Chapter 14:I Become A Known Fugitive

Dear Journal,

Things weren't going so well when I was in the river. The river raced toward me at a fast speed, the wind ripped the breath from my lungs, All the tall buildings and skyscrapers tumbled in and out of my vision. And then a whiteout of bubbles. I was sure I was going to sink down a hundred feet all the way to the bottom. My impact with the water didn't hurt at all. I was falling slowly now, and the bubbles were trickling through my fingers, then I settled down carefully on the river floor. A lot of disgusting garbage were all around me, beer bottles, old shoes, and plastic bags. But I realized two things, first I wasn't flattened down into a pancake. I couldn't even feel the Chimera poison boiling in my veins anymore, it was a good thing I was alive. Second I wasn't wet, I could feel the coolness of the water. I could see everything that happened to me, healing. But when I touched my own shirt, it felt perfectly dry. Then I saw a lighter that passed by with all the garbage. I flicked the lighter, it sparked, a tiny flame appeared, in the middle of the ocean. It was so weird! There, not five feet in front of me was my sword, I thought I lost it! Then I heard a woman's voice saying to me, "Percy take the sword. Your father believes in you. I knew the voice wasn't in my head or imagining it, her words seemed to come from everywhere. Then I saw the woman in the water almost like a ghost, I wanted to ask a lot of questions but she went away.

Then I came ashore next to a floating McDonald's. A block away I could see every emergency vehicle in St. Louis surrounding the arch. There were even police helicopters in the air, and circled over top of the arch. As I got out of the water, I started thinking about Grover and Annabeth if they were okay. Then I heard a familiar voice bleating, "Percy" I turned around and got tackled by Grover. They thought I went down to the Underworld the hard way. There was one reporter that found out who I was and what my name is. I was kind of scared being known by other people, they might try to find me. Then Grover told us, "First things first, we got to get out of here. Somehow, we made it back to the Amtrak station without getting spotted by the police. We got on board just before the train pulled out of Denver. The train went west as darkness fell, police lights still flashing behind us. We almost got caught by the police!