Calypso

Everything was going fine until we heard the chopper. It was the day after Reyna had revealed to us the skeleton of her plan. I had to admit, it was pretty brilliant. But we would need help to pull it off. 

But anyway, I hadn't heard the chopper since Reyna arrived. We had thought that Harvest stopped sending people to the drop zones. Having someone come today totally violates the pattern. So at first I thought they must be sending something to kill us. 

And I was really scared. Because right when we had found a new hope, we were going to die. But then Rachel spoke. "Hey wait, it's a person!"

So I took another look and sure enough, someone was stumbling through the sand. "Should we..." I started, but Reyna was already jogging to meet whoever had just arrived. "Well then, we might as well go."

When we got a little closer, I heard Reyna gasp, "Piper?" and run faster. When we got to her, tears were carving tracks on her sooty face. Her face split into a grin when she saw us though and she collapsed into Reyna's arms, embracing her and crying. 

"You have no idea how great it is to see you guys," she said. "Ditto," Rachel laughed. We walked back to the shelter I made when I first arrived and sat down around our makeshift hearth. "So what's new at the compound?" I asked. 

Her smile faltered. "Everyone's getting worse. We're getting restless. I guess Everette realized after Damien White was sent out that every demigod had a use, whether or not it be in a Harvester. He halted all transportation to the Drop Zones. Until I got caught."

"Got caught doing what?" Rachel asked. "Well the brainwashing didn't work on me, but I wasn't about to let Everette know that. So I went along with what he wanted me to do, charmspeaking people into doing things," she shuddered. "And then I would sneak away to get more information on the background of Harvest and where they were keeping Annabeth. But I got caught and Everette sent me here. I didn't even get to say goodbye..." She looked awfully close to tears again and it reminded me of when I was separated from Leo early on.

It's been so long since I've seen him. I'd do anything to see him again. Even better, I'd do anything to save him. 

"Don't worry," Reyna assured. "I have a plan." Piper perked up at this. "Wait, you mean we can get out of here? We can do something to help?"

Rachel smiled. "Hell yeah." 

Piper sat up a little straighter. "So what's the plan, Captain?" she asked Reyna. Reyna smirked. "You can help with the planning. We'll need all hands on deck. So far I've got steps one through five."

"Okay, what's step one?"

"Step one is: get out of the freaking desert," Reyna deadpanned. Piper laughed, "Alright, it's a start."

"Yep. Step two is to find the nearest city. We know we're in the Sonora Desert, which is in Mexico and some of the States. According to Piper's findings, we are in Mexico. So that means we head North. We aren't sure where exactly the compound is, but we know it's in the States."

"Alright," Piper said, nodding. "And from there..."

"We get information on what's happening, where the compound is, etc.," I explained. 

Rachel said, "And then we'll hack into the database. Calypso here's quite the hacker."

"Really?" Piper asked, "I didn't know that."

"Yeah, Leo taught me and then my skills overshadowed his own."

"Awesome," Piper whispered. 

"And step four is studying the layout of the compound, finding ins and where cells are. We'll need to know where everyone is and schedules so we know who is where and when. We won't be leaving anyone behind," Reyna continued. 

Piper raised her hand like she was a student and Reyna the teacher. "I can help with that. I've been everywhere in the compound looking for Annabeth. I know where command is and the cells and the Harvesters...I could probably map it out."

"That would be amazing," I said. 

"Yeah that's all we got," Rachel said, with a shrug. 

"Okay, well, from there we'll actually have to work on getting in and getting everyone out."

There was a moment of silence as the weight of the challenge ahead settled in. "Seems impossible for four people," Rachel said. 

"But what if we could get help? What if we could get more than four people?" Reyna asked aloud, gazing into the distance, thinking.

"What are you getting at?" I asked. "Hylla. The Amazons. They'll help, I know it. I just need to contact my sister."

"Reyna, you're a genius!" I shouted. "Okay!" Piper clapped her hands together, "Now we're talking!"

"Okay, so to get in we'll need disguises," Piper added. 

"I can take care of disguises," I said. Gods only know how long I'd been on my island sewing on my loom. I'd be able to take care of a few costumes in no time.

"After we get in, we'll need a search and rescue. Some people need to go and get our friends from the cells. We'll send a team to get New Rome out, and we'll need another team to cover the cells. I can get New Rome. Piper, do you want to be in charge of the cells?" Reyna asked and Piper nodded her confirmation. 

"What about the compound in general?" Rachel asked. "We can't leave it standing. It has to be destroyed."

"I can handle that," I said. Rachel gave me a look and I smiled mysteriously back. 

"And Annabeth? She'll be moving around. Everette likes to move her around for safety purposes," Piper asked. 

"We'll worry about that later. We will find her. As for Everette, he needs to die," I said.

Reyna rubbed her hands together. "That will definitely be a priority."

"Hold on," Rachel made a time out signal, "how will we get everyone out? I don't know if you've forgotten, but that's a lot of people."

I thought about it. Something Leo had said about the helicarriers that first came to get us at Camp Half-Blood. Referring to them later and not knowing what to call them, he'd labeled them 'sky canoes'. I explained my plan to the others. 

"This might just work," Reyna said. 

^*^*^*^

Cecil

I was just thankful I didn't have to be here alone like Connor did. Because let me tell you, this place is horrifying. Connor identified it as Chernobyl when I arrived. That helped me to remember the story about a nuclear accident that happened years ago. 

The whole place looked eerie, like it was gutted. The buildings were falling apart, the plants were too green and the animals were mutated. The 'Drop Zone' was on top of one of the buildings. The landing led to a door leading inside and there was a giant painting of a child's face staring at me. 

Thank the gods that Connor was there. I was so thankful to have my brother with me. Harvest had been a nightmare, but I was starting to prefer it to this hell hole. 

At this point in time, it was Connor, Damien, and I. Just the three of us, stuck in the middle of Ukraine. Just wonderful. 

And to make matters worse, Connor was getting sick. He never said anything, but it was just something I could tell. The air here is toxic from the nuclear disaster, and we haven't found a single gas mask or anything along those lines. There is no safe place here. No where to run. It's just the three of us and the ghosts. 

Today, though, was a rough day. We'd been wondering around for awhile, trying to find a way to get out of the danger zone. We came across a really creepy, old, and rusty Ferris Wheel. I didn't dare touch it in fear of it collapsing on us. You see, my sole purpose in life as a son of Hermes seems to consist of messing things up. 

Anyway, we'd been walking for awhile when Damien suggested we rest. I looked up from the ground I'd been focused on to see what he meant. And I noticed right away that something was wrong with Connor. He had stopped walking and looked like he was having a hard time swallowing. 

"Connor?" I asked. He fell to his knees and started throwing up. Damien and I ran to him. I held him up as he wretched, trying not to look at the mess. I'd noticed since I got here that he'd been throwing up. Each episode was pretty far between, but I sure didn't know Connor to be someone to get sick easily.

When he was done emptying what little was in his stomach, he fell against my chest, half conscious. "Hey," I said, "Connor, what's wrong?" He could only groan in reply. 

I looked at Damien for support but he just shrugged. "Should we try to head back, or stay here?" I asked. Damien glanced at the approaching storm clouds and nodded back the way we came. "We should head back. It'll be safer if we are in a building during the storm. I'd hate to deal with acid rain on top of everything else."

I nodded and looked around, trying to think of a way to get Connor back with us. My eyes landed on the woods. Glancing back at Damien, I saw that he still had the blanket wrapped around his shoulders.

"We'll be right back, Connor," I said, setting him down before dashing off with Damien. Damien had given the blanket to Connor before coming with me. "What is this about?" He asked me. 

"I was thinking we could make a stretcher. I learned how at camp. We just need some sturdy sticks. After looking around for a little bit, we found three. We set two parallel to each other and broke the other in half, using vines and roots to secure the whole thing. Taking our contraption back to Connor, we used the blanket as the canvas part. Then we loaded Connor onto it where he curled into a ball.

We tried carrying the stretcher for awhile before one of the branches snapped and we had to resort to dragging it behind us. We arrived back at the building just before the rain. We'd tried to make Connor as comfortable as possible once we got back. I glanced over saw that Connor had a pretty decent stream of blood pouring from his nose. 

Damien was there first, propping him up and wiping the blood away. Or at least he tried to. It took awhile before his nose actually stopped bleeding. Damien got a thoughtful look on his face and felt Connor's forehead. He frowned.

"What is it?" I asked.

"I think it's radiation poisoning," Damien stated.