragged through vegetation by something.
   "Stan!" Jack calls out. You can tell Jack talks a lot of crap about Stan, but really they're best friends.  Stan screams and tries to claw for a grip on the vegetation, but it just rips away.  We chase after him, but he is dragged faster than we can run,
    "Ow! Ow! Ow!" He repeatedly yells as he gets farther away. He disappears out of our sight.
     "Stan!!" Jack calls out.
     We wait. Jamaal falls down and starts getting dragged away, but I grab his forearm. I get dragged with him and Jack comes and grabs onto Jamaal's other hand and we start pulling Jamaal.
    We both grunt as the monster gives in and lets go of Jamaal.
    "Thanks boys," Jamaal says to us.
    "Where did Stan go?" Jack asks us.
   "Jack I think he is..." I say to Jack
   "No," Jack shakes his head,"
   "He has to be," I say.
    "He was too innoce..." Jack says
    "HEYY OVER HERE!!" Stan yelled from the distance. He runs toward us, lifting his knees to run through the vegetation, but there is a noticeable limp to his slow jog.
    "K where did the mons..." I start, but something burst out of the vegetation.
    "Speak if the devil," Jack says. "A friggin giant snake,"
    A giant snake towers about 6 feet over us, its tongue poking out. Its emerald green and scaly body is as thick around as a good sized tree.
     "Frick," Jack utters.
     "Stay still don't provoke it," I say. It stares at us, ready to strike at any second. I throw the sword back at Jamaal. I focus on making my own weapon.
       A long shaft materializes in my hand, liquid metal crawling from my skin out in the air to form a very large spear. A sword won't help as much as a spear will. I hold onto it with both hands at the snake. It says back and forth.
      "Behind me and Jamaal," I say. I can hear Jack and Stan shuffle behind me. The snake fakes a strike, a little jolt towards us. It waits, and I can tell Jack and Jamaal are getting impatient. It wants us to strike first, which is a bad idea.
    It fakes another shot and we jump. For the next three minutes we standoff, and every once in a while it will fake a shot, and I fall for everyone just to be safe.  Finally its tail whips at me, knocking my spear out of the way it takes advantage of that and strikes, but Jamaal sticks his sword in front of me, and stops the snake. The snake gets jabbed by the sword, and it pulls back a bit, some sand falling from the side of the snake's face. I jab at it not really aiming to hurt it. The spear does not peirce its skin. Jamaal comes from behind the snake and hacks his sword at its back, but nothing really happens as it turns around at Jamaal and strikes. Jamaal dodges the lightning quick strike with his sheer agility and speed. (Keep in mind Jamaal is inhumanly fast)
   I thrust the spear in the snake, and the spear tip fully sticks into the snake's back. It hisses loudly and whips around, but I hold onto the spear. It whips me with it, and the spear falls out hallway through and launches me a ways from the fight. I see Jamaal slashing at the snake, sidestepping and juking out the snake as it strikes.
    Jamaal is fast but he doesn't have amazing stamina. I charge back in Behind the snake and stick my spear back into the snake.  It hisses again, but before it whips around I take the spear out. It turns 180° to face me. It hisses and coils to attack me.
    Out of the corner of my eye I see Jack sprinting toward the snake. He runs into it full-speed hitting it with his shoulder. It causes the snake to be disoriented for a half second and distracts him for another three seconds, and in this time I manage to chuck the spear at the snake's throat. My spear finds its mark and drills right under the snake's head. the snake chokes and dust and sand pour out of the snake's jugular, as falls to ground and writhes around. I run up and remove the spear, repeatedly trying to stab it a few more times as its writhing slows down. It starts to dissolve, leaving it's bones.
     "Get some bones!" I yell. We take off a couple ribcage bones as the bones also start to melt.
    We wait until the snake fully dissolves.
    We hear crying, and we look over at Stan, who is on the ground holding his knee.
   "Is it okay?" I sit by his side.
   "I dunno," His voice cracks.
   "Move your hands," I tell Stanley. I have to rip his hands away to see them because he wouldn't, and when I do I can tell it is not okay.
   His knees are a dark maroon, no skin left and the tip of his knee cap is visible through churned and burned flesh.  His shins are a red from the blood which had dripped down.
   "Can you put any weight on them?" I ask.
   "I could for a couple minutes, but then the pain was too much," Stan tells me.
   "How did that happen?" Jack peers over me.
   "It happened after it dragged me," Stan explains.
   "That's some gnarly friction," I conclude.
   "It's okay," Stan tries to stand up, with difficulty.
   "If u say so," I say. I grab one side of Stan as Jack takes the other.
  "It didn't kill you?" I ask Stan "Not even try?"
   "Something scared it away," Stan grunts.
    "Something scared it away??" I ask in amazement. "What the hell do you mean Stan that's crazy talk,"
    "I was being dragged, and then I felt some powerful feeling," Stan tries to explain to us. 
     "What the, what do you mean,
  

>>>

2569 American Avenue," I repeat the address.  I walk along the sidewalk, Jamaal, Jack, and Stan right behind. "Keep your eyes peeled for that house,"

  We turn into American Avenue, a small street of nice looking houses. I look at all the address labels on the doors, searching for 2569 on one of them. 2521,2534, Man I do not get how they order the houses. They should just have like 1,2,3,4 and so on.
     "There it is," Stan points to a big red brick house with a brown wooden door. The windows on each corner of the house can't be seen through because of drapes. I look at the gold tag at the top of the door.
      2569. We head over to it.
      "It looks haunted," Stan says
      "I bet you would have said that about any of the houses if we said it was the one," I say to Stan.
      I knock on the door of 2569 American Avenue, as Jack and Jamaal set Stan on the steps. I can hear the knock echo off the empty halls within the house.
     "Are you sure there is anyone in there?" Jamaal peers in one of the windows. He jumps, "wait there is something in there,"
    "Where?" I come up to the window. I look inside it. Inside is a living room with leather couches and a flat screen TV. It has a nice decorative rug covering a nice shiny hardwood floor. It looks like an actually nice house. "What did you see?"
    "Look at the stairs," Jamaal points. I look down at the stairs and see a shadowy figure.  It shifts and something passes it and starts walking up the stairs.
     it is an man, maybe in his late forties. He wears jeans with a simple white shirt walks up to the door and opens it. He has dark hair and eyes. 
     "Hello," he says to us. "Can i ask what are you kids doing here?"
     "We are looking for a Steve Livingston," I tell the man. 
     "What do you want with him?" The man asks us.
     "You wouldn't believe us if we told you," I say.
      "What do you want with Steve?" He asks. 
       "Where is he?" I persist.
       "Why should I tell you?" The man says "Steve is a good man he has never done anything to upset the U S,"
       "We know," I talk.
       "Then why are you here?" He asks. The tone in his voice and the way he breathes suggests that he is lying.
       "Where is Steve?" I look the man straight in the eyes, looking for any shadow of a lie.
     His hand goes to cover his throat, and starts to scratch his chin. I know now.
     "Even if I did know you know I couldn't tell you, we know you guys are after him. We know you know he is special,"
      What the man says is starting to go off topic. However i know what he is talking about.  A year ago a couple of government officials showed up to The Stead and started questioning us. I lied on all the questions and luckily got us all out of trouble. Lance warned us that something like that would happen sooner or later.  He warned us to lie. I listened.
      "We aren't with the government Steve," I say. He jumps. I can start seeing the sweat on his forehead.
      " what do you want with me!" Steve yells. His fists clench. I hear footsteps. A figure starts to walk up the stairs out of the dark gloom from there.
    "Steve, let them in," The person walking up the stairs says. As she walks up the stairs I can see her face. A bright pale skin tone, with hair that is a medium shade of brown and shines even with no light to reflect off of it. Her eyes are a clear silver, like rain clouds on an overcast day. She wears a sweatshirt with a red "U" on it within a white circle with feathers protruding out of the circles, and sweatpants. She is also pretty thick, not shrimpy like Suzie or other girls I know, I mean knew.
     "Ivory they're with the Government," Steve tells her.
     "No they aren't," The girl says to Steve, looking specifically at me. "That one is injured, he needs help," she points to Stan, who is wide-eyed and staring at her.
    Steve looks at me and then says, "Come in," I pick up Stan and we all go into the house.
   "You think she's hot huh?" I whisper to Stan.
    "I do not have to tell you that," Stan whispers back.
    "You don't have to tell me I already know," I say to him. I set him down on the couch and sit next to him and we all take a seat a seat on the couch, Ivory and Steve taking chairs.
    "So Ivory," Steve looks at Ivory. "Why did we let these random kids in here?"
    "I heard you arguing, and I listened in," She explains. "I could tell they weren't government officers. It would have been a good try but they're too naive right now to do that,"
    "How do you know that," Steve argues. "Humans, they're innovative, the figure stuff out quickly,"
   "I know but they've only had something like this in the past year. No way could they figure out the aspects of everything and then figure out how we act and plan to use it against us." Ivory says "Just not enough time,"
    "You sure?" Steve asks.
    "If I wasn't we wouldn't be in this situation right now," Ivory confirms.
    "If this turns out bad I'm blaming it on you," Steve proclaims.
    Ivory shifts her weight beneath her and looks to us.  "Who are you guys and what are you here for?"
    "My name is Andrew Jackson," I start. 
    "A.J" Ivory interrupts.
    "Everyone does that," I mutter. "The border-crosser is Jack, the white kid is Stan and  The Weeknd here is Jamaal,"
    "I don't look like the Weeknd!" Jamaal argues.
     "He doesn't look like the Weeknd," Ivory agrees.
     "Yeah he kinda does,"  Steve says.
    "You don't even know who that is Steve!"
     "Okay anyways just," I raise my voice over the arguing. "Do you guys know Lance?"
     "Of course," Steve says.
     "Everyone knows Lance," Ivory says. 
      "Has he come through here recently?" I asks.
     "No," Ivory tells me, "we expect him in a few days though," 
     "Good," I say. "We want him,"
     "For what?" Steve asks us suspiciously.
      "Steve you can be overprotective," Ivory tells him.
      "One of our friends has been," I tell them. "Taken,"
      "By what?" Steve says.
      "We do not know," Jack says.
      "Should we worry about it?" Ivory questions me.
       "I don't know."
       "What happened?"
        Of course she has to bring that night up. What if Ivory has some connection to the cops or is some kind of snitch? Well I would actually expect that to be more of Steve.  
         "We were scavenging for food one night and when we came back she was gone, along with my brother," I lie to them.
        Mistake. Ivory narrows her eyes at me slightly and reads me. I keep a straight face and keep eye contact.
       "Steve," she motions toward out of the room. "Can you grab us some walnuts?"
      I realize Walnuts is some codeword for something. I have lost Ivory's trust and I never really had Steve's. He is obviously going to the other room to grab a weapon and await some sort of breakout. I try to pacify the situation immediately but carefully. I make sure I telegraph that I am expecting some accommodating walnuts and nothing else.
      "So you were scavenging?" Ivory asks me. She does a great job of telegraphing unsuspecting peacefulness. The tension is unconsciously tangible though.
     "Yes," I tell her.
      "Are you sure?" She asks.
      "What do you think we weren't? Do you have some proof that we didn't?" Jack plays along with the lie, making not the best move.
       Suddenly, I hear steps and the stairs behind me and I quickly turn around. Three boys are walking up the stairs. The one in the front is black, the same skin tone as me, but doesn't weigh nearly as much. He is muscly and has a strong stature and tall like a highschool wide receiver. Probably 6' and 180 pounds. He has hair that is short on the sides, slightly longer on top with a very visible scalp line along the side of his head. He wears full Nike gear, including fresh new shoes. Is this really a demigod? Pretty dang flashy.
     The second one is a little shorter with brown hair spiked at the front. His stature is more empty than the guy in front, and shorter too. He is less flashy, wearing sweats and a T-shirt.   
      the third guy is taller than both of them, and also broader shoulders. He is probably 6' 2" and 230 pounds. A little smaller than me. This guy also wears sweats and a simple white shirt, little red splatters staining his right pec. This guy has very short brown hair. I notice something different about this one though. As he turns I see an eye patch strapped around his head, covering his right eye. It is white and kinda goes out to a point.
     The black kid sits down on the couch across from us. The big kid stands behind our couch. And the shorter kid stands next to Ivory.
    In places where each of them can take the person their size if they needed to.
     "I'm just curious," Ivory continues the conversation. "Scavenging doesn't take too long I'm wondering how they were taken without a clue in such a short time.
     " not when you go all the way down to Pr..." Stan starts, then realizes that he screwed us. Ivory's hand falls to her side, unrelaxed and ready to explode. The three boys and Steve shift their weight and move from their comfortable positions.
     "What were you doing down in Provo?" Ivory asked.  "No one scavenges that far,"
    "Just tell her," Jack gives up on me, "I don't even know why we are telling her that,"
     I am caught in a tight situation. Ivory seems to be counting down to jump up and shoot me or stab me. The tension is now very tangible.
     "We know ur lying, ur friends just through you under the bus, and unless you don't tell us then we show you how outnumbered you are,"
     "We ran out of food in our area and Lance couldn't provide provisions so went down in Provo and got food there,"  I simply say.
    "There is something more," She pushes me.
     "We robbed a..."
     "Hello ladies and gentlemen!" The door opens, and a familiar voice yells through the house. "Oh what the heck are you doing with Steve and them A.J?"
      "Lance!" Ivory yells. "You know these goons!?"
      "Yeah this is that guy I was thinking about adding to my circle," Lance comes into the room along with Ty and Desni. He peers at Ivory. "Your competition,"
        "Oh," Ivory calms.
      "What is with this Mexican standoff thing going on are you all going to kill each other?" Lance asks us. 
       "Yeah, they were," Stan says.
       Lance walks up to Ivory and playfully smacks her on the head. "Naughty girl," He says to her, then smiles and laughs.
     "Lance I have been meaning to talk to you," I say.
     "I bet you are," Lance turns to me. "Why would you from Tooele to good 'ol  American Fork?     
     "Suzie is gone," I say, "So is John,"
     "Where did they go?" He asks me.
     "Disappeared into thin air," I say.
      "Hmph," Lance says "I know you how you feel about those two, and I am afraid I am too busy to directly help you,"
     "Too busy to directly help me? What the hell does that mean?" I question him.
     "Well, after you I couldn't really find anybody, the whole valley is in the same situation,"
      "What?!" I ask Lance.
      " I can't find anybody," Lance explains. "All over the place, everybody just, disappeared," 
      "Without any traces?" Ivory asks Lance.

      "Not one," Lance shrugs. "I am actually surprised you guys are still here, ever since I came from Idaho and Northern Utah I hadn't seen one Demi until you guys, except for A.J's group and another who managed to evade the Taking,"
     "The Taking?" The black guy asks Lance.
      "Everyone is being taken by something, I was talking to this guy and he said "they" took his sister," Lance says.
      "They?" Ivory questions.
      "He doesn't remember much. He was knocked out and I guess whoever they were assumed he was dead," Lance tells us.
      "And you think they are related?" I ask.
      "Stuff like this just doesn't happen," Lance pronounced "They have to be if they happened in the same nearby cities,"
      "What did they look like?" I question.
       "He remembers humanoids," Lance claims. "No details on them,"
     "So we may even be talking monsters?" I wonder.
    "I guess we could be," Lance says,
    "So what's your plan of action?" Ivory asks.
     "We need to find out what is happening first," Lance tells us.
     "How?" The tall guy jumps into the conversation.
     "We go around and ask as many questions as we can, maybe if we are lucky we will be tried to be taken," Lance imposes.  "And we are gonna have to split up,"
       "What are we going to do with Stan?" Jack asks.
       "He can stay here with Steve," Ivory tells me. 
       "Well then who goes with who and where?" The tall guy asks.
       "I don't really want to figure that out right now," Lance says, "That can wait 'till tomorrow, I'm hungry,"
       "The mighty Lance hungers like a mortal?" Ivory playfully questions.
      "Not even Zeus is too high for a good meal," Lance's stomach growls.